As Usual, The Facts and What Fairfield City Schools Has to Say Are at Odds

Didn't anybody at Fairfield City Schools ever watch Pinocchio as a kid?  Being dishonest generally gets one nowhere in life.  You could tell when Pinocchio was lying because his nose grew.  You can tell when Fairfield City Schools is lying because their lips are moving.

On our Facebook page, we've uncovered a great deal of dishonesty, incompetence, and general misconduct by Fairfield City Schools over the past year or so. We present to you now perhaps the most damning documents we have ever published. It exhibits a level of dishonesty by public officials that far surpasses anything you have read on this page so far.

Attached below are two images taken from the official Fairfield Township Police report into Emilie Olsen's death.  Read them closely.

The excerpt in question details the events of December 16, 2014. This was the day of the controversial visit to the Olsen home by police and Fairfield Middle School Principal Lincoln Butts. Mr. Olsen claimed that he felt intimidated. He claimed that police told him to quit "stirring the pot," and spreading rumors to the media.

Police and Fairfield City Schools officials denied Mr.Olsen's claims. In this Cincinnati Enquirer article about the incident in question, police claimed it was all just a coincidence that detectives and FMS Principal Lincoln Butts showed up to the Olsen home at the same time. The article also states "In no uncertain terms was the principal's presence in the home meant as intimidation but only to deliver her belongings," said Gina Gentry-Fletcher, spokeswoman for the schools.

A mere glance at the official police report itself would seem to be at odds with these statements in the linked Enquirer article by Fairfield City Schools and Fairfield Township Police. Check it out for yourself.

Notice first the time stamps mentioned in the report. On the morning of December 16th, 2014 at 1030 AM, police claim in their report to be at Fairfield Middle School with Mr. Butts interviewing students.

Look at the time stamp on the top of the second image. It says plainly 1200 Hours. That's 12:00 PM. High Noon.

The report states next that "Det. Sons, Principal Butts, and I (ie reporting officer Mays) responded" to the home of Marc and Cindy Olsen. Says it plainly.

To us that means the police and FMS Principal Butts arrived together. One generally does get mentioned in a police report sentence as having "responded" to a particular address unless it is at the same time, purposefully.  More importantly, check the time stamps. The police and Mr.Butts were together at 10:30 AM. They were together at noon.

So what Fairfield City Schools wants us to believe is that one of it's administrators and law enforcement were together at 10:30 AM for a span of time, and then all arrived at the same location 90 minutes later, and it was all just a happy coincidence. Neither party knew the other would end up at the Olsen home that day, December 16th, 2014, when both police and Mr.Butts were together an hour beforehand?

Come on.  Get real.  What do you take us for?

If you really believe that, then you're gullible or worse. And you're part of the problem.

In our opinion, Fairfield City Schools LIED to the public when they said it was just a coincidence a district administrator and police arrived together at the Olsen home.

A further reading of this police report reveals more troubling facts. Read it for yourself. The police report says plainly the following regarding the Olsens and the media:

"We further advised Mr. Olsen that was part of the reasoning we were at his home was because of rumors being talked about on the news."

"We were trying to advise them many rumors were being told to them and to please stop listening to said rumors."

It's all there. To us, it lends credibility and validates the claims of Marc Olsen that police and a Fairfield City Schools administrators willingly and knowingly showed up together at his home December 16, 2014 to address rumors regarding Emilie's death. Where there's smoke, there's fire.

There is clearly something to what Mr. Olsen is claiming here, and the police report proves it.
Please share this. It is obvious we have a great many problems with integrity when it comes to some public officials in our community. If this can happen to Emilie and her parents, then it can happen to you too.

‪#‎JusticeforEmilie‬

Paul Otten Has Some Explaining to Do to the Citizens of Both Fairfield and Beavercreek

On our Facebook page, we have asked for clarification numerous times regarding inconsistencies in some statements from Fairfield City Schools Superintendent Paul Otten.  We have posted some of these inconsistent remarks by Mr. Otten on our Facebook page before.  In light of Mr.Otten's imminent appointment as the new superintendent of Beavercreek City Schools, we felt it important to bring to the attention of our community some information sent to us anonymously some time ago.  We sat on this information for some time out of respect for civility.  But we can be silent no longer.

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.

Did you read the yellow box closely in the middle attachment?  Mr. Otten says that he "personally read every correspondence" between staff and Emilie's family to see if anyone was voicing concerns about her possible mistreatment.

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.