Carol Burton
King 5: Seattle Public Schools released a report Monday into a Garfield High School field trip that could cause a beloved choir teacher to lose her job. The report shows Carol Burton, the chaperones, and the students broke some serious rules on the trip. But it also reveals systemic problems involving a troubled student.
With her job on the line, Garfield High School choir teacher Carol Burton came clean with district investigators about a troubled field trip to New Orleans last March.
According to the report: “Burton candidly admitted that she consumed alcohol during two chaperone meetings” and had “a couple of sips of wine” on a boat trip. “I had two and a half alcoholic beverages in 5 days,” she told KING 5.
Drinking alcohol clearly breaks established rules for Garfield High School field trips, as Burton also did when she “permitted male and female students to be in each other’s rooms before curfew.”
In an interview with KING 5, she elaborated on that choice. “I didn’t explicitly say that but we didn’t enforce it,” Burton said. “So the students got that implication.”
The 32 page report reveals most of the parent chaperones consumed alcohol throughout the trip, and that one parent “had to be assisted by two of her fellow chaperones” back to her hotel room after mixing alcohol with prescription medication.
Investigators also looked into allegations about a male student called “Student 1,” and two female students. “He repeatedly touched their breasts and buttocks in public and also while he was in their rooms prior to curfew,” said the report. The report also reveals more troubling issues, that “Student 1″ had been expelled from another school for a similar reasons including ” inappropriately touching another male student on [another] field trip to New Orleans.”
Even though a Seattle Public Schools employee knew about the expulsion, “she didn’t notify anyone at SPS or GHS,” according to the report, because the student’s ” doctor had assured her that his behavior on the field trip was an isolated incident which would not likely occur again because of the new medication” he was taking. “This young man could have gotten help instead of being expelled out of another school and having another layer of shame added to him,” Burton said.
Burton now waits for the district decision on whether she’ll keep her job. Her supporters believe after 14 years of running the popular choir program, she deserves another chance. “The truth behind that has to carry me. If they decide they don’t want me I’ll face that door,” said Burton.
The district is now conducting another investigation into the employee who decided not to inform the school or the teacher about the male student’s past history. He is no longer at Garfield.
KPLU Photo
MyNorthwest.com reports the following:
“I think I have paid and would be willing to absolutely make amends to repair that damage,” Burton said on my show Thursday night. “I don’t know that with 14 years of pretty darn good service it is worth throwing me out over such indiscretions.”
“I think it’s outrageous that those girls were groped,” Burton said. “I’ve taken 48 overnight field trips in my past 14 years. I’ve taken approximately 2,500 kids overnight, and in every single case boys and girls were allowed to co-mingle in rooms or cabins before curfew.”
“I have never had, with all of those students, a problem with sexual misconduct,” she added, noting the co-mingling in hotel rooms rule is a new one that she neglected to enforce the first few months of its implementation.
Burton also said that the district’s rule is inefficient and doesn’t take into account gay or transgender students. She said that while she wanted to find a way to equally administer the rule, but could not find one. She further said that the district has no interest in addressing the issue.
In her interview, Carol Burton admits she willfully ignored the co-ed rooms rule with a defense we’ve never heard before: that it was inequitably treating LGBT students. She found out about the rule in October 2014, but when asked if she ever complained to the school, she said no. “
DCG