Tekania
04-01-2008, 14:51
Originally posted here (http://ednews.org/articles/21339/1/Administrators-in-Henrico-County-Fail-to-Provide-Safe-Schools-For-Students-and-Educators/Page1.html
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Educators at John Rolfe Middle School, located in Richmond, Virginia, report that the school's administrators have failed to enforce the Henrico County Student Code of Conduct by consistently permitting habitual physically and verbally abusive students to remain in the school as opposed to taking the appropriate disciplinary actions as outlined by the county.
Student violations have included repeated disrespect, blatant defiance, student assaults against faculty members, students making verbal threats of harm against their peers and faculty, student threat via email to each other, and even an instance in which a student attempted to recruit others to help him in placing a bag over the head of two female educators, take them to the back of the school, and sexually assaulting them because he did not like the manner in which they corrected him during class.
Additional incidents included a student assaulting a teacher's aide.Despite the fact that the aide filed a police report with the school's resource officer, no action was taken.The student was permitted to remain in school and was also permitted to continue to verbally threaten the aide through offensive gestures and words for over a month until he left the school on his own.The student indicated that he planned to throw a brick through the car window of the aide if he saw her car in the neighborhood.This student returned to John Rolfe Middle School where he continues to bully other students and reportedly had an incident where he threatened another student with a woodshop tool.
A majority of these disruptive and dangerous student violations have gone unaddressed by the most recent principals.Rolfe's first principal, who was appointed in January 2007 by Superintendent Fred Morton, consistently failed to properly discipline habitual offenders that not only interrupted the learning opportunities of other students, but also repeatedly violated the school's code of conduct, and at times, the criminal statutes in the state of Virginia.
This is interesting, in that almost ALL of her examples come from this previous principle, who she does not actually name...
Following repeated complaints from parents and educators, the principal was abruptly "reassigned" to another Henrico County School as an assistant principal less than two months after this school year began.It was later alleged that Dr. Phillip Jepson, Henrico County's Director of Human Resources, presented the resume packet of this individual for consideration despite the fact that it was not included at the beginning of the selection process.
Despite repeated efforts by the educators of John Rolfe Middle School to follow the discipline procedures outlined in Henrico County's Public School Code of Conduct by completing office referrals for the violating students, very little was done by the administration to ensure that a safe academic environment was promoted.In fact, during the final days of the previous school year, several groups of Henrico County police were called to the school to address the chaos, disorder, and fights that had become common-place throughout the school, but administrators were unable to handle.
This was the other principle from the previous year, to beginning of this year...
One educator recalled an incident in which she and her students were forced to leave the cafeteria, without their lunch, in order to avoid being caught in a series of student altercations that required law enforcement intervention.The disorder was so stressful that one teacher threw his coffee mug against wall of the hall in order to get the attention of his class.
Educators report that it is common practice to have students that have engaged in fighting, bullying, teasing, profanity, gang-related activity, and other similar offenses, sent to the office only to be sent back to the classroom by administrators to continue to engage in inappropriate behaviors and disrupt the learning of other students without consequence.
Once again, from the previous Principle... Who for simplicty has the first name Robin.
It has also been reported that Andy Armstrong, Rolfe's most recently appointed principal of less than one month, and John Rokenbrod, the eighth grade administrator that joined the staff this year, have repeatedly demanded that educators admit habitually disruptive and dangerous students into the classroom as opposed to taking the appropriate actions to address the inappropriate behaviors of these students.
When Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Rokenbrod were questioned as to the reason that the referrals for these students were not processed in a timely manner or at all at times, they refused to take any action to protect the students and educators of the school.Instead, they continued to demand that students with almost three years of increasingly inappropriate, abusive, and aggressive behaviors be admitted to classrooms where they posed a threat to their peers and educators, and continued to be disruptive, preventing educators from teaching and students from learning.
One instructional assistant shared that for the first time in over a decade of working at John Rolfe Middle School, she is in fear for her own safety and that of her students.This fear is a direct result of an incident that occurred in which she was the only adult in a hall with over fifty students that were gathered around each other in order to watch two students fight.The students were yelling and pushing into each other in order to instigate the fight.
She shared how she was unable to move as she was pinned against the wall.The students refused her repeated shouts to go to class.When another female teacher pushed her way through the crowd of students in order to disburse them and take the fighting students to the office, she was finally able to move away from the wall.Eventually, she decided to get a whistle for personal safety.
Interestingly enough this "one instructional assistant" which has "informed" on her on this matter, is actually herself... Also of note, is that when the fight was starting, she choose to directly get involved, as opposed to calling the School Resource Officer (an armed Henrico County Police Officer, who is permanently attached to this school) which is the proper procedure... Dr. Lucas received a reprimand for not following procedures. The kids who got in the fight were suspended, and information was passed to Henrico Police for charges to be placed.
Other incidents include a student's threat involving a teacher's unborn child, students engaging in increasingly dangerous "stampedes" down the school halls, knocking over each other, adults, and compromising the safety of students with visual and physical disabilities that travel down the same halls.
Teachers have noted that the sixth grade administrator of Rolfe, Mrs. Sharon Archer, has been the sole administrator that strives to consistently ensure a safe and secure learning environment for students and teachers.Unfortunately, the unwillingness of the seventh and eighth grade administrators, as well as the new principal, to enforce the county's Student Code of Conduct, have forced teachers to resort to excluding the undisciplined, potentially dangerous, and disruptive students from their classrooms in an effort to protect their students and ensure their own safety.
Interestingly enough, Mrs. Archer won't take action on 7th and 8th grade issues when she is directly available to do so stating "it's not my job".
The resulting atmosphere at Rolfe Middle School has become extremely hostile and chaotic, not only for students, but also for educators to the point that extreme levels of stress and unbearable working conditions are impacting the overall health of many.Several teachers have reported increased headaches, instances of high blood pressure, chest pains, and panic attacks.It is reported that conditions have become so severe that one teacher suffered a stroke while at school.
She connects this "stroke" to the stressful conditions... This happened last school year under the former principle, and the teacher has returned... The stroke was small, and was unrelated to the "dangerous environment"
Recently a teacher that attempted to protect her students and ensure her own well-being by not permitting three male students into her classroom that an extensive history of physical/verbal aggression toward teachers and students, as well as regular incidents of defiance, disruption, and disrespect in the halls and a majority of classrooms in which they attended, was issued a written reprimand in which Mr. Armstrong stated, "…if a student was in attendance and arrived at your classroom, you were required to allow them to enter the classroom."
Once again, on an interesting note, the "three students" were separate incidents. And in all three cases, the students were being "returned to class" in the sense that in each case the student was being escorted by an Administrator and the School Resource Officer so that they could pick up their personal belongings from class, as they were being permanently removed from the class... Dr. Lucas attempted to refuse admittance to the School Resource Officer, Administrator and child for this purpose... She was reprimanded for not allowing the kid into the classroom, under proper escort.
When the teacher asked why the administration was failing to be proactive and follow county procedures, citing that the Mr. Rokenbrod had failed to address the discipline referrals regarding the constant and escalating disruptions, abuse, and aggressions of these students in a timely and effective matter, which poses a threat to her other students, their right to an education, and her own welfare, he responded, "if an incident occurred that warranted their removal from class after being admitted, you were then to send the student to time out or call an administrator."Armstrong went on to state that "there was a process that we followed in order to administer discipline to repeat offenders" in his reprimand.
Which is true... There are procedures in place, and documentation which must be filled first... Dr. Lucas is already under scrutiny for failing to abide by procedure, and not merely on this, but also for publicly disclosing confidential files on students in special education... Henrico is presently documenting information to take action upon Dr. Lucas for breech of contract on multiple issues...
This teacher and many others staff members within John Rolfe Middle School, want to know what "process" is being followed by Mr. Rokenbrod and Mr. Armstrong.Based on numerous teacher email communications, disciplinary referrals after discipli-nary referral have been completed on students by teachers without consequence.Plea after plea has been made by teachers to administrators in hopes that the appropriate actions will be taken to restore a safe and secure learning environment for all students and staff with little or no success.
In addition, there were incidents in which student referrals were not addressed for weeks to a span of months at a time, with no effort by the school's administration to discipline these students, provide a safe and secure learning environment for the other students, or ensure that they are supporting educators in their efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for all adults, as required by Henrico County Public School's Student Code of Conduct 2007-2008 guidelines.
Approximately two weeks ago, this same teacher received a handwritten threat in her school mailbox.She reported the incident to Marilyn Royal, Director of Middle School for Henrico County Public Schools;Dr. Phillip Jepson, Director of Human Resources, and several other central office personnel, in addition to school board members of the county.To date, while the Henrico County Police have addressed the issue of the personal safety of this educator, Henrico County Public School officials have not.
What is more interesting, is she "discarded" this supposed "threat" that she received. And her report was in the form of other teachers she suspected to have written this threat to her, to the police... Most of which were teachers who at one point or another had to intervene in her classroom to bring the kids under control after her failure to do so (another point which Dr. Lucas has been reprimanded on, is her lack of classroom management).
When Dr. Jepson was questioned as to why he failed to address a documented threat directed at an educator, he responded that despite having been made aware of the threat nearly two weeks ago, he had not addressed the issue because the educator had went to Henrico police regarding the matter.
He was advised that the employee acted appropriately and that this did not absolve him, as the Director of Human Resources for Henrico County, from investigating the matter, especially since it is suspected that an adult within the building that has access to students made the threat.Furthermore, he was advised that the hostile environment in which the threat was made has escalated for students and educators due to his failure to follow county procedures in completing a threat assessment regarding the incident in a timely manner.To date, no action to determine who made the threat has been taken by Dr. Jepson or any other central office personnel.
To date, Marilyn Royal, Henrico's Director of Human Resources, has received a request to meet with the teachers to discuss the severity of the unsafe, unproductive, and unsupported conditions under which educators are being forced to teach.She has not responded to the request.
It is only a SMALL group of teachers who want the meeting... HR will not meet, because this small group is failing to speak for the school as a whole.
Educators have discussed drastic options such as organizing a school-wide sick day call-in, speaking before the school board, and collectively going to central office in order to bring attention to the detrimental conditions that exist at Rolfe Middle School for them, but more importantly, for their students.One teacher posed the question, "how can they (administrators), expect us to instruct our students under these conditions".
Once again, a small group... You could fill a port-a-potty with the number of teachers who are signed in on this "sick day call-in".
There are concerns that Rolfe Middle School's principal and Henrico County's central office staff are failing its students, staff, and parents in not providing a safe and secure school as required by No Child Left Behind, due to the failure of the administra-tion to follow the county's Student Code of Conduct. One teacher was quoted as stating that "John Rolfe is a ticking time bomb, it is not a question of if something horrible will happen, it is a question of when will it happen and how many students and staff will be hurt as a result."
This "one-teacher" is again herself...
While Rolfe's educators face the possibility of retaliation by administration for exposing these issues, more and more of them are willing to take the risk to ensure the safety and quality of education for their students and families that may not know their rights. One educator stated that "it is our responsibility to do all that we can to protect our children and our school, even when the administrators fail to do their job, we must take the necessary actions to ensure that our students learn in a safe, secure, and uninterrupted learning environment.This is our professional and personal responsibility on an ethical and moral level."
To date, efforts are being made to notify the appropriate state and federal agencies, advocacy groups, and parents in order to prevent a major incident from taking place that may result in, what teachers are describing, as a inevitable disaster within the school due to the continued lack of administrative discipline.
John Rolfe Middle School recently received an overall rating of a "three out of ten" from the web-based parent resource tool, Great Schools.It is an at-risk school whose student population are seventy percent African-American and forty percent low-income families.
It is also reported that the school is struggling to maintain state accreditation as it faces several administrative- related challenges, which include major noncompliance issues as it relates not only to school safety, but also regarding the quality of services that are provided to its students with special needs.
What is actually going on here, is that this Dr. Lucas is attempting to stir trouble County state and Federal wide on the issue here for the purpose of a lawsuit... This all comes up after her incident of revealing confidential information, and her reprimand... It's quite likely (given that Henrico County Public Schools has already been notified of this article, and the publication of such is itself a violation of her contract, again, for not following procedure in that all publications by Teachers/Administrators must go through the county Publications Office first)... That Dr. Lucas will be unemployed by the close of this school year (and more likely earlier), and Dr. Armstrong is already taking preliminary steps towards civil proceedings against Dr. Lucas for slander as soon as she is fired by the County.
)
Educators at John Rolfe Middle School, located in Richmond, Virginia, report that the school's administrators have failed to enforce the Henrico County Student Code of Conduct by consistently permitting habitual physically and verbally abusive students to remain in the school as opposed to taking the appropriate disciplinary actions as outlined by the county.
Student violations have included repeated disrespect, blatant defiance, student assaults against faculty members, students making verbal threats of harm against their peers and faculty, student threat via email to each other, and even an instance in which a student attempted to recruit others to help him in placing a bag over the head of two female educators, take them to the back of the school, and sexually assaulting them because he did not like the manner in which they corrected him during class.
Additional incidents included a student assaulting a teacher's aide.Despite the fact that the aide filed a police report with the school's resource officer, no action was taken.The student was permitted to remain in school and was also permitted to continue to verbally threaten the aide through offensive gestures and words for over a month until he left the school on his own.The student indicated that he planned to throw a brick through the car window of the aide if he saw her car in the neighborhood.This student returned to John Rolfe Middle School where he continues to bully other students and reportedly had an incident where he threatened another student with a woodshop tool.
A majority of these disruptive and dangerous student violations have gone unaddressed by the most recent principals.Rolfe's first principal, who was appointed in January 2007 by Superintendent Fred Morton, consistently failed to properly discipline habitual offenders that not only interrupted the learning opportunities of other students, but also repeatedly violated the school's code of conduct, and at times, the criminal statutes in the state of Virginia.
This is interesting, in that almost ALL of her examples come from this previous principle, who she does not actually name...
Following repeated complaints from parents and educators, the principal was abruptly "reassigned" to another Henrico County School as an assistant principal less than two months after this school year began.It was later alleged that Dr. Phillip Jepson, Henrico County's Director of Human Resources, presented the resume packet of this individual for consideration despite the fact that it was not included at the beginning of the selection process.
Despite repeated efforts by the educators of John Rolfe Middle School to follow the discipline procedures outlined in Henrico County's Public School Code of Conduct by completing office referrals for the violating students, very little was done by the administration to ensure that a safe academic environment was promoted.In fact, during the final days of the previous school year, several groups of Henrico County police were called to the school to address the chaos, disorder, and fights that had become common-place throughout the school, but administrators were unable to handle.
This was the other principle from the previous year, to beginning of this year...
One educator recalled an incident in which she and her students were forced to leave the cafeteria, without their lunch, in order to avoid being caught in a series of student altercations that required law enforcement intervention.The disorder was so stressful that one teacher threw his coffee mug against wall of the hall in order to get the attention of his class.
Educators report that it is common practice to have students that have engaged in fighting, bullying, teasing, profanity, gang-related activity, and other similar offenses, sent to the office only to be sent back to the classroom by administrators to continue to engage in inappropriate behaviors and disrupt the learning of other students without consequence.
Once again, from the previous Principle... Who for simplicty has the first name Robin.
It has also been reported that Andy Armstrong, Rolfe's most recently appointed principal of less than one month, and John Rokenbrod, the eighth grade administrator that joined the staff this year, have repeatedly demanded that educators admit habitually disruptive and dangerous students into the classroom as opposed to taking the appropriate actions to address the inappropriate behaviors of these students.
When Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Rokenbrod were questioned as to the reason that the referrals for these students were not processed in a timely manner or at all at times, they refused to take any action to protect the students and educators of the school.Instead, they continued to demand that students with almost three years of increasingly inappropriate, abusive, and aggressive behaviors be admitted to classrooms where they posed a threat to their peers and educators, and continued to be disruptive, preventing educators from teaching and students from learning.
One instructional assistant shared that for the first time in over a decade of working at John Rolfe Middle School, she is in fear for her own safety and that of her students.This fear is a direct result of an incident that occurred in which she was the only adult in a hall with over fifty students that were gathered around each other in order to watch two students fight.The students were yelling and pushing into each other in order to instigate the fight.
She shared how she was unable to move as she was pinned against the wall.The students refused her repeated shouts to go to class.When another female teacher pushed her way through the crowd of students in order to disburse them and take the fighting students to the office, she was finally able to move away from the wall.Eventually, she decided to get a whistle for personal safety.
Interestingly enough this "one instructional assistant" which has "informed" on her on this matter, is actually herself... Also of note, is that when the fight was starting, she choose to directly get involved, as opposed to calling the School Resource Officer (an armed Henrico County Police Officer, who is permanently attached to this school) which is the proper procedure... Dr. Lucas received a reprimand for not following procedures. The kids who got in the fight were suspended, and information was passed to Henrico Police for charges to be placed.
Other incidents include a student's threat involving a teacher's unborn child, students engaging in increasingly dangerous "stampedes" down the school halls, knocking over each other, adults, and compromising the safety of students with visual and physical disabilities that travel down the same halls.
Teachers have noted that the sixth grade administrator of Rolfe, Mrs. Sharon Archer, has been the sole administrator that strives to consistently ensure a safe and secure learning environment for students and teachers.Unfortunately, the unwillingness of the seventh and eighth grade administrators, as well as the new principal, to enforce the county's Student Code of Conduct, have forced teachers to resort to excluding the undisciplined, potentially dangerous, and disruptive students from their classrooms in an effort to protect their students and ensure their own safety.
Interestingly enough, Mrs. Archer won't take action on 7th and 8th grade issues when she is directly available to do so stating "it's not my job".
The resulting atmosphere at Rolfe Middle School has become extremely hostile and chaotic, not only for students, but also for educators to the point that extreme levels of stress and unbearable working conditions are impacting the overall health of many.Several teachers have reported increased headaches, instances of high blood pressure, chest pains, and panic attacks.It is reported that conditions have become so severe that one teacher suffered a stroke while at school.
She connects this "stroke" to the stressful conditions... This happened last school year under the former principle, and the teacher has returned... The stroke was small, and was unrelated to the "dangerous environment"
Recently a teacher that attempted to protect her students and ensure her own well-being by not permitting three male students into her classroom that an extensive history of physical/verbal aggression toward teachers and students, as well as regular incidents of defiance, disruption, and disrespect in the halls and a majority of classrooms in which they attended, was issued a written reprimand in which Mr. Armstrong stated, "…if a student was in attendance and arrived at your classroom, you were required to allow them to enter the classroom."
Once again, on an interesting note, the "three students" were separate incidents. And in all three cases, the students were being "returned to class" in the sense that in each case the student was being escorted by an Administrator and the School Resource Officer so that they could pick up their personal belongings from class, as they were being permanently removed from the class... Dr. Lucas attempted to refuse admittance to the School Resource Officer, Administrator and child for this purpose... She was reprimanded for not allowing the kid into the classroom, under proper escort.
When the teacher asked why the administration was failing to be proactive and follow county procedures, citing that the Mr. Rokenbrod had failed to address the discipline referrals regarding the constant and escalating disruptions, abuse, and aggressions of these students in a timely and effective matter, which poses a threat to her other students, their right to an education, and her own welfare, he responded, "if an incident occurred that warranted their removal from class after being admitted, you were then to send the student to time out or call an administrator."Armstrong went on to state that "there was a process that we followed in order to administer discipline to repeat offenders" in his reprimand.
Which is true... There are procedures in place, and documentation which must be filled first... Dr. Lucas is already under scrutiny for failing to abide by procedure, and not merely on this, but also for publicly disclosing confidential files on students in special education... Henrico is presently documenting information to take action upon Dr. Lucas for breech of contract on multiple issues...
This teacher and many others staff members within John Rolfe Middle School, want to know what "process" is being followed by Mr. Rokenbrod and Mr. Armstrong.Based on numerous teacher email communications, disciplinary referrals after discipli-nary referral have been completed on students by teachers without consequence.Plea after plea has been made by teachers to administrators in hopes that the appropriate actions will be taken to restore a safe and secure learning environment for all students and staff with little or no success.
In addition, there were incidents in which student referrals were not addressed for weeks to a span of months at a time, with no effort by the school's administration to discipline these students, provide a safe and secure learning environment for the other students, or ensure that they are supporting educators in their efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for all adults, as required by Henrico County Public School's Student Code of Conduct 2007-2008 guidelines.
Approximately two weeks ago, this same teacher received a handwritten threat in her school mailbox.She reported the incident to Marilyn Royal, Director of Middle School for Henrico County Public Schools;Dr. Phillip Jepson, Director of Human Resources, and several other central office personnel, in addition to school board members of the county.To date, while the Henrico County Police have addressed the issue of the personal safety of this educator, Henrico County Public School officials have not.
What is more interesting, is she "discarded" this supposed "threat" that she received. And her report was in the form of other teachers she suspected to have written this threat to her, to the police... Most of which were teachers who at one point or another had to intervene in her classroom to bring the kids under control after her failure to do so (another point which Dr. Lucas has been reprimanded on, is her lack of classroom management).
When Dr. Jepson was questioned as to why he failed to address a documented threat directed at an educator, he responded that despite having been made aware of the threat nearly two weeks ago, he had not addressed the issue because the educator had went to Henrico police regarding the matter.
He was advised that the employee acted appropriately and that this did not absolve him, as the Director of Human Resources for Henrico County, from investigating the matter, especially since it is suspected that an adult within the building that has access to students made the threat.Furthermore, he was advised that the hostile environment in which the threat was made has escalated for students and educators due to his failure to follow county procedures in completing a threat assessment regarding the incident in a timely manner.To date, no action to determine who made the threat has been taken by Dr. Jepson or any other central office personnel.
To date, Marilyn Royal, Henrico's Director of Human Resources, has received a request to meet with the teachers to discuss the severity of the unsafe, unproductive, and unsupported conditions under which educators are being forced to teach.She has not responded to the request.
It is only a SMALL group of teachers who want the meeting... HR will not meet, because this small group is failing to speak for the school as a whole.
Educators have discussed drastic options such as organizing a school-wide sick day call-in, speaking before the school board, and collectively going to central office in order to bring attention to the detrimental conditions that exist at Rolfe Middle School for them, but more importantly, for their students.One teacher posed the question, "how can they (administrators), expect us to instruct our students under these conditions".
Once again, a small group... You could fill a port-a-potty with the number of teachers who are signed in on this "sick day call-in".
There are concerns that Rolfe Middle School's principal and Henrico County's central office staff are failing its students, staff, and parents in not providing a safe and secure school as required by No Child Left Behind, due to the failure of the administra-tion to follow the county's Student Code of Conduct. One teacher was quoted as stating that "John Rolfe is a ticking time bomb, it is not a question of if something horrible will happen, it is a question of when will it happen and how many students and staff will be hurt as a result."
This "one-teacher" is again herself...
While Rolfe's educators face the possibility of retaliation by administration for exposing these issues, more and more of them are willing to take the risk to ensure the safety and quality of education for their students and families that may not know their rights. One educator stated that "it is our responsibility to do all that we can to protect our children and our school, even when the administrators fail to do their job, we must take the necessary actions to ensure that our students learn in a safe, secure, and uninterrupted learning environment.This is our professional and personal responsibility on an ethical and moral level."
To date, efforts are being made to notify the appropriate state and federal agencies, advocacy groups, and parents in order to prevent a major incident from taking place that may result in, what teachers are describing, as a inevitable disaster within the school due to the continued lack of administrative discipline.
John Rolfe Middle School recently received an overall rating of a "three out of ten" from the web-based parent resource tool, Great Schools.It is an at-risk school whose student population are seventy percent African-American and forty percent low-income families.
It is also reported that the school is struggling to maintain state accreditation as it faces several administrative- related challenges, which include major noncompliance issues as it relates not only to school safety, but also regarding the quality of services that are provided to its students with special needs.
What is actually going on here, is that this Dr. Lucas is attempting to stir trouble County state and Federal wide on the issue here for the purpose of a lawsuit... This all comes up after her incident of revealing confidential information, and her reprimand... It's quite likely (given that Henrico County Public Schools has already been notified of this article, and the publication of such is itself a violation of her contract, again, for not following procedure in that all publications by Teachers/Administrators must go through the county Publications Office first)... That Dr. Lucas will be unemployed by the close of this school year (and more likely earlier), and Dr. Armstrong is already taking preliminary steps towards civil proceedings against Dr. Lucas for slander as soon as she is fired by the County.