DUPREE — A child abuse allegation against a teacher at Dupree Elementary School prompted the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe to take the unusual step of banning the teacher, a principal and the superintendent from reservation lands where the public school is located.

As a result, the three employees have been unable to work at the school since the beginning of the new academic year in a district with high-need students and a poor track record of student achievement.

Tribal police continue to investigate the abuse allegations, which include slapping one child and forcefully grabbing another. The teacher could face criminal abuse charges while the two administrators could be charged with breaking a South Dakota law that requires many professional employees to report potential abuse.

Those banned from the reservation, or “excluded” in legal terms, include longtime teacher Sarah Shaff, Dupree Elementary School principal Cindy Lindskov and superintendent Keith Fodness, who also had to leave his home in Dupree due to the exclusion.

The exclusion of the employees from the lands of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe appears legal under the tribe’s status as a sovereign nation, though an attorney for the three non-Native employees is challenging the legality in tribal court.

And yet, the exclusion of the employees by the tribal council, and the handling of the abuse claims by tribal authorities, has caused division among many in this sparsely populated region of north-central South Dakota.

The exclusion and investigation have continued even though the two parents who filed the initial child abuse allegations have dropped their legal claim, according to tribal court records obtained by News Watch.

Questions have been raised about the handling of the case by tribal officials, with some locals expressing concern that the dramatic step of exclusion was taken before the abuse claims were fully investigated.

The exclusion requires further tribal court action before it can be lifted.

Some fear the loss of three staff members will negatively impact the hundreds of children in the district and that it could make it more difficult to hire educators on reservations, a problem compounded because of an overall teacher shortage.

“The kids are absolutely the losers in this, all the kids,” said state Rep. Oren Lesmeister, a Democrat from Parade, who represents the area that includes the Dupree schools.

“Beyond that, it makes it harder for any teacher to want to come work here because basically at any time they could lose their job instantly, which is a big deal across the state but especially on our reservations.”

And hovering over the entire situation is a concern that the exclusion of three white teachers by the tribal council could damage fragile race relations on and off the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

“I hope it doesn’t become that,” said Medina Matonis, a member of the Dupree School Board. “There’s no reason to turn this into an Indian versus white person thing. There’s no need for this to be seen as racial.”

News Watch contacted or tried to contact several people involved in the exclusion, though many did not want to be interviewed. Fodness and Lindskov declined comment.

A call to the office of CRST chairman Ryman LaBeau was not returned. Jason Rumpca, a Pierre attorney representing the three school employees, also declined comment.

CRST police chief Charles Red Crow confirmed to News Watch that a child abuse investigation is underway by his department.

Red Crow said the tribe doesn’t have authority to bring criminal charges against non-Native Americans. But it would turn its finding over to the FBI for further action if it determines that child abuse or any other crime did occur, he said.

After seeing extensive debate surface on social media, the tribe expounded on the situation in a letter to tribal members on Aug. 23, explaining the tribe’s “efforts to protect its children” and stating that due process is being followed in regard to its investigation and the exclusion of the three school employees.

The letter indicates that Shaff faced allegations of “alleged physical and emotional abuse against multiple children.” It states that Lindskov and Fodness failed to adequately investigate or report the abuse claims.

The letter said the administrators failed to act legally under a South Dakota law that requires people in numerous professions to report allegations of child abuse or neglect.

In a complaint filed in tribal court on April 23, parents Lance Jordan Frazier and Harold Gabriel Hollow said they were seeking “$1.2 million and/or $1.0 million” in punitive damages for “emotional distress, mental anguish and racial profiling, defamation of character” due to abuse of a son and daughter.

The complaint alleges that in October the boy told the men that Shaff “hit him in the head” if his schoolwork was wrong, and that she also intimidated the boy and “other students of color” in the classroom.

The complaint states that the girl told them that Shaff grabbed her arm so tightly that it caused pain.

The claim also notes that the boy has since undergone counseling and has stomach pains due to emotional trauma when he returns to the school.

Rumpca has filed motions to dismiss any charges of wrongdoing and argues that the tribe does not have jurisdiction over the activities of non-tribal members.

In a subsequent court filing, Rumpca noted that on Aug. 22, Frazier and Hollow voluntarily dismissed their child abuse complaint and their monetary settlement request.

Matonis said she hopes the community will remain focused on the facts and continue to do what is best for children in the school system.

Robyn Depoy is a rancher from Lantry who has kept a close watch on the dispute between the tribe and the school employees and is frustrated that the tribal council appears to have acted to exclude the employees before fully investigating the claims against them.

Lesmeister, the House minority leader, said the South Dakota Professional Practices Commission reviewed and then dismissed a complaint filed against Lindskov and Fodness. He said he was unsure if the state is continuing to investigate Shaff for any professional violations.

— This article was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a non-profit journalism organization located online at sdnewswatch.org