Guest Post on Garfield Field Trip Rape
Please support a much more critical
demonstration next Wed, Sept 3rd, at the Seattle School Board
meeting. The District is
making decisions about its next step regarding the Garfield HS
rape victim. We know the District’s response was outrageous, but
the general public must also become educated. The self-serving
Seattle Times reporting did nothing to inform the public of the
facts. We know the District still pretends that no assault
occurred (despite the assailant's testimony to raping/sodomizing
and medical information); the District takes no responsibility for
its deplorable chaperoning, nothing is wrong. The victim wasn’t
even the recipient of sexual harassment, they determined. Yeah right. A successful student’s life was
ruined on a school field trip where chaperones and staff failed to
supervise. It was entirely and easily preventable.
If we can object powerfully at this juncture,
we send a strong message that the public is NOT going to tolerate
the lawlessness that informs so many of the District's behaviors.
DEMONSTRATION WED. SEPT 3 at 4:15 School Board
meeting. 75-100+ people needed to express their outrage at the
District for discounting sexual assault, the negligence that led
to this easily preventable rape/sodomy (and other students'
assaults), and the District’s failure to follow its own laws.
We must demand that the District stop
endangering students/duping the public. The District will only
respond to this kind of visible protest.
If there is one good deed to do for this
effort, please do it on Sept 3rd!
Because our first group of demonstrators will have returned
to college, we need your help. Enlist your non-profit/spiritual
community. Bring your kids after school, friends, and meet others
who care. Show up late if
necessary! Fill up your car!
Posters: Easily preventable sexual
assault/willful negligence/lawlessness/ Peaslee resign!
In addition, or if you can’t make it, write a
short email expressing
disgust at the District's negligence, hollow promises, and ongoing
violations after the 2012 rape as demonstrated in the District's
own documents. Links to these documents and a mailing list is
posted on stop sexual assault in high school Facebook page
Ask for School Board President Peaslee's
resignation. Write: SchoolBoard@seattleschools.org
If you can't be at the Sept 3rd demonstration,
let us know if you can come on Thursday, Sept. 4. If you can't come, picket
school district building Tuesday during hours when employees
enter/leave the building/lunch. Check out GHS's alum's site: https://www.facebook.com/
THANK YOU!
Grateful Parents
Comments
Principal, Assistant Principal, Teacher are apparently not even censured about this episode unless I have missed something.
-Aghast
I'm checking into this and so far, I don't like what I see.
Also agree with point that the chain of command at JSCEE who left the Title IX federal oversight duties unmanned should also be censured. Who was administratively responsible for seeing that position staffed and duties taking place. The superintendent? And certainly the Title IX representative himself, Paul Apostle, needs to be named in picketing whether or not he has left the district.
There may be reason to picket with Peaslee's name, but it seems like the signs should focus more on the names of those directly in the line of school supervision - Garfield people - and federal compliance - JSCEE people - who utterly failed.
Will calling for Peaslee's head solve anything? Seems that if Seattle employees see some actual paid employees heads roll that something might change. Some lame-a$$$ed promise at a lame a$$ed advisory committee to move forward is not even close to the emphasis needed to assure that all kids will start with a baseline of safety when off school premises.
Aghast
We parents submitted a comprehensive staff complaint, as Karen pointed out. It's worth reading because in it you'll see how people lied, how the District denied the information in their own documents! The District's response was to reduce our complaint to four people: the negligent teachers, Howard, and Westering. Moreover, the District's regularly hired investigator trivialized the complaint. You can see our 4 page pointed response which should generate a revolution in the public's minds--if only this group would take the time to disseminate this information to the general public.
No one was sanctioned. We demanded an independent entity to review the complaint. After you read it, please write us at stopsexualassaultinhighschool@comcast.net and suggest what we should do. It is so shocking that it's worthy of a demonstration--express your disgust at the lawlessness and negligence that allowed a student and her family to be devastated.
Link to complaint (Feb. 2014) against teachers, principal, superintendent, legal department, 504 coordinator and others. Read first hand descriptions of what has transpired and the District's own documents. http://www.scribd.com/doc/236454982/Staff-Complaint-and-Correspondence-REDACTED
Here is the link to District’s “unbiased” investigation of negligence and parents’ response (Aug. 2014) revealing District’s lies: http://www.scribd.com/doc/237273216/Response-to-Kaiser-Staff-Investigation-Reports
Now look at this if you want to be further horrified:
Link to formal complaints to the District/OSPI and their response (aimed at mitigating liability) http://www.scribd.com/doc/236454981/Sexual-Assault-Case-Documents-REDACTED
Now the absolute worst with a trigger warning.
*****Link to documented response to District’s “unbiased” investigation of rape detailing errors and omissions with assailant’s account of the rape to National Parks Service investigators, prior disciplinary history, victim’s account, references to redacted medical information, retaliatory online postings, etc.
Remember that the school board determined that there was no sexual harassment--after all this objective information--to protect their liability for the negligence. That's the fundamental problem we're asking people to post on their signs at the Sept 3 rally at the school board meeting. Please make an effort to attend with the sign of your choice.
Mother
SPS mom
GHSmom
What caused the most damage to me was not the actual assaults. It was the denial by the adults around me that it either happened, or their accusations that I was somehow at fault, even partially, for being in the situation in the first place. Undoing that specific damage was costly and extremely time consuming for me and my family.
The harm being done by the adults at SPS to this girl is very real. From what I gather, no one within the school system has stepped up and acknowledged that this girl was assaulted. It sure looks like everyone is trying to save themselves at the expense of this girl and her family.
Do not fault the mother or the family here for trying to make sure that their child is supported in this particular circumstance. There is more than one way to react to an assault on a child, and that is especially true when the assault continues to be unacknowledged by the adults in authority. And every family supports its own in their own fashion, so what works for them may not work for you.
I have walked a mile in these shoes, and it altered everything in my life. I did survive and eventually thrive, but it was a very difficult time for a while. My saving grace was a mother who supported and believed in me, despite the tut tutting of others around her, during a time when sexual assaults were not spoken about and victims were blamed for getting themselves into the situation in the first place. I am forever thankful that she saw beyond that, and stood up for me when no one else did, despite their disapproval. I would not have made it without her.
Survivor
NEmom