'Stay 100 yards away'

Navajo Nation Family Court judge Geraldine Benally issued domestic abuse protective orders against two Chinle Boarding School employees Thursday, saying there was "more evidence than not" that domestic abuse had occurred at the school.

School Principal Melanie Haskan had sought the orders, saying she had been subjected to intimidation and threatening behavior by her immediate supervisor, Executive Director Don Hancock, and English teacher David Shorey for the bulk of the school year since they began siding with a teacher whom she had placed on leave.

Both men were ordered to stay at least 100 yards from Haskan, which Hancock said would involve relocating either his or Haskan's office.

Haskan's attorney, John Trebon, said his client would be willing to make some accommodations in order to continue working with Hancock, including possibly having another person with her if she had to meet with him.

Haskan testified Hancock had yelled at her in person and over the phone when he disagreed with a disciplinary action she had taken against the teacher, and at one point "forcibly pressed" a set of car keys into her hand when he wanted her to drive a student home and she refused.

Hancock said he was merely giving instruction to an employee "in a firm tone of voice," and produced several witnesses who testified they had never heard him yell at any school staff.

Haskan said the abuse only occurred when she was alone with Hancock.

In Shorey's case, testimony centered around two remarks he made - one at a Dec. 3 school board meeting and one at a Jan. 23 training workshop.

Haskan testified Shorey had told the school board, "If you don't do something about the principal, I will."

Shorey and others testified he said, "If you don't do something about the principal, I will be forced to resign."

He turned in a resignation letter at the last school board meeting, but the board did not accept his resignation.

Later, at a teacher training workshop that Haskan did not attend, some witnesses quoted Shorey as saying, "On my reservation (Anishinabe), if an administrator isn't doing their job, we take them out and shoot them."

Shorey said he was "speaking figuratively," and doesn't recall singling out administrators but rather "anyone who does something to hurt the kids."

The comment got back to Haskan, in the "administrator" version, and, combined with his earlier comment about her at the school board meeting, made her afraid to be around Shorey, she testified.

"I felt threatened, I felt humiliated, I felt derided, I felt all of the above," she said.

Trebon argued that either version of the comment was at least "grossly inappropriate" and that a teacher should have known better than to talk publicly about "shooting people," even in jest.

"If you were at the airport, do you think you could speak figuratively about having a bomb in a bag?" he asked Shorey. "If a student had made that comment in your class, you would have had to report him."

Shorey and Hancock, who acted as their own legal counsel, both testified they had had vocal disagreements with Haskan but nothing that would justify a restraining order.

"When I was served with this petition, I was appalled," Shorey said. "I have never had charges against me for any kind of violence."

He noted he has taken leave without pay since Haskan filed for the order.

"I do not want to be around Dr. Haskan," he said.

Hancock's restraining order will be in effect for the remainder of the school year and Shorey's for a year.

PREVIOUSLY: Internal warfare plagues Chinle Boarding School