Thank you for the front-page article in the May 13 issue of ADN, as you continue your award-winning investigations. The reluctance of school district officials to discredit Christopher Carmichael sounds quite familiar, as does the description of Carmichael as “an incredibly popular principal” who “had a reputation of bending over backward to help people” and was “well-respected by students, staff and parents.”
For one year in the early 1960s, Sam Thomas was a beloved teacher at the one-room school near Montana Creek. There were rumors of inappropriate touching, but parents believed their children were “exaggerating” or “misunderstood” the teacher’s actions. Mr. Thomas also gave gifts to families in the small community of homesteaders, as Carmichael did.
The degree to which the community supported Sam Thomas is shameful, in retrospect, but the community was naive, even allowing their sons to spend the night with the man. In 1971, Mr. Thomas was pronounced “Teacher of the Year” while teaching in Levelock, another remote Alaska community located on the Kvichak River. It was only after he was under consideration for a national teaching award that authorities learned the man was a pedophile and rescinded his award and teaching certificate.
Hopefully, there were other consequences. It is sickening to imagine the number of lives affected by this man over likely decades of being a popular teacher. The point of this letter is not to suggest that we avoid trusting popular educators and administrators; it is to demand that we believe our children!
— Sheila Lankford
Anchorage
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