[BHS Etree] BUSD: Letter to BHS Families from BUSD Superintendent & Board President

[BHS Etree]

PLEASE do not reply to this email, contact Mark Coplan
markcoplan at berkeley.net 

 

April 28, 2015

 

Dear Berkeley High Community,

 

We are writing to update you on Berkeley Unified School District's (BUSD)
continued cooperation with the investigation being conducted by the Office
of Civil Rights (OCR) into our policies and practices related to sexual
harassment.  As we have said on multiple occasions, we are committed to
developing a culture in our schools that is focused on the prevention of
harassment and bullying in any form.  We know that we have work to do in
this area, and we are committed to partnering with the student and parent
advocates in the community who have so passionately and bravely shared their
stories and articulated their concerns.

 

As you may know, we recently revised the District's sexual harassment policy
for the first time in almost a decade, and we are continuing to work to
improve that policy as the OCR investigation continues.  We have also
complied with OCR's requests for documentation, and have provided over one
thousand pages of material to OCR investigators in order to better enable
them to evaluate our past practices.  We have also made available for OCR
interviews many senior BUSD administrators, BHS administrators, counselors,
safety officers and campus monitors.  Those interviews are continuing over
the course of three full days this week.

 

We believe that it is important that the OCR investigators meet with BHS
students to hear their experiences directly.  We have been moved by the
accounts of our students, and we want to ensure that the OCR investigators
hear these accounts first-hand, as well as the experiences of students who
have not felt comfortable speaking up in public, or in a group setting.
Thus, contrary to some reports, we have not barred OCR investigators from
access to our students.  

 

We do have concerns about student privacy and confidentiality, as well as
the need to obtain parental consent before students are interviewed by
federal investigators.  We also want to ensure that any student interviews
take place in a way that does not unduly impact instructional time,
particularly at this very busy and important time of the school year for
many BHS students.  We have raised these concerns with OCR, and we hope and
expect that they will be resolved so that the investigation can be conducted
and completed in a timely manner.  

 

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Donald Evans, Superintendent, BUSD and 

Judy Appel, President, BUSD Board of Education

 

 

Mark Coplan, Public Information Officer

Berkeley Unified School District

510-644-6320 Cell: 510-472-3811

 

__________________________________

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