Tuesday December 16
5 PM
Smith County Board of Education
Parents, Taxpayers and Citizens of Smith County attend board meetings, you have the power to make true change in our public schools.
“One person can make a difference and every person should try.” - John F Kennedy
I have added a Count Up Timer to my Blog so everyone that reads my blog can see the amount of time that has passed since our issues have started. A lot of people have posted and asked how far I plan to take this. I plan to keep blogging, talking and fighting this until our school system acts according to the rules, laws and polices that those we have elected and the leaders in charge have passed or approved. A parent SHOULD NOT have to file a lawsuit against the school or school system to be heard. Lawsuits only hurt the students and our schools.
These are the questions I have asked the GHS Administration, Mr. Roger Lewis and Mrs. Janice Fox regarding what the policies are. I still have not received a response.
1. How does the investigation process work?
2. What is the investigation time line?
3. What are the consequences for retaliation for the teacher and administration?
4. What is the policy for a teacher slandering a students character and reputation?
5. What is the policy for a teacher making false statements against a student that goes against the students and their families religious and moral beliefs?
6. What are the consequences for a teacher that violates the FERPA law?
JUST SOME FYI
* Harassment, Intimidation or Bullying - An act that interferes with a students educational benefits, opportunities or performance that takes place on school grounds or school sponsored activites.
* What is a BULLY - A person who is cruel and over bearing to others, especially those who are weaker or have less power.
*FERPA - The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA or the Buckley Amendment) is a United States federal law codified at 20 U.S.C. § 1232g, with implementing regulations in title 34, part 99 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The regulations cover violations such as parent volunteers grading another child's work, school employees divulging information to someone other than the child's parents about a child's home life, grades or behaviors, and school work posted on a bulletin board with a grade.
Below are six links that I feel everyone needs to read.
State-by-State: Anti-Bullying Laws in the U.S.
http://www.familyequality.org/resources/publications/anti-bullying_withcitations.pdf
Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 10
http://www.state.tn.us/education/learningsupport/doc/pc0202.pdf
Office of Civil Rights - Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime:
A Guide for Schools - January 1999
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR/archives/Harassment/harass_intro.html
The Tennessee Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (TOCR)
http://www.state.tn.us/education/civilrights.shtml
Title VI - http://www.state.tn.us/education/doc/TitleVIBrochure.pdf
Title IX - http://www.state.tn.us/education/doc/TOCRIXBrochure.pdf
This is a message I received that I felt needed to be shared for all to read:
In the Supreme Court's ruling in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education the Davis Court defined that schools receiving federal funds may be held financially responsible where officials are "deliberately indifferent" to harassing behaviors including staff to student harassment that are "severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive". This ruling defined four criteria in considering school liability:
1)School officials had actual knowledge of conduct
2) Schools were deliberately indifferent to conduct
3) School had control of the abuser and where it occurred
4) The school's response or lack of response was unreasonable given such knowledge
The ruling also suggests that schools have in place policies and procedures to address abusive conduct such as teacher-student harassment/abuse. In effect, if the school has allowed behavior that creates a hostile environment for student in a classroom, and school officials have been given appropriate notice but fail to act, then the school risks both compensatory and punitive damages. This one case alone proves that teacher bullying does exist. This case holds Administrators accountable for the actions of the teachers. If your student is a victim of teacher bullying, speak up and speak out. Sometimes as parents we are the only voice that is heard. It is our responsibility as parents to hold our educators responsible for their actions and behaviors.
No the current principal was never an educator of mine but this is my third child to go thru Gordonsville and I have never had any issues at this level. GHS has a lot of good teachers, administrators, and staff which have made positive influences in all three of my children’s lives and for that I am thankful. While I believe most teaching comes from home, I also believe that we as parents must trust and support our educators to teach our children to prepare them for their future. We also must trust that our children will be treated fairly with the same respect they are required to show when they are in school.
My question to you is why do you assume that my child needed to be reprimanded, that she did something wrong and the punishment handed out was deserved? Why is it that we automatically believe the bad about a child instead of the good? Why just because we have had these educators as coaches, principals, teachers, friends, neighbors or church members do we automatically believe they are in right without any questions? Maybe just maybe the school system is wrong on this and other issues and we as taxpayers or parents have the right and responsibility to question the system.
If the school administration did handle this internally then at the very least they should have included the parents. I have asked a lot of questions to the GHS Administrators and Mr. Lewis which to date have not been addressed.
Below are the issues we have brought before Gordonsville Administrators and Mr. Lewis’s office. I know this is a repeat from a past post but I wanted to make sure you saw the seriousness of our complaints.
Physical Abuse/Assault
Verbal Abuse
Emotional Intimidation
Discrimination
Slander
Public Humiliation
Bullying
Harassment
Retaliation
These complaints aren’t small, school board policies, school rules and the law have been broken. Even if one of the things listed above was done to your child would you let it go in your heart because life is to short or would stand up for your child?
I have taught my children to stand up for what they believe in even it means standing alone. Now is my time to stand and I will not let this go but I thank you for the advice.
A lot of people have asked did I give Gordonsville High School Administrators, Janice Fox and Roger Lewis enough time to address our issues or make any corrections. I feel 8 months is more then enough time.
Our issues started with this teacher on January 3rd, 2008 when she physically grabbed our child for the first time. The conflict and confrontation with her have progressively gotten worse to the point where we felt the need to withdraw our child from any further contact with this teacher for her protection until the school district could remedy the situation. We withdrew her from a activity in which she has been a member for 4 years on July 25, 2008 until the administration addressed our concerns.
After weeks of conversations and requests for help our family was told that because of the conflict it would be better for our child to sit out a year and maybe return next year. In a nutshell the school system thought it would be better to punish a child and keep all of our issues under the rug.
We also requested help from Janice Fox and Roger Lewis only to go through countless unreturned phone calls, visits to the office with no meeting and empty promises to get back to me. Upon telling Mr. Lewis if he didn‘t address the issue I would need to seek help from someone else he commented “I will inform Jackie Bellar“. Then
he slammed the door in my face literally. Mr. Lewis our Superintendent of Schools would rather have a parent file a lawsuit versus resolve the issue.
In all fairness we did get one piece of advice from Janice Fox however. If we weren’t happy we could always transfer our child to Smith County High School and sign her up for classes in Lebanon to keep her active. Of course she neglected to tell us we only had 12 hours to make that decision because the next morning school started. School board policy states that once your child attends the first day of school they can not transfer in district without school board approval. So bottom line we live with this injustice or move.
There are policies covering teachers and administrators but what are the policies to protect our children? Are teachers allowed to physically & verbally abuse, bully and harass our students with no recourse in Smith County?
What recourse do parents have besides suing the county? There are currently 10 to 12 lawsuits pending against our school district at this time. Does the school system not get the fact that this is taking away from our students? Why does the school system not address the issues they are presented so the parents & taxpayers don’t have to sue the school system to be heard?