A handful of parents angered over what they called bullying behavior by Alice Deal Junior High School Principal Melissa Kim said they will protest outside the school daily until she is removed from duty.
About 10 parents, calling themselves Save Alice Deal, stood outside the school Wednesday morning holding signs that read “Concerned Parents of Alice Deal Jr. Say Our Children Deserve Better.” They charge that Kim has engaged in disrespectful and abusive behavior toward students.
“This is certainly the last resort,” protester Donna Boozer said.
Kim did not return phone messages left at the school, which has morethan 700 students and is located along Ward 3’s quiet, tree-lined streets.
Protest organizer Susan Carter said Kim called her late Tuesday to ask for a meeting, as well as for a delay in the demonstration.
Carter, a Deal graduate who has two daughters at the school, rejected the request.
“You’re calling at the eleventh hour,” Carter said she told Kim.
Carter said she pulled her 15-year-old son from the school after numerous suspensions she considered unwarranted.
DCPS spokeswoman Audrey Williams said Kim sent an e-mail Wednesday saying she planned to meet with parent protesters this morning.
“Things have been asked but nothing has been agreed to,” Carter said.
The school’s parent and teacher association put a statement on its Web site Tuesday saying it supports Kim. PTA Vice President Letitia Long said she has not witnessed any of the behavior the protesters cited.
Late Wednesday, E. Faye Wiliams, a D.C. lawyer, activist and former chief of staff to Council Member Marion Barry, D-Ward 8, agreed to represent SAD parents.
Faye Williams said she thinks Kim has “cultural” problems with the African-American children she’s supposed to supervise, “though I’m not suggesting that no Asians know how to get along with black students.”
She also claimed Kim wouldn’t meet with the parents.
“These parents have determined that there needs to be a change in communication at Deal,” she said.
