He had the title “Social Emotional Learning coach.”
Did we mention this was at an elementary school? But wait, there’s more.
Absurd as that sounds, the teacher who had been assigned to provide that counseling, 37-year-old Michael Swiney, is currently being held at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. The charges? Eleven counts of sexual assault involving minors.
You cannot make this up. Moreover, why would you?
This is a teacher who was told that having conversations about sex with elementary school students was part of his job. Not long ago, any teacher having conversations like that would have been arrested.
But it’s not like conservatives haven’t been warning about all of this as our society spirals toward the side of the same mountain that the debauched Roman Empire crashed into.
What about the school’s principal? What about the school superintendent? Certainly, if there were allegedly four students who experienced 11 incidents, it was brought to someone’s attention, right?
We cannot know because the Albemarle County superintendent, Dr. Matthew Haas, was allowed to resign June 20, and per the severance agreement, he will receive his regular pay and benefits through June 2027 which—wait for it—includes a 3.75 percent raise that took effect July 1, 2026, plus an $800 bonus.
The best part: He’s not talking, and the school division is using the “we don’t discuss personnel matters,” coupled with “we cannot discuss ongoing legal issues,” to avoid answering the question: “Who knew what, and when?”
Albemarle County parents are calling for an independent prosecutor to be appointed—by someone, anyone.
Phil Riese, a spokesperson for the group, told me, “There’s just a lot of questions that the school leadership is not answering and here’s my number one demand: Let’s have an independent third-party investigation that can look into how Albemarle County schools handled these sexual abuse allegations. Let’s let a law firm not in Albemarle County, but a law firm from somewhere else in the state come in and have access to all the emails and ensure that this was handled correctly. Because without that, parents may never know what really happened and how leadership handled these allegations.”
Riese added that, according to statements by the school board, they were only made aware of the allegations the day before Mr. Swiney was arrested. However, Dr. Haas was aware of the investigation in January but failed in his obligation to tell the school board for five months. Parents want to know why he was not fired for cause instead of collecting his salary (and getting a raise) for more than a year.
Riese went on to say that requests to Attorney General Jay Jones have gone unanswered, but they would welcome an investigation by the Virginia State Police or even the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Virginia.
Just not someone already circling the wagons.
