Safety and Discipline

In January of 2022, a female student at Fremd High School was threatened in a classroom by another student with a knife in his hand. 

In May of 2022, a student from Hoffman Estates High School brought a gun to school to confront another student. These are just two of the 167 incidents last year alone. 

Parents repeatedly expressed concerns over the safety in the buildings; yet, parents were never included in the discussions about the effectiveness of the current district disciplinary policies. 

The district is legally required to have a parent/teacher advisory committee to conduct an annual review, per Public Act 99-456, with which the district is noncompliant.

The exclusion of parent voices persists this year, despite continuing problems. 

•  Hoffman Estates High School implemented a “cell phone hotel policy”  where students place their phones at the front of the room in a clear shoe organizer during class time, despite parental safety concerns following the Uvalde shooting.  
• Schaumburg High School closed some of the bathrooms during passing periods due to student misconduct, such as vaping and fighting. The consequences for a few students repeatedly misbehaving have been felt by the entire student body. 
• At Fremd and Schaumburg High Schools in 2022 there was a 22% drop in the number of students who said they felt “very safe” in the school’s bathrooms.
• At Palatine High School the number of teachers reporting that “Disorder in hallways” was problematic “To a great extent” jumped 32%.  This was up by 37% at Hoffman Estates."

As parents, our number one concern is the safety of our children while they are at school. Judging by the actions of Superintendent Small and the majority of the Board of Education members, they do not share in our deep concern.  

Dr. Small has tried to confuse the issues of safety and discipline in an effort to hide the fact that the committee doesn’t exist and has never existed, but she plans to create a committee in the latter part of the year. She has obviously decided a single meeting is all that is required. Parents who attended the Principals' SAFETY meetings in August would be considered for school representative for the district committee. 

She talks about staff safety meetings, parent safety meetings and the student wellness committee having discussions regarding school safety. In all her attempts to prove the district is meeting the legal requirements of Public Act 99-456, she DOES NOT reference discipline. 

A member of C4KE submitted a FOIA request seeking all information on the parent/teacher discipline advisory committee. The district returned over 500 pages of proof that no such committee exists and no such annual review has taken place in at least 5 years.

Mr. Dombrowski asked to add this to the October 2022 agenda. 

Ms. Cavill voted against including this topic as an agenda item. 

Ms. Cavill doesn’t seem to care if the district is meeting the legal requirements. 

Ms. Cavill also does not think parents have a right to be involved.