REPORTER
Mercer Island
Serving the Mercer Island community since 1947
Candidates for Senate still looking for votes
Islander spirit spills over
School Board meeting is Thursday, Oct. 25 The Mercer Island School District Board of Directors will hold its second monthly meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25, in the School Administration building at 4160 86th Ave. S.E.
By Reporter Staff
The annual celebration of student bands on Mercer Island will take place on Friday, Oct. 26. All Island Band Night, a longstanding Islander tradition, brings together band students from each of the Mercer Island schools to perform during halftime at Friday’s football game. The game begins at 7 p.m.
Don’t miss Oktoberfest at Alpenland from 6 to 9 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 27. New owners Dianne and Chris Masaoka, who now have a liquor license for the restaurant, are continuing this tasty Island tradition at 2707 78th Ave. S.E.
YTN hosting community input meeting Oct. 30 The board and staff of Youth Theatre Northwest invite the community to join a discussion about plans for a new site for YTN. The next Community Input session will be at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at Youth Theatre Northwest, 8805 S.E. 40th Street. Youth Theatre Northwest wants to hear from the community, as well as performers and their families, about how YTN should move forward. For more information, contact Leslie Muller at lesliemuller@ gmail.com or Becky Showalter at beckyshowalter@comcast.net.
Matt Brashears/Special to the Reporter
Seated on a wheel well in a Jeep with at least 11 seniors aboard, Aidan McInerny holds onto a rollbar as his classmates rock the Jeep, which was pulling the senior float during Friday afternoon’s parade.
Botched harassment inquiry leads to ‘hostile environment’ Staff response is quick but incomplete; parents say district focused on son instead of perpetrator By Mary L. Grady
editor@mi-reporter.com
A judge has determined that the Mercer Island School District discriminated against a student at Islander Middle School last year in its handling of allegations that the student was harassed by other students in October 2011. An Oct. 15 decision by Judge Michelle C. Mentzer, of the Washington State Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH), on behalf of the state superintendent’s office, says that the school
candidates | Page 2
district mishandled an investiga- came with an individualized learntion and its aftermath regarding ing plan from his prior school two incidents involving a student district. He is of mixed race. He who has special needs. spent his first week at the school The parents of in IMS’s special eduthe student comcation program, but plained that the was later withdrawn district did not from that program adequately address by his parents and claims of racial slurs joined a regular and related behavior classroom. involving their son, Just a few weeks as required by state later, the student law. The judge ruled Judge Michelle C. reported two incithat the investigaMentzer, OAH dents of racial and tion regarding the ethnic harassment incidents was flawed, that occurred in a and those flaws were sufficiently class in October. They included serious enough to create a hostile racial slurs by a fellow student environment. and were followed by other inciThe student came to Islander dents that included throwing crab Middle School last fall as a new student in the seventh grade. He inquiry | Page 10
Halloween Organ Concert SPOOKY ORGAN MUSIC AND READINGS
REPORTER
Alpenland Oktoberfest is Saturday, Oct. 27
“...the school mishandled the investigation and its aftermath.”
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26 AT 7:30PM MERCER ISLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 3605 84th Ave S.E. - Mercer Island
o Feel freeutr spirit, show yo costume! come in
Mercer Island
All Island Band Night Friday, Oct. 26
As just days remain until the Nov. 6 general election, Islander and state Senator Steve Litzow, a Republican, and his opponent, fellow Islander, Democrat Maureen Judge, will continue to campaign and raise funds until the very end. Despite dozens of endorsements, hundreds of supporters and thousands of dollars on each side, neither candidate is taking anything for granted. The two met in the August primary, when Litzow took 56 percent of the vote to Judge’s 44. Just 31,000 voted. Statewide, just under 40 percent cast their ballots in the primary. Judge says that Litzow, in his first term, did not do enough to support education, and he appears to put his party affiliation above
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