Miami Valley School parents oppose firing of teacher amid allegations

UPDATE @ 3:25 p.m. (May 13)

A group of Miami Valley School parents this afternoon released a statement in opposition to the firing of longtime teacher and coach Vin Romeo amid allegations of sexual misconduct from the 1980s.

Here is a portion of the statement:

We deeply regret and oppose the decision of Jay Scheurle, our head master to fire the accused teacher. We firmly believe everyone is innocent till proven guilty. To dismiss on merely allegation of an alumni who took 30 years to come forward is utterly unprofessional and displays the gap that exists between our way of thinking and the headmaster.

The decision was made jointly by Mr. Schueurle and the board. We would like to express our dissatisfaction with the performance of not only the headmaster but the present board members too. We find the board to be totally out of touch and not truly aware of what has been going on at our school. We have the most wonderful community at MVS, a community that has been slowly destroyed under the hands of our headmaster with the support of the board. Many of our good teachers have already left since the arrival of our headmaster and many more are planning to leave. We have lost over 10 members of our best staff. He does not understand what our school community is about and is taking it in a direction that does not fit in within our long, wonderful culture. Sadly our board has failed to attempt to even investigate why there has been such a huge migration of teachers in such a short space of time. …

Our school board is totally clueless on how are school is being managed and is not interested in finding out either. …

We would like a meeting to be set up by the board to meet the parents.

UPDATE @ 11:35 a.m.(May 4)

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office confirmed this morning that there is a criminal report in this case, and it expects to initiate a criminal investigation soon.

We have requested a copy of that report and we expect to get it later today.

We will update this story as new information becomes available.

UPDATE @ 7:09 p.m. (5/3)

The accused Miami Valley School teacher has issued a public denial of the allegations.

In a statement released through the law partnership of Rion, Rion & Rion, teacher Vin Romeo said:

“I am innocent of the allegations that were lodged against me. I offered to cooperate and assist with the investigation. I requested to be informed of who would make such an allegation.

“The school refused and refuses to allow me the decency of having a hearing to challenge the incredible nature of the accusation. Emphatically, I am innocent of the accusation.

“The accusation, I am told, is over thirty years old, and the accuser has not even been disclosed. “

FIRST REPORT

A longtime teacher and tennis coach at The Miami Valley School has been terminated after allegations of sexual misconduct involving at least one student surfaced, Jay Scheurle, head of school wrote in an email to parents Tuesday.

The alleged misconduct occurred in the 1980s, Scheurle wrote, identifying the teacher as Vin Romeo.

He stated in the email that it was an alumna that contacted school leadership to report the alleged activity. A second alumna also came forward, the letter said.

A criminal investigation is underway.

We are working to get more details on the investigation and will update this site once information becomes available.