Assault of Folsom student was not racially motivated or bullying, investigators say

The Folsom student who pushed a classmate by shoving him into a metal pole, causing a serious brain injury, was found to not violate the school district’s bullying policies, according to a third-party investigation released by the school district Monday. The student’s conduct was also found to not be racially motivated.

The summary of the investigation was released Monday by Folsom Cordova Unified School District. The investigation found that the student who committed the offense violated the district’s policy on physical violence.

The Nov. 2 incident occurred when both students were attending a school field trip at Sacramento State University. Titus White, 12, spent three days in the hospital with a brain bleed. White’s mother, Kindra Miller, gave permission through an intermediary to the Bee to use her son’s name.

White, his family and the Sacramento NAACP said that the incident was racially motivated. White is African-American, and the student who pushed him is white, they said.

The school district hired outside investigative firm Van Dermyden Maddux and spent $33,772 on the investigation.

The investigators conducted 24 in-person interviews, including both students, their parents and guardians, a teacher, school administrators and 14 students, according to the district statement.

A representative from the Sacramento NAACP sat in on some meetings with the investigating team, said chapter president Betty Williams. She said she didn’t put much stock in the latest findings because the scope of the work was limited to the one incident at the field trip.

“They made a decision based on a Kodak moment that it wasn’t bullying,” said Williams. “Their response was to look at the one moment, not at the totality of what brought it to this point. That’s how they get the answer they got.”

The school district uses the education code to identify bullying, which is considered “any severe or pervasive physical or verbal act of conduct.”

The district policies will be revised so that when a student is harmed, the matter will be reviewed by the district’s superintendent rather than school administrators, according to the district’s statement. The investigation found that Folsom Middle School, “should have referred this matter to the district immediately upon learning that a student had suffered serious physical injury.”

While district policy prohibits comments on individual disciplinary actions, a five-day suspension is the minimum action for situations such as this one, according to district spokesperson Daniel Thigpen. The student who pushed White is no longer enrolled in Folsom Middle School.

The district said it will not release the full report of the investigation, citing privacy concerns for the students interviewed.

Folsom Middle School made news when in 2014, when 12-year-old Ronin Shimizu died by suicide, after his parents reported incidences of bullying to the district. Shimizu attended sixth grade at Folsom Middle School before transferring to Folsom Cordova Community Charter School.

This story was originally published February 4, 2019 at 8:18 PM with the headline "Assault of Folsom student was not racially motivated or bullying, investigators say."