Joe Ballmann- Teacher and Kid Toucher

ok, i go to frost and i have (well, had) mr. ballmann as a teacher.
yes, this is 100000% scarry and retarted and messed up, but you do need to get your facts right before you make false expectations on him.
his class is the funnest class i have ever had. His walls were covered with posters, and he did have play station and a foosball table and obstacle courses. but he doesnt use them while teaching!! These fun things were done doing interact (a 20 minute period like recess) and lunch. And the saturday night live… it was a club. The school was 100% aware of it, and students who wanted to hang out, eat pizza, and watch TV after school 2 days a week whos parents knew of the club were welcome to. Dont make false acusations.

Dear Pat,

I achully am a good writer, and Mr. Ballmann taught me so much about english. He likes to let his students have fun, and thats what he does OUTSIDE OF CLASS. Not during class. He is an amazing teacher. Frost is one of the top middle schools in the State, and being in such a good school system, he was one of the best teachers (thats fact, not opinion). So dont break him down so much. Just because he is not such a good person outside of school and made some bad choices doesn’t mean that he is a bad teacher. He likes to have fun. Get your facts strait before you say how bad of a teacher he is. And come to our school to see how many people are going to the counceler (there are NO LESS than 10 minute waits to see any of our 8 councelers, and there have been since Thursday when we found out. Everyone at our school including all staff and the principle are astonished. You are so rude to be saying all these false things. Mr. Ballmann was an amazing teacher who made some bad choiced outside of school.

yes, i am exremely freaked out by this and have seen the counceler 4 times isince thursday and cant sleep at night. but your saying that he was a baaad teacher, which is not true, so yes, i am defending him. kay?? i am smart and mature and i realize that there is a small chance that he does this just to get close with students, but knowing him for 4 years (since my brother had him) i can tell you that the main reason he does this is to let students have fun. if you would have ever met him, you would know this

And Pat, no, he/she does not spell like a third grader. He spells more like a fifth grader.

1ST OF ALL!! ………. it was during C.C. when we are doing those skits, watching movies… and such because we are suppose to. IT is like hummanities… he inspired me to write. HE might did something wrong but that does not make him a bad teacher. That class was hard…ish We had to do A LOT of writing. Hwen i messed up with my grammar he told me to talk to my english teacher!! does that make him a bad teacher?!?!?!?!? We have a literary magazine club each year… except this one… but he is giving all his effort. People at school were crying some are having a hard time dealing with this… why doint read the message sent home to parents… a lot of the teachers was his friend! And I heard the file stacking was a simulation………. but i understand how you feel but that does not make him a BAD TEACHER ! :(((((((((((((((((
I wish he didnt do it… but he admitted and that stuff and porn that scares me…. why couldnt be another teacher… and Mrs. Marks was also a good staff at our school… a chaprone(spelled wrong) at out door aid…….. sooo sad 2 things in 1 YEAR!!

First of all I had mr.ballmann and no one even played his playstation it was used for watching movies we made for the class. He only let people play foosball at interact which is like recess or like before the bell rang. Or if we had free time at the end of class. He was seriously like the best teacher i ever had and i had him for contemporary communications (cc) which is a really fun clas we wrote and read and listened to poetry, we made comics, and we read about 2 shakespeare plays we also made a movie at the end of the year. It had been the best course I have ever taken in all of my education. He was my favorite teacher so I’m not defending him on sexually abusing the kid, but I am defending him that he was a great teacher. The only reason he got teacher of the yr was because he was a great teacher.One of my friends always thought he was weird because he would stand in the hallway and stare at people. (probably picking his next victim) All of those things he had in his room such as the foosball table were probably lures because i’ve never seen a teacher with a foosball table in their classroom. I went to the guidance office when I heard about this I was in a complete state of shock because I left school early when they distributed the letters. It was even worse that it was a boy he molested if it was a girl i would still be pissed off and in shock but molesting a girl makes it about 10 times worse! I was shocked from thurs to probably sat I just couldn’t believe it. I was a mess because he was the person you least expect… but this taught me a lesson in life don’t trust anyone. Please don’t say he was a bad teacher he was a good teacher but he is a bad person who made a decision to be a sick nasty pervert.

Pat,

First let me say that I do believe what Mr. Ballmann did was immoral and disgusting, but let me ask you this: How in the world would YOU know whether or not Mr. Ballmann was a good teacher? How can you even speculate that when you’ve never even met him?? “He was a lousy teacher”

Hello Mr. pat,

I also had Mr. Ballmann as a teacher at Robert Frost. He was a decent teacher. In all honesty, he taught me a bunch of shit that I really didn’t need. Can you please tell me why it is you are arguing with this child?

Ok, first of all, Mr. Ballmann was the best teacher I have ever had. It was unfortunate that he made these decisions, but it did not affect his teaching. Everything you have said has been exaggerated, and out of context. He made every project fun, and tried to make every assignment as enjoyable as possible, while still keeping it educational. For the foozball and playstation, that was only for the 20 minute free time. The saturday night live skits were to help us with a project we did on at least 200 page books. You didn’t know or have Mr. Ballmann so you shouldn’t judge his teaching. It is sad that such a great teacher made such bad choices. He obviously was sick, but still a phenominal teacher.

dear pat,
Think of your favorite teacher. Now imagine that you find out one day several years later that while he was your teacher he was also molesting a boy. Does that change how good a teacher he was??? It might change your opinion of him as a person and scar some memories but it does not change what you learned in his class. You really should learn to think before you write. He earned teacher of the year because he was a fantastic teacher in the classroom. If someone accomplishes something great in one area of their life and in another area participates in criminal activity it does delete all of the good that he or she has accomplished. The students responding to you do not intend to justify Ballman’s actions. We recognize that he is a child molester. However, you must get your facts straight before you accuse him of being a horrible teacher. He taught english for 15 years and did an excellent job. The fact that he was molesting someone on the side for a portion of that time does not change what went on in the classroom for all of those years.

Dear Pat,
I had Joseph Ballmann for english last year and I strongly dissaprove of you making fun of him. Yes he did do these things, and he was one of the best teachers that I have ever had. No I am not defending him, he really is a sick pervert but that does not give you the right to judge someone who you do not even know. Yes, I enjoyed his classes and at this point Robert Frost is utterly astonished at what happened. Unless you know Mr. Ballmann personally, I am strongly sickened to what extent you are critisizing him, on and kid? I agree with you.
And Pat? Shut up.

It scares me to read these comments from the next leaders of our generation. Pat is right - you kids need to open your eyes. This teacher is a predator. This is why he inticed kids to “hang out in his classroom”. If he molested children ( which the police have strong evidence that he has - read your parent’s newspapers) then he is a bad person period. Most child predators molest an average of 133 kids . Only 2 came forward so far - how many are next?

Video here, including a clueless Mom who whines about students who might make false accusations- This mom thinks he was a great teacher. She should let Ballmann babysit her kids.

http://tinyurl.com/39oshy

There were many red flags that should have been obvious to the principal of the school and to a few other adult teachers. The guy drove around in a black firebird or a camaro and referred to it as the “batmobile.” He gave other kids rides in it to make sure they knew he was cool.

This activity was unsafe, unnecessary and uncalled for. Why the principal let this go on despite the legal risks is anyone’s guess.

He kept video game consoles and a foosball game in his class to also entice children to want to hang out in his classroom after school, before school or during free time. This was also unnecessary, inapropriate, and had nothing to do with teaching students anything. All these extra-curricular activities did was allow Joe Ballmann to pick his next victim.

You are wrong and only fooling yourself if you think it served any other purpose.

My best English teachers taught me how to write at a college level when I was a freshman in High School. He didn’t have a cool car, a cool video game, he didn’t stage confidence building games in the classroom and he certainly did not touch any of the boy’s penises in my classroom, Chester.

As I remember it, he was strict with the students and demanded the best from everyone. Those that didn’t give their best either failed or barely passed.

Because he used the trust of parents, teachers and students to pursue his perversions, it made him a bad teacher. Period. Anyone who throws away their career on their own personal bad behavior was lousy at their career.

It may not have been obvious before he was busted, but it seems pretty crystal clear to me, a non-educator, that he was a criminal after he was busted. Other educators should have recognized his frivolous fraternization with the students and done something to stop it.

As an educator, I am angry to see posts that defend this criminal. Every parent of every single child in Ballmann’s class or on his former bus route needs to sit down w/ their child and have a long talk. Did this predator touch your child? Did he say anything that made your child uncomfortable? What red flags did you notice (besides the toys in the classroom and the bat mobile?) . Ballmann had a preoccupation w/ finding ways for children to be near him. One of his tricks was to “be a good, hip teacher.” No decent teacher alive would ever harm a child. We have a vocation to teach because we love children and care about their well- being and their future. This louse needs to be jailed for life.

DCLawmaker@hotmail.com ,
You sure are long winded and wrong.

The constitution was not founded on any such principles of not judging anyone. And christianity does not teach that it is a sin to judge either. Such a fallacy about judging is the only thing that Liberals will quote from the Bible. Only liberals refuse to open their eyes and protect themselves from dangerous people.

Ballmann is a kid toucher. You want to get someone to sue me for that? Go right ahead and try stupid. You know less about internet publishing laws than you do constitutional issues.

I publish commentary on current events. Nothing I have said above is personally defamatory to Ballmann. In fact, I have provided links to each piece of my opinion of his crappy teaching style.

You seem to be more interested in lashing out at me for pointing out Ballmann’s twisted homosexual lusts for little boys than anything else- otherwise why bring DaVinci into this? That was a complete non-sequitor. And if you think this substitute school-bus driver who lucked into a teaching gig was one of the greatest teachers ever, well, maybe we should wait until that opinion can be tried in court.

From
http://teachertrash.blogspot.com/2007/05/rockville-maryland.html

One of the commenters said:

he also had a habit socializing with students after school, including on weekends. i recall several of my friends hanging out with ballmann on a regular basis then abruptly cutting off any formal relationship with him. struck me as odd then, starting to make sense now. i even hung out with him over a weekend once with my friend, he didn’t do anything inappropriate but the experience weirded me out enough to never spend any time outside of the classroom with ballmann again.

We have known him for 30 years +.We were all younger than him. He said he was trying to be an inspiration in our lives but really it was the same crap he is still doing. We are not surprised. He has a problem with anyone that might have more power than himself. That’s why he hangs out with and teaches people younger than him. He would say “I’m going to be the f***in president of the United States. Then sit and talk about assassinating President Regan. The truth is that he was and is full of crap. He would tell all the guys that we should not hang out with girls because they will just slow down everything in our lives and make our lives a miserable wreck. To use his own words, “you are a cunning hag”. My mother, God rest her sole, told me he was pecker hunting when she first met him. She was quite right huh?. When ever you would see him he was staring at your skin flute, no bull crap, looking for a tune to play. He never tried it on me or some of the other boys he hung around, but to tell the truth, we were all dangerous kids and carried knives and stuck together everywhere we went. We would have kicked the shi* out of him. When we started taking different paths of adulthood, he criticized everything we did. He obviously hasn’t changed or the cops would not have found torn up pictures of students who were most likely stating to have their own opinions and changing into the life they wanted to have……he hated not having control of them anymore. Joe stopped hanging around us once we figured out we were on to his bull crap. The same way the boys charging him with these crimes probably did. He must have spent alot of time working out a way to isolate these boys. He told me in August of 2004 that he was better than me because he was a Teacher and I was just an Engineer. Then he told me that he was seeing one of his students and was going to take him to a concert. He was acting like the world revolved around him. Tell me I am full of crap and I will tell you to grow up and wait and see what the world can bring to you. Don’t doubt that this guy did this crime unless the facts prove that he did not. But he has already been indicted by a grand jury and was burned in a phone call sting. Most girls aren’t going to say much about him because for the most part he ignored them in the same manner he always did. Did he show you the pot pipe bowl burn on his right hand? K-town gave him that, but he wanted it. I’m sure we wont every forget that day. The smell of his hand burning was nasty as hell. Hot washer my ass.
How many others will be brave enough to tell the truth about Ballman. He has violated the most important thing in the human race, trust and love.
Lets go to the Drug Log and sing Beattles songs and get naked and talk crap off the Cry Baby Bridge.
The K-town Kids still rule and our sprit will never die.

AFter reading every1s reply, I guess he was kinda creeoy outside of class. In the hallway he would stare at everyone . He also covered up all the windows in his classsroom too.

I’ve known him for several years and like many others on this board, I am disturbed but cannot say I am entirely surprised by the allegations. Although I was not close with the guy (he hung out with one of my close friends), every now and then we would hang out as a group for lunch or a movie. Although he never gave any indication to me that he was having innapropriate contact with minors, let alone molesting them, I always thought he was a bit stange. He genuinely loved being a teacher and was enthusiatic about his work. However, he also had a certain intensity about him that I always found to be unnerving. It did seem like he devoted a lot of time to being a popular teacher rather than being focused on the academics.

Anyhow, I have not seen the evidence against him and while what I have read in the papers seems pretty damning, I have not seen the indictment itself or any of the other evidence that the state has presented against him. Also, it is a fair question to look into how credible the accusers are - while they shouldn’t be put on trial themselves for coming forward, their stories should still be verified by independent evidence as much as possible. Mistakes have been made before in these types of cases - the notorious “Little Acorns” case in the 1980s is an example of how several innocent people were wrongly convicted of child molestation based on flimsy evidence, including coached testimony, brought by an overzealous prosecutor.

While there are a lot of people on this board calling for his head, we should respect the fact that this is a matter for a jury to decide based on what is presented by both sides at trial.

Don’t get me wrong - if he is guilty, he has to face the consequences for his actions - which in my mind means a very long prison term. People who get abused as minors can carry scars for the rest of their life. People who molest kids, particularly teachers who we entrust with our kids’ future and safety, deserve to be punished to the fullest extent.

There is a possibility, however slim, that he is innocent and at worst guilty of bad judgment in spending time with students outside the classroom.

If anyone has more information about this case, including the indictment, I would be interested in reading it.

That’s a fair point about Little Acorns - they were little kids and therefore more suceptable to having their testimony manipulated. The parents in that case, as much as the prosecutors, were to blame for that one. However, procecutors can and do make mistakes, whether intentional or not, especially in these types of cases. While factually different, the Duke lacrosse player case is another example of a prosecutor being overzealous and not vetting the credibility of the witness. The problem in a sexual assault case is that it is often based on witness testimony, not physical evidence, which makes it a he said/she said matter (or he said/he said in this case) rather than a more easily proven case like a bank robbery where the robber is usually caught on tape. Anyhow, the state’s attorney may well have an airtight case and the accusors may have an unshakable story - like I said before, I do not have all the evidence in front of me. Whatever holes exist in the case, if any, will likely be revealed when his lawyer puts up a defense - provided his lawyer knows what he is doing.

I just have a certain healthy skepticism about prosecutors of any kind given the enoormous power they have to destroy lives. I have known a number and most are decent, hardworking people who are grossly underpaid for what they do. Yet they also are usually overwhelmed and the pressure to convict in this type of high profile case is enormous. Also, like any one else in the profession, many are ambitious and have dreams of political office or a judgeship. Such ambitions can sometimes cloud one’s judgment. Cases like this can make or break careers.

Anyhow, the cuffs and the chloroform are bizzare - I’ll grant you - and circumstantially it only makes him look more guilty. But as I said, he is a bit of an odd guy.

I honestly hope he is innocent of these charges. Despite his strange ways, I found him to be a pretty ok guy in my interactions with him. That said, I did not know him that well and cannot say it is impossible that he did those things. I guess I am reserving judgment until I hear more.

It is easy to jump to conclusions when you have never met the person and all the evidence against him is laid out in front of you, without any defence. And though I am not very religious, I do try to live by the phrase, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”

It amazes me that the only thing liberals can quote from the bible is the stupid phrase about judgement. But when it comes to fornication, homosexuality, adultery, lying, which are all very clear in the bible, liberals gloss over those statements.

You must have spent quite a lot of effort to come up with all of those excuses for a teacher that must have thought you were too ugly to drag down to his rape dungeon.

You say its easy to jump to conclusions? Occams razor says that the easiest explanation for his arrest is that Ballmann is a sick gay pedophile pervert. Coming up with all those excuses and wishing that its not true? That’s hard.

Why would you major in theology if you are not religious? Just wasting mom and dad’s money?

My argument about Occam is not moot at all. Its very appropriate to this situation in which neither of us know what happened. My explanation makes the least assumptions. Your explanation relies upon lots of wishing and hypotheticals. Occam’s razor is also about probability, so the simplest explanation is the most likely. You wanna take the long odds and think he didn’t do it? Go ahead and bet that way- I’ll take your money.

I am not “at fault” for judging. Again, you make the liberal mistake of assuming that it is either
A) Immoral to judge
B) A Crime to judge
C) A human flaw to judge

None of that is true. You can keep an “open mind” if by doing so means that you ignore your education, your common sense, and the obvious facts at hand. Me, I will rely on what I see and past experiences. I call it as I see it.

Your former teacher is a complete scumbag who wants to put his student’s penises in his mouth and make them promise not to tell anyone. And he wants to pretend that he is the best teacher ever in this world and the next, and he wasn’t. He betrayed his students, the faculty and the city and the state education system.

And for some stupid reason, an assinine theology student gets pissed at me for saying something about it.

Oh, good, wikipedia’s definition. How smart. Look, you have been presented with many former students on this website who all say that they have not been molested and that they thought he was a good teacher. Yet you remain firm that you are right and they are wrong. I knew Mr. Ballmann and he encouraged me to learn. (I also studied theology, since you brought it up, because it interested me how many different religions there are, the way religions change over the centuries, and how people can blindly follow a text where God says in EZ 20:25 “Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live” - meaning that none of the Bible can be trusted; God gave out wrong statutes, how do we know what is right? But that is besides the point)

According to Occam’s Razor, the simplest solution is actually that the children are lying. Why? Because it involves only them, and including Mr. Ballmann makes it more complicated - it assumes the actions of the children and the teacher, whereas the solution that the children are lying only involves them.

Again, not the point. I would just like to say that you seem rather convinced of his guilt when all you have is second hand information. It does not matter to me if he is guilty or not (beyond the fact that I think there should not be any pedophiles, and those that are guilty should be punished), but you seem really invested in this topic. I just think that you are making assumptions when you do not know what you are talking about, except what the media tells you. Keep an open mind - just because someone says Mr. Ballmann did something wrong does not mean that he did (it does not mean that he did not, either), and it is wrong for you to take your opinion and present it as educated fact.

All I said was that it is not always black and white - since you do not have all the facts, and frankly, neither do I, you should withhold judgement. He may be guilty, and so far the facts seem to point that way, however it is not certain. I would have to hear both sides before making a decision either way. The police have heard both sides and decided it was worthwhile to arrest him. I am not suggesting they are crooked, but I do not know what they know. I also do not know if the kids are lying, and again, the evidence seems to suggest they are not. But you brought up Occam’s Razor, which states that the simplest explanations are usually true, and since assuming that the children lied is simpler (as it does not assume the actions of the children and of another person, Mr. Ballmann, and only assumes the actions of the children), according to you it should be true. I do not believe Occam’s Razor, but again, you brought it up.

Why do you seem so hellbent on his guilt when it is impossible for you to have all the information, including the testimonies of the witnesses?

Since I last put my two cents into this discussion I read that Joe Ballmann was indicted by a grand jury in late July on charges he molested another student. Apparently he is being held without bond pending an October trial. I wonder if anyone has seen the specific indictment - in that case or the original one - or know where it may be obtained online. I would like to get a better sense of what evidence the state is presenting against him. I imagine it is based mostly on eyewitness testimony because I am sure most physical evendence - such as DNA - would be useless given the passage of time from the alleged acts.

Like I said before, I will reserve judgment until I see the evidence, but I must say it does not look good for him…

Anyhow, I am amused how this turned into a political debate - I don’t think liberals favor child molestation any more than conservatives. My political view is that I am in favor of giving every defendant a fair trial - if he is found guilty based upon convincing evidence, throw the book at him. But if he is innocent and only guilty of bad judgment in socializing with students outside the classroom, he deserves to walk although I am not sure someone with such poor judgment should be a teacher again. As an amusing aside, I believe Mr. Ballmann voted for Bush in the last election. I certainly wouldn’t brand conservatives as child molesterers just because one of them got accused of such acts. Perhaps we can give liberals the same benefit of the doubt….

I believe the indictment is a matter of public record and I imagine a trip to the clerk’s office in Rockville, MD where the court is located would likely yield a copy. I’m just not inclined to get in my car and drive over an hour to do it given my job and other responsibilities. Still, I am curious to see exactly what the prosecutors have on him.

Anyhow, I agree that molesting kids is indeed BAD and should be punished. This is more an issue of determining guilt which given the severity of the charges should be done carefully.

At the risk of getting into an acrimonious debate, I think you paint liberals with a rather broad brush. There are plenty I know who are good and moral people, but who may consider themselves liberal for any number of reasons - being anti-war, pro union, in favor of the government providing universal healthcare, or whatever. As a moderate, I find pros and cons to both liberalism and conservatism. My problem with liberals is that they think there is a government program for everything, taxing us to death along the way, and often try and use policy to engage in social engineering - e.g. forcing kindergartners to read something like Heather Has Two Momies - teaching tolerance is one thing, but that book goes way beyond that - intruding into areas that are up to a family to decide on what and when to teach. On the other hand, I find conservatives to be too much to the other extreme. They want to gut effective goverment for the sake of free market - think the botched federal response to Katrina or the collapse of that bridge last week - there are things government must do and be properly funded to do - and on the social front they often times use morality as a means of intruding into people’s private lives and as a means of making them live the way they want to them to live. Take homosexuality - yes it is a sin according to the bible, but does that make gay people monsters or people who should be punitively targeted? Personally, I don’t give a crap what two consenting adults do in private and believe it is nobody’s business anyway. If they want to marry, let them - gay people deserve to be as miserable as the rest of us straight married folks (that’s a joke). But in all seriousness, there are practical tax benefits and property implications that surround marriage. As a moral person, I do have a problem with taking legal actions against people simply based on their sexual orientation. When someone is not allowed to visit their dying life partner on their deathbed because they are not legally considered family (this often times happens when the rest of the patient’s family disapproves), this strikes me as rather cruel and un-Christian. Regardless of what one thinks about gay marriage, going out of one’s way to punish gay folks strikes me as morally wrong. Yet many conservatives do so with unbridled glee.

Basic amoral acts like child molestation, murder, or stealing are obviously wrong. Child molestation is a particularly horrible act because the crime hurts innocent children who are incapable of making up their own minds and can be seriously screwed up as a result. It forever robs kids of their childhood and often leads to the acts getting repeated on other children when they grow up.

I am sure you will disagree with much of what I say, but I do believe there is a basic common morality out there which states we ought to try and be decent to one another - whether bible based or otherwise. I say that as a Christian. I think morality and politics have become too twisted together. A little more common sense would be nice in this country in determining what is “moral” and what is just politics.

Actually, such “policies” are backed up by the law. Republicans don’t have to stand at the door because the law does it for them. When people challenge such hospital policies in court as discriminatory, most courts will say that a family can only be defined by marriage or blood relation. And why is that? Because the law defines what is and is not a family. So “taking it up with the hospital” is a cop out. A hospital cannot bar black people from visiting or using their facilities because the law bars it - though there was a time in this country where there were separate hospitals for blacks and whites. I bet the same argument back then was to “take it up with the hospital” - that did not work too well.

As for leaving it to the voting public as you say - I agree - but that means also allowing states that permit it to do as they please too. A lot of conservatives do not want gay marriage recognized at all, regardless of whether the voters in a given state want it.

To see what I mean about Liberals and how they think, especially regarding their refusal to use judgement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c

A .pdf of the indictment would be awesome, but it might be under seal since it involves minors, right?

Do you have a link to caselaw or other rulings that show that anyone can void a POA in Virginia simply by saying they are gay? I don’t think so. You may be arguing legal theory, not established precedence.

I see I made a typo - I meant to say advocacy groups may be waiting for another state in a more liberal circuit passes an amendment before issuing a challenge.

I think you have a better chance of being hit by a meteor than ever seeing him again. Even if he beats the rap, which I doubt he will given the evidence piling up against him, I doubt he will teach again.

The destruction of rational thinking. It makes disfunctional sense to me.
Not because I believe in it, but its the only answer that makes sense.
If you want to know nothing, ask people. If you want to see nothing, watch
people. If you want to be nothing, be like other people. What is it that makes a person want to be? You didn’t even pick your own name so what you want never mattered from the beginning… you, my friends are in a dream world created by others. The followers are not many, but everybody.
Don’t think your opinions make sense, they certainly do not when you understand all your comments are about nothing but you and the dream of the planet created by others. Ballman is the same. His dream is his, yours is yours. Do you understand how you cannot understand? What happens will happen. Its not in your hands and never will be. It is a waste of our time to discuss his dream further. My dream is simple.. be happy
and live in the moment. Each of us will die in our own time so …I will try to do the right thing in all possible situations, if I can figure out what that is.
Its an agreement I make to myself.

KTown kids-

It looks like the prosecutor finally got around to filing the rest of the charges against him. The explosive devices and porno exhibitions are whats new. Thanks for the update.

Disturbed,

Yeah, but when I saw the docket earlier, the extra charges werent on there, but I could see that he had already requested a jury trial. Can a prosecutor bring more charges at that point?

And 150k bond shouldn’t be too hard to come by- I expect he has been home for quite some time now.

Its a lot of charges against him. At what point would a plea bargain be on the table do you think? Or has that time already come and gone?

other kids that went to frost this year, i think that the talent show teacher bandneeds a new bass player

i dont think i care that much, but thx 4 the advice….. by the way, about the cut up pictures of children, we were not working on any project. I noticed something else during school he never used the men bathrooms in school, he always used the doys bathroom…creepy

When a judge sets up a bond on you, such as $150,000… you can pay it and walk free or you can go to a Bailbondmans who will pay it if he thinks you will show up at trial. The Bailbondsmans usually requires 10%. He would have had to come up with 15 grand to get out. But his bail was revoked way back when they found all the stuff in his house the second time. He has been in jail since then. Clarksburg jail facility requires the inmates to spend 23 hours a day locked up… only one hour out from behind the bars. Pretty harsh. Here is one of the articles from the Montgomery County Gazette.

A Montgomery County grand jury issued a new indictment Thursday for the middle school teacher charged with sexual abuse of a minor in May and arrested again last month on a second set of similar charges.Joseph Robert Ballmann, 47, of Rockville, was originally indicted by a county grand jury June 14 on a set of charges filed against him in May.
Ballmann was arrested May 2 at his home in the 11100 block of Cedarwood Drive in Rockville and charged with sexually abusing one of his students from Robert Frost in Rockville on numerous occasions from spring 2004 to May 2005.

Police said Ballmann had been the boy’s seventh grade teacher at Frost and allege he had engaged in inappropriate sexual contact with the boy at Ballmann’s residence, not on school property. The student is now 15.

Ballmann was charged with sexual abuse of a minor, third-degree sexual offense and sexual solicitation of a minor.

Ballman was arrested again June 7, after police investigated allegations that Ballman had had inappropriate contact with a second boy. He was charged with child abuse and third-degree sexual offense.

Police detectives allege Ballmann engaged in inappropriate sexual contact between 1995 and 1997 with a boy who was in the seventh and eighth grades at Westland Middle School in Bethesda at the time. The alleged victim is now 24 years old.

Police said the student and Ballmann, then a teacher at Westland, had developed a personal relationship as the two spent time together in activities both during and after school. The alleged abuse occurred at the victim’s home, not on school property, police said.

Ballmann was living with a relative in the 81900 block of Falling Star Road in Germantown at the time of his second arrest.

Thursday’s indictment overrides the previous indictment that was issued June 14, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The new indictment adds new charges and consolidates the two sets of charges against Ballmann into one case, according to a press release issued by the State’s Attorney’s Office Friday.

Ballmann is now charged with a total of two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, three counts of sexual abuse in the third-degree, one count of sexual solicitation of a minor, one count of exhibition of pornography to a minor and two counts of manufacture or possession of a destructive device, according to the press release.

A preliminary hearing in Ballmann’s second case, originally scheduled for Friday, did not take place as a result.

Ballmann is being held without bond at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Clarksburg, said Seth Zucker, a spokesman for the State’s Attorney’s Office.

(OUCH!!!!!)

Ballmann has been a bus driver for the Montgomery County school system, served as a substitute teacher, taught English and social studies at Westland and until his arrest, taught English at Robert Frost, according to school system officials.

He is currently on administrative leave from the school system, said Carol Petersen, a secretary at Robert Frost Middle School.

Anyone who has additional information about other alleged incidents involving Ballmann is asked to call Detective Karen Carvajal in the Family Crimes Division at 240-773-5417. Those who wish to remain anonymous may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).

To the kids of Mr. Ballmans Class….
I hope you can get over your teachers problems…. it has nothing
to do with you and your not at fault in any way… not to say that you
think that you are.. but you never know how some people think.
If you ever see Mr Ballman again, I would be very surprised..
Yes it is a shame, but the reality of it says that his career is ruined
and he will never be a teacher in Montgomery County again.
Its a shame it upset your school year so bad and you have a crappy
substitute teacher. That substitute teacher may be the best teacher
ever in a few years. The best thing to do is always hope for the best.
Do good in school…. Don’t be afraid to make decisions.. and after you
make your decisions… go after them… make them happen.
Imagine a small child about to cross the road… what do you do??
If you care you will grab that childs hand and help them across the street.
Think of yourself as that child and help yourself the same way with everything you do. We are all just children, everyone needs help…
If we can’t help ourselves first, we can never help anyone else.
Be good, Peace.

Pat-

I was out of town on vacation last week and just saw your question about when a plea bargain may be made. To answer your question, a plea bargain could occur right up to the moment that the jury renders its verdict at trial. However, that presumes the State’s Attorney (prosecutor) wants to make a deal - in high profile case like this they tend to be rarer. It all depends on the strength of the case. If there is a risk of reasonable doubt, the prosecutor may cut a deal. If not, the prosecutor may take it to the jury.

I have a question for K-Town. Am wondering if he believes that Mr. Ballmann committed the crimes alleged and if so, should there be a trial (in light of all the media coverage etc.) and what does he think the outcome will be.

Any update on this disgraced teacher?