ISLESBORO — More than a year after a coach was convicted of sexually exploiting and assaulting high school girls on the school basketball team, the Islesboro community and school are slowly mending. There is talk of resilience and recovery, and how to avoid it ever happening again. And, there remains bitterness about the breach of trust on this small island, with its year-round population of 600. Some residents say what happened remains a taboo topic of conversation, and they seek more accountability from school administrators.

The superintendent and the principal acknowledge the discord, and say, "give us a chance."

For the students, however, the halls at Islesboro Central School on a late winter day reflect none of that lingering turbulence. They make their way to lunch, or lean against bolstered benches in the library, reading and talking. Out of the windows of the former summer estate, which is home to one of the few schools in Maine with a magnet program, the steel-blue Penobscot Bay reaches toward the Camden Hills. It is an idyllic landscape, both indoors and outside. The music room is alive with instruments, labs are well-equipped, and classrooms are lined with books and posters reflecting a stimulating curriculum; downstairs in the gym, basketballs thump in relaxed noontime play.

In January 2015, the school's then 31-year-old basketball coach and athletic administrator, Travis Tatro, was sentenced to seven months in jail following his conviction in Waldo County of gross sexual assault and sexual exploitation. Tatro had spent time growing up on the island himself, and has ties there; at the trial, there were letters of support for the coach from some community members, and even one of the victims.

The sentencing was the result of Tatro’s conviction for two years of sexual abuse of three girls, and a very public court proceeding. The moral, ethical and professional expectations between a school and its teacher were violated, as well as the social code between adult males and female minors. There is wide recognition these days that sexual misconduct in institutions — from church parishes to private schools — is not only repugnant, but emotionally and psychologically damaging, given the sex abuse scandal of the Catholic Church in Boston. The focus is widening now in Massachusetts to private schools; last week, Exeter Academy announced to its alumni that it banned a longtime teacher from the school campus following charges related to sexual encounters with students dating back two decades.

In Maine law, sexual exploitation is the "knowing or intending that the conduct will be photographed, the person intentionally or knowingly employs, solicits, entices, persuades, uses or compels another person, not that person's spouse, who is in fact a minor, to engage in sexually explicit conduct."

The court may not suspend a minimum term of imprisonment unless it sets forth in detail, in writing, the reasons for suspending the sentence. In this case, according to news reports, the judge chose jail as punishment. At one point during the proceedings, the island community had banned Tatro, after he allegedly contacted one of the three teenage girls he assaulted.

Islesboro was rocked to the core. The girls struggled with their personal aftermath, some teachers quit, a complaint was filed with the Maine Department of Health and Human Services against the school, and acrimony ran strong into the new school year. Resignations of the principal and a board member were called for.

Later in Summer 2015, the superintendent stepped down and a search began for a new one. In mid-August — as if the wound needed more salt — a school board member was arrested during a Central Maine prostitution sting. The abhorrence only grew stronger.

Former school board members stood before the current board at meetings, or wrote strong letters, demanding more action by administrators. The board responded, pledging that there would be a rebuilding of trust and openness, and saying the focus was to be on the educational program.

Eight months later, in a March interview, principal Heather Knight said the school, "is healing itself." She refers to the Tatro case as the "event."

The island

Islesboro, a 14-mile-long ribbon of land that divides East Penobscot Bay from West Penobscot Bay, is rich in history. Small farms are interspersed by waterfront estates, and it is steeped in rusticator wealth. The 600 year-round residents have grown up there, or want to live on the island known for its beauty. The fact that it lies just 3 miles and a 20-minute ride, aboard the Margaret Chase Smith ferry from Linconville Beach across Penobscot Bay, make Islesboro even more appealing. An effort to expand broadband has leveraged the island even more as a progressive spot, and at the upcoming June 18 town meeting, voters will decide whether to make the Internet investment for all residents.

Besides being a public school for islanders, Islesboro Central School enrolls approximately 25 middle and high schoolers from Camden to Belfast. They and their parents seek a smaller, more personalized education, and with a total enrollment of approximately 100, the building has the feel of a thriving independent school. A facility expansion in 2009 created even more academic opportunities for teachers, students and the larger community, and Islesboro became recognized for its innovative, hands-on curriculum with a focus on ecology, horticulture and marine science.

Just recently, Islesboro Central School won a sustainability award from the Portland Press Herald for its horticulture initiatives. This fall, the school plans to introduce a new sustainability studies program.

Its status as a magnet school means ICS offers something other public schools in the area don’t, and that public school students from outside the community can apply to attend the Islesboro school. The selling point of Islesboro Central School, as a magnet, is currently its “unique and individualized learning opportunities.” As a maget, ICS offers “a private school atmosphere within a public school setting.”

The current superintendent, Patrick Phillips, was hired in August 2015. He is part-time, and like the off-island students, he takes the ferry to work. In his small basement office at the school, windows look out over spruce trees, with a glimpse of the water beyond. He would much rather be talking about innovative curriculum, and how Islesboro individualizes education for each student, but he acknowledges that the school's culture also required much attention when he arrived.

Phillips worked in the Five Town Community School District superintendent's office, in Camden, for several years before moving to Augusta to become the Maine Department of Education's deputy commissioner. From there, he went to Washington, D.C., to work for an educational nonprofit. He was assistant superintendent in Camden in 2001, when student suicides and accidental deaths wracked the community. He remembers the discussion groups then that filled the rooms at the high school, as parents and students struggled to understand what had happened. It was an emotionally open time for the Five Town community, with much collective introspection.

Phillips returned to Maine after D.C., to work again with smaller, more rural districts. He casts a cool eye over Islesboro's administration, faculty and students and doesn't gloss over what happened with the Tatro case.

"It took the school away from its primary focus on kids," he said. "The school felt broken. There was a climate of trust we had to address."

He is, however, committed to the school and staff. He too asks for time to heal.

Phillips wrote an action plan last August and delivered it to the board. In it, he said his tasks were to orchestrate an inclusive process for stakeholder participation in effecting the school's vision, which had not been discussed since 2008.

He wrote that the principal's task was to "incorporate recent history at ICS in laying a foundation for a vision review, and set personal and professional goals based on that vision."

The school culture was up for a positive rebuild, and the climate needed enhancing through "communication, trust, openness and professionalism," he wrote.

The board, he wrote, should set the expectation for the staff and the public that "ICS will be 'turning the page.'"

He called on the expertise of outside support people "as needed to ensure neutrality and trust are in evidence."

To that end, he enlisted the help of Linda Bowe. A Belfast resident, Bowe was principal at Stockton Springs Elementary School in 2008, when a gunman held fifth-graders there hostage for 30 minutes.

Bowe talks these days with students and teachers at Islesboro about resiliency — defining it, learning it, building it.

Resiliency

Bowe is not the only one on Islesboro who is talking about resiliency. A collaboration of island residents, under the tutelage of the Islesboro Community Center, secured a grant in March from the Maine Women's Fund. The $8,000-plus grant will be used for "Building Resiliency in Maine Island Girls and Women," an education program that includes leadership training, self-defense classes and community education.

Adult and geriatric psychiatrist Janis Petzel was the prime writer of the grant. She lives on Islesboro, having moved there from Hallowell last year. She is focused on the applied research of neuropsychology in the treatment of adverse childhood experiences — abuse and trauma. This is about “the how and why” the physical body, mind and brain respond to toxic stress. Abuse, neglect, separation and bereavement can all lead and/or contribute to disability, heart and lung disease, depression, obesity, drinking and drug use.

And it is about the response, learning how not to go back and dig up old hurts, and how to sooth one's own self.

According to the American Psychological Association: "Resilience is ordinary, not extraordinary. People commonly demonstrate resilience. One example is the response of many Americans to the Sep. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and individuals' efforts to rebuild their lives. Being resilient does not mean that a person doesn't experience difficulty or distress. Emotional pain and sadness are common in people who have suffered major adversity or trauma in their lives. In fact, the road to resilience is likely to involve considerable emotional distress. Resilience is not a trait that people either have or do not have. It involves behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned and developed in anyone."

That learning and developing is what the grant is being used for, to explore, and activate.

Petzel mentioned the Maine Resilience Building Network, established in 2012, and a pilot program in Oxford County to build resiliency in an isolated, impoverished region of Maine.

The goal is to get people "all talking the same language, and putting research into public practice," she said. Changing attitudes, educating neighbors and learning how to weather storms.

Part of the grant will be used to train junior firefighters on Islesboro.

Islesboro firefighter Mary Hauprich has been heading up the island’s Junior Firefighter Squad for years. The squad is open to young people 14 and older, who are invited to train, work and function like their adult firefighting counterparts.

"I hope the young people who come through this program feel respected and valued for their contributions, and take that with them, wherever they end up," she said.

The grant will also be used to establish a book group at the library, as well as an art related program for children, and mother-daughter self defense training.

"To show that 'we're strong and we can take care of ourselves,'" said Petzel.

At the school

Heather Knight is the principal at the Islesboro Central School, and is responsible for hiring and firing personnel. She sat with Phillips and Bowe in the superintendent's office to recount how the school has dealt with the long-term effects of sexual exploitation in the small school.

"I'm not going to shy away from it, and not learn from it," she said.

Knight is in her sixth year as principal. Prior to her first principal position in SAD 6, in the Standish area of Maine, she had earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Southern Maine.

She cites, as a positive, the visit of Stan Davis to the school to present about harassment and bullying. Davis is the state's acknowledged expert on bullying, and his history in the Civil Rights movement, and then as author of books about ending a culture of bullying, have been beacons for the Maine Principals Association and many schools.

Knight said she is now more aware than ever of staff interactions with students.

"My radar is up nonstop," she said.

Bowe's role is to provide support for curriculum development and teacher evaluations, and to address the school culture.

"She is one more person to support healing," said Phillips.

Knight reported that the Maine Civil Liberties Union presented to students in sixth- through 12-grades about media and media messages that capitalize on sex, and the exploitation of girls. They talked about peer-to-peer interaction, she said, and how to manage threatening situations without adults present.

She said that representatives from New Hope for Women also visited the island, talking specifically with the female students.

The effort to recover from "the event," she said, has to derive from different angles. Relationships need to be honest, and staff now sign off on paperwork at orientation.

"We revisited the sex abuse policy," Phillips said.

At the end of February, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services responded to the 2015 complaint filed against the school. According to the short conclusion, the "out-of-home" investigation by DHHS did not substantiate abuse or neglect on the part of the school or administrators.

Science teacher John Kerr, himself once principal at the school, is likewise optimistic about the school's inherent culture.

"The incident took everybody by surprise," he said. That misuse of power, he said, was abnormal behavior.

Everyone is satiated, and wants to give it a little bit of a break, he said.

According to Knight, she and Bowe have offered support and mediation to the staff over the past year, to help mend broken relationships. A trained mediator was hired to listen to staff. In turn, faculty and staff have established "agreed-upon norms for solving and addressing problems," said Phillips.

Phillps and Bowe are "big devotees" of educator Roland Barth, and invoke him when they talk about the school's culture and academic mission.

Barth, who is now 78, established the Principal's Center at Harvard University. He has written much about encouraging teachers to be leaders, and to keep learning. He has also written about the importance of strengthening healthy educator relationships within a school so that they don't become competitive. In his words, "the nature of relationships among the adults within a school has a greater influence on the character and quality of that school and on student accomplishment than anything else."

The responsibility of a school leader — the principal — is to expand the repertoire of language, and nurture a healthy human organization, rather than strictly a compliant one, said Phillips and Bowe.

They talk about the language that is used, and prohibited, at the school. That is not just words; it reflects attitudes and cultural expectations.

Knight said she was addressing the environment of coaching in the school.

"I have had to have training with my coaches," she said.

The result, she said, has been improved management.

"Refs have noticed it," remarking on the island's level of team sportsmanship.

The shift has been in maintaining a bar that is not casual.

"It is about the character of the play," said Phillips.

Knight also said that Islesboro Public Safety Director Fred Porter, the island community’s police chief, if it had a formal one, talks twice a month with students, "connecting with kids who are on my radar."

Phillips said those "precursor indicators" are put into a "repertoire of review," and the action taken is preventative, instead of reactive.

Going forward

The lapse of trust in school administration over the Tatro case has resulted in significant introspection by school leaders, but skeptical residents wonder if it is enough, and if school administrators have fully addressed the "event." They question whether the structural changes necessary for the school and community to progress have been made.

Some call for higher administrative standards, and deplore the departure of the experienced teachers who quit last summer. They want a principal who instills more confidence in faculty, and rewards innovative thinking. There have been suggestions that the school develop a chairmen for each academic department.

Laura Houle is now chairman of the Islesboro School Board, and has been on the board for the past six years. She praised Phillips, and said "he has been the perfect person to start a new chapter for us.

The Tatro case ripped the small island community apart, she said.

"A knife was put in there," she said. "It shook this island."

Now, the school is finally moving forward, she said.

"It has gotten to the point now, where it is not the focus every single day," said Houle.

Instead, the conversations now tilt toward the academic curriculum, what trips the students are taking, and the upcoming sustainability night, on May 5, at the school.

The school board has talked about videotaping its meetings, and/or streaming them over the Internet. No decisions have been made to accomplish that, said Houle.

"We have talked about having conversations with the town office, and the selectmen, about that," she said.

Houle believes that communication is the heart of recovering from the Tatro case. The turning point in the chapter, said Houle, was interviewing all the teachers, and repairing broken relationships between the teachers, administrators and the community.

"Businesses and organizations do not move forward if you don't communicate," she said.

Patrick Phillips has talked about the academic and the social culture of the school, and acknowledged he had more to learn.

"I don't have enough hubris to come in and say what the school needed to the nth degree," he said.

But, he said: “We need to nurture a healthy human organization. High performing schools have strong cultures."

As for Islesboro Central School, he said. "It feels really healthy, now."

Related link:

• Islesboro Central School

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657