- Video shows contentious North Adams-Jerome School Board meeting
- Concerned parent alleges District employee was texting inappropriately, forwards copies to District Board
- School says matter was investigated and no evidence found
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
In North Adams-Jerome, some serious allegations about a School District employee... I'll tell you what we've learned, and show you how neighbors are responding.
It was a contentious School Board meeting in North Adams-Jerome Monday night, with allegations that a current District employee has been sending inappropriate text messages to students.
“Our school employees, administration should not be texting students, let alone at 2 a.m.,” said concerned parent Donald Lawless.
Donald Lawless — a parent who raised the concerns at a School Board meeting in March and again Monday night — says the evidence is black and white: screenshots of text messages he says are inappropriate and in violation of District policy.
“This one’s at 2:03 a.m. There’s other ones in that packet that I have given you where the school employee clearly acknowledges that it’s him texting the first student. And we’re talking like on Saturday at 4:55 p.m….nothing to do with school.”
The messages appear to be casual banter initiated on weekends and evenings.
District policy prohibits electronic communication between staff and students that is not “directly related to curricular matters or co-curricular/extracurricular events or activities” without “prior approval of the principal”.
In a letter to “parents and families” dated April 8th, Superintendent Daniel Shadik says the District has “has no evidence substantiating the allegations” of inappropriate texting from a staff member to students other than “rumor and speculation posted to social media without any support”.
Lawless says he did not invent the text messages, and forwarded what he had to Board Secretary Joni Jones at her request in March. She promised to investigate.
After Monday’s Board Meeting, I asked her about how the investigation was conducted.
Jones said: “It’s been looked into. That’s all I can say.” [Watch the video below for her full response.]
Lawless has been vocal about what he sees as the District’s lack of communication and transparency since last year’s hard lockdown, when bullets were found near the school his children attend.
After announcing he will run for the District Board of Education, other parents, he says, have been coming to him with their concerns.
Some students and adults were present at Monday’s meeting to put in a good word for the accused.
Jessica Bateman, a parent of students in the District, told me while she agrees that the timing of the messages was inappropriate, she did not see anything harmful in them.
“He’s like a father figure to some of these kids,” she told me, saying the School Board has addressed the messages and “didn’t see any fault”.
Some in attendance were dismayed that the negative publicity would overshadow the good they see happening at their school and would damage the person’s reputation without basis.
I reached out to the person who is the subject of the allegations, but did not hear back. District Superintendent Shadik was also unwilling to comment.
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