HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Holding signs such as "Our children are not bait," a group of parents outside the Madison County Board of Education meeting Thursday night said they intend to keep the case of a student sexually molested on school property in the public eye.
There were six adults and one child representing the new group, Accountability for Madison County Schools, at the silent protest. It was staged just before the school board met at 5:15 p.m.
"I want the board to acknowledge their approach to the community has been insufficient," said Jillian Fried, a mother of three who lives in the Sparkman High School district. She said the school board acting like it has handled the situation appropriately is "extremely disturbing."
The group handed out a six-page list of talking points that expressed its concerns.
The protest across the street from the school board office revolves around the case of a teacher's aide using a 14-year-old special needs student as "bait" to "catch in the act" an older boy with a history of sexually harassing female students. It occurred at Sparkman Middle School in 2010. There has been some public outcry from parents against the school district because Jeanne Dunaway, who was an assistant principal at Sparkman Middle when the incident occurred, was promoted to principal at Madison County Elementary School.
The issue can't be allowed to fade away, Fried said, until school officials provide better answers. For starters, parents want to hear a new policy for ensuring all teachers and school staff in the county understand what to do if something like this occurs again, she said.
"I think at this point, we just want to continue awareness of the case," Fried said. She elaborated that the issue should be fresh on people's minds not just at the upcoming general election, where Mary Louise Stowe is the lone board member on the ballot, but again when the next candidates are elected.
The announcement of the community engagement meeting held last month to address concerns was poorly communicated, and conducted in a manner that prompted more questions than it answered, she added.
The issue is more than one principal or one school and affects the entire county, Fried said, because the school district has put more emphasis on protecting its reputation than on protecting children.
During a brief interim between the board meeting and an executive session to discuss an expulsion, Stowe said the county does a policy in place for how school employees should handle sexual assault situations. And there are officials at the school district office willing to talk to parents about the student safety issue "anytime," she said.
Accountability for Madison County Schools has a Facebook page with 200 members, and an online petition protesting handling of the Sparkman Middle School case drew 100,000 supporters, Fried said. The new group doesn't want to be a single-issue organization, and intends to be involved in other ways to support students, she added.
Fried said they wanted to keep Thursday's protest small because the location next to Jordan Road was too busy and too dangerous for a large crowd to stand safely. The group, Accountability for Madison County Schools, intends to stage more protests in the future.