Saturday, January 18, 2025

CJ Superintendent says he knew nothing about stalking, stood up to parents who backed Craig Smith


On the same day that he reportedly told staff members that he was retiring at the end of the school year, Carl Junction R-1 Superintendent Phil Cook scrambled to offer his version of how vocal music instructor Craig Smith was allegedly able to stalk a child for years.

Smith, 53, is being held in the Jasper County Jail in a $400,000 cash only bond after being charged Friday with stalking and possession of child pornography.

The probable cause statement in the stalking case detailed how Smith allegedly showered the girl with gifts and thousands of unsolicited messages from the time she was in sixth grade through high school. It also noted that school officials were aware of the problems.








Cook took issue with that impression, telling Hacker he knew nothing about Smith stalking the child.

The only thing we knew was he was having a group of students, girls mainly, in his his office during lunch. It happened when he was in the intermediate building and again when he moved to the junior high and we took care of that and we stopped it.

Not only did district officials effectively handle the problem, Cook insisted, but it was done despite protests from some parents who didn't see anything wrong with Smith having "their daughters" in his office during lunch. 

Cook said he and other officials stood their ground against this parental pressure.

We said, "No, it's not OK."
The probable cause statement noted that Smith asked to be transferred from the intermediate school to junior high after the alleged victim was promoted to junior high. Cook said he had no idea Smith asked for the move so he could follow the girl.







(Note: I intended to put a link to the Globe story, which was the lead story in today's print edition, but I was unable to find it on the Globe's website. I checked the Globe's Facebook page and found it had not been updated since Thursday. If a link becomes available, I will post it, though it will be behind a paywall.) 

Previous coverage

The Turner Report: Probable cause. Former CJ teacher stalked girl from sixth grade through high school

The Turner Report: Four months after being removed from classroom, CJ music teacher arrested for stalking, child pornography

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe someone should start talking to the teachers who insist Phil knew. I believe them not the habitual liar superintendent.

Anonymous said...

Superintendent Phil Cook - was Correct. If something looks or sounds bad - always best to error on the side of caution. Their instincts were correct - and I wonder what those LAME PARENTS ARE SAYING KNOW?

Parents - Your Job is to Protect Your Children - Do the Right Thing!

Anonymous said...

Cook is a crooked.liar. is t it funny that CJ school now have another thing that looks bad on them.and Cook defends it. David Pyle is just as bad. CJ COMMUNITY. WAKE UP. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT GOOD FOR YOUR CHILDREN...

Anonymous said...

Since no one is questioning the school board and it’s decisions, this has to be done

If you bank at Arvest Bank, close your account and move it elsewhere since CJ school board president Larry Cowger retired from Arvest Wealth Management and he enabled a pedophile to retire with his teaching certificate instead of termination.

CJ school board vice chairman is Travis Spencer president of Pinnacle Bank in Joplin, if you bank at Pinnacle Bank close your account and move it elsewhere since he believes in protecting pedophile teachers and voted for retirement instead of termination.

If you use board member Kasey Cowger for your mortgage, request a different broker and boycott his company altogether since he too protects child predators. And while you’re at it his wife Lesley is a realtor, might as well change realtors also since she agrees with her husband and father in law concerning pedophiles.

Board member Dr. Rob Herron has dental offices in Pittsburg and Columbus, I encourage everyone to switch dentists since he believes in protecting and enabling child predators.

Board member Melinda Brown works at Missouri Southern, time to transfer schools and cut your support and donations to MSSU since its employees believe in supporting pedophiles.

Board member Brian Massey works for Edward Jones with an office in Webb City, how can someone who voted to support a child predator be trusted to give financial advice? I say boycott Edward Jones and take your business elsewhere.

Board member Bob Hays is retired but he worked for his friend Larry Cowger and both support child predators.

Finally, my kids and my money will not go near any of the mentioned businesses or institutes of higher learning and add Crowder College to the list since the wife of this child predator is in charge of the Webb City campus.

Support of child predators must end and we all must do our part boycott these places and take your business elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

4:46, where do you work?

Anonymous said...

It's disturbing, disappointing, and potentially dangerous that you allowed 446 Randy. This is truly reaching the literary scum level. I have no connection to anything CJ, but this kind of blogging is truly concerning.

Anonymous said...

So is defending a child predator. What’s the priority here? You’re upset because someone named names of those ducking responsibility or more worried about those who were elected to office suffering in their day to day job?

Anonymous said...

Who exactly is ducking responsibility? Have you personally gone to a board meeting and asked what they knew and when? Do you personally know if ANY concerned parents ever reported their concerns to this group?

Let’s be careful attacking community volunteers before you have the facts.

Anonymous said...

And so far, there has been no one defending the former educator in question, from the school, the board or otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Context and fact is everything 615. Don't be another gaslighter and twist words to conflate 605 as supporting this perv. I believe molesters are an abomination and share in your anger. However, your presumption of fault and naming names is based more on vindictivness and short sided impulsiveness. I'm equally concerned about your crusade of publicly slandering innocent people before knowing the full story, as I am that your post actually made it by the TR police. Horrible judgement at both ends.

Anonymous said...

@randy Turner please consider removal of these semi doxxing postings

I think a post talking about where everyone works and blaming a school board, to get a pound of flesh from people who clearly don’t have knowledge of the inner workings of every single teacher in the district is just a very ugly thing to do.

I can see being mad at the administration, but doxxing private people who are unpaid volunteers for the school district……is a bit too far

Anonymous said...

This is incredibly far from doxxing, as this is all publicly available information. Who you gonna whine to next? Google, Facebook, City of CJ and Joplin for providing the info?

Anonymous said...

To bring closure the appropriate state agency should be brought in to investigate. Until this happens vote NO on all future bond issues. The leadership is lacking.

Anonymous said...

Everyone has an agenda. The people spreading hate without knowing any facts has an agenda. Has anyone gone to casenet to read the actual facts. Looks like the board put this man on leave as soon as stalking thing was brought to attention. It’s in the legal systems hands at that point. From my understanding you can’t fire a unionized educator to accusations. Nothing was filed until January and the CP was not found in the computer until January 9th. A month after he resigned. Once again, all of this just by reading a report. You also can’t fire someone because a teacher had lunch with his students. Most teachers would be fired if that happened. That was the only complaint. Bad people can find ways to bypass a computer. Maybe it wasn’t down loaded….who know’s maybe something bad did happen. We don’t know. But don’t drag innocent people through this until the facts are out. CJ you had a bad seed but it doesn’t mean people were protecting a child predator. Go read the actual docs that are out there instead of listening to former teachers or former students that are vindictive with another agenda because they didn’t like someone.

Anonymous said...

Both the Superintendent and the School Board - need to address this in a Public Forum to show some Visibility to this issue. Ignoring what has occurred and putting your head in the sand will only cause more speculation of wrongdoing - by everyone.

Anonymous said...

If you really cared about building a coalition to fight these people you would post it in public comments and build a movement, posting in anon comments doesn’t solve anything.

Anonymous said...

This is the most CJ thing ever. People upset because someone called out those in leadership positions for failing to protect the students in their district. So glad my kids never went to CJ schools where entitlement runs rampant from its leadership all the way down to its students.

Anonymous said...

Anyone have info on the next school board meeting?

Anonymous said...

Maybe, just maybe those teachers or former students (or other people and parents) aren't vindictive or doesn't have another agenda because they didn't like someone. Maybe, just maybe they know the proven facts and their goals are to hold them responsible and face the consequences of their bad decisions they made in this situation and hopefully this can never happen again.

Anonymous said...

Any teacher that "knew" something inappropriate was going on, and didn't report it as they are mandated to do, are also guilty of letting this student down. And if they reported it to Cook and nothing was done, and they didn't follow up and say something to either a Board member or some authority, they are still guilty. All of the Board members are very approachable.