By Joshua-Paul Estabalaya
Herald Intern
A change.org petition calling for Seminole County Public Schools superintendent Serita Beamon to resign over an incident that took place at Sabal Point Elementary School has gained more than 1,800 signatures.
The incident involved a paraprofessional at the school, who on Sept. 24 self-reported thoughts of killing a six-year-old student, according to police reports. Parents weren’t informed of what had taken place until nine days later on Oct. 3.
“[Beamon] failed to take any action to ensure the safety of the employees, teachers and students at Sabal Point Elementary,” the petition reads. “This inaction left the school vulnerable.”
At a school board meeting last month, some parents and staff voiced similar frustrations over the incident, not only with Beamon but also with other educational “higher-ups.”
“When a potentially dangerous situation actually arose, we were left in the dark by our district leaders — shame on you,” Sabal Point Elementary School teacher Maura Olvey told SCPS school board members.
One member of the board, Abby Sanchez, apologized at the meeting.
“When I was a classroom teacher, and if I didn’t have a lesson that went well or I didn’t get something done… I took ownership,” Sanchez said. “When something’s not right — you didn’t do it correctly — you take ownership.”
In a memo to all Florida school district superintendents, Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas said Beamon’s office “seemed more concerned with optics than immediate safety.”
“I share the concerns of Seminole parents,” Kamoustas added. “Our children and educators deserve proactive protection, not reactive damage control.”
Asked about Kamoustas’ comments on Beamon’s handling of the incident, SCPS spokesperson Katherine Crnkovich said, “The safety of our students and staff is our highest priority. What matters most is to ensure that our families and staff feel safe at school. We have reviewed this incident thoroughly and made several changes to ensure we do not have a situation like this again.”
Some of the actions SCPS has taken include “Reviewing existing safety and reporting policies… and employee hiring and reporting procedures,” “Ensuring communication processes between the Sheriff’s Office and the district are timely and complete” and “[creating] a process to notify SCPS when an employee has contact with law enforcement that may raise concern,” Crnkovich added.
Most members of the SCPS school board was asked whether they think Beamon should resign. Only Kristine Kraus, chairwoman of the board, replied with a response.
“I fully support our Superintendent and believe this was a communication error,” Kraus said. “I do not wish for her to resign. We are implementing better practices in conjunction with our Sheriff’s office and hope an event like this never happens again.”
Crnkovich didn’t reply to a question on whether Beamon intends to resign.
According to police records, the paraprofessional had been detained before over complaints of public exposure, though he didn’t face any charges.
Despite this past record that SCPS was unaware of, Crnkovich said that the paraprofessional had passed a background check during the hiring process at Sabal Point Elementary School.
“All policies and procedures were followed in the hiring process,” Crnkovich said. “There was nothing known to SCPS that would indicate a potential issue.”
