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By Evan Moore Bosque County News CRANFILLS GAP –
The embattled Cranfills Gap School District saw the latest in a series of controversial events on Friday, May 25, when the board voted to ban the high school valedictorian from graduation exercises. Supporting a decision by Cranfills Gap School Superintendent Carla Sigler, the school board decided in a special meeting to force valedictorian Kaitlan Head to attend DAEP classes, a status that prevented her from attending graduation exercises on Saturday, May 26, or making her valedictory address. The board action came after weeks of controversy in the school district and followed a series of events that began on Wednesday, May 9, when Head and salutatorian Sarah Sellers became embroiled in an altercation at the school. According to third-party accounts, the argument began at the school that day over a derogatory statement Head wrote about Sellers on a piece of notebook paper. The argument reportedly escalated to a shoving and pushing match and ended with Sellers being stuck by a ballpoint pen held by Head. From that point the severity of the incident was not clear. Neither police nor medical personnel were called. There was no mention that Sellers sought medical attention. School officials did not immediately notify the parents of either girl and both girls returned to school the following day to take TAKS tests. The following day, however, concern over the incident began to grow.
The day after the altercation, said Charles Head, Kaitlan Head’s
father, he received notice from Sigler that his daughter would be
suspended for a day. Later, he said, that changed to having Kaitlan’s
status as a transfer student (because she lives in Meridian) revoked.
“The second time I talked to (Sigler) it had gone to three days
suspension and DAEP (Disciplinary Alternative Education Program).” On
Monday, May 14, six days after the altercation, Sellers filed a
criminal complaint and Kaitlan Head was ticketed for a Class C
misdemeanor assault and told to appear before a Justice of the Peace
later this summer. From there, said Head, the threats of disciplinary
action increased. Head was accused of aggravated assault, he said, then
of making terroristic threats to another student (other than Sellers)
and was told she would be arrested if she set foot on campus or
attended any school-related event. Finally, he said, she was informed
by Sigler that – if she did not attend DAEP classes – she would not be
allowed to graduate, a move that would have ended scholarships she had
already applied and been approved for. “My daughter’s never been in any
trouble all the time she was in school,” said Head. “Now, within days,
she went from being homecoming queen, valedictorian and all-around good
person to something evil. “What she did was wrong and I’m not saying
she shouldn’t have been punished, but this was ridiculous. “And they
weren’t doing anything to the other girl.” Head filed a grievance and
was told by Sigler that it would be taken up at the board’s next
scheduled meeting on Friday, June 1, a date that would have fallen
after graduation and after the period in which Kaitlan Head was ordered
to attend DAEP. Head responded by retaining attorney John Cullar of
Waco and, after hearing from Cullar, the board agreed to hear Head’s
case in the called meeting on Friday, May 25. At the outset of that
meeting, Board President Kenney Wiese attempted to close the session,
despite Charles Head’s assertions that he desired that it be open.
After hearing an objection from Cullar and being told by the Bosque
County News that the paper would file a complaint for violation of open
meetings laws, Wiese conferred with the board’s attorney and agreed to
open the session. During the meeting, Cullar argued that because the
charge against Kaitlan Head was filed only as a Class C misdemeanor by
the Bosque County Sheriff’s Office, under both state guidelines and the
Cranfills Gap ISD’s own policy, the girl qualified for a three-day
suspension and nothing more. Sigler and, by proxy, the school board
would be violating both state and school policy if they invoked harsher
punishment, said Cullar. “Kaitlan Head has learned the consequences of
violating the rules,” said Cullar. “This board needs to learn the
consequences as well.” The board, however, voted to “uphold” Sigler’s
actions, requiring the girl to attend DAEP classes and preventing her
from participating in graduation exercises, but not to revoke her
valedictory status or withhold her diploma. In reality, however, Head
has never attended a DAEP class, nor will she. Because she is allowed
10 absences under school policy and has none on her record, she will
not participate in the disciplinary classes and her absence will not be
counted against her, said her father. “It’s a blow and it’s cost us,
but it’s better than it was going to be,” said Charles Head. The
strange series of events comes on the heels of months of strife in the
district. Earlier, Sigler attempted to revoke the contract of science
teacher Michelle DuBay. That failed after DuBay retained an attorney
and threatened to appeal any action against her. Sigler then tendered
her resignation, effective in June, but not before students staged a
walkout of classes in support of the superintendent – a move Sigler
sanctioned by declaring an official “play day.” At the heart of the
discord is a rift on the board in which board member Sue Lee (Kaitlan
Head’s aunt) and former members Susan Ward and Jerry Jennings were
pitted against members Jeff Rose, Kathie Witte, Shelly Stuart and
Wiese. Ward and Jennings were defeated in the May 12 election, leaving
Lee as the only dissident on the board. Relations between her and the
rest of the board have so soured that other board members and Sigler
have read statements criticizing her at several recent meetings.
Friday’s meeting was no exception and began with Wiese reading a letter
from board attorney Dennis Eichelbaum, citing Lee for “inappropriate
behavior” for talking about board actions to others. Lee said she
believed the severity of Kaitlan Head’s punishment was due to the
valedictorian’s relationship to Lee. “It’s a direct result of that,”
she said.
URL http://www.bosquecountynews.com/Archives/2007%20-%2005-30/!BCN%20PG%2002.pdf
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