A federal agency is investigating claims from at least one Anderson parent that the Cascade Union Elementary School District allegedly discriminated against her special needs child by failing to follow up on complaints of peer sex- and disability-based harassment. “We have received a notice of investigation from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, Region IX, out of San Francisco,” district Superintendent Wes Smith confirmed Friday, May 9, although for legal reasons Smith declined to comment on any specific allegations.

A copy of the notice obtained by the Valley Post cautions the parent that although the agency “has determined that it has jurisdiction and that the complaint was filed timely,” simply opening an investigation into the allegations “in no way implies that (the agency) has made a determination with regard to their merits,” writes Charles R. Love, program manager for the regional Office for Civil Rights, also known as OCR. The parent said her complaints stem from a series of at least seven separate incidents that occurred in October, November, December and February involving bullying of her seventh-grade daughter by, at times, two, three or even more older boys, all of whom attend Anderson Middle School. By February, after at least six separate visits in those prior months to meet with school authorities regarding the attacks, the parent told the Valley Post that the boys’ actions escalated “to include verbal and physical abuse as well sexual assault.”

More than once, the same boys whistled or shouted directly into the girl’s hearing aids, called her names, maligned her parents’ character and morality, made sexually suggestive comments, or even “grabbed her chest to make sure she was, in their words, really a girl,” the parent said. It is the Valley Post’s policy not to identify juveniles or their family members – whether they be the victim or the accused —in order to protect the children from possible acts of retaliation, embarrassment or additional harassment.

However, during its own two-week investigation into the matter, the Valley Post conducted extensive interviews with the parent and met with at least two other parents who have similar concerns regarding the safety of their own special needs children currently among the 497 students attending Anderson Middle School.

In written and verbal statements made to the Valley Post, the other two parents recounted occasions during the past few months in which their children had lunchroom trays knocked out of their hands after exiting the cafeteria’s food serving line, suffered verbal or emailed threats of physical harm or of a sexual nature, or were victims of physical assaults in which one boy suffered “three bulging discs in his back” after he was attacked and thrown up against a metal locker by three older students. Each parent independently said their children had, in turn, identified the same two or three individuals who had also attacked the other students. At least two of the parents told the Valley Post they have individually hired attorneys and are considering taking legal action against the school employees and the 1,481-student school district, although no such action has been filed to date. One parent said her attorney was checking into the possibility of filing a class action suit on behalf of all special education students served by the district.

The parents individually supplied the Valley Post with redacted police reports in which the names of juveniles were blacked out, along with more detailed and uncensored original complaints they had submitted on behalf of their children to Jason Provence, the middle school’s assistant principal for the past two years, and Anderson Police Department’s School Resources Officer Michelle Lingenfelter, also completing her second year in that position.

Anderson Police Chief Dale Webb declined to allow an interview of Lingengelter by the Valley Post. Instead, Webbchose to personally review 151 incident reports involving Anderson Middle School and summarized his findings.

Since October, Lingenfelter made 97 visits to the middle school’s campus in response to specific complaints, Webb said “She investigated 12 disturbances, five assaults or reported assaults, two cases of vandalism, one case of suspected child abuse, one theft, two verbal threats, two alcohol-related incidents, four allegations of possible illegal drug possession or use, five trespassing reports, one report of a student with a weapon, two calls for medical aid and 56 visits that Webb explained could only be attributed to “juvenile, other,” as the officer spends many hours at both the middle school and at Anderson Union High School to talk informally with students.

“These are not outrageous numbers,” explained Webb, who started the program in 1999 with a grant and served for two years as the department’s first Schools Resource Officer under the police department’s former chief.

Smith, in turn, said he is confident that OCR’s investigation will eventually clear the district and its employees of any allegations. “Everything we have been made aware of, we have dealt with those complaints immediately,” Smith said. “We have a disproportionately high number of special needs students in our district, and it is not because we have that many in our community. Rather, it is because we do an exceptional job of meeting not only the academic needs of their children, but their physical and emotional needs as well.”

However, several new accusations that the parents had not previously raised are currently under investigation by Anderson police, Smith said, declining to state further which specific allegations might be included in that category.