Union backs molester

Teachers union backs a convicted child rapist, seeking thousands in severance

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," December 20, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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O'REILLY: Thanks for staying with us, I am Bill O'Reilly. In the personal story segment tonight, truly shocking story that reflects very badly on the teacher's union in Michigan. This man, 39-year-old Neil Erickson, has been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for raping one of his male students for three years, beginning when the boy was just 12 years old. The boy's parents, John and Lori Janczewski are angry and broken- hearted as the family has been torn apart by this. Adding to that is the fact that the Michigan Education Association, the union Erickson belonged to, continues to support the monster, demanding that he be given $10,000 in severance pay. I talked with the parents last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'REILLY: Your son at age 12 met this man, Erickson, right? He was a teacher and he took an interest in your boy?

JOHN JANCZEWSKI, SON RAPED BY TEACHER: Yes, he did. He was a well- known person. We wouldn't have thought twice about anything.

bob: Did your son ever mention the teacher?

LORI JANCZEWSKI, SON RAPED BY TEACHER: Well, I worked with all of these teachers and Mr. Erickson for the last 11 years. I trusted these people. And when they went to sixth grade camp, Neal Erickson was one of the teachers that went. My son was interested in iPods. They were just coming out. And Neal Erickson honed in on that, and teaching him technology, and just started grooming him from there. I thought he was just being a good teacher. I trusted him. Now I have that failure of suffering the rest of my life knowing I failed my son and didn't protect him.

J. JANCZEWSKI: We both feel like we failed as parents. We should have never let it happen.

O'REILLY: Yes, but I don't think that's fair, and I will tell you that every one of us watching tonight who is a parent has, you know, bad things happen to kids, and you just don't know. But what I want to get at is did your son's behavior change?

J. JANCZEWSKI: His behavior changed dramatically. He was angry, physical altercations against me. It changed drastically.

O'REILLY: All right.

L. JANCZEWSKI: There was nothing we could do that was right.

O'REILLY: But you didn't know, because this guy, as many child molesters are, presents himself in a way that you couldn't possibly link it together unless your son told you, and he did not. Now, the guy is finally caught and sentenced to 15 to 30 years in a Michigan state prison. Is that sentence enough for you?

J. JANCZEWSKI: The sentence, between my wife and I, was enough for us, yes. We thought on July 10th that sentencing date, we would have closure. But on that day, we stood in the hall of the courtroom, and unbeknownst to my wife or myself, her colleagues, seven to 10 of them, walked by us in the hallway, glared at us, and sat on Neal Erickson's side of the courtroom.

O'REILLY: So teachers in the school and subsequently the teacher's union supported this monster?

J. JANCZEWSKI: Yes, and they knew he was guilty.

O'REILLY: That's disgraceful.

L. JANCZEWSKI: I suspected one or two of them. This group of teachers was a very tight clique, but, after I found out in the courtroom these teachers that were sitting there wrote letters of leniency, and I got to read them the following week. I just couldn't understand it.

O'REILLY: The union comes in and is demanding, what, $10,000 in severance pay for this guy? Is that's what's happening?

L. JANCZEWSKI: Yes.

J. JANCZEWSKI: Yes, it is. Another slap in our face.

O'REILLY: And the school district isn't going to give him the money, though, I don't think.

J. JANCZEWSKI: The school board has went ahead and said no. And the union has filed a grievance against the school board.

O'REILLY: Unbelievable.

L. JANCZEWSKI: When Neal Erickson was arrested, he was the local union president.

O'REILLY: Oh, there you go.

L. JANCZEWSKI: Another teacher took it over. And the day that this came out that they were going to file the grievance, that current president stepped down from my understanding because he did not believe that this was right, and now there is another gentleman that has taken it over. There is no comment on this.

O'REILLY: OK.

L. JANCZEWSKI: I feel this money should go to our son.

O'REILLY: How is your son now? How old is he? What is he doing? What is his mental state?

J. JANCZEWSKI: Our son is now 21. He is graduating with honors at Western Michigan University in this April. We talk more now.

I lost my son for nine years. He hated me. He despised me. There was nothing I could do right for him. And it killed me. I loved him, and I lost him. And now we are starting to, at least, have somewhat of a relationship, but that anger is still there.

O'REILLY: Is he coming for Christmas?

L. JANCZEWSKI: Yes.

O'REILLY: All right. So, I want -- he is going to watch this segment tonight, and he has got to know how much you guys love him. I'm telling him right now, I'm telling him, that you guys could not have possibly -- could not possibly have prevented this. This was just a tragedy. All right, that he had to endure. And that you are good parents, that you are going on national television now trying to right a terrible wrong, telling a story that's very difficult to tell, all because you love your son and don't want it to happen to any other son.

L. JANCZEWSKI: Exactly.

J. JANCZEWSKI: No.

O'REILLY: And that's why you are here.

So I want you guys to have a merry Christmas. We are going to stay in touch with you. There is not going to be any payment to this guy in prison. We hope he rots for 30 years. That's what he deserves to do.

J. JANCZEWSKI: Yes.

L. JANCZEWSKI: Absolutely.

O'REILLY: I want to say personally how much I admire you both.

J. JANCZEWSKI: Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Thank you for listening very much.

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