***Student’s name changed to protect his privacy.***
Yesterday, Little Rock grandmother Ida Pettus got called to the principal’s office at McDermott Elementary for a conference. Ms. Pettus’ grandson, Andy, had been involved in a physical altercation with adults in the school cafeteria. This meeting turned into a lawsuit within 24 hours.
What on earth happened?
Upon arriving, Ida Pettus began recording the meeting. An LRSD Safety & Security officer who was in the room told her he didn’t consent to being recorded, and she would have to turn off her camera. However, Ms. Pettus knew her rights: She continued to record until her camera ran out of memory.
What happened at that meeting is, as Ida Pettus says, a “classic case of pipeline to prison.”
Principal Pam Dial informed Ida Pettus that Andy had disobeyed instructions to go to the back of the line in the cafeteria. In response, a cafeteria worker had pushed Andy into line. Andy asked her not to push him. At that point, a male staff member came and stretched Andy’s arms out behind him — causing him crucial pain — and marched him to the principal’s office.
Immediately, Ida Pettus asked to view surveillance video of the incident.
Instead of allowing Ms. Pettus to view the video immediately (as the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act requires) Principal Pam Dial said she would need to call her “boss.” It turns out, Ms. Dial believed her boss was Freddie Fields, LRSD’s Director of Student Services. Confused, Ida Pettus asked, “How is he your boss? He’s just over student registration!”
Good point.
Instead of Freddie Fields, Pam Dial asked Darian Smith (Executive Director of Elementary Education) to join the meeting. Together, Ms. Dial and Mr. Smith denied Ida Pettus the right to view the video of her grandson being pushed by one staff member and put into an arm lock by another. They said Ms. Pettus could not view it unless Ron Self, LRSD Director of Safety and Security, was present.
By that point, Pam Dial seemed quite angry. Ida Pettus had undermined Ms. Dial’s authority by recording the conference, and by refusing to allow Freddie Fields to mediate the conference. Although Ms. Dial had not mentioned any violent behavior by Pettus’ grandson in her initial report, Ms. Dial suddenly started insisting that Andy had hit the cafeteria worker who had pushed him.
Despite Ms. Dial’s initial recommendation for just a parent conference and a 24-hour suspension, Pam Dial quickly escalated her recommendation to long-term expulsion for Ida Pettus’ elementary-aged grandson. Yesterday, when the meeting ended, Ms. Dial gave Ms. Pettus a blank disciplinary form. Today, Pam Dial gave official notice of Andy’s long term expulsion, claiming that a meeting of the School Based Intervention Team (SBIT) had already been held, and that the team had decided to expel Andy.
Even if Andy did hit the cafeteria worker who pushed him, expulsion of an elementary student for a first offense violates the LRSD Student Handbook. His alleged action would have fallen under the definition of “Bullying” in the handbook:
…threat or incitement of violence against another student or public school employee by a written, verbal, electronic, or physical act that… causes or creates actual or reasonably foreseeable physical harm to a public school employee… a hostile educational environment… [or] substantial disruption to the orderly operation of the school…
LRSD 2019-20 Student Handbook, pp. 59-60.
For Andy’s first offense (assuming he actually did commit this physical, disruptive act,) Ms. Dial should have recommended a 3-4-day suspension and/or participation in counseling, plus a mandatory parent conference.
In violation of the LRSD Student Handbook, Pam Dial only got as far as a parent conference with Ida Pettus before she decided to salt the earth by expelling Andy.
Pam Dial also attempted to press criminal charges against Andy by calling Little Rock Police Department during the conference and filing criminal charges against the child, since hitting “a teacher or other school employee while acting in the course of employment” constitutes second degree battery.
Wait. This story sounds familiar. Little Rock School District recently fired former principal Rhonda Hall for hitting a student. However, the whole incident wouldn’t even have been investigated if it weren’t for the heroic efforts of staff members who smuggled a copy of the surveillance video out to the public. Until the video went public, LRSD Safety & Security — along with Deputy Superintendent Marvin Burton and the LRPD — took Rhonda Hall at her word when Hall (wrongly) asserted that the student had hit her.
Rhonda Hall even filed a false police report for second degree battery, just like Pam Dial did when Ida Pettus challenged her. Is there an LRSD playbook for framing children as criminals to protect violent adults?
So far, Ida Pettus has only filed an Appeal from Denial of Rights Pursuant to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. (Full disclosure: I am suing LRSD for similar reasons.) LRSD should have allowed her to view the surveillance video immediately, or at least by this morning when Ms. Pettus’ attorney filed a more formal request.
However, if LRSD continues to deny Ms. Pettus’ right to view the video, and Principal Pam Dial insists on expelling a student for alleged violence no one has proven, I believe Ms. Pettus and her grandson will have a much bigger case against the district.