Lehighton mother speaks out about bullying
Allegations of a hazing incident at Lehighton Area Middle School and an elementary student injured in a bullying incident dominated discussion at Monday night’s district board meeting.
Jessica Wagner told the board of an alleged incident where her 11-year-old son was tackled in a bathroom by another student. Wagner said her son’s head slammed back against a tile floor and he was left with a skull fracture, a brain bleed and a concussion.
“The nurse called us and said he had a headache,” Wagner said.
“If I didn’t take him to the hospital when I did, my son would have lost his life. What upset me the most is when my son went back to school, that other student was still in his class for a period of time. He was eventually transferred to a different teacher, but they still have lunch and recess together.”
Lehighton Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said the district’s hands are tied when it comes to releasing information on incidents within its walls.
Many parents, he said, want answers on what is being done but when it comes to student discipline, the law keeps things close to the vest.
“There are a lot of protected rights for children,” he said. “Even if your child is bullied or a victim, we can’t discuss with you the punishment for the other child or children involved.”
Parents, on Monday, said it feels like bullies are often protected and asked administrators where the line in the sand is between keeping a child in Lehighton’s schools and sending them to an alternative program or expelling them.
The answer, Cleaver said, is not cut and dry.
“Students have the right to a free and appropriate public education,” he said. “We can recommend a child go to Behavioral Health Associates or another alternative program, but if the parent disagrees, that option goes away.”
Districts can also choose to begin expulsion proceedings against a student, but again, Cleaver said, if parents disagree it would go to a due process hearing.
“We’re in active cases right now battling back and forth trying to make the best placement for students,” he said. “If parents don’t agree, it becomes a legal battle. They have lawyers too for their child’s rights.”
Police, Cleaver added, and the district attorney’s office remain actively involved in the alleged hazing investigation at the middle school. Social media reports have described the incident as a sexual assault involving a broomstick, but district officials have not gone into detail on the matter.
On Monday, parents said they heard rumors the punishment was a 10-day suspension, leading to more questions on why the student or students involved were not expelled.
“It is a lot more complicated than what meets the eye,” said Lehighton solicitor Eric Filer, while addressing hypothetical situations and not the middle school incident specifically.
“For example, if a student has an IEP, they can only be suspended for 10 days total for the whole school year. A student without an IEP can be suspended longer than that.”
While most parents who spoke Monday were critical of the district’s response, another mother who said her child was a victim in the hazing incident said social media, “blew things out of proportion.”
Bernadette Rodrigues, however, told the board a lot of things are going unchecked in the middle school.
Rodrigues’ son is a special needs student who receives support through the intermediate unit, which recently escalated, she said, because “a bully is back in the district.”
She now home-schools her son.
“It was one of the easiest decisions I have ever made, knowing what my son was faced with,” Rodrigues said. “I can’t continue to put him in an environment where the administration is letting children govern themselves.”
Cleaver was also asked about a bomb threat in the district last week. He told Monday’s crowd that the district police officers were notified of a message written in a bathroom.
“The officers used video surveillance, did a sweep of the building,” Cleaver said. “The student responsible was located and the situation was handled.”
Watch the video from the meeting.
Comments
Rubber-stampers, blind-trust, cronyism, and favoritism permeates the district. Sad.
So glad Andy Yenser left the board. One down five immorals to go.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.
Find public servant directors that will follow the policy, actually honor their oath, and oversee the administration.
That would be a good start. Then how about we actually teach children in the government schools to be compassionate, empathetic and considerate to others, like the successful private schools do.
Citizen David F. Bradley, Sr.
Parents learned that their verbal complaints of bullying to staff members did not result in documented complaints. They were amazed that this is the case and they were told at this meeting that they need to create their own documentation. No one knew the process for doing this and they weren't told how to do it at the time that they made their verbal complaint.
A large number of concerned parents attended the meeting. They were not acknowledged and had to wait three hours until the end of the regular meeting to be able to speak.
Several parents said that their children were bullied by the same child who has been acting out for five years. They don't understand why this is not documented and actionable. They are concerned that the repeat-bullies are not getting help and return to the classroom to potentially offend again.
One parent said that bomb threats are required by policy and by law to be reported to the Lehighton police and that Mr. Cleaver endangered lives by not following correct processes. He called for Cleaver's removal.
A parent said that she felt that the school police officers encouraged her not to file a report when her child was allegedly harmed by another.
A grandparent said that staff members had told him that they were encouraged not to report incidences of bullying and they felt that their employment was threatened if they were to report such incidences.
Several parents are considering home-schooling to be their only option for safety.
So telling.
So sad. This meeting make it appear that we have so many untrustworthy government school staff members blocking protection of the students. They have such great careers, how can protecting the students with proper goverance be so hard for so many? How was this all not properly reported immediately? Really, zero bullying, zero on the report?
The red faced liar adjective is so evident that it makes it hard to watch.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley, Sr.
I recommend that anyone that has knowledge of wrong-doing should report this to the police in addition to the school. Change will likely have to come from outside of the school district. It won't come from within.
More distractions very similar to the administration adding the band presentation and budget meeting conflict with the Tkach/St. Luke's vape event.
So predictable. So sad.
There is enough public support to allow the silenced good staff to expose the evil ones that appear to be playing bad games with our student's lives. Clean house, fresh start, protected students, save the community.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley, Sr.
Do you think selective enforcement is immoral?
What if your school's reputation included a sexting teacher, vulgar retweet, cheating scandal, hazing, bullying, drugs in school, strip searches, lack of transparency, solicitor waste on constitutionality challange, head injury, sexual assaults, blocked free eye exams, 28 v. 21, fights on bus, special needs benefit challanges, shall I go on?
Building advertisements, lack of financial transparency, shortfalls, tax increases, massive debt, a legacy of debt.
And if you think I just focus on the bad, let's look at the good teachers, the honest ones, the great students the one that tell the truth and protect their classmates.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley Sr.
I find no point in pointing fingers, who cares who is wrong or right if the problems are not solved. It just seems to me that the people sitting on that school board right now, are more concerned with pointing fingers than actually solving a problem.
In todays culture it seems that those are troglodyte by nature. But maybe that's the real problem...
I'll tell you what, I was bullied in my school in Jim Thorpe in the 1990s. Then I took up boxing and self defense, and started kicking everyone's asses myself. Then it stopped. Then I moved to Lehighton, and after a few months it stopped here too.
Now I know this comment will be lit up with comments about violence, etc but I really don't give two shits. Quit being pussies!
They are only kids let them be kids, stop trying to fight their battles. If you don't they are gonna grow up to be a bunch of pansies that have mommy call them off work because their boss is a "bully".
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When a board of directors allows their subordinate administration to secretly run the district, justice is often lost.
Just review the meeting video regarding the actions, and lack thereof of the administration when a bomb threat was discovered at the.middle school and I think you will see what I mean.
Thank you for contacting the Office of Attorney General Josh Shapiro. We received your e-mail regarding the assault of two children in your school district. We take all potential criminal matters very seriously. However, after consulting with our Criminal Division, the Attorney General’s office does not have the authority to investigate this case. For almost all criminal cases, your local district attorney’s office has the power to investigate and prosecute. That district attorney would have to specifically request that the Attorney General become involved in a case; until that happens, our office has no authority in this matter.
If you wish to contact them directly, you can do so using the following information:
Carbon County District Attorney’s Office
Michael Greek, District Attorney
PO Box 36
Jim Thorpe PA 18229
(570) 325-2718
mgreek@carboncounty.net
You may also want to contact the Detective Tim Nothstein of the Carbon County DA’s office as well, you may contact him using the following information:
Detective Tim Nothstein
(570)325-2718
email: TimNothstein@carboncounty.net
Additionally, if you have not done so already, we might also suggest reaching out to the Pennsylvania State Police. Troop N Barracks may be contacted at (570)459-3890.
For the parents of the children that were involved, they may want to consider consulting a lawyer about this issue. If they do not already have a lawyer, they can contact the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service at (717)238-6807 or toll-free at 1-800-692-7375. For additional information, they can visit their website
We wish you and your community the best in this matter.
Dennis Goodwin is a nationally acclaimed motivational speaker addressing prevention and methods to stop Hazing, Bullying and assaults on students.
Sincerely,
Citizen David F. Bradley, Sr.