Here's how the district's response to staff sexual abuse of students stacks up to the principles outlined in its mission statement. (Quotes from the mission statement are in bold; analysis follows.)

We believe that we can achieve our vision and accomplish our mission if in all of our work we strive to:

Focus on the needs of children in everything we do and every decision we make.

There has been zero public acknowledgment to date of the systemic failures that left hundreds of minor students each year in the care of sexually abusive Brighton teachers and staff. All told, the number of past Brighton students betrayed and endangered in this way runs well into the thousands. 

Denial of this reality is so profound that, for example, an abusive retired staffer's Brighton contacts have continued to send him birthday wishes on social media. (To be clear, this is someone multiple Brighton survivors say sexually abused them hundreds of times when they were kids.)

Demonstrate integrity without exception.

Brighton officials claimed they could not comment on a teacher sexual abuse case that was under active litigation, but have maintained their public silence months after that case was resolved—except to release boilerplate text that misleads about when abusive teacher Gary Wiener worked at the district.

Meanwhile, the administration has explained the ins and outs of the current abuse response and reporting process in detail, while failing to say a word about the district's specific complicity in sexual abuse of students, or about what went so wrong as to permit such abuse for years on end. 

Innovate, change, and grow collaboratively.

Brighton administrators have so far declined to undertake any independent investigation of teacher and staff sexual abuse in collaboration with alumni and community members, despite over 1,700 petition signatures urging them to do so. The decades-long phenomenon of Brighton administrators valuing the district's image over student well-being continues. 

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History shows that districts fail to take accountability in cases like this unless the community rises up to demand it. Please write to the administration to let them know how you feel about Brighton's response to teacher sexual abuse and what you think should be done to set things right. Survivors, students and alumni are counting on you!