BY DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY

[ED. NOTE: In the following column, THE PLANET uses aliases for the actual names of the students involved. We do have the identities of these students, but we have decided to withhold them].

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(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, WEDNESDAY NOV. 24, 2021) — Clearly, SOMETHING happened at Richmond Consolidated School to send bucolic Richmond into a frenzy. But what, exactly?

We may never know, exactly, but THE PLANET‘s investigation turned up enough of the pieces for us to reasonably surmise.

Investigative journalists almost never look for “the smoking gun” for the simple reason that it’s almost never there. The better analogy is the 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. Answers arrive piecemeal, in bits and bytes. Each piece of information must be compared with each of the others until a picture begins to emerge. Clearly, investigation journalism, like all detective work, involves induction more than deduction. It involves the assembly of pieces (clues) to reach a conclusion that stands beyond a reasonable doubt.

That’s what THE PLANET has faced with the Richmond matter. We have heard from both constituencies, those making serious allegations and those who have refuted those characterizations of what occurred.

Events only unfold place once, in real time. Everything after that deals with recollections, replays, and reconstructions of the past, giving rise to lying, manipulation, faulty memory, and all sorts of noise to intrude. The good investigator goes into a situation in neutral, pulls together as much factual evidence as possible, along with testimony of witnesses and interested observers, to arrive at conclusions. He or she goes where the evidence takes them. Those conclusions may be right or wrong.

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As readers will recall, the referred-to incidents at Richmond CS include:

• The actions and reactions of students in 7th grade during which led to English teacher Rachel Kanz being contacted physically and injured
• The claim by a girl in the same 7th grade of a sexual assault
• The claim that this assault was told to staff and administration but not reported by them in accordance with the law

These are the charges, but what actually happened to cause the tense atmosphere and low morale that pervades in a school that has for so long had a sterling reputation for quality education?

THE “ASSAULT” ON RACHEL KANZ

Didn’t happen, at least not as initially conveyed. She was, however, in the wrong place at the wrong time and did get hit physically.

In early October, a 7th grade male student (let’s call him Natan) shot a rubber band into the face of a male classmate we shall call Jules. The projectile hit Jules in the forehead, causing him to bolt out of his seat and attempt to retaliate. Sources say Kanz — a 6th, 7th, and 8th grade English teacher — wasn’t in the room at the time but heard the commotion. Sources say Roger Kohler — a 6th, 7th, and 8th grade math teacher — was presiding over the class.

As Kanz entered the room to see what was going on, the seething Jules, who was rushing to get at his attacker, knocked into Kanz, sending her hard into a wall, injuring her arm. It appears that Jules, described as “an often-picked-on” 200-pounder, did not intend to hit the teacher.

Kanz went to see the school nurse. The injury to her arm was evident but did not appear to be serious, sources say. Kanz then left for a previously scheduled and approved early exit that afternoon, sources say. This supports what we heard from administrative sources, that Kanz did not “leave to go to the hospital” but to attend to personal business. Sources say she had cleared this with the administration, who had arranged for a substitute to cover her classes. The next day, Kanz did see a doctor to examine her. THE PLANET doesn’t know the results of that examination. Sources also say that later in the day, the day Jules plowed into her, Kanz attended a party. That, together with the fact that she did not see a doctor until the day after, suggests that the injury was minor.

We have requested comments from Kanz, but she has not gotten back to us.

Our verdict: Kanz was not “assaulted.” She was in the way. This does not excuse Jules’ behavior. Who knows what he would have done had he caught up with his tormentor?

THE CONTEXT FOR JULES’ BEHAVIOR

Jules left Stearns school in Pittsfield after 5th grade via school choice. He entered Richmond CS to begin middle school, sixth grade. All of us who have been through the educational gauntlet know that even under the best circumstances, coming into middle school as the “newbie” is bad enough. It doesn’t help that Jules, at least according to multiple sources, took his emotional problems from Stearns to Richmond. This begs the question: Why did this student leave Stearns, one of Pittsfield best schools? Was he “asked” to leave?

Sources say since he’s been at Richmond, he has been a troublemaker. One parent said, “There’s no question, yeah, he’s been a bully.” A staffer backed up this claim. For example, sources say he’s written a racial epithet using the word “nigger” in the boy’s bathroom and during art class wrote an anti-Semitic slur on a cup or mug. Over the summer, however, things began to spiral out-of-control. Sources say Jules shared with a group on Snapchat a photo of a naked girl of about middle-school age. The girl’s face was blurred, and it’s not known if the photo was of a Richmond girl or not. The photo did circulate to his classmates, however, causing some upset.

When school began in September, Jules became the target of a concerted bullying effort by some of his classmates. Apparently, according to one parent, “the kids decided to bully the bully.” This has included shunning, taunting, staring, and online harassment. The effects on Jules of this retaliatory bullying — the anti-bullying bullying, if you will — was cumulative, according to staff, and has been building up all semester, leading to “the final straw” after Nathan hit Jules in the face with a rubber band and the boy lost his cool.

For their actions, principal Dan Weston suspended Jules for 10 days. Meanwhile, staff overheard girls from the 7th grade class talking among themselves, saying “[When he gets back] Let’s do everything we can to frame [Jules].” On the very day Jules came back after serving his 10-day suspension, a girl in the class claimed Jules sexually harassed her.

THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIM

School sources say this was a false claim instigated by several 7th grade girls. The complainant claimed that on the first day after Jude returned to class after serving his 10-day suspension, he touched her inappropriately on the thigh. The girl, we’ll call her Laura, said she reported it to Cindy Bartlett, then the paraprofessional for 7th grade (Bartlett is now para for 5th grade). It was claimed that Bartlett told the girl not to go forward with the complaint.

Further investigation by THE PLANET strongly indicates that this is not what happened.

Actually, it appears that Bartlett had learned of the girls’ plan to frame Jude, and after Laura made her claim of improper contact, Bartlett told the girls “You report fact. You don’t report gossip of fantasy.”

In short, it appears that there was in fact no inappropriate behavior in that one case. Cristina Lenfest, the school nurse, did not report the incident simply because the incident never occurred. How does one “report” something that didn’t happen?

That said, have there been other harassment complaints? Have the school been completely transparent on every serious charge of misbehavior?

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In the final analysis, THE PLANET’s best guess at this point, barring the introduction of other information, the tempest at Richmond Consolidated Schools will be confined to a teapot not because of any official coverup but simply because of the storm’s makeup. It doesn’t appear to have enough truth to sustain continuance.

Here are the factors of this odd storm:

• The school admits a troubled young man who transferred out of Stearns school in Pittsfield.
• The 12-going-on-13-year-old boy perpetrates a series of bullying actions that were clearly a cry for help.
• His 7th grade classmates decide to bully the bully.
• The exacerbated tensions + the retaliatory actions of classmates boil over into the “Kanz incident.”
• A girl makes a false claim of sexual harassment.
• The situation becomes a conflagration after being fanned by outside parties.

There have been separate meetings, gatherings that may have legal consequences, in recent days. Last Tuesday (Nov. 16), a group of parents had a Zoom meeting to discuss the situation. Some parents later complained that the group included parties who do not have children at Richmond and thus “no skin in the game.” In the same week, the school and their attorney, Fred Dupre, met with parents and their attorney, Alan Righi.

Has all the information emerged? Will there be future bombshells?

THE PLANET remains open to any new information.

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“One and one and one is three” – The Beatles, “Come Together” from the album Abbey Road.

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.

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