BOISE, Idaho — Former Boise School District educator Laura Boulton explains her involvement with a school district committee and her advocacy efforts for parents, victims, students, and staff."
“How can we help? What can we do differently to make sure that this doesn’t happen anymore,” said Laura Boulton, former Timberline High educator.
After settling a $400,000 lawsuit with the Boise School District, Laura Boulton says her time participating in the district's Healthy Relationship Committee is now finished. The committee was formed as part of her settlement with the school district. We previously reported the former Timberline High math teacher was suspended for having “inappropriate boundaries” with students, according to the district.
Boulton told us in October the committee's goalwas to create healthy, respectful, and professional workplace relationships. On Thursday, she told me she feels she’s done her part.
Boulton said, “Step number one, in fact, as a citizen of America, is to go to the police when there’s a crime, and we were not trained to do that in Boise School District. Yet, we will be starting next school year because of my committee work.”
Boulton says the committee stopped meeting in December — after a little more than two months.
Boulton tells me the district may soon approve updated document changes for the upcoming school year regarding training staff on mandatory reporting.
I asked the district, and they said:
"In our efforts to continue to improve as professionals, we are adopting some additional training videos. These are newly improved and updated videos from Vector. The training videos reinforce, as we always have, the responsibility we have as mandatory reporters."
She said, “My mere goal was to make the police the number one resource the victims go to, and I achieved my goal; the committee agreed, and that’s why my time on the committee has ended,”
Still, Boulton says the work is far from done.
Just weeks after police tried to arrest a Valley View Elementary special education teacher for child sex abuse crimes, she urges parents to stay engaged in their children’s education.
“People have asked me how can I fix this? What can I do? You need to be more involved and engaged in your children's education. You need to make the time to ask them how their day was at school, and most importantly, you need to stay in touch with their teachers,” said Boulton.
Another development in this story: late Thursday, after my interview, the Boise School District served Boulton a trespass notice that she shared with me, citing two recent incidents of misconduct.
The district saying Boulton recorded a parent meeting at Valley View Elementary despite being asked to stop, and alleging Boulton handed out business cards on district property in violation of district policy. According to the letter, Boulton is no longer allowed on school district property or to attend school district events. She has five days to appeal the order.
