Please commit your time and attention for a few moments to considering some of the following inconsistencies from Mr. Otten that require an explanation to the citizens of both Fairfield and Beavercreek. You deserve answers.
Examine for yourself a series of e-mail exchanges sent on December 17th, 2014; six days after Emilie Olsen's tragic death. This is an e-mail sent by Fairfield Intermediate School Assistant Principal Allison Cline to district Communications and Public Relations Director Gina Gentry-Fletcher (Why is the communications director taking the leadership on this issue anyway?) Carbon copied on this communication are Superintendent Paul Otten, FIS Principal Jeff Madden, and FIS Assistant Principal Missy Muller.
In this exchange, Ms. Cline has forwarded an e-mail sent to herself and Ms. Muller at FIS by Emilie Olsen's father Marc, on January 30th, 2014. As you can see, it catalogs in detail bullying that Mr. Olsen alleges Emilie is enduring at the Intermediate building. Thanks to a public records request, we have our own copy of the note Mr. Olsen sent to FIS on January 30th, 2014 here.
This entire e-mail exchange by these district employees very much reminds us of a bunch of scared kids trying to get their stories straight about how the lamp got broken before the adults get home.
We want to again stress a few key things to remember about this e-mail. Note the time stamp. It was sent by Ms. Cline on December 17, 2014.
We would also like to stress again that Mr. Otten was copied on this note. It is, we believe, the very first time that Mr.Otten may have ever been informed about Emilie's bullying at any Fairfield City School District building. This is certainly the earliest date we can confirm in writing that Mr. Otten was ever informed about Emilie's harassment.
Fairfield City Schools has a bullying policy which mandates "All hazing, bullying and/or dating violence incidents are reported immediately to the Superintendent/designee and appropriate discipline is administered." Nowhere can we find evidence that Mr.Otten was ever told about Emilie's bullying up until this point on December 17, 2014. In fact, Ms. Cline states herself in the e-mail that phone calls were made and students were spoken to, including one young person attending Fairfield by open enrollment who was no longer with the district.
Was Mr.Otten informed about Emilie's bullying prior to this e-mail, almost a whole week after her death? When was he informed? If he was not informed before, then why did district employees not do so, despite a bullying policy which mandates them to do so in clear language?
Two days after this e-mail exchange, Superindent Paul Otten sent home this letter to Fairfield families about Emilie's tragedy. We don't care for his tone any more than you do. His words about the lack of "credible evidence" to support claims of Emilie's bullying do not sit well with us coming from the same Mr.Otten carbon copied two days before on the e-mail exchange we posted above. Read the note for yourself:
The plot thickens further for Fairfield City Schools thanks to this e-mail exchange between Mr. Otten and a citizen concerned about Emilie's case, sent on December 18th, 2014 - one day AFTER he was carbon copied on the e-mail exchange from above, and one day before he sent the letter home to Fairfield parents. Look for yourself, and read closely the sections we have highlighted in yellow.
Mr. Otten sent this e-mail on December 18th, a day after he was informed by Ms. Cline that the Olsens had sent FIS a note in January 2014 expressing concerns about Emilie's harassment at the Intermediate School. Mr. Otten copied and pasted much of this same response posted above to citizens numerous times that week. We have some of the e-mails to prove it, and will happily forward them to anyone who asks. Just contact us at shameonfcsd@gmail.com, and we'll send them along.
Mr. Otten can you please explain these inconsistencies? Can you explain why you were forwarded a note from Emilie's father detailing her bullying on December 17th, 2014, and yet a day later told a citizen by e-mail that you had read every correspondence between the family and staff to see if bullying was ever reported?
We're afraid this story only gets worse from there. In May 2015, the WCPO I-Team launched a story about Emilie's case, and raised several troubling questions about how Fairfield City Schools conducted itself before, during, and after her loss. You can read WCPO's story by Jason Law here, or watch it below:
According to what WCPO reported in their May 2015 story, Mr. Otten claimed he was never informed of the bullying Emilie endured at Fairfield Intermediate School in early 2014. This is what WCPO said in their story we linked to above, and we're quoting them exactly here in italics:
"Otten agreed to talk with the I-Team off-camera last week with Fairfield City Attorney John Clemmons by his side.
He said it was the first time anyone had showed him the Instagram.
“You’re assuming that when we get something (from parents) we start researching kids’ Instagram accounts and printing stuff off. I wasn’t aware of it,” he said."
Can Mr. Otten explain the inconsistencies in his remarks, in light of the e-mail he was sent by Ms. Cline on December 17th, 2014, that we have posted above? According to WCPO, Mr. Otten denied knowing anything about the Instagram account referred to in the e-mail from Marc Olsen to Fairfield Intermediate School's assistant principals of January 30th, 2014, and that he was forwarded in a carbon copy e-mail on December 17th of that year.
See the conflict? It doesn't add up.
There are clearly conflicts and inconsistencies in these remarks from Mr. Otten over the months that followed Emilie's tragic loss. How does Mr.Otten account for these inconsistencies?
We have clear evidence in e-mail form that Mr.Otten was informed on December 17th, 2014 of an e-mail sent by Marc Olsen to assistant administrators at the Intermediate building regarding Emilie's treatment in January of that year. Yet, we have subsequent e-mails from Mr. Otten to various citizens claiming that he had read all correspondence between Emilie's family and staff to see if concerns were ever raised. And in May 2015, WCPO reported that Mr. Otten denied having any knowledge of the fake Instagram account or of other concerns raised by Emilie's parents.
How does Mr.Otten explain all this? The citizens of Fairfield have a right to know what our Superintendent knew, and when he knew it regarding a bullied student, especially when it may have been a contributing factor in her suicide. Parents and taxpayers in Fairfield are owed clarification from Mr. Otten about glaring conflicts in his remarks about Emilie's case over the past months.
Lastly, the citizens, parents, staff, students, and taxpayers of Beavercreek City Schools deserve answers. They deserve to know just what sort of superintendent they have just hired. They deserve clarification from Mr. Otten about the issues we have raised too.
There may well be a perfectly valid, reasonable explanation for these inconsistencies in Mr. Otten's remarks over the many months since Emilie was lost. We would love to give Mr. Otten the opportunity to set the record straight for both the citizens of Fairfield and Beavercreek.
We want to stress again that we fully believe Mr. Otten had no idea, and was never informed about Emilie Olsen's bullying at Fairfield City Schools until after her death. There is no evidence to indicate otherwise we have ever uncovered, or that even one of our confidential sources has provided us. It seems clear Mr. Otten had no idea of what torment Emilie was going through as it happened. Of course, if Fairfield City Schools would simply fulfill our records request that is 219 days old, we could absolutely attest to the fact Mr. Otten was never informed about any harassment Emilie endured.
This is no way excuses Mr. Otten's conduct after Emilie's death, or explains away glaring inconsistencies in many of his remarks that we have reviewed and highlighted here today. Mr.Otten owes everyone an explanation about the conflicts in his remarks about Emilie's case, and needs to account for why Fairfield City School district staff and administrators apparently failed to abide by the bullying policy and inform him of what Emilie was going through.
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