The School Committee met in executive session last Thursday night to “conduct strategy sessions with respect to collective bargaining requested, and litigation threatened,” in response to a letter sent by the Marblehead Educators Association regarding four teachers who have been placed on administrative leave at Glover Elementary School.
According to the letter, signed by Co-Presidents Jonathan Heller and Sally Shevory, Interim Superintendent Theresa McGuinness placed those educators on administrative leave “unfairly” on Dec. 6. The MEA is demanding immediate action by meeting with MPS “to develop a mutually acceptable program to guarantee the safety of students, teachers, and property at the Glover School and all other Marblehead Public Schools.”
The MEA has also threatened litigation against the district.
In the letter, the MEA alleged that “an alarming number of educators at the Glover Elementary School have suffered physical injury caused by the dangerous behaviors of one or more dysregulated students, despite repeated requests for resources and support from the Department of Student Services.”
It further claimed that MPS has failed to provide a safe working environment, specifically at the Glover School. The MEA is also demanding that the student at Glover Elementary, as well as any other students whose behavior is in question, be immediately suspended from the school and “placed in an interim alternative educational setting until a mutually acceptable program to ensure the safety of students and staff can be developed.”
“The Marblehead Public Schools have failed to adequately respond or take any appropriate action whatsoever to prevent such incidents and ensure the safety of staff and students at the Glover School,” the statement read, citing a lack of “adequate protocol” to address student behavior.
In a statement released Wednesday, McGuinness reported that MPS has started to review the district’s policies and protocols concerning the “student restraint process.”
The statement noted that “recent incidents involving the restraint of a general education student at the Glover Elementary School have prompted the district to review when student restraints should be used, the procedures used during this process, and how restraints are reported at both the district and state level.”
According to the statement, state guidelines permit properly trained and certified staff to restrain students, but only as a last resort when the behavior of a student “poses a threat of assault, or imminent, serious, physical harm to self or others.”
McGuinness said that student and staff safety is of the utmost importance to the district.
“The safety and security of all of our students and staff is our top priority,” McGuinness said in the statement. “The district will take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that all of our schools are safe and welcoming learning environments for all.”
Under the collective-bargaining agreement, educators in Massachusetts are covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which requires schools to create a workplace “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.”
“Unfortunately, we must enforce our members’ rights under federal legislation to ensure a hazard-free workplace,” the MEA’s letter read.