Parents, Students Vent About Issues With Concord School District

CONCORD, NH — A couple of hundred Concord parents and students attended the monthly board of education meeting Tuesday to air their frustrations about the status of an investigation into a teacher rape case, other issues such as bullying that have not been addressed properly by the district, as well as petition calling for the firing of the school superintendent and the high school principal. It was the first board meeting since School Superintendent Terri Forsten was critical with staff about the post-investigation media coverage of the Primo "Howie" Leung rape and fondling arrest, which led to a petition calling for her removal, as well as Tom Sica, the principal of Concord High School. After the petition was created, Forsten apologized saying her comments were not appropriate.

Sica has been on personal leave since June. The petition has garnered about 2,800 signatures in about two weeks.

The board moved its meeting to the Mill Brook Primary School on the eastern side of the city in an effort to appease concerns about not being able to have room in the Central Office meeting room for all the parents and students who wanted to speak, as well as the inability to hear people speak in that room.

At the beginning of the meeting, Jennifer Patterson, the president of the board, gave an overview of the agenda and explained to attendees that there would be two public comment periods – one at the beginning of the meeting, to address any issues on the agenda, and a second comment period, at the end of the meeting. She acknowledged the petition and that there were parents and students who wanted to speak about staffing issues, but reminded them that the petition was not an agenda item, and any discussion of staffing and the petition would be held during a second comment period, at the end of the meeting.

Patterson explained the status of the investigation into how and why Leung was allowed to stay on teaching despite accusations of inappropriate behavior with a student was incomplete. When it is completed, probably later this month, the district and board members would figure out how much information could be shared with the public, she said.

"That review will look at the laws governing confidentiality of personnel actions," Patterson said. "We do understand the strong public interest understanding as much as may be made public related to the investigation. And if so, we will do, what we can, within the contours of the confidentiality laws."

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However, some parents, weren't interested in following the board's agenda.

Darlene Gildersleeve, a founding member and media contact for CSD Advocates for Change, approached the board to speak about the sexual harassment policy, an agenda item, but also to raised issues about the need to remove Forsten and Sica. Patterson asked her to stop, twice, however, Gildersleeve continued and was allowed to finish but others were not allowed to speak until the end of the meeting.

Patterson requested again that parents and students wait until the second public comment section so that the board could get through its monthly agenda first, which didn't go over well with attendees.

"Who's going to look me up so that I can be questioned about Terri and Tom Sica?," asked Karen Reid. "Three years ago, my grandson was having problems adjusting to school and I want to remind you that Terri didn't do the right thing."

More attendees also called on the meeting format to be changed so Patterson called for a recess, and about half the board left the room while the frustration of parents really began to spill over.

"Oh, so now you're going to up and leave?," said one parent.

"That's right, just run away," another parent said.

"We have the whole night," said another.

Reid shouted, "(My grandchild) had to leave while the investigation was going on. I don't understand why a sexual predator remained in the school for more than three months. Was it because you couldn’t find someone to cover his classes? I just don't get it."

Others asked why the parents and students weren't allowed to comment first, so they could go home, and the board could conduct their business after the public was allowed to speak.

"Because you're not going to have a quiet audience," one parent stated.

"We're concerned about children," another parent added. "Our kids are getting bullied in school; our kids are getting assaulted … and that's OK?"

Patterson countered that they were going to take a break but when they returned, comments about the petition needed to be made during the second public comment period. After a few minutes, members returned and continued their meeting.

Dave Parker, a former Concord city council candidate and the founder of Parker Academy, a private day school for special needs students, chastised Patterson for not allowing the parents to speak first when the meeting reconvened.

"This is why this community gets so upset with you," Parker said. "We have come to this meeting and you are pushing it to the end of the meeting? It's ridiculous. People should be upset. This board is not taking responsibility for its actions. This is pathetic."

The board reconvened and finished its business in about an hour, and then allowed the second public comment period to commence. Patterson asked speakers to limit the amount of comments they would make about individual employees and, instead, submit any issues they had with a specific person privately with the board. She said that there were personnel privacy issues that needed to be followed and some issues needed to be disclosed outside of a public forum.

"We, as a board, are very serious about our job, supervising the superintendent," Patterson said.

Gildersleeve approached the board again and stated that the district needed an independent compliance officer working with the board, around the district, to ensure that every policy was being followed. Each board member, she said, needed to follow these protocols even though there would be a lot of pressure on them to make decisions. Gildersleeve then submitted the signatures and comments from the petition to the board.

A number of students also spoke including a 14-year-old girl, from a "sender district" – another school district that pays to have a student in one town attend school in another. She said she had previously been sexually assaulted and understood what other students felt. She said having to deal with her abuser, every single day, in the classroom, was difficult, and she asked board members to consider what other victims were going through.

Amy Gerard, another parent who worked to create the parents group, thanked the board for their hard work, while Jennifer Kretovic, a city councilor who works in a crisis center, pointed out that the issues went beyond the walls of the school. She added that there was a harassment and assault and the community need to support survivors and encourage healthy teen relationships.

Another student, who took a women's self-defense class at the high school but had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict, noted that the issue was encouraging the students to report the incidents. During a field trip in the sixth grade, she added, a man at the veteran's home exposed himself to her and made her watch. She never told anyone until a number of years later when she shared the incident with her mother. The student also blasted officials who seemed to fail to help victims and said that the "dribble of negative press" comment by Forsten were abhorrent.

"There are strong leaders in the building," she said, "I love Concord High School and that is why we can – and must – do better."

Another student who said that she was in Leung's class for hundreds of days, even after the initial accusation was made, hadn't been sexually assaulted but knew others who were victims. She said all of that time with Leung, she could have been targeted, because the school had not taken the proper action in the first place.

Another parent of a high school student said that she didn't feel the board members were being transparent and didn't believe that members were acting as if they were part of a greater community. Others questioned whether or not they could trust the board and the district, and whether or not people would just walk away because details of the investigation were not being shared with the public.

After an hour and 40 minutes of testimony, Patterson thanked everyone for attending and sharing their comments saying that board members were working hard to regain the community's trust and hoped that parents and students would stay involved.

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