ASO incident reports illustrate concerns about Constellation Charter School

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

WALDO, Fla. – Recent incident reports from Constellation Charter School illustrate the concerns raised by the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC) in their emergency meeting to revoke the school’s charter on May 1.

A letter from SBAC Chair Sarah Rockwell to Nicole Robey, the Board Chairperson at Constellation, lays out a timeline beginning on March 7 with a call from the Constellation School Board President to the District Threat Management Coordinator, asking for clarification on the threat management process.

Rockwell’s letter describes a March 11 incident in which the Board Vice Chair asked a parent to attend the board meeting “with his firearm on his person.” Rockwell wrote, “This incident reflects not only an egregious lapse of judgment by the governing body, but it is also a direct violation of Section 790.115, Florida Statutes.” Principal R. Ali Hamm was fired at that meeting, and Kimberly Beall was appointed as Interim Principal.

Sheriff’s Office records show bomb threat, bullying, suicide attempt

Alachua County Sheriff’s Office records show a call on April 3 about a bomb threat. A 14-year-old student reportedly wrote a note on April 2 that was “supposed to be instructions on how to make a homemade bomb. The ingredients were five or six AA batteries, one light bulb, silly string, and a big sock.” The student reportedly told the responding deputy that a friend told him what to put in the sock.

However, the student said, he reconsidered the note the next day and wanted to get rid of it, but first he showed it to a friend, who told a teacher; the teacher told the student to take the letter to the Principal’s office. The student reportedly said he did not plan to make a bomb but was just seeking attention.

The call notes state that the caller said the administration received the note at 8:30 in the morning and sent an email to the security team, asking what to do; the caller also said the students were taking a state test that morning. After receiving an email from the security team that advised the school to report the incident to law enforcement, the call was placed at 10:32 a.m. At 10:49 a.m., an administrator asked whether the student should be pulled out of class and was told to do that. The student was reported to be in the office at 10:58 a.m.

The deputy spoke with a bomb tech and determined that there was no threat, and the Principal reportedly agreed to complete a threat assessment on the student.

On April 9, a Constellation parent called the Combined Communications Center (CCC) to report that their child had been repeatedly physically bullied at school, with another student shoving the student’s head into a desk. The parent said this was an ongoing issue that had been reported to the school, and the parent was waiting to hear back from the Principal.

On April 10, a school employee called the CCC to report that a woman who lives across the street from the school was standing outside the fence, taking pictures of the children on the playground; the same neighbor had been at the school the previous day, saying that the students were not being watched properly. The responding deputy reported that he spoke with the neighbor, who said she was collecting evidence to file a complaint against the school; he said he told her that taking pictures of juveniles looks suspicious. The deputy also spoke with an administrator, who said the neighbor “has been walking outside and around the school recording and swearing at the children.”

On April 11, the Principal called 911 to say a student was threatening to commit suicide and take a teacher with him; the student was already on the way to Vista with a parent. The call notes state that it sounded like the student had a plan and was thinking of stabbing himself.

Timeline from Rockwell’s letter

Rockwell’s letter refers to an “Incident A” on April 11, along with another safety-related incident the same day. Rockwell quoted a law enforcement report about a child abuse incident on April 10 (that report was not provided to Alachua Chronicle because it involves an active investigation) in which a deputy wrote: “Over the last week, ASO has fielded a variety of calls from Constellation Charter School regarding concerning behavior of children at the school and lack of supervision. The staff currently working at Constellation Charter School raises my concern for the wellbeing of the children within their care. I’ve received calls from concerned neighbors regarding the lack of supervision of the children during EDEP and recess.”

According to Rockwell’s letter:

• On April 17, another incident related to Incident A occurred, but the District Threat Management Coordinator was not notified until the next day.
• On April 18, the Vice Chair of the Constellation School Based Threat Management Team resigned, “citing a lack of support, unresponsiveness to serious safety concerns, and teachers feeling unsafe.”
• On April 21, the District Threat Management Team met with the parents of a Constellation student, and the parents expressed concerns that they were not properly notified of the Threat Management process, the findings, or the resulting Student Support Management Plan. Rockwell noted that this failure violates rules in the Florida Harm Prevention and Threat Management Manual.

Rockwell wrote, “The meeting with the parents also revealed that a teacher at Constellation allowed students to play first-person shooter games on the library computers. While this may not explicitly violate statute or code, it reflects gross negligence and poor judgement, as it exposes students to violent content in an educational setting, undermines the school’s responsibility to provide a safe and appropriate learning environment, and could potentially desensitize students to violence.”

Rockwell’s letter also listed the following incidents:

• On April 22, the school’s Board of Directors directed the Interim Principal to issue disciplinary letters to three members of the staff and/or School Based Threat Management Team for taking actions required by Florida statutes. At that point, the Interim Principal asked the District Threat Management Coordinator if the district team could staff the school’s threat assessment team due to losing those members, and the District Threat Management Coordinator contacted the Florida Department of Education “due to the irregularities.”
• On April 24, the school was formally notified that “the ongoing internal conflict, safety risks, and administrative instability were being reported to both the [School Board of Alachua County] and the [Florida Department of Education’s] Office of Safe Schools.”
• On April 28, the Chair of the School Based Threat Management Team resigned “due to the adverse climate of the Charter School relative to the Florida Model Threat Management Process not being adhered to.”
• On April 30, the Vice Chair of the School Based Threat Management Team took a leave of absence, and the District Threat Management Coordinator notified Alachua County Public Schools Superintendent Kamela Patton that the school no longer had a functioning threat management team, which is a violation of Florida Administrative Code 6A-1.0019.

On May 1, the School Board revoked the school’s charter, effective at the end of that school day, in an emergency meeting.