[2] January 24, 2014
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[ SOCIAL from page 1] administrative team will conduct an investigation the week of July 8-12. Appropriate action will be taken with each individual student based on the evidence gathered during the course of the investigation.” According to district officials, about seven students were called in with their parents for an investigation interview. Superintendent Mike Nelson said a protocol was followed with each interview because a formal complaint was filed by the law firm. “We wanted to know what was behind these tweets,” Nelson said. “Our (high school) staff knows these kids and (the staff) felt there was not an aggressor nor a victim. There was not a victim.” Nelson said he believes the district and schools work hard to prohibit bullying and harassment of students. “That is why we launched Rachel’s Challenge,” Nelson said. Rachel Scott was the first student killed in 1999 during the Columbine High School massacre. Nelson said he began the Rachel’s Challenge program at the school district to help deal with, “harassment and bullying in a proactive manner.”
NOVEMBER COMPLAINT The Farr law firm sent a second letter to the district Nov. 18 stating another complaint was being filed. The firm attached screen shots of about seven more students’ Twitter accounts from July through November 2013. The letter stated the attorneys wished to remain anonymous and added the issue was, “more than a disciplinary problem; it is a cultural problem….” The letter noted the school district’s response in June stated it has, “limited authority to handle ‘off grounds’ behavior, and there would be training for high school students and teachers on social media. Nothing more was said. We now question the effectiveness of these efforts (and submit to you there is legal precedent to discipline off-grounds speech so long as it is not ‘protected’ speech), but aside from that, we believe these incidents indicate a cultural problem in Enumclaw. It must be changed.” No case citation was provided concerning the legal
precedent. The letter continued, “As members of this community and parents we are appalled. These kids are not only creating a hostile learning environment, they are harming themselves. These ‘tweets’ will follow them and cut off academic and career opportunities.” The letter was addressed to Nelson and signed by both Farr and M. Owen Gabrielson, who are married and have a preschool-age child.
NOVEMBER SCHOOL ACTION Following this letter, the school brought in seven more students to interview. The difference was, this time the students were taken from class and parents were notified later. Nelson wrote a letter back to the firm stating the students had all been met with and parents contacted. “I noted in reviewing the student posts that all but one occurred outside the school day. The Enumclaw School District does not have the authority to regulate students’ off campus conduct or to discipline them for such conduct unless the conduct causes a disruption on campus. EHS administrators did not note any disruption of the educational program as a result of these posts. In fact, while plainly inappropriate, the tweets were among friends, and not attempts to harass another student.” Nelson wrote in the letter, “We do not believe that there is a culture at EHS that fosters inappropriate posts. To the contrary, EHS has worked very hard to create a culture of kindness and acceptance.”
TWITTER The screen shots that span February to November include swearing, language like “gay,” “faggot” and the “F word,” as well as the word “retard.” There is also a screen shot of two boys, one wearing a yarmulke or skull cap worn by Jewish men, and the other boy was standing with his fingers pointed at his forehead. A tag on the post is “Germany vs Jews.” Farr and Gabrielson pointed to this as anti-Semitic. A parent of a student involved in the post said the attorneys misunderstood the intent of that post and many of the
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students posts. All the posts appear to be between friends and there is no indication anyone being singled out to be harassed or bullied.
BOARD MEETING Parents and students who spoke at the December meeting questioned the law firm’s and their client’s motivation and the school’s actions. The Courier-Herald will not be using the students names who spoke at the meeting and in phone interviews since all are minors. State Rep. Cathy Dahlquist, a former Enumclaw School Board member, spoke at the meeting, asking the board to reconsider the district’s harassment and bullying policy. “…in the state legislature when we pushed this antibullying and harassment through, the intent was for it to protect students,” Dahlquist said. “And what we found is there are people in this community, right now who are using it to their benefit to bully and stalk and harass children, as we speak.” Dahlquist added, “We are all born in the United States of America; we have the First Amendment to free speech. Kids might say things, adults might say things we don’t like. They may call each other names we don’t like. Unless there is a victim, there is no bullying or harassment.” Dahlquist does not believe the district should have called students out of class without contacting parents first and added, “I do not believe it is the right of the school district to monitor social media accounts, personal social media accounts, that has nothing to do with school related issues.” Kari Christensen asked board members, “(What) are going to do to protect my family from this person that for some reason finds it cool to look at a 17-year-old girl’s Twitter account.” A female student said, “I understand that I may have said some offensive things I should not have been saying on the Internet. I didn’t think the school should get involved. Especially when I was out of school…. I felt like I was really targeted by this as well as other kids.” Mauricio Portillio Sr said, “Someone told me this is the [ more SOCIAL page 3 ]