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Last updated on Thursday, September 10, 2015
(BLOOMFIELD) - Last Thursday afternoon students of Bloomfield High School in grades seven through 12 listened to a guest speaker about the impact of social media.
The Greene County Daily World reported, later school administration learned that speaker, Adam Ritz, was convicted of sexual battery in 2004 and spent ten years on the sexual offenders list. Ritz is no longer registered as a sex offender and was removed from the National Sex Offenders List in 2014. According to school officials Ritz served his time, has been rehabilitated and he has been speaking across the United States for the past two years.
High School Principal David Dean released a letter to the parents of his high school students addressing the issue:
"We were introduced to Adam Ritz by the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA)," Dean noted in the letter, "Mr. Ritz has been a speaker the past two summers at the IHSAA Student Leadership Conference. Several of our students attended these conferences along with over 2,000 Indiana student athletes from other school districts."
Dean says an additional convocation was held Friday where the situation was explained to the students and the school administration offered their sincerest apologies.
"Please accept our most humble apology for bringing Mr. Ritz to speak to your child/children without finding this background information," Dean added. "It is our practice to bring in state and nationally known speakers based on recommendations from other schools and organizations and previewing speaker material. We will be reviewing our process for selecting speakers for future convocations."
School Board Member Steve Jones also expressed his concerns on the issue via his professional Facebook page:
"An error in judgment was made and there is plenty of blame to go around," Jones says, "We, as a board, should have had a policy. I'm sure that will change next month at the board meeting."
Superintendent Dan Sichting assured parents that Ritz was was under constant supervision and was at no point alone with any student.
According to Sichting, aside from speaking at the IHSAA Leadership Conference, Ritz also speaks for Saint Jude's Children's Hospital, as well as various colleges and universities around the United States.
Principal Dean said he believed the message delivered by Ritz was well received by the student body and he hopes students recognize the importance of his message regardless of the unfortunate circumstance.
"The message Mr. Ritz gave to our students was a good message. He warned them of the effects our posts, tweets, etcetera can have in the future," said Dean, "While we are dismayed to learn of Mr. Ritz's past, we hope that the students will still remember the importance of the information shared. Please accept our most humble apology and know that we have your child/children's best interest at heart."
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