Earlier this week William Jacobson’s higher education blog linked an article at The College Conservative, a new, relatively popular website of right-of-center opinion website written by college students. The piece, by Kyle Sabo, posited that conservatives ought to care more about public schools:

The conservative movement, if it wishes to win presidential elections, must commit to an all-in, multi-generational effort to reshape the public school systems in this country. Without that effort, we will continue to produce citizens who are driven my emotion, not reason, and who first consider what America has done wrong in its history than what it has done right.

It went on to critique a small piece of the New York state social studies teaching standards–one of those useless but harmless pronouncements of multiculturalism sensible people just ignore. As it happens, however, Sabo knows of which he speaks. From 2002 to 2005 he taught social studies at Division Avenue High School, after graduating from the same school himself in 1998.

In a November post-Sandy article for the site, Sabo extols his local government for its rich history and present fiscal stability:

I live in a part of the Town of Hempstead called Levittown. Many are familiar with it through American History classes, as Bill Levitt built affordable housing for veterans returning from the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. Our famous scions include Eddie Money, Billy Joel and Bill O’Reilly. Many other Levittowns sprung up around the country, and the model was replicated worldwide.

According to the New York Times, in 2005 Sabo was arrested for sexually assaulting two students while serving as a social studies teacher. He is also listed in the sex offender registry.

The Levittown Tribune carried this after Sabo’s sentencing:

… the defendant was given no plea bargain and plead guilty to four class E felonies including Criminal Sexual Act, Sodomy, Rape and Endangering the Welfare of a child. His sentence included six months incarceration and 10 years probation. … According to police, at various times and in separate incidents between April 2003 and June 2004, Sabo is accused of engaging in improper sexual activity with two students of the school, a male and a female.

Editor-in-chief Zachary Freeman provided the following statement making it clear they had no idea:

The editing staff was unaware of any abnormalities in the record of Mr. Sabo until this morning. While none of our contributors or staff are ‘hired’ –we’re all volunteers– the circumstances of this incident are very unfortunate and will be handled with great care as we investigate the matter further.

Sabo’s bio page disappeared before I was able to grab a screenshot, but he is listed on the articles as a student at Hunter College, presumably to receive a master’s degree. He is 32 years old.

Google his name and you get his archive on The College Conservative, and followed by that the Times story and his listing in the sex offender registry. Sabo has written about Levittown before, so the connection should not have been difficult to make.

Among The College Fix and the newspapers of Collegiate Network, The College Conservative is the younger student journalism outfit on the right, unique for the geographic, if not ideological, diversity of its contributors. They’re often linked in The Daily Caller’s morning emails and were in attendance at CPAC last year, handing out business cards and promoting the fledgling site. By all accounts on the up-and-up. But their apparent failure to even minimally vet the site’s contributors is concerning. At worst, it means the audience of students can end up hearing from a writer convicted of sexually assaulting two of his own.