Ensuring their children’s safety from harm is the gravest concern and highest priority of any competent parent. Physical violence or psychological/emotional harm against a child by an adult is reprehensible. However when someone holding a position of trust (e.g., teacher, counselor, relative) intentionally harms a child, it is all the more heinous.
Eyes On SAA received this disturbing message from a confidential source:
“Please be aware that [SAA Teacher] last week [ending 11/12/21] slapped one student on the face and flicked another student on the head during class out of anger. Mrs Bowerman and Janesta Walker know about this. [SAA Teacher] is still teaching. From my understanding this is assault against a minor……The children [sic] parents are aware of the events. The superintendent, Ms. Walker is also. I am not aware if this was reported to the State of Maryland under mandatory reporting statutes. [SAA Teacher] is still teaching.”
We delayed publishing these disturbing allegations for several weeks. Why? First, to allow sufficient time for the Chesapeake Conference or SAA to do their jobs, including to give some degree of notice to the school community. We don’t know for sure if they have done their jobs or not, but they have given no notice to the SAA community. Second, we delayed in order to make efforts to independently verify the allegations. This included asking the source for more information, asking to be put in contact with the particular students’ parents, using our own network of contacts to canvass for more information, contacting directly the teacher implicated, contacting SAA Head of School Tissiana Bowerman, and contacting Chesapeake Conference (CC) Education Superintendent Janesta Walker. Click to read our letters to Mrs. Bowerman, Mrs. Walker, and the Implicated Teacher. Unsurprisingly, we received no response whatsoever from SAA, CC, or the teacher. Under other circumstances we might not draw any conclusions (positive or negative) from this silence. However, SAA and the CC have shown themselves to be institutions steeped in silence and hubris, so we’ll share our conclusions later in this post.
This is not the first time in SAA's history that a teacher has reportedly assaulted a student - and that was only several years ago. That teacher was ultimately removed thanks to a certain administrator committed to student safety. So we make this point here and now: Staff abuse of a student is not only a confidential personnel issue - it is also a public safety issue for every child on campus. And parents deserve to know about it. Otherwise we are handicapped in our ability to talk to our children in real time about personal safety, and take the reactive steps we believe are necessary to protect them. This is a matter of respecting our parental rights and our sacred duty to protect our children.
Perhaps there are readers who may believe that this allegation, even if true, is not a big deal - since it sounds like it most likely did not involve serious physical injury. We completely disagree with such reasoning. First, this type of action is a physical assault on the persons of minors. Second, there may have been some degree of injury depending upon the force of the slap and the point of its impact. Third, it was reportedly done out of anger, which immediately calls into the question the fitness of the accused teacher. Fourth, there is the potential for great emotional and psychological injury and trauma to children, not only because it was done in anger from a person of trust, but also presumably in the presence of other classmates. No matter the age of the children involved, it must have been terribly shocking and frightening to them. How would you react if such a thing were done to your child? Is it okay for you to strike another person’s child? Our point is that this allegation is very serious and should be treated accordingly. If it is true, then the teacher involved must be reported to the authorities and face immediate suspension, if not outright termination. Anything less from the Chesapeake Conference and SAA Administration is a betrayal of the trust we parents place in them every morning when we drop our children off at the auditorium door.
Because we could not independently confirm this allegation apart from our confidential source(s), because of the presumption of innocence and the potential damage to the teacher’s reputation if the allegations are untrue, we have at this time chosen not to identify the SAA teacher implicated (Note: you should draw no inferences or conclusions whatsoever from the above picture about the appearance, skin color, hair color, height, weight or sex of either the Implicated Teacher or the students involved). However we will reconsider that decision depending upon what information is ultimately provided by CC or SAA administration, or if we independently obtain further verification. Why would we identify the Implicated Teacher? Doesn't our homepage claim "We love administrators, teachers, and volunteers who show excellence, humility, and invest true Christ-like unselfish love into our children."? Yes it does, and yes we do. But make no mistake about this - Eyes On SAA will provide no cover for wrongdoers. To the contrary, we will "make you famous." As much as we love the 99% of teachers who are kind, loving, and overworked, we will also respect you as parents by giving you information you need and deserve to best protect your child’s safety by keeping eyes on anyone bold enough to harm 2 children in school. Besides, the 99% of kind and loving teachers would never strike a student out of anger - so identifying the true aggressor actually would remove any possible cloud of suspicion from the rest of the staff. So if you have reliable information on this, we urge you to contact us. We will handle such information responsibly and confidentially. The stakes are too high to blindly trust school and conference administration to police themselves to do the right thing. Why? More on that later.
As a point of emphasis, we will always honor requests from our sources for anonymity and confidentiality. Because we conduct research, investigate facts, and publish investigative reporting, we have legal protection and privilege from being compelled to identify our sources under the Maryland Reporter Shield Law, derived from the “Freedom of the Press” clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. No individual or entity, including SAA, the Chesapeake Conference, or even law enforcement, can compel us to divulge the identity of our confidential sources. Any attempt will be referred to lawyers for aggressive defense. It's probably a moot point since we doubt the Chesapeake Conference or SAA would even try - through the pandemic they have quietly and obediently rolled over for government mandates to close church worship spaces, schools for in-person classes, and most recently required COVID-19 vaccinations for SAA staff. Even before mandating staff, SAA required vaccine passports of its high school students going on overnight field trips - something not even "Big Brother" imposed. Will they roll over just as easily in the "time of trouble" the SDA church historically preached (but rarely talk about lately)? But we digress. We write this aside to bolster your trust in Eyes On SAA as a serious, credible, and determined forum that will honor our commitments.
We do not know if Mrs. Bowerman or Mrs. Walker complied with their legal obligation to report suspected child abuse to local law enforcement and/or child protection authorities. For more information see Reporting Child Abuse in Maryland. Eyes On SAA will not automatically assume that either of these persons has done so (although we hope to the heavens that they immediately did). Unless the allegations were ignored or dismissed, then the teacher in question should have undergone internal investigation by now, faced disciplinary measures if the allegations were founded, is likely to be investigated by the authorities, and we as parents should have been notified as well. This also would send the message to parents that administration is trustworthy with our children’s safety, and to staff that physical violence against our children will never be tolerated, and no passes given to abusers just because they hold an important position of trust.
Eyes On SAA has decided to help SAA’s administration do its job by preparing a "Hypothetical Letter to the SAA Community". Please read it. It has alternate endings for different outcomes, like the old "Choose Your Adventure" books for children. This is the letter you should have received from Mrs. Bowerman, but never did. This letter assures the community that the school will fiercely protect your children, and give no cover to anyone that harms a child - anyone. This is a letter that builds community trust by offering transparency and accountability. This is a letter that reminds everyone that “it takes a village” to keep our children safe, and that everyone has an important part to play by “saying something if you see something.” This is a letter that shines light, breaks silence, and holds accountable - which is why it is from us, not SAA.
But if the allegations were found to be true, and those administrators (Mrs. Bowerman and/or Mrs. Walker) did not immediately report this incident, then we believe they have violated Maryland’s mandatory abuse-reporting laws, and thereby also violated the trust every single parent has placed in SAA - and should either resign in shame or be terminated effective immediately. Even though this school is still feeling the sting and absence of last April Fool’s Day's loss of Elementary Principal Judie Rosa, it is better off firing now any personnel which does not follow the law concerning student safety - even its highest administrator. Being on the losing side of an internal administrative political war (i.e., Mrs. Rosa) is not in the same megaverse as covering up child abuse and protecting an abuser. If the former merited termination, then how much more would the latter?
You may be asking yourself “Why does Eyes On SAA continue to raise this point about Mrs. Rosa? How is it relevant to this situation of an alleged assault against 2 students?”
Because it was a watershed moment in SAA’s history.
The wrongful termination of Mrs. Rosa proved that SAA’s Administration, its Secret School Board, and the Chesapeake Conference (collectively “they”) were willing to collude together to immediately suspend, then terminate the most qualified and experienced administrator in the building for obvious political reasons. Then came the ensuing arrogant and self-serving silence, hubris, and dodgeball of SAA Administration and the Secret School Board’s leadership, dissimulating behind school-wide emails full of empty platitudes, selectively releasing derogatory information at first, only to later conveniently claim to “not be at liberty” to explain how such nuclear aggression served this school’s best interests. They also ignored hundreds of petitioners’ requests to allow Mrs. Rosa to simply finish the school year, and give the community the basic respect of a town hall meeting to explain what was done. In so refusing, they showed a willingness, if not also an eagerness to sabotage the remainder of the 2020-21 school year to show Mrs. Rosa “her place”, and keep the “144,000” petitioners in their place too - best interests of SAA be damned.
Then came more of the same at SAA’s Constituency Meeting including the Principal’s Report’s half-truths celebrating Mrs. Rosa’s move to Hinsdale, then Mrs. Bowerman hiding behind Mr. Noble and Mrs. Walker to dodge delegate questions about how it best served the school (spoiler alert: it didn't). That these same individuals would have the temerity to stand up in front of hundreds at the Constituency Meeting and attempt to exercise the very trust they violated was obscene and insulting. For more information and analysis, follow this link to: The 2021 SAA Constituency Meeting: A Series of Unauthorized, Unofficial, and Independent Reports
This spectacular abuse of executive power and its fallout damaged, if not destroyed, the trust that hundreds in this community previously had in SAA and the Chesapeake Conference. If anyone lacks background information on this, then we refer them to our Report on Termination of J.R. and our post Epilogue & Lessons Learned from that watershed moment. Are we wrong about any of these facts, Mrs. Bowerman? Mrs. Walker? Mr. Noble? If so, then prove it.
Those events gave birth to Lillian Hepburn-Richmond and the Eyes On SAA Blog. We pledged to make a permanent online record of that scandal as an enduring reminder of the staggering abuse of authority of which this institution is capable - cloaked in religiosity and subterfuge. We have fulfilled our pledge. The wrongful termination of SAA’s Elementary Principal last year was like a mega-earthquake, followed by a tsunami, and landslides - all having negative and unfair consequences on teachers, students, and parents, none of whom asked to be thrown into the vortex of an administrative coup d’etat.
So does Eyes On SAA now give Mrs. Bowerman and Mrs. Walker “the benefit of the doubt” that the right thing was done in this case - involving a teacher reportedly angrily assaulting 2 children on school grounds? No, we do not. Those administrators are no longer entitled to the benefit of the doubt. They must either prove their bona fides in this matter of student safety and legal compliance - or resign. Or be fired.
We don't think for one second that Hinsdale Adventist Academy's new Head Principal would have pulled a "Bowerman-Walker" were she still the Elementary Principal here at SAA - like she was until this past March 31st. We would bet BIG money that Mrs. Rosa would NEVER have tolerated staff abuse of a child, and would have fearlessly confronted that teacher, plus whomever necessary in the SAA or CC bureaucracy, to rain hell down on that teacher, get them out, and herself substituted for that teacher until a replacement was found. And if the allegation were unfounded, she would have communicated effectively to staff and to the community about student safety. Wait a second, though - this is not just a theory. We can actually move away from hypothetical scenarios to hard facts with Mrs. Rosa: Who was it that took on and took down a former teacher that reportedly attacked a student(s)? Even though that teacher was the spouse of the highest administrator on campus? To have the courage and conviction to do something like that? To take down your own superior boss-MAN's wife at SAA? Putting your own neck on the chopping block for student safety? Wow. Such an administrator must have had a gigantic pair of.......guts.
That administrator was Judie Rosa.
Here's an excerpt from just one message of support for Mrs. Rosa posted to our Petition: "Judie Rosa is the best principal SAA has had since my children began at the school nearly a decade ago....shows her Christianity not just with words, but by her actions...is one of the hardest working people I know. She does the hard thing, because it is the right thing, and she does it with love. She LOVES the kids, and everything she does, she does with them in mind." Read dozens more tributes at the Petition website.
Alas, there is no longer any administrator like that left at 2502 Spencerville Road - thanks to the trio of Bowerman, Walker, and Noble.
Returning to the issue at hand, this is our message to the SAA Community: Two children’s safety was reportedly violated by a staff member lashing out in anger. SAA has said nothing to the community about it. The teacher presumably remains on staff, potentially without any disciplinary consequences or remedial measures, and interacting with hundreds of students every school day. Administration has failed to notify parents that there was even a problem in the first place, failed to assure parents that a proper investigation was done, failed to assure parents that the legal duty to report the matter to the authorities was fulfilled, and failed to inform parents of the protocol to ensure the safety of their children. Based on everything we know so far, the SAA and CC administrations failed. And failed miserably - yet again.
Are you okay with this?
What are you going to do about it?
Wait until the Implicated Teacher slaps another student?
Or until another anger-prone staff member, emboldened by SAA's inaction, punches your smart-mouthed kid in the face?
Staff abuse of a student is not only a confidential personnel issue - it is also a public safety issue for every child on campus. And parents deserve to know about it.
Our suggestion is to contact Mrs. Bowerman and Mrs. Walker, like we did. Try Mr. Noble too. Then share their responses (or non-responses) with Eyes On SAA.
Information is power. We refuse to be powerless in protecting our children.
We will continue to follow this story...
Shining Light. Breaking Silence. Holding Accountable.
We’ve got Eyes On SAA.
-Lillian Hepburn-Richmond
(A Cohort of Concerned Parents)
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