“We agree a code of conduct with teeth gets to be the tricky part,” said school board president Rob Fowler.

The issue arose after Michigan Messenger reported on a case of drunk shaming which occurred in June of 2007. A police report from the incident indicates that several teachers from the Haslett schools got together for an end of the year party. After consumption of alcohol and marijuana, one of the teachers passed out, and other teachers wrote obscene messages and pictures on her body.

The school was informed of the incident at the time by three of the teachers involved but took no disciplinary action against any of them. Administration officials say their hands are tied by the state’s Teacher Tenure Act, and because the incident occurred off school property and was not a school district related function.

But legal expert and district parent Frank Ravitch told Michigan Messenger has other options in terms of taking action against those teachers involved, without risking triggering the Teacher Tenure Act.

Administration officials continued to maintain Monday night they were unable to act, but Mike Duda, the superintendent of the district, said the district could use contracts associated with non-classroom related activities for partial action. Coaches and club advisers are paid an extra stipend in addition to their annual salaries as teachers and administrators. Those contracts could be denied to staff who violated the code of conduct — and such action could be done outside the confines of the collective bargaining agreement.

One teacher involved in the incident has already resigned a coaching position in the district as a result of the incident.

Board member Lorie Barbieri presented a document upon which she wanted to see a new code of conduct policy drafted. The document, which she said was written by an attorney friend of hers, reads:

All personnel associated with Haslett School District are expected to comply with and conform to state, federal and local laws, both in letter and in spirit. They must maintain the highest standards of maturity, integrity, honesty, and impartiality in both personal and professional matters, thereby serving as role models for our students.

All personnel are expected to uphold their obligation to create a respectful, safe, caring and orderly learning environment. Appropriate behavior is to be modeled, as well as taught, inside and outside the classroom. Staff members in education are especially subject to public censure for unsatisfactory conduct; therefore, they are to present themselves as upstanding examples and be positive reflections on the Haslett School community. The behavior and conduct of all personnel must contribute to, not detract from, the reputation and standards of excellence of the Haslett School District.

In addition the code of conduct issue, board members discussed the need for the development of an Employee Assistance Program. EAP’s are programs which allow employers to intervene with employees who are struggling with substance abuse or other mental health issues.

“There is no doubt in my mind that none of this would have happened if there had not been alcohol or drugs,” said board member Don Frank.

Constitutional law professor Frank Ravitch said in a recent interview that while district officials are correct to assert that the Teacher Tenure Act and collective bargaining agreement language would prevent the district from firing those involved, there are other options available between the two extremes of termination and doing nothing.

“There are levels of discipline above nothing and short of termination, and there are incidents around the country where school boards have been able to discipline people for off-campus conduct that really casts questions about the individual’s ability to be role models and so forth,” Ravitch said. “I think there are questions about alcohol and drug counseling, sensitivity training, those sorts of things. Requiring that people go to those sorts of things would not violate the tenure act.”

Ravitch, who said that overall he is very happy with the school district and reports glowingly on its academics, said he was pleased that the board on Oct. 26 moved to address policies to make sure “this never happens again.”

Mike Duda, superintendent of the Haslett Schools has declined to comment. But in a statement read to the public at the meeting last month, the former MSU football player said:

No criminal charges have been brought against anyone involved in this incident. In our legal system, it is “innocent until proven guilty,” and if a crime has been committed, it is for law enforcement agencies to decide.

At this point, the district has no legal recourse to take action toward any staff member who allegedly attended that private party held on private property. If criminal wrongdoing by anyone involved is found, we will not hesitate to take disciplinary action.

Ravitch says Michigan law does allow for action to be taken without criminal prosecution. He points to the Michigan School Code, Revised, which defines unprofessional conduct as “1 or more acts of misconduct; 1 or more acts of immorality, moral turpitude, or inappropriate behavior involving a minor; or commission of a crime involving a minor. A criminal conviction is not an essential element of determining whether or not a particular act constitutes unprofessional conduct.”

Under that law, school districts are required to document unprofessional conduct and present it to other districts if an employee seeks employment in another district. This law is specifically referenced in the collective bargaining agreement between Haslett Public Schools and Haslett Education Association.

In addition, the Michigan Education Association, of which Haslett Education Association is a part, has a strict code of conduct for educators. That code is adopted as part of membership in the National Education Association.

“This would appear to give the board the grounds to do something going forward,” Ravitch said. “There certainly appears there is, or could be, a violation of [rules of professional conduct].”

Michigan Messenger sought response regarding this law from the Haslett attorneys from Thrune Law Firm, but they did not return calls. Messenger also sought comment from Duda, who declined to comment on the law and its application to this situation.

Ravitch also responded to public statements by Duda which seemed to paint coverage of the situation as an attempt to “besmirch” the reputation of Haslett.

In his board statement, Duda said:

We have more than 300 dedicated staff members in the Haslett School District, a wonderful Board of Education, an enthusiastic Foundation for Haslett Schools, great students, parents, and volunteers. They make up a caring community of which I am immensely proud to be a member.

To try to destroy the excellent reputation earned by our entire school district and brand this district as intolerant, uncaring and insensitive because of the thoughtless actions of a few, is unfair and unacceptable.

Calling it a “teaching moment,” Ravitch said the conversation that has resulted in the district has been healthy.

“What I think is very good, now the community has come together to discuss the sort of issue that doesn’t come up very often. That is the treatment of fellow human beings,” Ravitch said. “This is a very good school district, and I think attention needs to be called to that. I don’t think you can say we’re 99 percent good so we don’t have to deal with the one percent that is bad.”

Members of the Haslett Board of Education met on Monday evening. (Photo by Ed Brayton/Michigan Messenger)

MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP — The room where the Haslett Board of Education meets has 116 seats, the majority of which sit empty during most of their bimonthly meetings. But Monday night was no ordinary school board meeting — it was the first meeting after revelations of drunk shaming, drug use and alleged sexual assault by a group of teachers divided this upscale mid-Michigan community near East Lansing.

On the right side of the room, next to where board members sit, is a large two-part poster titled “Character counts in Haslett.” The poster says, among other virtues, “We teach responsibility” and “We respect ourselves and others.” Students, the second part of the poster says, must “demonstrate the ability to make wise choices regarding personal health, safety and happiness.”

Monday night it was standing-room only as residents packed the room, many of them hoping to speak their minds to the board about the drunk shaming incident after Superintendent Mike Duda gave a short speech addressing the incident that has caused so much controversy over the last few weeks since Michigan Messenger first reported on the situation.

Duda began by making a statement similar to the one he released publicly on the school’s website on Oct. 13, saying that he is “angry and upset about what happened two years ago” and calling the incident “offensive behavior by people we trust to have better judgment than what they displayed that evening at that party.”

Duda reiterated the school’s position that it was told by legal counsel that it had “no legal standing to take action against the staff members who attended a private party on private property” and signaled that the administration considers any investigation of the teachers involved in the incident to be off the table at this point:

At this point, the district has no legal recourse to take action toward any staff member who allegedly attended that private party held on private property. If criminal wrongdoing by anyone involved is found, we will not hesitate to take disciplinary action.

After Duda spoke, Board President Rob Fowler then began calling up those in the audience who had requested an opportunity to speak.

One of the first to do so was Frank Ravitch, a professor at the Michigan State University School of Law who has children in Haslett schools and who has served as legal counsel to school boards in other states. Ravitch disagreed with Duda and said the school had other options short of firing the teachers involved.

In an interview with Michigan Messenger after the meeting, Ravitch said: “I think given the collective bargaining agreement, termination would be out of the question and inappropriate here, but there are others ways to discipline potentially. There are possibilities for discipline less than termination, including putting a letter in their file. The most important thing is counseling — alcohol counseling, drug counseling and I think also sensitivity counseling. That’s something that, when I represented school boards, we recommended quite a bit.”

The personnel files of the teachers involved, which Michigan Messenger obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show no discipline of any type was handed out, despite the fact that three of the teachers involved — Brian Town and Tim Beebe and the victim, Veronica Piechotte — had all gone to school administrators within days of the incident and told them what had happened at the party. There were no letters in the file referring to the incident and no counseling sessions required of anyone involved.

The opinions expressed by community members at the meeting were mixed. Several former students stood up to speak on behalf of the teachers who participated in the drunk shaming. Andrew Izzo called Town an “amazing person who has made a large impact on my life and the lives of my friends.” Erin Johnson said of Town: “He touches everyone he meets in some way.”

One mother named Carol said that the lack of any consequences for the teachers involved in this incident was troubling, saying the school has “one set of standards for the students and what appears to the students to be another set of standards for the teachers and staff.”

“I’ve lost the trust that I had in this school system with my child,” the mother said, “and I think many other parents have lost that sense of trust. Any professional occupation has a code of ethics or character with consequences when that code is breached. And what I can’t find here is the professionalism, the ethics, the code of character to ask people to be responsible for their actions.”

Scott Ray, another Haslett parent, responded to those who defended the teachers as good people, agreeing with them but arguing that it wasn’t really relevant to the situation at hand. “I know that some of these teachers are good people,” Ray said, “but if consequences only apply to bad people who do bad things then our courts would be a lot more clear and we wouldn’t have half the people in jail. We all make mistakes, but you have to pay for mistakes, especially repeated mistakes. Someone justified their actions by saying heck, we’ve all been drunk to the point of passing out and been written on. I think that speaks to a pattern that is very disturbing.”

Charles Rice, who also has children in Haslett schools, told the board that he was “disappointed, angry and confused about the whole issue.” And while due process was important, he said, “protecting our students should supercede protecting our teachers.”

The audience was respectful and there was applause after many of the statements. The only tense moment was when Steve Lampman, a father with three kids in Haslett schools, said that while he has “an expectation that teachers are role models for my children and that they recognize that responsibility,” the school had been “dragged into this as a result of one person’s attempt at extortion.” That comment got some applause along with a fair amount of muttering and gasping by those in attendance.

After the public comments were over, the board proceeded to other business, hearing from the school’s finance director about impending budget cuts, but they returned to the drunk shaming incident again shortly. Fowler, the board president, told the audience: “We lack actual facts. We have no more facts today than we had two weeks ago or two years ago.”

After the meeting in a brief interview with Michigan Messenger, Fowler said that while it’s true that the school now has the police report, all of the names were blacked out so they don’t know who did what. He retrieved their copy of the police report to confirm that. In the copy of the police report obtained by Michigan Messenger from the victim in this case, none of the names are redacted and the statements of each participant are attributed directly to them.

Because of the lack of specifics in their copy of the police report, Fowler said, school officials were focused on moving forward and preventing similar incidents from happening again rather than on handing out any discipline. “We’re going to ask Kristin Beltzer, who chairs our Policy and Personnel Committee, to do a comprehensive review of our policies,” Fowler said, “to take a look at our code of conduct and some of the other issues mentioned here tonight and ask the question, ‘What can we do when people we expect to be role models, to represent our district, what policies and procedures are in place that allow us to react to public bad behavior while still offering due process to those who are involved?’ The Policy and Personnel committee will take that up.”

He also said that the scheduled Nov. 9 school board meeting would be a “working session,” which he defined as “basically an opportunity for us in a much less formal environment to have a conversation about going forward.” That meeting is also open to the public, he made clear, and invited those with ideas to return and speak their mind again.

“We were already involved and watching,” said Harold Core, spokesman for the department. Core said the department became aware of the situation about two weeks ago when it received an informal complaint.

Earlier this week, Michigan Messenger reported on the June 2007 party among Haslett teachers, which was investigated by the Meridian Township Police Department. That investigation turned up allegations of marijuana use by staff members, an alleged sexual assault and drunk shaming, an activity involving writing and drawing on people who have passed out due to intoxication.

Core said the department was monitoring the situation to determine what actions may be necessary. He said those actions could range from a formal investigation to the department producing trainings for the district.

“We have a number of tools in our toolbox,” Core said. “We don’t know what tools we would have to use yet.”

Police sought several criminal warrants for teachers involved in the 2007 incident, including felony sex charges and drug distribution charges. The requests were reviewed by two county prosecutors. Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said he was willing to file battery charges in the case but had to recuse himself because he knew one of the witnesses. The case was then forwarded to Clinton County Prosecutor Charles Sherman by the attorney general’s office. Sherman declined to file charges, saying he had a hard time justifying filing charges nearly 18 months after the incident occurred.

Core said the attorney general’s office should review the decision of prosecutors “to make sure justice” has been served. He added that the attorney general’s criminal division could file criminal charges in the case, even though Dunnings and Sherman had not.

The involvement of the MDCR was called for by a group of parents on Tuesday who created an online petition that said:

WE, the undersigned, condemn the attacks on Haslett Public school teacher Veronica Piechotte at hands of her fellow teachers, and the subsequent lack of consequences.

WE, the undersigned, condemn Superintendent Mike Duda’s “joke” at a staff meeting of the Haslett Public Schools: “If you want this in another language, move to a country that speaks it.”

WE, the undersigned believe an investigation into the administrators, climate and policies of Haslett Public Schools system is warranted.

WE ask the state of Michigan and the Michigan Civil Rights Commission to protect the rights of the students and staff of Haslett Public Schools according to law.

This week, school district officials also turned to the Internet to address concerns and inform the public.

Superintendent Mike Duda posted a note on the school’s website and sent a letter via e-mail to district families.

From the blog post:

The administration of Haslett Public Schools began hearing rumors about the June 8, 2007 incident shortly after it took place. We immediately consulted with our legal counsel to determine what course of action should be taken.

–This incident occurred after the end of the school year, at a private party, on private property. Our attorney advised the district that we had no legal standing to take action against the staff members involved in the incident.

–Haslett Public Schools was also advised not to investigate the off-campus, after-hours conduct of a mixed group of male and female staff members while there was an open investigation by the Meridian Township Police.

At that time, the district offered full cooperation to the Meridian Township Police and the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office. In addition, it is our understanding that two other county prosecutors reviewed the case and found no cause to bring criminal charges.

–During the investigation, the school district filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Meridian Township Police and the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office. The requests were denied. Furthermore, the prosecutor instructed us not to compromise his investigation by conducting one of our own.

–Legal counsel will continue to advise us on our next steps. It’s important to rely on facts – not rumors – where careers and reputations may be at stake.

–Let me express my personal feelings about this incident. It is deplorable and an embarrassment to the Haslett Public Schools and to our profession.

–At this point, the district has no legal recourse to take against any staff member who allegedly attended that private party held on private property. If criminal wrongdoing by anyone involved is found, we will not hesitate to take disciplinary action.

As Superintendent of Haslett Public Schools, I’m committed to maintaining a safe teaching and learning environment of the highest quality.

Duda’s letter echoed these same sentiments.

In addition to Duda’s response, Haslett Middle School Principal Andy Pridgeon sent an e-mail to staff titled “Professional Conversations.” In the letter, Pridgeon tells staff they have a responsibility to “protect” students and instructs them to tell students who ask about this situation that “[w]e are not talking about that topic at this time and if you have any questions, you need to talk with your parents about this.”

Editor’s Note: Michigan Messenger’s previous coverage of this incident led to many inappropriate comments being posted that had to be removed. We remind our readers to please keep in mind this passage from the site’s comment policy:

Keep discussions respectful: There are many different viewpoints represented both by the reporters and our audience. Different viewpoints and opinions are welcome, but personal attacks are not. Personal attacks on the writers, other commenters, or other attacks will not be tolerated, and those posts will be deleted with no notice.

We will not approve any comment that constitutes a personal attack on anyone in this situation, including the victim, the alleged perpetrators, the author of the article or your fellow commenters. Most importantly, we will not allow any comment that makes unsubstantiated allegations of illegal conduct. We encourage you to discuss relevant subjects in relation to our reporting, but that discussion must be undertaken in a civil manner that avoids defamation.

Two Haslett teachers "drunk shame" a fellow teacher at the end of the 2007 school year. (Photo courtesy Veronica Piechotte)

MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP — A police report that details an evening of troubling incidents among a group of Haslett Public Schools teachers involving drug use and “drunk shaming” is prompting questions about the teachers’ behavior and institutional accountability in this suburban community near East Lansing.

The police report addresses a number of incidents that took place at an end-of-year party hosted in 2007 by a Haslett teacher and attended by several other teachers from the district. The police report was provided to Michigan Messenger by one of those teachers, Veronica Piechotte, who says she was victimized by her colleagues that evening and that neither the Haslett school administration nor the legal system had acted on her complaints until Michigan Messenger began its inquiry.

According to the account Piechotte gave police the day after the incident, on the last day of school in 2007, Piechotte and five other Haslett school teachers, Lauri Etheridge, Timothy Beebe, Brian Town, Daniel McKinney and Heather Woodworth, joined their colleagues at an East Lansing bar to celebrate the beginning of summer vacation. As the party moved from the bar to McKinney’s house, things took a turn for the worse. The people involved dispute some of what happened during the evening, but each of them spoke with police at the time, providing a contemporaneous, first-hand account.

‘Degraded, defiled, lifeless’

According to the police report, Etheridge, Town, Piechotte and Woodworth stopped at Town’s home on the way to McKinney’s house, which is a short distance from the school. There, according to the report, they decided to smoke marijuana and Town produced and provided the drug for the three women, who went to the garage to smoke it. The teachers then continued on to McKinney’s house.

Later that night, after more alcohol consumption by all involved, Piechotte crawled between a coffee table and a sofa in McKinney’s living room. There she passed out.

According to the report, Town and Beebe decided it would be “funny” to draw on Piechotte’s unconscious body. The two proceeded to draw penises on her legs, glasses on her face, write the word “balls” backwards on her forehead and write their names on her stomach. Much of the writing was sexual and crude. Lauri Etheridge watched the men draw on Piechotte, while McKinney and his wife and staff member Phil Rutkowski were outside by the bonfire. After the drawing was done, one of the participants went outside and told the others that they should come inside to see what they had done. McKinney then took pictures with his digital camera, and at least one person took pictures with a cell phone. (Editor’s Note: Some readers may consider the photos taken during the drunk shaming to be graphic.)

Beebe and Town told the police that they had each written references to the other on Piechotte’s body, Town writing “Beebe was here” and Beebe writing “I love Brian Town” on her midsection. Beebe says he did not recall writing any obscene symbols, but his recollection was not clear.

What the two men had done, with the other teachers watching, was called “drunk shaming,” or humiliating people after they pass out from intoxication.

Beebe, Town and others told police the markings were not done maliciously but as a joke, or as Town said, because they “love her.” Beebe said he had done similar things to others, including Town.

Piechotte has other words for how the drawings made her feel: “degraded, defiled, lifeless, treated like an object, treated like, frankly, a bathroom stall.”

“I have never been so humiliated in my whole …” her voice trailed off during a recent interview with Michigan Messenger. “You ask me to explain it, and I don’t have the words.”

Piechotte said she understands that she made inappropriate choices that night. She said she drank too much and smoked marijuana, but she said that didn’t give her co-workers permission to write on her body.

“The humiliation that goes with people writing horrendous things on intimate parts of my body,” said Piechotte, who is openly lesbian. “I mean we’re talking one inch from my vagina. We’re talking names on my stomach like they were signing some graffiti on some property they had claimed. There is nothing more humiliating.”

Piechotte said she is going public because she wants her experience to prevent others from having to go through her trauma by bringing awareness to the practice, which has been documented in countless YouTube videos and photos that have become popular online.

“You just don’t treat another human being like that,” she said.

Piechotte also alleges that she was given a date rape drug and sexually assaulted in a bathroom before she passed out. The other person involved admits to sexual activity but claims it was consensual and denies providing Piechotte any date rape drugs. The prosecutor did not file any charges on these claims, finding that the evidence and testimony were insufficient.

No police charges over drunk-shaming

Piechotte went to the police the day following the incident.

When asked about the drunk shaming during an interview with police, Town admitted to providing the marijuana but told the officer he did not have it anymore. The officer told Town he did not believe him, and according to the report, Town subsequently went back to his home and returned to the Meridian Township Police Department with 1.25 grams of marijuana and a pipe.

When Meridian Township police officials concluded their investigation, they submitted their report to Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III, seeking among other charges, charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and possession with intent to distribute marijuana without financial remuneration against Town.

Dunnings, however, said he felt he was unable to issue a charge on the alleged sexual assault, explaining to Piechotte that he could support seeking battery charges against the alleged assailant. Piechotte was not satisfied with this determination, and Dunnings had another, unnamed female county prosecutor review the file. She agreed with Dunnings’ assessment. Shortly thereafter, Dunnings became aware that he had a minor business relationship with one of the witnesses in the case and disclosed this to Piechotte’s attorney. Piechotte asked Dunnings to recuse himself, which he did. The case was referred to the state attorney general’s office, which sent it to Clinton County Prosecutor Charles Sherman, who chose not to file any charges at all.

In an interview with Michigan Messenger, Sherman said what happened to Piechotte was not acceptable. But he felt he could not bring criminal charges for a number of reasons, including the length of time that had lapsed between the incident and when he reviewed the case.

“It’s a judgment call that has to be made between what’s considered a practical joke and what the criminal justice system should get involved in,” Sherman said. “[Prosecuting] is like coming in with a hammer. That’s my remedy. That’s the only remedy I have. I can’t send you to your room and say no video games for three weeks.”

Sherman also said he did not file the marijuana charges against Town because he viewed that incident — specifically the allegation that Town had delivered the drugs to the police himself days after the incident — as a separate issue that was outside the bounds of what he had been asked to look at by the attorney general’s office.

Dunnings said that he had to recuse himself from the case before he had made a final determination on whether to issue warrants. He said he was very reluctant to pursue the marijuana charges because he would have to charge not only Town, but Woodward, Etheridge and Piechotte for possession. Dunnings said he felt Piechotte was traumatized enough as it was without charging her with a crime.

“You see the quandary?” Dunnings said. “You try to do something to bring justice, but what would the justice have been in charging her, too?”

Dunnings said the marijuana charges were part of the referral to Sherman. In regard to Sherman’s claim that he saw the drug charges as outside of his scope, Dunnings disagreed, noting that the knowledge of the marijuana possession and use came to light as a result of the investigation into the drunk-shaming incident.

Dunnings is unable to prosecute anything connected to the case now that he has recused himself from the case. He called the drunk-shaming incident unacceptable.

“I think it is absurd that adults, [in] college or not, would engage in this,” Dunnings said. “It’s repugnant. I don’t see how anyone can find pleasure in doing this.”

Drunk-shaming common but legally ambiguous

Shari Murgittroyd, program coordinator for Michigan State University’s sexual assault program, said the issue of drunk shaming is nothing new. She said she has heard stories for 20 years of situations where people who had passed out were drawn upon, but that the stories have changed dramatically in recent years.

“The phenomenon that I have seen in the last two years, more and more women are experiencing the drunk-shaming after passing out or becoming unconscious or blacking out or whatever with alcohol and having pictures drawn on them and vulgar language of a sexual content,” she said.

“I think that this is a whole other level of sexual harassment and sexual assault that’s disturbing,” Murgittroyd said. “It’s just another form of humiliation, you know, someone taking power and control over some one in a degrading way to humiliate them. I don’t see it as funny or a joke. … [W]hen you start removing clothing and drawing on parts of the body that are very private, if you are touching those parts of the body and somebody is not giving you consent to do that, that is sexual assault. That is criminal sexual conduct in the state of Michigan.”

She acknowledges prosecutions in drunk-shaming can be difficult.

“This is up and coming. I think law enforcement and prosecutors are just having more of these reports coming forward and learning how to investigate them,” she said. “And I think they are going to see more and more people coming forward trying to make reports and press charges, because it is of a criminal nature. But I think that because of our culture, and the way that it is seen as joking and in fun, that it is going to be difficult to prosecute those cases, to get jurors to buy in that someone is really victimized.”

She said that in order to address this situation, it may be time for legislators to create a new law, although she hopes law enforcement will use laws already available to them.

Haslett schools took little action

While criminal charges were never filed in this case, Haslett school officials — according to police records, emails and other documents provided by Piechotte and an interview with Superintendent Mike Duda — were aware of the incident and took little if any action in response to it until Michigan Messenger started examining the case.

The police reports show that Beebe, Town and Piechotte each made contact with different administrators of the high school following the incident. The reports record that Beebe informed Assistant Principal Darin Ferguson “that Beebe drew a soccer ball and some other innocuous things on Piechotte’s body …”

The report also indicates that Piechotte had informed another assistant principal, Lynne Bartley, who has since retired. The investigator was told as well by principal Bart Wegenke that he was aware of the incident.

As a result of the trauma she claims to have suffered because of the incident, Piechotte was on a leave for part of 2007. The district tried to separate her from her employment because her medical leave had expired. She declined because felt she was not being offered a fair separation agreement. She returned to the classroom to teach at Haslett’s alternative high school and this year was assigned to the middle school. During negotiations over her future with Haslett Public Schools, Piechotte showed Duda the pictures of the drawings on her body from the night the drunk shaming took place.

Duda, in an interview with Michigan Messenger, said the district had attempted to gain access to the police report from both Meridian Township Police Department and Dunnings, but had been unable to do so. Duda said he had not been provided with any police reports about any of the incidents.

A document in the police report mandated by state law was faxed to Duda on June 28, 2007. That document informs the district of an alleged crime within 1,000 feet of school property. In this case it was the marijuana use at Town’s home that was being reported. The document informs Duda that Woodward, Piechotte, Town and Etheridge were alleged to have been in “illegal possession of a controlled substance, or a control substance analogue, or other intoxicant.”

In addition the document noting the incident had been reported to Duda, there is a hand-written note that reads “901 [Chief David Hall] showed the form to Mr. Duda and discussed it with same.” The note was signed by Meridian Township Police Department Sgt. Greg Frenger.

Duda says he was out of town when the document would have been sent to the district, and that he had no conversation with Hall about the incident. Hall confirmed that it was possible that a conversation did not happen, and noted that the mandated reports are often misplaced by school officials in Meridian Township.

Piechotte said that no investigation ever took place and she was never questioned, nor is she aware of any disciplinary action taken toward any of the other teachers.

As a result of Michigan Messenger’s inquiry, Duda said the district’s law firm was reviewing the police incident reports with an eye on what, if anything, the district can do in relation to the incident. He termed the review an investigation.

In addition to the investigation, Duda said the school district would be bringing in outside consultants to develop a conversation about diversity. The news of the drunk shaming comes following separate allegations of ethnic insensitivity on the part of Duda.

The personnel files of the teachers involved in the drunk shaming incident reveal nothing to indicate that the school district took responsive actions, including any records of counseling sessions to discuss inappropriate behavior, letters of reprimand, nor evidence of an investigation or questioning by the administration.

It is that apparent lack of action that most bothers Piechotte. “While I am dismayed that both my employer and Michigan’s legal system have failed to recognize the brutality of this incident by not taking any tangible action,” she said. “It underscores the need to have meaningful dialogue about the underlying issues that enable a culture of bias and violence to exist, so that others will not suffer as I have.”

Comments were sought from Woodworth, Town, Beebe and Etheridge, but none responded before press time. The Haslett Education Association has advised the teachers not to make any public statements.

PHOTOS: What follows is a photo slideshow of the incident, some taken by participants during the drunk shaming incident and some taken the next day at the medical examiner’s office. Some viewers may consider the photos graphic.

Editor’s note: Although the police report contains conflicting testimony on who was in the room at any given time while the actual drunk shaming was occurring, Rutkowski says that he was not present at all while the incident took place, but was rather outside at the bonfire and only later did he go inside. His only role, he says, was driving Piechotte and Etheridge home because he felt it was unsafe for them to drive. We have changed the text of that paragraph accordingly.

“If you want this in another language, move to a country that speaks it.”

Veronica Piechotte, a Haslett teacher, took offense to the presentation.

“The room was full of laughter, yet there is nothing funny about the way this presentation finishes. I am sure you will be equally as appalled as I am that this is the way that the staff of Haslett Public Schools … opened their 2009-10 school year,” she said in an email to Michigan Messenger.

Duda apologized for the controversial slide in an interview. “I take responsibility for this. It does not reflect the view of our staff, or myself or our [board of education]. It was meant as a little bit of levity with our staff,” Duda said. “It was not meant with malice.”

The slide presentation pokes fun at the many issues public school officials deal with from students being absent to unfinished homework to changing teachers. Duda admitted it was “over the top.”

Duda said the district has an English as a Second Language program which serves “at most, a dozen students.”

The PowerPoint presentation is not the first incident of alleged insensitvity in the Haslett schools. Duda also told Michigan Messenger that the district’s middle school is dealing with an issue of anti-gay harassment against one child. He would not provide details about the incident, which occurred last school year, but said the principal and parents of the student were meeting to address the problem.

Haslett, which is located in Meridian Township just east of Lansing, was listed as the 42nd best place to raise children in a 2007 Business Week ranking.

Duda’s PowerPoint display in question can be viewed here: