Oxford Hills superintendent accused of creating a culture of fear and intimidation

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NORWAY, Maine (WMTW) – The superintendent of the Oxford Hills School District was accused Tuesday night of creating a culture of fear and intimidation among students and teachers during her first year on the job.

27 complaints have been filed against Dr Monica Henson, including an allegation that she aggressively touched a distressed primary school student in September, when she served as principal, after an incident involving the student. The complaints were brought to the school board at a meeting on Tuesday.

Oxford Hills Education Association president Jen Jordan told WMTW News 8 that the complaints stemmed from a private vote among association members, where 95% of members said they had no confidence in Dr. Henson’s leadership.

“The biggest concern is that there is an accusation of physical contact and verbal intimidation of students,” Jordan said. “And as far as we know, there hasn’t been an investigation into this, and it’s very concerning to us. We want our students and staff to be safe. We’ve had several eyewitnesses from the incident, and again, to our knowledge, none of them were interviewed or questioned about it.

Other charges include sharing inappropriate images of alcohol and weapons to district employees, inconsistently disciplining staff, and creating a scary environment for students with a “bonus” system. rewarding students with money for reporting other students for inappropriate social media posts.

“There’s a lot of fear,” Jordan said. “There’s a lot of fear of termination, it feels a lot like we’re being watched, someone’s just waiting for us to be wrong so we can be reprimanded. There’s concern about COVID and how it’s being handled. Some are concerned that staff feel that when they try to express something they’re just being shunned. And there’s some concern about how the channel of command is described in how it should be used and then how it is used, so there are a lot of valid things that staff are concerned about.

In a statement where she forcefully denied the charges against her, Dr Henson questioned why the teachers did not come to the council until Tuesday.

“I know of no other school system in the state where a teachers’ union is invited to participate directly in the Superintendent of Schools’ evaluation,” Dr. Henson wrote. “And the OHEA neglected to take advantage of this opportunity and instead attempted to hijack the public narrative with a collection of lies and vague expressions of ‘concern’ that are easily rebuttable.”

As for the allegation of inappropriately touching an elementary school student in September, Dr. Henson wrote that the student’s parents saw no problem with the way the situation was being handled.

“The parent did not object to my handling of the incident, communicated with me for the next two days, and has not filed any complaints with the Commission or expressed any other concerns since my notification,” wrote Dr Henson.

The full list of OHEA complaints is available here. Dr. Henson’s full rebuttal statement can be found here.

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