An employee at a Rochester elementary school is threatening to sue the city school district over what she calls the mishandling of two separate incidents.
Gloria Johnson Hovey, a social worker at School # 8, said this past June, she was physically attacked in two separate incidents by a family members of students.
Hovey said one incident happened in the school cafeteria on June 3, when a grandmother working as a volunteer disagreed with Hovey when the social worker was trying to teach a kindergartner how to peel an orange.
"She came up behind me and pounded me on my shoulder with her hand, yelling out to me 'Mind my f-ing business," Hovey said.
Hovey said the volunteer then threatened to punch her. Hovey claims the school principal at the time did not call the police following the incident and that the grandmother had never filed the proper paperwork to volunteer at the school.
Hovey called police on her own phone and filed a harassment charge against the woman. She also received a temporary restraining order.
Hovey said a separate incident occurred on June 11 at a meeting outside the principal’s office at School # 8. She said four eighth-grade girls had been threatening to fight. They were called to a meeting with their parents, Hovey, and some school administrators. Hovey said the mother of one of the students became enraged, punched Hovey in the jaw and chest and threw chairs as Hovey tried to get in between the parent and another child.
"The problem is when you have a handful of hot messes and we as a district don't call it out that this is not okay behavior, we're not doing a service to our students," Hovey said.
Hovey's attorney, Lori Parker, filed a Notice of Claim against the district, saying officials did not comply with an emergency response plan and violated her client’s right to a safe workplace.
Parker said she and her client realize that there are many people working hard to create a safe environment for children in the Rochester City School District, but violent incidents need to be taken seriously.
"If the staff - the adults and professionals who are there taking care of children - don't feel safe, the children can't feel safe. It's going to undercut all of the hard work everyone is trying to do if we lack that stability of safe," Parker said.
Hovey said she is currently out of work awaiting surgery on her shoulder to repair injuries she said she sustained in the June 11 incident.
A spokesperson for the Rochester City School District said the district had not yet received the Notice of Claim and could not offer a comment.
