Checks conducted by Nationwide News have confirmed that Jamaica’s Child Protection and Family Services Agency, CPFSA, has been partnering with a US-based non-profit organisation whose founder and executive director’s education certificate was suspended in the US after it was established he had sexually inappropriate exchanges with a minor.
Nationwide’s Research and Special Investigations Division has obtained a copy of the Final Order of Suspension issued by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in the US State of Washington.
According to the suspension order, Educator, Carl Robanske’s Washignton Education Certificate was suspended for two years in December 2016.
Yet, Robanske, the Founder and Executive Director of Embracing Orphans, has been partnering with the CPFSA, which has oversight of children in State Care in Jamaica.
Nationwide’s Research and Special Investigations Editor, Tyrone Reid, has been probing the issue and files this report.
Carl Robanske founded the religious non-profit organization, Embracing Orphans, in December 2007.
It has been undertaking charitable programmes and projects in Jamaica since then, raising an estimated 100-thousand US dollars annually.
Jamaica’s Child Protection and Family Services Agency, CPFSA, formally engaged Robanske’s Embracing Orphans in January 2014 after the donation of a transitional facility in Reading, Montego Bay called The Father’s House.
According to certified documents issued by the Washington-based Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, copies of which have been obtained by Nationwide’s Special Investigation Division, on or about May 14, 2014, Robanske quote, “on more than one occasion, messaged a female middle school student after school hours and on the weekends. The messages included some conversations with sexual innuendo, unquote.
This was less than a year after Robanske was issued a Washington Education Certificate.
The documents further state that during the inappropriate conversations on his personal Facebook page, Robanske also messaged the minor about tattoos, and included a frontal picture of an adult male with his groin area covered in a Pinocchio tattoo.
It didn’t stop there.
When the student asked Robanske if he was really getting a tattoo, he responded, quote, “Ya, you want to see the back one or the dirty one”, end quote.
Robanske also engaged the student in a game called “this or that”.
The Embracing Orphans founder mentioned sneakers or thong and then said, quote, “I just read what I typed, I meant thong like sandals not the other one and hoe about u singing or you licking and biting me…………. u licking and biting me, end quote.
According to the documents, on June 2, 2014, Robanske was then placed on Administrative Leave with Pay.
Fourteen days later, Robanske resigned.
In March 2015, Robanske participated in an interview with an investigator from the State of Washington’s Office of Professional Practices, in which he admitted he had initiated the instant messaging conversations with the student after he saw her on Facebook.
Five months later, Robanske was evaluated by a psychologist, Dr. Philip Barnard.
After the evaluation, Dr. Barnard concluded, quote, “I cannot state at this time that Mr. Robanske does not present a risk to his students”, end quote.
According to the documents, based on the evidence, Robanske was proven to have committed acts of professional misconduct by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Robanske’s Washington Education Certificate was then suspended for two years.
When Nationwide contacted Robanske he revealed that the CPFSA was aware of his professional misconduct but refused to go into details.
An email was sent to Robanske on Tuesday, March 2, 2021.
A response is yet to be received.
When asked if his education certificate has been reinstated, this was Robanske’s response.
