CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. -- Residents are focused on a big story in Hillary Clinton country -- Chappaqua, New York -- but it's not the Democratic presidential nominee herself.
This is a story that involves minors, parents, education officials, the local high school and Christopher Schraufnagel, a former teacher in a school district described simply as "amazing," according to local realtor Bridgette Bacon.
"We finally got a story to top Hillary," Schraufnagel said.
Schraufnagel is a former drama teacher at Horace Greeley High School who is being prosecuted for various charges including criminal sexual abuse with students.
Schraufnagel was removed from the school in June of 2015, but the case has been the talk of the town of late, "It was a shock honestly."
Shocking according to Will Wedge, a father with a student in the system, because of how the former schools superintendent Dr. Marilyn McKay and others have handled the scandal with multiple victims.
In fact, Wedge along with 748 others have signed a petition that says the district has been keeping families in the dark.
"We're not getting answers out of our district they are sandbagging us," Wedge said. "They are not looking out for the most important thing here which is the interest of the children and we need change, but more than just change we need some kind of independent investigation."
Over the summer, the Chappequa Central School District through its attorney's responded to the civil lawsuit filed against them by the alleged victims of Schraufnagel.
In their 7-page response, the attorney's had an interesting strategy according to Wedge, "I forget the actual legal terms of art buts it's basically blame the victims."
In the response by the district's attorneys, it is easy to identify a structured sentence that reads, "the amount of the damages shall be diminished in proportion to the culpable conduct attributable to the plaintiffs."
McKay retired from the district according to the board on Tuesday night.
The school district sent an email informing parents of Superintendent McKay's resignation. The email that praised McKay's career also informed parents of an acting interim superintendent from the district tapped from within the system.
Wedge says he and other parents want an independent superintendent to ensure that the district has the best interest of all in the community.