Dear Tien Shan staff and parents,
I recognize that some people in our school community have received an email from a former employee. I would like to address the allegations against members of our community and help to bring truth and openness to the discussion.
I recognize the hurt that they feel. They did not feel heard or valued. In spite of our effort to reach out to them, we are sorry that we weren't able to have genuine conversations to address their hurt. We are still prayerfully seeking ways to have this conversation.
However, as these allegations have named specific people, I want to communicate the truth behind these.
I would like to specifically address a few points, but if you have more questions on anything you are welcome to come to talk with Christine and Brian (board chairman).
The topic of grooming is always a sensitive one, and there are different definitions. The named teacher's intention in talking about grooming behaviors, was out of a concern that her actions could be perceived by others as grooming, and wanting to ensure that our school training would help other teachers to be able to distinguish between mentoring/discipleship and grooming. As a school we do want there to be a trust relationship between teachers and students. The teacher had been a strong advocate for the formation of a Child Safety Team at our school, and had stressed the need for a school counselor. This was why she was very involved in the formation of the child safety team and part of the discussion of the grooming behaviors and how to clarify what is healthy vs what isn't. The statement about her ongoing personal struggles is false.
We have moved forward to ensure that we have a safe school environment. All of our principals, our HR manager, the chairman of the board, and myself went to Child Safety training this year. We have an updated Child Safety Handbook. In seeking to help our teachers to have a better understanding of how to be professional in their interactions with students, but also seeking to have our teachers be mentors and to disciple our students, we have included a chart into our Teacher Handbook (attached below) to help differentiate between helpful and harmful behaviors.
We do understand that while there were areas that as a school administration we should have handled the situation better last year, we believe that the final outcome was valid. We affirm the teacher to be a safe and valued teacher at our school. Multiple organizations have inquired about this situation in response to the whistle blower, however, they also recognize TSIS to be a safe school and continue to support Tien Shan.
I want to address that they have named a former board member. He recused himself and was not involved in the board proceedings.
Please pray for those involved in this situation and for us as a school, so that we may continue to be a safe community that grows in our ability to work together for our students.