North Liberty resident urges board to strengthen staff-protection policies after alleged assaults
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Summary
John Lohman told the Iowa City Community School District board his wife, a Coralville Central first-grade teacher, was assaulted multiple times and urged clearer reporting, accountability and better protections for staff; he cited past OSHA fines and asked whether district leaders failed to act.
John Lohman, a North Liberty resident, told the Iowa City Community School District board during the Jan. 13 public-comment period that his wife, a Coralville Central first-grade teacher, has been assaulted multiple times by the same student and is currently on leave.
“My wife… is currently on leave for being assaulted at Coralville Central Elementary School by the same student twice in December 2024 and another attempted assault last February by the same student,” Lohman said, pressing the board to clarify policy language that defines physical aggression toward staff and to explain why alleged incidents were not handled earlier.
Lohman cited prior federal workplace-safety actions in the district, saying OSHA fined the district in 2019 over an incident at Penn Elementary and that another OSHA finding affected James Van Allen Elementary for the 2022–23 and 2023–24 school years. He also said Superintendent Matt Degner and Coralville Central Principal Andy Gann may have violated the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners’ code of conduct and ethics standard 6 by failing to protect staff.
The speaker criticized district reporting culture, arguing some teachers did not report incidents because they believed reporting would not lead to meaningful action or because of pressure to keep events quiet. “We are asking the school board to do more to protect teachers,” Lohman said.
The board did not take an immediate policy vote in response during the meeting. Superintendent Matt Degner and administrators later continued other agenda items; the meeting transcript records no formal response or correction to Lohman’s specific allegations within the public-comment block. The board’s posted materials show the district is considering policy revisions to clarify physical-aggression definitions and reporting protocols.
Next steps: The board will continue its agenda work and staff have indicated policy language on staff safety is under review. The transcript does not record an explicit disciplinary action or formal finding related to the incidents Lohman described.