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Parent tells South Pasadena school board that children were not protected after reporting assaults
Summary
A parent told the South Pasadena Unified school board during public comment that two of her children reported sexual or physical assaults and that safety plans and IEP accommodations were not followed, causing severe emotional and academic harm.
During public comment at the March 11 South Pasadena Unified School District board meeting, parent Megan Kaiser described two incidents in which her children reported harm and said district responses failed to protect them.
Kaiser told the board her older child "said something when he was being assaulted at SPMS" and was later placed in a class with the child who assaulted him even though a note in his file was reportedly meant to keep them separate. Kaiser said her son became suicidal within a month of the placement.
She also said her younger child, then in first grade, reported that another child exposed his private parts and asked her to expose hers. Kaiser said school staff produced a safety plan that was not followed and assigned her daughter to a classroom where she would see the other student weekly, resulting in her moving schools, losing friends and experiencing severe learning loss and clinical depression at age 7.
Kaiser said, "They saw something and they said something. They both had the strength to speak up to trusted adults. The trusted adults did not follow through and protect either of them." She urged the board: "Now it's your turn to do the right thing. It's your turn to fix what you broke in every one of us."
The board did not take immediate action during public comment. Kaiser’s remarks were recorded under the district’s public comment agenda item; the district did not provide a response on the record during the meeting.
