MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) — Former Walt Whitman High School teacher and rowing coach Kirk Shipley was sentenced to 3 years in prison for sexually abusing students.  

Shipley, 48, worked at MCPS for nearly 20 years. According to court documents he sexually abused two former students and rowers on the crew team on multiple occasions between 2013 to 2018 at his home in the district.

Jennifer Gross — a Whitman alum, parent and certified sex offender treatment provider — said she wrote a letter in 2018 detailing issues in MCPS’s response to reports of student abuse and blames the district for victim-blaming procedures.

“MCPS to this day continues to put these loopholes in and allow men like Kirk Shipley to operate with impunity, and who was paying the price? Our children,” said Gross.

After Shipley was sentenced we contacted MCPS officials, who wrote, “We have no further comments on this matter.” DC News Now also reached out to the Whitman Crew and did not hear back.