Parents Want Tougher Policy on Sex Offenses

Susan Troller:

Nancy Greenwald, an attorney and one of the parents involved in the complaint, urged the board to accept Superintendent Art Rainwater's recommendation that Vazquez be fired and to turn over all relevant files to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, which has begun an investigation that could lead to the revocation of Vazquez's teaching license.

In addition, Greenwald said, "We need you to do more. We urge you to step in and turn this administration around. From the beginning, the administration tried to push this complaint under the rug."

Kelly Fitzgerald, PTO president at Jefferson, said in an interview after the meeting: "It has been arduous and painstaking. That it took this long for the administration to recommend removing this teacher is obscene."

Board member Lucy Mathiak, chair of the district's Partnerships Committee, said that supporting and enhancing relationships with parents would be a priority for her committee.

Later, she added: "I think one of the fundamental questions facing our district is whether we treat parents as resources or problems. Any parent who is concerned about safety, discipline or academic issues needs to feel confident that their concerns are going to be heard. We have to court the parents. The future of our schools depends on their confidence that we are working as partners with them."

WKOW-TV has more:

Parent Nancy Greenwald is still troubled about what it took to get Vazquez out of the classroom.

"We found the system seriously flawed."

Greenwald and other parents say school investigators originally failed to connect the dots of Vazquez's alleged pattern of sexual harassment.

Sandy Cullen:

"The recommendation finally reached after 13 months included an independent investigation and an evaluation by a psychotherapist who was asked to determine whether or not Mr. Vazquez poses a danger to our children," Greenwald said, adding that if the psychotherapist's evaluation "is one reason for the superintendent's recommendation, as we believe it is, then the initial dismissal of our concerns by the administration was not only wrong, it was dangerously wrong."

"It should not take the yearlong efforts of a large group of parents that happens to include two attorneys to get the administration to do the right thing," Greenwald said. "Students who are the victims of sexual harassment are often vulnerable, needy children with little support at home. Who's going to protect them?"

Posted by Jim Zellmer at July 18, 2006 4:05 PM
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