Two families describe how their children were chased out of New Ulm School Distirct by ‘Bullying’

NEW ULM — In late August 2022, the Gonzalez and Corrales families of Gibbon made the decision to transfer their children from the GFW school district to the New Ulm school district in pursuit of a better education.

By April 2023, most of the Gonzalez and Corrales students would return to GFW to escape a pattern of what they describe as racial bullying and threats of violence while riding the bus to New Ulm and while attending New Ulm schools.

“Our kids should be able to have a safe ride to school and a quality education without any fear of racism and abuse,” Jessica Gonzalez said.

Jessica Gonzalez is the mother of five children; 10th graders Gabriela and Christian, 6th grader Natalia, 3rd grader Lidia and kindergartner Antonio.

Ashley Geyens is the mother of three kids; 6th grader Natalie Corrales, 2nd grader Adrian Corrales and kindergartner Sofia Corrales.

The two families are extremely close. Jessica Gonzalez is the godmother of the Corrales children and the two families do nearly everything together, including attending schools together.

Gonzalez said the decision to send their children to New Ulm’s school was a group decision. Each of the kids was asked if they wanted to attend a new district. They made a pros and cons list and each was excited to make the switch to New Ulm.

For Christian, it was a chance to make new friends. Natalia was impressed with the array of sports available in New Ulm. She especially likes soccer. All the kids were impressed with the options available at New Ulm.

For the first month, there were no issues. Everyone seemed to be settling into the change in the district. The 10th graders, Christian and Gabi, were able to make friends quickly.

The first sign of trouble occurred in October. Jessica Conzlez became aware her children and godchildren were being bullied by another Gibbon family on the bus ride to and from New Ulm.

The bullying included pushing, throwing garbage, yelling, name-calling, taking backpacks and throwing them around. The harassment came from a single family. Once she learned of it, Jessica Gonzalez made calls to New Ulm Bus Lines and later the New Ulm school.

Gonzalez and Geyens allege the bus company took little action to resolve the problem and would defer to schools to handle issues. The schools would defer to the bus company.

“I was literally calling and emailing every other day,” Gonzales said. “Nothing was happening.”

She felt no one wanted to take responsibility for incidents on the bus. The troubles on the bus would continue up until the Gonzalez and Corrales students were pulled from the district.

The Journal reached out to New Ulm Bus Lines for comment, but never receive a response.

Supt. Jeff Bertrang said there were attempts to resolve the bus conflicts. Adjustments were made for bus pick-up locations in Gibbon. A seating chart was created for the students. The idea was to keep the families separate. Bertrang said none of the families adhered to the seating chart.

In a Feb. 21 email, Jessica Gonzalez alleged the other family was violating the seating chart without repercussion. Another email sent Feb. 24, alleged a new group of students began bullying her kids on the bus.

Bertrang said the school investigated the bus claims, but were unable to confirm any of the family’s claims of bullying.

He acknowledged that monitoring bus stops was a challenge because the school had no staff to police Gibbon. In addition, bus drivers cannot monitor everything while driving the bus.

The Gonzalez and Corrales families continued to report bullying and harassment behavior on the bus from Gibbon, but at New Ulm schools the allegations expanded to racism.

Early in the school year, 3rd Grader Lidia reported a boy in her class for inappropriate behavior. According to the Gonzalez family, the school did take action on Lidia’s claims and the boy was removed from class. However, the family said it led to Lida being labeled a “snitch” for speaking out.

Jessica Gonzalez said because of this, her daughter was reluctant to speak up when further incidents happened.

The same was true for 6th Graders, Natalia Gonzalez and Natalie Corrales. The two girls, in the same class, with similar first names, said they experienced racial harassment.

Natalia said it started with a boy in her class asking if she “jumped the border.”

Natalie said it became routine for this boy to direct racial comments toward her at school. She said it was a daily occurrence. Later, another boy took to screaming “Why do I always have to stand next to the Guatemalan girl?” whenever he came near her.

Natalia and Natalie were often asked to identify their country of origin. Both girls were born in The United States. They received daily comments about their skin color.

The racial comment was not limited to middle school. By winter, Lidia also started receiving racist comments. She was called the N-word twice and heard other racial slurs.

None of the three girls reported racist incidents to staff. Lidia was worried about facing further retaliation if she informed adults. Natalia and Natalie said teachers and staff were unaware racist comments.

Natalie said the bullies avoided saying anything in front of adults. These encounters usually happened in hallways in passing or in the lunchroom.

Natalia remembered a science teacher overheard a boy making a racist comment and told the boy to stop.

The girls’ mothers learned of the racial comments by overhearing conversations between the kids. She said it was a surpise as her kids never experienced racism at pervious schools.

“My kids are 16 and in 16 years this is the first time I’ve dealt with racism toward my children,” she said.

This led to a February meeting at the middle school with the administration. Geyens said at the time it seemed like the school was prepared to take action.

Supt. Bertrang said the school did take the racist comments seriously once they were aware it was happening.

The school’s initial plan was to educate students on why certain language was inappropriate. It also allowed the teacher to be on the lookout in case students persisted in using abusive language.

Bertrang said none of the plans for addressing racism were intended as one-and-done plans, but rather ongoing initatives. He said one lesson is not enough to make a change in behavior. It needed to be a consistent effort.

However, a day after their parents met with the middle school adminisitration, students began asking Natalia and Natalie if they were the one who “snitched.” According to the Gonzales and Corrales families, the racist name calling continued, but now they were being retaliated against for speaking up.

Bertrang said the middle school was aware of the retaliation and tried to correct it. He said when students engage in reprisal bullying, the school tries to come down hard to set an example.

Unfortunately, the Gonzalez and Corrales families said it was too late to correct the problem. Jessica Gonzalez said the girls developed anxiety about returning to the school. Natalia took to wearing heavy clothes and asking to wear makeup to conceal her skin.

Lidia began develop a nervous reaction about returning to school. The issues at elementary, middle school and on the school bus were not improving for the Gonzalez and Corrales children.

Lidia said her abuse included physical violence. A boy punched Lidia in the face during recess, knocking her to the ground. She was hit a second time after standing up.

The Gonzalez family said her attacker was reprimanded for the incident, but a week later the same boy shoved her.

“Whatever punishment they gave, wasn’t sufficient,” Jessica Gonzalez said. “It did not get through.”

By March 5, Jessica Gonzalez had already pulling some of her kids from the district. She had hoped her 10th graders Christian and Gabi could complete the year, but other problems surfaced at the high school.

[Part Two of the story will run Wed. July 5]