I have covered six school board elections since starting this news blog, and I have never seen anything like this cycle.

The latest comes from a group called Fishers One, supporting four candidates in the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board election.  The latest release from that group cites comments by the Shahnavaz family critical of school officials.

Elwood Police Officer Noah Shahnavaz died in the line of duty.  Officer Shahnavaz had many ties to Fishers and HSE Schools, and lived in Fishers at the time of his death.

In August of this year, Officer Shanhavaz’s brother was in a Fishers High School classroom and reportedly saw a “Defund the Police?” poster in the classroom.

In the Fishers One release, Laurie Shahnavaz, the mother of Officer Shahnavaz and his younger brother, is critical of school officials and their handling of the August classroom incident.

When the incident happened, HSE Schools issued a statement expressing regret that the poster, made by a student, was displayed in that classroom.

The statement went on to say the following:

Losing Officer Shahnavaz, a young alumnus of HSE Schools, who not only served his country selflessly, but was protecting others in his job as a police officer, was devastating. HSE has let the Shahnavaz family know how deeply sorry we are to have contributed to more heartache for them. The teacher involved has apologized as well, and is deeply remorseful for causing additional pain to her student and their family.

The school district added it in no way advocates defunding the police, and cited the service from the School Resource Officers in local school buildings.

The district later asked local attorney and Fishers City Judge Dan Henke to conduct a fact-finding report on the August classroom incident.  The report was submitted to school officials, and HSE leaders listed the implementation of several improvements, but did not release Judge Henke’s report, in any form, for the following reason:

As a product of his inquiry, Henke developed a written report. The report has a significant amount of student information. The district does not have consent to release the report with this information.  

So, based on the Fishers One release and statements from the school corporation, the parents of Officer Shahnavaz have one view and HSE School officials have another.