Sharon High Principal Placed On Leave Following Lengas Charges

SHARON, MA — School officials have placed Sharon High School Principal Jose Libano on paid administrative leave while they investigate the firing of Bradley Lengas, a former science teacher who is accused of indecent assault on a minor over 14.

School Committee Chairman Jonathan Hitter told NECN on Monday that Libano was placed on leave pending the investigation, but said he could not comment further, citing advice from legal counsel.

Students angered after Lengas's indecent assault allegations came to light protested Friday, hanging fliers and calling for specific actions to be taken at the administrative level to ensure an incident like this never happens again.

Last month, charges police filed charges against the former teacher, saying he indecently assaulted a female student. Many students, unhappy at how the school district handled the incident, hung fliers around the school on Friday. Students wrote that their peers have reported Lengas's conduct on several occasions and it took the school too long to do anything about it.

The fliers called for students to stand together to create a safe learning environment for all. In some cases, the fliers called the district to take specific actions such as firing Libano and hiring professional sexual assault experts to speak at the school.

Patch called and emailed both Libano and Greer for comment on Friday, but neither immediately returned the request.

One student wrote that she knows people who graduated more than six years ago who are celebrating Lengas's arrest, and it made her question how long this has been going on.

When the allegations first came to light, Superintendent Victoria Greer told NECN that Lengas had been suspended since December. But students had doubts and demanded more specifics.

"I appreciate the effort the school has put forth so far, but it isn't enough," the student wrote. "Our school has been too swift in trying to sweep this situation under the rug. Our school needs to go into the details of what they did to prevent Mr. Lengas's abuse."

One letter asked the school to take several measures following Lengas's allegations. They included:

• "Pay to bring in trained professionals to speak about sexual harrassment."
• "Have the teachers take part in a similar meeting before every school year."
• "Fire Dr. Libano."

"As a school district, please be assured that our first priority is the protection and safety of our students so that they may learn in healthy, supportive, safe and responsive school environments," Greer said in a statement, following the charges against Lengas.