OXFORD – School Superintendent Mark Eastman has recommended establishing a task force to evaluate practices and procedures dealing with sexual harassment. He also called for an impartial third-party evaluator to review how an unspecified alleged sexual harassment incident issue was handled.

The recommendations came on the heels of months of alleged sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by a small group of students at the Paris Elementary School.

Calling it a “very difficult” situation, Eastman said there have been verbal complaints about student-to-student harassment by 8-year-olds, but after more than 100 hours of investigation by school staff many allegations were unverified.

In some verified cases, several students were disciplined and persistent “poor” behavior resulted in their suspension and alternative educational placement, he said.

The allegations began last fall and continued throughout the year, said the mother of a Paris Elementary School student who took her daughter out of school after what she said was months of continued sexual harassment.

The Sun Journal doesn’t identify victims of sexual harassment except in some circumstances.

The woman, who appeared at Monday night’s board meeting with half a dozen other parents, told the board members that she wants a task force formed, and requested mandatory re-education for faculty members, who are mandatory reporters of sexual harassment. She also wants the school’s sexual harassment policy reviewed for effectiveness and updated if necessary.

The woman also requested that a new investigation policy be implemented that will include the findings of the police, Department of Health and Human Services and any other investigating agency and that all parties involved be notified of the findings before they are announced publicly.

The woman further asked that parents and teachers be informed of any serious sexual harassment or sexual assault, that annual sexual harassment education be provided to students beginning in kindergarten and that immediate education/counseling be provided to anyone involved in each alleged incident.

Eastman, who is stifled by law from from discussing the specifics of the allegations, said the parent made some “very reasonable” requests.

“Let’s make sure we’re responding appropriately,” said Eastman, who charged the task force with creating a systematic approach to harassment and behavioral issues district-wide. The task force will be comprised of administrators, guidance, special education and regular education teachers, nurses, parents, a SAD 17 board member, a student from the middle and high school and REACH, a local social service.

At least one parent, of the half a dozen parents of Paris Elementary School students who appeared at the meeting, said later that she was not entirely satisfied with the response. The woman, who said she has hired a lawyer to see if school officials violated her daughter’s civil rights in its response to alleged sexual harassment, said she wants school officials to be more forthright about the investigation that took place. The woman claims her daughter was sexually harassed constantly during the school year to the point that she took her out of the school.

Paris Elementary School Principal Jane Fahey has kept parents informed in a series of letters about the allegations and investigations since March, and in her most recent letter to parents, dated June 8, she reported that school officials, the Paris Police Department and Department of Human Services were involved in an investigation about an alleged sexual assault on a school bus, but that there was “no evidence and no witnesses to corroborate that the alleged incident took place.”

SAD 17 Chairman Dale Piirainen called the superintendent’s recommendations “an aggressive way to deal with it.” The board will act on the recommendations at its next meeting in July and if approved, the task force will begin its work immediately and report back to the board at an unspecified time.