Lowell Report Released - Details to Follow
It finally happened. Will post ASAP.
Tuesday Open Thread
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
Thanks so much Melissa.
- Concerned
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017827720_lowell24m.html
- APP Dad
-critical-
- APP Dad
Seattle Parent
Letter dated March 16, 2012, addressed to Paul Apostle; RE: Lowell Elementary School: response to Gregory King’s and Rina Geoghagan’s Assertions re: my February 15, 2012 report.
Memo dated February 15, 2012; Whether (four employees) Fulfilled Their Mandatory Reporting Obligations
Memo dated March 16, 2012; Lowell Elementary School: Complaints by (two employees)
And the District keeps him employed? I am thinking that if my employer investigated me and allowed me to keep my job with a "letter of reprimand" in a case like this -- if I promptly expressed my gratitude and team spirit by calling the report lies and faulty assumptions, -- the next thing I would find is security escorting me from the building with my stuff in boxes!
Are we really thinking those Lowell families will be happy to see him bounce through the door on Monday morning (especially the SPED families,) happy to know that he couldn't be bothered to investigate -- or report -- suspected abuse because he jumped to an immediate conclusion that it was all racially motivated? That staff will bust their tails working hard and laying it all on the line for a manager/supervisor who treated their colleagues like that? That parents will rally around, anxious to do fund raisers and support an institution with such a paragon of managerial prowess at the helm?
Rina deserves her own thread -- but I envision a similar absence of holding hands and singing kumbaya at L@L next week.
Jan
I don't know that the investigation against the two women was "retaliatory" on the part of King but he seemed to be trying to deflect attention from himself.
I am shocked that this is all that will happen. I would not want my children with either principal.
Jan
1) That the inappropriate actions were happening in the first place.
2) That the reporting of such actions was dismissed.
3) That there was obvious retaliation against the reporter(s?) of the inappropriate actions.
4) That King and Geoghagan told various lies to try to cover up their actions/inactions. (this is readily apparent if you actually read through the investigator's report, Ms. Kent explains why their statements were not credible)
5) The worst part of all: this incident is only one of many abusive actions this administration took out on their staff last year, and as far as I know, those many other incidents are not getting any attention at this point.
This shows incredible lack of curiosity and concern for children on the part of the executive director and the exec director of special ed (ie, the supervisor of the SLPs) in my opinion.
So Rina G.'s statement that she wasn't involved is an outright lie, easy to show with the original documents.
But I know many APP parents and I would find it hard to believe that they would want Principal King at their school (and he's not at Lincoln, he's at Lowell).
As for Ms. Geoghagan, I would be hard-pressed to decide. On the one hand, she was not supported by her supervisor but didn't even really try to do the right thing. As her reprimand letter says, she, because of her lack of candor, help send the investigation against C#1 and C#2 into action.
I can't get over her saying that unless she witnessed a behavior that she could not investigate it. Either she doesn't understand her duty or is willing to abdicate it.
Dear Ms. Gary:
I have been informed of allegations of your failure to follow rules and regulations related to the safety and well being of a student at Lowell Elementary School. Specifically, it is alleged that you did not follow proper guidelines in reporting suspected inappropriate contact with a student. These allegations are serious and require immediate investigation.
You are invited to meet with me at 2:30 p.m. on April 12, 2011 to discuss this matter. Please contact me immediately, to confirm whether or not you wish to meet. You may bring legal counsel or union representation with you to the meeting. During the course of this investigation, you are asked to refrain from discussing this issue with Lowell Elementary School parents, students, or staff.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Rina Geoghagan
Assistant Principal
cc: Gregory King, Principal
Nancy Coogan, Executive Director of Schools
-Jennifer
Jennifer, I do apologize for not being able to contact you. It is my understanding that you have worked with Rina regarding alleged inappropriate employee behavior towards a child you have directly witnessed. You did not share this information with me so I will not be able to assist you at this point.
Rina and a human resource representative will conduct the investigation and any follow-up correspondence with you, your legal or union representative.
Gregory
Sent from my iPad
-Jennifer
Mr Ed
Jennifer,
On behalf of Seattle Public Schools we are accepting your resignation effective April 15, 2011.
Sincerely,
Rina Geoghagan
Assistant Principal
Lowell Elementary School
-Jennifer
From: King, Gregory L
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 1:12 PM
To: Gary, Jennifer
Subject: Meeting
Good afternoon, Jennifer:
I have read your letter you sent to Dr. Enfield, board members, and others. I will be conducting the interview on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 2:30 p.m. I wanted to confirm your attendance.
Gregory
The letter referred to was sent on 4/10 to the superintendent and board expressing concerns over retaliation, conflict of interest and the damaging effect the actions taken would have on further reporting of misconduct by SPS personnel.
-Jennifer
While I don't blame the Lowell parents for putting up with this - let's rise up and do what the Ingraham parents did so effectively. This just gets more absurd with every new article. Did you see this link over on the Times comments - http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/secretary-accused-of-using-school-money-to-shop/nD97X/ my apologies, don't know hot to make it a live link
I'm not a Lowell or L@L parent but I'd be willing, as I'm sure many others would be, to stand with those Lowell parents and do whatever it takes to have King removed from not only the school, but the district. And SE can leave now, as well. The timing of the release plus all the other manipulations are so egregious it's just unbelievable.
randi
From: Gary, Jennifer
Sent: Mon 4/11/2011 6:15 PM
To: King, Gregory L
Cc: DeBell, Michael; Patu, Betty; Carr, Sherry L; Maier, Peter L; Sundquist, Steve J; Smith-Blum, Kay; Martin-Morris, Harium; C1; Campbell, Marni; Whitmore, Patricia; Whitmore, Patricia; Enfield, Susan A; Crain, Maggie; Treat, Noel R; Geoghagan, Rina
Subject: FW: Meeting
I have not been able to reach my union representative but I very much want to meet tomorrow so that the focus can return to serving students.
However, I respectfully request an impartial third party to conduct the meeting and lead this investigation. I reported inappropriate conduct of an employee you supervise to your assistant principal. There are numerous conflicts of interest in such a situation.
I am also making several other requests. I want the meeting be held at JSCEE. I want someone to provide the details of the allegation against me - as I wrote earlier, I reported multiple incidents involving multiple students . I would also like to know who, or what department, is investigating me.
I look forward to meeting with the appropriate parties at JSCEE at 2:30 on April 12th.
Jennifer Gary
Disclosure - I edited this to remove C1's name from the cc line. Otherwise it is a verbatim copy of my email.
After this exchange, the investigation was taken over by HR.
-Jennifer
________________________________
Two and a half years to go.
Concerned and Curious
http://www.scribd.com/SPSLeaks
-Jennifer
His resignation wasn't effective immediately, but it was effective as of some date.
March 24, 2012 at 11:32 AM
joe98002, you need to read the article again. People who work with children are required to report inappropriate contact. The report was made as it was required to be made. The failure was by the principal and the vice principal who did not fulfill their duty to investigate.
Worse than that, however, is that the principal and the vice principal then encourage the district to investigate the employees who made the report for failure to report.
To save their own reputations, they denied having received the complaints from the first two people who observed the inappropriate contact (a total of three employees observed and reported it - far from an un-substantiated claim).
Get that? The third person who saw and reported the inappropriate behavior reported it to someone outside the school, mentioning in their report that the same activity had been observed by the first two. The district staff person (from outside the school) asked the principal and vice principal if they had received a report from the first two employees. The principal and the vice principal denied that they had received any such reports which caused the district to investigate the first two for non-reporting.
The principal and the vice principal shifted blame to the first two people who complained to cover up the fact that they didn't take proper action in response to those complaints. They encouraged a district investigation for non-reporting even though they knew that the inappropriate action had been reported - to them.
"professional" staff are to report to CPS or the police;
all staff are to report FIRST to supervisor, who will report to police or CPS. So if one is "professional," they have two conflicting instructions.
The way I understand mandatory reporting is that if a mandatory reporter suspects something is even slightly fishy, they are, under law, to report to CPS or the law, who will make the determination if the incident(s) require investigation.
The following comment has a link to the board action item. At the bottom of that are links to the old policy and old superintendent's procedure, and the new policy and new superintendent's procedure. I have also copied and pasted the confuing language from the new policy.
Adoption of School Board Policy No. 3421 relative to Child Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Prevention, and repeal of Policy No. D116.00 and Procedure D116.01. For Introduction: March 21, 2012
For Action: April 4, 2012
“...All professional school personnel who have reasonable cause to believe that a child has experienced abuse, neglect, or exploitation shall report such incident to law enforcement or the Children’s Protective Services Staff at the first opportunity and in no case longer than forty-eight (48) hours after the finding of possible abuse or neglect. If a household member is believed to be the perpetrator of child abuse, neglect, or exploitation, the report should be made to Child Protective Services. If a non-household member is believed to be the perpetrator of the suspected child abuse, neglect or exploitation, the report should be made to law enforcement. For purposes of this policy, ―professional school personnel‖ includes, but is not limited to, teachers, counselors, administrators (including departmental and area supervisors), school nurses, child care facility personnel, and other professional or certificated personnel.
All District employees who have knowledge or reasonable cause to believe that a student has been a victim of abuse, neglect, or exploitation by any person, shall immediately report such abuse, neglect, or exploitation to the appropriate school administrator. If the school administrator has reasonable cause to believe that the abuse, neglect, or exploitation has occurred, he or she shall report the incident to CPS or law enforcement."
Thank you for making the initial report and having the best interest of our children at heart.
Thank you for withstanding what must have been enormous pressure to abdicate your professional and personal integrity for the easy path. Thank you for your professional fiduciary guardianship of the best welfare of our students.
I can only imagine the personal toll that taking the path of integrity vs. the path of ease has caused yourself, family and close friends.
There comes a point when staying in the fight will not help self, but is for the benefit of children in our school system, and the future benefit of professional colleagues. Integrity can be a bitch (especially when it comes to media.)
As a parent I thank you for protecting our children, which we entrust to your care five days out of seven.
Thank you for staying in the fight not for yourself, but for others.
I truly hope that your efforts on behalf of our children and your professional colleagues will result in a better environment for all.
While insuffienct -- Thank You.
This may sound stupid, but I don't understand why you resigned. If I felt I was right about an incident such as this, I would have stuck it out no matter how bad the fight was. In the end, it was all about protecting a child, right? Even though you tried to rescind your resignation, I'm perplexed as to why you'd resign in the first place. If you felt strongly about this alleged abuse, wouldn't the child have been better represented if you hadn't quit?
Finally, as long as you remain, it creates a tacit impression that everything is "ok" (or at least ok enough for you to continue to work there). One of the things that may have clued some people into the seriousness of the issue was that the SLP left -- and left quickly, under such unusual circumstances. If they hadn't before, people's "spidey senses" should have started tingling "What's going on around here??? And that would have been a good thing.
I think that when good people are confronted with bad stuff, there are a number of legitimate ways to respond, and benefits and risks to virtually all responses. Had she stayed, I think that would also have been a reasonable option for different reasons, including the ones you state. But I definitely think that she had solid grounds for tendering a resignation under the circumstances in which she found herself. While doing so jeopardized her career in that she had to find another position, it also put her "out of harm's reach" from those who (from my reading of the documents) she could legitimately have concluded were out to retaliate against her.
You could not have expressed my thought process any better. I just want to add a few details.
Rina Geoghagan was my evaluator last year. When I received the April 7 email from her, I first thought it was my evaluation. The atmosphere at Lowell last year was stressed and anxious, to put it mildly. Good employees, who had always received positive evaluations, were extremely fearful of evaluation results. I had talked to Ms. Geoghagan about concerns with an employee at least five times over the course of two months. She had never asked me to report differently. So to read her email with its allegations and to see it was sent with either the implicit or explicit approval of Gregory King and Nancy Coogan made me very fearful of what Ms. Geoghagan, and others, could do to further harm me. In fact, when I called Ms. Geoghagan to ask her why I was being investigated, she told me I should have called CPS. (I checked with CPS and the person I spoke to told me this should be addressed through the school system -it was not a CPS incident.) For a person who works with children both professionally and through volunteer work, failure to call CPS is the type of accusation, even when unfounded, that strikes fear in the heart. Not only is failure to call CPS a criminal offense, it indicates a lack of care and concern for vulnerable children. This accusation was not something I took lightly. I was extremely worried about my upcoming evaluation and what recourse I would have if it was not a fair process. I was worried about remaining in the building with Ms. Geoghagan as an administrator for the remainder of the school year.
I also felt uncomfortable continuing my work in one of the special education classes at Lowell. Special education classes include children with communication impairments and challenges in social judgment. With both types of students, it is crucial to maintain strict boundaries of touch and behavior. A student with a communication impairment would have a difficult time informing parents or other adults about inappropriate touch or behavior. A student who has difficulty with social judgment needs clear-cut boundaries because they have a difficult time understanding change and subtleties. The amount and the intimacy of touching in the classroom, while not abusive, did not feel appropriate to me. I talked to the classroom teacher several times. She did not appear to share my concerns. Now it appeared that the bigger concern for administration was how I reported, not the content of the reports of what was happening in the classroom.
There actually are a couple more reasons why I quit. The allegations against me did not make sense. I had talked to the classroom teacher, a building administrator (numerous times)and Safety and Security about my concerns. The classroom teacher did not share my concerns. Ms. Geoghagan gave me no directions for further reporting. The Safety and Security person told me several times, in front of others, that I was reporting correctly and there could be no retaliation. The employee I had reported continued to work in the classroom. Now I was being accused of not protecting the "safety and well being of a student". I like logic. I like things to make sense. I did not think I could function well under this scenario.
Since I had no idea at that time what exactly the allegation was or who had accused me (hate that passive voice!), I had no idea what it would take to fight. I did not know if I could continue work with the SPS and fight these allegations at the same time. Fighting the allegations and protecting my long term career seemed like it should be my priority. In fact, it has taken a great amount of time and emotional energy to get to this point.
Thank you Braesaae for the post. It is such a relief, after almost a year, for the facts to come out and for the community to finally understand what was going on.
-Jennifer
Thank you for your post. It means a lot to me. I think most SPS employees would have responded, and have responded, similarly to these kinds of concerns.
The Lowell community owes a huge thank you to C1 who chooses right now to remain anonymous. C1 is an incredible support to students and their families, along with being a mentor, community volunteer, and friend. I have never seen anyone go above and beyond the requirements of a job the way C1 does. Lowell is very fortunate to have C1 as part of their community.
One of the more troubling parts of this story is how C1 was treated by the SPS. I am not at liberty to go into details right now, but please know that C1 made a huge sacrifice to do what was right.
Thank you again for your support.
-Jennifer
Dr. Enfield replied to my email and said she would work with staff to "look into" my concerns. Board President Sundquist replied that the board cannot comment on allegations but "we take this matter very seriously and want to ensure that it is dealt with properly by our staff." He forward the email to Gregory King and Nancy Coogan. Mr. King then forwarded the email to the two human resource employees who were involved in the investigation.
According to Cristen Kent's report, a human resources employee says the investigation would not have been initiated if there had been knowledge of my January reporting of foot kissing. (IV.B.3) That same employee received my email, outlining the reporting timeline, within three days of the initiation of the investigation and apparently did nothing to question whether the investigation was appropriate.
According to Cristen Kent's report, the special education director knew nothing about the investigation as of April 15. (III. D. on pg. 4) The human resources director was cc'd on my email to the superintendent and the board. She was cc'd twice again when Dr. Enfield and Mr. Sundquist replied to my email.
According to this chain of emails obtained through a public documents request for my investigation file, all administrators and HR staff who were involved in initiating the investigation, carrying out the investigation, and denying the retraction of my resignation, had received notification of C1's and my concerns about retaliation and a complete outline of our reporting as of April 10. It appears there was no attempt to stop or even question appropriateness of the investigation.
I will leave it to others to determine how much damage was done by that collective decision.
-Jennifer
C1 is one of the most dedicated professionals I know. She is dedicated to students, to their families and to children she helps as a camp volunteer during the summer. She is an incredible mentor and an intelligent and caring person.
C1 has a chronic medical condition, but continues to give her all to her students and their families. Her medical condition is known to building and special education administrators. Unfortunately, C1's condition is one that is aggravated by stress. C1 has experienced serious health consequences as a result of the allegations against her last spring and the wait to have these issues resolved. For those who work with and care about C1, this has been extremely painful to see.
Last spring, when C1 was especially ill, I sent many emails on behalf of both of us. In almost every email I said that C1 was experiencing adverse health consequences due to the stress. I mentioned her health twice just in the email I sent on April 10.
It was not just students' well-being that was endangered by the actions of Mr. King, Ms. Geoghagan and others. It was also the well-being of a beloved and respected co-worker. All who were involved in this should be deeply ashamed.
-Jennifer
Curious
Another L@L parent
Let me add to the notes of support you have received. I cannot imagine the suffering you have gone through personally for merely performing your duty as a public servant and caregiver.
I appreciate what you have done over the years for the children at Lowell, and also for what you have done (mostly out of necessity) to stand up against the bullying by GK/RG/SPS over the past year. I don't know that there's anything I can do directly to help you, but please do know that there are many of us that support you, both personally and for the future kids that will come through the system.
What Jennifer and C1 went through was horrible.
Lowell teacher