Fort Worth School Restricts Dad's Access To Son's School
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
FORT WORTH (CBS 11) — A Fort Worth father can no longer visit his child's school without prior authorization from the principal.
Before Thursday, Rudy Gamel said, he was at his 5-year-old child's elementary school nearly every day.
"[I would] bring him up to the door every morning, kiss him and say, 'Get a happy face,'" he said.
This week, the PTA vice president said, the principal at M.M. Walton Elementary School handed him a letter with a security guard present.
The letter reads in part, "you are hereby advised that you are prohibited from entering the premises of M.M. Walton Elementary School without prior authorization for the remainder of the school year."
"I'm a parent, I should not have to call to come visit my child's school," Gamel told CBS 11 News.
Under the procedure outlined in the letter, Gamel must now call the principal's office ahead of time in order to receive authorization to "conduct legitimate business" regarding his child's instruction at the school.
The letter signed by school principal Nakita Brewer alleges Gamel has been "argumentative, disruptive and intimidating." It goes on to say "you have raised your voice and spoken in threatening tones in front of students and staff."
"I said, 'This is hearsay!'" Gamel said he told the school principal after she read the letter.
He maintains examples cited in the letter about statements he made at the campus were done so without context. He explained while volunteering in the school cafeteria, he joked with a student after the child asked if he was a teacher at the school.
"I said, 'Son, if I was a teacher here, there'd be dead children everywhere.' And he laughs, and he thinks it's funny," Gamel said.
But school officials were not laughing. The letter alleged he also said the vice principal talks in a "loud ghetto voice." It states Gamel made a number of threatening remarks like, "You picked the wrong person to fight with, Mrs. Brewer."
But the parent believes he earned his persona non grata status by speaking out about issues at the school during two recent school board meetings in February. He said officials were also upset when he brought a local newspaper reporter to the school this past week.
"They are more interested in their image than they are the children," Gamel said.
Gamel said he has been vocal about multiple issues, from school bathrooms that are falling apart to a library without modern reading books for the children.
M.M. Walton Elementary is on the state's "improvement required" list. There are aging infrastructure concerns.
But Fort Worth ISD insists the principal took the rare action of restricting Mr. Gamel's access because of his continued disruptive behavior, not for bringing up the issues publicly.
"Mr. Gamel has brought forth a number of issues regarding that school, most of which we already know about," said Clint Bond with Fort Worth ISD.
"We know there are infrastructure issues with the school — it's an aging school — and we know that there are academic issues," Bond said. He added that the Superintendent Kent Scribner has taken recent action to add teaching help to the school.
The letter cites incidents that occurred even before the February school board meetings. It claims on "January 21st, 2016 ... Gamel had to be escorted off campus."
Fort Worth ISD said restricting an individual access to the school is something it seldom does.
"We've worked with him for months now, since the beginning of the school year, and it's taken until this time for us to take this drastic step," Bond explained.
Gamel's access to the campus is restricted through the end of the school year. The school will re-evaluate to see if he'll be allowed free access next year.
Gamel said he had filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union in Houston prior to receiving the letter.
He calls this a David vs. Goliath battle.
"I can fight you from outside of the school. We can picket, we can get public records," Gamel said he told the principal.
(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)