Quincy At the Board of Education’s monthly meeting on Wednesday, two parents of students in the Quincy Public School District (QPS) expressed their concerns to the board about the behavior of two physical education teachers at Denman Elementary, which the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) described as extremely inappropriate but not illegal.
Kimberly Kirby and Jennifer Oitker taped students’ mouths shut, spanked them on their birthdays, and let students spank them in return, according to the DCFS report, which was completed in November 2024 and closed in January 2025.
Before sharing her opinions, Laura Shaw began her statement by expressing her gratitude to the QPS personnel and teachers and acknowledging the challenging nature of their work.
“It’s strange,” Shaw remarked. This was an outright transgression of proper limits by grownups who are meant to be secure individuals. The professors’ intentions are completely irrelevant.
Both educators acknowledged that such behavior had happened, albeit in a lighthearted way, and that it had happened rather frequently for years. Kirby informed investigators that kids frequently ask to have tape placed over their lips as a joke.
The birthday spankings are usually administered with a pool noodle, Oitker informed investigators. “I’m not going to speak on that,” she said in response to the question of if anything else was ever utilized.
Investigators were informed by Kirby that she only spanks children on their birthdays if they ask for it and that she never uses her hand in the process, instead using her shoes or pool noodles. On his tenth birthday, however, a pupil said that Kirby slapped him eleven times with her hand even though he didn’t want to be spanked and didn’t inform Kirby it was his birthday. (According to the pupil, Kirby was told his birthdate by a classmate.)
Kirby responded that the kids are advised to cease striking when asked how they felt about being spanked by the students. According to Oitker, she and Kirby may occasionally use their hands to slap them back on the butt or shoulder.
According to Shaw, easing parents’ and students’ worries about the situation can discourage kids from reporting further possible abuse or inappropriate touching in the future.
This, in my opinion, is not what Quincy Public Schools are all about. Before asking the board for an update on the current state of affairs, she stated, “I believe that these two teachers are a liability to QPS because of their lack of common sense and poor ethics.”
The president of the Board of Education, Shelley Arns, stated, “We will be following up with all families that have come forward and giving them a summary of our findings.”
One parent who spoke at the meeting, Brooke Wells, said her 6-year-old daughter told her tearfully just last month that she had her mouth taped shut during P.E. class by school staff around Easter time. The DCFS report said the agency was working in tandem with law enforcement and school administration to ensure that all of the information is being gathered to ensure the safety of the students going forward and that these behaviors stop in November.
According to what my daughter told me, one adult held her arm while the other covered her mouth with tape. According to Wells, that is physical restriction. This was neither a miscommunication, nor was it a game. My daughter informed me exactly what had happened. She identified the adults. She didn’t fabricate this, and she didn’t harm herself in this way.
“They made it fun,” she remarked. That is grooming, not enjoyment. That’s a strategy to trick a child into not talking, and it succeeded; at the time, my daughter didn’t tell anyone since she believed she wasn’t permitted to I was informed that they didn’t want second-hand accounts when my daughter finally spoke up and was forced to go through an interview. My daughter is six years old. She gave as much information as she could and tried her best to be honest.
Strangely, people kept asking her why the staff had taped her mouth shut. My daughter, the 6-year-old victim, is afraid to go back to school with these teachers, thus that question is more appropriate for the people who committed the crime. The employees who were trusted with her safety were the ones who inflicted the injury, not her.
The district is unable to comment on specific personnel matters due to legal requirements and district policy. However, neither teacher was recorded as having been penalized or as having tendered resignations in the most current personnel addendum, which was dated May 21, 2025, three months after the DCFS investigation and about a week before Muddy River News ran an article on the subject. The same was reflected in personnel addenda during the past few months.
In other news, board member Rachael Petty gave an update from the discipline committee, revealing that some schools have seen a rise in in-school suspensions (ISS).
While progressive disciplinary measures, such the addition of ISS supervisors, have contributed to greater rates, increased numbers do not always mean that more problematic behavior is occurring in all cases.
With the exception of Rooney Elementary, which was blamed for significant incidents or multi-day suspensions, out-of-school suspensions (OSS) declined for all K–5 schools. Since the 2020–2021 academic year, Quincy Junior High School’s OSS rates have been rising gradually, whereas Quincy Senior High’s OSS rates have stayed steady and much lower.
About 20% of the district’s children fit into the critical behavioral or at-risk categories.
Petty voiced concern about Adams County’s dearth of an Alternative Learning Opportunities Program (ALOP). The Illinois State Board of Education created ALOPs for children in grades four through twelve who were at danger of failing academically in order to improve conduct, attendance, and academic results while also lowering dropout rates.
According to the disciplinary committee, the region would benefit from such a program, and Petty urged the board to push for its creation at the Regional Office of Education. Superintendent Todd Pettit clarified that capacity concerns would make it challenging to manage the program in Adams County alone, even though the district is able to apply for its own ALOP without going via the regional office. There are six counties in total that could profit from such a scheme, according to the regional office in charge of QPS.
The board overwhelmingly authorized changes to the meal prices, raising school lunch prices by 10 cents for the 2025–2026 academic year. The current price is $3.05 for K–5 students, $3.30 for grades 6–12 students, and $3.80 for adults. Additionally, full-pay students now pay $1.75 for breakfast instead of $1.50.
Additionally, milk costs went up from 35 to 50 cents for the first time in more than a decade.
The adoption of revised report cards for the second, third, and fifth grades was unanimously approved by the board. The 2023–2024 school year saw the introduction of new kindergarten report cards, while the most recent school year saw the introduction of new cards for first and fourth graders.
Instead of merely showing A-B-C-D as we’re used to seeing, these report cards are more standard-based reporting, which allows you to evaluate how your pupils are doing in relation to the requirements for their grade level and achievement, Arns said.
The most recent district improvement plan was also unanimously accepted. The plan’s priorities for the 2025–2026 academic year are as follows:
- The continuation of trauma-informed restorative practice training and professional development for teachers and staff
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Making necessary plans and preparations in anticipation of
a budget deficit, likely to hit the district by the end of the 2027-2028 fiscal year
- Continuing the work of a task force to establish new boundaries for the district s K-5 schools in time for the 2026-2027 school year
Furthermore, the board:
- approved a fuel bid from Niemann Foods for the 2025-2026 fiscal year
- approved amended 2024-2025 budgets for the Quincy School District, West Central Region, Quincy Area Vocational Technical Center and the Special Education Association
- approved updated school handbooks for the upcoming school year
- approved a wage schedule for admin and non-union employees from July 1, 2025 to June 20, 2027
- and approved updated PRESS policies in accordance with state requirements.
The board adjourned the meeting by going into executive session to address issues including collective bargaining, student disciplinary cases, pending litigation, attorney/client privilege, and the hiring, compensation, performance, discipline, or termination of specific school district employees.
