Huron Valley Parents Seek Disclosure of Incident Reports

Shelly McCrum vividly remembers the call she received one afternoon — her 9-year-old daughter had been injured at school.

She was told her child, a fourth-grader at Kurtz Elementary School, had received a minor neck injury after some rough play on the playground.

But she said she later learned that what happened to her daughter, Haleigh, was no accident, alleging it was an intentional physical attack by boys.

McCrum said her daughter told her a group of boys chased her until one grabbed the back of her sweatshirt, jerking her backward and causing her to fall to the ground. The boys held her down on the ground while another boy started to choke her. A few days after the incident, her daughter developed a large bruise on her forearm from being held down.

What frustrates McCrum most is that she hasn’t been given a clear picture of what exactly happened to her daughter, who was involved and whether the boys were properly punished.

McCrum said Huron Valley Public Schools' policy on reporting crimes needs a revision because there are no guidelines mentioned in the student guidebook on how to punish elementary school students for assaults or other misbehaviors.

And the only information McCrum was given was through conversations with the school’s principal and district administration.

She wants that to change.

“We wanted to make sure that there was at least some record of what happened to our daughter, since the school couldn't even give us proof that a report had even been filed and placed on record with the school."

District's response

Janet Roberts, director of community relations, said the district has addressed the issues, but there are certain legalities that prevent the district from fully satifying the parents involved.

“I know, as parents, you want to do what’s best for your child,” Roberts said. “But the district legally can’t divulge some of the information parents might want. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) applies confidentiality to students' records, prohibiting parents from viewing another student’s file."

In the Huron Valley Schools Code of Conduct, under physical assaults, there is no category for elementary students. Under suspensions and expulsions for physical assaults, there is no mention of punishments for elementary students – an omission McCrum said they believe should be changed.

Roberts contends that the district's code of conduct was written to cover all grades, but she said the section called into question specifically lists the punishment for students in grades 6-12, because state law requires that it does so.

Bullying: an issue that can't be ignored

Some say that with the prevalence of bullying in schools, it's more crucial than ever that issues of assualt — verbal or physical — be reported and addressed.

McCrum did all the right things, according to Kenzi Bisbing, youth service manager with Oakland Mediation Center, a non-profit organization that helps Oakland County residents resolve disputes. She said that what happened to McCrum's daughter could be considered bullying, a behavior that must be addressed immediately. Bisbing said bullying is an aggressive behavior that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power or strength. She said it can take many forms, including physical, verbal emotional and cyberbullying.

When working with any school district to address bullying, Bisbing said it's important for parents to keep a written record of all incidents; to speak with teachers and administrators; and to keep notes of all meetings with teachers and administrators.

The U.S. Department of Human Services states, "School staff should investigate the bullying immediately. After investigating the parents' concerns, the school should inform you as to what they plan to do about it."

Huron Valley Schools' policy prevents parents from having access to incident reports and student reports filed by the schools. Janet Roberts, the district's director of community relations, said federal law does, too. 

Parents want rules to change

The inability of the district to share reports also frustrates Renee Brodie, another Kurtz Elementary parent.

Brodie said she witnessed an assault in a classroom at Kurtz while volunteering. She said the parents weren’t notified, and she wasn't allowed to add her eyewitness account to the school's report.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing," she said of watching a boy choke a girl as she rushed to her aid in the middle of class. 

"Only after I confronted the principal, and told her what I saw, did she take action and suspend the  boy for a week," Brodie said. "I told her had it been my child, I would have her charged with child abuse, allowing bullying, physical assault and endangering the life of a child. She never asked me to write out my statement."

Roberts, after talking with Dale Phillips, the principal, said that the issue was never brought to Phillips' attention.

Brodie said she was told by Phillips that a written report was on record and that her additional account was not needed.

“I put my hands on that child to stop what was happening," Brodie said. "If that was my kid, I would want to know about that," she said. "I was told by Phillips that because what I had done was a ‘good deed,’ it didn’t need to be reported. I was appalled.”

Roberts and the district contend that the classroom teacher handled the situation, based on district policy.

Still waiting for answers

After meetings with district officials, including Superintendent Jacqueline Johnston, in early 2011, McCrum still haven’t received the answers they are looking for from the district.

“We are not asking for copies of discipline records,” McCrum said. McCrum said she just want an incident report, and to know that the boys involved have been punished.

"We haven’t received anything that proves that this incident has been properly documented, and we have serious doubts that this incident is filed in these student’s school records,” she said.

McCrum said Principal Phillips told her that the boys involved would apologize to her daughter. McCrum’s daughter did receive apologies, but not from every boy involved, McCrum said.

For her part, Brodie said contacted the girl's parents on her own to let them know what happened.

When asked for a comment on both incidents, Roberts said that in the case of McCrum, the district was under the impression that the situation had been handled and that the parents were satisfied.

As for the situation in which Brodie was involved, Roberts said there was no record of it and that Phillips, the principal at Kurtz, was unaware of the incident.

“You might have an incident like the one involving the students in the classroom, where perhaps the teacher thought the (classroom volunteer) did the right thing and nothing else had to be done,” Roberts said.

While McCrum’s and Brodie’s experiences are single incidents, both said they hope that by sharing their stories, they may encourage other parents with similar concerns to come forward and help the district to enact a change to more clearly define its policies on assaults and school reports.

“We just don’t want other parents to have to go what we went through,” McCrum said.

Editor's Note: According to the Huron Valley School District, the incident Renee Brodie was involved in occurred in the fall of 2009. Janet Roberts, director of community relations, said Thursday that Principal Dale Phillips was made aware of the incident when it occurred in 2009. It was documented and proper action was taken, Roberts said.