Monday’s meeting of the Perry Community School District Board of Education may have lasted only three-quarters of an hour, but a request made late in the proceedings could have a lasting impact on one child in particular.
Jesse and Beth James appealed to the full board to reconsider the denial of their request to open enroll their son out of the district.
Superintendent Lynn Ubben noted the deadline for open enrollment cases for the 2015-2016 school year was March 1.
“It will be the same next year,” she said. “March 1, 2016 will be the deadline for applications for the 2016-2017 school year.”
Ubben noted she had reviewed the initial request and the action was denied, in part, because it had been filed considerably after the stated deadline.
Beth James readily admitted their request had been late, but the circumstances that initiated the action in the first place had not come to light until after the deadline.
“Our son (who will be in sixth grade this year) has been the victim of a bully, and very little has been done to address the situation, which has only grown worse,” she said. “He and the bully were both sent to the counselor’s office after an incident while playing tag on recess, but nothing changed.”
James said her son had eventually confessed to his parents what was happening at school and said he was completely avoided by teammates at a track meet shortly thereafter. She explained she was approaching the board because her son’s situation had become demonstrably worse since the end of the school year.
“He has been harassed on the internet, and the bully’s mother has even gone online and attacked us (Beth and Jesse), accusing us of conspiracy,” she said. “The whole situation has been extremely stressful for our entire family.”
To support her case, James produced for the board printed copies of many of the internet attacks, including evidence purporting such actions as recent as July 23.
Ubben noted the state requires four qualifications for granting a post-deadline open enrollment request:
- Proof a state of harassment exists,
- The harassment continued past the deadline,
- The harassment was likely to continue
- Granting the request was likely to alleviate the situation.
“This was originally brought to our attention in late May,” Ubben told the board. “When such a claim (of harassment) is made, the entire building’s staff and principal are called, and the situation is given a serious look. We hoped that splitting the boys up, now that they would be in a larger grade, would be a solution.”
Board members looked carefully at the material James provided but were reluctant to make an on-the-spot decision.
“I would certainly like more time to study this,” director Marjean Gries said. “There is an awful lot here for us to consider, and I don’t think we want to rush this either way.”
The board opted to study the situation further before deciding whether to reverse the original denial.
Beth James told ThePerryNews.com that it was the desire of the family to have their son open-enrolled to Woodward-Granger.
“Obviously they (W-G) cannot say anything officially and did not come out and tell us yes,” she said. “All they told us was that they would be happy to hear our case, but only if Perry approved the request. They made it very clear that they did not want to interfere in any way, which we understand.”
It was not immediately known when a final decision on the matter will be reached.
Who wouldn’t want their child to go to W-G, a school district that’s less than 15 minutes away, when they are 54th . . . and Perry is 486th? When it came to preschool this fall, Perry was full and doing nothing to get all the students in. W-G is willing to add more classes if needed. I definitely want my child to go to a school where they strive of success.
I don’t have any children myself but have had many, many friends within the Perry Community school district. Many have seen problems…but open enrollment isn’t an option for every parent. Luckily, this family has that opportunity and, to me, has met the criteria for having a open enrollment elsewhere. The time element the school system should be concerned with is that school begins very soon. When do they plan on a answer? When your budget has gotten cut like many schools’, don’t you thinking you would try harder to keep this and other children in the district ? Very simple request…although I am not reading the notes…I can believe there are parents out there who are evil to other kids. Let’s “get on the stick,” people.
This is absolutely insane. What happened to living in a free country? They want their child to go somewhere else and have excellent reasons why. They are trying to protect their child and school officials want to keep their heads in the sand.
I fully support my daughter and her husband in trying to help our grandson.
Keep this and similar stories in mind when you go the polls to vote for or against Perry Community Schools Board Members!!!!
Update: Our son was homeschooled for sixth grade. Due to the school not letting our son attend, this was the only way we could keep him safe. He then attended Woodward for seventh grade, and he loved everything about it. We owe a big thanks to Woodward for giving us our happy son back. The transformation in him was amazing as is the current school he attends!