School Scenario Formal Response Letter

School Scenario

Formal Response Letter to Mrs. Robertson

Mrs. Dorothy Robertson

2214 Elm Street, Trenton, NJ 08603

Robert Gonzales, Principal, Middle Fork Middle School

Rationale for why the principal said what was said to Mrs. Robertson

The principal of course does not know exactly what went wrong in that classroom but it was deemed important to back up the teacher until any evidence to the contrary is discovered. The letter to Mrs. Robertson was intended as an immediate formal response which acknowledged the parents' concern and a copy (cc) of the letter to Mrs. Robertson was sent to the superintendent. There were other possibilities in terms of how pornographic images were shown to a 7th grade classroom; for example, the computer Ms. Paulson was using could have been infected with some kind of malware of spyware or otherwise may have been hit with a virus. This could possibly explain why photos that are considered pornographic could have appeared; there may have been a pop-up and Ms. Paulson may have clicked on it without knowing its lurking danger and hence, uncomfortably raw photos may have been shown.

The most important point that was made to Mrs. Robertson was that the school is taking her concern seriously and is in the process of investigating. The immediacy of the response to Mrs. Robertson is more important than the principal's suggestions as to how this matter could have happened in the school's 7th grade classroom.

TWO: Developing a plan of action

(a) Identify what actions would be taken immediately. The first thing the principle needs to do is contact the district legal counsel to make certain that each step taken follows the spirit and the specifics of state and federal laws and of the Trent Public Schools regulations. Before the principal notifies any teachers, including Ms. Paulson, he needs to coordinate his actions with the superintendent, with the legal counsel, and with his assistant principals. He needs to be fully informed as to the way in which this incident can be thoroughly and legally investigated, without violating the rights of Ms. Paulson. The principal also needs to find out if the filtering software that is required of all Internet-accessed computers was working in Ms. Paulson's classroom at the time of the incident. If it wasn't working, why was it not operable? He needs to keep in mind this allegation came from one student: a) was this student believable; b) why weren't there complaints from the parents of other students; and c) if the school has a technology acceptable-use policy, how does that apply here?

(b) Which principles and issues relating to teacher supervision and evaluation are involved in this matter? The principal knows from personal experience that Ms. Paulson has trouble maintaining an orderly classroom. Indeed the principal has visited Paulson's classroom twice, and he should have had a conference with Paulson as regards her poor classroom discipline -- or otherwise he should have provided her with a support teacher aide or teacher training opportunities. Any teacher in a classroom with digital technologies that could conceivably be accessed by students should have very strict control over her class. The principal has shown a lack professionalism by failing to confront Paulson vis-a-vis her lack of discipline.

(c) Identify which board policies and state laws apply to the issues in this case. The laws in New Jersey require schools to follow federal guidelines (FCC issues guidelines); hence, "ALL Internet-accessible computers used by the schools and libraries…" must have filtering technologies whether or not they received federal funds (Children's Internet Protection Act) (CIPA) (www.state.nj.us). The Trenton Board of Education has set down rules, referred to as "Acceptable Use Of The Internet" (www.trenton.k12.nj.us). The guidelines include the fact that students "…shall not have access to inappropriate matter or content in the Internet… [and] Student use of the Internet shall be supervised by staff" (www.trenton.k12.nj.us). Moreover, the Trenton Board of Education requires that each principal shall ensure "…that staff receive proper training in the use of the [school's Internet technologies]" and he or she must ensure that students "…are adequately supervised when using the system" (www.trenton.k12.nj.us). The Board of Education "…shall ensure the acquisition and installation of blocking/filtering software" (www.trenton.k12.nj.us).

(d) Determine if a formal investigation is warranted or not. At this point, there does not seem to be justification for a formal investigation. This is a problem that should be reviewed and solved in house. Launching a formal investigation gets the media into the picture and stirs rumors that can be damaging to the school's reputation.

(e) What steps (by a timeline) should be taken in order to investigate the allegations? First, the principal needs to learn if filtering software was in that computer. Second, assuming the principal has cleared his efforts with legal counsel, the department chair, Ms. Paulson, the principal, his assistants and a representative from the superintendent's office should meet within 2 days of the allegations. Third, the day after the above-mentioned meeting, several students from that class should be interviewed informally by the counselor (less threatening than the principal) to learn if others saw the pornography that day.

(f) The investigative plan: one) how will the students and staff be chosen? Two counselors (in coordination with Ms. Paulson) will be asked to suggest trustworthy students from that class to be interviewed about what they saw that day. A faculty member with significant technology experience will be called in to determine exactly how inappropriate images were projected on the screen; he or she will go into the computer's hard drive to locate the source of the incident. Two) Conduct these interviews. Ms. Paulson is interviewed by the district's IT person to determine how much she actually knows about the equipment she is responsible for. "Her knowledge of digital technologies is very limited," according to the IT person. "She needs training before she starts another semester; in the meantime a tech-savvy aide should be assigned to her classroom." She is also interviewed by a district supervisor who determines she had no idea students had accessed her computer; she is deemed innocent in terms of accessing the pornography but is found responsible for the incident. Two counselors interviewed Ms. Paulson's students and all four say they saw a "nude woman doing something naughty" on the screen, "but only for a few seconds."