“How should the Department respond when a parent has reached out to express concern that a teacher had called a student a ‘White supremacist’ and confiscated their Trump flag while ignoring the student wearing the Pride flag? … Or when an art teacher, rather than teaching art, introduces children to Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ for Kids, without consulting with parents or school leadership,” he wrote. “Should we look the other way?”
In that list, Edelblut briefly mentioned a teacher having been accused of lying to take the student to “get an abortion” without their parents knowing.
“Should we turn a blind eye?” he asked, rhetorically.
By stoking concerns about secrecy between school personnel and students, Edelblut’s op-ed echoed a contentious debate over “parental rights” legislation that state lawmakers considered in 2022 and 2023. Edelblut, a socially conservative former GOP candidate for governor, expressed disappointment last year when the legislation was defeated.
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His op-ed included enough detail to inspire public mistrust of New Hampshire educators, but not enough detail to verify its allegations. It didn’t cite evidence to substantiate the abortion-related allegation, and neither Edelblut nor a spokesperson for the Department of Education would tell the Globe in April whether the allegation had been investigated and deemed credible.
A month later, in late May, in response to a public records request from the Globe, the department released a heavily redacted one-page report about the incident, and posted it publicly online. The letterhead, address, and name of the investigating party were redacted.
The document said the teacher had told investigators she helped the student “determine how far along they were … so the student knew what options they’d have available,” located a “safe” facility for the procedure, spoke with the student for two and a half weeks about the appointment, and offered to accompany them based on a belief that the student “didn’t have anyone to support them.”
The teacher was placed on administrative leave through the remainder of her employment contract, at which point her termination would take effect, according to the redacted report, which does not reveal the year in which her firing was or will be finalized.
The department released two additional records on June 7. Although the names of the teacher and the school were redacted, the teacher’s last name was included in the metadata for one of the documents. An attorney for the department, Elizabeth A. Brown, acknowledged the name had been divulged mistakenly.
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No one with the teacher’s last name appears on the department’s public list of educators with suspended or revoked credentials. One person with that last name is included among educators with active certifications.
A Regional Services and Education Center Inc. school facility in Antrim, N.H., is seen in this photo taken on Sunday, June 9, 2024.
That teacher, who holds an experienced educator license, was listed on a school website as working for Regional Services and Education Center Inc., a nonprofit based in Amherst, N.H., that has been providing special education services for more than four decades. The nonprofit, which serves students from New Hampshire and Massachusetts, runs small non-public schools that cater to students in grades 5-12 with special needs and learning disabilities.
While superintendents and school board members from surrounding public school districts serve on RSEC’s board, the state lists the private nonprofit’s facilities as non-public schools.
The nonprofit’s executive director, Devin Bandurski, declined to answer questions about the teacher.
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“Matters involving personnel will not be discussed,” she said through a spokesperson.
Shortly after the Globe contacted RSEC with questions about the teacher and the abortion-related allegation, the teacher’s name was removed from the list of faculty and staff on the school’s website. A years-old post about her having received special recognition was removed as well.
The teacher did not respond to interview requests. The Globe is not naming her at this time to protect the student’s privacy.
The records that the Department of Education released on June 7 include an email showing that someone — their name, title, and employer are redacted — sent the initial one-page investigative report to Richard Farrell, an investigator for the department, on Oct. 19 (the year is redacted).
The records also include a letter that Deputy Education Commissioner Christine M. Brennan sent using official state letterhead on Nov. 9 (the year is redacted) to notify the teacher that the department had opened an investigation into possible violations of the educator code of conduct.
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“Namely, the allegation is that you failed to properly supervise and abide by ethical standards regarding student boundary protocols with a student under your care,” the letter states.
Brennan’s letter says the teacher’s license and credential are valid during the pending investigation, but the reason for that is redacted.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education declined to answer questions about the case, citing the “investigatory nature” of this matter.
It’s illegal in New Hampshire to perform an abortion on an unemancipated minor younger than 18 years old until 48 hours after providing written notice to the pregnant minor’s parent. In Massachusetts — the state line is a 20-minute drive from Amherst, N.H. — pregnant patients who are 16 or 17 can consent to an abortion without involving their parents. Each state also has a process for minors to persuade a judge to grant an exception.
None of the records obtained by the Globe specify whether the medical facility was located within New Hampshire, whether the student was an unemancipated minor at the time, or whether the teacher made any representations to medical staff concerning her relationship to the student. They also do not confirm whether an abortion was performed.
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Bandurski did not say whether RSEC reported the matter to law enforcement. Spokespeople for the Amherst Police Department and New Hampshire Department of Safety, which includes State Police, said their departments had no record of reports about the incident.
A spokesperson for the New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, which includes the Board of Medicine, an agency that oversees health care providers, declined on Tuesday to comment.
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said on Tuesday that staffers for the state’s Board of Registration in Medicine had checked their files and found no records responsive to the Globe’s request.
The teacher has since been hired to work at a public school district in New Hampshire, according to school board meeting minutes. The school board for the Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District voted in early May to accept the teacher’s nomination for a job beginning in August, according to meeting minutes. The superintendent for that district, Reuben Duncan, did not respond to questions regarding whether the district became aware of the abortion-related allegation before the hiring process concluded.
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Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A private school teacher who says she was fired after driving an 18-year-old student to get an abortion is suing New Hampshire’s Department of Education and officials she says falsely suggested she circumvented state law.
New Hampshire law requires parents to receive written notice at least 48 hours before an abortion is performed on an unemancipated minor. But in this case, the student wasn’t living with her parents and was a legal adult, according to the lawsuit filed Monday.
The teacher, who filed the suit as “Jane Doe,” said she provided the student with contact information for a community health center last fall when the student disclosed her suspected pregnancy and later gave her a ride to the appointment in October. The school fired her within days and referred the matter to the Department of Education, which revoked her teaching license earlier this month.
The lawsuit says the department exceeded its authority and violated her due process rights by revoking her credentials without a fair and impartial process. And it accuses Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut of pushing a false narrative of her conduct via an opinion piece he published in April.
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The essay, titled “Thank God Someone is Looking Out for the Children,” was published in response to New Hampshire Public Radio reports critical of the commissioner. In it, Edelblut asked rhetorically whether the department should “turn a blind eye” when “allegedly, an educator lies by calling in sick so they can take a student – without parental knowledge – to get an abortion.”
According to the lawsuit, department officials knew for months prior to the essay’s publication that the student in question was an adult and thus not subject to the parental notification law.
Kimberly Houghton, spokesperson for the department, declined to comment on its investigation of the teacher and referred questions about the lawsuit to the attorney general’s office. Michael Garrity, spokesperson for that agency, said Wednesday that officials are reviewing it and will respond in due course. Attorneys for the teacher did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The teacher’s firing was first reported last week by The Boston Globe, based on investigatory records it requested from the Education Department. The lawsuit said the department’s “biased and stilted disclosure” of information that should have remained confidential until the case was settled created a misleading narrative that damaged the teacher’s reputation and put her at risk.
A hearing is scheduled for July 3, five days before the teacher is set to begin a new job.
“She’s a beautiful old lady,” said Kevin Parker, 70. “We just wanted to help her.”
Parker, who also lives in Fitzwilliam, was one of the neighbors who joined the team to help repair the greenhouse. He said work got underway a few weeks ago, after he and another neighbor, Todd Reed, had assembled a team.
“It became like a barn raising thing for a couple of days,” Parker said. The repairs took about 15 hours, according to Parker, who has been spending summers in Fitzwilliam for as long as he can remember. Twenty-five years ago, he became a full-time resident.
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Todd Reed said the team of volunteers stripped rotten wood off the frame of the greenhouse and cut two pieces of 40-foot plastic to drape over the frame. Amanda Gokee/Globe Staff
Parker, who is a retired general contractor turned vegetable farmer, said Bullock is beloved in town, and when it became clear that she needed help, people were willing to volunteer.
“She’s been struggling,” he said. “The thing got ripped a couple of years ago. Rolls of replacement have been there since the fall, but no one got the ball going to help her.”
That changed this spring, when her longtime neighbor Todd Reed, 60, led the repair effort.
When Reed moved to Fitzwilliam in 1986, Bullock and her husband were the first people he met. Her husband passed away in 2017, but Bullock has kept the farm stand going on her own.
“She’s just one of the nicest, sweetest ladies you ever want to meet,” said Reed, who was happy to work on the repairs after Bullock called him and asked for help. He has an auto body repair shop and raises honey bees.
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Reed said the team stripped rotten wood off the frame of the greenhouse and cut two pieces of 40-foot plastic to drape over the frame. They also installed ventilation and a double-layer of plastic that can be filled with air in the winter to provide extra warmth.
Some people were there for their knowledge, while others were just needed to hold the huge piece of plastic, according to Reed.
“You’ve got to realize unrolling a piece of plastic that size, if you get any wind at all, it makes a pretty big kite,” he said. “You need people just to hold down the corners. They don’t necessarily need to know what they’re doing, they just need to be a body holding a corner.”
Thanks to his recruitment, he said there plenty of bodies: around eight to 10 people were there to help, which was enough to avoid the kite scenario.
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Frances Bullock’s farm stand has been a roadside fixture in Fitzwilliam for at least the past 40 years. Amanda Gokee/Globe Staff
Reed said the repair should last for about three to five years before it needs to get done again.
Bullock has already filled the greenhouse with annual flowers that she can sell this year.
“I’m really happy to have this,” Bullock said. She said the money from the farm stand helps her pay to heat her house in the winter.
Bullock said she started the farm stand about 40 years ago. “We grew more than we could eat and neighbors kept coming by looking for stuff,” she said.
Now, she said the ears of corn have become a favorite among her customers.
“Fitzwilliam is split politically but all the residents love the loons on Laurel Lake and Mrs. Bullock’s corn,” said Barbara Schecter, a longtime summer resident of Fitzwilliam.
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Residents said in the town of about 2,400, it’s typical for neighbors look out for each other.
“I’ve been helped through times, too,” Parker said. “It is a place where money’s not the first issue.”
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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
