[DiamondSmiles]

By Sandra Tan | Buffalo News Staff Reporter

November 22, 2013

The Buffalo School District is taking disciplinary action against a veteran elementary teacher from BUILD Academy who sent a note home with all her students last week complaining that several of her prekindergarteners were coming to school wearing dirty clothes and smelling bad.

In a handwritten letter titled “URGENT NOTICE!!!”, pre-K teacher, Sharon D. Perry Dunnigan, asked all parents to address the cleanliness issue, saying, “It is a health and safety concern. It also makes it difficult for me to be close to them or even want to touch them. Enough said.”

School Board members and parents said they are upset and troubled that a teacher would choose to deal with a matter involving a few students in such a broad and shaming manner. The letter was not only sent out to all parents, but also required that it be returned to her with the signatures of parents and their 3 and 4 year old children.

Board members discussed the matter in a closed session during Wednesday’s committee meetings and were unanimous in their agreement that the teacher handled the matter poorly and said she should face more than a minor verbal reprimand.

“I was stunned to see a note that was to all parents when it was not all children in the class that are involved in the situation,” said board member, Mary Ruth Kapsiak, who once supervised elementary teachers at BUILD.

“Everybody on the board was appalled by that, everybody,” said board member, James Sampson. “We’re very concerned about what this communicates to little kids and to families.”

The district had discussed placing a counseling letter in the teacher’s personnel file, indicating that an administrator spoke with the teacher about the inappropriateness of her actions, but some board members and parents said they encouraged the district to take further action, such as requiring the teacher to receive further training and issue parents an apology.

“Sending that letter home to all parents is offensive and almost shows a contempt for the children,” said Samuel Radford, III, president of the District Parent Coordinating Council. “As opposed to judging them, condemning them, make an effort to address the underlying problem. That would be most helpful to the parent, most helpful to the student, and most helpful to the district.”

Parent offers to diffuse the situation by soliciting donations for uniforms worn at BUILD, offering to wash dirty clothes and suggesting hygiene lesson plans were rebuffed by the teacher, said Denise Glenn, the school’s parent facilitator, who met with the teacher last Friday, the day after the letter was sent home.

“She said, ‘What do you want me to do, apologize? I’m not going to apologize because I got my point across,’ ” Glenn recalled.

Dunnigan has taught elementary students in the Buffalo system for nearly 30 years, The Buffalo News determined. She did not return a message seeking comment Thursday afternoon and did not teach at school Thursday or Friday.

While hygiene and child welfare issues like this are regularly confronted and addressed by teachers in the district, they often involve assistance from a school nurse or social worker and/or a personal call home to the parents of the affected children.

“Our schools have the support of social workers, school counselors, nurses and external support services ready to help families and lend aid to teachers,” said Will Keresztes, the district’s chief of student support. “Buffalo teachers regularly and faithfully make use of these resources to assist children and families in our district.”

Superintendent, Pamela Brown, also stated that the district should show respect for all children and families.

In this case, however, parents said they are not only upset and angry at Dunnigan’s unsanctioned approach to the matter but questioned whether the teacher’s letter is indicative of a larger culture of insensitivity and dismissiveness toward parents within some of the district’s more troubled schools.

At BUILD Academy, 20 percent of parents have submitted applications to have their children transferred out of the school, the most requests of any elementary school in the district.

Dunnigan’s actions only exacerbate the matter and will lead to more transfer requests, parents said.

When The News broke this story on its School Zone blog Wednesday, some posted comments defending the teacher and blaming parents who are sending their children to school unclean. Many others said the way the teacher handled the matter was wrong.

“When you read this, how do you feel?” said Bryon McIntyre, vice president of the parents council, who alerted the district to Dunnigan’s letter. “You can’t tell me that if a teacher had written that to a parent in Williamsville, that teacher wouldn’t have been rode out of the district on a rail.”

He added that one child came home with the letter last Thursday and asked her grandmother if she smelled bad.

“A couple of parents wanted to lay hands on her,” McIntyre said. “We’ve been working hard to keep this thing contained and let them know this is not how things are done.”

Aside from a letter in her personnel file and possibly other disciplinary actions, board members and parents said Dunnigan will not be allowed to send home letters to parents that are not first approved by the principal.

[Kelseecat65]

What is offensive is that children are living in conditions where they are perhaps not bathing routinely or it's filthy. NASTY. Nothing wrong with informing the parents, but it should have been done on an individual basis. Still, WTF are parents thinking?
My cats and birds are probably cleaner than some of those children.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Kelseecat65 ↗

What is offensive is that children are living in conditions where they are perhaps not bathing routinely or it's filthy. NASTY. Nothing wrong with informing the parents, but it should have been done on an individual basis. Still, WTF are parents thinking?
My cats and birds are probably cleaner than some of those children.

I'd be embarrassed for the child, if he/she got a letter like that!

[Megamel29]

I mentioned this to my sister today. She's a teacher. She said that she has had some students with some of these issues. But she said she would never use a letter like that and she wouldn't send it out to all of the students.

There will always be some kids whose parents aren't taking care of them very well who will be messy or dirty, etc. But this letter won't get to the root of the problem. If a kid is dirty because they are being neglected, this letter isn't going to help.

[Xfactor]

Parents should be thanking the teacher she didn't take it any further.

[DiamondSmiles]

Originally Posted by Megamel29 ↗

I mentioned this to my sister today. She's a teacher. She said that she has had some students with some of these issues. But she said she would never use a letter like that and she wouldn't send it out to all of the students.

There will always be some kids whose parents aren't taking care of them very well who will be messy or dirty, etc. But this letter won't get to the root of the problem. If a kid is dirty because they are being neglected, this letter isn't going to help.

Chances are, as with most offenders, the people whose children are involved, will ignore it and blame it on everyone else.

[bob351]

Seems odd its written on blank paper with 3 hole punches and hand written.


Regardless, kids should come to school clean, when people are out in public you should present yourself properly.

[Blewvane]

Originally Posted by bob351 ↗

Seems odd its written on blank paper with 3 hole punches and hand written.


Regardless, kids should come to school clean, when people are out in public you should present yourself properly.

I agree with you but some kids have shit for brained parents that do not feel the same way. Thinking back to school days i can think of several kids that turned up each day smelling of stale piss and sour milk, no one wanted to be sitting next to them in class.

[sherrimccharles]

I think it was a good choice to send it to them all. Then maybe then the offending parties would not feel singled out and be more inclined to wash their children.

[sassieroses]

Originally Posted by sherrimccharles ↗

I think it was a good choice to send it to them all. Then maybe then the offending parties would not feel singled out and be more inclined to wash their children.

That's what I was thinking. We all know damn good and well had she singled out one or two children there would have been some kind of backlash about some form of discrimination. Damned if you do, damned if you don't in this situation.