Here's One Big Job for the New Superintendent

That job would be trying to understand why the district protects principals and teachers who are problematic. But also, how to create contracts with those two groups so that they do have protections but making sure everyone knows the acceptable parameters of behavior. 

I bring this up because it is all so baffling from the outside to understand what happens at JSCEE when there is a complaint against a teacher or principal.

For example, my understanding is that especially at the elementary level, each school's principal gets to decide whether to excuse a travel absence for a student. I can get not wanting to put a teacher in the position to have to do extra work (in organizing missed assignments for a student) because that student went to Disneyland. But where exactly is the line for excusing absences and how do parents know what that is? I know that some parents at different schools have compared notes and some resent that their principal is more hard-nosed than another school's. 

As well, I note that a couple of schools hired Washington Ethnic Studies Now to provide ethnic studies training to their teachers. This is troubling because the lead in that group was let go as head of Ethnic Studies in SPS for "harassment and insubordination." (It's unclear whether that person was fired or asked to leave but they were exited.) 

So principals can freely hire as they need without any required input from the district? I find that troubling especially when it's an ex-employee who was let go. 

Here are two examples of terrible situations in two different Seattle schools. Both cost the district money. 

As I previous reported, there had been a situation at Meany Middle School in January 2018 where a student was punched in the face by his math teacher. The student was then kicked out of class. This teacher, James Johnson, had previously been called out for aggressive speech towards students as well as what seemed like grooming behavior with female students. 

This is all documented and it came to a head on November 6 of this year when a King County jury awarded the student who was punched $8M. Although that is a large sum, the plaintiff's lawyers had asked for between $76M to $124M in damages while SPS said he was entitled to $100,000 or less. 

The $8M sum will go up based on lawyer fees that the district must also pay. 

Why so much money?

From The Seattle Times:

Sheikhibrahim’s lawyers alleged that their client suffered a traumatic brain injury and has major depressive and post-traumatic stress disorders as a result of the attack, which significantly changed his life’s trajectory and opportunities. 

The jury also found that the district violated the state’s nondiscrimination and equal educational opportunity laws, by failing to provide Sheikhibrahim with an educational environment free from discrimination.

The judge is still considering a request from Sheikhibrahim’s attorneys to establish a court monitoring system to deal with systemic racism within Seattle Public Schools.

This case is also interesting because both the teacher and the student allege racism by each other. Both are Black but one is American-born (the teacher) and one is an immigrant from another country (the student). 

There is also this case mentioned in the story:

The award could be one of the district’s largest recent payouts. Last year, the school system entered into a $16 million out-of-court settlement with a former student who alleged she was sexually abused by two Garfield High School coaches.

What did the district say during the trial?

The district’s attorneys acknowledged that Johnson hit Sheikhibrahim. At the start of the trial, the district admitted that it had not kept Sheikhibrahim safe and that it had negligently retained, trained and supervised Johnson.

I had to laugh at the district stating that because their strategic plan focus has been on Black boys they couldn't possibly be held responsible for discrimination against any Black students. 

Oddly,

While the jury found SPS liable for discrimination and the harm Sheikhibrahim endured as a result of the assault, it did not find the district liable for negligence in hiring Johnson. 

This is likely because there was another physical incident between Johnson and a student in the Clover Park district, south of Tacoma. But it appears that Johnson came to SPS via Kent SD and so that Clover Park attack wasn't on his record. My impression is Johnson was supposed to note past disciplinary actions and he didn't. 

One former Meany student stood up for Johnson but others testified against him.

One testified that she regularly went to Meany’s front office — starting months before the assault — to complain about Johnson, with the understanding that the principal would get her complaints.

But Meany’s principal, Chanda Oatis, testified that she had no knowledge of complaints from students before the January incident. 

Again, this brings up the point of the need for clarification about complaints against teachers or principals. Who in the front office didn't talk to the principal about the student's complaints? Or, did those complaints go to the principal and she ignored them?   

Johnson got a five-day unpaid suspension for hitting Sheikhibrahim, and was ultimately assigned to Washington Middle School, led by Katrina Hunt, Oatis’ sister, the next school year.

To note, the student got a longer suspension than the teacher. 

I did get some intel from someone watching the trial and apparently Principal Oatis put on quite the show. One minute she was smiling and happy but when she got asked hard questions, she nearly cried.

We have KUOW to thank for the push to finally get Johnson fully out of the district. They had a report in 2020 with audit of Johnson admitting to hitting a student as well as finding out about his past disciplinary problems.

The district settled to get rid of Johnson. I would assume they bought out his contract.

I hope in the next round of contract talks with SEA that clarification should be made that the district will do better in vetting their classroom hire. Depending on people to be honest about past issues does not seem to be working.

The second example is the View Ridge Elementary principal who allowed a student with challenges to be put in what looked like a cage.  (Someone sent me an update from the principal recently and now I can't find that email; could you please resend?)

From KUOW in December 2020 (editor's note - I rearranged the story to reflect what the district said, what the principal and assistant principal said, and what other View Ridge staff said.)

As Jacquelyn Flaherty, a kindergarten teacher, walked down the hall at View Ridge Elementary in June 2019, she saw something through the window that startled her: Jaleel, a young student she knew well, was outdoors, barefoot, in a fenced play court. Surrounding him, she said, were four or five staff members, including principal Ed Roos and a school custodian.

“The custodian had his keys in his hands,” Flaherty said, leading her to wonder, “They’re locking this child up in here?”

A Seattle Schools investigation would later reveal that Jaleel had been placed in this enclosure, dubbed “the cage” by school staff members, on multiple occasions, including June 20, 2019, the day Flaherty intervened. 

Sometimes, staff told the investigator, the child was kept there all day. Staff told KUOW that a major reason was Jaleel's tendency to leave the school building.

What did the district have to say?

Seattle Public Schools sent KUOW a statement condemning what happened. 

“The incidents that occurred at View Ridge are egregious and wrong,” the district said in a written statement. “This type of treatment of children is unacceptable.”

But district officials were aware that Jaleel was being placed in this enclosure — a district staffer from the special education department had even suggested the outdoor space for the boy, Principal Roos and another staff member told KUOW.

(Kristen) Eckert (assistant principal) told the investigator that she and Roos had asked for help from multiple departments within the district regarding Jaleel, but received no assistance.  

Roos had, in fact, received district approval to put Jaleel in the fenced room — and, he told KUOW, a district official had come up with the original idea of using the play court for Jaleel, because, unlike many schools, View Ridge has no student isolation rooms. In an email, Anderson, the instruction assistant, confirmed that account.

Erin Romanuk, who oversees discipline for Seattle Public Schools, confirmed to a district investigator that Roos had asked her whether it was a permissible area to place Jaleel. 

The situation raises questions about the district’s isolation guidelines and practices — and why a fenced outdoor space would be considered appropriate for a child as his peers looked on.

In a written statement, the district said “these incidents of bias and mistreatment of our students aren’t new – for many years, the district has heard the painful stories from families and students. What has changed is our district’s HR response and a superintendent and school board who are committed to accountability and taking swift action.” 

What's ridiculous about the above statement is that it took the district a year to decide to exit the principal.  

 From the principal and assistant principal: 

Seattle Public Schools launched an investigation after Flaherty filed an August 2019 discrimination complaint against Principal Roos — in which she reported how Roos had kept Jaleel outside.

The investigation, completed in October 2020, found that Roos violated district policy in Jaleel’s case by failing to record and report the isolation incidents. The investigation also found that Roos had not followed district guidance that at least one door must remain unlocked.

Eckert told the investigator that she and Roos had asked for help from multiple departments within the district regarding Jaleel, but received no assistance. Jaleel’s behavior had escalated to the point where he once climbed into a storage area and threw broken glass at her, and at a custodian, Eckert told the investigator.

Eckert told the investigator that Roos placed Jaleel in the play court with the doors locked because he was concerned about Jaleel getting hurt, and wanted him in a safer environment. She said there was always an adult staff member with a walkie-talkie with Jaleel.

The investigation was inconclusive about how many times Jaleel was put in the fenced area, but staff — including Roos — said that it happened numerous times in spring 2019.

Roos described it to the investigator as “an excellent place for him ... a calming area.” Roos said that Jaleel would cuss at staff members, but that this was “a safe place for him to use inappropriate language.”

Roos denied that the area was fully locked, and told the investigator that Jaleel was put there for just 20 to 30 minutes at a time.

View Ridge Elementary staff said:

Roos’s staff told the investigator otherwise. Dorr Anderson, an instructional assistant, said he had spent at least two full school days in the fenced-off area with Jaleel.

Although the child was sometimes kept in the space against his will, Anderson also said that Jaleel had expressed it was his preferred area because he “realized that if he got to spend all day in there, he didn't have to do schoolwork. He got to play with balls, and got to spend time with a preferred adult.”

Aaron Larson, one of the school custodians at the time, told the investigator that Roos directed him to chain and padlock the gates once Jaleel was inside. Larson said he was very uncomfortable following those orders but didn’t know how to object.

When the investigator asked Roos, who is white, whether it was discriminatory for a Black student “to be placed in a fenced-off area, where staff and students walking by can see him… eating food off a tray on a concrete floor,” Roos disagreed, the investigator wrote.

“We were dealing with behaviors and behavioral data we had collected,” Roos told the investigator. “This was not discrimination.” 

Those teachers suggested to Roos using an unused portable classroom, and from then on, Jaleel was isolated in the portable instead of the fenced play court. 

The worst part:

Parents must be notified verbally and in writing when their children have been isolated or restrained. But Janelle Williams told KUOW that her son was the one who told her what had happened, at Flaherty’s urging.

The investigation found that no one at the school recorded any of Jaleel’s isolation incidents.

“I honestly started crying, because I was just like, ‘What in the world?’” Williams said in an interview. “I was thinking about how scared he was with no one to advocate for him. It’s heartbreaking.”

Jaleel has been through a lot in his young life, Williams said, and has been abused. She and her children are currently living in a domestic violence shelter after fleeing her ex, she said. What Jaleel endured at school compounded his trauma, Williams said.

So the school knew this student was experiencing a lot of trauma in his life and still chose that plan? 

Fourteen months after Flaherty filed her complaint with the district, an investigator determined that Roos had also violated district restraint policies in interactions with two other children. In separate incidents, the district found, Roos had restrained the children by wrapping his arms around their torsos while they both sat on the floor.

However, although Flaherty filed her complaint in August 2019, and Jaleel’s mother had also written to the district to complain about her son’s isolation outdoors, Roos remained on the job for more than a year, until this November.

Educators are typically placed on administrative leave during investigations of serious misconduct so their presence in the workplace does not influence the investigative process, and have a chilling effect on their colleagues’ testimony to investigators. The district did not take that step in Roos’s case.

“It was because it wasn’t clear until well into the investigation that the doors to the play court had been locked, and the child had been served lunch in the enclosed area,” said district spokesperson Tim Robinson.

What?! The basis of the complaint was about the child being locked in and served lunch on the floor. 

Upshot:

In exchange for his resignation, Seattle Public Schools bought out the remainder of Roos’s contract at an estimated $96,000 according to state salary records.

Per the story, both Director Liza Rankin and Director Brandon Hersey said they would be updating the Board's policy on restraint and isolation. The policy book reflects that happened in August 2024. The Superintendent Procedure was last updated in September 2021 so I'm not sure if they completely align. 

I know that every situation is different, school to school. You can't always align procedure for these situations. But clearly, someone at JSCEE knew about this and allowed. Why didn't that school's Executive Director go out and check out the situation and ask hard questions? Shouldn't they be notified when a principal is trying something completely different for a student regarding restraint and isolation? 

All I know is it is costing this district money and, more importantly, hurting students to not have clarity in hiring and firing teachers and principals. 

Update: Former principal Ed Roos spoke out recently. Interestingly, it intersects with my mention of the former head of Ethnic Studies for SPS and the damage she did. As well, he says that Chandra Hampson, Board president at the time, was the most "woke" person he had ever met. 

After decades of dedication to education, one Seattle principal’s life unraveled overnight in the grip of cancel—or as he calls it, revenge—culture. He is finally ready to tell his story.

Principal Roos says:

- He and the student were "playing ball in the fenced court pictured in his piece. Is that the area of contention in the investigation? It doesn't look like it could be. Hmm

- He says the district didn't find any support for the claims and that that no other reporters than KUOW questioned him. I find both statements questionable. But he says:

After three grueling years, I was fully exonerated. Both Seattle Schools and OSPI dismissed the investigations for lack of evidence and credibility. I retained my teaching and principal certifications with no reprimands.

I would love to ask the district about this but no one will talk to me. 

Despite being cleared of all wrongdoing, I was effectively blacklisted from education.

He seems to blame his trouble on "woke" issues. 

The final statement by his name for his guest post: 

With a M.Ed. and 17 years dedicated to Seattle Schools, Ed Roos is currently writing a book detailing his experiences in the school system.

Many commenters think he should sue so stay tuned.