This was first published by the South Jersey Times Editorial Board.

“Parental rights” were on the ballot last week, either as an issue in key legislative campaigns or, more directly, as a formal platform for some school board candidates.

The results were mixed. Democrats seeking legislative seats — who mostly rejected calls for parents to have overreaching veto power over everything their kid learns — had a pretty good Tuesday evening.

On the other hand, school board candidates who want parents to be able to approve every word of a curriculum did well in some districts, but not in others where the “culture war” issue was front and center. Many parents-rights candidates did not wear partisan labels, just the philosophy that books discussing every gender variety except binary ones should be banned, and that mom/dad know best when they want the rough edges shaved off of any examination of race and class in America.

In one South Jersey school district, though, there was a more distinct, urgent call for parental rights that had nothing to do with the controversies above. In Upper Deerfield Township, Cumberland County, parents were justifiably livid when they learned about the alleged activities of one of the school custodians, Giovanni Impellizzeri.

Too many of you are reading this editorial over breakfast so I won’t repeat the accusations — now criminal charges — against Impellizzeri in detail. We’ll say just that they involved the Elizabeth Moore Elementary School, cafeteria food, eating and cooking utensils, bodily fluids, bleach, private parts and other parts that are not 100% sanitary.

In a court hearing Thursday, prosecutors said that Impellizzeri, of Vineland, deliberately wanted to make kids sick. He allegedly posted videos of his activities at the school on private messaging apps and chat rooms. Authorities believe the videos were made between Oct. 26-30.

So far, it’s unclear if any students ate contaminated food. No related student illnesses were reported, but parents have every right to be horrified, disgusted and worried. The county health department all of the remaining, potentially tainted food has been disposed of, and utensils and surfaces have been disinfected,.

Some parents are upset not just at the suspect, but figuratively want the head of Superintendent Peter Koza on a plate. They feel violated because there was a time lag between the time police and school officials learned about the videos and the time the school community was first made aware of the incidents, initially in a robocall described as vague.

That brings us back to parental rights. And, parents have the right to know about this kind of thing as soon as possible after it happens. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Koza did anything wrong, or that he should be fired immediately. But, we’ve seen plenty of cases where public entities hold back negative information until an outsider leaks it, or until officials think they’ve cleaned up or covered up the mess effectively.

School administrators are a magnet for this sort of thing. Consider all of the cases of bullying, hazing, asbestos-contaminated buildings and toxic gym floors that were shoved under the proverbial rug until someone blabbed.

Avoiding panic is not a good enough excuse for withholding critical facts. Frankly, if any parents wanted to yank their kids out of the Moore school for a few days, that should have been allowed — as an excused absence. And, why didn’t the district shut down the school immediately?

Superior Court Judge Cristen P. D’Arrigo wisely ordered Impellizzeri to remain in jail for now, despite a plea from his public defender to release him to his family. “The fact that he specifically indicates that that was his objective, to make (kids) sick, demonstrates how much of a risk he is to the community at large if released,” the judge said.

No matter what psychological issues or fetishes Impellizzeri might have, if he’s out on the street, nothing would stop him from repeating his acts, if not at a school, in a grocery store, in a buffet restaurant or a youth group meeting.

As for parental rights, it’s critical for parents to have the information and transparency they need to ensure that their youngsters stay safe and healthy in school. In most New Jersey households, that’s more important than fighting for rules that grant the ability to censor library books.