Lifesaving response at one recess, concern about absent staff at another
- Jasz Garrett
- 14 hours ago
- 4 min read
Recent incidents in elementary schools highlight the support needed to make safety possible
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
Two school employees were honored Tuesday night by the Juneau Board of Education for life-saving efforts, but the lack of supervision at another elementary school prompted a parent to ask school board members to prioritize safety.
Auke Bay Elementary School staff members Kathy Iliev and Allison Schultz were recognized for what Juneau School District Superintendent Frank Hauser said was quick thinking and action on Sept. 26. Iliev was monitoring the playground during recess when she observed a student who appeared to be choking and radioed for help.
She stayed with the student outside, ready to signal. Schultz heard the radio call inside and rushed to the playground, where 6-year-old Lupin West was holding her throat. After several tries, Schultz dislodged the obstruction — a rock — and the student regained her breath. Auke Bay staff members called 911, directed emergency responders, and held their classes in a “stay-put” in accordance with district procedures.
Lupin West was beckoned to the front of Thunder Mountain Middle School’s library to accept a hug and gifts from Iliev and Schultz. Matt West thanked Schultz, who sprinted from the office to his daughter’s aid while she was choking.
“That is really special as a parent that somebody would do that for your child,” he said. “We’re very, very grateful.”
A different story occurred at Kax̱dig̱oowu Héen Elementary School two weeks ago. In a public testimony on non-agenda items to the school board, Charity Lee said her daughter, in the second grade, was assaulted during recess.
“She was grabbed by her coat, thrown to the ground, punched in the face,” she said. “Another student had to intervene because no staff was there to witness the incident or to intervene and that student was also punched.”
Lee said she shouldn’t have had to bring her testimony to the school board because the situation was 100% preventable.
“The student who assaulted my daughter has had ongoing struggles with violent behavior in the classroom and they received supportive services for this,” she said.
She said the school is aware the student has ongoing violent behavior and had harmed her daughter previously, but was told the staff at Kax̱dig̱oowu Héen does not have the resources to address it. Lee said students have been forced into programming designed for learning difficulties when they need services for social and behavioral needs, which leads to their struggles not being adequately addressed.
In an interview after her testimony, Lee said she knows “our educators are doing the best they can,” but staff shortages are being felt across the district. She said Lupin West’s story is wonderful, but she wondered what the outcome would have been if it were her daughter choking on the playground with no adults to step in.
Lee said after the assault, she asked for environmental level changes, such as increased supervision and one-on-one support for the student who punched her daughter.
“But the school made zero promises,” she said. “So the kind of support they’re offering her is if she’s experiencing fear, she can ask to go talk to the counselor, which is great, I’m happy she has access to that. But she should be in an environment where she feels safe.”
She said her daughter is in the same grade and large classroom as the child who punched her. Lee said her daughter and the child are continuing to interact without supervision at times.
In the testimonies that followed, safety in schools was a priority concern for the union members of the Juneau Education Association and Juneau Education Support Staff.
Rose Rice, a paraeducator at Kax̱dig̱oowu Héen who has been with JSD for four years, said she is a part of a team with one teacher and two other paraeducators. She said no amount of training can get them through when children are throwing chairs across the classroom.
“The special education programs have been shuffled around this year and has made me feel like every single day has been a Cat5 hurricane,” Rice said. “I’m being punched, kicked and spat on, and this morning I was hurt after being tripped so I couldn’t catch my kids.”
She said she wanted to work with children who needed help learning — not be inexperienced, underpaid, or an uncertified Applied Behavior Analysis therapist.
“My kids are in gen-ed classrooms struggling with their environments and they struggle with their peer classmates, and their classmates also struggle in their education, due to their classmates needing to evacuate the classroom for their safety or other behavior reasons,” she said.
When Rice began to describe recess, where paras are expected to be one-on-one with special education students, the two-minute timer for her testimony ended. She left the microphone in tears, but school board vice president Elizabeth Siddon called her back, allowing her to finish.
“Our SpEd kids are left alone on one-to-one recess,” Rice said. “We have maybe three adults to 50 kids at recess. There’s no way I can get a kid who is falling off the swings and a kid who I see falling off of the spiderweb to the nurse safely when my kid over here is having a meltdown and having a social crisis.”
Rice said if a child has a behavioral issue inside, that also means fewer adults outside on the playground.
“So how are we gonna help these kids that really need that support at recess?” she asked.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
