Compton parents claim retaliation in school reform

(01-18) 13:34 PST Compton, Calif. (AP) --

Two parent activists have filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education's civil rights office alleging they and their children have been victims of retaliation because they support a campaign to turn over a local school to a charter operator.

Marlene Romero and Hebert Hidalgo said in documents filed late Friday that teachers at McKinley Elementary School are using lies and intimidation to turn their children against them.

In a statement, Compton Unified School District's acting Superintendent Karen Frison promised a full investigation of any harassment complaints and said the district's human resources department would take action as warranted. She said the district has not been contacted concerning any investigation.

"We have zero tolerance for harassment," she said in the statement. "We take all allegations of harassment seriously, particularly if those allegations involve a staff person or teacher employed by our district. We have district policies with respect to harassment and we enforce those policies."

Romero and Hidalgo are two organizers behind a petition filed last month under California's "parent trigger" law, which allows a majority of parents at a failing school to force a district to make drastic changes to turn around the school, including charter conversion, replacing the principal and staff, or even closure.

The move represented the first time the landmark law, adopted in California last January and under consideration in various versions in six other states, has been used.

The 62 percent of McKinley parents who signed the petition stated they want the K-5 school turned over in September to charter operator Celerity Education Group.

Since the petition was filed with the district, parents have complained that teachers have been pressuring them to rescind their signatures.

Romero said in her complaint that her third-grade son told her that he hated her for supporting charter schools and then revealed his teacher, Victor Tellez, had told him that charter schools are a "bad thing" and shouldn't be supported.

Romero said Tellez previously harangued her in a classroom meeting, telling her how bad charter schools are. She said he also wrote on the website of Parent Revolution, the nonprofit education reform group that spearheaded the parent-trigger law, that she would "regret having supported Celerity when your child is rejected by them."

Romero said she filed a complaint about the incidents with the district but has had no response.

Hidalgo said in his complaint that his son was told by his teacher, Miranda Pesa, that his parents are "out there complaining about education but can't get him to class on time" after he arrived late because he had to go to the bathroom. Pesa told his son his parents have a "big mouth" and "they're crazy," Hidalgo said.

His son no longer wants to attend Pesa's class, Hidalgo said.

Phone calls for Tellez and Pesa were not immediately returned Tuesday.

The Office of Civil Rights is evaluating the complaints to determine the exact nature of the allegations and if they're appropriate for the office to investigate, said Jim Bradshaw, Education Department spokesman.

The harassment started when parents began their campaign in the fall, but it intensified after the petition was filed, said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution.

Parents have been told that special education students would not be allowed at a charter school, immigrant parents would be deported, and that parents would be charged tuition, among other misinformation, he said.

"Instead of standing with the parents in their troubled school district, they are responding with harassment, intimidation and lies," he said. "It's disappointing but not surprising. Defenders of the status quo are not used to being challenged."

Charter schools are public schools run by independent organizations who receive funding directly from the state. Teachers would likely have to reapply for their jobs with no guarantee of being rehired, while the district would lose the per-pupil funding it receives for that school.

Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month requested that the attorney general's office investigate the allegations of intimidation.

McKinley ranks in the bottom 10 percent of the state's elementary schools in a long troubled district, where roughly half the students drop out of high school and only 3 percent graduate eligible to enter state universities.

Teachers point to a 77-point gain in state test scores over the past two years as proof that a turnaround is already in the works at McKinley.