BRATTLEBORO — At its Sept. 28 meeting, the Windham Southeast School Board made progress toward abuse investigations, support, and accountability, agreeing by consensus to talk with independent legal counsel, to look for a private investigator and a clinical psychologist, and to form a formal subcommittee.
Chair David Schoales suggested members move to explore retaining the services of the Brattleboro Community Justice Center, a clinical psychologist to assess the health climate of the district, an independent investigator, and the Women's Freedom Center.
Schoales noted that in conversation with the Community Justice Center and Women's Freedom Center, the next step is for folks there to “spend time with adult survivors and their allies to hear what they want.”
That could happen as soon as Oct. 12 and then the organizations would bring a plan to the school board.
Schoales said after talking with the district lawyer, concerns exist around protecting survivors' confidentiality, but he said that he is seeking precise clarification.
“We really have an issue around whether we can keep people's identities in confidence because of our role as a public entity,” said Schoales, adding something such as a hotline could be subpoenaed. “It's unclear what we can do other than encourage people to contact the police.”
The attorney also referred him to an investigator who said the process would likely be “fairly long term” and a report would ultimately be given to the school board.
The board would have to, if subpoenaed, release information to a court or other legal entity that would presumably protect that information as well, but that remains temporarily unclear.
Schoales' expressing uncertainty prompted some to worry about scaring survivors away and urged the board to get a full answer to protecting identities.
“I think it sounds unnecessarily threatening to anybody who wants to report,” said Mindy Haskins Rogers, whose Viewpoint in The Commons [“No more secrecy,” Aug. 11] prompted much of the current discussion and action.
“I think we just need to be clearer,” Haskins Rogers said. “The statement currently sounds like you're telling people you can't protect their identities if they come forward to report abuse.”
“Again, we need to be really clear and certain,” said Schoales. “We need to be a little bit more formal in our process and get some clarifications about our insurance.”
“We're talking about actions going back to 1974 and possibly farther,” he added. “That's not to say we're not going to do it, but we need to figure out what liability we have, what insurance.”
“I would hope the public wouldn't lose faith in the board and the process quite yet,” said representative Kelly Young of Guilford.
Interim Superintendent Mark Speno suggests the board first hire an independent investigator and lay out the process, adding support for survivors and determining needed changes.
“To hire two people at the same time - I just feel like there's a priority here and you need to get to the bottom of what happened,” he said.
Schoales also spoke with a clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts with experience in assessing the health climate of an institution and suggested that his “extensive experience” would be hugely helpful.
“Our role would be to identify where we failed, based on what the investigation shows, and what we can do to move forward,” said Speno, noting the board should be removed from the investigation itself.
“We're not trying to hide anything,” said representative Liz Adams of Putney, noting she wants the public to understand. “We're going to be forthright with you.”