As more information is coming out about actions or non-actions of Carl Junction R-1 Superintendent Phil Cook in connection with the alleged harassment of a child by former choir teacher Craig Smith, I thought it might be instructive to review a December 2014 Turner Report post which provides a look at Cook's administrative approach in his own words.
The information comes from an April 2014 deposition in which Cook answered questions from attorneys representing Jessica and Mika Nugent in a wrongful death lawsuit filed after their 14-year-old son Luke committed suicide as a result of bullying that they said was ignored by district officials, including Cook.
The district later paid $300,000 to settle the lawsuit.
They also stopped a survey being taken through the Talk About It program because it had "poor questions" and because the results might be used against them in the legal action.
Those revelations were made by Superintendent Phil Cook during an April 16 video deposition taken as part of the lawsuit filed against the district by Jessica and Mika Nugent.
In that deposition, Cook also revealed the following:
-He has not seen any incidents of bullying in his 17 years in the district.
-Videotapes of the bus where the Nugents' son was bullied are not available. The cameras malfunctioned, Cook said, because he and other district officials did not know you had to do maintenance on them.
-The district is fighting bullying, if any bullying is taking place, Cook says, with a new program that encourages students to be nice to each other.
-Parents move their children to Carl Junction because the children have been bullied in other area school districts.
-Cook does not read the district's Facebook site or any other Facebook page, so he did not know about all of the talk about the bullying teenager Luke Nugent suffered through, but Cook maintains a Facebook account for his friends. He also does not read comments on Joplin Globe stories about the Carl Junction School District.
Cook, who was talking so fast the stenographer had to ask him to slow down, started the deposition by trying to distance himself from being responsible for enforcing district anti-bullying policies.
"Not every policy," he said. "I have other people under me that I supervise and then they have other people under them that they supervise."
Cook, who has been with the R-1 District for 17 years, said that prior to him becoming superintendent nine years ago, he had never received reports about bullying.
The Nugents' lawyer later asked him, "Do you have an opinion as to whether or not in your nine years as superintendent bullying has taken place within the school district"
"I don't know."
He later added that bullying is a concern everywhere, but he did not know of anything specific.
Bus Videotaping
On the subject of bus videotaping, Cook said the video system was set up on the cheap by a district employee who said he could take the parts and put them together and save the district money.
"We piloted it and it was a good system, so we went ahead and put it in the rest of the buses."
When it came time to find video footage centering on the bullying on Luke Nugent's bus, that was when district officials found out that the system did not work and discovered that to keep it working they should have been doing proper maintenance on it.
Bullying Task Force
The Bullying Task Force created another set of problems, according to Cook's testimony. The task force was formed after Luke Nugent's suicide, but instead of placing Cook, an assistant superintendent, or one of the principals in charge, the group was headed by the district's public relations director Tracy Skaggs.
"Why was she the leader?" Cook was asked.
"I don't- I don't know. She was the one that helped gather all of the information, kind of helped run the meetings, form the agendas, helped organize some of the subcommittees."
She did all of the work to make sure the meetings ran smoothly, Cook said, adding, "We all played a pretty active role. It was- it was open for anyone to-- discuss and who had comments."
Reed indicated that the task force never really discussed much in its three meetings, because it was mostly organizing and splitting into subcommittees."
Cook acknowledged that he was the one who put an end to the task force shortly after it started. "Well, we already knew we had a lawsuit when we started the task force. But as we got into it, we didn't want to do something that came back and said, 'Well, you guys were reactionary and did this or that.'
'"We feel like as a district we've done quite a bit to address bullying and train people in bullying."
Rachel's Challenge
One of the programs the district implemented, Cook said, was "Rachel's Challenge," named after Rachel Scott, who was murdered during the April 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
The program uses her writings "to go into schools and create an environment of caring and love," Cook said.
"It's not so much an anti-bullying as it is just an acceptance and caring and--for other people. We actually had already contacted them and were planning to bring that in for our opportunities prior to Luke committing suicide."
Rachel's Challenge, Cook said, "is to live a life that's caring and loving of others, accepting of others."
Area social media exploded following the death of Luke Nugent, but Phil Cook did not know anything about that, according to his deposition.
Cook said he was anywhere before it was filed that the Nugents might file a lawsuit against him.
"Just because of the national attention to suicides and--and I'm also aware-- I did not read personally the Facebook posts, but there were a lot of Facebook posts out there that immediately said he was being bullied.
"Not, like I said, I did not read, I did not read any of them. But with what's happened with the country and litigation with--with students who committed suicide or people who commit suicide and the connection to bullying, I knew there was a possibility."
Later in the deposition, Cook said, "I just don't look at Facebook. I have a Facebook account. It's only for my friends. I have got a personal belief that Facebook is good in some respects, but in other respects, it just gives people an open forum to say what they want to and there's not necessarily any truth to it. So I do not use that as a factual source of data."
"You don't even look at it," Cook was asked.
"I do not look at our school Facebook account; no, I do not.
"I have never looked at it."
THE LAWSUIT
The lawsuit says that the district's failure to act to prevent the bullying of Luke Nugent led to his April 2013 suicide.
The nine-count lawsuit was initially filed in Jasper County Circuit Court, but has been removed to federal court.
Listed as defendants in the lawsuit are Cook, Carl Junction High School Principal Scott Sawyer, assistant principals Trevor Chase and Theresa Wilson, counselor Ben Withers, compliance officer Gary Reed, and bus driver David Roughton.
The petition details a year-long harassment of the teen after he came out as bisexual.
:After coming out (he) was "the subject of ridicule, harassment, torment and bullying" that took place both at school and on the bus, the petition says, including the use of a number of derogatory terms and obscene references.
"The ridicule, harassment, torment and bullying suffered by (him) also included, but was not limited to students physically threatening (him) as well as stealing and/or destroying his personal property."
The harassment on the bus was reported to Roughton and Withers and the teen's parents also reported it to school officials, including Sawyer, who relayed the report to Wilson, according to the petition.
"At one point in the fall of 2012, and in response to the ridicule, harassment, torment, and bullying, Defendant Sawyer rode the bus for one day to monitor the behavior. While riding the bus, he was told by a student to "clean my butt."
The lawsuit says Sawyer "failed to immediately discipline or rebuke this student in front of the other students." After his day of riding the bus, the harassment continued.
The teen's parents again contacted school officials about the problem. The lawsuit says Sawyer said that protecting the teen from the harassment was a "fight worth fighting," and that he would "keep an eye out for him."
That did not happen, the lawsuit claims. "By March 2013, students were telling (him) to hang himself and regularly threatening to beat him up."
The parents once again met with Sawyer in March 2013 to let him know that nothing had changed and their son was still being tormented.
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"Defendant Sawyer acknowledged that he was aware that the bus was as bad or worse than it had ever been, yet he did nothing about it."
That lack of action, the petition says, "caused or contributed to cause (the teen) to suffer severe emotional distress, filling him with despair and hopelessness. Defendants' ongoing refusal to do anything but empower (his) tormentors forced him to seek escape elsewhere.
"March 14, 2013, was the last day of classes before spring break. After (he) had been dropped off at his bus stop, a student yelled out the window for (him) to 'do everyone a favor and hang himself.'
"Defendant Sawyer acknowledged that he was aware that the bus was as bad or worse than it had ever been, yet he did nothing about it."
That lack of action, the petition says, "caused or contributed to cause (the teen) to suffer severe emotional distress, filling him with despair and hopelessness. Defendants' ongoing refusal to do anything but empower (his) tormentors forced him to seek escape elsewhere.
"March 14, 2013, was the last day of classes before spring break. After (he) had been dropped off at his bus stop, a student yelled out the window for (him) to 'do everyone a favor and hang himself.'
"On March 15, 2013, (he) spent a final day with his friends and family.
"On the morning of March 16, 2013, (his) parents found him hanging in his bedroom."
The suit alleges that district officials violated the Missouri Safe Schools Act by witnessing crimes that would be considered third degree assault and not reporting them, as well as a Title IX sexual harassment violation, "based on (the teen's) perceived sexual orientation."
The lawsuit says the district knew which students were causing the problems "and it was readily foreseeable that this abuse would continue into the future and refused to do anything (about it)." which "left him at the mercy of his bullies."
The problem with the bullies was not just limited to the teen who committed suicide, the petition says. "Concerned parents of other children in the school district repeatedly complained to the school district about the bullying problem.
17 comments:
Traci Skaggs has always been a problem. She gets paid way too much to do very little but share Facebook posts. She even has an assistant. I have yet to meet anyone who worked with her that had a kind thing to say at this point. We always joked she had something on Phil to allow her to be kept around..now not so funny.
Just another overeducated, overpaid, low ability dirtbag that needs to work for a living! Maybe he'll have to, soon.
I only occasionally look at this forum, but I do see a pattern. The operator of this site, was dismissed as a teacher and apparently wasn’t hired by the local newspaper, so he has two constant targets. School administrators and the Globe.
Cook has announced his retirement, he is a target in the recent school arrest, but I believe if, you should be looking at principals who didn’t know what was going on in their school. Cook is far removed from the day to day operation of each school, as any superintendent is. He is the person who holds the responsibility for the principals . So ultimately it rests on his shoulders, but you can only act on what the principals inform you about.
The old lawsuit, settled long ago, doesn’t have an effect on this one.
-He has not seen any incidents of bullying in his 17 years in the district
This is very false, as he was directly involved in punishing me for bullying a kid in high school. Which was more than 17 years ago.
For the curious, the next board of education meeting is at CJ school in Instructional Services Center on Monday January 27, starting at 6:15 PM.
Teachers and Students need constant Training and Education to understand that Bullying exists everywhere and that they are Responsible to take appropriate action where needed - Stop putting your Heads in the Sand.
Several School shooters often leak hints about their plans before they carry them out, said O'Toole, the former FBI profiler. “I've seen it in nearly every case." Had other Students notified Parents, Teachers, Officials - several of these School Shootings may have been Stopped. Yet, they do not want to get involved or feel that they are "Narcing" on their fellow Students - then when their fellow students lose their lives - they ignored all the Posts on Social Media and all the Talk around School - -
"On the subject of bus videotaping, Cook said the video system was set up on the cheap by a district employee who said he could take the parts and put them together and save the district money.
"We piloted it and it was a good system, so we went ahead and put it in the rest of the buses."
When it came time to find video footage centering on the bullying on Luke Nugent's bus, that was when district officials found out that the system did not work and discovered that to keep it working they should have been doing proper maintenance on it."
I can only assume that cutting corners like this is also why their IT people seem to have had no clue about what Mr. Smith was doing. Unless of course IT was in on it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's an entire ring sharing links.
People might not want to miss this one
https://rturner229.blogspot.com/2014/12/carl-junction-principal-i-dont-recall.html
Ooops!
There is a prevalent culture of bullying in the District, ingrained in the teachers. I personally reported such childish resentment of outsiders to the chief of operations and despite him knowing the perpetrators name before mentioned. He assured me it was merely my misconception and there was no such climate in the District.They possess a sense of arrogance and entitlement in the belief that CJ is the most accomplished and desirable school system in the County. However, this self imposed title, exists largely due to absence of discipline, refusal to acknowledge and/or address behavioral concerns, thus creating the illusion that all is well. From the top as reported, the main concern is perception of the public, achieved by ignoring glaring problems in their effort to appear absent of typical school related dysfunctions.
"When it came time to find video footage centering on the bullying on Luke Nugent's bus, that was when district officials found out that the system did not work"
Does this mean they saved money on the settlement? Survey says
Someone needs to bully Mr cooks teeth right out of his mouth , if you know what I mean !
https://rturner229.blogspot.com/2014/12/carl-junction-principal-i-dont-recall.html
Carl Junction principal: I don't recall being asked to clean butt
A bus ride to determine the extent of a bullying situation ended up with an apparent case of the principal being verbally bullied...and not doing anything about it.
A deposition filed earlier this month in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a junior high student who committed suicide in March 2013 features Carl Junction Junior High Principal Scott Sawyer, a former Joplin educator, detailing how he investigated after Luke Nugent's mother, Jessica Nugent, told him about her son being bullied on the school bus in November 2012. The call was made without the teen's knowledge.
Sawyer decided to ride the bus and see what was going on, sitting across from the teen. The principal said high school students on the bus told him the ride was "quieter than usual."
"I would not ride the bus with the Pollyanna assumption that my mere presence on the bus would be some sort of medicine against bad behavior forever, you know like some sort of vaccine that would eradicate polio."
Sawyer's testimony indicates his temporary vaccine did not keep him from being the target of verbal abuse from one of the high school students, a female, who had been accused of bullying the teen,
"I remember a student using the word 'butt' in front of me," Sawyer replied to a question from Jessica and Mika Nugent's lawyer about the incident. "I do not recall being asked to clean or eat butt."
After that response, Sawyer went on in depth about the incident:
Sounds like 3rd possibly 2nd degree assault.
I don't think they are allowed to reminisce about the days of good ol' fron+ier justice anymore.
It probably depends on what the meaning of "seen" is.
I agree. Assault is still better than death, which his negligence led to. There are laws against discrimination based on political ideology in Missouri. Why are they only applied to protect people perceived to be right-winged? The Principal and leadership created the culture. Someone should start holding the parents of abusive children accountable like they hold the parents of neglectful school shooters accountable. Maybe things would change.
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