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Parents and trustees press Carmel Central over repeated bullying reports and alleged lapses in DASA handling
Summary
Multiple parents detailed repeated incidents of bullying and said school staff failed to file or follow up on DASA reports; trustees apologized, pledged follow-up and said administration will present Safe Schools materials and investigate implementation gaps.
Parents at the Carmel Central School District board meeting on June 18 described a string of incidents they say culminated in repeated harassment of a single student and alleged failures by school staff to follow the district’s DASA (anti‑bias/bullying) procedures.
"This is assault by law," parent Jessica Emerick Olsen said, recounting that her child was sprayed with perfume multiple times, received homophobic slurs, and that parents and students were not contacted after repeated reports. "They were never even pulled and questioned after the incident was reported," she said, adding that written incident reports were treated as routine paperwork rather than formal DASA investigations.
Trustees responded that the board condemns bullying in all forms and acknowledged the parents’ accounts. "I apologize that we have not done more to protect your child," President Dahl said. Trustee Curzio noted the legal duty under state rules for any employee who becomes aware of such an incident to file a DASA report and said the district would follow up directly with the family. Trustee Orser said the board’s role is to adopt policy and hold the superintendent accountable for implementation.
Parents and community members urged clearer documentation and faster notification of families. Several speakers said that repeated failures at the building level had left them distrustful of the complaint process. "Policies and procedures only work when they’re being followed from the bottom up," one parent said.
Board members and administrators told the meeting they would pursue immediate follow-up: the interim superintendent and district staff said they would reach out to affected families and that the district will present its Safe Schools for Every Child (SSCC) report to Albany, which includes data and protocols for responding to incidents.
The board emphasized limits to what it could say publicly about individual, potentially appealable cases, noting that board members must remain impartial should an appeal be filed. Trustees nevertheless promised to investigate alleged implementation gaps and bring clarifying information about how DASA reports are recorded and escalated.
The district encouraged parents with concerns to share contact information so staff could follow up outside the public meeting. The meeting closed with trustees and parents urging better communication and accountability as the next steps.
