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EDUCATION

'Let's not involve the police just yet'

Marisa Kwiatkowski, and Chelsea Schneider
IndyStar
Clockwise from top left: IPS employees Shalon Dabney, Lela "Tina" Hester, Deb Leser and William Jensen have left the district in the wake of the district's handling of sexual abuse allegations involving a former counselor.

The Indianapolis Public School Board has fired two administrators over their handling of sexual abuse allegations involving a counselor.

The board voted unanimously Thursday to terminate employment contracts for Deb Leser, Indianapolis Public Schools' director of student services, and William Jensen, assistant principal of Positive Supports Academy. The board also accepted the resignations of IPS Human Resources Director Lela “Tina” Hester and Shalon Dabney, a human resources case manager.

Also Thursday, new details emerged about IPS' efforts to quietly handle the allegations against the counselor.

In new emails obtained Thursday, a high-ranking IPS administrator indicated that school police were contacted about the allegations and told to keep the incident quiet.

In a document submitted to the School Board, Jensen said he had reached out to a school police officer on Feb. 17, immediately after learning about allegations of a sexual relationship between a student and then-counselor Shana Taylor. Jensen said he contacted the officer to potentially submit copies of photographs and text messages between Taylor and the student, but he did not give the officer any details.

But Jensen claims that when he asked Hester whether it was OK for him to provide that information to police, she specifically told him not to.

"Let's not involve the police just yet," he said Hester told him.

Instead, Hester directed Jensen to have Taylor come to Dabney's office the next morning, Feb. 18.

That morning, Hester contacted Chief Strategist Le Boler: "I asked that the school police stay out of it so that she is not charged and we can handle from an HR perspective, but I don't know if the mom plans to file charges."

According to an email released Thursday, Boler replied: "Deb Leser called me about this last night. Thank you for the update. I saw Chief (Steven) Garner sent an email to IPS police reminding them of confidentiality this morning. We'll see how this goes..."

Garner could not be reached Thursday evening for comment.

At least seven IPS officials knew about allegations against Taylor as early as Feb. 17, but no one reported them to the Indiana Department of Child Services until Feb. 23 — six days later. Court records indicate officials didn't report the allegations until after they learned that a news outlet was aware of them.

By that time, IPS officials had interviewed Taylor and the student.

After IPS officials confronted Taylor with the sexual abuse allegations against her, Taylor went to the student's home, said Kevin Betz, an attorney for Jensen and Leser, alleging that her intention was to hush the student. IPS also allowed Taylor to keep her school laptop. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department had to retrieve the laptop during its investigation.

Taylor was charged in March with nine felony counts of child seduction, one felony count of dissemination of matter harmful to minors and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She is accused of having sex with two students.

Hester and Dabney, the IPS human resources employees, each were charged with a misdemeanor count of failure to make a report, Marion Superior Court records state. Both agreed to pretrial diversion, meaning they will not be prosecuted as long as they meet certain conditions and don't commit another offense.

No other IPS officials were charged.

Principal Mark Cosand resigned in March, citing personal reasons.

Shortly before the end of the school year, the district notified Hester, Dabney, Jensen and Leser that it was recommending they be fired for their handling of the Taylor case. Hester and Dabney agreed to resign.

But Jensen and Leser fought the district's push to fire them, arguing that they had followed policy and the directives of their supervisors.

Hester suspended Jensen on March 7 for "failure to notify CPS," Jensen said in a document submitted to the School Board. He said Dabney also was in the room. At the time, he reminded Hester of her direction that he not report it to police. Jensen said she admitted it and said she "stays in her lane" of HR issues.

Hester also suspended Leser and recommended both of their terminations.

IPS cited "neglect of duty," "insubordination" and "other just causes" as its legal basis to fire Jensen and Leser, Betz said. The district offered to let them retire.

Leser had been with IPS since 1995. Jensen, who has been in education for 40 years, joined the district in 2001. Neither employee had any prior disciplinary action, Betz said.

During an executive session Monday, Leser told the School Board she thought she was following policy. She said she had about "40 minutes" of involvement in the situation. She told Jensen to call Hester, then she notified two high-level administrators about what happened.

"I don’t know why anybody thinks all of a sudden I would decide to go rogue and not do the appropriate things for kids," Leser said. "It’s not in me to do that."

Since the School Board fired Leser and Jensen, Betz argued it also needs to fire IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee and the other IPS administrators who learned of allegations of misconduct involving Taylor and did not immediately report them to police or DCS. Betz said 12 IPS employees knew.

He said Jensen and Leser may challenge their terminations in court.

Ferebee declined comment after the School Board meeting.

School Board President Mary Ann Sullivan said the incident was not only "tragic, but also was not handled well by far too many people."

"The board and the administration accept our responsibility for any mistakes," she said. "We are doing everything in our power to ensure that this never happens again. The safety and security of our students are the most important obligation we have to our families."

Call IndyStar reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at (317) 444-6135. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyMarisaK.

Call IndyStar reporter Chelsea Schneider at (317) 444-6077. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyStarChelsea.

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