Townhall meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday
By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
FAIRGROVE — Akron-Fairgrove Schools leaders say they’ll host a town hall meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at the Junior/Senior High School cafeteria to address a “situation” occurring Oct. 21 at Akron Elementary School.
“We had an issue at the elementary school in Akron last week involving a couple of our youngest-age children,” Akron-Fairgrove Superintendent Steve Ley said.
The Advertiser received a report that a second-grader at the school inappropriately touched another second-grader. When asked if that took place, Ley said he couldn’t comment on it because he didn’t want to violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, a federal law protecting the privacy of student education records.
“I can’t comment on it because of the way you just phrased the question, because FERPA law says I can’t disclose age or grade,” Ley said.
Ley said “there are some greatly exaggerated rumors flying around” about what took place at the elementary school at 4335 Lynn St., adding “We just want people to get the facts” at Monday’s meeting at the Junior/Senior High School cafeteria.
Ley said school leaders made a report to Akron Police Chief Mike Scarborough the day they learned of the situation at Akron Elementary School. The law requires school leaders to report the situation to authorities, according to Ley.
“I can tell you this: An investigation was done by the school, and we followed all the policies and procedures that are outlined for us as a school district according to state and federal laws, and board policy,” Ley said. “The investigation was completed, and it came to our attention Wednesday — through phone calls, some social media activity and parents coming into our office at the elementary — that there’s an awful lot of misinformation out there as to what really happened.”
Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene said he’ll attend Monday’s meeting to make a statement, and said he reviewed a police report on the situation but declined further comment. He said he couldn’t disclose the ages or grades of those in the police report.
“There was nothing to indicate there was any culpable conduct by an adult, criminally,” Reene said.
When asked if any school employees were to blame for the situation, Ley said “Absolutely not.”
“I feel that our staff has done a thorough job of investigating and handling the situation thus far, and we followed all the protocol that is expected and mandated for us to do,” Ley said.
When asked if the children involved in the situation still attend Akron-Fairgrove schools, Ley said “I don’t want to violate anybody’s privacy issues again, but at this time I will tell you that one of the two is not in our district, and that’s an unfortunate thing, I believe, for him and for everyone, and for the school as well.”