Michael Cardin, a former member of the House of Representatives from Tolland, where he’s a middle-school teacher, has been arrested by State Police on a warrant alleging “inappropriate behavior” toward young girls.
A victim’s parent filed a formal complaint after an alleged touching incident was announced by the victim.
On Wednesday, the day after Cardin turned 40, an arrest warrant was issued and Cardin turned himself in to police today at about 3 p.m. He was released on $5,000 bond, charged with risk of injury to a minor and disorderly conduct.
Cardin may be best known for having been a chief proponent of the Genius of Connecticut statue, the newly cast bronze based on the model of the original 16-foot-tall piece that adorned the top of the state Capitol from 1878 until the hurricane of 1938. It was subsequently melted down for the World War II effort. He did not seek re-election in 2006.
In these times you can’t even touch people. If his hand was on a student’s back or shoulder for longer than some MSW in academe deems appropriate, it’s an offense. I remember in the 80s when PC was somewhat new and novel, UMass at Amherst had a rule that if a male’s gaze rested on certain parts of a female’s anatomy for longer than 7 seconds, he was guilty of “lookism” (their word not mine) and hauled off to face a tribunal.
Comment by Charles — September 3rd, 2010 @ 11:21 am
Check out the courant.com most recent article on Cardin. It has a PDF attached that includes the official reprimands Cardin was given by the Board of Ed. You can read about all of the violations and inappropriate behavior he’s been reprimanded for for YEARS! How he has not been fired, and how he is still on PAID leave is unbelievable. This isn’t the first time he’s been accused of this; he has a history of this kind of behavior with students and has also been accused of sexually harassing two teachers.
Comment by Kate — October 21st, 2010 @ 1:33 pm