• Athletics
  • Big Ed
  • Ed Tech
  • Educators
  • Elections
  • Federal Policy
  • Parents
  • Students
  • The Testing Industry

K-12 News Network's The Wire

K-12 News Network: People-Powered Public Education News

  • Budgets
  • Charter Schools
  • Federal Policy
  • School Districts
  • State Education Law
  • School Boards
You are here: Home / LAUSD / Mayberry Elementary Parents Dissatisfied With Principal’s Police Summons For Kindergartner’s Behavior

Mayberry Elementary Parents Dissatisfied With Principal’s Police Summons For Kindergartner’s Behavior

December 3, 2018 by cheryl ortega

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

By Cheryl Ortega

On Friday, Nov 29 at 6:00 PM about 200 parents and neighborhood council members attended a meeting at Mayberry Elementary School in Silver Lake/Echo Park that had been requested by petition to Roberto Martinez, LAUSD Local Superintendent, through 40 school parents called Mayberry Amigos.

The parents asserted that over some months there had been half a dozen incidents involving students as young as 5 that caused the principal, Jessica Niessen, to call the police ON THE STUDENTS. The incident that actually triggered the petition was when a 5 year old boy who lowered his pants and exposed himself to his classmates was taken away by LAPD. The meeting, organized by parent Tatiana Ramirez, whose son is a classmate of the boy in question, was facilitated by LAUSD in spite of the fact that it was a parent-called meeting.

One parent, Elizabeth Kibbee, reported that she had contacted the ACLU and had been advised that minors may not be taken by police without notifying their parents.  Other stated concerns were that the principal resists communication with parents and has not provided translation at parent meetings. Some 80% of the students are Hispanic and many parents do not speak English. Mayberry ES, as both a magnet school and having a dual language program, is also experiencing issues of competition between the two specialty programs.

Then the meeting took a very odd turn. Other parents took the mic to claim that they had a very fine relationship with Ms. Niessen and that any problems were the fault of the complaining parents. The faculty, one after another, stood and defended her as being an outstanding administrator. They criticized the parents who had complained.  Ms. Niessen offered the “apology” that she was sorry if anyone had been offended by her unintentional behavior.

The District representatives were not helpful in suggesting remedies other that that “everyone should try to cooperate for the sake of the children and the school.” It did not seem to occur to anyone to apologize to parents who feel that they and their children are not respected, or, in fact, not safe.

No remedies were offered, no mediation.  If I were one of the complaining parents, I would not have felt validated or even listened to.  I heard no next steps offered to help this situation.  But all were thanked for coming to the meeting.

Clearly there are some issues to resolve at Mayberry.

More coverage of this issue can be found in La Opinion “Padres acusan a directora de Mayberry St. Elementary por discriminacion y hostigamiento [harrassment].”  Nov 28, 2018.

Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Filed Under: LAUSD, Los Angeles, Parents, School discipline, School Districts, School to prison pipeline

Trackbacks

  1. Dismantling Our Public Schools says:
    December 7, 2018 at 8:12 am

    […] The District representatives were not helpful in suggesting remedies” […]

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required
Email Format

Buy a hybrid Facebook+ website today!

Federal Policy

Quick Education Voter’s Guide to the California CD34 Race, April 4, 2017

There are twenty-three candidates running to fill former Congressman Xavier Bacerra’s seat in Congressional District 34 in Southern California. (Bacerra is currently the state’s Attorney General, replacing Kamala Harris, who, after November 8, 2016, became our US Senator.) Election Day is Tuesday, April 4, 2017, 7:00 am to 8:00 pm. You can find your polling […]

Betsy DeVos, #NOTMYSDOE

Take the pledge to #resist and fight for public schools as a public good TODAY. DeVos had to have the assistance of Vice President Mike Pence’s unprecedented tie-breaking vote in order to win her confirmation. Two GOP Senators voted against, all Democratic Senators voted against. Yet all the other GOP Senators who received campaign donations […]

Next #DemDebate MUST Include K-12 Education Policy

The next #DemDebate is scheduled for the important primary state of Iowa on November 14, 2015. It’ll be broadcast by CBS in partnership with the Des Moines Register. Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig is leading the call for the families of 50 million students K-12 across the nation and the communities they live in to have […]

More Posts from this Category

K12NN on Blog Talk Radio

Online Politics Progressive Radio at Blog Talk Radio with MOMocrats on BlogTalkRadio

Categories

December 2018
S M T W T F S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Nov   Jan »

Copyright © 2022 · The Wire Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in