This is an analysis of a former NWACC student’s case of wrongful expulsion by Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) in Bentonville, Arkansas, that occurred just three weeks prior to her class’ graduation. The ill treatment of this student began with the respiratory therapy director, Alan Clark (a bully) and respiratory therapy instructor, Michelle Frazier (a bully), and then went all the way up the chain of command to Dean of Allied Health, Mary Ross (a bully), to Judicial Affairs, Dale Montgomery (a bully), to Dean of Learner Services, Mike Hartman (a bully), to Dean of Academic Affairs, John Tuthill (a bully), to Provost, Steven Gates (a bully), and finally to President Becky Paneitz (a bully). Not a single person in this chain of command addressed this student’s grievance. Instead, they brought her up against three different disciplinary action committees for fabricated allegations.
Furthermore,
respiratory therapy instructor, Michelle Frazier, and respiratory therapy
director, Alan Clark, attempted to recruit the entire class of 2011 to go
against this student and to back up their false allegations against her. Half of the class joined in on the bullying
and the other half refused to do so.
Those who joined Frazier and Clark in ganging up on this student are
Cameron Bishop of Siloam Springs, Kristie Hamilton of Springdale, Amie Jones of
Siloam Springs, Seandra Martin Watanabe of Fayetteville, Melinda Johns of
Centerton, Jessica Armstrong of Holiday Island, Mariah Thomas of Bella Vista, and
Chrissy Flatt of Siloam Springs.
It should be noted
that Mike Hartman and John Tuthill left NWACC shortly after this student’s case
because the heat was on and they didn’t want to be caught up in it. Hartman and Tuthill are good friends who
travel around the country obtaining jobs at community colleges. These two should be held accountable, as well
as all those involved in destroying this student’s reputation, grades (they
tampered with them), financial stability, and career in respiratory therapy. This student paid heavily for a service that
NWACC provides, only to have NWACC yank it out from under her at the last
minute.
This student e-mailed
NWACC President Becky Paneitz requesting that NWACC honor her degree in
respiratory therapy as she was a good student with good grades and attendance
and strong work ethic, and because she completed the ENTIRE program with the
exception of the final three weeks leading up to graduation because NWACC
wrongfully expelled her at that time.
Her e-mail request to President Paneitz requesting her degree has also
gone ignored. It is rightfully hers
because she has earned it in every way and more so than her classmates. The two years of vicious bullying on top of
her academic obstacles were unfortunate, but she was able to get through it
with good grades and attendance.
This student also called
Provost to President, Steven Gates, to ask for his help, but he told her that bullying
is very rare and that he must side with his employees, suggesting that the real
problem was this student rather than his NWACC bullies. For an entire year, this
student attempted to arrange a friendly coffee meeting with Gates and his attorney,
but was stonewalled every time. Furthermore, Gates’ attorney would send ugly correspondence
to this student in an attempt to get this student to walk away and to deal with
the total destruction of her life rather than attempt to repair the severe damage
NWACC caused her. It has been almost three years since her wrongful expulsion and
she has not given up yet.
This "game" of plausible deniability is
not uncommon in cases of institutional abuse. In fact it's an age old trick. They break the
victim’s spirit through isolating and bullying and then attempt to take away
their degree thereby marginalizing them. This, however, is not acceptable behavior,
especially for an accredited institution. NWACC knows this and is pulling out all stops in
order to keep the truth from coming out.
Given the severity of the charges and allegations of this student against
NWACC, this case has great potential to damage the school's reputation, which
is already in a fractured state. NWACC has financial and legal resources that
are well beyond the means of an average student. Consequently, many wrongfully expelled
students over the years have walked away from this unpleasantness with nothing
settled, and NWACC continues on with perpetrating the same old monstrocities to
their numerous victims.
In fact, her grievance was raked over the coals at the same time her rights and education were being dismantled. The inherent conflict of utilizing paid staff to administer judicial hearings is questionable. What's ironic is that this student has clearly gathered more than enough evidence to satisfy the burden of proof regarding her allegations of harassment, policy abuse, the mishandling of data, and records tampering, while the school's argument against her reads more like a teenage squabble.
If even a fraction of her well-documented allegations
are true, NWACC could be facing some very serious repercussions, especially in
regard to its record tampering practices.
It is evidenced through her letters that her efforts have been
continuing. As such, it may be concluded that the school's efforts to denounce
her rights, to deny her degree, and to marginalize her as an individual have too
been continuing. Her attempts to resolve
this situation have extended through a variety of departments and personnel,
yet she has made no headway in reconciling the matter. She is entitled to the correction of any
falsified records, of which there are so many.
It
is apparent that there is an organized push by school faculty and other NWACC representatives
to quarantine this student’s story of wrongful expulsion which suggests a
breakdown within the institution itself. This conclusion is also based upon the volume
of other NWACC cases she has on file, which have involved foul play.
NWACC needs an ombudsman who is willing to look past private and financial interests in
order to ensure fairness to both students and faculty. What I don't understand is the strong bias
that seems to have existed regarding her character. She was raised in Germany; has traveled the
globe; earned a liberal arts degree from an Ivy League college; spent nearly a
decade living in Japan; volunteered with
Mother Theresa in Calcutta; spent a year in Borneo volunteering at an orangutan
sanctuary; spent another year in Zanzibar tracking, monitoring, and habituating
a troop a Zanzibar red colobus monkeys; spent approximately a year with a group
of primatologists tracking one of Diane Fossey's troups of mountain gorilla's
that had gone missing, and has lived a life full of philanthropy. Additionally, she is multi-cultural and multi-lingual. Furthermore, she is fifty years old and Michelle
Frazier and Alan Clark expected her to think and behave like a traditional college-aged
student of 19, which would entail erasing thirty-one years of her life from her
memory.
She
came to Bentonville, Arkansas, to start a new chapter in her life, but has been
treated like a second-class citizen by a bunch of low-class homegrown locals
who are not emotionally equipped to deal with her diverse background and, in my
opinion, a very interesting life of endeavors.
In short, they are simply green with envy and have made every attempt to
destroy her. NWACC faculty and
administration is behaving on a very primal subjective level rather than on a
sophisticated objective level as should be required by colleges and
universities to qualify for a position within the institution.
There
is no reason why a student should have to spend so much time and effort
bargaining for rights that have already been guaranteed by the school through
its very own policies and procedures.
The school seems to have intentionally placed a sizable gap between its
students and their resources. What
personnel have been secured to delegate student grievances are disengaged and
equally unwilling. Likewise, those
consigned to uphold procedural standards in disciplinary proceedings appear to
be unanimously biased and uncooperative.
The administration of discipline should guarantee procedural fairness to
any accused student. It is surprising
that NWACC does not employ an ombudsman or a neutral third-party mediator in order
to facilitate conflict resolution.
NWACC’s grievance process is administered "in-house" and
directed solely by staff and administrative personnel impeding the rights of
aggrieved students.
According to the documents, emails, and transcripts this student has
compiled, her grievance against Northwest Arkansas Community College and its
Respiratory Therapy Program is based primarily on the following factors:
·
Bullying and Harassment by Instructors, Faculty, and Other Staff
Personnel
·
Violations of Student Rights (per policy)
·
Violations of Whistleblower Protections
·
Retaliation by Staff and Administrative Personnel (per policy)
·
Due Process Violations (per policy)
·
Breach of Contract
·
Tampering and/or Altering of Scholastic and Personal Records
·
Fabrication and/or Forging of Official Records
·
Altering of Grades
·
Character defamation by Staff and Administrative Personnel/Slander Inside
and Outside the Classroom
·
Sabotage of Future Employment Opportunities in NWA
·
Conspiracy/Civil Rights Violations
·
Consumer Fraud
·
Revocation of School Records Including Judicial File, Registrar's File,
and Financial Aid File
·
Refusal of School to Respond to Multiple Freedom of Information Act
Requests
·
The School's Promotion of a Hostile Learning Environment
·
The School's Unjustified Cancellation of her Classes and Wrongful
Expulsion
·
Interference and Control of Your Personal Life
·
The Withholding of Grades for Work Completed
·
The Fabrication of a False/Illegal Psychological Assessment by
Unlicensed/Unqualified Personnel
·
The Loss of Approximately $40,000 in Student Loan Debt with Interest Accruing
Daily Plus Four Years
· Study & One Year Appealing Case
·
Subsequent Damage to her Personal Credit
·
The Refusal by the School's Council to Hear and Process her Formal
Grievance
The Refusal by School
Administration to Properly Address Faculty Indiscretions & Improprieties