Query: if the student were a white boy from St. Augustine Beach, would the "dean" of the Middle School -- and angry white commenters on the Record's website -- be so busy to second-guess Superintendent Joyner's decision?
And if the student were a white boy, would Sheriff DAVID SHOAR and State's Attorney R.J. LARIZZA have prosecuted for battery?
Watch the videotape.
You tell me.
St. Johns County School Board decides to retain Sebastian Middle dean; he will be reassigned, suspended
Posted: December 9, 2015 - 4:59pm | Updated: December 9, 2015 - 5:30pm
By STUART KORFHAGE
stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
Peter Sharman won and lost Wednesday, and he’s still not sure what that means for his career.
The former dean at Sebastian Middle School fought for his job and his reputation at a hearing before the St. Johns County School Board. He was challenging the school district’s decision to fire him for his use of physical force while removing a student from the school cafeteria on Sept. 16.
In an unanimous decision, the board decided Sharman should not be terminated, but they said superintendent Joseph Joyner was mostly right in his outrage over the incident.
The board decided to suspend Sharman without pay for the rest of the semester. It also recommended he be reassigned to another school or facility.
It was first suggested by board member Bev Slough that Sharman not be in a leadership position such as a dean. However, the board removed that stipulation and decided to leave the ultimate decision of placement to Joyner.
There might not be a need for it anyway. Following the board’s decision, Sharman said he wasn’t sure whether he would return to work in a new position. He had been dean at Sebastian since 1995.
Sharman, Robert O’Shell, a physical education teacher; and Jarrod Branco, a paraprofessional and boys and girls volleyball coach; all received notice of termination for their roles in physically removing a student from the cafeteria Sept. 16. O’Shell and Branco later accepted a reduced punishment of a 15-day suspension and reassignment.
Sharman did not accept a similar offer but instead exercised his right for a formal hearing in front of the school board. Sharman said it was important that he be able to present his side of the story.
“I just wanted it all to be out there,” he said.
What was available to the board turned out to be persuasive evidence against Sharman. The board members all mentioned the video of the incident that showed Sharman, along with Branco and O’Shell, struggling to physically control the student who refused to leave the cafeteria and repeated orders from Sharman. They attempted to place him in a wheelchair in order to move him to a room across the hall from the cafeteria, but he fought so much that the three men ended up carrying the flailing student out.
Slough said the video, taken by school surveillance cameras, was “disturbing and appalling.”
Updated later to read as follows:
St. Johns County School Board decides to retain Sebastian Middle dean; he will be reassigned, suspended
Posted: December 9, 2015 - 4:59pm | Updated: December 10, 2015 - 12:06am
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A still from a video shows Sebastian Middle School personnel removing a student from the school lunch room in September. See StAugustine.com for the full video.
Peter Sharman won and lost Wednesday, and he’s still not sure what that means for his career.
The former dean of students at Sebastian Middle School fought for his job and his reputation at a hearing before the St. Johns County School Board. He was challenging the school district’s decision to fire him for his use of physical force while removing a student from the school cafeteria on Sept. 16.
In a unanimous decision, the board decided Sharman should not be terminated, but they said Superintendent Joseph Joyner was mostly right in his outrage over the incident.
The board decided to suspend Sharman without pay for the rest of the semester. It also recommended he be reassigned to another school or facility.
It was first suggested by board member Bev Slough that Sharman not be in a leadership position such as a dean. However, the board removed that stipulation and decided to leave the ultimate decision of placement to Joyner. The superintendent will also decide what further training Sharman should receive.
There might not be a need for it, though. Following the board’s decision, Sharman told The Record he wasn’t sure whether he would return to work in a new position. He had been dean at Sebastian since 1995.
Sharman, Robert O’Shell, a physical education teacher; and Jarrod Branco, a paraprofessional and boys and girls volleyball coach; all received notice of termination for their roles in physically removing a student from the cafeteria Sept. 16. O’Shell and Branco later accepted a reduced punishment of a 15-day suspension and reassignment.
Sharman did not accept a similar offer but instead exercised his right for a formal hearing in front of the school board. Sharman said it was important that he be able to present his side of the story.
“I just wanted it all to be out there,” he said.
What was available to the board turned out to be persuasive evidence against Sharman. The board members all mentioned the video of the incident that showed Sharman, along with Branco and O’Shell, struggling to physically control the student who refused to leave the cafeteria despite repeated orders from Sharman.
The three attempted to place him in a wheelchair in order to move him to a room across the hall from the cafeteria, but he fought so much that the three men ended up carrying the flailing student out.
The identity of the student was not released because he is a minor. He was referred to as “JM” during the hearing.
Slough said the video, taken by school surveillance cameras, was “disturbing and appalling.”
Yet, Slough and the others acknowledged that Sharman was in a difficult, emotional situation and that they didn’t think he would intentionally harm a student.
“I can understand why the superintendent made the recommendation he did, (but) I’m personally not in favor of termination,” board member Bill Mignon said.
Board members Tommy Allen and Patrick Canan talked about the support shown for Sharman by members of the public, including former Sebastian students. That was part of the reason they say they didn’t want to see him terminated or denied a position of leadership in the future.
“I think you have probably influenced positively hundreds and hundreds of students,” Canan said.
But Canan added that the board’s job and the job of all school district employees is “to protect the students.”
The school district administration clearly did not think Sharman had done that.
In fact, Joyner’s attorney, John Dickinson, called Sharman’s actions an “attack” and asked Sharman why he “picked on” the student who was removed.
Testimony from witnesses called by Dickinson attempted to show that Sharman did not follow school district policy in his handling of the situation.
Witnesses, including Sharman, told the school board that during lunch on Sept. 16 Sharman was called to the cafeteria because students were being loud. Sharman said he blew a whistle to quiet the students. It worked to some degree.
But some students were laughing and “making hissing noises” after the whistle blew. Sharman believed JM was among those creating a further disturbance. A fellow student who was sitting next to JM said neither of them were making noises.
Sharman ordered JM to leave the cafeteria, but the student stood up and refused to leave.
When he was asked to leave several more times and did not comply, Sharman had the cafeteria cleared of students and asked for the assistance of Branco and O’Shell. He also asked for a wheelchair to be brought to the room.
The video shows the cafeteria empty while the standoff between Sharman and JM continued for several minutes. Eventually, Sharman attempted to “guide” the student into the wheelchair in order to be removed from the room.
Instead, the student slowly backed away until he was in a corner. At that point, the men tried to put JM in the wheelchair by force before carrying him out.
School district employees Brennan Asplen, deputy superintendent for academic and student services; and George Freeman, Exceptional Student Education program specialist; testified that school district policy prohibits the use of physical force unless the student is posing a threat to himself or others.
Sharman said he understands the policy in cases of “crisis.” But he and attorney Archibald Thomas argued that it wasn’t a crisis but a situation where a student simply needed to be removed.
Because elementary school students were scheduled to eat lunch after Sebastian students, Sharman said he felt it was necessary to remove JM after trying for several minutes to convince him to walk out on his own.
Asplen and Freeman said the effort was not enough.
“I thought there should be much more verbal de-escalation,” Asplen said. “That (physical force) was not consistent with policy and not needed.”
Dickinson argued that there was no urgent need to remove JM because there was plenty of time between lunch periods.
But regardless of the time, Freeman testified that there were no time limits imposed on the policy of not using physical force.
When asked by Dickinson if Sharman should have resorted to force in order to prevent students from being delayed 30 or 45 minutes from eating lunch, Freeman said the school district’s adherence to the CPI method of behavior management should still have been followed.
“Verbal interaction would have been the right response,” Freeman said.
He also said use of a wheelchair to move noncompliant students is not addressed directly in the school district’s behavior management strategy.
Sharman and his attorney argued that both verbal and nonverbal communication strategies had been tried and had proven ineffective.
Dickinson suggested Sharman should have allowed school counselor Angela Fusco to speak with JM in order to calm the situation.
However, Fusco was present during the incident and testified that her attempts to reason with JM failed.
“I saw the student was very upset,” she said. “He said, ‘I will not calm down for something I didn’t do.’
“I said, ‘I feel I’m making the situation worse.’”
Fusco said she then exited because her presence wasn’t helping.
Thomas said Sharman acted in a manner he thought was appropriate and used only as much force as was necessary.
“There was no attack; nobody beat the student,” he said.
In fact, Sharman testified that he had a similar experience with JM in May when the student had to be removed from a physical education class. He said there was no reprimand in that incident.
In the end, the school board disagreed with Sharman’s actions, and some of them also said the student, who was suspended for 10 days, bore some responsibility for his defiance of a school administrator.
Canan said ultimately it was Sharman’s responsibility to rise above the actions of an emotional middle school student. He said the actions of JM didn’t seem to warrant the treatment he observed on the video.
“It never became clear to me why you picked this particular student (to be removed from the cafeteria),” he said. “I think you should have done everything you could (to avoid physical force.)”
2 comments:
You're awefuly quick to call people haters and play the race card. Dean Sharmon's actions and the reader responses seem based to paraphrase MLK)not on the color of skin, but rather the content of his character, of which the student is irrefutably lacking. I actually have more contempt for the Gumby spined School Board and Superintendent that for the kids, despite his lack of character being the nexus for all of this.
We sure do live in a politically-correct Surveillance State. Is there any difference today between schools and prisons?
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