PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — In the mid-afternoon hours Wednesday, Amanda Kubeck-Sherman of Presque Isle sat on the sidewalk at the intersection of Blake and Griffin streets near Presque Isle High School and held up a cardboard sign that read “MSAD 1 Stop the Bullying!”
Kubeck-Sherman had been on the sidewalk for three hours that day and said she would remain there for at least two hours more. She said she came to peacefully protest the way in which she believes SAD 1 officials, including Superintendent Brian Carpenter, mishandled a bullying investigation conducted on behalf of her son, Asher Tuttle, 14.
“My son is dyslexic and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and he has experienced physical bullying and sexual harassment because of his disabilities,” Kubeck-Sherman said. “This has been going on for a long time and it’s sad to see how all of it has affected him emotionally.”
The mother had requested a due process hearing on behalf of her son with the state Department of Education in 2017, alleging that the school system failed to provide her son the appropriate public education he deserved under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
After listening to various witnesses over four days in October and November last year and examining hundreds of documents provided by both sides, a public hearing officer ruled in January that the school district had violated federal special education laws necessitating “a substantive remedy, as well as corrective actions.”
[documentcloud url=”http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4741396-17-088DecisionandOrder.html” responsive=true]
Among other things, the hearing officer ordered that within 45 days, the student’s Individualized Education Program team from the school district perform both an assistive technology assessment and a literacy assessment. The officer also ordered the team to provide technological assistance to the boy’s parents — who share custody of Tuttle during the week — and his grandmother, who lives with Tuttle’s father. The ruling then stipulated that Tuttle attend weekly 30-minute literacy consultation sessions during the remainder of the 2017-2018 school year.
The hearing officer also determined that school officials must amend Tuttle’s Individualized Education Program to include “clear and accurate strengths and weaknesses” and provide him with 60 hours of additional one-on-one tutoring in English Language Arts subjects to “compensate for not implementing the student’s IEP from the beginning of school in fall 2016 to February 8, 2017.”
But during her protest on Wednesday, Kubeck-Sherman said that SAD 1 officials have not followed through with the mandated actions and that she has filed for a second due process hearing.
On Tuesday, Carpenter responded to the allegations in an email stating that the Department of Education “has found us to be in compliance. We can’t give more details, but I want to restate that the DOE has written us and found us in compliance.”
Kubeck-Sherman disagreed with that assessment and added that, because the school district also has not properly addressed bullying and taunting by some of Tuttle’s peers, her son fears going to school.
“Asher first came to me in 2015 and said that other students call him names like ‘stupid’ and ‘retard,’ but he told me to keep all this to myself, because he didn’t want the bullying to get worse,” Kubeck-Sherman said.
Since then, however, the bullying continued to escalate into physical confrontations and instances in which a female classmate made inappropriate sexual comments about Tuttle on social media, according to Kubeck-Sherman.
The mother said she eventually did talk to school officials, but that the school district did not do a “thorough” investigation of her son’s allegations of bullying or create a safety plan. That has forced her, she said, to homeschool Tuttle since June 2017.
In spite of her concerns, Kubeck-Sherman said she would prefer her son attend public school and have the same educational and extracurricular opportunities as his peers, including participating on the high school’s golf team.
Carpenter said he would request another investigation into the alleged bullying and notify Kubeck-Sherman of the results. In compliance with state policies, he said a different individual would be assigned to conduct the new investigation.
Though he could not comment on the details of the previous probe, Carpenter said that the school followed all Maine Department of Education policies in regards to investigating accusations of bullying.
According to “An Act to Prohibit Bullying and Cyberbullying in Schools,” a law that the Maine Legislature passed in May 2012, the school principal or a person designated by the superintendent must “promptly investigate and respond to allegations of bullying behavior.”
The law also encourages school officials to maintain contact with the parents or guardians of both the student who is believed to have been bullied and of the alleged bully throughout the investigation to ensure safety and prevent further incidents.
“Our school policies for investigating bullying are the same policies that the state education department mandates,” Carpenter said. “This is a case in which we conducted an investigation but the individual requesting it did not like the outcome.”
A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Education said officials with the agency could not legally comment on any pending or existing investigations conducted by MSAD 1.
On Saturday, Kubeck-Sherman said she returned to protest outside Presque Isle High School for about five hours on Thursday and again on Friday. Her motivation, she said, is to spread awareness of her son’s story and the issue of bullying. She plans to continue advocating for his rights.
Kubeck-Sherman confirmed that MSAD 1 officials have formally contacted her in regards to the second bullying investigation, but added that she still plans to homeschool Tuttle during the upcoming school year until the conflicts can be resolved.
“Asher would have loved to join the golf team but doesn’t want to anymore because he’s scared of being bullied,” she said. “All I want is for him to have a safe environment to learn and have the same chances as other students.”
