Providence Schools' Latest Hires Have Checkered Pasts - Including Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Providence Schools' Latest Hires Have Checkered Pasts - Including Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

A number of new hires to Providence schools in recent months have come with checkered histories -- including a staff member who was the subject of a sexual harassment lawsuit in Massachusetts. 

In June, Providence schools announced another new hire - an administrator - who was known in Florida for "popping" students toes as punishment. And, as GoLocal previously reported, new superintendent Harrison Peters had come under fire for the handling of a sexual incident in Florida. 

One of Providence schools' latest additions, Brett Dickens, now a $118,664 career and technical education specialist role at Providence Career and Technical Academy, was sued in 2011 by a student, Jane Doe, who claimed Dickens did nothing to stop harassment by other students against Doe, while Dickens was principal at Stoughton High School. 

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The student said Dickens didn’t protect her rights when she came forth with sexual assault allegations against another student -- who was Dickens' nephew. 

Doe’s lawyer in the lawsuit — prominent sexual assault survivor attorney Carmen Durso --- said a “mutually agreeable resolution was reached" following the suit. 

“There was a court hearing which resulted in a published opinion which is public record information,” said Durso. “It states that the person sexually harassing our client was related to Dickens.”

A study by Johns Hopkins of the Providence Schools released 14 months ago found that the system was one of the worst-performing in the United States. The Wall Street Journal called the Providence schools an "education horror show."

 

About Case

According to the court filing in U.S. District Court in 2013, in 2007, Jane Doe was a 14-year-old freshman attending Stoughton Junior High School. A 17-year-old junior, R.J., solicited nude photographs from Doe. Upon receiving the solicited photographs, R.J. distributed the photographs to friends and classmates through his cell phone and the internet. 

Doe was subjected to sexual harassment from students. Other male students requested further nude photographs from Doe; students called her a “whore.” Both Doe and her mother made faculty and the staff at the high school award of the sexual harassment and were promised that action would be taken to stop the harassment. 

Doe developed an eating disorder, and her academic grades started to decline. The harassment continued, and Doe attempted suicide on several occasions. During a May 2008 meeting mandated by education laws, Doe’s mother learned that R.J. was Dickens’ nephew. 

In August 2008, R.J. was charged with the statutory rape of Doe, and pleaded guilty to assault and battery in September 2009. During this time, R.J. continued to attend Stoughton High School and Dickens took no action to suspend R.J. 

The court allowed defendants Dickens and superintendent Anthony Sarno’s motions to dismiss two counts of the case that pertained to Doe’s statutory rights under Title IX — but denied their motion to dismiss with respect to the count that alleged that the Town of Stoughton was liable for the "negligent acts and omissions of various public employees who failed to take action to protect Doe from instances of sexual harassment."

 

Path to Providence

Dickens resigned from Stoughton in 2010 to take the job of headmaster at a Boston public charter school, the Boston Community Leadership Academy. 

Her last stop also came under recent scrutiny.

“Amidst all the turmoil and angst that has turned the world as we know it upside down, we long for signs of normal life, some sort of consistency that can be counted on,” wrote Michael Jonas for CommonWealth Magazine on May 6.  He continued: 

"Look no further than Boston’s troubled Madison Park Technical Vocational High School, where a global pandemic has done nothing to upset the drumbeat of dysfunction that has seen school leaders come and go at a dizzying pace. Today’s Globe reports that the school will be launching its eighth search for a new headmaster in eight years.

The current school leader, Brett Dickens, is being yanked from her position and the head of the neighboring O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, one of the city’s three exam schools, will temporarily be in charge. The school’s executive director, Kevin McCaskill, is also being pulled and assigned to a job at the school department headquarters.

The moves come after years of tumult at the top at Madison Park, which has seen enrollment numbers sag and has a graduation rate of 68 percent."

"Ms. Dickens was chosen to serve as CTE director after a search process that attracted 19 candidates," said Providence Public Schools spokesperson Laura Hart. "Providence Public Schools conducts background checks and thorough reference checks on all its hires prior to offering employment."

Dickens did not respond to request for comment. 

 

Latest for Providence Schools  

This spring, RIDE touted the hiring of Dr. Olayinka Alege, the new “secondary network superintendent to oversee all middle and high schools” in Providence. 

“He comes to Providence from Hillsborough County Public Schools in Florida, where for the last 15 years he has served in progressively responsible positions, most recently as interim deputy director of leadership development. As a leader of some of Hillsborough’s highest need schools, Dr. Alege oversaw a significant increase in high school student attendance and marked decrease in suspensions."

However, in Florida, he was known for “top-popping” 

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported:

"It wasn't unusual for Tampa's King High School students to be called to assistant principal Olayinka Alege's office when their grades slipped.

But when some boys with lagging scores left his office this spring, they reported a punishment that can only be described as unusual.

Alege squeezed their toes.

Five boys told deputies that King High assistant principal Olayinka Alege asked them on numerous occasions to take off a shoe and sock behind closed doors, and allow him to 'pop'  their toes. They said it didn't hurt, but they didn't like it, either."

Alege did not respond to request for comment. 

GoLocal was first to report in January, "Providence’s New Superintendent Faced Serious Criticism for Handling of Sex Incident in Florida."

"Peters was widely criticized for his 'cover-up' of an incident of a substitute teacher allegedly masturbating in a middle school classroom while teaching. Florida reports are that the teacher was removed, but parents were not notified until a local TV station broke the story months after the incident."

'Harrison has been very candid about this experience. They removed the adult immediately, contacted the authorities, and launched an investigation with law enforcement,' said RIDE in January. 'But he recognizes that the process and communication should have been much better.'"