‘They both deserve an F’: Ursula rips Edmonds district for principal’s new contract after abuse warnings

An Edmonds School District principal, accused of failing to act on years of warnings about a teacher’s behavior with students, will keep a $200,000-a-year job with the district after a school board unanimously approved a new one-year contract, The Everett Herald reported.

Former Meadowdale Elementary Principal Dan Davis stepped down after parents demanded he be removed over the district’s handling of a teacher, who had been the focus of repeated concerns before a student accused him of rape. Prosecutors declined to charge the teacher, claiming they lacked enough admissible evidence.

Co-hosts Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin discussed the decision on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, with both calling it a failure to protect students and a way to shield the principal.

“A principal’s number one job is to keep students safe,” Ursula said. “If that record shows that he failed to act on repeated warnings involving the safety of kids, then fire his you-know-what. Let him challenge it in court. The district’s first responsibility is not protecting his paycheck; it’s protecting kids. If your assignment is protecting kids, they both deserve an F. This is outrageous.”

Davis is not returning to Meadowdale. Instead, the district moved him into a “principal on special assignment” role working on certain projects. District officials said state law gives veteran principals, defined as those with three or more years of experience, job protections that make firing or demoting them very difficult.

Gee says the system is too good at protecting the wrong people

Gee said the story fits a pattern he has raised repeatedly on the show, involving systems designed to prevent mistreatment of employees that have become so rigid they prevent accountability.

“Is it possible that we have created systems that are so good at preventing mistreatment of their employees that it actually protects them from having to be accountable?” Gee said. “How many times have we talked about this before, where there has been a situation where, ‘Hey, wait a minute, that teacher knew about this. How come that teacher wasn’t let go?’ When do we actually protect the kids?”

Gee noted that removing someone from a position often just means moving them somewhere else.

“Sometimes you do a story, and you say, ‘This person has been removed from their position.’ And then you come and see that they got removed, but they still got a job. All they did was just move them somewhere else,” Gee said.

Parents at the Aug. 18 school board meeting demanded that Superintendent Rebecca Miner step down over the district’s handling of the case. The teacher had been the subject of warnings for years before the rape allegation, and the district had at one point prepared to reassign him to Meadowdale High School even while police were still investigating.

Both hosts compare it to Seattle’s police chief situation

Gee drew a direct parallel to a recent Seattle controversy.

“Reminds me of the last police chief before Chief Barnes,” Gee said. “Remember, he was on assignment, same thing.”

“Exactly, special assignment,” Ursula replied. “It’s a CYA thing.”

Ursula said the district is not focused enough on the students it is supposed to serve.

“They’re too worried about litigation,” Ursula said. “You know what? Let it go to court.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.