GREENSBORO – A March 4 report on the state’s Child Care Information System about a February medical incident at the Mountain View Union (MVU) School District’s Lakeview Campus resulted in a letter to families from the school principal.
Members of the public shared expressions of concern about the facility on social media as the MVU School District is now faced with the need for a third budget vote after the previous two proposed budgets were rejected by voters.
The state licensor’s report came about a month after the February incident, said school Principal Beth Parker, who fills that position at both the Lakeview and Woodbury schools. It began, “A child was found unconscious in the bathroom while staff were standing outside the door verbally checking on the child. The child responded when the staff spoke to them but did not once which prompted the staff to visually check on the child.”
Parker had reported the medical incident as state law requires, which prompted the state licensor’s visit.
The report continued, “The staff person found the child on the floor; their lips were blue, they were limp, pale and not moving. Staff discussed their presentation but failed to call emergency services for some time after being discovered. It is unknown how long from the time the child was found until the call was made to emergency services. Ultimately the child was transported, and care was received at the local hospital.”
“This is a serious violation,” the report concluded, with a recommendation that, “ . . . The program director shall develop and implement written procedures to be followed in case of accidents or injuries and plans for accessing emergency services.”
Parker’s letter to families, April 6, took issue with several items in the report, for which she is submitting an appeal, she said. “This communication is to share a recent licensing report that we received at Lakeview. It saddens me to share a report that, from our perspective, has many omissions and does not give an accurate picture of what happened, or happens daily, in our building. We have 30 days to appeal this report, and violations, and we will. In order to protect the student’s privacy, I am unable to share all of the omissions. However, below are some facts that were left out of the report.”
The report of a previous site visit, on November 13, 2025, noted the school was in compliance with state regulations, indicating “There have been no violations for this visit,” and recording 78 regulations that the school met during that visit.
Parker’s letter to families began, “The student was not unconscious when found. The child verbally responded to the adult by saying their belly hurt.”
“The student was immediately brought out of the bathroom, to the classroom and was in the care of 3 to 5 adults the entire time,” with one adult holding the student on their lap “providing comfort and care,” she said.
“We have an IA [instructional assistant/paraprofessional] that worked in Boston as an EMT for many years. She is our [on site] nurse delegate. She was called immediately and was with the student, assessing him throughout.”
Parker later said that all staff at the facility are trained in both first aid and CPR and the nurse delegate that day made the decision to monitor the student.
“The choice to evaluate the situation and then call 911 was based on the student’s responsiveness and assessment from our nurse delegate (and all other staff members who are trained in First Aid and CPR).”
Parker’s further concern about the report expressed concern about how vague it was regarding the response of the staff in calling 911. “The wording “some time” is unclear and allows for significant misinterpretation.
“We know that from when the child was in the bathroom, until 911 was called, was 12 minutes. Again, this was based on constant assessment, knowledge of the child, and their responsiveness.”
Later, Parker explained that she’s certain the maximum time from the initial discovery of the child until 911 was called was 12 minutes, but likely even less.
She later said the child had been responding to the staff member waiting outside the bathroom door, when they learned the buses were getting ready to depart. At that time they opened the door to find the student on the floor saying their tummy hurt.
Parker noted another finding on that date, about medication involving an incident a month earlier. The item notes the school was in compliance with those requirements at the March 4 visit.
“Emergency procedures were written and in place,” she wrote. “The staff felt nervous during the investigation and had difficulty recalling details of the procedures in place.”
Parker concluded with a paragraph about what the school has learned and what changes have been made since the incident, also saying the child is back in school.
She said later, “As a mother and grandmother, I would have been perfectly fine with the school’s response if it were my child,” saying, “My heart is breaking for my staff because that licensing report is complete misinformation.”
“With any incident, we will always learn and grow,” she wrote in the letter’s concluding paragraph. “This report has brought us a clearer understanding that we must call 911 immediately, if there are any questions about health or safety with our students.”
Further, she said, “We have updated our emergency procedures and all staff members have had additional training from Nurse Josie. All staff members have read all of our procedures in our procedure manual and have signed off that they have done this. Josie has updated all individual health plans to ensure all emergency medicine is kept with the students, at all times.”
Finally, she added, ”The entire Lakeview staff is grateful that this student is well and back with us. We are grateful to Hardwick Rescue for their response, gratitude for the information we collected and care for the student. I continue to be extremely proud of the staff and how they responded to this.”
Parker said she had submitted a request that the state withhold its report and the requirement that she send a letter to families until she had the chance to submit an appeal, but the message was apparently missed, she said, so she received no response.
She said she hopes sharing what actually happened will calm the community’s concerns, as it has for the family that returned their child to the care of the school.
The school now serves 30 students, 22 of which are MVU students and the rest tuitioned from other areas.
A representative of the Hardwick Rescue Squad said the first thing they do when approaching a person is ask “are they okay, or sick.” If the person is sick they recommend calling 911 immediately. It’s always possible to call back and cancel the trip, though they said it’s likely they will show up anyway to be certain all is well.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
