A student chimed in with her own concern as candidates vying for positions on school boards across three districts in Summit County attended a forum Monday night to answer questions from KPCW, The Park Record and community members about their plans.
When Park City School District candidates took their seats ready for questions, there was a lot of agreement — as a group, they largely support more transparency while acknowledging legal limitations, believe in studying the district’s budget before committing to any expensive projects and are want to promote strong, responsible leadership and more accountability within the district’s administration.
All incumbents who originally entered the race have withdrawn their bids, and — after a rough few years for the district — candidates were eager for change and improvement. Local pediatrician Eileen Gallagher is uncontested for the district’s Seat 2, as is former professional health-care administrator Susan Goldberg for Seat 1.
Competing for Seat 3 are former National Ability Center CEO Danny Glasser and Kathleen Britton, who led child nutrition programs in Utah for a decade and in Park City Schools 21 years before that.
Toward the end of the evening, 15-year-old Laila van Hartesvelt, a student at Treasure Mountain Junior High School, approached the mic.
Her father later said she’d been somewhat concerned if she should ask a question, but he reassured her the candidates would love to hear from her, and he was right.
“What steps are you willing to take that make kids feel safer reporting these issues and not having that fear of what might come from other students in the future,” she asked.
The inquiry came after an earlier conversation about Park City School District investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights earlier year. It showed over 180 cases of student-to-student harassment during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years, and not all of them had been addressed by the district to federal standards.
Candidates had stated several things they thought would help the issue: promote better leadership, pass clear anti-bullying policy, increase transparency, ensure community participation and obligation and, as Glasser said, make sure both the bullied and bullying students involved get the support they need.
But when van Hartesvelt asked her question, they grew more specific, stretching beyond just policy adjustments and refinement, though they were sure to include those as necessary steps.
“You have to have a policy, a very clear policy, for civil rights, and that has to be shared with our students,” Britton said.
She added that they need a “safe person,” or someone they know they can go to with their worries.
That safe person, she said, could be introduced to students at the beginning of each year along with issues students can go to them with.
“You can go talk to them. You can file a complaint. Nobody will find out if you don’t want others to know,” she said.
She said it should be handled immediately, and the parents should be looped in.
“It is important for students to see that the leaders in their community are really comfortable talking about these things,” Gallagher said. “I tell my patients all the time, ‘You cannot shock me. I will talk to you about if you’re feeling suicidal. I will talk to you if you are being bullied. I will talk to you about being harassed at school.’”
Adults have had to deal with those things, she said, and they want to make them better for kids.
“If your goal is to share information and maintain anonymity, we have to secure that, in that through our policies that you have an element of anonymity,” Glasser said.
He added that there needs to be precautions to ensure kids can report each other falsely without accountability, but said that means a process of verifying and corroborating.
“The important thing is to make sure that we create an environment where it is safe to come forward and to speak to board members or to speak to the administration about what’s being experienced,” he said.
Goldberg said she wasn’t sure if policies should be structured around safe people students can approach or another method, but she emphasized the importance in making sure students comfortable coming forward and are protected from retaliation.
“The policy is really what’s going to keep us strong,” she said. “We need to communicate the elements of the policy cleary to everybody.”
There’s federal policy guidance that the Office for Civil Rights has worked with Park City School District with an aim of compliance, she added.
“I think it’s pretty clear,” she said.
Shortly after the Office for Civil Rights investigation and its findings became public, the district pointed toward its small size in why it hadn’t had appropriate processes in place to take and handle reports of harassment.
They championed an easily accessible form to report harassment available on the district’s website for kids and families who otherwise might not have known where to go.
Still, van Hartesvelt said she thinks fear about retribution is still a roadblock stopping kids who have faced harassment from reporting it.
“‘They’re like, ‘Oh, most bullies come with a bunch of other people, and that could spread,’” she said. “People could get even more overwhelmed by bullying.”
She appreciated the board candidates’ answers about ensuring kids have someone they know they can feel comfortable talking to, but she worried for kids who don’t connect with their teachers.
One thing she said she would appreciate is if there was a way to report harassment and be sure the issue would stay secure, “so people don’t hear about it.”