White Salmon Schools
Superintendent's Page

Information on CHS Incidents

Superintendent's Corner A Message from Dale Palmer

During the last school year, we had a very difficult and serious situation involving unauthorized and inappropriate use of school technology by a teacher at Columbia High School. Working with local, state and federal law enforcement, we removed the teacher from the school and cooperated fully with all the authorities.

Unfortunately, in an ongoing criminal investigation such as this, we are unable to provide details of what is transpiring - other than to assure you we were tracking the situation, providing safeguards for our students, and continuing to monitor the situation - the rest is up to our law enforcement agents. The case is wrapping up and should conclude in the court system shortly. However, I can provide details about what the school district has done since the incident came to light, and how we are moving forward with a number of initiatives to ensure student safety.

The teacher is no longer an employee of the White Salmon Valley School District. He was placed on administrative leave last school year, and this employment has since been terminated. The school district has also reported these allegations to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) so that they may decide whether or not to take action regarding his teaching certificate. Any students involved in these incidents have received attention and help to address these issues.

In addition, with the retiring of Tim McGlothlin, we have a new principal at our high school - Malcolm Dennis - a seasoned professional with a high level of compassion and concern for the environment he is now responsible to lead. He has implemented a number of measures that provide an appropriate level of control and oversight for both students and staff. His goal is to provide a safe, yet supportive learning environment for all at the high school.

At the district level, and at every school in the district, we have upgraded, enhanced and scrutinized the use of technology. In addition, we are reminding teachers and staff of their unique role as trusted adults with our students. There have always been written policies in place concerning all of these - we are now enhancing the electronic filters, monitoring procedures and providing in-person training, including:

• We have become a test site for a new version of the St. Bernard IPrism filtering system - one of the best filtering systems in the industry. This test version provides stronger filtering than almost any other software on the market - and the company is allowing us to keep the test system for our own use.
• Our technology staff has been trained by FBI experts in computer and monitoring techniques that could signal any potential disabling attempts or methods for trying to go around software filters. Reports on activity by all users - staff and students - are checked daily using these new techniques.
• All students and staff that use, or have access to, computers and accounts in the district, are required to sign a new "Acceptable Use Policy" that has stringent requirements for use, and immediate punitive measures for misuse.
• We are investigating training for staff, and ultimately, our students, parents, PTO and community, on the iSafe program. The iSafe program is an Internet safety curriculum with components for every grade level - from elementary to high school.
• As part of our "back-to-school" training for all staff, we have provided refresher training on appropriate and inappropriate behaviors between students and staff. This training was provided by regional experts from Educational Service District 112.

I can assure you we are serious about ensuring our staff and students comply with all our policies, and actions will be swift if they don't. Our focus is on student learning and achievement - and that is best achieved by the continuation of the steps listed above.

We continue to be proud of the gains our students are achieving - guided by a caring and professional staff - and we want you to have continued confidence in our district to deliver a solid education. Please call me if you have any concerns, questions or input about what is happening in our schools (493-1500).

-September, 2005

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