Teenage boys who came here as exchange students, were the victims of a Vineland, New Jersey man who gave them alcohol, exposed himself, and then tried to take off their pants, according to police.
The man accused is John Kinka, a volunteer for the ASSE student exchange program. He acts as a liaison between the students and their host families. The teens -- from the Czech Republic and France -- are going to school in Delaware but they stayed at Kinka's house on Saturday to attend an exchange program conference, police say.
An off-duty officer in Vineland found the teens, both 17, wandering the streets around 4 a.m. Sunday. But they were afraid to say anything because they thought it might get them kicked out of the foreign-exchange program, according to police. They didn't talk about what allegedly happened until they were back with their host family.
Kinka, 49, always passed his annual background checks, according to police. The exchange program's president said they do some routine checks before taking on volunteers.
"Other than checking references, doing background checks and doing all we can with the schools, there's not much more that we can do," ASSE President Bill Gustafon told NBC10's Daralene Jones.
They're investigating whether any of the other 30 students he had contact with experienced trouble.
Kinka has been let go at Vineland High School where he was an assistant basketball coach for the girls' team. Students who were interviewed said they never had inappropriate contact with him, according to the school. Kinka has also been relieved of his duties at a local radio station where he worked in sales.
Kinka was arrested and charged with lewd conduct and giving alcohol to minors.
