DPI rules West Allis-West Milwaukee violated its own bullying and harassment policies

The Wisconsin Department of Instruction recently ruled in favor of a parent who said her son was bullied about his disabilities and that the West Allis-West Milwaukee school district failed to properly intervene.

The DPI issued a ruling last month that the district failed to properly investigate the parent's complaint and ordered the district to reopen the investigation.

The district had claimed that while the student was subject to bullying, there was no evidence that the students involved in the bullying did so due to the child's disability, as the parent claimed, according to the DPI. The parent's name and details about the bullying incidents were redacted from the document the DPI provided to the Journal Sentinel.

However, the parent, Devon Ray, sent a copy of the unredacted decision to a reporter and spoke on the record with the Journal Sentinel.

The DPI ordered the district to submit a corrective action plan within 30 days. The DPI said the plan should ensure staff are trained on the district's discrimination and harassment policies, how to investigate complaints and steps to ensure compliance with those policies.

The DPI also asked the district to spell out how it would reinvestigate the parent's complaint.

Ray said in a Feb. 13 phone interview that she has also filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights. The Journal Sentinel is awaiting confirmation of that action, as well as the status of the complaint.

A history of bullying — and few consequences

According to the DPI's ruling, Ray sent at least four emails before May 2022 to the principal of her son's school about "inappropriate behavior" toward her son by his classmates — behavior she thinks is related to her son's physical disabilities. Her son was 12 at the time of the incidents.

Ray said her son's disabilities stem from a brain disorder; he suffers from epilepsy and walks with a limp. He also has an Individualized Education Plan and receives special education services.

Incidents she detailed in her complaints to the district included students squirting water on her son and choking him. The principal said each incident was investigated and the students at fault were disciplined. It's unclear how the students were disciplined.

Ray also detailed an incident in which several classmates knocked down her son as he left school, causing his head to hit the pavement. She contacted police about the incident and the district's school resource officer conducted an investigation and interviewed all students involved, according to the DPI. West Allis Police Deputy Chief Robert Fletcher said in an email to a reporter that three 12-year-olds boys were cited for battery and a 12-year-old girl was cited for disorderly conduct in connection with the incident.

But Ray said that although the principal repeatedly told her that her son's classmates would be disciplined, the bullying continued.

In a May 6, 2022, email to the school's principal, Ray said she thought of the bullying" as "a hate crime against a disabled child."

That same day, Ray emailed West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Superintendent Marty Lexmond and the West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board to ask how the students would be punished.

Three days later, Ray emailed the principal and Lexmond to tell them her son would not attend school that day since she had not heard about an action plan. Her son completed the 2021-22 school year virtually and did not return to the district for the 2022-23 school year, according to the DPI.

Ray also alleged that the district's compliance officer did not investigate her complaints in a timely manner.

The compliance officer ultimately ruled in July 2022 that while bullying occurred, there was no evidence it was based on Ray's son's disability. Ray appealed that decision in August 2022.

The DPI's ruling and district response

The DPI's ruling noted that no one in the district reported Ray's complaints to a compliance officer, nor did the district investigate until Ray filed a complaint directly with the compliance officer; that the compliance officer did not follow district policies by failing to recognize Ray's emails as a complaint that required investigation and failing to provide a written report to the superintendent; and that the compliance officer did not explore whether the bullying Ray's son experienced was due to his disability.In a Jan. 27, 2023 statement on the district's Facebook page, Lexmond and West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board President Noah Leigh said: "First and foremost, the District takes bullying, discrimination, and harassment seriously. Such conduct has no place in our schools, and we recognize the decision by the DPI highlights areas of improvement in how the District addressed a particular complaint of bullying, discrimination, and harassment from one of our families."

The two said the district intends to follow the DPI's recommendation on staff training and holding staff accountable for following policies. They also said the district will create "a comprehensive action plan" that it says will "not only meet but exceed" the DPI's recommendations.

The two acknowledged "shortcomings" in the district's investigation and said the district would reopen the investigation. Further, the investigator will not be affiliated with the district and the district will "welcome" that investigation's conclusions and recommendations.

Both said due to privacy and confidentiality reasons they could not comment on the specifics of the case.

They also encouraged anyone who experienced or witnessed bullying incidents to report them and said such reports "will be taken seriously and properly investigated."

The West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board met Feb. 13 with the district's attorney and leadership team to review a draft of a corrective action plan. Once completed, the plan will be submitted to the DPI for its review, according to an email from district communication coordinator Amanda Stewart. Ray said she has not seen a draft of the proposed action plan.

"We anticipate working with other involved parties to complete the corrective action plan and seek input to prevent future lapses, as identified in the DPI report, from being repeated," Stewart wrote in her email.

Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.