Another Validation Of The PRO By The Tribune

An elf placed the below Carrolwood TBO article under my Christmas tree, and I have waited to open the present.

I started blogging mainly because I saw it as method to deal with my feelings about the local education system. Back in the day, I tried to bring attention to systemic issues within the world of special education in hopes there would be positive change. While I, and some of my friends, did bring about some changes, it was not without a lot of kicking and screaming, and paperwork. After years of experience, I gave up using the mechanisims that the system sanctioned. As long as "reformers" follow the decorum of the system, the "reformers" will lose. There is a lot to that sentence for those who connect the dots.


For those within the system who read this, I hope you hear loud and clear that if you truly want to improve the system, you are going to have to change the mindset of how the system works within itself. In other words, the sytem creates these problems. It creates these problems of employees and it creates these problems of parents. If you doubt what I say, just look at the time lines that follow all of the major ills of the system. The Alafia debacle started a long time ago. The Tribune article suggests that it started 34 years ago. The sex case(s) went on for a long time, despite numerous warning signs, and now in a sense, it is still going on. It makes one wonder if the Judge turned the tables against the special ed student in order to protect the liability of the system. Does anyone else see that as a posibility?

As I was frequently labled an isolated incident and broad brush attacker, I revel in the validations of my opinions when I see them. I haven't started tracking them yet, but here is an example of a previous validation

:PRO on HCPS: This Is It - The Tribune's Validation Of My Previous Post

I said all of that to say this. Compare the Tribune editorial here to what we have been talking about and it sure looks like the same kind of thinking to me.


Make Special Session Special

"Bad Educational Parlay"

"It was not a good week for the Hillsborough County school district.

It began with the embattled principal of Alafia Elementary, Ellyn Smith, stepping down. She had her detractors and defenders, but ultimately the divisiveness at Alafia became a morale-sapping distraction impossible to overcome.

While that controversy has been quelled, another question arises. Smith is a veteran of the Hillsborough system. Her tenure has been marked by outstanding evaluations and promotions.

And yet, despite 34 years of experience, Smith had to be "mentored" and "coached" by a former principal for the two weeks prior to her announcement to leave. The mentor/coach was there at the suggestion of a school effectiveness assessment team that had reviewed the school in response to parents' complaints about Smith. The mentor/coach's responsibilities included helping Smith work on her personal interaction with teachers and parents.

And the coach/mentor, Grace Ippolito, was paid $340 per diem for her work. Smith was also slated for leadership training at Eckerd College that would have cost the county $4,500. What budget cuts?

So the key query is this: How do you get 34 years into your professional career and still need a mentor/coach? And more specifically, who did the evaluating? Who did the promoting? Who determined the criteria? And who is still perpetuating this system?

Another incident was worse. Much worse.

Christina Butler, a former Middleton High School special education teacher, was sentenced for having sex multiple times with one of her students. It brought back into public consciousness - aided by the media - all the other nefarious cases. May we never become inured to this sort of disgusting betrayal of trust.

The shock, however, was Butler's actual sentence: five years of probation. Even more startling was Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett's rationale. He noted that the victim, 16, and borderline retarded, was probably more mature and less vulnerable than Butler, 33. Padgett saw the student as more seducer than "victim." By contrast, he saw the defendant as immature, frightened and bipolar - a psychologically fragile woman who had been in way over her head by being in charge of high school students.

He took pity on her, which is his, however controversial, prerogative.

Butler has those five years of probation and can no longer teach.

Which begs two questions:

•Butler, as a registered sex offender, can't teach. But can she learn anything from this sordid ordeal and do something constructive with her life?

•Granted, special education teachers are at a premium nationwide. With good reason. The field requires teachers with discipline, empathy and the right skill set, including diagnostic, for reaching and motivating a school's most challenging learners. It's the worst of all pedagogical places for the fragile and the incompetent.

So, how much lower can the bar get in Hillsborough for hiring special education teachers? Might not psychological screenings, which are not part of the background-checking process, be especially applicable for this field?"

Joe O'Neill is a South Tampa writer who can be contacted at moesez@aol.com or www.opinionstogoonline.com.

Found on the PRO:

Something about this story got my attention the very first time it was written about by Marilyn Brown:Public Education - Politics, Business and Education: Ellyn Smith, Ashley Smith, and a "Miffed Elia" - Relationships are Important:

"An astute public commenter wondered 'where did this statement come from?' How did the name of the husband of a principal just get thrown into this article as if he was pertinent to the issue? I know several principals, and I am quite sure that if their spouse turned up at a school board meeting, their name wouldn't be printed just because they were there alone."

PRO on HCPS: ILMC vs. yipyap = Another Lesson To Be Learned:

(look in the comment section)

"One part of the madness of the system I haven't figured out is how the spouse of a principal can be so involved in the principal's position. From the very first time Marilyn Brown wrote about it in the Tribune, it just seemed odd. Above and beyond the alledged personal relationships, I would think it is very difficult for the natural employee/supervisor process to work itself out under those circumstances.

Which brings me to my last point. You have identified that it is more than 'just you', and the Alafia gang carried a banner that they were 'about the system', along with other banners, figuratively speaking. What most of the District people don't understand and just can't seem to process is that people can engage in issues that are above and beyond personal ones.

If you look at all of the people I have written about that have fought against the system, they were all fighting a cause bigger than just for them."

Part Two:
PRO on HCPS: Ding, Lady Justice is Done:

"While I wait for the next shoe to drop over on the Alafia Blog, to me, the below story regarding the outcome of a teacher having sex with a student is evidence of how whacked out our society is. An adult teacher was considered less competent than a teen student is the premise. But there is more. Their relationship within the world of Special Education seems to now be reversed. You have to read the article to see how it happened.

Does the student now get to write goals and objectives for the teacher?"

When things don't make sense, someone else is pulling the strings.