3 Sex-Abuse Scandals Leave Mark on N.Y. District

By Millicent Lawton

UNION SPRINGS, N.Y.--Just over four years ago, when Randy Coon was looking to escape the political and fiscal turmoil he was facing as the superintendent of a school district some 70 miles west of here, he was thrilled to discover the opening for a schools chief in this small rural town.

Nestled along a natural cove on Cayuga Lake, one of the state's scenic Finger Lakes southwest of Syracuse, Union Springs (pop. 1,200) appeared to Mr. Coon to be a "sleepy little Mexican town'' where he could spend the last years of his career concentrating on students and curriculum, and whiling away weekends reeling in salmon and rainbow trout.

Apart from the fishing, his expectations could not have...