A cafeteria incident at Dutch Neck School, in which a first grade student was allegedly accused of stealing a water bottle from the school, has generated an E-mail chain of concern from parents. The student’s parents say they want a formal apology.
In response, Principal David Argese and Assistant Principal Nicole Camaioni issued a written statement to parents, explaining the dangers of spreading misinformation via E-mail.
“The issue in the E-mail that is the center of concern involves a Dutch Neck student and the student’s behavior,” wrote Argese and Camaioni. “The issue is between the teacher, parents, and the administrators. This concern is not an issue for public discussion, nor should it be. While many of the statements in the E-mail are not accurate, it would be unlawful for us to discuss this situation in a public forum.”
In a mass E-mail titled “A Terrible Thing Happened at Dutch Neck School,” Lin Li and Kai Cao said their daughter took two bottles of water to school on March 29 — one for snack time and one for lunch.
Their daughter went for lunch in the cafeteria and put the bottle under her arm while holding a tray to pick up her lunch, they said.
The cafeteria manager spotted the bottle, stopped her, and accusing her of stealing the water. The daughter explained that the water was from home, but the staff did not believe her and sent her to the office, where she was “pressured to admit that she was stealing.”
She was then sent to the principal’s office, “forced to write a confession,” and “draw a picture to show the stealing process!” said her parents. “When my daughter met the principal and the assistant of the principal, she told them again that she did not steal the water, and the water was brought from home, but neither believed her.”
After being left a voice message by the assistant principal, the parents went to the school to explain the water was from home. They also asked school official to check with their daughter’s classmates. The officials refused and insisted the cafeteria manager saw the girl steal the water.
“What the principal told us was totally different [from what] the cafeteria manager told the superintendent,” they said. “The cafe manager only saw my daughter putting the water bottle under her arm.”
The parents said they later found that one of their daughters classmates saw her taking a water bottle from the classroom to the cafeteria.
Shortly after the superintendent investigated the issue, “we received an E-mail from the principal simply letting us know that this incident was dismissed, and the stealing record was withdrawn from our daughter’s school report,” the parents wrote. “There is not any word of apology in the E-mail.”
The parents insist their daughter does not want to go to Dutch Neck anymore, so they had to transfer her to another school. “Isn’t it safe that we cannot even trust the school we are paying tax money for to do the right thing to the kids?” the parents wrote.
In their response, Argese and Camaioni said they met with the parents, and that the student and the parents would be meeting with the superintendent. “Please be assured that the concerns of the parents, as noted in the E-mail, will be addressed again at this upcoming meeting.”
The response also states, however, that the E-mail chain was not the appropriate way of dealing with the situation. “While we believe that E-mail is an important tool in our technology toolbox,” it has other effects that “we believe are detrimental to the mission at Dutch Neck Elementary School.”
