In Wake of Ethnic Slur Teacher, LCUSD Argues Over Complaint Policy

Lashing out at the governing board nearly four hours into Tuesday's marathon meeting, parent Lauren Oakes said she was "appalled'' that the district would consider closing an avenue in the public complaint process against teachers.

"This is exactly the wrong thing to do at exactly the wrong time,'' she said. 

Oakes called out embattled LCHS math teacher by name, saying, "The district and the board have not done right by us and have allowed things to go on that, in hindsight, should not have gone on.''

Former school board member Cindy Wilcox filed a public complaint against Leko last June, having received information from several people that Leko spoke inappropriately to students. Leko is accused of calling a student  as well as allegedly using other racial and ethnic slurs in class, in addition to exhibiting gender discrimination against female students.

The board is looking to The district's suggested revision would "not entertain complaints ... where the complainant has neither directly witnessed the events related to the complaint'' nor is a student's parent or guardian. 

Wilcox' public complaint--which included first-hand accounts from at least one student and her parent--led to a district investigation and multiple closed-door sessions that resulted in a  if no settlement could be reached. Back in November, an  found, in part, that Leko used inappropriate language in class as a means to banter with her students. 

No settlement has been reached, therefore dismissal proceedings are underway.

What If Parents Don't Want Their Child Named?

One issue to consider, said board member Susan Boyd, is exposing the student and parent to unwelcome public scrutiny, when neither the student nor the parent wanted to be named in the complaint. Boyd said she doesn't think third parties should be allowed to file complaints on behalf of someone else’s child without that student's parent agreeing to it.

"Or if the parents object to the complaint and don’t want the kid involved in the complaint process--and that is what is happening and that is what has happened.

"[The Leko complaint] was filed without the parent or student being consulted before being named, ... and that’s not appropriate,'' Boyd said, adding the complaint shouldn't have made its way to the media "with everyone getting dragged through the process.''

No students associated with the complaint have been publicized. Student Alyssa Stolmack, however, stood in front of the school board and referred to Leko's class langauge as ' She and her mother, Debra Archuleta, complained to administrators and a counselor during the 2010-11 school year, but no one followed up with them, Archuleta has said. 

Oakes, a parent of three children who graduated from , commended the board for beginning dismissal proceedings against Leko, but asked that they not go backwards.

"Your predecessors have ignored bad situations, and some of you have ignored bad sitations. ... Everyone's known about this for years,'' she said.

Boyd, who along with members Scott Tracy and Joel Peterson were re-elected to the board in 2009, disagreed with Oakes. Tracy, after asking Oakes specifically whom she meant, pointed out that "there is no value in personalizing the conversation.'' Peterson did not attend Tuesday's meeting. 

An Analogy

Superintendent Wendy Sinnette offered this scenario: A community member is attending a football game. At that game the person sees a district employee grab a student's pony tail. The person who witnessed the hair pulling has every right to bring a complaint and have it adjudicated.

"But if I tell my friend I saw it, and my friend has not seen it, and wasn’t at the game, I have a question as to the relevancy and appropriateness of that–it's very removed from the incident,'' Sinnette said.

Furthering the analogy, member Andrew Blumenfeld quipped that there was still an employee pulling a student's hair, and it wouldn't have taken too much investigating to find a witness who saw it first hand. 

"We have done so much over the last couple of months to make this process transparent and accessible, I don’t think the right move for us is to complete that work [by making] it harder for anyone to make a complaint,'' he said.

Blumenfeld added that if something terrible is happening in the district, and the concerned individual is finding no satisfaction from attempted phone calls and emails to the district, they're going to look for another outlet.

"People will most likely not make a big show of things, and not feel the need to air their griveances in the pubic square, if they're being addressed institutionally,'' he said.  

Accountability and Due Process

Standing from her seat in the public gallery, Archuleta, an attorney of 22 years, said accountability was the problem. If the district had responded properly to --if an email had been returned-- the board might not be having this protracted discussion.

Archuleta asked about the due process of the ninth-grade students in Leko's classroom last year, and pointed out that she sees no language in the proposed policy that would make it easier for a kid to register a complaint. 

As for going public, Archuleta said, "Most parents didn’t have the guts to put their names out there for fear of reprisal. I’ve been very public ... and when this issue comes up on the school campus, teachers give [my daughter] a long hard stare.

"I understand why parents don't want to [identify themselves], but that doesn't mean there wasn't some malfeasance,'' she said.

By 11:15 p.m., believing Blumenfeld and Ellen Multari likely to vote against the proposed changes, with Boyd and Tracy voting for them, the board tabled the issue until the April meeting.