Shawnee Mission content to transfer problem principal — until complaints became public
Despite the many complaints against now former Shawnee Mission Horizons High School Principal Paul Colwell — multiple allegations of bullying, racist remarks, sexual harassment and in one case, threatening to out a transgender student to his mother — the district cleared Colwell for takeoff and was ready to send him on to the next school, announcing that he would start as assistant principal at Shawnee Mission West in the fall.
If you think this scenario reminds you of something, maybe you’re thinking of the decades the Catholic Church spent handling the most serious possible complaints about the sexual abuse of children by other men in positions of trust, by hustling the offenders out of town and off to new churches, new communities and fresh fields of new victims. Remember how that turned out?
Of course you do. But somehow, the Shawnee Mission School District seems to have missed the lessons of that whole debacle, which ruined lives and has not incidentally been devastating to the church itself. Sooner or later, this is how cover-ups end.
Yet it’s only now that these allegations against Colwell have been made public, in a Sunday story in The Star, that the district has decided that maybe a real investigation is in order, an independent one. Colwell’s response to The Star is that “a lot of what is out there is inaccurate.”
Heather Ousley, president of the Shawnee Mission school board, said she couldn’t talk about the case. “I would like to,” she said. “There was an investigation is my understanding.”
There was, and it actually upheld one complaint of sexual harassment, yet initially allowed Colwell to stay on as principal anyway. How many proven instances of sexual harassment are allowed?
Ousley read a statement from the district communications office that said that based on the new information the district had learned from The Star, it would now order a new, third-party investigation: “The article included new information not previously reported. Given the new information contained in the article, and due to the now public nature of this issue, the district will secure a third party to conduct an independent and confidential investigation.”
Since those quoted in The Star had already complained to human resources and written unanswered letters to the school board, too, it seems highly unlikely that any of this really is new information.
Given the many detailed emails obtained by The Star, which part of these allegations could possibly come as any surprise? And that officials are only now taking action “due to the now public nature of this issue” is quite a damning admission. Did the safety of students and staff not matter as much before this situation became public?
“The district’s investigation was thorough and done in accordance with board policies,” the statement said. If that’s the case, board policies need a major overhaul.
On Tuesday, the board approved an independent investigation during a six-minute special meeting.
But officials, who have only said they can’t say anything about a personnel matter, still owe students, parents, teachers and staff an explanation as well as an apology.
At least while a real investigation is underway, Colwell should not be at Shawnee Mission West or any other school.
And since Horizons is an alternative school, for students who are already struggling, administrators there should go an extra mile to be helpful instead of sabotaging. It is heartbreaking to think that, as students and employees told The Star, there are young people who might have graduated but didn’t because of an administrator’s bullying.
One complaint filed with the district by a female employee said Colwell answered a concern she’d brought him by telling her to “grow a pair of ovaries.” A few days later, he allegedly gave another female employee a “Secret Santa” gift of a round, blue Christmas ornament inscribed with the word “balls.”
He also is accused of picking on the most vulnerable kids, making racist and sexist comments the way other people say, “Good morning,” and refusing to let students who had filed sexual assault complaints change their schedules so as not to have to sit in class with their abusers.
“There were other students who he would call a ho in front of me, or tell them they were slutty in front of me,” said Alyssa Kirkpatrick, who graduated this year. “He would comment on everything I wore and look at the other students and tell me they look skanky.”
Tyler Tang, who is transgender, said he became suicidal after Colwell called him in and told him “I had until Friday to tell my mom I go by Tyler or he was going to tell her. … I wasn’t ready to come out. I wasn’t planning on coming out until I was out of high school or moved out. I regret coming out, or shall I (say) being forced to, as soon as I did.”
“He would out kids,” one employee said. “And that’s a very dangerous thing to do.” If any part of this is true, this is not a person who should be working in education at all.
In February, an employee emailed HR to say this: “I cannot actively be a part of a culture that is harming students and gives zero regard for their mental health. When I state my concerns for students with my administration I am met with contempt and disrespect. I am not willing to get in a power struggle every day regarding what is best for kids.”
The complaint about the gift exchange incident was substantiated. The human resources department found that yes, it violated the district’s policy on sexual harassment. But Colwell was initially allowed to stay on anyway, while those who had come forward to complain suddenly found that there were anonymous HR complaints against them. Today’s vocabulary word, class, is “retaliation.”
In March, after complaints were sent to the school board, Colwell announced that he was transferring. But transferring a problem doesn’t solve it. On the contrary, it only compounds it, and Shawnee Mission officials should have known that.
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 5:00 AM.