Sacajawea Staff Arrest: What Happens Next?

Friday morning’s announcement of the arrest of a Sacajawea instructional assistant (IA) on a trio of child sexual abuse charges was an upsetting shock for staff and parents alike. 

The email, signed jointly by Principal Fisk and SPS Chief of Staff Bev Redmond, was a model of trust building: It was timely, it communicated the relevant facts, it avoided speculation, it acknowledged the concerns that readers were likely to have, and it included some helpful resources. 

As a conversation opener, it hit the mark. But where is the rest of the conversation?

A full week has passed since the initial announcement, with no further public communication, leaving many of us wondering: Is that it? What happens next? 

Though I don’t claim to represent the entire community, I’ve talked with many Sac parents since Friday. Below, I’ve gathered the main questions from these conversations. I also had a few conversations about these themes with Principal Fisk, who shared what info he could within the district and legal constraints he’s under as principal.

1. “An SPS investigation is underway.” What does this mean?

Community members want to know what kinds of questions an SPS investigation is meant to answer: Is it about establishing whether SPS followed its own policies in terms of hiring and/or reporting of any troubling behaviors? Is it about determining whether students in the IA’s classroom were abused? Is it about assessing SPS’s legal liabilities? Is it about something else?

If the IA resigns or is terminated, as seems likely, will the SPS investigation be dropped as has happened in the recent past?

Who will be contacted as part of the investigation? Will SPS be speaking with parents of the kids in the IA’s classroom? With the students themselves? How will parents be involved, if SPS interviews their kids? Will any of the Sacajawea staff be interviewed?

Finally, what is the timeline for the SPS investigation? When can the community expect an update on what is being investigated, and when the district plans to share outcomes?

2. Where can we get assurance that the proper vetting & background checks were done when hiring this IA?

Everyone understands that in the absence of prior offenses, a background check and reference checks would have come back clean. Background checks are a requirement in any SPS teacher hiring process.

Principal Fisk reached out to SPS human resources, who confirmed that this was in fact the case: Fingerprints and a background check were completed prior to the start of this IA’s employment. Fisk also emphasized that he is certain that proper procedure has been followed in all hiring decisions at Sacajawea.

District administration could begin rebuilding trust by sharing this information out officially, to the same community that received the original arrest news. All the better if that communication addresses other community questions as well.

3. What will happen to this IA’s job?

Friday’s email stated that the IA has been placed on administrative leave. When will the future of his SPS employment be decided, and is this decision based on an SPS investigation, a legal process, or something else? Legally, the IA has been charged but is not convicted of any wrongdoing at this point.

In our conversation, Principal Fisk was unequivocal that the IA will not set foot in Sacajawea again, for any reason. In the short term, the IA is prohibited from all SPS properties effective last week (per Friday’s email). Fisk emphasized that he will not be allowed back to his position or re-hired at Sacajawea under any circumstances.

Fisk shared that he would vigorously oppose any attempt to rehire the IA anywhere within SPS. Ultimately, of course, it is central SPS staff who are responsible for ensuring any kind of district-wide hiring ban. The district does maintain a “do not re-hire” designation that can be applied to the records of some resigned/terminated staff. The specific circumstances under which the designation can be applied are unclear.

4. What support is the affected classroom getting in the short term, with an absent IA?

For now, there is short-term additional staff in the room. Moving forward, it is expected that the IA will resign or be terminated, which could happen as soon as this week. At that point, Sac will start hiring for the open position as they would for any other.

5. Who is accountable for determining whether any abuse happened at Sacajawea?

Is this the purview of the SPS investigation? The Ferndale police? Seattle police? Nobody?

Ferndale Police made the arrest, and the offenses listed in the charges all occurred outside of King County. While the Ferndale PD will support prosecution of the filed charges, it is not clear to me that they would proactively investigate possible transgressions in a Seattle-based classroom as part of their process.

Principal Fisk said that the SPS investigation would be run by SPS’s General Counsel office. One would hope that part of that investigation would include determination of any wrongdoing at Sacajawea, but I think many of us would be reassured to hear that assumption confirmed by the general counsel’s office itself, along with a timeline and the outline of a plan.

Fisk stated that he is quite confident that no student at Sacajawea suffered any abuse, due to the strong protocols in place for student safety. These includes guidelines preventing students from ever being alone with any teacher. In the affected classroom, there are students who sometimes require toileting assistance. Fisk assured that even in these cases, the adult in charge is directed to use the semi-public restroom in the nurse’s station visible behind the front desk, with the door cracked open. 

Both the community and Principal Fisk deserve district-level confirmation of the claim that student protection protocols were rigorously followed.

6. Will there be a community meeting of any kind?

Will SPS be hosting a community meeting, or a Q&A of some kind? Many parents are hoping for a district-hosted meeting where we can ask our questions directly, not just to Principal Fisk but to whoever heads the SPS investigation. The PTA can facilitate processing space for the community, but ultimately it’s up to the district to provide answers.

Principal Fisk shared that the primary teacher in the classroom affected by the arrest has been offering meetings with affected parents, including one held on Tuesday. This is welcome news, and these parents absolutely deserve this additional support. The wider community also needs support, though, and without it we are feeling abandoned to navigate this shock alone.

SPS has an opportunity here to rebuild some trust with the Sacajawea community. We are already at an ebb of trust in the district*, following the whirlwind of our school rebuild being swapped out for a closure plan which was then cancelled, leaving our future uncertain still.

Building trust on this occasion could happen in many ways, but all of them involve a recognition that our community is a group of people with natural, reasonable concerns. We all understand that SPS is operating under legal limitations, and privacy protections, and so on. Indeed, we want these to be respected! We believe that it is possible to respect these constraints and also provide our community with follow-up information and support for processing.

Anyone with suggestions or questions can reach me at advocacy@sacpta.org.

*While trust in the district is generally low, trust in the individual staff at Sac has been generally high, recent news notwithstanding.