Bodine High School’s principal has been removed after students protested ‘toxic culture’

The principal of Bodine High School has been removed after allegations by students and staff of a “toxic culture,” a marked deterioration in climate at the Philadelphia magnet school, and more than two dozen claims of sexual harassment by the principal and two staffers.

Ted Domers, the assistant superintendent responsible for Bodine, said Wednesday he could not discuss personnel issues, but confirmed that an interim principal will replace Michele Wilson-Dawson for the rest of the year. Wilson-Dawson had been Bodine’s principal for three years.

Multiple people with firsthand knowledge of the situation said that a staffer who allegedly made inappropriate, sexualized comments to students has also been removed. Domers noted he could not comment on the matter, but said that lawyers from outside the district and within the school system’s employee relations department are investigating all claims.

The school district declined to make Wilson-Dawson available for comment.

» READ MORE: These Philly students walked out of their high school 3 days running. Here’s why.

The events came after a difficult year at Bodine, a well-respected special-admission high school in Northern Liberties.

“In a nutshell, since the principal arrived, there have been no consequences for anything at the school,” Bodine junior Desmond Farlow said in school board testimony last week. “Students can come and go as they please, come in late, leave early, walk in and out of the building throughout the day, skip class, fight and there are absolutely no consequence.”

Farlow, who led student organizing and three days of protests earlier this month, said he and others have compiled 30 written reports of instances of inappropriate sexual comments made to students by staff that were largely glossed over until an Inquirer story detailed problems at the school and he and two others spoke out at last Thursday’s board meeting.

“There have been fights reported, sexual assault allegations mishandled, and the administration ignores adults in the building who make sexualized comments,” Farlow said. “And even when brought directly to the district, the adults are allowed into the school and have the same access to the students as they did before. The principal herself told a student who was assaulted she was dressed like she was asking for it.”

Farlow, 17, cited a “toxic culture” and said students feel “body-shamed and victimized all throughout the school, with comments coming directly from staff.”

The school board seemed aghast at the allegations, and particularly that multiple staffers who allegedly victimized children were allowed to remain at Bodine while investigations were underway.

“As soon as an allegation is made, that individual should be removed. We’re working to understand why that didn’t occur,” Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said at the board meeting.

School board president Joyce Wilkerson said she wanted assurances the district was “in compliance with the law and moving aggressively toward protecting children.”

Both the principal and one staffer accused of making sexualized comments were out of the building the following day. Interim principal Bonnie Uditsky was introduced to the Bodine community Wednesday.

News that the principal and staffer were gone immediately shifted the climate in the school, according to multiple students and teachers.

“I am feeling rejuvenated,” said Aisha Siryon, a Bodine 12th grader. “I can’t wait to see what’s next and what’s going to change.”

Farlow said that he was “over the moon” and that the “mood of the school has lightened intensely. We still have a ways to go with getting the school back on track, but the amount of progress we’ve made is tremendous.”

Domers, who has spent extensive time at Bodine since the student walkouts began, sat with dozens of staff Tuesday, listening to their experiences this year. Town halls are planned for later this week, and a student government has been reestablished — a key point for the international affairs magnet.

“I just want to make sure that we’re learning as much as we can so we can best respond to the student and staff and family needs,” Domers said. “One of the things I keep saying is: We need to focus on what we need to do to heal.”

Students and staff had been frustrated by a stripping away of many of the things that built school culture, including International Day and student fund-raisers. Domers has promised to put International Day back on the calendar in late May, and already gave a green light to a T-shirt fund-raiser for one club.

One Bodine teacher said she can’t believe the immediate shift at the school, which draws students from all over the city.

“Schools are not just about book work and schoolwork. They have to be a happy place to go, and Bodine has always been a happy place, but it wasn’t this year,” said the teacher, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. “It’s been a very bad year. Parents were keeping their kids at home.”

Perhaps the most remarkable thing, according to the teacher:

“The kids did this. I think they learned more by doing this than they did all year, about how to organize, how to make change in the world. It’s the greatest thing.”