Brookfield ‘confident’ in cheer team probe, despite concerns

BROOKFIELD — Parents upset over a recent school district investigation into allegations of bullying on the high school cheer team voiced their concerns during Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting, but school officials are standing by their investigation and its findings.

Of the four speakers during the school board’s public comment section, three raised concerns about the recent investigation.

“The district is confident in the investigation and in the investigative report,” Superintendent John Barile wrote in an email to Hearst Connecticut in response to the allegations.

“School climate consultant experts are currently working with our cheerleaders to determine how the team can move forward.”

Last month, an investigator found no basis for claims of mental and emotional abuse on the high school cheer team following allegations made against the team’s coach, according to the investigative report. The district initially announced the investigation mid-October after a parent filed a complaint alleging that his child and others had been

subjected to mental and emotional abuse on the team.

The investigator had not been able to corroborate the concerns in the filed complaints at the close of the investigation.

Sean Sheridan, whose daughter is on the cheer team, said he wanted to use the public forum to address his concerns about the school’s investigation.

“An investigation was performed by the school, the conclusion of which omitted critical testimony, and unfortunately, I don’t believe that anything was really done about the concerns of the students,” he said.

Mark Ferry, the father who filed the initial complaint, reiterated this same concern during his three minute comment period.

“What you’ve done, essentially, is you've silenced all of these girls, and you continue to silence all of these girls,” he said.

Ferry also voiced his frustration with district communication, calling recent events a “systemic failure within the school to address complaints.”

Ferry noted that it had been 57 days since he filed the complaint, and he had only received written communication from the school board and superintendent saying they would not be discussing the complaint with him.

“I've never led with an attorney before. I've never done what you've done, which is refuse to speak to me,” Ferry said, referencing over 25 years of personal experience in the mental health space and work on investigations into abuse and neglect

Irene Corea, the last parent who spoke, asked the board not to accept the investigation and to ask follow-up questions.