5 On Your Side: An anonymous letter accused a Wake teacher of abuse. What happened after a mom pushed for an investigation
A teacher has resigned, and the Wake County Public School System is making changes following a 5 On Your Side investigation.
In November 2022, Tessiah Smithen received a letter that's haunted her for 18 months. The anonymous note showed up in her mailbox.
"I had no idea what it was. It had no return address," Smithen said.
When she finally opened the letter a few days later she could not believe what she read. It alleged her son's teacher was "verbally and physically abusing children." It went on to say the teacher made "racist and inappropriate comments in front of the children." In perhaps the most concerning allegation it told Smithen that "school administrators" were "aware of the situation" but that the teacher had not been "reprimanded."
‘Were you aware of this?’ Mom asks district for answers
"I was in shock," said Smithen, who immediately took the letter to administrators at her son’s high school. "I looked at the principal and said, 'Were you aware of any of this?’ And he got quiet and said, 'I was aware of some, but there's an ongoing investigation through human resources and I cannot comment,'" Smithen said of the meeting.
“No comment” is essentially what Tess heard from the district for 17 months. She wanted to know exactly what had happened in the classroom, but was unable to ask her son, Justin, who lives with severe disabilities and is nonverbal.
"He will always be a child in a man's body," Smithen said. "I am his advocate."
Fed up with waiting, Smithen reached out to 5 On Your Side.
"If I did not reach out to 5 On Your Side, they would've closed the case and never responded," she said.
WRAL reporters worked together to find the answer to an important question: What can a parent in North Carolina do if they think something has happened to their child at school but the district won't give them information?
In short, under state law, there’s not a lot they can know about the disciplinary history of their child’s teachers or records of complaints against them, substantiated or unsubstantiated.
But federal law says parents have access to reports of their child being restrained or secluded. They also should have access to records that mention their children, including investigative records.
Smithen requested those records related to the school’s investigation of the letter, but she says they told her nothing of the incident. "70 percent was redacted," she said. And when she tried to open the records later she wasn't able to, and she was told that the link expired within three months.
A teacher resigns and WCPSS upgrades its parent communication policies
In April, 5 On Your Side contacted Wake County Schools directly.
Records showed the teacher had been moved out of the high school but was still working at another school in the system. A district spokesperson said they were unable to provide much information, but a day later they called back to share that the teacher had resigned.
You read that right. The teacher resigned a day after 5 On Your Side started asking questions.
WRAL spoke to the teacher in question. They denied the allegations and said they have a strong teacher record. They said the reason they left was because they were burned out, and they said that Wake needs to support its teachers better.
Smithen received a letter apologizing for the delay in communication, but still doesn't know if the allegations in the letter were true.
"I feel like they let me down, and they let down every other parent and child who was in that classroom," Smithen said. "They tell us, 'If you see something, say something.' They did nothing."
Wake County Schools says it's unable to comment on the allegations made in the letter, but it is now making two changes:
- ‘Strengthening checkpoints ‘ in their investigative process to ensure parents are more up to date on the process.
- ‘Transitioning to a new platform' for ‘tracking and documenting’ investigations.
5 On Your Side is not publishing the name of the teacher because the allegations in the letter have not been proven.
Justin will never be able to tell his mom what happened in that classroom, but she won’t rest until someone does.
What information can parents legally access about their child in school?
Access to information on whether a teacher has been investigated, or what that investigation found, is limited.
Employees prefer that, and state employee organizations have fought to keep it that way. After all, that information is kept secret in the private sector. And what if an accusation were borne out of a vendetta, instead of truth, and it were still made public?
The State Employees Association of North Carolina has called bills to change this “intrusive” and cautioned they could force employees to have to disprove salacious or inaccurate accusations.
But those concerns put parents like Smithen in a tough spot.
Teachers directly serve Smithen's son for hours every day, 177 days per year.
Her son is nonverbal. She can't know what's happening in the classroom unless someone outside of her family tells her.
Last year, several state lawmakers wanted to change things for parents like her.
Two Republicans (Sen. Norman W. Anderson, R-Pamlico, and Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick) and one Democrat (Graig Meyer, D-Orange) introduced Senate Bill 254 of 2023, which was never heard in committee. If a parent complained about a teacher and the teacher were disciplined in some way, under the bill, the parent who complained would be allowed access to information about why the teacher was disciplined. The files would be open only after the employee’s appeal window or process had concluded.
Currently, the public can only know the reason behind an employee's promotion and not the reason behind any type of negative action taken against an employee, unless the employee is fired. If an employee is fired, often the only information listed is the rule they violated.
Under the bill, the public could learn the reason behind a demotion, transfer, suspension, separation or dismissal. The reason would be public information once the timeline for an employee's appeal runs out or their appeal is denied.
Currently, the public can find out if an employee was suspended, dismissed or demoted – just not why. The public can get a date for each disciplinary action and the type of disciplinary action.
The bill never went anywhere. State employees’ groups pushed back on it.
Tamika Walker-Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, said the bill would allow information to be public that lacks sufficient context to be useful.
“We believe as an organization that the best way for any parent or caregiver to learn about their child's educator is to build that relationship with them, to come into the school and begin that one-on-one, positive relationship with them,” Walker- Kelly said. “Because ultimately, that benefits the student overall.”
The North Carolina Press Association pushed for the bill.
Executive Director Phil Lucey said most states already allow access to these records, and that the bill wasn’t asking for as much as what’s available in most states.
“It’s just a slight crack in the door of these records,” he said. These types of records should be in the hands of parents and journalists, he said.
Easier access to investigative records would also better ensure schools don’t hire someone they shouldn’t have — a safeguard that Lucey said could help schools protect their reputation and their other teachers.
Walker-Kelly said teachers have been targeted more recently in political debates over whether teachers are including controversial elements about race, gender identity or sexual orientation in their instruction. She fears more open personnel records would be weaponized against educators rather than used in good faith. More open records could hinder due process for an educator, she said.
She said negative incidents are rare and that schools can beef up their vetting of teachers by ensuring they’re asking the right questions and conducting background checks, if they aren’t already. She said schools already have processes for people to file grievances.
But those processes aren’t always clear or don’t always yield satisfactory answers.
Put it in writing, formalize requests
If the investigation was prompted by a parent complaint, the parent could argue they have the right to the results of the investigation under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, arguing the results of the investigation constitute an educational record for their child, but a school may disagree with that interpretation of the law.
Cari Carson, education team supervisor at Disability Rights North Carolina, recommends parents make requests — for an investigation or even just records or information — in writing and gather as much documentation as possible. They should keep a record of conversations they have and when they had them, summarizing the conversations. If a parent ever has to go through a formal complaint process or to court, written documentation is valuable.
Parents should also use formal language to get their points across, Carson said. If they want their child’s individualized education program to include something, they should make sure they say “I propose” or something similar before making their suggestion.
“Those are two things that I would want students to know, that I would want parents to know, in terms of how to make sure their students are safe,” Carson said.
An individualized education program is a document specifically written and kept for students enrolled in special education to help them learn.
When it comes to students with disabilities, many parents have questioned whether schools have enough resources to help them. Parents have described vastly different experiences school-to-school, even in the same school system.
“We know that schools need to be equipped and have appropriate resources to be providing the support that is needed to all of our students, including students with disabilities,” Carson said.
How to complain about your child's treatment at school
Different students can have different grievance processes available to them.
Students enrolled in special education — with individualized education programs — can file state-level complaints or due process
For all students, school boards also have varying — but likely similar — grievance procedures for a variety of issues spelled out in their policies.
In Wake County schools, for example, parents can file a written grievance against any final administrative decision at a school, if they believe the decision violated laws, policies or state rules. The parent can appeal to the school’s principal, then the system superintendent, and then to the school board. Parents can also file “non-grievance” complaints against a final administrative decision at a school, even if they believe decision doesn’t violate laws, policies or state rules. The parent can submit a non-grievance complaint to the principal, then to the superintendent, and then to the school board.
The difference between the grievance and the non-grievance complaint is that the grievance process is much more detailed and requires the principal to investigate the matter and report their findings. But some findings may be obscured. Wake’s policy states, “The response will include the principal's decision regarding resolution of the grievance and the basis for the decision. In responding, the principal may not disclose information about other students or employees that is considered confidential by law.”
