Parents tell North Clackamas board that repeated room clears and poor communication are making schools unsafe

Several parents at the April 9 board meeting urged North Clackamas SD 12 to address what they described as repeated "room clears," poor communication to families and inconsistent implementation of safety protocols at area elementary schools.

"Over the last 8 months, I've tracked 23 room clears, 25 serious incidents across my children's classrooms," Gabrielle Torres told the board, asking how the district could oversee safety if internal reporting is incomplete. Torres said she had received only seven notifications from administration for incidents she believed warranted parent notification.

Other parents echoed the concerns. Emily Moore said her 5-year-old told her, "Mommy, I'm scared," after an incident and criticized a district employee who told her to stop speaking with other parents about those events. "When a 5-year-old calls home and says, 'Mommy, I'm scared,' that is not misinformation," Moore said.

Mark Jelinski described frequent classroom disruption in his granddaughter's kindergarten class and called current room-clear protocols "insane," saying the procedure can remove other students repeatedly while the disruptive student remains in the classroom. He urged that staff be authorized to remove children who threaten others and criticized what he called overly restrictive local implementation of state discipline law.

Parents asked the board to review notification practices and clarify when families will be informed about incidents. Several speakers connected perceived communication problems to staffing decisions; commenters warned that cuts to paraeducator hours and the loss of learning specialists reduce the district’s capacity to manage behavioral crises and to support students in class.

The board heard these concerns during the public comment period; no formal changes to discipline policy or reporting protocols were proposed or adopted at the meeting. Superintendent Dr. James acknowledged resource constraints in his budget presentation and said staff will continue work with the board and budget committee on staffing and program needs over the coming months.