Open House at Kemp Mill Starts with Protests

Parents concerned about the leadership of Kemp Mill Elementary School handed out flyers on Thursday afternoon to parents walking into the school's open house. The parents' group, called Save KMES, wants the Montgomery County Public school system to remove Floyd Starnes, who has been the principal of the school since 2007.

Now concerned more broadly with Starnes' track record as principal, Save KMES started when Daniel Picca, a math teacher at the school was suspended from his position in April. Picca was accused of improperly touching a student after he was injured. Two months later, Picca was recommended for dismissal.

The parents of the boy involved in the incident, Hedy and Todd Ross, said that Principal Floyd Starnes had coached their son into writing the statement that led to Picca's suspension. The couple started Save KMES in response to that incident. Picca is appealing his dismissal.

Additionally, several current and former staff members filed harassment complaints against Starnes in June and July with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Picca also filed a complaint with the EEOC after his suspension.

According to the EEOC website, a charge must be filled with 180 days of the incident.

The Rosses were the primary distributors of flyers Thursday afternoon, along with their daughter and three teenagers who had attended Kemp Mill. Staying just beyond school property, they also had signs that read: "Fire Floyd," "No Bullying" and "No Starnes."

The flyers included Save KMES allegations against Starnes, a copy of the county bully incident report, as well as a form created by Hedy Ross to request that children not be interviewed by the principal without a parent present. She also handed out multi-colored whistles.

Most parents took the flyers without comment. Others, including a parent new to the school, stopped to talk to Hedy Ross. One person in a car drove by with the thumbs-down sign.

Dana Tofig, spokesperson for the county schools, said the EEOC complaint was ongoing but that the school district's own investigation had found allegations against Starnes to be "misrepresentations, exaggerations or unverifiable."

Starnes sent a letter to staff and parents last week apologizing for using "terms of endearment," explaining he did not realize he was offending the staff. According to complainants, the harassment also included inappropriate physical contact and an uncomfortable work environment.

Outside of the letter, Starnes has not commented on the complaints.

On Thursday afternoon, he stood outside Kemp Mill at the beginning of the open house, welcoming parents with other teachers a few hundred feet away from where the flyers were being handed out. When approached after the open house on school property, a teacher declined to comment about the presence of the Rosses, but said the open house was going well.

Tofig said an ongoing personnel investigation with a staff member at Kemp Mill that Starnes is involved in has prevented Starnes from commenting.

Sewell and Kathy Johnson, parents at Kemp Mill, stopped on their way out to speak to the Rosses. They spoke positively of Picca, who was their son's math teacher last year.

"I'm waiting to see how it works out," Johnson said, "what comes out of the investigation."

Handing off her signs and flyers to her daughter, Hedy Ross went inside to the open house.

She said she will attend school every day with her son, who is going into the fifth grade. A transfer request she put in last week was rejected.

"I don't see any other choice, for now," she said.

Save KMES will hold a rally outside of Kemp Mill Friday morning, again calling for Starnes' removal as principal.