Is a Richland school candidate planning to sue the district?

A Richland School Board candidate says he won’t sue the district over how he or other parents believe they were treated and “disrespected” by school employees.

Semi Bird told the Tri-City Herald he isn’t going to file a lawsuit despite a June email to the school district’s attorney that said he was “in an exploratory phase of filing a class-action lawsuit.”

The email is one of more than a dozen obtained by the Tri-City Herald this week as part of a public records request filed earlier this month. It is the only one where Bird talks about possible legal action.

But as of this week he had not filed a notice with the district to pursue a lawsuit, and he told the Herald in an interview he doesn’t plan to do so.

He said he was acting at that time on behalf of a group of upset parents who came to him after they’d learned about Bird’s concerns about a teacher’s Facebook comments and the way a principal handled them.

Bird later told the Herald that he wasn’t happy with the way his concerns were addressed, but doesn’t believe a lawsuit would solve how the district handled the situation.

Instead, he pulled his daughter out of Richland High before the school year started, and she now attends a private Catholic high school.

It’s only the latest turn in a year of contentious Tri-Cities school board races marked with discussions about COVID, sex education and how race is taught in schools.

Bird, the only Black candidate, has become a lightning rod because of his opposition to teaching social justice curriculum in schools and his criticism for how schools handled COVID-19.

Earlier this year, Bird posted about his views on Facebook after he’d filed for a school board position and it drew comments from a Richland High teacher. Bird described those comments as “not very nice and unkind to me.”

Bird said the comments were harassing enough that he blocked the teacher from posting on his campaign page.

At the time, Bird told the Herald he didn’t know who the commenter was. When he learned that the person was apparently about to be one of his daughter’s teachers for the 2021-22 school year, he became concerned.

Bird said he sent an email to Richland High Principal Tim Praino, asking if the commenter was the teacher. He said he was concerned his daughter could become a victim of the teacher’s disagreement with him.

“I was not upset that he was going to be my daughter’s teacher,” Bird told the Herald. “All I wanted to know was that my baby is going to be OK.”

Bird said he was hoping for reassurances, but the phone call he got back from Praino ended up with him pulling his daughter out of Richland High and sending her to private school rather than to the other high school.

The phone call

Until recently, Bird said he never had any complaints about the Richland School District or his daughter’s education.

He didn’t expect the response he got from Praino, saying the principal came off as being defensive and upset.

When Bird asked Praino if he had done something to upset him, Praino responded by saying, “This is the first thing I’m dealing with this morning,” Bird recalled.

After that response, Bird felt he needed to take his concerns to the superintendent’s office. He felt Praino was going to defend the teacher rather than respond to his worries.

Bird said he met with Superintendent Shelley Redinger, who was responsive, but he was still worried about how his daughter might be treated.

“If the conversation with Mr. Praino had gone differently .... Hannah would be in Richland High School,” Bird told the Herald.

Praino didn’t respond to Herald questions about the issue.

Bird’s email prompted an investigation of Praino’s actions by the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Tony Howard, and he asked Galt Pettett, the district’s attorney, for a Civil Rights investigation.

The results of those investigations were not revealed as part of the release of documents. Though Bird’s reaction to the investigation was included.

However, Praino apparently remembers the exchange differently, resulting in a “he said, he said” scenario, show the documents.

Exploratory email

After having those conversations, Bird talked with other parents who also expressed concerns and talked about filing a lawsuit. He told the Herald he had urged them to be calm, and he wanted to see how they handled his case.

It was in response to those conversations that he wrote to school district’s attorney.

In the email, Bird says he was writing as a parent, but disclosed he was a candidate for the school board, and it was relevant to his concerns.

“I am in an exploratory phase of filing a class action lawsuit against the RSD regarding practices of enabling, emboldening and ignoring behaviors which may be deemed inappropriate and in violation of RSD’s code of ethics and social media guidelines,” Bird wrote. “I am not currently represented by council so that I may continue to engage directly with the RSD.”

At that point, Bird had already moved his daughter from public to private school because he said he didn’t believe the district was a safe place for his child because of the teacher’s actions, and “the apathetic and disrespectful behaviors of the RSD’s leadership.”

In the letter to Pettett, he asked what the district’s attitude was regarding behaviors that “target, harass or besmirch” candidates and parents.

“Based on my own experience, the RSD leadership avoids and ignores such concerns,” he wrote. “They referred me back to the principal who defended the teacher’s behaviors and disrespected me in the process. This is like referring an employee’s sexual harassment allegation against a supervisor back to the supervisor to discharge.”

He asked how many allegations of ethics violations had been submitted and how many complaints about administrators had been filed.

Investigations

“I also understand the school district will ‘protect its own’ in these situation based on my observations of how the school district is current run,” Bird wrote in an Aug. 16 email.

“That being said, and based on my aforementioned statement alluding no confidence in the school district’s leadership team, I see little reason to expect anything different from the superintendent, or her board of directors who are currently serving.”

He also didn’t believe the district would respond to the teacher’s behavior, and he considered that case closed as well.

“I can only hope that there will come a day when leadership accountability will find its way into our Richland School system,” Bird finished the letter.

However, he was complimentary of others, thanking both Pettett and Administrative Assistant Nancy Mayer for their help.

This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 1:47 PM.