Parents at Center Drive School in Orrington are calling for changes after they say their kids were bullied, including being physically injured and called racial slurs, and school officials haven’t done enough to stop it.
Erin Legacki said her child has been bullied multiple times over the past few years, and the principal and superintendent have not made any changes to stop the actions.
Legacki is part of a group of parents with similar experiences who are calling for more transparency in the way bullying complaints are handled. The parents also questioned how the school defines bullying because they disagree with what they’ve been told is bullying and what’s not.
More than 10 parents reached out to Legacki to share their children’s stories from the past year. Those stories appear without any names in a post to the Bullying at Center Drive School Facebook page. All of the parents reported the bullying to the school, Legacki said.
The Bangor Daily News couldn’t verify the complaints, and it’s unknown if the school is still reviewing them. However, Center Drive School has reported just one instance of bullying to the Maine Department of Education since 2017, according to state data.
The BDN attempted to contact the other parents, but they didn’t respond.
In some cases, the parents said teachers didn’t know their students were being bullied, and they felt the school principal handled the reports insincerely. Most distressingly, they said, the bullying continued.
“When you watch your kid hiding and scared to go to school and hiding in a closet and crying, you basically try to do everything you can,” Legacki said.
Legacki enrolled her child in school in Brewer this year because she “was afraid to send her back” to Center Drive School.
When Legacki filed her report, she said she wasn’t included in the process like she wanted to be and thought the school administration did not take the claim seriously.
“There’s no support at all, to the point where the principal literally is saying to your kid, get over it,” she said.
The principal, Judy Marvin, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“We are aware that rumors can sometimes spread quickly, and we take all reports seriously,” said James Stoneton, the superintendent of schools.
One parent in the group claimed her child was called racial slurs for three years and that the actions were not deemed bullying by the principal, Legacki said. Another parent said their child was injured after another student repeatedly jumped on them, but the school did not find it to be bullying.
Ross Ellis, founder and chief executive officer of STOMP Out Bullying, said discrepancies between how parents and schools determine bullying can happen in multiple spots in the process.
“A lot of the time, the parents don’t ask questions. They just hear ‘bullying’ and that’s it,” Ellis said.
Elementary students may not always understand exactly what happened to them or even what the word truly means, Ellis said. Parents want to protect their child but may not get the right information or know what their child or other children were doing.
When parents file bullying reports, school administrators may not confirm reports because of worries about a school’s reputation or possible funding changes, Ellis said. At the same time, schools may not handle bullying reports seriously because they don’t find it necessary to.
“A lot of schools just don’t want to hear it. They think it’s just too much trouble or that it’s not important enough,” she said.
AOS 47, which oversees Center Drive School, Dedham Elementary and Airline Community School, received seven bullying complaints last year which Stoneton said is consistent with other school districts in the area.
The parents quoted in the Facebook post said there’s a lack of accountability throughout the school for the bullies and the administrators who review complaints about them.
“[The school’s] not taking care of and protecting the kids. Not only the kids that are being bullied, but the bullies themselves that are crying out for help. If you’re bullying that badly and you’re 9 years old, there’s something wrong,” Legacki said.
Stoneton said he could not comment on any specific student actions or bullying reports because it is prohibited under Maine and federal law because the reports include personal information about the students. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects the privacy of students and parents but also makes it difficult to verify allegations against schools.
The school would not say how it handles bullying complaints, but the process is laid out by the state in a flowchart that schools are legally required to follow. Stonetone said the school’s flow chart is compliant with Maine Law.
Where the flowchart poses the question “Is it bullying?” school officials are asked to consider if the behavior physically harms a student, damages their property or gives them reasonable fear of that happening.
Additionally, the flowchart asks if the behavior creates an “intimidating or hostile educational environment for the student” or interferes with their “academic performance or ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities or privileges provided by a school.”
Stoneton said the bullying report forms and policies are on the school’s website and accessible to parents. Although parents can fill out the form, he said he understands that they may not always think the outcomes are correct.
“I understand that, in some cases, parents may not agree with the findings of the school or the steps taken with the students,” Stoneton said.
The Orrington School Department’s bullying policy takes much of its wording and process from the model policy that was signed into Maine state law in 2012. Though the school is following the law, parents are asking for the bullying report form to be more visible on the school’s website and included in newsletters like it is in other nearby schools.
Schools such as the Sumner High School in Sullivan include bullying resources at the top of their homepages. Center Drive School parents have to search three levels deep on the website, among documents on a “forms and notices” page.
When the legislation that created the model policy was passed in 2012, Equality Maine, a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy organization that works to create a more inclusive community through political action, backed the act to ensure children could feel safe and welcome in their school.
It’s been more than a decade since then, but Gia Drew, the executive director of Equality Maine, said schools should still strive to follow the act and foster a safe learning environment for all students.
“[Bullying] affects everybody. It doesn’t just affect that one kid is being picked on, it sets the tone and a climate for a school. If your classmate or your friends don’t feel safe coming to school, how can anyone else really focus on learning?” Drew said.
But parents, children and school may continue to disagree about when bullying is happening.
“The slightest thing [children] can perceive as bullying may not be bullying, but [administrators] are mandated to take care of it inside the school,” Ellis said.
