April 16, 2010
Attn: Brenda Ryan
Office of the Associate
Superintendent
6125
Re:
Request for Appeal of Level One Response dated April 9, 2010 submitted by Susan
To Whom It May Concern:
It is my request that you
accept this letter as a notice of appeal to your response to our level one
hearing. FNG (Local) states an “appeal
notice must be filed in writing, on a form provided by the District, within ten
days of the date of the written Level One response…” Neither Susan Taylor, nor the district, have provided such a form.
Should this letter be unacceptable to the FNG (Local) standard, please advise; provide the form and extend the timeframe allotted
for my appeal.
Your Plan of Action will be a
great start toward preventing bullying.
However, it only addresses my grievance indirectly. My grievance very clearly complains of
Also, to date, both Rick Kempe’s and Susan Taylor’s correspondence deny any wrong
doing surrounding this incident. I do
not see how it can be possible that action(s) can be corrected if
I request, also, for two
additional items to be considered in the Level Two hearing; 1.)
A copy of the Haltom City
Police Department’s Incident report shall accompany this appeal. Please involve Dr. Jay Thompson, the BISD
Title IX Coordinator, to verify the conduct of staff and administration that should
have taken place in response to Joseph’s complaint that was made to Coach
Matthew Donnell on March 4, 2010.
On March 10, 2010, it is
documented (on the police report) that Mr. Bailey had stated to Officer Brandi
Perkins “the incident did not take place.”
In addition to denying the incident occurred, also on record, the
credibility of Joseph Jackson was attacked.
Mr. Bailey’s allegations of Joseph Jackson’s lack of credibility have no
precedence. Contrarily, it has also been
documented (p. 45 Transcript of Level I Complaint hearing) that Mr. Bailey has
“worked quite a lot with” Christian Castillo “over the last two years” to “try
and help him keep his behavior in check and do better,” and (p. 2 Haltom City
Police Department Incident Report) Mr. Bailey conveyed that Christian Castillo
“does this because he thinks it’s funny.”
It is clear, from the police
report, this was an open and shut incident.
According to the report, it was determined on March 10 that the incident
did not occur. Oddly, on March 22, 2010,
(upon return from spring break and extra attention had been brought to the
matter) BISD and Haltom Middle School were found to be working fervently on the
case and had reported action had been taken in the incident since March 10,
2010. It is my request that these facts are considered as support to my
allegations initially documented in my grievance.
The U.S. Department of
Education OCR states
“the school must conduct a prompt, impartial, and thorough
investigation to determine what happened and must take appropriate steps to
resolve the situation.”
“It may be necessary
for schools to take interim measures during the investigation of a complaint.
For instance, if a student alleges harassment by another student, the school
may keep those students separated until the investigation is complete.
It is a good
practice for schools to keep the student who alleged the harassment informed of
the status of the investigation.”
“The school must
notify the victim (and his or her parents depending on the age of the victim)
of the outcome of its investigation and of any punishments imposed that
directly relate to the victim, such as an order for the harasser to stay away
from the victim.”
“Responsive measures
should be designed to minimize the burden on the victim as much as possible. If
the school’s initial response does not stop the harassment and prevent it from
happening again, the school may need to take additional, stronger measures.”
These only name a few of the actions set
forth by the U.S. Department of Education,
others include notification (from the school) to the parents of the
incident and the staff member (to whom the incident is reported) to inform the
victim of what his rights are in the situation and how the investigation will
be handled. None of these have taken
place.
In my grievance, when asked to state
“specific relief or resolution,” I had initially stated my desire for
“Investigation and disciplinary action compliant with BISD’s
documented policy.” Since then, it has
become clear that there is no policy in place which addresses this sort of
issue. With the absence of policy to
direct disciplinary or administrative action for district/school staff’s
negligence in attending to issues concerning assault of a student, following
will be an amended statement what relief and resolution I am requesting.
I request:
1.) the hearing
committee examine what is commonly considered to be “good practice,” and / or
common sense reaction to allegations of sexual harassment and physical assault
(i.e. notification to parent of victim; immediate separation of alleged student
from victim while investigation is conducted; prompt and effective
investigation followed by prompt consequences if the allegations are validated)
2.) consideration of the district to implement specific procedure
for these situations, rather than the existing approach- left to the individual
discretion of the staff which receives the complaint.
3.) place direct responsibility on school staff and
administrators to provide our children with the safe learning environment you
claim to have by implementing disciplinary action toward staff who do not
comply with the requested before-mentioned procedures.
4.) specifically, in
this case, I request consequences (as the district sees fit) for Susan Taylor,
Rod Bailey and Matthew Donnell for their failure to exercise methods of good
[and common] practice of separating students involved in the complaint and
notifying the victim’s parent of the incident, as well as their failure to take
prior complaints (pertaining specifically to the assailant’s physical
aggression toward my son) seriously.
Thank you, in advance, for
your consideration of my appeal.
Regards,
Christine Jackson
CC: Susan Taylor