An open letter to the Concord School Board: After months of long meetings, hard work and much input from the community, the school board’s work has come to a crossroads. The independent investigation into the handling of complaints about special education teacher Howie Leung has been completed.
There is a strong perception in the Concord community that systemic failures within the school district – which may include actions, or inaction, by people in leadership roles – put students in physical and emotional danger.
Is this perception of systemic failure accurate? Did people in leadership roles fail to protect students from harm? Were concerns taken seriously and addressed promptly and appropriately? Is the school district culture one in which complaints of sexual harassment, violence and bullying are mishandled instead of addressed through best practices and a trauma-informed response?
At the center of this crisis, one central question remains unanswered: How did a teacher now charged with serious crimes of sexual violence remain in daily contact with students for months after credible concerns about his actions were raised?
Unless the report is made public to the greatest extent possible, we will never know the answers to these essential questions and the Concord community cannot begin to heal.
Clearly some identifiable and confidential information cannot be released. Still, the community needs to understand what happened so that failures in school district systems and problems in district culture may be comprehensively addressed by the administration, board, staff, students and community.
There is only one path to rebuilding trust between the community and the school board and administration: transparency and accountability.
(Dan Habib and Betsy McNamara live in Concord.)