Fairfield is in Denial About Being in Denial: But That's Not an Admission!

As our group has demonstrated both in recent weeks and over the past few years, Fairfield City Schools is utterly incapable of telling the truth.  They lie and deny at every turn.  Even in the face of hard facts and evidence, district officials cling to the mantra of "deny everything."

The latest denial of reality coming from Fairfield City Schools occurred last week.  As you can read here in this report from WCPO, Fairfield announced the creation of a new position: Bullying and Harassment Officer.

The Fairfield Board of Education voted 4-0 to approve Donna Martin as the Fairfield City School District's bullying and harassment officer, a new position created to "streamline efforts to address complaints of bullying and harassment," district spokeswoman Gina Gentry-Fletcher said.

The school board approved a two-year contract for Martin with an annual salary of $62,000.

The district has to hire someone and pay them $62,000 a year to make all the teachers and principals in Fairfield obey the bullying policy?  That doesn't speak too highly of the district's workforce.  Why do teachers and principals need a hall monitor to make sure they toe the line on bullying?

Did you see the interesting Interesting tidbit from the WCPO article? Something that district spokesperson Gina Gentry-Fletcher said caught our eye.

She said the new bullying and harassment officer position "is not" connected in any way to the Olsen case. She added, "but as you know, we do not comment on pending litigation."

"The new position will provide a layer of accountability in our work to ensure that our students learn in a safe and secure environment," she said. "That is our top priority."

Really?

Three dead students, a federal lawsuit, and e-mails we've discovered lately that show the United States Department of Justice was seeking records from the district last year - and none of it has a single thing to do with the creation of a Bullying and Harassment officer, huh?

We find this denial by the district difficult to believe.  

You will remember, that the district refused to fulfill a records request recently, citing that the documents we sought were exempted because Fairfield was in reasonable anticipation of a proceeding. The records we were seeking were duplicate copies of whatever Fairfield provided to the US Department of Justice last year.

Now, we're no lawyers, but if the school was refusing to provide duplicate copies of records it provided to the US Department of Justice under the logic that Fairfield was in anticipation of a proceeding of some kind, then we can only conclude that Fairfield City Schools has been or will be involved with federal officials in an official capacity on the issue of bullying.

Being in denial of reality is nothing new for Fairfield City Schools.  The district has been in denial for almost three years about it's bullying problems.  Surely we all remember the vast public outcry that occurred a couple of years ago when the story first broke about the dishonesty in Emilie's case by Fairfield.  

Despite worldwide condemnation in the Summer of 2015, Fairfield City Schools refused to so much as even review its own bullying policies.  You can refresh your memory on the district's obstinacy here in this WCPO article.  

“District leaders have not discussed revising or reviewing the bullying policy,” district spokeswoman Gina Gentry-Fletcher said at the time.  A district enduring all the negative publicity Fairfield was undergoing at that time could only be described as being in a state of denial.  

The denial of Fairfield City Schools extends to well beyond just publicity.  Throughout the Emilie Olsen case, our group has amassed a pile of documentation and other evidence pointing towards misconduct by Fairfield.  In the face of documents, e-mails, and other facts, all Fairfield has been able to do is simply deny everything and insist it did nothing wrong in Emilie's case.

It's as if the district is saying to the world "Who are you going to believe, us or your eyes?"

You can read here on our blog where we documented Fairfield's lies when it told a federal court that there was no graffiti about Emilie Olsen on the bathroom walls of the middle school, and nor was it ever informed of such.  E-mail records show Fairfield City Schools lied on both counts.  There was graffiti and they knew about it.

You can see where Fairfield told a series of whoppers to its own employees that flew in the very face of reality, and very likely broke the law.

Check out where Fairfield City Schools was caught in another huge lie about visiting the home of Emilie Olsen with police just days after her death to confront her grieving parents.

Our group caught and called out the now former Superintendent about a series of false statements he gave to the public.  His punishment?  He found another job and a $30,00 raise.

Despite all these documented instances of wrongdoing, Fairfield still claims it has done nothing wrong on bullying or in Emilie's case specifically.  Talk about being in denial, right?

So why do you send your kids to this school?  There have been 3 student suicides because of bullying in our district in just 32 months.  Or do you think it can't happen to your family too?  

Who is in denial now?