[ UPDATED] In press conferences and interviews this afternoon, Rochester school district and city officials announced stunning new details about the events leading up to the death of 14-year-old Trevyan Rowe. And both Mayor Lovely Warren and school board President Van White said that adults in both entities failed Trevyan.
The School 12 seventh grader, who was known to have autism, rode the bus to school as usual last Thursday, but he didn’t enter the school. Instead, he walked up South Avenue and, apparently, onto the Douglass Anthony bridge and either fell or jumped into Genesee River. His body was recovered on Sunday.
School district officials said earlier today that three teachers at School 12 had incorrectly marked him as being present in their classes when they completed the computerized attendance report that morning. If they had marked him as being absent, that would have triggered a robocall alerting his family that he wasn’t in school. Instead, the family learned only when Trevyan didn’t return home at the normal time.
And School Board President Van White said in an interview that at least one — and possibly two — school staff members tried to alter the absence reports.
One of the three teachers at School 12 have been placed on administrative leave, and two teachers who were substitutes will not be called back to the district. Superintendent Barbara Deane-Williams has ordered an independent investigation into whether RCSD policies and procedures were followed. At the district’s press conference, White said that a request was made to the State Education Department to use its staff to conduct an investigation.
It was also revealed that Trevyan was not formally classified as having autism, which is why he was not accompanied on the bus by a monitor and he was not accompanied by an adult into the school.
When questioned about attendance-taking procedures, Deane-Williams said that she is not satisfied with robocall systems. The district doesn’t send out automated calls until 11 a.m., which would have been too late to help Trevyan, based on what the district knows at this point, she said. The district did not place a robocall to the family, she said. One of Trevyan’s teachers correctly marked him as absent, but elementary schools only send out one robocall in the morning.
Several motorists called 911 Thursday morning reporting that they had seen a pedestrian on the Douglass Anthony bridge, which has no pedestrian walkway. During a press conference late this afternoon, City officials said that some 911 Center staff failed to follow proper procedure when they took those calls. Six 911 employees have been placed on administrative leave while the city continues its investigation.
According to city protocol, the Rochester Fire Department should have been dispatched because of the possibility that someone was in danger, and that didn’t happen, said acting 911 director Stephen Cusenz. The Rochester Police Department and the water rescue team should also have been called because of the proximity to the river and were not, city officials said.
“Last night I promised Trevyan’s family and this community that I would do all in my power to get them answers into what transpired on that fateful morning when Trevyan drowned in the Genesee River,” said Mayor Lovely Warren. “That promise and that investigation began within City government and we are extremely disappointed that established protocols were not followed at our 911 Center. This failure is unacceptable and we have already begun the process to correct these shortcomings to ensure a similar breach of protocol never occurs again as well as to initiate disciplinary action against those at fault.”
Also earlier today, sources in the school district said that Trevyan did not wander away from school, as some have speculated. While some people with autism do sometimes wander, videos from cameras at the school indicate that Trevyan was more deliberate, the sources said. There was an adult outside the school, greeting students as they arrived, and videos show Trevyan trying to avoid detection.
However, officials at School 12 initially resisted giving a Rochester police officer video recordings of Trevyan leaving the school and a confrontation ensued, city officials said during the Tuesday press conference.
Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski, calling Trevyan’s death “an unspeakable tragedy,” said he supports Deane-Williams’ decision to pursue an independent investigation.
This is a developing story and the post has been updated throughout the day.
This article appears in Mar 7-13, 2018.
The term is wandering and elopement. While there are some children with Autism who can simply wander away, such as you might picture a child chasing a butterfly. Some elope meaning they purposely leave a situation but without a true fore thought of what the consequences of such an action might mean. I have had many children with autism run away from staff trying to catch them or detain them. They are still eloping and not running away.
Media reports are saying that Trevyan Rowe was marked “present” by three teachers the day he went missing. I’ll bet that this is the tip of the iceberg. Attendance has LONG been an issue in this district; teachers marking a student “present” when the student was not physically present is a way to cover up the district’s long-standing and chronic absenteeism problems and sweep them under the rug. This time around, it boomeranged on the district.
It makes you wonder what the “real” absenteeism rate is at the RCSD. It also makes you wonder if this is standard operating procedure to keep the state money flowing and ensure that nobody holds this district accountable for anything. This sort of issue helps show exactly why the RCSD is the WORST big city school district in the state.
Nine people suspended from their jobs. All appear to have had a hand in this poor kid’s death. I hope the investigation does not end here and with such meager punishments. The heads of those responsible need to roll, literally. And among the supervisors and administrators who have overall responsibility and not just the worker bees.
Fix schools for Trevyan! Fix them now! Invite outside help, please!
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On Feb. 14, 2018, Valentines Day, the Florida shooting happened.
On Feb, 14, 2015, I got a letter printed in the D&C, entitled:
“When will Rochester Schools Pay the Piper”:
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story…
My letter ends with: “Do we have to lose so many children. When will the Piper be paid? When will Rochester Schools pay the Piper?
There has to come a point when RCSD opens its doors to outside ideas!
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http://www.SavingSchools.org
What a shame. In an effort to show improvements in city school data, they have been fudging the numbers
Another failure for Trevyan: Rochester’s infrastructure.
For reasons that have always been mysterious to me (and piss me off no end), the Douglass Anthony Bridge was built with NO accommodation for pedestrians or bicycles. In news of Trevyan’s death, we learn that one possible reason for the lax response to the 911 calls is that people cross that bridge on foot all the time (https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2018/03/12/trevyan-rowe-witnesses-say-they-saw-autistic-teen-bridge-thursday/415901002/ ). OF COURSE it’s not unusual to see someone walking across that bridge because the alternative is to go far out of your way. This was completely predictable. That we could completely rebuild a bridge in the 21st century in the middle of an urban downtown with no accommodation for pedestrians and bikes is a travesty by itself, without the added tragedy of Trevyan’s death. If that bridge had pedestrian accommodation, it would have been designed to make it difficult to jump, accidentally or otherwise. If Trevyan was panicked due to the traffic, he still would likely have got to the other side of the river or else turned around and gone back. Or, if he was purposefully trying to harm himself, 911 dispatchers would have sat up and noticed if callers reported someone trying to breach the barriers.
I think we deserve an explanation for this neglect to our infrastructure. If there are rules or laws that prohibited active transit infrastructure in this case, they should be changed. If our civil engineers neglected this functionality, we need to find out why. Did we hand-wave over the NYS Complete Streets law (again)?
Our new Roc The Riverway initiative includes lots of new and some repair of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. It should minimally include addressing this major shortfall to the Douglass-Anthony Bridge. Please submit comments requesting this improvement at http://cityofrochester.gov/roctheriverwayinput/. How many besides Trevyan have already been injured or worse? It is certain that he won’t be the last if we don’t address this negligence.
In sorrow and anger,
Charlotte
What does RCSD care about a big lawsuit?
It’s not their money! It is the embarrassment that counts, so that we can move forward with humility.
RCSD needs to open it doors to outside ideas and new people, They are too defensive, too close-minded and rigid.
This could be a turning point for RCSD
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“It take a village to raise a child.”
http://www.SavingSchools.org
Morning Meditations at Schools. (for Trevyan)
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We should do something to fix our schools, in memory of the loss of Trevyan Rowe.
What if schools had morning meditations and suggestions? If students can pledge allegiance to the flag, why not have them consider ways to excel at school, as well?
For over 20 years I have been making suggestions to Rochester Schools on stress and on motivation.. Every suggestion I have made has been ignored. Why not try this one?
RCSD, needs to accept outside ideas and people. They must stop rejecting help.
The problems in our city schools need all the help them can get.
Why not try out some morning meditations and find out which ones work the best? What would it cost? .It would cost practically nothing. Why not give it a try?
Messages could be posted on school web pages.
For the sake of Treyvan, lets do something, now!
http://www.SavingSchools.org
RCSD isn’t just the worst in the state, it’s possibly the worst city school district in the country. The same old board and union leadership, and the never ending saga of children lost. It was improving? A child is needlessly dead, exposing attendance fraud and neglect. Heads won’t roll, the wagons will circle, and the BS will flow. Business as usual at RCSD.
Charlotte: Under NY law, pedestrians are banned from interstate roadways. So
if I’m reading the law correctly, creating a pedestrian lane would have required an extra span.
Not sure I understand Charlotte’s desire for bike and pedestrian lanes on 490’s bridge. How would bike/pedestrian lane have changed the outcome of Trevyan’s death?