SPOKANE, Wash. — Editor's note: The original video in this story was meant to show live testimony as it was happening at the school board meeting. Video that was placed over the testimony from the teacher was potentially misleading and has since been removed.
A math teacher at Lewis and Clark High School spoke out at Wednesday night's Spokane Public Schools meeting regarding last week's mob incident at the school.
On Thursday, May 5, two female students were charged as part of a reported mob scene inside Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane. That mob reportedly threatened staff.
Lewis and Clark Math teacher Matt Tully-Ruppert spoke directly to SPS Superintendent Adam Swinyard, saying the district is choosing to ignore staff and student safety concerns in order to make the district's data on discipline look better.
"So, we wait until now because these concerns can't float up," Tully-Ruppert said. "They have a lid on them. That's by design in the district to keep a cap on concerns and say, 'what concerns?' And, this is for what? For the optic of the schools to cancel 911 calls, to not have safety come to the school when it's needed. Like we're white-washing for what? Like, the optics are going to be better when we get to that disaster?"
Tully-Ruppert went on to say that it's gotten to the point where students are "choosing to dehydrate themselves" because it is completely unsafe to use the bathroom at Lewis and Clark.
"I'm a scared parent and I'm a scared teacher in the building," Tully-Ruppert said.