Seattle school district officials did not warn Garfield High School that a student — now suspended for inappropriately touching two female classmates in their hotel room on a choir trip to New Orleans — had been expelled from a private school for similar misconduct in the past.
But a report the district released Monday also laid some blame for the groping incident with Garfield's choir teacher, saying her disregard for district policy preventing male and female students from entering each others' hotel rooms created "much greater opportunity" for something to go wrong on the trip last March.
Many Garfield choir students and parents have rallied to the defense of the veteran teacher, Carol Burton, who is now on administrative leave as Seattle Public Schools officials review her handling of the trip.
Though breaches of field trip rules at Garfield have made headlines at least twice in recent months — including a $700,000 settlement in the case of a student who alleged she was sexually assaulted during a 2012 overnight trip — the report does commend Garfield staff for improving their trip policies and training.
"But it does not appear that all members of the Garfield community are getting the message: that GHS and [Seattle Public Schools] have a zero tolerance for misconduct on field trips," wrote the report's author, former U.S. Attorney Carl Blackstone, now with the law firm Yarmuth Wilsdon.
History of 'Inappropriate' Behavior
KPLU obtained Blackstone's report, dated April 28, through a public records request. District officials redacted the name of the male student who groped his two female classmates, and the report instead refers to the 17-year-old as "Student 1."
Student 1 spent his first two years of high school at a private school, whose name the district also redacts from the released report.
The private school had first suspended Student 1 for "inappropriately touching" another male student, and then expelled him after more students lodged complaints of similar harassment. (Garfield choir students have said publicly Student 1 identifies as gay.)
'Problematic At Best'
The private school provided this information to Seattle Public Schools employee Beryl Miller, supervisor of the Behavioral and Emotional Support Team. But Miller didn't add Student 1's disciplinary record to the district's PowerSchools database.
Though Blackstone says an obscure notation on the student's transcript does show the private school expelled him, he said Garfield High School staff were left in the dark about Student 1's disciplinary record.
"Beryl Miller's conduct is problematic at best," Blackstone wrote, adding that it is likely "that had GHS officials and Ms. Burton been aware of Student 1's expulsion from [the private school], GHS would have denied him permission to go on the New Orleans field trip."
Seattle Public Schools spokeswoman Stacy Howard said the district has launched a formal investigation into Miller's actions.
Behavior Crossed The Line
But Blackstone also recommended disciplinary action against Burton, faulting her for making it clear she didn't take the rules about mixing genders in hotel rooms seriously.
Uncomfortable in his male room, Student 1 instead spent a lot of time with two female classmates in their room. While there, and as the students were going about their daily activities during the course of the trip, he would "repeatedly" touch the two young women.
In a written statement included in the report, Student 1 said the touching was meant to be “playful.”
But the two female classmates felt the touching crossed a line. The report said Student 1 tried to "climb on top of” each of these two female classmates on separate occasions.
It wasn't until the last day of the trip — when Student 1 touched one of the young women again on the bus to the airport — that they decided to speak up. They felt “as though they were unable to stop Student 1’s behavior,” but didn’t want to get Burton in trouble for allowing students to bend the hotel room rules.
The report notes Burton objections to the rule as discriminatory to heterosexual students, Blackstone said Burton did not register this concern with Garfield administrators or district officials.
Report Suggests Ban On Choir Trips
The students returned to Seattle on a Sunday night. On Monday morning, Burton informed Garfield principal Ted Howard. Administrators launched an investigation.
Blackstone's report also said Burton and several chaperones on the trip drank alcohol. Burton and two other parents had to escort one chaperone — who said a cocktail mixed poorly with a medication she was taking — back to her hotel "because she was having trouble standing up."
Blackstone ultimately recommended the school needs to send a message that it takes field trip policies seriously.
"As such, it may well be appropriate for GHS to ban all GHS Choir field trips for a significant period," he wrote.
