CASPER — Natrona County School District 1 board members got an earful from passionate parents and residents about how the district is failing students who are bullied, attempt suicide and refuse to go to school out of fear.
At their regular meeting Monday night at Natrona County High School, the board heard stories about how students are afraid to go the bathroom in local public schools because they get beat up or a door is flung open and their photo taken.
One woman spoke of a sister bullied at school to the point she took her own life and also that fights among the community’s young people happen regularly in an alley outside of a middle school.
Several people said school district policies to prevent bullying, suicide and deal with crises such as the recent stabbing of a 14-year-old are not working.
‘All Of Us As Parents Are Terrified’
One mother, who identified herself as Heidi told the board her son attended Dean Morgan Middle School with Robert “Bobby” Maher Jr., who was stabbed and killed April 7 at Eastridge Mall while trying to protect his girlfriend from harassment.
A pair of 15-year-olds have been charged as adults with the killing, while the community has rallied to call out what’s become a culture of violence among its youth.
“I think it’s safe to say that all of us as parents are terrified — terrified to send our kids to school,” she said. “We’re not super certain that they are going to be able to come home safe.”
She said her son stayed home from school for a week and she called the school to ask how they were helping students cope. The mother said she was told that if teachers notice an issue they would offer the student counseling, or the student could go to the office for help.
“The young man that was murdered had a lot of teenage boys as friends,” she said. “I don’t know a lot of teenage boys that are going to say, ‘I’m having a hard time and I need to talk to somebody.’”
She also said her son is afraid to use the bathroom at school.
“He won’t even use the bathroom because kids kick the door in and take pictures of them,” she said. “When I brought this up to the school, I was met with, ‘I don’t have the staff to man the bathrooms.’”
Sister’s Suicide
A woman who identified herself as Raven told the board that her sister was bullied to the point that she took her own life at age 15 even though she reported the bullying several times and who was bullying her. She challenged the board to enforce its bullying policies.
“Some of the bullies came to the funeral apologizing to me for their actions,” she said. “That should have been handled before my sister committed suicide. Someone should have stepped in and worked with these kids to prevent it from evening happening in the first place.
“Some of them even tried to kill themselves after she died. Suicide is a huge issue. Bullying is a huge issue. Why is bullying policy not being enforced?”
Casper resident Sarah Bieber challenged the board to “show me efficacy on one bullying program, on one suicide prevention program. If they don’t work, why do we continue to use them?“
Bieber said she has been an activist looking into school operations and policies, and the same concerns about lack of communication and unenforced policies continue to be raised.
“I don’t know at what point you will hear the parents, but this is across the board,” she said. “Our community is hurting.”
Fights In Alleys
A woman named Cassidy who described herself as a teen advocate said she lives across from Dean Morgan Middle School and has sent videos to school officials of children being beaten up behind her house — often in the alleys after school or during lunchtime.
“The school didn’t do anything about it,” she said.
A Kelly Walsh High School virtual learning student who identified himself as Victor told the board he is in the virtual learning program, so he does not have interaction at the school. But he said he is aware of the culture of fighting and bullying that happens and the videos that result.
“There is this strange fascination that high schoolers have with watching each other get beat up … almost anytime there is a fight or attack it’s being recorded and posted online,” he said. “There is a group chat with the eighth-grade class of my prior middle school, and when I brought up the situation with Bobby, the first thing anyone thought to ask was, ‘Does anyone have the video?’ It is sad and disgusting to say the least, and I don’t understand why people want to see things like that or why there is this sort of just obsession with fights.”
He also told the board that bathrooms are a place where many of the fights happen, and he personally knows “six or seven” students who don’t use the bathrooms because they don’t want to get beat up or deal with “someone smoking weed or vaping.”
‘Due Diligence’
After the meeting, Superintendent Mike Jennings said that he was listening intently to the comments of the parents and community. He said the school district every October conducts a climate survey that goes out to 10,500 parents, students and community members, asking them to evaluate the district on issues such as “safe and healthy environments, mental health, and all those things.”
“Those results are coming back very strong,” he said.
Jennings said he understands that people are “reeling and hurting” from the stabbing death at the mall, which was a “horrific, horrific incident.”
Jennings said each concern raised Monday will be followed up on and evaluated in context with district efforts and policies. He said he had not heard the concerns about the bathrooms and that staff regularly check bathrooms as part of their monitoring process. He said bathrooms have smoke detectors that detect vaping.
“I have not heard that one before,” he said. “We will do our due diligence to investigate.”
Trustee Mary Schmidt said she believes the school district needs to look at working more closely with community organizations, but told parents to do what is best for their children. She apologized for the trauma some were voicing.
“As a parent who has homeschooled her kids, who has kids in the district, who has private schooled, ultimately they are your children and if you don’t feel safe, they don’t feel safe. Please put them first,” she said. “If they don’t feel safe here, find another option that is best for them. Because their safety, their development is the priority.”
Behind The Scenes Work
Trustee Raymond Catellier told those in the audience that the board was listening to their concerns about mental health, bullying and suicide prevention and “we appreciate everything you have to say.”
“Sometimes it can feel like the district isn’t doing anything about it, but I can assure you that from Day One district staff have been looking at how we can address these situations and it’s not always done in the public eye,” he said.
Trustee Thomas Myler said he was playing a pickup basketball game on a recent morning and heard a story from a parent about a child being bullied and two days later heard another one. He said he raised the stories with Jennings.
“We have policies in place, it sounds like we could always do better, but implementing it for sure would be a way to help, for one, parents and kids feel safer in schools,” he said. “Because, yes, if they are not feeling safe, we need to reevaluate how we are implementing or helping or kids. It’s really hard to learn something if you are in fear for your life.”
Jennings said he knows the school has dedicated staff “working diligently every day” to make the schools safe and the district has several components to its safety program from safety resource officers, to “safe to tell” anonymous reporting, and more.
“We have to go back and review top to bottom where we can get better — continuous improvement,” he said. “I know how hard our staff works.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
