INDIANAPOLIS — “Bring Ms. V back! Bring Ms. V back!” students chanted Monday afternoon in front of Indianapolis Metropolitan High School.
"Ms. V" is Vanessa Elliott, the former restorative coordinator at the school. Elliott compared the position to a dean of students. She was in charge of discipline.
About 30 students left the building during lunch and held handmade poster signs in front of the school to protest Elliott’s recent firing.
Students very much wanted to be on camera to express their opinions and concerns. School officials allowed me on the property to shoot video of the protest, but asked that students' faces not be shown. So I complied as much as possible while still allowing the students' voices to be heard.
“The student attacked her by throwing a computer at her and she was aggressive, but she never touched the student,” said one girl protesting.
"She didn't do nothing to nobody whatsoever,” said another female student. “A student attacked her, and they fired her for nothing."
Elliott said a student was on an angry rampage in the school April 12. She said she grabbed the student's arm to defend herself against him pushing her in the face.
She was sent home at the end of the day and suspended, then called into a meeting and fired three days later.
"It was definitely hurtful. Shocked, anger, a lot of anger, just based off of the fact that I don't feel like I was treated fairly in that incident, because I never put my hands on the student,” said Elliott.
Elliott said she was told she was being terminated because, “I was aggressively continuing to go after this student, which video camera footage shows that did not happen."
Metropolitan High School said its policy is not to comment on personnel matters.
The school is designed to serve students facing barriers to education such as:
- Teen pregnancy
- Teen parenting
- Involvement in foster care
- Homelessness
- Identified for special education
- Involvement with criminal justice
"There's one student in particular that will call me 'Mom' because I was the mom that he has never had,” said Elliott. “It's comments like those that make me miss these kids so much."
Students at the small school also started a petition for Elliott.
"I just want them to remember all this effort being put into a good thing,” said Elliott. “It is not unseen, and I am so proud of each and every one of them."
Elliott is most disappointed to miss graduation in just a few weeks. Several students had selected her to award them their diplomas.