Academics informed the Vancouver college board on Tuesday they felt blindsided when the district launched outcomes of an investigation right into a former instructor’s alleged sexual misconduct the day earlier than guardian conferences.
The investigations concluded that district directors didn’t appropriately self-discipline former Hudson’s Bay Excessive College English instructor Shadbreon Gatson or totally examine allegations of his sexual involvement with a number of college students.
The investigation into Gatson’s conduct was accomplished Jan. 28 by the regulation agency Simmons, Sweeney, Freimund, Smith and Tardif. It particulars interviews with three college students who attended Bay between 2009 and 2015 who mentioned they skilled sexual encounters with Gatson, together with on college grounds and at Gatson’s home.
A handful of Skyview and Hudson’s Bay lecturers wore teal ribbons on the board assembly in recognition of Sexual Assault Consciousness Month, which is April.
Bay instructor Elana Wendel mentioned college students are getting a whole lot of help however employees who’ve labored with Gatson for years aren’t, regardless that college students and fogeys are coming to them with their outrage. Wendel mentioned she has a scholar whose dad and mom are pulling her out of Bay for her senior yr due to the sexual misconduct allegations.
Gatson was arrested Dec. 20 on suspicion of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, after a former scholar reported to Bay employees and Vancouver police in early December that she was sexually victimized in 2013 when she was 16, in response to courtroom data.
“If you’ve got these new, improved measures for safety, why have you not shared them with your staff and students?” Chun questioned.
She and different lecturers pointed to the shortage of accountability within the Gatson case.
Court docket data acknowledged that in June 2013, a Bay custodian informed the varsity’s principal, William Oman, and assistant principal, Valerie Seeley, that he interrupted Gatson and the scholar partaking in sexual activity in a band room after hours.
Throughout the third-party investigations, Oman and Seeley voluntarily went on administrative depart pending the end result.
The 2 will return from depart to modified roles for the rest of the varsity yr, in response to the March 19 letter. Seeley was Bay’s principal and Oman was the district’s govt director for center faculties when the investigations started.
Skyview instructor Jeanne Federovitch mentioned permitting these accountable to return to work “is not only a slap in the face to those of us who work hard every single day at doing the right thing, but it underscores what anti-public education people fear about public schools. People already suspect our profession is full of predators and administrators who just push everything along and under the rug.”
Sabrina Sheehy, a psychological well being therapist and Vancouver Public Faculties guardian, joined Monday’s assembly over Zoom. She had participated with Bay college students in the course of the Jan. 6 walkout to protest the district’s dealing with of Gatson’s intercourse allegations.
“Your apologies mean nothing if it is not accompanied by change,” Sheehy informed the board.
