Our Letter to Beavercreek City Schools Board of Education Regarding Their Search For a New Superintendent

Dear Beavercreek City School District Board of Education -

We have read in news media accounts that your district is deep in the hiring process for a new Superintendent.  We wish you the best of luck in that endeavor. 

We also see that Paul Otten, current Superintendent at Fairfield City Schools, is a finalist for the leadership position in Beavercreek.  We would normally not meddle into the affairs of other school districts, but felt compelled to reach out to you under what we consider extraordinary circumstances. 

As you may know, we have had a very rough couple of years here in the Fairfield City School district.  Many of our problems have revolved around bullying in schools, and the district's response to it.

We operate a Facebook page that serves as a networking point for a community concerned about where our district is headed.  Please visit our page and feel free to interact with us and our followers.  All are welcome.  We have a great deal of information and documentation obtained from public records requests.  We have likewise provided links in our letter to you from various news sources.

Our page began in response to the tragedy of Emilie Olsen, which has made national news, and even international news.  The case has now ended up in a federal lawsuit, where the district, and several employees - including Mr. Otten - are named personally as defendants.  You can read the lawsuit itself here, and the allegations are absolutely heartbreaking.

Here is Emilie's story, and what our community has been going through for the past 15 months or so:

Emilie Olsen was a 7th grader at Fairfield City Schools who tragically committed suicide in December 2014.  At the time, her adoptive parents claimed that Emilie was badly bullied at Fairfield Middle School.  According to her parents, the bullying also had racial overtones.  Even at her funeral a few days later, Emilie's friends claimed she was bullied at school. Protests were even organized by friends after Emilie's loss, denouncing the bullying they allege she endured, according to this news article.

In what was claimed by the district to be a coincidence, police and the middle school principal arrived at the Olsen home at the same time on December 16, 2014.  Emilie's father Marc Olsen said he was accused of causing a problem when he asked administrators about his daughter’s bullying after her death, according to the linked news story.

Despite these claims from Emilie's friends and family, Fairfield City Schools said it had no information to verify that she was bullied.  A letter was sent home by district Superintendent Paul Otten which stated no evidence was found to indicate that bullying was a factor in Emilie's suicide.  In one article, Fairfield Middle School Principal Lincoln Butts is quoted in the official police report as saying that Emilie Olsen “at no time … reported any bullying to him or any other school officials last year.” 

According to the previously linked article, the school district even removed anti-bullying posters from the nearby high school.  Fairfield spokeswoman Gina Gentry-Fletcher said the posters were removed “because they refer to the deceased student as having been bullied and that information is unsubstantiated.”

That is where Emilie's story seemed to end.  Her story appeared to just fade away until May 2015.  WCPO Channel 9's I-Team posted this video of Mr. Otten's reaction when confronted about an investigation they were doing into Emilie's case.

The May 2015 news report by the WCPO I-Team raised many questions about what role bullying may have actually played in Emilie's death, and what Fairfield City Schools may have known about it.   You can watch their report here, and read the article here.  The media claims it uncovered documents and e-mails that Fairfield City Schools had in it's possession indicating that Emilie Olsen was bullied.

We want to be absolutely clear on one key point:

None of the events we have described are the fault of Mr. Otten personally. 

There is no evidence or documentation we have encountered that would indicate he had any knowledge of Emilie's harassment as it was occurring throughout 2014.  Nor do we believe as a group that he was ever informed of Emilie's bullying as it occurred. 

However, these events did all occur while Mr. Otten was Superintendent.  That is worth considering.

The reaction of the community to the I-Team story was one of outrage.  At the Board of Education meeting immediately following the release of the WCPO news story, emotions were raw.  Parents were outraged.  You can read more about that story here. 

The bullying-related problems have only continued here in Fairfield since then.  In July 2015, another student came forward to relay her bullying horror story at Fairfield.  You can see her story here.

In October 2015, a fresh bullying scandal began.  The parent of an Asian American student claimed she was given a concussion in gym class, and no substantive punishments were meted out to the suspected bully.  As this e-mail illustrates, the assistant principal of the building acknowledged that the striking of this student with a hockey stick by an alleged bully was an "intentional" act, but since it occurred within the confines of a gym class game, did not warrant additional sanctions. A crowd of 150 people showed up to protest at that month's Board of Education meeting.  You can read more about the story here and here.  E-mails like this were sent to school officials by the public, demanding change at Fairfield.

You can also watch the video of numerous speakers who came to the podium that night to denounce Fairfield City Schools for the bullying problems. 

In November, more parents came forward to relay their children were bullied at Fairfield City Schools, and accused staff of not being effective at addressing it.  One child was told over and over again to go and kill himself by classmates, according to this news story.  Fairfield's reputation for bullying has become so bad, this online petition with 1,200 signatures was turned in to district officials demanding change.

Even since, problems have continued to mount at Fairfield City Schools.  These events have all taken place against a backdrop of what we believe is a culture of indifference by many school district employees.  We would like to tell you about just three of these incident.

Parents and citizens concerned about bullying have been dismissed as having "Facebook courage," according to this e-mail we obtained from the district's communications director. 

In October 2015, a parent contacted us about an alleged classroom incident.  This parent told us that during a 7th grade language arts class on or around September 28th, speeches were being given by students in front of the room. One speech was regarding bullying and even mentioned Emilie Olsen.

We were told that the teacher then allegedly said to the student who gave the speech, in front of the entire room, words to the effect there was ‘never any evidence to prove Emilie was bullied’ and said “if you really feel that bad about yourself, you need serious help."

The parent in question feared reprisals from the district if they spoke out, and contacted us for help.  You can read the e-mail here, where the teacher at least acknowledges something similar to what the parent claimed had indeed taken place.  No explanation to the public was ever forthcoming from the district to the community as whole, but Mr. Otten was kind enough to send us this cordial and professional reply. 

In December 2015, Fairfield Middle School played the song "Another One Bites the Dust" over the PA system to remind staff about a meeting, where at least one topic discussed was the memorial vigil commemorating the one year anniversary of Emilie's death.  You can read our e-mail exchange with the principal verifying this here.

Our school system has witnessed a great deal of controversy, turmoil, and dysfunction in recent months.  We will continue to work as activists for Emilie and all the students and families we feel are being forgotten about and left behind in Fairfield. 

As we said earlier in our note to you, and want to stress again; we do not believe in any way that Paul Otten is responsible for any of the bullying that Emilie Olsen endured, and nor do we believe he was ever made aware of her treatment as it was taking place in 2014.  There is not one document of evidence we have uncovered to indicate Mr. Otten had any knowledge of Emilie's bullying as it was happening.

We have no opinion on whether Mr. Otten is a good or a bad Superintendent in our community, or what sort of leadership he would provide for your school district.  Our purpose in reaching out to contact you was to provide local insight into what the community has experienced while Mr. Otten has been the Superintendent of our school system. 

Many of the unfortunate circumstances we have relayed are not the fault of Mr. Otten personally.  Nor do we think Mr.Otten is directly responsible for the actions of district administrators and staff who work beneath him at various levels of their own reporting trees.  

The fact remains he was Superintendent as these events occurred however.  He was leading our district amid the present culture and atmosphere in our school district.

If you deem Mr. Otten to be the right person to lead Beavercreek City Schools, then we wish you and him nothing but the best in your future work together.  We simply wanted to give you insight into our community's experience in recent months.

Thank you for your time and attention.