A Schenectady City School District elementary school is facing scrutiny after a mother made a Facebook post accusing the school of inaction after she was sent a photo of a school staff member putting a foot on her child’s back. Ashley Rivera, the mother, says a paraprofessional in her son’s school sent her the photo almost two weeks after the incident occurred. WAMC’s reporter Sajina Shrestha has been following the story, and spoke with WAMC's Lucas Willard.
Lucas Willard: Can you break down the timeline a bit? What happened and what do we know so far?
Sajina Shrestha: Sure. So, earlier this week, Rivera posted a photo on her personal Facebook page of a woman in what seems to be a classroom in Lincoln Elementary School. In the picture, there is a child, who Rivera says is her son, lying on the ground, and a woman is pictured standing above him with her foot on his back. In the Facebook post, Rivera says the woman is a school librarian. During a rally outside the Schenectady district’s administration building today, Rivera said the photo was sent to her by a paraprofessional who also works in the school. Rivera said that the incident happened on December 23rd, before Christmas break and she was only notified of it this week. The mother told me she has contacted the school multiple times but as far she knows, there has been no action taken.
Rivera: “I'm in the dark with everybody else, like I said, nobody's contacted me about anything I don't know. I wish I knew. I wish they told me, just as finding stuff out every, every single day of different things, like, y'all.”
Willard: And what about the school district? Have they responded?
Shrestha: A Schenectady City School District spokesperson did send me a statement [Wednesday]. It said the district was aware of the photo circulating on the internet and that the district takes all allegations seriously. The spokesperson, Karen Corona, added that since it was a personnel matter, she couldn’t provide further details.
Willard: What did you hear when you were at today’s rally?
Shrestha: So, at the rally today, I overheard a group of parents who are disappointed with the Schenectady City School District. In their eyes, this is not an isolated incident. They told me they have no trust in the school or the district because of the stories they hear from their children. I spoke to Nathaniel Ward III, who is a parent with a child in the same class as Rivera’s son. He said his son is autistic and nonverbal and gets bullied constantly on the school bus. He says he did not know of this incident until his son came forward with it. Ward says when he raised this issue with the school, he got a lot of dead-ends and calls that led nowhere. Here he is, telling me how his son is faring now.
Ward III: “my son used to love coming to school, until he started going to Lincoln and the stuff started happening. He used to love school, and now he he's scared to go back.”
Shrestha: Outside of parents, a local advocacy group, The Center for Law and Justice, has been calling the school to take more accountability. The group says the action the school took after this incident was too little and too late. Emily Dulci Diggs, from the center, told me that it’s alarming the school did not react right away after the incident occurred.
Diggs: "No child should ever be subjected to physical force or treatment that compromises their dignity or safety, particularly children with disabilities. What is equally troubling is the lack of timely communication with the family. School districts have a responsibility, not only to protect students, but to be transparent when incidents occur, accountability must follow when harm happens.”
