Are Parents Being Bullied at Luther Burbank?

Community members had their opportunity to quiz Luther Burbank Middle School Principal Arturo Valdez on Thursday evening during the regular meeting of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council.

The comments ranged from questions about Valdez's plans to address the academic struggles of some students at the school to concerns about truancy.

One issue that was raised stemmed directly from a comment posted on a recent story on Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch.

In the story, posted on Thursday, April 28, mother Maria Carmen Sanchez said the following when asked why community involvement had lagged at Luther Burbank:

“The reason is that they’ve lost hope,” Sanchez said. “This has been a four-year struggle. At one point we had approximately 100 parents, they were more involved. Over the years, due to the lack of support [from the administration] and that lack of leadership, the numbers have dwindled. Now we feel like we have to convince the parents that this is actually an attainable goal.”

However, commenter 'jesse alverez' said the real reason for the decline in community involvement is that parents felt bullied and alienated by a small group of mothers who were volunteering at the school. Alverez posted the following comment.

The reason we lost interest is because people like Sanchez and nedal bullied us. Attacking us parents who did not beliefe that the teachers were resposible was wrong. They just blame the teachers when they themselves are at fault by not takeing responsibility for their children. And, I as a parent of a student at LBMS will remove my child if these people who claim to care about the community take a leading role in the school. They will destroy it. It will be the gang haven that it was.

Thursday evening, Teresa Bonsell of the HHPNC asked Valdez to address the concerns.

Valdez initially deferred to Luther Burbank administrator Greg Jackson, who was also in attendance at the meeting.

"We want every parent to feel welcome when they walk onto the school grounds," Jackson said "We say to them, 'we need you.' We try to give them volunteer forms so they can say that this is their school. We don't want it to be one special group that is running everything."

After hearing Jackon's response, Bonsell pressed Valdez to provide a more specific plan of action.

"I get that 100 percent," Bonsell said in response to Jackson. "But I have heard, and I have seen, that there are parents who feel bullied because of a certain group."

Valdez said he was not aware of the bullying issue, but would now make an effort to address it.

"We're going to look at that," Valdez said. "I want you to know that it's my responsibility and I'm going to take that comment back and look at that. Because that is alarming to me and I can't have that."

Gemma Marquez, a teacher at Yorkdale Elementary School, said that the divide between parents had been built over several years prior to Valdez taking over at Luther Burbank prior to this school year. 

"The parents became alienated and the relationship became broken," Marquez said.