Suspected Falsified Documents - is it worth the fight?

TL / DR I believe my daughter’s principal falsified bullying investigation reports - is my state’s AOE going to be able to help?

Even with the tl / dr, I’m going to try to make this brief and factual, even with my emotions running high.

My daughter (11 - not a protected class and not harassment) has been bullied since the beginning of the school year. I officially reported the bullying 4 months ago. First investigation in November was substantiated, but nothing got better. Requested 3 others for different kids in December, January, and just this week in February. Had confirmation that all had enough evidence to initiate, but never got the initiation or conclusion letters that are required by state mandate / policy. Asked. Asked again. You see where this is going. Threatened to request a hearing with the school board if nothing got better and I didn’t get the documents.

Magically, the documents appeared on Thursday after the superintendent told me she couldn’t meet with me until after her meeting with the principal. Got the documents in hand finally (which the delay alone is a violation of policy), 2 substantiated, 1 not. I thought it was all suspect and figured the principal just falsified the docs that day and gave them to the superintendent, but can’t really prove that without a metadata scrape and digital forensics.

The docs have 2022 as the year, which, by February, who’s still accidentally writing that? I figured he probably just did a rush job of changing dates on documents when he was scrambling to produce something, especially since the rest of the letters are just templates language. But again - can’t prove it.

I looked closer and the December doc is dated 12/12/22, with the language “On December 12, 2022, I determined I was in possession of information…” I made the report on 12/6. He said he would have to get back to me because he wasn’t sure if the investigation would have to be brand new or an extension of the first one. Never got back to me. I followed up. He wrote on 12/13 “I did hear back from our legal counsel (just today, actually) that…another investigation would be required. But why would he initiate an investigation into children prior to receiving legal counsel? Mistakenly wrote the wrong date? Maybe? 12/6, 12/12, 12/13? None of the dates add up.

Aside from the fact that I had to chase him for the information to which I had a right, what makes me think he falsified those reports is that nothing has gotten any better and the school dances around further disciplining the bullies. They won’t even make non-disciplinary accommodations that don’t impact my daughter, saying they don’t have proof of repeat offenders. But they do. Lots of proof from emailed reports, all after those investigations allegedly took place. Which makes me think they won’t discipline the kids because they CAN’T discipline the kids. There’s no real paper trail that would support it.

My daughter has 14 bullies that she can name. Countless others that she doesn’t even know. If I go to my state’s Agency of Education with my suspicions and ask for help, will they even help me? Or will they just cover for one of their own? Needless to say, I am hesitant to trust anyone admin or higher in the school system at this point. All I want to do is to get these kids to leave my daughter alone.

Please help. I don’t know what else to do. I’m intelligent, educated, and I know my daughter’s rights. I was once an educator myself and I know how admin likes to cover things up. I have found countless statutes and policies that have definitively been violated, told them I knew they had been violated, and still no one at her school will do anything. Any advice is appreciated.

Submitted February 25, 2023 at 02:40PM by likeistoleyourbike https://ift.tt/Bz2MfI1