INDIANAPOLIS - A former Indianapolis Public Schools substitute teacher has told FOX59/CBS4 that she tried raising concerns to district officials about violence in the classroom.
This comes as parents throughout the school district are vocalizing concerns about a video a teacher recorded of two young students fighting in a classroom.
Just days after FOX59/CBS4 broke this story, IPS officials held a closed-door meeting Monday night to address several matters. While the district would not share the specifics of the meeting, a district spokesperson confirmed the meeting was scheduled on Thursday, a day after our initial coverage.
Public records show the closed-door meeting involved pending litigation, alleged misconduct, and discussion around the employment status of a district employee or employees. The district would not speak any further into the matter.
Meanwhile, the video continues to gain attention from parents across the district. One former substitute teacher has told FOX59/CBS4 she had tried warning district officials about all sorts of issues similar to this one.
She said those conversations never went anywhere until this video unexpectedly surfaced.
"Nothing," exclaimed former IPS substitute teacher Dominique Carroll, who spoke to FOX59/CBS4 in an interview on Monday evening. "Nothing happened."
The video is hard to watch, but it is footage that parents and former substitute teachers like Carroll argue is finally shining a light on a much larger issue.
"It was very disgusting to watch as an adult and as a teacher," she said. "Somebody puts their child in your care, and they expect you to care for them as a parent would."
Carroll started working at George Washington Carver Montessori School 87 back in 2021. She said she had even worked in that very classroom with those two students seen in the video. During that time, Carroll said she saw anything from students throwing classroom objects to fighting between classmates.
"When I first started working there I was pregnant," she said. "I was about seven to eight weeks pregnant with my son and I almost got hit a couple of times from objects being thrown by students."
The former substitute teacher said she raised concerns to the principal and district superintendent, but she said nothing ever happened.
"I just always honestly wondered, 'What are you guys waiting for? Someone to really, really get hurt?'"
And then a video showing something far more excessive and violent than Carroll said she had ever seen came out.
"That’s right, you get him," a teacher can be heard saying in the video.
In the video an adult, identified by the parents as teacher Julious Johnican, can be heard encouraging two students to fight as one of the young boys begins to cry out.
After watching the video, Carroll said she was sickened nobody ever took her concerns seriously.
"It is really frustrating," she said. "I feel like it took a video and honestly I feel like the only reason why anything is being done is because the spotlight is being put on that school."
Carroll said she is no longer subbing at School 87 and she also pulled her kids out of the district. She, like many other IPS parents, is now demanding accountability.
Local parents are petitioning to remove administrators at School 87. So far the petition has more than 750 signatures.
While Monday's executive session took place behind closed doors, parents told FOX59/CBS4 they plan to share their concerns at a school board meeting this Thursday.