Boston school officials terminated the former principal of Gardner Pilot Academy in Allston after she released a video criticizing the district’s investigation into alleged misconduct at the school on Monday.
Erica Herman had been on paid leave as principal at the Gardner since November. In the video emailed to students and parents, she disputed accusations of mismanagement and theft by the district earlier this year.
“Today we are breaking our silence, to use our voices, to share our truth,” Herman said in the nearly six-minute video. “This year, some people we once called friends betrayed our trust and engaged in highly unethical behavior that deeply harmed us and the GPA community.”
A spokesperson for Boston Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment. Superintendent Mary Skipper wrote in a Feb. 15 letter to Gardner families that an investigation has revealed “unreported, unaddressed, and egregious Code of Conduct violations.”
Those violations involved student-to-student bullying and sexual misconduct.
“School administrators at GPA were aware of these incidents but did not respond to the vast majority in a manner consistent with school district policy and, in some cases, state law,” the letter said.
Herman and Assistant Principal Joe Sara were placed on paid leave as a result of the investigation.
Herman said this week she provided ample documentation that the incidents were reported properly on Wednesday when both she and Skipper testified during a City Council hearing about auditing the city’s hiring, firing and promotion policies.
Herman said she became a target and was placed on leave in November after speaking out against a grade reconfiguration process that would have eliminated the seventh and eighth grade at the school.
“Workplace bullying and lobbying sounds like what happens in movies, until you live it and it happens to you,” Herman said in the City Council hearing. “If you challenge this administration on behalf of our students and families, you will be targeted and you will face retaliation.”
Herman said, “BPS has gone to great lengths to tarnish my reputation and to personally try to destroy me.”
She said she was officially terminated after she released the video.
Skipper did not refer to the Gardner controversy specifically in her comments at the meeting. The district does not condone a culture of retaliation, she said broadly.
Two Gardner parents interviewed by GBH News said they were sad to see Herman, a longtime leader at the school, permanently gone.
Brighton resident Jean Powers, whose son attends the school, described it as a “utopia” before school leadership was dismantled. She said Herman’s video made her cry.
“I don’t see how we come back from this,” Powers said.
An interim principal at the school took over in February.
