INDIANAPOLIS — Some IPS parents are demanding answers and action after the news broke of a lawsuit against the district.
The family of a 7-year-old student with special needs — who attended George Washington Carver Montessori School 87 — filed the lawsuit. It claims a now-former teacher encouraged other students to beat up the 7-year-old and then filmed it.
Parents of students who go to School 87 say they got an email Sunday night from IPS, telling them the district was investigating the school culture and climate and, while that's happening, the principal and vice principal would not be in the building.
"All eyes are watching how IPS handles this," said parent Kelly Mosesso, whose son is in kindergarten at School 87, which currently has students in pre-K through eighth grade.
Mosesso said she's one of the parents who got the email hours after she said a group of parents met earlier in the day with IPS Superintendent Dr. Aleesia Johnson and IPS school board member Nicole Carey.
That's where Mosesso said they told Johnson and Carey they wanted to see changes that they had put in a petition, which has over 700 signatures. It calls for IPS to take action on several matters at the school.
Among them, parents want a town hall so they can express their concern and outrage about what allegedly happened to the 7-year-old student.
Parents also want to know how the district will keep students safe in the future.
They also called for an investigation into who else in the building knew about what the teacher was allegedly doing and didn't report it.
"I'm glad they were listening to us, but now proof is really in the pudding...and I want to see some action," said Mosesso, explaining Sunday night's email was a step in the right direction.
In it, parents say they learned School 87's principal and vice principal would not be in the building while the district investigated the climate of the building, interviewing parents and teachers.
The school district says it reported the incident captured on video to the Indiana Department of Child Services and met with the teacher — who resigned at that meeting.
That happened in late October.
Parents say they only learned about the incident last week, when a story about a lawsuit filed against IPS by the 7-year-old's family hit the news.
"It feels very much as if they were doing as limited a release as possible until they felt obligated to say something after it came out in the media," said Brendan Maxcy, who has two sons who go to School 87.
Maxcy said neither of his sons were in the class where the student was allegedly attacked, but Maxcy has seen the video.
"I've been an educator for 30 years. I've never seen anything like that," Maxcy said.
Maxcy said his sons had enjoyed a wonderful experience at School 87 and were not aware of any issues.
"In many ways, we feel like we were living in blissful ignorance," Maxcy said.
Now, parents want to know what the district plans to do next to reassure them their children are safe going forward.
"We want safeguards in place so that this can never happen in our school again," Mosesso said.
A school board meeting action session is set for April 25 at Arsenal Tech High School at 6 p.m.
Mosesso and Maxcy both said they plan to attend and speak out during the public comment section of the meeting.