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Altoona parent tells board of repeated safety and communication failures at high school
Summary
A concerned father told the Altoona Area School District board that his daughter was threatened, assaulted on a bus, and repeatedly left without staff contacting parents; he urged the district to adopt a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to staff notification and follow-up.
Alan Griner, introduced himself to the board as a concerned parent of two Altoona Area High School students and recounted multiple incidents this school year that he said showed failing school safety practices and poor communication with families.
Griner said his daughter was threatened in the cafeteria by another student wielding a metal chair and received a one-day in-school suspension for defending herself; Griner said he was not notified until a week later by mail. He also said his daughter was “jumped on a school bus” and that school staff initially prevented passengers from exiting until school-district police arrived. Griner said he had to show up in person to get information in multiple instances.
Describing more recent episodes, Griner said his daughter was denied access to a restroom during a pep rally on Aug. 22 and later bled through her clothing; he said staff told him the matter would be addressed. On Sept. 10, he said his daughter called crying from the nurse’s office with severe cramping and the district required a parent to call in for a release. On Sept. 12, his daughter’s cell phone was confiscated without parental notification; Griner said school personnel told him the confiscation was appropriate but that he had not been informed.
Griner said the pattern included promises of follow-up that he did not receive. He described an interaction with a school police officer who promised an investigation would begin Monday after a Friday incident and said threats made at a football game were discussed with staff but that “there was no discussion on Monday.”
He concluded by asking the board, “Why is it acceptable to have a 0 tolerance policy for students having cell phones, but not a 0 tolerance policy for staff not contacting parents.”
Board members did not debate or respond at length during public comment; the meeting proceeded to routine business after Griner’s remarks. The board did not announce any immediate investigative findings or follow-up actions during the meeting.
Next steps: Griner said he had scheduled a face-to-face meeting with administrators and that some matters were addressed in that meeting; the record in the meeting transcript does not describe a formal board directive or an outcome requiring staff to report back publicly at a later meeting.
