Opinion: Our High School Has A Culture Problem

Why it's time to start having the difficult conversations

When I’m not working from home at my day job as a strategic planner on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, I’m a substitute teacher in our district. I mostly stuck to TMS where my daughter attended. A little over a year ago, I took a sub position at our high school. My daughter was going to be a freshman later that year, so I thought I’d get to know the faculty at the high school as well as I knew the folks at the middle school. My first day was uneventful, but I did get to meet vice principal Greg Dolson when he introduced himself during my class.

A few days later, I got a call from my son’s teacher at THS that he needed his lunchbox (he attended the LISD class). As I dropped it off, an assistant stopped me to tell me Mr. Dolson wanted to see me in his office. I was a little confused at first since it was 9am on a weekday. Apparently, a student informed Dolson that, during my class a few days prior, I permitted a student to take Tylenol. The accusation was correct. I felt stupid admitting it because I knew the policy (only the school nurse can give permission). I have teenagers who ask me for Tylenol all the time, so I just said, “sure” without thinking. I messed up.

Dolson then asked if I had helped the students cheat on their test. I explained that I helped them with the context of the question, as SAT proctors do, but no answers were given. This is the same thing I told the teacher I subbed for, Mr. Newcomb, when I sent him my notes for the class. Dolson thanked me for talking with him, and admitted that substitute teachers should never have been asked to administer tests.

Then he said something I found curious.

“You know, we get subs in here sometimes, they think they know something about a subject, but we don’t need you to teach, we need you to just run the plays, ok?”

I introduced myself as a psychology graduate pursuing licensure, but I didn’t really teach anything. I just let them know that I’d be happy to answer psychology questions if they had any. Something about that experience was odd to me. A few hours later, I sent Dolson an email thanking him for the opportunity to teach at his school, for everything they’ve done for my son (which I later learned was LISD, not THS), and informing him that I don’t think I would be a good fit to sub at THS. No response.

Three days later, I received an email from Edustaff that I had been effectively banned from subbing at THS. At first I thought it was a mistake. I called Edustaff, who sent me the form they received, including new accusations. Supposedly, I let the students run amok, pilfer the teacher’s drawers, cheat on their tests, and I was even quoted as saying, “f*** this job, I don’t need it, they can’t fire me!” This was absurd. If they had accused me of being a bad sub, I probably would have let it go. Helping students cheat is a matter of integrity. I wasn’t going to let that accusation slide.

I wrote the teacher and asked if it was a mistake. No response. I wrote Dolson and asked if it was a mistake. No response. I got a call from Edustaff HR asking me what happened. They said the situation was very strange, since “building exclusions” (banned from subbing) was very rare and saved for egregious offenses. HR reached out to Dolson. No response. HR reached out to Kim Irish. No response. When the school year began and we were considering enrolling our daughter at THS, I reached out once more. No response.

I decided to quit subbing, but was talked out of it by many of the teachers that knew me. It seems many of them had their own “Dolson stories”, some worse than others. One in particular troubled me, and still does to this day. I can’t speak on it, because it was told to me in confidence. It was nothing illegal, but highlighted a blatant disregard for student privacy and parental rights on Dolson’s part. Still, our daughter was only at the high school for band, homeschooling for the remaining subjects. His nonsense wasn’t my burden. Then I ran for school board.

As I walked door-to-door meeting folks, I heard a lot of stories about the high school ignoring parents. I heard a lot of stories about Dolson playing favorites (from parents and even from students who have since graduated). Some of the stories involved Dolson’s “favorites” making wild accusations about other students with impunity. When questioned on the accusations, Dolson told one parent that “A students” (his favorites) don’t lie. The day I subbed, one student was clearly not happy with the way I ran the class (she let me know). It was all starting to make sense.

I decided to speak up about it at a school board meeting. I mentioned Dolson’s quote, and without going into details, I let them know I had been the victim as well. Then-president Tony Rebotarro reminded the public that it was an issue for the superintendent, not the board. Trustee Davis suggested they look into disciplinary policy at the school. In the following board meeting, then-candidate Miller (now Trustee Miller) asked for a follow-up of disciplinary procedures, but did not seem to be acknowledged. Several parents have since made similar complaints.

I decided to submit my account of what happened to the new superintendent as well, in solidarity with other parents. I let Mr. Hilton know up front that I did not expect any action to be taken, but I just wanted him to be aware of what I experienced. Mr. Hilton listened intently, took the handout (email traffic) I printed for him, and called me a week later to say that the matter had been looked into. I trusted Mr. Hilton to look into it discretely, and that’s exactly what he did. The matter was settled as far as I was concerned.

Weeks later, as a candidate for school board, I took my opponent (Tim Simpson) to task over some of his actions. He responded publicly on Facebook by asking if I was allowed to teach at Tecumseh High School and, if not, why? Given the problems we’ve had with high school faculty being inappropriate with minors, Simpson knew the question would raise eyebrows. I chose not to engage with Simpson out of respect for Mr. Hilton, but I’ve since had parents urge me to go public about the incident. How did Simpson have access to this information? Who told him?

I intended to stay away from school matters following the election. Still, any time I mentioned to a new acquaintance that our daughter was homeschooled, folks would ask me if Dolson was a factor. It was folks from all over the community. It was faculty frustrated with Dolson’s constant, “let’s not deal with it, let’s just wait and see if the matter resolves itself”. It was parents asking if they could write their student’s IEP to say they are to have no interaction with Dolson. It was neighbors fed up with being blown off by Irish/Dolson. Then, Holly had her own incident.

Our teenage son, non-verbal and disabled, reportedly did not get off the bus on his first day of school that semester. Holly called the school frantically trying to find out what happened. When Irish answered, Holly informed her that our son was missing. Irish did not seem worried in the slightest as she carried on side conversations, laughing as Holly waited anxiously for an answer. At that point, we regretfully pulled our daughter from her only remaining class at THS. Again, no response from the school.

I’ve been hesitant to publicly discuss my experiences, but I feel it’s necessary to start a conversation. Minutes after I raised the issue about Dolson to the school board, a board member said, “Dolson is just such a wonderful man”. I don’t doubt that he is. He’s a fellow veteran, and I think he genuinely tries to do right by his students. I’ve worked for many good men who were poor leaders, or just not in the right position. It’s never an easy conversation to have, but it’s time we started having it.

Unfortunately, many folks don’t want to have the conversation. Like a toddler covering their eyes (you can’t see me if I can’t see you!), they simply ignore the community in hopes that the problem will go away on its own. I’ve heard accounts of Dolson blowing off faculty, asking to “just wait and see if it resolves itself”. Members of the school board openly boasting that they ignored my emails were what drove me to run for office. It’s costing us.

As a parent of a freshman, the situation is regrettable. I’m paying outrageous taxes for a high school I can’t send my daughter to. I watch as school board members talk of declining enrollment while taking the “let them leave” mentality when frustrated parents threaten to pull their students out of TPS. While I certainly understand that you can’t please everyone, I also know that adults should be capable of picking up a phone, or hitting “reply” when a parent has concerns.

My intent in publishing this article is to let the folks of this town know it’s not just them. Many in leadership play favorites. They ignore problems, or actively hide from them. They resent the community for being angry with them, but don’t bother to find out why. Bullying is a known problem, but they’re afraid to point fingers at their own. Enrollment may be declining in part due to a multitude of factors, but we know from exit surveys that some of it is unforced error. We can’t afford unforced errors, nor should we even if we could.

Holly and I are continually impressed by the leadership and culture we see at other TPS schools, and even with many of the educators at THS. The high school has so much potential, but culture change starts from the top. THS needs new leadership. It’s ok to say it out loud. The moment we begin to see positive change, Holly and I will proudly enroll our daughter there. We’re both looking forward to the possibility.