Residents roll out concerns for Alpena school board as district fights unprecedented behavioral problems
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ALPENA -- With suspensions and expulsions at an all-time high at Alpena Public Schools, parents and other concerned residents gathered at the APS district office on Monday to voice concerns about issues they feel threaten students' educations and take away parental rights.
About 40 people attended the meeting, many of them using public comment periods to urge board members to believe the students who say other students dressed as animals make learning impossible.
Other residents spoke against a proposed health clinic proposed for operation in Alpena High School this fall. Still others said students have too much free rein to swear and behave poorly in school.
Those concerns come during a period when teachers are confronted with unprecedented behavioral infractions, APS Superintendent David Rabbideau told those assembled.
Already this school year, Rabbideau has conducted 17 suspension or expulsion hearings, requiring that a student commit a serious, expulsionable offense or have already faced discipline for other offenses, he said.
At the current rate, expulsions this year will "dwarf" last year's serious disciplinary measures at APS -- and, Rabbideau said, last year the district logged the highest number of suspensions and expulsions "since...ever."
About a dozen parents and other residents spoke at Monday's APS workshop meeting -- part of an APS restructuring that replaces committee meetings and allows board members to share reports prior to the regular Board of Education meeting.
Many speakers said they had no intention of making comments until they heard other people voicing the same frustrations.
Several said their children told them other students wear animal ears, tails, and other props and sometimes meow or bark at school.
That behavior creates a hostile environment which keeps teachers from teaching and students from learning -- a problem administrators refuse to fix, the parents said.
APS parent Tyler Orban said 40 students signed a petition started by his son -- with the encouragement of the son's teacher, according to Orban -- asking school administration to stop other students from wearing animal costumes.
Several students who participated in the petition were punished and told their language taunted other students, Orban said.
Students allowed to create such distractions unchecked and administrators who won't listen or respond have resulted in his son struggling in school, Orban said.
Other parents said their children say classmates in animal outfits make the children nervous or afraid or unable to concentrate because of animal sounds they say teachers ignore.
Rabbideau adamantly denied that school restrooms include litter boxes, which some have reported, but acknowledged that some students do wear animal gear to school, which he said violates the school dress code on most occasions.
School officials don't always catch such actions, but, Rabbideau said, officials address those infractions when they learn of them.
A health clinic -- to be funded and run by Alcona Health Center if approved by the Board, with the health center paying rent to use the space at Alpena High School -- raised concerns for other residents who spoke.
Privacy rules would mean some information could be kept from parents if students sought physical or mental health help at the clinic, and those rules have some parents worried.
"We can lose our parental rights," said Tamyra Henkel, an APS employee who spoke to the board, "and have a school with a clinic in it where our children can be influenced to go and make choices that would be against what their parents have raised them toward, to think."
Other speakers said schools allow students to use too much foul language or to dress too immodestly.
Some spoke of children worried about using the bathroom at school out of fear someone of the other sex might be inside, with the school's permission. Others shared stories of alleged student bullying at school.
Though angry, most speakers shared their concerns without raised voices, asking that the board believe students and keep schools focused on education by enforcing rules.
Rabbideau, speaking for the board, said school officials work hard to sort out complex situations and give all students due process and a voice -- even as the district deals with discipline problems at a level it's never seen before.
Asked for comment after the meeting, Rabbideau expressed pride in district staff and referenced academic successes of many students graduating from the district.
"Our staff and board are working harder than they ever have in different times that any of us have ever been a part of," Rabbideau said. "Everyone's working hard for the betterment of our kids."
The next regular APS board meeting will convene at 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 24 at Sanborn Elementary School.
Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.
This story has been edited to clarify that the Alpena Public Schools Board of Education has not yet fully approved operation of a proposed health clinic at Alpena High School. Without that approval, the clinic will not open.