Charlotte school leaders won’t answer question on student safety

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders won’t answer a simple question: are students safe at school?

WBTV posted that questions to members of the CMS board and Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill one afternoon before a board committee meeting at the government center.

Our question was prompted by a string of parents who called WBTV after their child was assaulted on a school bus; three moms of daughters who reported being sexually assaulted and one mother whose son was reportedly beaten on the bus and dropped off bleeding from the mouth.

Each mother said they worried for their children’s safety inside CMS and the safety of other students.

Hill sat stone faced as a reporter asked her whether students are safe at school.

Board member Melissa Easley looked straight ahead and walked to the bathroom when asked the question.

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Lisa Cline, another board member, who was sitting behind the council dais waiting for the committee meeting to start, got up from her chair, said she was too busy to answer the question and walked out of the chamber.

Board member Dee Rankin said that, yes, students are safe but wouldn’t answer a follow-up question about why, then, a student was dropped off a school bus bleeding from the mouth.

“Boundaries,” Rankin responded.

The silence from Hill and board members comes as the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights conducts four separate investigations into CMS for possible violations of Title IX.

Additionally, board members are asking voters to approve a $2 billion bond package.

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