A school psychologist is a psychologist employed in U.S. public and private schools who provides psychological and psychoeducational assessment, counseling, and consultation to students, parents, and teachers. A school psychologist is also trained in the ethical, legal and administrative codes of their profession.
Given their professional training in psychology and their supposed commitment to ethics and morality, the behavior of two school psychologists who are in the news reminds me of that old chestnut about nuts being especially attracted to the psychological profession.
Brian Keubler reports for ABC2News that a school psychologist (“behavioral specialist”) in Maryland’s Hartford County Schools, 42-year-old Stephanie Mikles, has been indicted for bestiality.
School psychologists are called behavioral specialists in Harford County Public Schools and are required by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) to have a master’s degree, advanced graduate specialist’s, or doctoral degree in psychology, education, or human development from a state or regionally accredited institution. In the case of Mikles, her LinkedIn page says she has a M.A. in Counseling from Rivier College, and B.A. in Education and Sociology from U. of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Stephanie Mikles was hired in 2009 to be the behavioral specialist for Bel Air, Maryland’s Harford County Public Schools. Last year, the child advocacy center of Harford County began investigating Mikles. In the course of their investigation, the investigators were surprised and shocked to discover still photos of Mikles engaged in “unnatural or perverted sexual practice” — having “sexual intercourse with a dog.”
Police say according to evidence it happened in August of 2008 but in Maryland, there is no statute of limitations for bestiality and sources tell ABC2, the pet still lives with the family at their Jarrettsville home.
Mikles is out on a $5,000 bond and is currently on administrative leave without pay from the Harford County Schools System. If convicted of the misdemeanor of bestiality, she could be punished for up to 10 years in prison and a $1000 fine.
Then there is James F. Huntington, the school psychologist of Sidwell Friends School — the elite private school in Washington, DC, with an annual tuition of around $34,000, to which President Lucifer sends his two daughters, Sasha and Malia. Sidwell is also the school of Joe Biden’s grandchildren. Chelsea Clinton and Al Gore III both attended the school, as did the children of cabinet secretaries, journalists, business leaders, senators, and congressmen, among others.
According to an account by Mary Yarrison and Harry Jaffe in The Washingtonian, the school and its staff psychologist, Huntington, are the defendants of a lawsuit brought by Arthur “Terry” Newmyer, the father of a Sidwell student. The lawsuit has a trial date of November 18, 2013.
Newmyer claims the school psychologist had an affair with his wife, Tara Mehrbach, while treating the couple’s 5-year-old daughter, and that Sidwell administrators knew about the adulterous affair but took “flagrant and outrageous actions” that “allowed its staff psychologist to have an open sexual relationship with the married mother of a then five-year-old Sidwell student he was treating.” Newmyer asks for $10 million in damages. (Newmyer and Mehrbach are now divorced.)
According to the lawsuit, during the course of the affair, Huntington sent a number of sexually explicit e-mails to Mehrbach from his Sidwell account—sometimes in the middle of the workday:
- The e-mails graphically recounted their encounters, including oral and anal sex, role-playing, and “manic rubbing and touching when [Huntington is] under the influence.”
- In emails in March, 2010, Huntington expressed his desire “to be busy with [Mehrbach's] body,” and why he missed her phone call: “Your call enabled me to kick out some 8th grade girls from my room. They were winners from Twin Day, so they were eating their prizes in here and talking about male P.E. teachers that try to hit on them.”
- In one e-mail, Huntington wonders whether he should discuss the affair with Newmyer’s daughter. “Do I talk about masturbating on your face or your marital situation with Terry . . . ? Decisions, decisions, decisions.”
- Huntington had little respect for his profession. In an e-mail dated March 10, 2010, Huntington wrote to Mehrbach that “Drugs, alcohol, shamans, chakras, faith healers, voodoo doctor, and people that work with crystals and Ouija boards” are better than psychologists and are his recommended “first choice route to go for help.” He wrote: “Shrinks are a last resort in my book.”
Newmyer says he contacted Sidwell and registered his concern that the school psychologist was having an affair with his wife at the same time he was treating his daughter. Despite many entreaties, little changed. On February 11, 2011, Newmyer sent copies of a detailed memorandum on the matter to Sidwell’s board, along with some e-mails between Huntington and Mehrbach. On February 16, 2011, Sidwell fired Huntington. Three months later, Terry Newmyer filed suit against Sidwell and Huntington.
You can read Newmyer’s complaint in pdf, here.
See also “Teachers behaving badly: lesbian rape and urinating in classroom,” April 25, 2013.
~Eowyn
