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Parents allege that the Poway Unified School District member has turned a blind eye to bullying—on more than one occasion—to protect public school officials from facing accountability.
What is going on at Poway Unified School District?
The community is in turmoil, and at the heart of it all stands Dr. Darshana Patel—a member of the Poway Unified School District's Board of Directors. In particular, parents are outraged about Patel’s inaction as Board President during a scandal involving Superintendent Marian Kim Phelps, who severely harassed Del Norte High School’s softball players last year.
“Unlike members of the public who are at liberty to make public accusations and spread misinformation against the superintendent, the school board is bound by privacy requirements and cannot make specific public comments regarding student, personnel or legal matters,” said Poway Unified chief communications officer Christine Paik last November.
A few months later, Phelps was fired by a unanimous vote of the Board.
The April 30, 2024 vote followed an investigation into accusations that she harassed its players after an end-of-season awards banquet last year. The lawsuit that prompted this investigation had earlier urged Board President Patel to take action when the incidents were first reported.
Over the course of the next five months, parents came forward with the evidence of alleged threats including “intimidating students on their personal phones during non-school hours, threatening their graduation status amongst other tactics.”
Instead, Patel opted to do nothing—and in so doing—some say effectively covered up the facts.
That sentiment is shared by numerous parents and community members. Ted Buchen, a parent of a Del Norte High student, expressed his frustration in an interview with NBC News.
"Amongst multiple people in the community, we've been to four, five board meetings," Buchen said. "We've sent multiple text messages and emails to actual board members. There's been over 100 pages of evidence provided to the board members, and none of that seemed to move the needle."
“In the last several months, my daughter who is in the 8th grade at Design39 has been the victim of racism and extensive bullying by a group of students," said parent Christina Ann. "To the extent she is now in intensive outpatient therapy three days a week, on medication for depression and anxiety, and was held on 5150 in February."
For all the posturing that public school administrators do about the dangers of bullying, it seems that they are also willing to turn a blind eye to bullying and go to great lengths to protect their own unionized members from facing accountability for the harassment that regularly occurs under their station.
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