The mother of a Pleasant Grove Middle School student has had a district grievance hearing and filed complaints with state and federal agencies after her daughter received in-school suspension for her alleged role in a racially charged email.
Amanda Bowers said school officials initially gave her daughter, Abigail, three days of out-of-school suspension and then an additional seven days of in-school suspension after a photo featuring KKK members was sent through her student email account to two black students. Bowers said on Feb. 8 her daughter logged in for two students sitting on either side of her and one of them sent the photo.
Throughout the process, Abigail has maintained she was not involved in sending the photos.
Bowers would like the district to explain the seven extra days of punishment her daughter received and to clear this incident from her school records.
Interim Superintendent Roger Hailey declined to answer questions from a Gazette reporter this week, stating the district does not comment on individual student situations, per school board policy.
"We are following down to the letter school board policy pertaining to this particular situation," he said.
On Friday, Amanda Bowers was summoned to a Level 1 grievance hearing. Bowers said she filed the grievance with the district on Feb. 20. It was to the district by postal mail, she said, but when she contacted Hailey Feb. 27 to see if they had received it, he said they had not. She said she then emailed a copy of the complaint form. She said Hailey told her the form would go to PGMS Principal Linda Erie for review.
"He told me it was not supposed to go to him, that it would go to the principal of the school, meaning Linda Erie," Bowers said. "I said, 'But she's the problem. Why wouldn't it go to you?' He said it has to go to her first and then go to him. Level 2 and Level 3 would go to the school board."
The district had until March 12 to respond to the grievance.
In addition to the Level 1 grievance hearing at the district, Bowers filed complaints Feb. 20 with the Texas Education Agency, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union. The TEA complaints are against Erie and Assistant Principal Jon Tomberlain alleging educator misconduct.
Bowers said representing the district at Friday's hearing was attorney Wes Jordan, PGMS Dean of Students Kristen Giles, Erie and Tomberlain.
"This little intimidation stunt to rattle my cage and get me to back off of it isn't going to work," she said Friday. "And look at all the district money they've wasted and they could have just done their job in the first place."
During the hearing, Bowers was given 23 exhibits, including incident reports by students and the class teacher, copies of the emails with the KKK image, the student handbook and code of conduct, the district's network user responsibility contract, the district's board policy manual and statements from administrators refuting Bowers' claims.
She said she was also given the chance to submit her own exhibits to the school. She was told a decision will be made within 10 days by Erie.
The additional seven days of in-school suspension Bowers' daughter was serving for violating the district's code of conduct by misusing the district's technology resources and the internet was cut short for good behavior on Wednesday, according to Bowers, two days after the Gazette requested the interview with Hailey.
One of the two girls whom Bowers' daughter logged in for also received disciplinary action, according to Bowers. She said the girl who allegedly sent the image received 60 days in the Disciplinary Alternative Education Program, and that to her knowledge, the other was not disciplined.
Bowers thinks the additional seven days of in-school suspension her daughter initially received were a way to retaliate against her as she has advocated on her children's behalf prior to the Feb. 8 incident. In addition to her eighth-grade daughter, Bowers has a son attending school at another PG campus.
When she initially asked Giles why her daughter had an additional seven days of suspension, Bowers said she was told it was due to the severity of the content of the email.
"Abigail had nothing to do with the content, so why is she being punished for the content?" she asked. "I'll tell you why she got an extra seven days. Because we went to the superintendent."
Bowers said attempted in February to get information about the incident from the district's middle school officials who, according to Bowers, would not talk to her despite repeated attempts she made in February.
"There is absolutely no disciplinary grid," she said. "There are no recommendations for what to do in these kinds of situations. Hailey said as long as they determine Abigail hasn't been involved in any other way other than just letting the kids use her login information, she won't be in any other trouble."
"She was just trying to help out her friends," Bowers said of her daughter allowing them to use her account to do their schoolwork. "From my understanding, it's a pretty common thing."
Bowers said on Feb. 12, the girls were questioned in the school library and they each filled out an incident report.
She expressed concern for the girls' privacy and said the girls were questioned in front of each other.
In his refuation to allegations in Bower's grievance, Tomberlain states, "The girls were not questioned in front of or near each other. Each student was seated at a separate table and filled out an incident report at separate tables. Each student walked to the back of the library and briefly spoke with me, Ms. Erie and Ms. Giles."
The next day, Bowers said Tomberlain took Abigail out of class and had her sit at a table in the library for two hours. She was also asked to fill out an additional incident report about any fighting she had witnessed among the girls.
"For the second incident report, they wanted to know if she ever talked to anyone about the incident and had she talked with anyone about fighting with any other students," Bowers said. "Two hours later, Principal Linda Erie and Kristen Giles come and get her and take her into the office and then asked her, 'Well, what did you tell your mother about all of this? What's she know?'"
They then left and Tomberlain told her she would be suspended for three days for violating the district's network user policy, Bowers said.
Bowers said when she and her husband went to pick Abigail up from the school, Tomberlain did not tell them what happened, only that their daughter had violated the school's code of conduct by misusing the district's technology resources and the internet and that they were investigating the incident.
The Bowers then contacted Interim Superintendent Roger Hailey, who agreed to meet with them. That's when he told them Abigail wouldn't be in any further trouble if they determined she had nothing to do with sending the email, she said.
On Feb. 13, Bowers said she, her husband and Abigail met with Erie, Tomberlain and Giles and that they refused to answer their questions regarding the incident.
"This is not an exaggeration of any kind. They sat there and stared at us. They did what the superintendent told them to do," she said. "He called them and told them they need to meet with the parents and they did it, but they damn sure weren't going to answer any of our questions."
Bowers said at one point in the meeting, Erie told her they were not going to do "this back and forth where you ask me questions."
"They just wouldn't tell us anything," she said. "They did what they were told to do and met with us, but they weren't going to talk about it. We never got anything that day written as to why our daughter's been suspended."
The next day, Feb 14, she said Giles called to tell her she could pick up a copy of the incident report.
"They didn't find anything else," Bowers told the Gazette on March 1. "They know Abigail's not involved in any way. They looked back through all the kids' emails. They know Abby's not a part of it. All she did was violate the district's network policy by letting the two girls use her login. But she now has an additional seven days of in-school suspension."
On Feb. 28, she filed an open records request with the district to get more information on the situation.
"I filed an open records request with Central Office Thursday (Feb. 28) for any disciplinary action, including write-ups and referrals in regards to the misuse of technology, because if this is standard punishment for kids who let other kids use their login, well then there must be a slew of other kids who got two weeks of suspension for doing it," she said. "If not, why did my kid get it?"
The district has 10 business days to respond to the request.
She also filed the request to include any emails or written communications regarding her daughter's specific discipline case or her daughter in general. Additionally, she has requested the school provide her with any video recordings related to the incident. She's seeking legal counsel, as well.
TEA Spokesperson Lauren Callahan said the agency encourages issues to be resolved locally.
"When we receive a complaint, we refer them to the local school board first to make sure they had done everything they could do to resolve it locally. They have elected their local school board. That's their first line of defense. Complaints should be heard and known locally before they come to us," she said. "If after doing so, if that person believes it has not been adequately heard or resolved, it would then come to us. In general, we take a look at the complaint to determine whether it was something that was a valid complaint. We would also determine if we have jurisdiction here at the agency. If we determine we have the jurisdiction, we would open an investigation take a look into the allegations."
She said there is no timeline for investigations and that TEA keeps cases open as long as needed.
Bowers said this is not the first incident she's had with the district. She said she was called to the school near the beginning of the year regarding Abigail's outfit of leggings and a T-shirt and that she's also had issues at the Intermediate School while trying to get additional services for her son.
She said the lack of a discipline grid is an issue, because it gives the district "total autonomy."
"The handbook states they can suspend a student for any violation of the code of conduct," she said. "I guarantee you these parents have no idea this is what's going on. That has to change. How many other kids are they doing this same thing to? I guarantee you it's happened to somebody else. They don't get to do it. Our kids don't lose their constitutional rights because they walked in the school. They have a reasonable right to privacy, a reasonable right to due process and to just be treated fairly. I am so proud of Abigail for not hiding and being willing to stand up for it."
Bowers said her daughter continues to be bullied for the incident, with other students calling her a racist, and she's trying to get the school to address that issue.
"There is no limit to the lengths I will go to protect my children and ensure they are treated with dignity and respect," she said on March 7.
After the Level 1 hearing, Bowers was more emphatic about standing up for her child.
"They're doubling down. They're using it to intimidate me and scare me and try to get me to back off of it," she said. "I may not be a lawyer, but no lawyer can fight for my kid the way that I plan to. And they can throw all the money that they want to at it. I'll either clear her name or I'll die trying. What else can I do?"