Oxford Hills Superintendent under fire at school board meeting

By James Corrigan

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    PARIS, Maine (WMTW) — First-year Oxford Hills Superintendent Monica Henson received criticism at a school board meeting Monday night for allegedly grabbing an elementary student by two arms in September, along with creating an atmosphere of intimidation and fear.

The alleged incident happened Sept. 9 at Agnes Grey Elementary School, where Henson was filling in as principal for the day. She is alleged to have attempted to pull the student into her office after an incident in the school cafeteria.

The child’s parents, Eric Bennett and Ashley Rowe, did not learn the full details of the incident until reading it in the press last week.

“I am extremely angry,” Rowe told WMTW News 8. “My blood is boiling. I told the board that they should be ashamed of themselves that they had this reported by three different people, and they pushed it under the rug until the media got involved.”

The reaction of the child’s parents contrasts with Dr. Henson’s statement last week defending herself against the list of complaints given to the board against her.

“Notably, the parent did not object to my handling of the incident, communicated with me for the next couple of days, and has filed no complaints with the Board or expressed any further concern since the notification from me,” Dr. Henson wrote.

At an earlier press conference, Agnes Gray employee Brenda Parent, who had been substitute teaching on the day and witnessed the incident, said she wrote a letter to the board detailing what had happened, but it was ignored.

The principal of Agnes Grey Elementary at the time, Beth Clarke, resigned in December after having been placed on administrative leave in September, and wrote a public letter outlining grievances against Henson.

Henson did not address the September incident during Monday’s meeting. She instead outlined the ways in which the school had been failing under Clarke’s leadership, claiming that an assistant administrator had ranked Clarke as the worst principal in the district. Her statements received pushback from current Grey faculty.

“I am beyond frustrated and so overwhelmed that they would even make that claim against her,” said Grey teacher Rebekah Arntsen. “That they would say that she’s the lowest ranking when her staff are behind her 100% and always has been.”

Henson said that Clarke had allowed outstanding bullying incidents to go unchecked, a claim also pushed back on by Arntsen.

“We have had no issues with bullying,” Arntsen said. “And for her to be making those accusations, she has stepped one day in our school one day. That is it. She has not been in our school.”

Henson also claimed that the school did not have a code of conduct in its student handbook. WMTW News 8 received pictures of the school’s code of conduct, which teachers say was given to parents to sign during the first week of school as part of the student handbook.

At an earlier press conference, Grey teacher Karin Puiia alleged that Henson had walked into her and other teachers’ classrooms during class for the purpose of intimidating them.

“We have been living in fear,” Puiia said. “We have been terrified. Terrified for ourselves, for our jobs, and for our students. And my own kids, my kids are our students at our school. And it’s been four months of just fear. We are not ourselves. We love teaching and we love our kids. And we can feel the fire within us being diminished.”

A list of complaints against Henson was given to the board last week by the district’s teacher’s union. A complaint by two teachers to the state Department of Health and Human Services was also lodged last week.

The board did not address the September incident during the public portion of the hearing, but discussed it at length for over two hours during a private “executive session” to evaluate Henson’s job performance.

For Arntsen, inaction from the board could force her to take her own action.

“If there is not any action taken, I’m most likely going to be leaving the school district,” Arntsen said. “I grew up here, my husband grew up here and to know that we are being basically told to shut up and listen is beyond words can describe. I am at a total loss.”

Bennett believes action should be taken against Henson for putting her hands on his son.

“She should be put in jail for hurting a minor,” Bennett said.

Henson declined to comment on camera but told WMTW News 8 that she believes she will be vindicated by the facts of the matter. She also says that she initiated the sending of the school code of conduct after it was initially omitted.

School board chair Natalie Andrews told WMTW News 8 after the meeting that DHHS would handle any formal investigation in the matter. Andrews said she was unaware of the claims by the child’s parents that they were not informed of the details of the incident until last week, and that not all the facts may have been present at the meeting.

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