NECHES (KYTX) - A new Facebook page calling for an investigation into abuse allegations against a Neches ISD principal is garnering attention in the tight-knit community.
Some parents say their children are not only being bullied by other students, but are even being bullied by their own principal, and say they want to see something done about it.
Since it was started back in November the Facebook page, Change for Neches, has gotten more than 600 likes. And shared on the page's wall are dozens of stories of alleged abuse and misconduct from parents of current and former Neches ISD students -- as well as concerned community members -- who say the district needs to take action.
"We started getting these letters and they were just gut-wrenching, about abuse and the children being mistreated and the parents having no recourse because of the nepotism," said Rebecca Wood, Change for Neches page administrator.
Many of the complaints center around Neches Elementary School principal Kim Snider, who last month was the topic of a more than four-hour school board meeting, a meeting in which Wood says no parents were given the opportunity to speak.
"It was one step from a circus," she said. "I was appalled. I was disgusted."
Among the allegations against Snider are that she bullies and threatens students and parents.
"She is just a bully," Wood said. "She tells you to shut up, get out of her office, 'You're not welcome here, I make all the rules, you don't have any say here, I own Neches. She's even told people, 'We have a way of making you disappear.'"
Serena Hodge has three children in the district, and says her kids begged her not to speak to the media out of fear of retaliation from Snider.
"It's scary, they're scared of her," she said. "Very scared of her."
But it's not just Snider the group is calling out, saying more needs to be done about student bullying too.
Terri Flusche's 15-year-old daughter Amanda committed suicide back in 2010, after being bullied by other students all freshman year.
"There would be at least four to five days a week that she would come in off that school bus her head just hanging and beg me, 'Mama, please don't make me go to school,'" she said.
But Flusche says her countless efforts to get help for her daughter were ignored.
"I couldn't win," she said. "There was no winning because there was no help from anybody. Nobody would listen to me."
She says she even asked school administrators if she could see surveillance footage from her daughter's school, but was always told the cameras were broken.
"The cameras were always mysteriously broken every single place my daughter got bullied at," she said. "They would tell me, 'Oh the cameras are broken.'"
Another common complaint from supporters of the Change for Neches page, is that Kim Snider's husband, Randy Snider, is the district's superintendent -- something many of them call a conflict of interest.
"If you are having trouble with the elementary principal and your only recourse is to go to the high school superintendent who is her husband, what's he going to do?" Wood said.
So far, Wood says the Change for Neches page has received more than 50 letters from concerned parents and community members -- all with similar stories of alleged emotional abuse and misconduct.
"What we want more than anything in this world is every one of those letters to be investigated, every one of those people to have a voice," Wood said.
CBS19 reached out to Randy and Kim Snider for comment, but were told to contact an attorney for the district.
In a statement Wednesday to CBS19, Neches ISD attorney Kelli Karczewski said...
"I can confirm that there have been no complaints that have come to the board prior or subsequent to the development of the Change for Neches organization. Policy FNG allows any concerned parent to bring to the board issues of concern. This was emphasized by the board president at the December board meeting.
Complaints against employees can be made and heard in closed meeting but the complaint process has to be followed. You can access the FNG and DGBA policies on the district's website.
I can further confirm that all letters provided to the board at the Dec board meeting were anonymous complaints raising issues years old and by individuals who no longer reside or have children in the district. Nonetheless, an extensive review and questioning of potential witnesses did occur during the board's four plus hour closed session. Additionally, there were multiple parents and teachers (representing the majority of those on the elem campus) who spoke during open forum who refuted what has been complained of in print. To say there was no investigation is inaccurate.
The board desires concerned parents to follow the processes that are in place for complaint resolution and welcomes a redirection of focus back on the students of NISD."
Neches ISD's next school board meeting is January 21 at 6:30 p.m.
