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Bully for Dr. Eugene White

An e-mail correspondence between Indianapolis Public School Superintendent Dr. Eugene White and Board Samantha Adair-White shows her more than two weeks ago asking for an investigation into the bullying of expelled gay student Darnell “Dynasty” Young and White emphatically telling her no.

In the e-mail, dated April 30, Samantha White requested the investigation following not only the bullying incident at Tech involving Young, but another incident at Northwest where a student was beaten.

White gave the following response…

Really!! An investigation….. really!!  Your request is denied.  The Board may make such a request and I will respond, but an individual Board Member’s request does not rise to the level of investigation in this matter.  The fight of a group of girls at Northwest or at any school is not unusual in schools.  Bullying is a nation-wide problem in schools, I am sure students had the same problems during your high school days in Detroit, and we have not had a disproportional number of such concerns.  In addition, on Friday of last week I met with all secondary school principals, vice principals, assistant principals, deans, academic deans, campus monitors, and others responsible for discipline in our secondary schools to clearly communicate expectations and responsibilities for the last weeks of the school year.  We won’t tolerate misbehavior on the part of students nor failure to act on the part of administrators.  There is no need for an investigation at this time, but if one becomes necessary we will get it done.  Thank you for your concern in this matter.

The school board voted Tuesday night, 4-2, to hire an outside agency to determine whether Young’s civil rights were violated.

 

Posted: 05|16|12 at 10:20 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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  • Pascal

    What competence does IPS have to conduct a civil rights investigation?  Sounds to me like pissing money down another drain-just what IPS does not need.  Are there not a couple of hundred federal agencies that trip over their appendages doing these sorts of dollar wasting?  Plus, bullying is a normal rite of childhood in government schools for the lack of said schools to give any reason at all for it being wrong.  

  • indyernie

    If the kid was bullied because he is gay then of course his civil rights were violated. The school Principal or Dean could have made the determination. Hiring outside investigators is a waste of taxes. Whatever the outcome, it’s time for White to go.

  • Indy4U2C

    The tone of the letter to a Board Member is insubordinate.  Why would The Board allow their superintendent to use that tone?  Some Board Members need to vote on disciplinary action as a School Board during the next meeting.

  • Pascal

    The Legislature has adopted this failed method of school governance.  It has failed absolutely.  It would have failed sooner and in much worse fashion if individual POS Board Members could direct any Superintendent to do anything.  Consider the fools that the people elect, in toto, imagine how much worse it would be if they were each petty dictators.

  • Scooter

    In the online Urban Dictionary, under IDIOT, I’m sure there is a entry for Eugene White, IPS Superintendent.

  • Guest

    Counterpoint: The school board are not school administrators and can’t order anyone in the school to actually do anything, and presumably IMPD and the county prosecturo are aware of the situation and likely haven’t done anything either . What else can they do to get an investigation other than hire outsiders? 

  • Truth!

    if White..was white, he’d have been long gone by now.

  • Indy4U2C

    Thank you, Pascal, for the reminder.  I guess my above post was just out of the shock that a subordinate would speak that way….you are correct.

    I believe the legislature should pass a law that declares members of the School Board that have their school taken over by the state declared “incompetent” and unfit for continued service on any future School Board. 

  • Egilmer

    Pascal, if you read just a little closer, IPS is hiring an outside agency to conduct the investigation. Also, seriously, bullying is a normal “rite of childhood?” I couldn’t disagree more. I don’t think daily threats, beatings, humiliation, and fear is normal or should be considered acceptable.  

  • Dave

    Will they protect students who are bullied for being… “conservative” or “republican?”  Or, will they wait for the fourth rail of “government” to pursue such justice? 

  • Pascal

    Booting the elected Board is not a bad idea at first glance.  It might work better if the Board majority were booted but, even so, the structure imposed on the delivery of these services is incompetent.  In my experience, the views of that 150 person Board cannot be overcome because they put their incompetence into laws.  

  • Pascal

    Actually, according to Mark Twain, God first made an idiot.  That was for practice.  He then created the first school board.  It does seem typical of small minds to place all the blame on the designated scapegoat without any experience of walking in the goat’s shoes or in any similar experience dealing with shoes to be walked in. Name, then, perhaps, the last decent Superintendent of IPS whose tenure was marked by high student achievement measured by standardized tests.  Don’t hold your breath or even begin to think that the replacement of Dr. White will have a school system that performs any better.  It won’t.  Deal with fixing the disconnect between the 150 person Board and the vast structural stupidities it has erected.

  • Pascal

    I don’t think skin color has any influence on an IPS Superintendent.  Nor, does it have any on the managers of Soviet Collective Farms which are organized in much the same manner as IPS.

  • Pascal

    Well, I guess I could read a little closer.  Why hire an outside firm which costs MONEY when there are 6,000 federal agencies (more or less) who are charged with this task….including the FBI?  I will concede that the Himalayas were formed by IPS shoving stuff under the rug so as to avoid public knowledge of their incompetence (if that makes you feel better).  Government schools are unable to deal with bullying-the problem grows worse but it always has been a problem-hence-it has become a norm.

  • indyernie

    Principals, deans, teachers, even the school janitor are required by law to report all abuse of a minor to the authorities.

  • http://twitter.com/IndyStudent Matthew Stone

    And again, the school board has no power over any of those people. The principal has pretty much brushed off any criticism of how the school handled Young’s expulsion. 

    So the school isn’t doing anything, White doesn’t want to do anything, the school board wants to do something. What exactly can the school board do besides get an outside investigation since they can’t order anyone in IPS to actually do it on their behalf?

    I understand why people are concerned about tax dollars. But for the many ridiculous things IPS blows money on, hiring an outside investigator to look into this case is hardly something unjustified. Especially since the IPS administration has been very resistent to be pro-active in Young’s case.

  • http://www.facebook.com/richard.sutton.351 Richard Sutton

    If you knew anything about specific federal agencies, who are qualified to do this, you’d know there’s just one: the USDOJ.  And they only get involved upon a complaint filed with them.

    This independent investigation is appropriate because theprincipal–who’s in the appeal chain–made inappropriate public comments when the case went public.  He knows better.

    A sure sign that your organization is failing miserably: you can’t even shut up when the big boss is circling the wagons.  And you say stupid things.

    Sure sign the public has had enough: a previously White-owned school board votes 4-3 to hire an outside investigator.  

    Tick, tock…….

  • indyernie

    So…has TA finally come out of the closet and revealed his true identity? Anyone else think as I do that TA and Richard Sutton are one and the same?

  • Pascal

    Being in or out of the closet does not improve his inabilities.

  • indyernie

    Rico can now put a face to the gibberish.