Hi Satch, Great research! I read Mr. Pash's response and all the links you added.
My :twocents:
The first thing we need to do when looking at this case is to put it in perspective time wise. This occurred in 1981. It is very easy to throw in our knowledge about current research into psychology, suicide, new societal norms, etc when we look in hindsight.
I am not defending or suggesting Mr. Pash's innocence or guilt. But, I do think he has some very valid points. While his post may appear defensive, strange, and have an attitude of superior intelligence, I do think, as he puts it "the witch hunt" eventually would lead all of us to make similar statements. In context with the 1980's...
1. Suicide was not openly discussed as it is now. Reporting systems were not in place for that during the time. Abuse was a "family" secret, etc. If Roger indicated he was suicidal or hated his life in a project he didn't know was to be turned in that is not the fault of Mr. Pash. How Mr. Pash handled it (here is the hindsight or what we know know about suicide and reporting laws) could be what we would now consider wrong. But, at the time, given Mr. Pash was doing what many teachers do by teaching many subjects that they are not degreed in it may have never occurred to him. A degree in History is ONE area of social sciences and can't be confused with practical and working knowledge of all subject areas. The major "error" if you could call it that was having students turn in an assignment they thought would be confidential. A history major would not know how de-stabalizing that could be to a depressed young person. If Roger's answers appeared on the board, he would have felt everyone knew it was his thoughts (people really didn't) and that could be a catalyst for him to disappear. In hindsight, we know this is a bad idea, in the 1980's the research wasn't there. Do we know everything in the assignment that Roger submitted? If Roger smoked pot (not uncommon) did he openly write who he got it from, etc in that paper? Did he want to disappear after the requirement to submit an assignment he treated as a personal self-disclosure/diary? In essence having to submit this assignment may have pushed him over the edge if he took it very seriously and wrote his true feelings. Mr. Pash is not a psychologist, thus, requested the submission of the assignment and the potential issues it could cause was not on his mind. And realistically, it is not something that even the cutting edge psychologists at the time would have totally been aware of.
2. Mr. Pash maybe talks to the mother. Most teachers would especially after LE confiscates an assignment as evidence and Pash may not have even given a second thought to it. He may have not been savvy or handled it correctly with the parents. He may have eluded to the paper and why he was questioned by police. But, honestly...he may have just bumbled through a visit trying to help. Again, the reaction to the suggestion of "suicide" in the 1980's is going to be a lot different then now. We now have resources, we now understand a lot more, it was a taboo subject then that was often considered a reflection on parenting. Even a teen writing, I wish I was never born could be taken out of context, especially if Roger's parents felt it reflected on them. So, how the mother reacted and our ideas about responsible reporting and signs of suicidal behavior are far different from 1981.
3. Parents often assume that because children get straight-A's and are involved in competitive sports, their lives are fine. As someone who was a ski racer, I can tell the the sheer amount of pressure to do well in everything can push anyone over the edge. In fact, I gave it up because it stopped being fun. So, while Roger was an overachiever in some ways, perhaps this was NOT making him happy. Perhaps, he really was burnt out, tired, and miserable. Not all kids manifest their struggles by letting grades slip or dropping out of sports. In fact, this correlation of signs of depression did not evolve until the 1990s.
4. About Mr. Pash being gay. Of course people would say that. In the 1980's the LGBT community were persecuted. Remember the AIDS/HIV was being discovered and it was called GRID (Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease)? While there is a chance Mr. Pash was married 4 times and had really young children as a "cover-up" the reality is the "gayness" is just another way to vilify or marginalize Mr. Pash. Many people still think all gay men are pedophiles..image the ideas back then in small town America. Red Herring.
5. There are comments from students in the posts about the orgies, drug use, and such at Mr. Pash's house. This is possible, I know certain ethical adult-child boundaries and relationships were not common in the 1980's. But, the big thing is of all the posters not a single one identified themselves except Mr. Pash. So we have anonymous people claiming some pretty significant things without verification. While they do not need to be verified publicly, the blog author is journalistically negligent by not verify sources of information. That being said, it is also very common for victims of crimes to transfer their abuse to a person that cannot hurt them. Not that this is correct, but, when disclosing abuse to get help (especially if the perp is known, near, and could re-victimize them) it is easy to fabricate who the abuser was. Mr. Pash, already a target, who is out of the area is a safe person to blame abuse on to get help. It is very possible Mr. Pash is what the posters say he is, however, in all fairness to both victims of abuse and those accused who may be innocent, we can't place Mr. Pash on trial for something posted by an anonymous blogger.
5. Roger most likely left the school on his own accord as there was no obvious struggle. He most likely did return his books to school. We all know (NOW) that suicidal people usually take care of "business" prior to ending their lives. We don't have enough information to figure out if Roger had any other behaviors that we now know are red flags. This really does complicate the case, because, not all leads are being checked out. If we focus only on the foul-play angle, we may miss other clues to what happened. While he most likely is not still here, if we look at where he may have gone from the school, the locations will be very different if we take his depression seriously vs. just looking at Mr. Pash or some other person abducting/killing him.
6. During the time of Roger's disappearance there where multiple cases of young boys/men vanishing in Colorado during the time. From 1978 to 1984 there were about 3 a year. What needs to be looked at is if there is a connection in these cases and if we are missing the "big picture" on the situation.
:twocents:
