When The System is Defended By Blaming The Method Of The Complainers

Parents Critical Of Alafia Elementary Principal#comments#comments#comments#comments


The above link has the comments up until 9:40 pm. I am not sure if new comments will be linked to as they are already up to 5 pages.


Today's comments have both "defenders" of the principal along with "supporters" of the "fab 5" as one commenter named the speakers that appeared before the school board.

One of the defenders had this to say:

"In my opinion, you've taken a giant step backwards by using a public forum as a whipping post."

I have no other knowledge about the specifics than what I have read in the newspaper. However, I have plenty of personal experience about how the scenario is being played out. I was once part of a group of parents that spoke at a school board meeting. My speaking at that meeting came about after years and years of being lied to and deceived in many different settings by a few people. Longtime readers of my blogs would know that right after I wrote a letter of complaint in the fall of 1996 to one of my son's principals, I was threatened with trespassing. My wife and my son and I experienced first hand the retaliatory actions of the system. They were not isolated incidents. I don't need a broad brush to make my attacks.

Frequent readers of my blogs would also know that I, and others, firmly believe that the public forum is the Achilles heal of the system. When defenders of the system blame the parents for "foul play", it fits the mindset of a system that doesn't play by the rules but when the message finally gets out to the public, the system calls out "unfair".

I went up the chain of command only to be dropped back to the bottom of the rung again. For six years I treated those who I thought were professionals with respect. I spent years trying to make sense of the lies and the destruction or fabrication of documents that they needed to support their lies. What defenders of the system don't realize that once the system loses the trust of those they are not being honest and straightforward with, the system can not simply demand or command respect based on a false image. The system is so arrogantly full of itself that it thinks it can get away with stepping on people with no consequence.

That dog don't hunt in my neck of the woods because I know, and I know others that know, including many that work in the system, what the truth is about the system. Arf!

East Bay Is Getting Trounced

Hillsborough School Employees Strike Deal For 2% Raise

Read the public comments. East Bay gets alot of bad press. Plant gets the good.

Ouch. East Bay is my alma mater. I was the Indian back in 70-71. Somewhere on one of my posts I brag about all of the accomplishments I was lucky to get at East Bay. I had a very positive attitude towards HCPS until it treated me with years of disrespect.

I know that the defense of the following public comment is that it is an isolated incident.
I know that the defense of the following public comment is that the parent is a malcontent and uses a broad-brush attack.

I do wonder how this parent could write this account that sounds like others I have heard.

Earlier in the comments, this same parent did say there were two good teachers of their child. Could the parent have been wrong about their perception?

And the parent did use the word "retaliation".

Posted by ( Petey90 ) on September 13, 2008 at 2:06 p.m. ( Suggest removal )

gloria9231 and cshultz110..here is where you are WRONG. It wasn't just a few teachers. It was for the three years she attended there. And yes we went to the administration and even went to the school board. So thank you very much for assuming what kind of parent and complainer I am. YOU are just trying to cover for the lousy and lazy teachers out there.

We came from a private school where teachers and parents are VERY involved in the school. In public school, when a parent tries to be involved, the teacher wants NOTHING like that because then their laziness comes to the forefront. Teachers at East Bay curse the students (sure the students probably cursed them, but is that proper either?) some don't teach in class because they teach at HCC and they are too busy preparing their college lesson to worry about their high school students.

All of these things were addressed and you know what happened? Retaliation!! Soon, the "involved" parents learned to keep to themselves or their kids were retaliated against and suffered. Teachers made comments in front of the class like "oh, are your parents going to complain again?" or "don't tell your parents". And what kind of male teacher is supposed to ask female students what kind of panties they are wearing? Why was a teacher smoking pot at a graduation party with students? Hmmm...and I am the complainer? Yeah, right!

Don't tell ME what goes on there. I lived it. After 10 years of paying for private school, I know the difference of what you pay for and what you get in AWFUL public school when you transfer.

Raises shouldn't be handed out across the board. They should be performance based and certainly shouldn't be given to teachers who get the same constant complaints from parents.

Looking for Substance More Than Image

We have a post by Ms. DeCeasar regarding a document from Doug Erwin, a vindicated whistle blower. It is my understanding that he not only asked for whistle blower protection, he needed it. From all accounts, he became a victim of his professionalism and character. For those who watched the school board meeting the day they turned the cameras off when he was speaking, as someone once said "there was a chill wind" that blew across the district that day.

Teachers seem to be asking for support and leadership from their administrators when you read the anonymous comments. When one looks to their administration for support and leadership, there must be more than an image of professionalism.

The truth about the Doug Erwin story is known by few. The truth about the Whitehead case story is known by few. Reading the court document does not provide the story justice. What should be of interest and concern to those looking for integrity within the HCPS is how the system deals with legitimate issues. We used to hear that "it isn't whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game". One wonders if winning at all cost, no matter how you play the game, may be what drove the District's defense.

Here is a link to a commentary about the Whitehead trial:

Inside Story of the $600,000 Verdict in Florida Retaliation Case
by Laura Whiteside, Esq.

This section should be of note:

"School District Maintained "Private Files"

During the trial, school district representatives testified that decisions about the child’s need for individual services is up to the discretion of the school’s speech language therapist. Although the Hearing Officer determined that the School Board illegally denied the parents access to their son's educational records, the jury learned that the School Board continued to maintain "private files" of correspondence about OCR complaints.

The jury was presented with the "private file." This private file showed that the district misrepresented events to OCR about providing Andrew with compensatory educational services."

"Death By Education" by William Weiser was his story of the system.

Maybe there really is a pattern when one connects the dots.

One More Isolated Incident

I was in attendance in my son's IEP meeting on December 16th, 1996. I assumed it was going to a contentious meeting, as it had all of the earmarks of those types I had attended before.

Prior to this meeting, I had written a letter to the principal outlining some of my concerns. After six years of learning the ways of the District, I had become better at covering all of the bases, even though I knew there would be some angle I was not prepared for.

While there were a lot of interesting things that happened in this meeting, I will address one connected to the link below. The principal recorded the meeting. There were a lot of "damaging" things said by some of the District people and also there was a lot of "evidence" of how my "procedural safeguards" were compromised, some being outright violated. Keep in mind this was prior to me learning the rules of the game. In fact, that day started my official quest for knowledge regarding IDEA and how it is supposed to work.

It was the proverbial straw. Some of the people who were in that meeting are still around. I think one or two of them understood the injustice that was done. I think the others were more entrenched in how to spin the events so they were defensible.

The fallout of this meeting was immediate and widespread. It may not surprise some of you that despite the fact that I had an MO-12 inviting me to an IEP meeting on that day and a time specific and room specific, along with the fact that nine or ten other people showed up at the same time and place, upon my request for copies of the records of that IEP meeting, I was told by a District Person that there had been no IEP meeting. I guess it depends on what the definition of "was" was.

The principal had tape recorded the meeting. She had prepared for taping. I did not. Try getting a definitive "yes" or "no" answer today whether a parent can tape an IEP meeting.

Back to my point that speaks to the below. After I insisted on getting a copy of that tape, I was finally given a tape.

The tape I received was blank.


This post jogged my memory:

Saturday, April 05, 2008

I can't remember exactly how this poor mangled teacher came to my attention. I think she emailed me. I asked for a copy of her court case to put on our blog, and she said OK.

Wheelchair Policy May Have Prevented Sex

Oh I Think I'm Going Out of My Head-

"I must think of a way
Into your heart
There is no reason why
My being shy should keep us apart" - Little Anthony and The Imperials


Thanks for "The Gradebook" for this link: "Sex to Cure Shyness".

After reading the article, I am sure everyone is as stunned as I am. Perhaps this is another one of those incidents where there may be another side of the story, according to the public comments.

What should have been a major concern, although I did not see mention of it, is whether or not the teacher had a Dr's note authorizing the use of her wheelchair on campus. According to the story, this is how the student took advantage of the teacher. The 8th grade student used the old ruse,similar to helping an old lady across a street, to push the teacher's wheelchair only for the purpose of extorting sex from the teacher for his wheelchair support service, and added the sly shy act just to nail the victim teacher.

Where is the outrage? I am shocked that the School Board did not address this issue in the same manner they did this one. If there is no policy that says teacher's need a Dr's note, then this issue must be addressed so more students don't have sex with teachers.

A Crutch, A Crutch -My District for a Crutch

I have put off making comments about this latest incident for a while. There is a chance that the reporter was negligent, unprofessional and simply wrote an irresponsible article that painted a biased picture about the local school system.

That slim chance keeps me from jumping on the band wagon and bashing the system one more time based on false information. Because that would mess up my credibility about my perception of how "the HCDS" is rampant with arrogance and ignorance and abuse of power.

Once again, my comments are not about individuals. But maybe, just maybe, if one has read all of my rants and raves about how I perceive the District as dysfunctional because of some of those who are in power are arrogant, ignorant and abuse their power, this story, if true, fits my template.

It is my hope that those who understand what I am talking about and are in a position to bring about positive change, it will give them insight. And for those who are not in a position of power, it will give insight into how your current job situation is compromised because of other's actions.

For those who want to argue that I haven't heard the whole story, I will say "you are right". And I will leave it at that, and wait for the next story and we can go through another "isolated incident" again.

So here it is: Mother: School Took Girl's Crutches

If you read the public comments, I am "RLH".


What got my attention about this article was this statement:

"We ask for a doctor's prescription or a doctor's note, but there's nothing that says take away the crutches," Cobbe said.

Again, if this is all true, this statement should be used in every professional training program the District uses.

I have had the finger of authority in my face. I have been threatened with trespassing. The day after I wrote a letter outlining serious concerns that had been ongoing. I dealt with "intimidation" and "obfuscation" in several different settings over several years. It was not "isolated incidents" and I do not use a "broad brush".

It is what it is. For those who want to say I am a "malcontent", I say one thing: Prove me wrong.

If this story is true, it fits the template of an employee who perceives their job as "controlling" as opposed to "administering". Whether it be in the classroom, the health clinic, the office, the front secretary's desk, the locker room, the lunchroom, the Velasco building or the ROSSAC, when a person sees their job as maintaining "power and control" vs "professional administration", these stories will continue to be told.

Maybe It's Just Me

While my local school system is in the public throes of who is really running the show, I get stuck on the meaning of words.

Now that freedom of speech issues have finally reached the point that the HCDS police are called to action, I wonder where has everyone been all of these years.

I will always vividly recall the day at Mann Middle School when I was told by the principal that if I came on campus without checking in to her office first, I would be charged with trespassing.

The fact that I was making a big squawk about my repeated attempts to address issues with my son’s education and the fact that this threat came the day after I wrote a complaint letter gave me reason to believe that the 3 months of previous same actions on my part were now under a different line of scrutiny.

At least I didn’t have the security called on me. Instead, I called the Director of ESE while sitting in the office. I had the number saved because I used it a lot over the years. This may have saved my immediate arrest. It was a gutsy move on my part, because Directors have as much say over what a principal does or does not do as I did. But there is something to say about safety in numbers, and how many people know.

I was not accustom to this type of treatment, or rather, the treatment was getting worse. I did not think the setting was safe for my son. So when I said I was keeping him home until we could have another of those countless meanings, the veiled threat of truancy was thrown out. Knowing the absolute power of the school District, I made sure I obtained a Dr's excuse to protect me.

As the days and weeks played out, since I had become learned in the ways of paper warfare, my documentation along with proof that “they” had changed theirs, probably saved me from the usual bulldozed flattening that most parents end up with.

Taking on the system means that you must have documentation and make sure some one else has a copy of it too.

Yesterday I posted the link to some probable cause affidavits.

One of the sentences struck me as odd, so I revisited it today. On page two, it says that the teacher’s strikes (to the kid who was an “equivalent 11 to 14 month old reference motor skills”) “were often prompted by an incorrect answer to a question, not any disciplinary problem or wrong doing. In that sense, there was no legal justification for her to strike the child.”

And then on page 3, we find: the teacher’s statement of “you gonna kick me, I’m gonna kick you (pg 2),” “implies revenge as a motive and a desire to hurt of cause pain to … rather than any educational purpose.”

I am thankful that the writer was able to determine that there was no educational purpose for the actions the teacher took upon the kid. It must have been a tough legal decision to write that out.

Is There Any Doubt?

What can speak more for an affirmation that the perception of the HCDS is a bully than being found in a Federal Court of law to have retaliated against a parent.

What started out as a IDEA issue, because of the actions of the District, ended up being a civil rights case under Section 504.

State of Florida
The Division of Administrative Hearings
Special Education Hearing

Recently, there was an event at a zoo where some young men taunted and harrassed a lion. Apparently they did it long enough and effective enough that the lion decided it had had enough. The lion probably gained extra motivation and strength from the physical and mental torment that it had endured. The lion jumped over the wall and caught two of his tormenters. Because of the lion's actions, he was retaliated against and was killed.

The lion should and would be alive today. Who started the actions that led to his condemnation?

Where does HCDS fit in the triangle?

Image More Important Than Substance?

This article may hold information that is common to our public school education systems. For those who believe that the main goal of the system is to maintain an image of competence at the cost of achieving competence, this article fits the template.

Two teachers with apparent laudable backgrounds appear to be trying to improve their system. It appears they have the necessary experience to comprehend what changes were needed that would be beneficial.

For their efforts, they are banned.

"Traube said the district isn’t interested in public constructive criticism.

“I think its obvious what they want is a very cooperative relationship between anyone representing teachers,” he said. “They don’t want anyone to be adversarial in this district”.


"Chester, who is retired from a career in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has taught for seven years. Last year, children at one of the schools she was banned from nominated her for teacher of the year, she said. She also volunteered to start a penmanship club at one of the schools."

"Teaching is what she loves, Chester said. But, she said, “I would like the cloud of fear that people who work for this district are under to go away.”"

This is not the first time I have heard of a "cloud of fear" within a public school system.


Banned substitutes still speaking out against school district : Lee County : Naples Daily News

We are Playing Those Mind Games Together

Hillsborough: Suspension without rules


I have written before about obfuscation.

I have a question. The administration (some)say that these suspensions are not a punishment.

How does a student process this information? From an educational point of view? From a behavior modification point of view?

In this case, we are talking a student with a processing difficulty.

Does anyone know what concrete thinking is?

Does anyone know what abstract thinking is?

Does anyone know how to ascertain when these different cognitive skills are needed to process information?

I keep hearing echos in my mind "But I didn't do anything wrong". (inside voice - I didn't get punished, so must not have done anything wrong.)

But other kids, when they get suspended, they are being punished. Why am I different? They are just playing mind games with me.

Training kids that suspension is not a consequence for "their" behavior, but the suspension is for the "parents" behavior is somewhat confusing.

Do they have different colored suspension forms so one can tell if it is the student behavior that gets the student suspended or the parents behavior that gets the student suspended?

Must be hell to have a parent that won't contact the school. In more ways than one.

What can one say on a blog

This is a sign of the times.

GISD moves ahead with threat to sue parent

By Rhiannon Meyers
The Daily News

Published October 31, 2007

GALVESTON — The public school district has officially demanded that
parent Sandra Tetley remove what it says is libelous material from her Web
site or face a lawsuit for defamation.



I have not read the blog to make my own opinion.


The fact that the School Board is suing was enough to get my attention.

What I am curious to see is if this is an abuse of power of the School Board.

How many teachers do you know that have been told not to bite the hand that feeds them?

How many parents that you know have been retaliated against by indirect or direct threats? I've been there, and I know others that have been there. And one landmark Federal case. Right here in my county.

This is the blog: here