An Angry Mother's Battle for Information

Dawn Henderson has been trying to get a report on what happened to her daughter Kaitlin in 2003. Kaitlin said she and five others were forced to hold textbooks in their outstretched arms for about 15 minutes. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)

Many parents who complain about information blackouts after they report a problem with a teacher soon give up efforts to learn the truth. Not Dawn Henderson.

The D.C. mother is in the fourth year of a battle to get a full report on what happened to her daughter Kaitlin one day in October 2003 at Hardy Middle School in Northwest Washington. Kaitlin, then in sixth grade, came home from school in tears. She said she and five other students who had not finished a social studies assignment were forced to stand in front of the class, holding their textbooks in outstretched arms for about 15 minutes, until their muscles ached.

Kaitlin, who has a learning disability, had not understood the homework, Henderson said.

Subsequently, a friend who was a teacher told Henderson that making children stand and hold their books in that manner amounted to corporal punishment, illegal in D.C. schools. Henderson said she filed a police report and went to see Hardy Principal Patrick Pope.

Pope, a former D.C. principal of the year, is admired by many parents at the three-story school near busy Wisconsin Avenue and just north of Georgetown.

Henderson asked Pope for a written statement of what had happened to her daughter. According to Henderson, Pope said he would look into it.

Darlene T. Allen of the D.C. Parent Teacher Association said Henderson took the right course. Parents do not have much influence in such situations, Allen said, but if school officials know that parents "are watching, listening and waiting," a resolution is more likely.

Still, Henderson said she got no satisfaction. She said Pope has not given her the report she sought. Henderson has continued her battle online as a blogger, calling herself "AngryMom."

As a rule, school administrators say it is impossible to answer requests for information from every angry parent. Compounding their difficulties is the potential for lawsuits from teachers or parents.

Pope, who had not responded to previous requests for comment, said Friday that school security officials investigated Henderson's complaint but that he was not given their report and Henderson did not ask him for it. The teacher is no longer at the school. A woman who answered the telephone at the teacher's home in Prince George's County said the teacher was unavailable.

-- Jay Mathews