Vella-Wilkinson pushes no confidence vote on schools

John Howell
Posted 8/6/15

Camille Vella-Wilkinson has waited long enough.

On Monday the Ward 3 councilwoman will call for a vote of no confidence in three members of the school administration who she, fellow councilwomen …

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Vella-Wilkinson pushes no confidence vote on schools

Posted

Camille Vella-Wilkinson has waited long enough.

On Wednesday the Ward 3 councilwoman will call for a vote of no confidence in three members of the school administration who she, fellow councilwomen Donna Travis and Kathleen Usler and School Committee member Karen Bachus, believe failed to appropriately respond to the actions of a Gorton teacher. Two of those administrators have since retired and the third, Rosemary Healey, no longer serves in the dual role of the department’s legal counsel and director of human relations. The committee has retained an outside counsel, Andrew Henneous.

But those developments haven’t changed Vella-Wilkinson’s conviction that the manner in which the administration handled reports that science teacher Mario Atoyan drew a penis on the arms of two female junior high school students in separate incidents during school hours failed to protect the students.

“I’m not playing this game any longer. I’m not satisfied,” Vella-Wilkinson said Monday.

Vella-Wilkinson said if she is proven wrong in her assumption that the administrators failed the students, she’s prepared to make a public apology.

The incidents, which occurred about 18 months ago, didn’t come to light until Atoyan was charged with first- and second-degree sexual assault in an incident involving a 15-year-old North Kingstown female relative on June 19, 2014.

When a grand jury handed down the sexual assault indictments in March of this year, then-Superintendent Richard D’Agostino told the news media that Atoyan was liked by his peers and students and that there had been no previous incidents. That claim was contradicted by parents who referenced the drawings and questioned what action had been taken.

Warwick Police conducted an investigation. The parents did not seek to pursue criminal complaints, but that didn’t stop inquiries. The three councilwomen and Bachus launched a no confidence vote of D’Agostino, Healey and director of secondary education Dennis Mullen, who retired last month.

Vella-Wilkinson docketed the no confidence vote, but at the urging of some of her council peers agreed to wait until attorney Vincent Ragosta completed an investigation of how the complaints were handled by department personnel. Retained by the School Committee, Ragosta interviewed the parents and school administrators as well as talked to police. At an executive School Committee meeting in May, Ragosta outlined his findings before a stenographer.

A written report was not released and efforts to obtain it have been denied. The Warwick Beacon sought a copy of the report under the Freedom of Information Act, but that request was denied by Henneous.

In a July 21 letter to the newspaper, he denied the request on the basis that “the information you have requested constitutes an investigatory record of a public body and is therefore not deemed to be a public document.”

Vella-Wilkinson said efforts of the City Council to obtain the report have likewise been denied.

“The arrogance of them to disregard the council and the press,” she said in obvious frustration.

Ward 1 Councilman Steven Colantuono isn’t in favor of the no confidence vote.

“To me the point has been made and the concern identified,” he said.

He said that there, “continues to be a sour relationship with the School Committee, which needs to get better” and the resolution, he feels, won’t help.

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