Message from Superintendent Rundle on Confronting the Past, Acknowledging the Present, and Improving in the Future

Dear Mercer Island Community,

Final preparations for the 2025-2026 school year are earnestly underway. While we focus on the year ahead, we will continue to confront the sexual misconduct of a former staff member and use it to improve. Whether personal accounts come from students decades removed from MIHS or current students, I want to assure our students, staff, parents/guardians, and community that we have been and will continue taking each one seriously.

I want to take a moment to direct some comments toward our alumni impacted in different ways by this story or perhaps one that dates back several decades. To the extent you need support or have information you were not ready to share then but are now, please know you can reach out as an MI graduate to anyone in our school district, Mercer Island Police, and Mercer Island Youth and Family Services (MIYFS). It does not matter how long ago you graduated, it could be last year or three decades ago, we want to assist you. Even if the person is no longer teaching or working in schools, we can still act.

Following adversity of any kind, we hear phrases such as this too shall pass, turn the page, and put it in the rearview mirror. For survivors of sexual misconduct, they do not get this opportunity and neither should we. I look at the current situation in three ways: confront the past, acknowledge the present, and improve in the future. When we know better we will do better.  

This week, Erin Battersby (Assistant Superintendent of HR, Legal and Compliance) and I met with Mercer Island Police Chief Michelle Bennett, Commander Jeff Magnan, and three detectives. The purpose of our meeting was to review our practices for reporting issues in our schools, review any new information about current or past staff members, and clarify our lines of communication. We appreciate the support from Chief Bennett and her team.

I also met this week with Chief Bennet and Derek Franklin (MI Youth and Family Services Director) to discuss a group we co-facilitate together- Youth Belong Committee. This committee began following the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. Staff from MIPD, MISF, and MISD meet five to six times each year to address the challenges confronting our youth on Mercer Island. We will be working in conjunction with one another to continue increasing training awareness around sexual misconduct, safety, and healthy relationships for students.   

We cannot change the past but we will not shy away from it either. In this moment, we will address any and all allegations that come forward, analyze our current practices, and make improvements that keep our students safe, equip our staff with the training they need, and instill greater confidence in our district. As I shared with our staff this week, I remain firmly committed to belonging, pushing this message as part of the four B’s since becoming the superintendent. But if there comes a time when the actions of someone do not align with our values and run contradictory to the professional expectations and responsibilities entrusted to us as educators, I will not hesitate to use the tools I have to move that person along. I expect this of myself and believe others expect it as well.  

Reporting Concerns
Something I have heard over the past few years and reiterated recently is a concern by parents and students with adequate ways to report concerns to the district. We talk about our 4 B’s (Belief, Broadcast, Belong, and Barriers) and clearly we need to remove more barriers. If a student or anyone should approach you to make a disclosure, here is a valuable tool from the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KSARC) to assist you- Believe, Affirm, Support, Empower, Refer. 

I want to take a moment to share different ways students, staff, or parents can make reports about concerns for student safety. 

• Say Something Anonymous Reporting App- 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the Say Something call/text center monitors and responds to tips. While Say Something started following the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, tips can be related to any and all concerns. This is NOT only for students; parents, staff, and community members can report as well. Mercer Island School District signed onto the Sandy Hook Promise and has been a member of the Say Something community for many years.
  
  When a student submits a tip, the national center immediately responds. The Say Something staff member engages the tipster to learn as much as possible. Based on the nature of the concern, they begin sending alerts to our administrators. We have an internal protocol for contacting one another to ensure we are following through, notifying police if necessary, and gathering the right staff to intervene either in the moment or at school the next day. We have launched into action on weekends, over the summer, while on vacation during spring break, in the middle of a school day, and late at night. There is not a time when we do not respond.
  
  We need to and will do a better job this year informing our families and communities about this tool, teaching students how to use it, and promoting its utility.

• Mercer Island Youth and Family Services- We are grateful for MIYFS and their steadfast partnership and support in each of our schools. The MIYFS school-based counselors at MIHS have been briefed, equipped with appropriate resources, and are ready to support our students and community now. In addition, all the MIYFS counselors in MISD schools have been prepared with additional information and resources to support any student who comes forward with reports of abuse or trauma. At MIHS, we are currently planning for an additional, female counselor to be on site all or part of the first week of school, and then as needed. MIYFS works to be a trauma-informed organization and our staff practice trauma-informed counseling which aligns with the support needs of this situation.
  
  MIYFS counselors support individual students, staff, parents, and community members, providing targeted information and referrals. They also leverage the capacity of YFS outpatient counseling services which continue to be offered to any Island resident, of any age, on a sliding fee scale. Any resident may seek their support by calling 206-275-7657.

• King County Sexual Assault Resource Center- More frequently referred to as KCSARC, is a place for survivors, families, allies, and educators to seek resources and supports. They also offer a way to make reports of sexual misconduct, abuse, and assault. 

Student Learning Opportunities to Protect Students and Equip Them With Essential Skills
We will be reviewing and looking at ways to provide even more learning for students, but I want to share some of the ways we teach students about sexual assault, misconduct, and other topics to equip them with the knowledge and skills to identify unsafe situations, intervene if needed, report to others, and protect themselves.  

• First and Third Grade Child Protection Units- As part of the Second Step Social and Emotional Learning curriculum, MISD purchased two ancillary units about five years ago to bolster the teaching and learning around safe and unsafe touching. Lessons in the Child Protection Unit help students recognize, report, and refuse unsafe situations. We chose first and third grades because our fifth grade health curriculum also addresses this and we felt waiting until the end of elementary did not serve our students. 
• Summer School Health- Prior to Summer School 2024, students could earn health credit by taking the course as a guided independent study class. A review conducted by teachers and administrators determined the curriculum and experience did not meet the expectations and learning objectives in the health classes taken during the normal school year. Thus, starting in summer 2024, students wanting to earn their health credit have to attend in-person classes and complete the requisite assignments. This ensures students going forward receive all content knowledge, which includes topics related to protections against sexual misconduct by peers or adults.
• Annual Sexual Assault Awareness Assembly- Over the past four years, MIHS has hosted an assembly that reminds and reteaches concepts seniors learned in health class before leaving high school, which include but are not limited to consent, sexual assault, domestic violence, physical violence and stalking. Students also hear from a sexual assault survivor to hear a firsthand account of the impact. This event is supported by MIYS and KCSARC.  
• Middle and High School Health Classes- The core health classes all students take intentionally address sensitive but critical topics around sexual assault, grooming, boundaries, consent and much more. These conversations provide young people with age appropriate knowledge and builds the awareness they need to identify unsafe situations, protect themselves, and seek help if needed. Our teachers’ goal is to equip students with essential life skills that foster both their well-being and long-term safety. The following examples illustrate some of the ways they engage learners: 
  • Healthy relationships lesson focused around identifying abusive relationships and boundary crossing.
  • Guest speakers do a lesson on consent and build skills to recognize when it’s not being given. 
  • Sandy Hook Promise lesson where we encourage truthful use of our See Something Say Something tool. 
  • Olivia Phan (MIPD School Resource Officer) guest speaks on domestic violence as it relates to high school relationships. 
  • Sex trafficking lesson that revolves around identifying grooming tactics and resources for these situations. 

Staff Training and Expectations 
Training about maintaining staff/student boundaries, appropriate conduct, mandatory reporting, and other professional educator expectations continues throughout the time of employment in our school districts. Like our work with students, we will continue evaluating our practices and finding even better ways to hold ourselves accountable. The following are some of the either existing or new practices currently in place. 

• Each newly hired person in the district must go through an FBI fingerprinting background check. Beginning this year, every employee will also be rechecked every five years.
• Prior to the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, we implemented the practice of requiring staff as well as volunteers going on an overnight trip to go through the Washington State Patrol Background Check.
• During the pre-service days leading up to each school year, staff go through a series of reminders about our policies, procedures, and expectations we call, “What Every Staff Member Needs to Know.” Topics covered in these presentations include mandatory reporting and professional boundaries. Our athletic coaches go through the same training before each season.
• Staff participate in a mandatory series of online training on an annual basis called Vector training. We have heard from our staff varying levels of attentiveness to these self-paced videos, which is something times like this illustrate the importance of not just compliance but engagement as well. 
• The high school administrators started planning in July for a more robust training conducted by the local Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Family Services (DCYF). They will be with our staff on Tuesday, August 26 to not only train staff but answer questions they have as well. The plan is to bring them back to our other five schools this fall. 

Professional Implications for Educators Who Violate Professional Practice Standards
Community and staff members have asked some really good questions about what happens when we find evidence of a certificated staff member violating professional standards. In addition to reports we make as mandatory reporters to Child Protective Services (CPS), we file a complaint to the Office of Professional Practice (OPP), a division of the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). Even if someone is no longer using their credential (retired for example) and information comes to light, we still contact OPP. Officials with OPP collect their own information to determine whether the certificate holder’s credential is suspended or revoked.

Additionally, OPP/OSPI belongs to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC). NASDTEC maintains a database of educator disciplines of revocation, suspensions, denial of application, voluntary surrenders, and certain reprimands for all 50 states, District of Columbia, Guam, and the Education Department within the Department of Defense. OSPI reports they are routinely asked to provide a notification of whether a certificate holder is in good standing or not for countries such as Canada and England.

Continuous Improvement
Our commitment to ongoing improvement to keep our students safe will continue. I highlighted some of the ways we have bolstered staff and student training prior to and since we were made aware in December 2023 of our former teacher’s misconduct. In addition to these efforts, we will use experts in our region, community members, and staff to evaluate our systems and practices and make further recommendations. This work was discussed at the August 14 Board meeting and will take shape in the coming weeks.

On Wednesday, 4,000 students will assemble across our six schools, looking to our staff to guide, mentor, teach, lead, counsel, and encourage. Our parents will look to us to provide safe and secure learning environments, rigorous academic experiences, and a year of experiences that lift up their most prized possessions, their children. I am proud to serve as superintendent of our school district and am ready for the year ahead. 

In partnership, 

Dr. Fred Rundle
Superintendent
Mercer Island School District