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COLUMBIA CITY, Ind. — REAL News has obtained a letter from the Superintendent of Whitley County Consolidated Schools banning a parent from all school grounds for recording a meeting with her child’s principal. The meeting with Indian Springs Middle School Principal Wesley Mullett was to discuss an incident in which a bus driver dropped his pants in front of several kids and then talked about the color of his underwear. The parent later posted the recorded conversation to Facebook in which she was critical of the school administrator’s response.
In a letter to the parent dated March 28th, Superintendent Laura McDermott claimed the parent broke district policy, demanded the recording be taken off of the internet and banned the mother from all school grounds.
“This is the second time you have violated board policy regarding recording without permission.” The letter reads. “You are asked to immediately remove the audio clip you have posted from social media platforms.”
There are several problems with the letter. To begin, Indiana is a “one-party consent” state, meaning only one person involved in a conversation needs to have knowledge of a recording. It is not illegal to record a conversation you are involved in. It is also not illegal to then post it online. The school district appears to be violating the parent’s First Amendment rights by attempting to strong arm her into censoring her speech.
Further, it does not appear any such “recording” policy exists. Through extensive research, REAL News has only been able to find one policy regarding recording that applies only to students during school hours. REAL News has requested copies of the alleged policy from the Superintendent and other school district officials — they have yet to provide it.
The parent also has no clue what is being consider the “second violation” in regard to recording a conversation. She tells REAL News the only time she recorded a discussion was with the principal.
“This is the first time I’ve recorded a conversation without someone knowing in my entire life.” The parent, who REAL News has decided not to name in order to protect the identity of her daughter, said.
BACKGROUND
All of this stems from an incident on a school bus full of Indian Spring Middle School students on May 2nd, of this year. That’s when the 13-year-old daughter of the parent who was just banned from school grounds, took a video of her bus driver walking up and down the bus with a belt in his hand.
“He was like smacking the seats and smacking his hands and then his pants start to fall down.” The parent told REAL News. “A kid then said something about the color of his underwear and he came back with, ‘I’ll have blue ones on tomorrow.'” The 1-minute-30-second video can be viewed below.
According to the parent, her daughter filed a report with the principal. The principal then had a meeting with the girl without notifying her parents. The mother then scheduled a meeting with Principal Wesley Mullett on May 9th.
“All I wanted was a resolution to the situation to ensure my daughter was safe and comfortable on the bus.” She said. “(Principal Mullett) essentially tells me, ‘If you don’t trust the transportation system, take your kid to school. These are serious allegations’… He never once said that this was inappropriate. He just basically made excuses for the bus driver.”
The mother recorded that entire conversation. It can be listened to below.
According to the mother, she immediately had a follow up meeting with Superintendent Laura McDermott who was also no help in resolving the situation. Instead, McDermott also made excuses for the bus driver.
Eventually, the mother spoke to the head of transportation. “He was the first ‘adult’ in the room when it came to this.” She said. “He took my concerns seriously, addressed the issue with the driver and promised accountability if something else were to occur.”
REAL News has reached out to Principal Mullett and Superintendent McDermott for comment, neither of them have responded.
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