One Mulling Ethics Complaint Against ASD Superintendent
An Anchorage School employee is considering filing an ethics complaint against Superintendent Dr. Deena Bishop after a (now removed) photograph appeared on the Willow Crest Elementary School Facebook page. The photograph appears to show Dr. Bishop reading to students in a school classroom. Some who have seen the picture have raised concerns about the apparent lack of social distancing between students.
The picture has also brought into question the school district's "stringent mitigation strategies." Mitigation strategies are developed and implemented by each individual school and are not consistent across each school. Some who have seen the picture and commented publicly have asked why outside participants were permitted in the room to set up what appears to be lighting/video equipment which can be seen to the far left of the photograph with one person commenting, "Ok, so already our kids are “out” of their bubble and expanding, trusting all those kids/parents to have precautions at home. But also bring in unnecessary people for a photo op?"
According to the Willow Crest Elementary site plan for "Back to School," visitors are not permitted into the school and in most instances, 3-6 feet of social distancing is required at all times with few exceptions. It's not clear whether district employees not regularly assigned to a particular school would be considered "visitors."
The educator considering filing the ethics complaint writes that there may be a violation of 20 AAC 10.020 b(3) which says "In fulfilling obligations to students, an educator (3) shall make reasonable effort to protect students from conditions harmful to learning or to health and safety." It's not clear if the Code of Ethics in this instance could apply to the school superintendent.
Reportedly, school district staff, parents and at least one AEA board member have emailed the Anchorage School District School Board regarding the picture posted to Facebook. School district staff have repeatedly expressed frustration at their inability to speak out publicly about their concerns as many fear reprisals from the administration.
The Anchorage School District COVID-19 dashboard currently shows multiple classrooms closed and 41 active cases of people infected with the virus. The dashboard, which doesn't show nearly as much detailed information as it did when it was under development last year, states that "cases are self-reported to ASD and may not reflect all positive cases being tracked by the Municipality."
