RUNNEMEDE, N.J. -
"I don't feel safe with her there, and I was proud of that school," said Shannon Briggs, who now has a huge dilemma about whether or not to keep her ninth-grade daughter at Triton High School.
"It absolutely is an issue of trust," she said.
That trust was broken last week when three male teachers were charged with having inappropriate sexual relations with three girls students.
The principal and vice-principal are also charged with covering it up.
Briggs is one of many people who spoke at a school board meeting Thursday night.
"There could possibly be more teachers in there involved. That's what you read from the prosecutor, so, rotationally, there's still child predators teaching in front of my child," Briggs said to school board members.
Others defended the school for its quality education.
"The academics and education is an excellent education there, and I'm tired of seeing it bashed," said one parent.
Black Horse Pike Regional School District Board of Education President John Golden claimed the allegations aren't a failure of district and school policies.
"But rather, these charges constitute individual, personal, moral, ethical and legal failures on the part of the charged teachers and administrators," said Golden.
Briggs isn't buying it. She's even more disturbed that it took a substitute teacher, not regular staff, to blow the lid off what's allegedly been going on.
She said, "My concern is the code of silence. Why did it take an outside teacher to break that silence?"
The school board says the staff members charged will continue to be suspended with pay until they are indicted, their educational licenses are revoked or it's determined they violated the rules of their contract. Then, they will be suspended without pay.
The district is also retraining everyone on appropriate communication between staff and students. Officials say the lines are blurred because of texting and social media.
