Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A group of parents shared concerns Monday to the Albert Lea school board about safety and negative impacts their children are experiencing as a result of increased behaviors from other students they say are not managed properly at Lakeview Elementary School.

One parent, Lydia Sorenson, said she started asking questions last fall when she walked into the school and saw a young student running through hallways, and staff was positioned throughout, shifting as the student ran circles around them. She said she was confused at that time and asked if the staff needed help and was told that state policy doesn’t allow staff to touch the child, so they have to simply stand there and make sure the child stays somewhat contained. She voiced her concerns with that approach, but she said the administrator didn’t seem to share the same concerns.

She went on to hear more stories from other students, parents and staff, which led her to reach out to the administrator to discuss how student behaviors were being handled. She said she walked out of the meeting still not feeling like she had any answers and felt like the administrator didn’t acknowledge there was any concern.

She heard additional information from her fifth-grade student and eventually went on to compile student feedback and an additional anonymous survey, which brought in another 159 submissions and more than 40 direct messages to her.

Many of the responses talked about how their children are experiencing signs of trauma because of the behaviors they are witnessing.

“In an effort to be sensitive to one child’s trauma, trauma is now being formed for another child as they witness other student behavior go unchecked, while they destroy rooms, stab teachers with pencils or throw chairs/desks at staff and threaten our children,” said her husband, Dak Sorenson. “When they finally are removed from the classroom, they return back with a fidget and a fruit snack or Rice Krispie bar, only further confusing our students about what is acceptable behavior.”

He said their third-grade son was threatened by another student who told him she was going to “hunt him down and kill him.” He said when they took the issue to the administrator, he just told them that the student was “using big words.”

He said it has been over a month since that incident, and they still haven’t received any responses back to their emails about the incident and about how it was handled. They don’t know if their child was talked to, if he played a role in the situation, if the school resource officer was involved or if it was addressed with the other child and her parents.

Abby Murray shared a story from another parent, Marissa Andrews, who had a similar threat that was shrugged off. Her son was threatened by another student who told him he would bring a gun to school the next day and kill him.

She said despite the seriousness of the threat, the school did not notify them for three hours, and that when they arrived at the school, the principal attempted to shift blame onto her son.

The student was allowed to return to school the next day, and his backpack was not even checked the next day, though that had been the plan to do so.

They also found out the police were never called.

She said her son lost seven pounds over two weeks because of stress and anxiety.

“School safety should always be the No. 1 priority, with education following closely behind,” Murray said.

Emma Habben, president of the parent-teacher organization at Lakeview and a former teacher who has two students in the district, said her fifth-grader comes home almost daily with stories of a bully in his class who teases others in the class and misbehaves throughout the day and they can’t get anything done.

“There are little to no consequences for this student, as he continues to hinder everyone else’s learning while also being cruel to other students in the class,” she said.

She said her fourth-grader tells her he frequently leaves the classroom with the rest of his class while a student “rages out” in the classroom, including behaviors such as standing on desks and jumping across the room on them.

“How is it helpful for everyone else to leave and not the one student causing the distraction and unsafe behavior?” she said. “I asked my kids why they didn’t tell me these stories much before I asked, and they said ‘because it happens every day.’”

Sadie Wuerflein, who has a fifth-grader at the school, said her daughter is a good student with good behavior who is helpful to others and gets good grades. Her daughter used to love going to school and never wanted to miss a day, but then last year, she started developing anxiety about going to school to the point she would get physically sick. Now, she begs her to let her stay home and to homeschool her.

Not long into the school year, her daughter started telling her about lockdowns happening at the school, in which they would have to keep their classroom door locked and nobody was allowed to leave, even if they had to go to the bathroom. She’s heard other stories about classes sitting in the hallway because one child was having an episode in a classroom.

One day a lockdown lasted several hours, and her daughter told her they had to take a different way to get to lunch and at one point they had to run to get past an area of their school safely.

What bothers her most is what she tells her about the day-to-day happenings in her classroom of children who are rude to each other and to their teacher, so much so that their teacher has been brought to tears in front of the students.

Mark Habben said he thinks the situation comes down to good leadership and stressed the importance of creating an environment where all students can flourish.

He also talked about the budget reductions the district is facing because of declining enrollment and noted that other neighboring districts are actively recruiting the district’s students and the district is losing many good quality, veteran teachers to outside districts.

Parent Betsy Smith, who has a fourth-grader at Lakeview, said she and her husband have had concerns about behaviors since the 2023-24 school year when their son would come home from school and tell them they had extra recesses that day.

”Because of one student’s actions, 20-plus other students missed out on learning time rather than that one student being removed to calm down before returning to class,” she said.

She said she has also seen shifts in her child’s demeanor from someone who was a good student and happy to go to school to one who makes comments about not wanting to go to school and even saying it is scary sometimes.

Kasey Wolters, who has a fifth-grader at the school, said parents hear from the administration that they are trying to earn back the trust of staff and the community, but to do that, they need to accept honesty and transparency. They need to listen to the teachers and paraeducators in the classroom, who know their students best. She asked the board to speak openly about the concerns the community is voicing and then to tell them what actions they have taken and what discussions are being had to determine future action.

School board Chairman Dave Klatt asked Lydia Sorenson if she could share the results of the survey she conducted and responses that were gathered, and she said she planned to do so after the meeting.

Interim Superintendent David Krenz said he had met with several of the parents the last few weeks to listen to their concerns and noted that changes have been made in certain protocol they have in place.

Beginning this week, they will be providing more support at the school.

“It’s not falling on deaf ears,” he said.

In other action, the school board:

• Witnessed the presentation of a $3,000 scholarship to Maxx Richards from the leaders of the Minnesota School Boards Association. Richards is a student school board member and received one of three scholarships throughout the whole state.

• Recognized Klarissa Maricle and Bailey Becker as employees of the month from December.

• Approved a 10% premium increase for health renewal rates starting July 1 based on historical data and projected claims for the coming year.  The most recent 12 months of claims were $9.87 million compared to the prior 12 months, which were $8.83 million.

• Reviewed a series of policies and made changes to some, many of which were recommended through the Minnesota School Boards Association.