Castillo plans to increase safety at Oregon School for Deaf

[Miss-Delectable]

OregonLive.com: Everything Oregon

A female teacher at the Oregon School for the Deaf lost her job after sending personal messages to a 14-year-old male student. A dorm counselor was disciplined for letting a 14-year-old girl living at the school leave campus on a weekend without parental permission.

These were two of nine incidents revealed this week when the state Department of Education released files on improper contact between staff and students at the Oregon School for the Deaf, and staff's failure to properly oversee students or report incidents of student misconduct.

The incidents occurred between 2003 and 2006. The files were released in response to public records requests from The Oregonian and Salem Statesman Journal newspapers.

The School for the Deaf and the Oregon School for the Blind are operated by the Education Department. About half of the 110 students at the deaf school are residential students.

On Tuesday, State School Superintendent Susan Castillo announced a series of steps to improve safety at the deaf school. Ed Dennis, Castillo's deputy, said he was working with the city of Salem and the Salem-Keizer School District to see if a school safety officer could make one or two visits a day to the campus.

Moreover, Dennis said he would institute more frequent training for staff on mandatory reporting of inappropriate student behavior. He also said he would arrange meetings with students and parents to reinforce the idea that they should come forward when they learn of inappropriate behavior.

The school is operating under a temporary director, Jay Gense, until a new director is named. Jane Mulholland, the former director, was fired Dec. 28. No reason was given for the firing, and Mulholland's departure has upset some members of the deaf community.

 

[Miss-Delectable]

State cracks down on School for Deaf

OregonLive.com: Everything Oregon

State School Superintendent Susan Castillo on Tuesday announced a series of steps to improve safety and prevent incidents of inappropriate student behavior at the Oregon School for the Deaf in Salem.

In response to a public records request from The Oregonian and the Salem Statesman-Journal, the state Department of Education released files on improper contact between staff and students, students using computers to access pornography on the Internet or failure to properly oversee students or report incidents of student misconduct. The nine incidents occurred between 2003 and 2006.

In one case, personnel records showed that contact between a 14-year-old male student and a teacher, Kimberly Mihan, led to her dismissal and a subsequent plea of guilty to two misdemeanor counts of first-degree official misconduct in Marion County Circuit Court last year. Mihan's letter of dismissal said she had sent a personal note to the student, given him a pager and used it to send him personal messages.

In another case, a dorm counselor was disciplined in 2004, and subsequently resigned, for letting a 14-year-old girl living at the school to leave the campus on a weekend without parental permission.

The School for the Deaf and the Oregon School for the Blind are operated by the Education Department. About half of the 110 students at the deaf school are residential students, but they usually go home on the weekends.

Ed Dennis, Castillo's deputy, said he was working with the city of Salem and the Salem-Keizer School District to see if a school safety officer could make one or two visits a day to the campus. He said he plans to add an administrative staff person at the school to make sure policies are enforced.

The school is operating under a temporary director, Jay Gense, until a new director is named. Jane Mulholland, the former director, was fired Dec. 28, but the department has declined to say why she was let go.

Dennis said he would institute more frequent training for staff on mandatory reporting of inappropriate student behavior. He also said he would arrange meetings with students and parents to reinforce the idea that they should come forward when they hear of inappropriate staff or student behavior.

Dennis said there would be a performance audit and review of school policies and procedures by the secretary of state's office. He said he thought that could be completed by the summer.

Dennis said he became concerned about the number of incidents at the school after he moved from chief of staff to deputy director of the Department of Education.

"It's unacceptable to me," he said. He said he believes there have been incidents of sexual assault at the school, though no cases have been prosecuted.

Mulholland said many of the steps the department outlined Tuesday are in place at the school and she resents implications that safety has not been a concern.