FARMINGTON, Conn. (WFSB) – Federal education officials are looking into discrimination claims at a Farmington Middle School.
Three Irving A. Robbins Middle School Parents claim their LGBTQ students were bullied last year.
Channel 3 sat down with one of those parents.
“It started at the beginning of the school year. Daily bullying and harassment,” says Melisa Combs.
Combs says her child dealt with bullying incidents last school year. She says the bullying only got worse once January rolled around.
“The harassment ranged from being called the f-slur to being told to go kill themselves and hang themselves,” says Combs.
She says one incident led her to her breaking point.
“A couple of students went into a teacher’s classroom and pulled a pride flag off the wall, brought it out to the hallway and started stomping on it. Others joined in and were chanting to burn it,” says Combs.
Oliver Przech is the president of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance for Farmington Schools. Many students went to Przech following the flag incident.
“It was very severe harassment and it impacted academics, people’s personalities really everything in everyone’s lives,’ says Przech.
Combs says she and other parents asked for the incident to be investigated, but she says they were rejected.
She says because of that incident along with several others, Melissa filed a 54-page complaint leading to this investigation from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
“You have to pick your battles, and this one was keeping my child alive,” says Combs.
Farmington’s Superintendent released a statement saying:
STATEMENT ABOUT EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN
THE FARMINGTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS
August 22, 2022
The Farmington Public Schools are deeply committed to creating inclusive and safe school environments throughout our school district that promote equity, inclusion and student well-being. We take issues relating to the civil rights of students seriously and have engaged in substantial diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives in furtherance of our commitment to our diverse student body. We do not tolerate any actions by students or others in the school community that reflect disrespect or attack others, and we take disciplinary action in the rare circumstances when students engage in such behavior. We work diligently in partnership with all members of our school community to foster a strong sense of belonging as we know it is critical for all students to feel valued, safe and supported within our classrooms and schools each day.
There are several Board of Education policies and regulations aligned to state and federal laws that also speak to the district’s commitment to equity and inclusivity. These policies are promptly followed when student conduct issues are witnessed by or reported to personnel. Some of these policies include Non-Discrimination policies, and policies prohibiting Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment, discrimination and harassment based on disability (Section 504), and Safe School Climate policy that prohibits bullying behavior including behavior based on protected characteristics.
The district has received notice from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), U.S. Department of Education that they have received a complaint and we will be working with OCR to respond to their inquiry. We are also charged by law to protect the privacy of our students. Given the need to protect the integrity of the OCR process and the confidentiality of student information, the district is not able to comment further on an individual student or situation per state and federal student privacy laws and requirements. While the district has a different perspective on the factual allegations of the complaint, we respect the process and will be working with OCR to assist them in their review of these issues.
We are including some general resources that provide additional information about the school district’s commitment to…
