A former Catholic priest who had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl, and impregnated her when she was 16 years old, will be permitted to keep working as a middle school teacher, according to a court ruling.

The community was not outraged upon learning of the illicit relationship after news reports emerged in 2002. Only much later did they decide this wasn’t an appropriate thing for someone around their children to do.

Joseph DeShan had been working as a school teacher in Cinnaminson, New Jersey, since 1996. He left the priesthood in 1994. His relationship with the girl began in 1988, while he was a Roman Catholic priest in Bridgeport, Connecticut, according to New Jersey state records.

Why? Why is he even allowed around children?A New Jersey middle school teacher who had a sexual relationship with a… Posted by Beverly Landers Bass on Friday, May 3, 2019

The girl worked at the rectory at the time, until she was fired by then Bridgeport Bishop Edward Egan. Egan failed to inform police of the situation, according to the Connecticut Post.

DeShan currently teaches English at Cinnaminson Middle School in Cinnaminson, New Jersey. He was removed from the classroom after the news came out, but reinstated three weeks later due to the actions of some parents and students who supported him, The New York Times reported.

In fact, the issue was basically brushed aside and everything seemed to go back to normal for DeShan.

”He did come back today, and he was very positively received by his students and his colleagues,’’ Dr. Salvatore J. Illuzi, the local superintendent of schools, told the NY Times.

The report did indicate that one couple asked that their daughter not be placed in his class, but that overall, the school community accepted him.

”If indeed, if the community has given him this much support,” Mayor William Kollar of Cinnaminson told the NY Times, ”let him go ahead.’’

Recently, parents started to feel differently about the old case.

Cinnaminson school officials brought up tenure charges against DeShan in January, after a school board meeting where parents expressed they were no longer comfortable with DeShan remaining in the classroom, according to the state records.

The records indicate that the current movement to get DeShan out came after he made a comment to a female student that made her feel uncomfortable.

“Look at me. Let me see your pretty green eyes. You don’t see them too much anymore,” the records indicate he told the student.

At the school board meeting in October, the parents said their children think of DeShan as a rapist, and they don’t think it makes sense for him to be around children, especially children around the same age as the underage girl he had an illicit sexual relationship with. They also referred to him as a pedophile, according to the records.

Arbitrator says Joseph DeShan can return to the classroom because Cinnaminson district took no action against the former priest in 2002 https://t.co/6z6f5KrZ8c — thedailyjournal.com (@thedailyjournal) May 3, 2019

The state arbitrator told the school district that DeShan could not be removed from his job and ordered the Board of Education to reinstate DeShan with full benefits, according to the records.

The arbitrator wrote that the charges are “based on alleged hearsay complaints” and an issue that was already addressed by the Board of Education years ago.

The arbitrator cites the earlier situation where the administration “suspended, investigated, and returned him to the classroom more than 16 years ago.” The arbitrator wrote that new demands from the parents over an old issue do not give the Board of Education a right to change its mind.

Joseph DeShan had a child with a 16-year-old when he was a priest in 1990. A state arbitrator says he can continue being around children. https://t.co/1fPpFbpvtm — Alanna Vagianos (@lannadelgrey) May 3, 2019

The records cite the fact that the Board of Education seeks to bring new charges on an old situation that they earlier allowed, because the board argues that “parental and societal views have changed so that the past conduct now renders Respondent unfit for the classroom.” The arbitrator doesn’t agree that changing views provide sufficient grounds for the actions the board wants to take.

The arbitrator also referred to the “green eyes” comment as hearsay.