Overriding purpose is to protect our students

Jennifer Ahern
Posted 9/3/15

Recently the Warwick City Council passed a No Confidence resolution regarding several school administrators and criticized our School Committee’s decision not to publicly release the independent …

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Overriding purpose is to protect our students

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Recently the Warwick City Council passed a No Confidence resolution regarding several school administrators and criticized our School Committee’s decision not to publicly release the independent Ragosta investigation about an incident involving junior high school teacher Mario Atoyan.

As School Committee chair, I would like to explain the steps we have taken to respond to the Atoyan incident and also to provide specific reasons for our decision to not publicly release the report.

Any organization, whether in the public or private sector, cannot prevent every employee issue that occurs. However, once situations occur, leadership must take steps to ensure all facts are reviewed and steps are taken to rectify any problems within the framework of contracts and laws of that organization, in order to prevent any identified missteps from happening again.  In this case, our School Committee has been extremely proactive in its actions, based on investigative deliberation. Please be assured that we will continue to do what is right and required to protect the welfare of our students in the Warwick Public Schools.

I am disturbed by the continuing political attacks claiming that the school committee and administration are uncooperative and withholding information.  Nowhere is it mentioned that we have a strong legal basis for our position about the need to keep investigative information confidential and that we are committed to maintaining the privacy of the parents and students involved in this incident.  Unfortunately, the negative press generated by local politicking and the divisiveness it creates accomplishes nothing constructive, and in fact, reflects poorly on our city, its schools, its political leaders, and its citizens. City political leaders and our Committee should be working together, respecting and understanding one another’s positions, and not tearing one another apart.

The School Committee took the Atoyan incident very seriously and reacted as soon as it was brought to our attention.  We then took several immediate actions:

Atoyan was suspended without pay, pending further action.

• Internal interviews were conducted by our independent investigative attorney, Vincent Ragosta, and he presented us an abbreviated summary of those interviews in executive session.

• We recognized internal missteps were taken by administrators in handling this incident, and organizational changes were addressed.

• We hired a new school committee legal counsel.

• At present we have developed and revised policy to better meet student welfare needs.

• We have submitted modifications to contract language to support our students first.

Our new legal counsel, after reviewing the report and interview transcripts, said that if the Ragosta interviews were made public it could compromise employee and / or student confidentiality and result in further costly litigation. Recently, requests have been made for us to release the information, but have been denied per our legal counsel’s recommendation.

I would like to repeat that our overriding purpose is to protect our students and make our schools safe places for young people.  We also are very sensitive to the privacy of the students and family involved in this incident.  We take these responsibilities very seriously. 

We also recognize that we cannot let one incident with one teacher diminish the fact that we have many outstanding and dedicated teachers in our school district who conduct themselves with the utmost professionalism.

It is therefore critically important that the Mayor, City Council members, and School Committee members start to restore confidence in our ability to work together for the greater good of the citizens and students within this city. It is exceedingly important to model a level of professionalism and cooperation when working through disagreements, especially when faced with difficult and sensitive situations.

(Jennifer Ahearn is chair of the Warwick School Committee)

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