Local sex abuse victim speaks out - 13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

A former local school teacher with ties to Rossford and Toledo Public Schools is being accused of sexually abusing two teenagers in the late 70s.

Harold "Gerry" Mash, 68, now lives in Chicago, but he's being sued in Lucas County Common Pleas Court by two men who say he sexually abused them.

Ron Tremp didn't want his face shown, but he wants to tell his story.  He says, when he was 14 years old he was abused by Mash.

"After he got to know me, he began to molest me," he says. "He took advantage of my innocence, and I'll never forgive him, and I'm here today because I want to protect all the kids from that man and hopefully they will tell their story."

Tremp says Mash had left Rossford schools when the alleged abuse occurred. But Tremp was surprised to learn that Mash was able to get a teaching job in Chicago after being convicted for abusing a child in 1976.

"We were stunned," Tremp says. "We decided to come forward after we found out about Jerry Sandusky. My wife was interested in knowing where Gerry Mash was, and so she looked him up and found out that he was teaching in Chicago Public Schools."

Claudia Vercellotti, from the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), says she is outraged that Mash's teaching license was not pulled after being convicted of abusing a child in 1976 and assaulting a woman in 1985.

"He had a license to prey, and it took the courage of Jon Tremp and John Doe 1, and we've had another victim come forward," Vercelloti says. "The courage of these men to remove a child predator out of the classroom, and he is a convicted criminal with an abuse of a juvenile. He has no business being in anyone's classroom."

If you have been a victim of abuse, you can contact SNAP for help. Just visit their website www.snapnetwork.org.