Parents, school board demand answers from superintendent

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FORT MYERS, Fla. – Sparks flew at Tuesday’s meeting of the Lee County School Board, as parents and board members alike demanded answers from Superintendent Dr. Nancy Graham about a bullying scandal at the center of a WINK News investigation.

Jacqueline Perez says her 12-year-old daughter was badly bullied at Lexington Middle School in south Fort Myers in 2013. She also says the district did nothing about it, then retaliated against her by misplacing her daughter’s records.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education is now ordering the district to have all of its administrators, faculty, and support staff undergo retaliation and disability training.

A number of parents and taxpayers expressed their anger over the situation at Tuesday’s board meeting.

“Now our whole district has to suffer, the taxpayers have to suffer. Training of 12,000… staff, every year, is going to be expensive and time consuming,” said Chris Quackenbush.

“I’m very concerned that Nancy Graham chose to yet again not inform our board of the investigation by the feds,” said one taxpayer.

Several school board members also spoke up, saying it troubled them that they weren’t notified by the superintendent about the issue.

“If it weren’t for the parent speaking on the 11th, I would have never known about this event, which really disturbs me,” said board member Steve Teuber. “So I would like Dr. Graham to explain to me why we weren’t notified in a timely manner, I want to know how much is required in dollars for this training.”

“It is my understanding that it has not been past practice for the board to be informed of every OCR complaint that comes through,” Dr. Graham told the board.

A school district spokesperson tells WINK News right now they don’t know exactly how much of your tax dollars will be spent on training, but don’t expect it to be significant.

 

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