TOM THUMB FIGHTS AGAIN
TOM THUMB STATE FILE HOLDS DOZEN COMPLAINTS
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Anchorage Daily News (AK)-March 2, 1990
Author/Byline: DUSTY RHODES
Daily News reporter
Staff
Edition: Final
Section: Lifestyles
Page: G1
The Daily News examined all complaints filed with the Department of Education against Anchorage area preschools in the past five years. The DOE has certified 27 local preschools, and has received a total of 13 complaints since January 1985. Of those 13 complaints, 12 were against Margaret Green's Tom Thumb Montessori Schools.
Among the most serious complaints against Tom Thumb:
* On Sept. 5, 1985, a mother whose 5-year-old son had attended Tom Thumb on Spenard Road from September 1984 through January 1985 reported that her son had been involved in inappropriate sexual behavior while at the school. Anchorage Police officer Bill Reeder, then child sex abuse investigator for the APD, found 11 similar cases at the school involving 4 to 6-year-olds who were touching each others' genitals with their hands and mouths while the teachers weren't watching.
Reeder determined that no adult at the school was involved (see main story).
Margaret Green characterizes the entire incident as "just something that happened," and says, "Certainly we've had nothing like that happen again."
* On Jan. 17, 1986, a parent filed a complaint alleging that a bus driver who served as a substitute teacher and who had, by this time, left the state, had sexually abused girls during naps, and that Green didn't take any action after being questioned on this issue by three teachers. The parent also complained that teacher applicants were not screened and references were not checked.
The only action taken by the Department of Education on this complaint was a call to Green. Kathi Wineman, early childhood specialist for the DOE, says: "The determination of the administration in this office was that what was done was sufficient." Since then, she says, administration has changed, and "awareness" has been heightened.
Green says she remembers the bus driver|substitute teacher, but doesn't recall any such complaints from parents, teachers or the DOE. She also says the bus driver worked at the O'Malley Road location, not at the Spenard Road location, as indicated on the complaint.
* On July 21, 1987, a woman who noticed a group of 21|2 to 6-year-old children playing at Valley of the Moon Park filed a complaint stating that the children were "very aggressive" with each other, hitting and kicking each other. The teachers did not intervene to stop the behavior, but reprimanded one child for crying and reprimanded another child by "screaming extremely loudly directly into his face." The complainant said one child told her upon request that the group was from Tom Thumb Montessori School.
Margaret Green says she evaluated the teacher alleged to be screaming. "That teacher's still on staff here. I haven't found her abusive to children at all. In fact, the parents think she's great," Green says.
* On March 17, 1989, an Anchorage municipal road maintenance worker filed a complaint stating that, while driving by the O'Malley Road location of Tom Thumb, he saw a woman grab a young child by the shoulder of his|her snowsuit, swing the child to the ground, then pick the child up by the snowsuit and shake the child while yelling in the child's face. The maintenance man stopped his truck in traffic, got out and yelled at the woman, telling her to stop.
Two weeks after the incident, Wineman, of the DOE, talked to the maintenance worker, the father of the child and Green. The father said his 5-year-old son had "lifted his feet and fell" while the teacher had hold of the hood of his coat, and that the teacher then helped his son up. He said the teacher was a longtime family friend and one of the best teachers he knows.
Green gave the teacher's version of the incident: "The child's foot got caught in a hole and he fell backward on the ice. She (the teacher) helped him up. As she was helping him, a male passerby yelled obscenities at her."
Three weeks after the incident, Wineman came to Anchorage, observed for several hours and saw "no repeat of that kind of behavior." Wineman also interviewed the teacher, who said she had been escorting the child to "time out" when he fell in some crusty snow.
* On Nov. 8, 1989, Lynn Krisik, the youth education specialist for the sexual abuse counseling service Standing Together Against Rape, filed a complaint against Green's Spenard Road school detailing several incidents of teachers treating 5- to 11-year-old students roughly. Krisik had visited the school in the course of her work, making presentations in area schools. After reading the complaint, Krisik called the DOE to add an amendment further explaining her observations.
Excerpts from Krisik's complaint: "(A) child said that she could not see the board. A teacher came from behind the child, picked her up and violently set her down on the ground further back in the room, hard enough so that she (the child) could have bitten her tongue had it been between her teeth.
"(Krisik) felt that the teachers distributed punishment in a very vindictive fashion with "exploding anger' and that the disciplinary action was inconsistently distributed among children."
About a month later, Wineman discussed the complaint with Margaret Green and told her that she would do an onsite visit to investigate the complaint. On Dec. 7, Wineman and another DOE employee visited the school. After the visit, Wineman concluded that "there were no violations of (DOE) regulations that were found during the preannounced onsite visit."
On Jan. 23, Green wrote to Wineman to respond further to Krisik's complaint. An excerpt from her letter: "No teacher sat a child down violently. Our Spenard Road teachers . . . have been teaching with us for many years. There are no violent teachers on my staff."
Other allegations contained in complaints against Tom Thumb Montessori Schools include:
* Children being allowed to hit or kick each other without adult intervention.
* Inadequate numbers of adults supervising children.
* Teachers appearing to be "burned out."
* Overcrowding in classrooms.
* Children suffering "loss of self-esteem directly related to the environment of Tom Thumb Montessori" school.
Record Number: 165535
Copyright (c) 1990, Anchorage Daily News