Did school do enough?
By BRANDON COUTRE - bcoutre@nwherald.com
and TOM MUSICK - tmusick@nwherald.com
CRYSTAL LAKE – Police began to ask questions at Sydney Kamysz’s elementary school Friday, the day after her former teacher said she had told school officials that the girl’s mother sometimes scolded and slapped her at school.
“There was concern that there may have been procedures that weren’t followed completely, and there may have been a violation of law,” Crystal Lake Deputy Chief Dennis Harris said.
Harris said Crystal Lake police were working on the inquiry with McHenry County sheriff's police.
On Tuesday, police believe, Magdalene Kamysz suffocated her daughter in their home near Crystal Lake and then walked in front of an oncoming Metra train in Cary.
Police are examining whether proper action was taken by the school. State law requires school officials to report suspected child abuse to the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services.
But Vanessa Hopp, who taught Sydney Kamysz in first grade last year at Husmann Elementary School in Crystal Lake, said Thursday that she alerted the school's social worker to concerns that she had about Maggie Kamysz. Hopp said Kamysz demanded perfection and sometimes would scold her daughter in Polish or slap her if she made mistakes in her work.
School personnel are required to report abuse through a DCFS hot line or through the agency’s Web site, said Kendall Marlowe, a DCFS spokesman who said his agency never investigated possible abuse against 7-year-old Sydney Kamysz.
Reporting the abuse to a superior, as Hopp said she did, and not through the hot line still is a violation of the law, the agency’s spokesman said.
Whether abuse is serious enough to report is subjective, Marlowe said, adding that individuals who witness it should err on the side of caution.
“These are difficult calls to make. You don’t pick up that phone lightly, but it is important to realize that we need to focus on the safety of the children,” Marlowe said. “The person calling the hot line is not expected to be an expert on child abuse.”
Marlowe encouraged everyone, not just school personnel, to call the hotline at (800) 25-ABUSE if they see harm to a child.
On Friday, Hopp said some news reports had exaggerated her words. Maggie Kamysz sometimes swatted at her daughter, Hopp said, but the mother's actions never led Hopp to believe that Sydney was in any kind of serious danger.
"That wasn't the case," Hopp said. "She wasn't being abused."
District 47 Superintendent Ron Miller on Friday said he asked police to investigate how the district handled any possible child-abuse warnings to ensure no wrongdoing.
“I, specifically, on the day of the unfortunate incident, sat down with the principal and asked if there was anything we would have known that would indicate something like this was going to happen,” Miller said. “The answer given to me was ‘no,’ and I have no reason to believe that my staff members would lie to me.”
School employees are among a unique group of workers, known as “mandated reporters,” who must report to DCFS when they suspect abuse. If they willingly don’t comply, they could be charged with a misdemeanor for a first offense and a felony for subsequent offenses.
Miller said District 47 teachers were briefed at the start of each school year on their responsibilities of being mandated reporters.
While police question whether anything could have been done differently to prevent the tragedy, investigators said they still were searching for an answer to why Magdalene Kamysz apparently killed her daughter before taking her own life.
The mother didn’t appear to have left a suicide note, leaving only speculation as to what set her off.
The only clue that police have to a motive is a court dispute between the girl’s mother and biological father, Alan Burton, of Walworth, Wis., over visitation rights.
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