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East Chapel Hill’s Lockdown and Administration
A perspective from Daniela Iacoboni
I was certain that the May 5th student fight at East Chapel Hill High School, causing a campus-wide lockdown, would finally be the last straw. After a year riddled with locally viral videos of student incidents, surely NOW our fearless leaders would take decisive action, right?
Just 12 days later, I watched as dozens of concerned parents filed into the school’s cafeteria to attend a community meeting arranged by the PTSA and superintendent. Dignified restraint was palpable, the stakes high. This was finally our chance to be heard, and learn how leadership will turn the ship around.
Dr. Nyah Hamlett began by laying out the evening’s agenda; we patiently listened to her slide presentation about the incident and the district’s plans going forward. There would be no open forum Q&A; instead she would respond to questions we provided, written on index cards. We heard cherry-picked feedback from a small number of ECHHS students that participated in a non-randomized focus group. She editorialized some of the questions, and evaded an inquiry about a recent and unrelated incident of a handcuffed student being escorted from campus. This too was documented in a viral image, yet parents were never notified. What had happened? Was it drugs, or even worse, a weapon? Using student confidentiality as a shield appears to be Dr. Hamlett’s modus operandi for deflecting reasonable questions.
And what IS considered reasonable by this administration? ‘Restorative healing’ and an environment so void of common sense accountability that students lack any fear of recourse. Removing our schools’ resource officers is a rumored consideration. Sounds like a common sense solution, doesn’t it?
In the absence of practical solutions that ensure the immediate safety of students and staff, what’s next? Hindsight is always 20/20, but the vision of the parents sitting in that cafeteria was crystal clear; in light of what we know now (and what we suspect is being concealed), who will be held accountable should ECHHS experience a catastrophic event?
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
I, along with 350 other folks watched the ECHHS presentation online. I was very impressed and happy with how many people showed up. My comments are specific to this one statement:
“Using student confidentiality as a shield appears to be Dr. Hamlett’s modus operandi for deflecting reasonable questions.”
As someone who worked at both CHHS and ECHHS in the counseling departments, I can confirm there are things that no one, the Superintendent included, can legally share. If the Superintendent, Principal, and School Board are not giving any information regarding particular students and situations it is safe to assume they simply can’t or the district would be sued.
I’ve lived through a lot with this community: the East student holding a teacher and other student hostage at gunpoint, to almost losing several students to drug overdoses. East has always had fights but this year they are at a whole new level.
I know, as does everyone reading this, it would make Dr. Hamlett and the School Board’s lives infinitely easier – greatly reducing the pointed emails, phone calls and other communications – if they could spell everything out. No one likes to be on the receiving end of the community’s wrath. Based on what I heard, I don’t think she was using confidentiality to defect questions – I just don’t think she can answer them.
To the bigger point, the question needs to be resolved of how this situation came about in the first place so it doesn’t happen again. One issue that has had a clear impact is staffing – ECHHS was down 2 Asst. Principal’s and had an acting Interim Principal. It was hobbled. No doubt. Please encourage your children to go into education. They are needed.