CARIBOU, Maine – Two Caribou mothers didn’t think they’d find the answers they wanted during the last school board meeting on April 1, but that didn’t stop them from trying.
Over a year ago, their two sons were involved in a three-person fight at Caribou High School and suspended; they’ve disagreed with the outcome ever since.
Both mothers understand how sometimes, parents tend to believe their child’s side of the story — but they confidently state that there’s one thing that differentiates them from biased parents: “We have a tape,” said Kathy Guerrette-Whitten.
At least, there should be a tape.
According to Whitten and Stacey Frost, the mother of one other child suspended in the fight, the school administration has multiple signed copies of a tape the parents claim absolves both their sons from wrongdoing. Whitten’s watched the tape – she says her initials are on each copy of the video – and she also claims school officials prohibited her from obtaining a copy.
Whitten described the video showed her son trying to avoid the advancing bully; her son’s hands were even in his pockets when he was attacked.
Frost claims that her son rushed to the aid of Whitten’s son, fending off the alleged bully. Whitten and Frost’s sons were suspended a week for fighting.
With what they perceive to be sound evidence proving their sons’ innocence, the mothers are still pushing to set the record straight, but the road has been pretty rough.
“More than the incident is how it was handled – and how unfair it was,” Frost said last week.
Just across Caribou’s downtown, Leland Caron works diligently to address bullying events that arise at his school. Even with Caribou Middle School’s active anti-bullying stance, much of the principal’s time is devoted to making sure students feel safe under that CMS roof.
As he outlined, two things happen when a student, bystander or teacher reports suspected bullying: Caron reaches for a Bullying Report Form — it’s form JICK-E1 on the RSU web page — and he makes sure the victim is safely away from the bully. He’ll even notify teachers about the problem so they can be on extra alert in the coming hours, days or even longer. A copy of the initial report form is sent to the superintendent as soon as it’s filled out, and Caron starts conducting an investigation.
“Sometimes kids call things bullying and it’s not,” he clarified. Sometimes, students will report they’re being bullied because another student is doing something like staring at them. Caron works with the student to proactively avoid the staring person.
In a time when his students are still worried about being a “tattletale” or a “narc” or a “snitch,” Caron is pleased that his students feel comfortable reporting these types of matters to school officials and encourages them to continue doing so — whether or not it’s actual bullying.
Like the rest of the RSU staff, CMS teachers are trained early on what constitutes bullying, cyber bullying and harassment – and what is simply one student being mean or not nice to another. Sometimes it’s two students who both aren’t being nice, and Caron frequently sees that scenario in his office; often, it’s accompanied by one student conveniently omitting their own contributions to the issue when relaying the bullying complaint.
Even in those moments, educators find teachable moments that help students learn to be accountable for their actions.
“This is a precious, tender time,” Caron qualified with an understanding smile, a parent himself. “It is a challenge growing up — and then throw in the social media.”
The times when Caron does determine bullying has occurred, he reaches for bullying investigation form JICK-E2. That second form collects information like who’s being bullied by whom, who the reporter is, and where and when the incident took place.
“If this kid is being bullied, I want to protect them, but I need the evidence,” Caron said, describing the challenges of seeing through the he-said she-said hearsay. It’s a lot of work and a lot of hours, but Caron turns his investigations around in a handful of days.
Whitten’s and Frost’s sons didn’t experience that same expedience with their documentation. They were both suspended for fighting on Feb. 6, 2014.
Whitten provided her son’s Bullying Report Form – the one that’s supposed to be done as quickly as possible with a copy sent to the superintendent; it was completed about three weeks later on Feb. 25, 2014. Documents provided by Whitten showed that the investigation was completed that same day, as was the form summarizing the student’s disciplinary actions. What also concerns Whitten is an entry made in her son’s school records regarding the happenings of the Feb. 6 fight – but the entry was made the following school year, on Sept. 17, 2014.
RSU 39 Superintendent Susan White was unable to comment on the events that led to the suspension of Whitten and Frost’s sons, but she did comment that timeliness is important with a bullying investigation.
“Sometimes there is an incident that occurs and it isn’t until the investigation gets well under way that it is uncovered that there might have been some bullying at the root of it,” she described, explaining that administrators are expected to implement the district’s bullying investigation policy at the point when bullying is revealed. “Sometimes the potential bullying comes to the surface well into a very long investigation of a particular incident.”
White also explained that kids learn best when they feel safe and are comfortable in their schools, and that each school learns something from every bullying investigation underwent.
“We grow from those new perspectives and knowledge,” she added.
Over at the Middle School, Caron tries to stay ahead of bullying by being proactive. Recent student survey results caused him to change the number of teachers in the halls between classes, for instance, and he changed the watch patterns of duty teachers working in the cafeteria and during recess.
The results of those changes have been positive, but Caron will still discreetly ask the victims of previously-addressed bullying situations how things are going.
“Many times they say it’s a lot better, but a couple times they say it hasn’t really improved a whole lot,” the principal acknowledged. In those instances, he investigates the matter further, seeking resolution.
There are times Caron defers to the RSU’s policy, particularly when an incident is teetering on the edge of bullying or not. In those instances, witnesses help bring out the truth of an investigation, as do things like video or, when it comes to cyber bullying, social media printouts.
“We want to make sure we’re doing what’s right and I know sometimes decisions will make people unhappy because they feel not enough is done,” Caron acknowledged.
White has worked as a teacher and a principal before becoming superintendent, and she acknowledges that bullying situations are very emotional and delicate for all parties involved.
“We want to support the victim and balance holding the person who is carrying out the bullying behavior accountable while trying to assist that person in changing their behavior,” White said.
“Sometimes this causes hard feelings and feelings of not being heard and supported by both the victim and his or her family, and for the student who was bullying the other student and his or her family,” she added. “We strive to resolve issues at the school level but sometimes that is difficult despite efforts by everyone involved.”
When resolutions can’t be found locally, White said the next step is an appeal to the next level.
Whitten and Frost have spoken with a lawyer, but they’re not interested in punishing the citizens of Caribou for what they feel was the mistake of school officials. They describe inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the school’s documents that are supposed to detail the fight, and they want the record set straight.
“We asked for an amendment of both their permanent records back when it happened, back when we watched the videos of it and it was clearly not accurate what they’d written,” Frost said.
An addition was made to her son’s record along the lines that it was her son’s contention that he was trying to help another student; Frost’s son has graduated and has gone off to college, but she’s still working to amend his record because, as she said frankly, “it’s wrong.”
In the meantime, Whitten’s son says that he doesn’t feel safe in his school.
RSU 39’s bullying policy is detailed on their website, RSU39.org
