A Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) school social worker went rogue, seeing students and taking them off campus without parental consent or district approval.
The Arizona Daily Independent obtained public records detailing the infractions of a former PUSD social worker, Allyson Jamee Ross, who worked at Peoria Flex Academy (PFA). Ross worked four years with the district before resigning at the end of 2023.
The incident raises questions about the realities of parental consent in schools as they play an increasingly significant role in raising children.
Email records up to that point revealed Ross regularly neglected to obtain parental consent prior to counseling or providing services to students, including transporting them in her personal car (also against policy).
Ross also repeatedly removed students from areas of the school where they were supposed to be located in order to administer services, which resulted at least once in a campus-wide search by staff for the missing students.
Following that incident, a staff member submitted an email to the PFA principal expressing concern over Ross; she had become upset at the search for the students and had gone to her office to lie behind her desk with the lights out for the rest of the day. Although Ross had been reminded not to transport students in her own vehicle by that point, she took several students home in her own vehicle that day.
When Ross took students off campus, she also failed to submit required forms ensuring student safety: travel request forms, field trip forms, and vehicle request forms.
By November 2023, Ross was under investigation for unprofessional conduct and placed on paid administrative leave by the district for those actions, namely transporting minor students in her personal vehicle in violation of district policy.
Ross admitted during the investigation interview that she failed to obtain parental consent annually. She also indicated that she was unsure of the location of the existing forms (most outdated), at times referencing an unlocked file cabinet and “hopefully” her email.
Following these initial questions, Ross struck a defiant tone; she said she took initiative beyond what policy allowed because the children lack adequate parenting and PUSD neglects those students.
“Of course I’ve taken students to departments, food stamps, dentists, and Wiccan appointments for pregnant teens. If I would not have been able to do that, I would be completely useless to my students. It’s ridiculous. Our students need help, and they are not getting it from Peoria otherwise. They need to learn how to survive. I absolutely take students to develop plans, take them on job fairs, apply for trade schools with them and things like that. Our students don’t have the parents or guidance to teach them those skills,” said Ross. “I will be in the wrong, but I will never send a student away because I don’t have a consent form.”
Ross said requiring students to obtain parental consent was like “sending them to the wolves.”
Ross explained that she often took minors off campus in her own vehicle — an express violation of district policy, which she admitted to knowing. For one pregnant teen, Ross administered a field trip permission slip during school hours for the teen to see a Wiccan individual “connected” to a gynecologist.
“I recently took a pregnant 7-month 17-year-old named [redacted] to a gynecologist that was connected with a Wicca. She had a field trip form signed by her mom,” said Ross. “I sent the mother an electronic form. She’s in the process of being homeless. The field trip form was sent in English first. The consent form was sent in Spanish much later. That consent form was sent via email at the same time as all of the rest prior to break.”
Ross conspired with one student’s plans to run away from home and intentionally did not contact the mother.
“It was to give them steps in order to learn how to be able to be independent, and that is part of what I do. Finding their skill level, and how they can move from there,” said Ross. “I did not get parental consent from the mom to support or give resources to the point.”
Earlier in the semester, Ross admitted that she was helping the student with plans to run away.
“I was helping a student runaway for the first time in my almost 20 years of being a social worker,” said Ross. “I apologize for the part I played in this but honestly the ‘plan’ (which should be called goals as the word plan now sounds devious) was able to help [redacted] identify safe family members whom she could stay with after she turns 18 while her and her mom have a ‘cool down’ period.”
In another incident, Ross took a minor student to a doctor for birth control. Ross said she effectively stood in as the child’s mother by advising the doctor on which medications the child should receive.
“The student wanted me to speak to the doctor on the patient’s behalf. I was able to tell the doctor about their medical history, and recommend different medication than what the doctor would have prescribed if I wasn’t there,” said Ross. “I would have loved for the mother to be there, but that just didn’t occur. But in the real world, that just wasn’t going to happen.”
Ross claimed to investigators that PFA principal Cybill Jacobs and PUSD board member Melissa Ewing knew everything Ross did.
“She [Jacobs] knows exactly what I’m doing with students every single week. She knows very well, and even brags to Melissa [Board Member] about how her social worker goes so above and beyond and does all these great things like taking them to doctor’s appointments, food stamps, social security, etc.,” said Ross. “It was completely supported by everyone, driving students in personal vehicles. The van is never available, always broken, stolen catalytic converter, or always in the shop.”
The district never issued a statement of charges against Ross. They asked her to resign, which Ross did in December 2023.
Ross also voluntarily surrendered her Standard School Social Worker, PreK-12 Certificate in May 2024, an update which the Arizona State Board of Education also received notice and notified all states and territories.
Prior to working for PUSD, Ross worked with Child Protective Services and foster care in Arizona and Virginia.
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