Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Jeremiah Lasater case: do school lawyers protect bullies?

Another school shooting: a boy takes his own life in Acton, California after years of bullying.

Here in San Diego, Daniel Shinoff refused the request of the Santana shooting victim's families to have a conference on violence. Instead, he denied that the shooter had been bullied. Two-and-a-half years later, a boy at the school was brutalized by two students whom he had reported for hazing. They and the football coach were angry that the guilty parties had been suspended. The football coach set up a situation where the guilty parties could physically retaliate during football practice. Daniel Shinoff defended the coach.

What are the chances that schools will punish coaches who bully? Slim. Kids will continue to see bullying modeled by adults in schools.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My heart goes out to this boy’s family, bulling is a very painful experience for the victim and ultimately devastates the entire family.

It is heart wrenching and emotional subject for us to discuss yet we cannot avoid and pretend that it does not exist in our 21st century All American schools. How can we continue to ignore the fact that thousands of our children are bullied and we are as parents are powerless? I have lived with the guilt and pain for so many years. I blame myself for being so naïve and trusting of school district teachers and officials. After I found out my child was bullied, harassed, pushed round, endlessly teased and then suicidal, and ultimately unable to resolve the bulling with the school district. School districts react in a very barbaric manner and they always claim unawareness. I found in my search that school districts know they just don’t care.

When a parent looses a child at the hands of these bullies there is an endless void and an array of feeling and questions that never go away. Not only do the victims die the parent’s die as well. We become empty vessels, numb to the world around us, life is meaningless with no purpose or direction.

Bulling injures and destroys a child’s self esteem and sense of self worth. Bullies leave the families with permanent wounds. Bulling is a crime yet perpetrators of this crime are never brought to justice. When the victim and the family bring the matter before the school districts the victims are blamed, made to feel guilty and traumatized over and over until they don’t report bulling anymore. But that doesn’t stop the bulling in fact the bulling gets worst when the victims come forward and reports the crimes. In our case my son was made to feel that he was doing something wrong to cause these kids to continuously attack him.
Yes my son was isolated and suffered in silence for years, while the perpetrators went unpunished and school official rewarded their criminal conduct.

Special education students are easy targets and too often they are deprived of an education. Many victims will leave the schools to escape the hell they were subjected to will many permanent psychological injuries inflicted upon them.

I don’t accept the school excuses that they never witnessed or heard anything. They know, they heard and saw but chose to ignore the crimes committed against these defenseless children.

Anonymous said...

My son was bullied at Vista Unified School District for years; my son lost his innocence, his happiness, my son lost the sparkle in his eyes and the will to live.

There are all sorts of bullies children learn by example the Vista Unified School District and their Charter School Guajome Park Academy have too many bullies at every level.
There are many teacher that bully, molest, harass and physically abuse children. They are largely protected and tolerated by the “teachers unions.” Then there are the schoolyard bullies who learn all too well from the abusive teachers. Yes, school children single out and target the weakest child (the one the teachers singled out in the first place.)

Yes, many teachers lead in the bulling of the most vulnerable students and their PTA rats follow, I witness this for too many years while I volunteered there. Parents beware when you place your children in public schools like Vista Unified and Guajome Park Academy.

If parents only knew how these predator agencies operate they would be pulling their kids out of public schools like Vista Unified School District, Guajome Park Academy and Poway Unified School District. These public schools have little interest in protecting the health and safety of the students. Why should they care when they have insurance “Brokers.” like Keenan and Associates who steers the billable hours to their preferred lawyer Daniel Shinoff and his firm of Stutz Artiano Shinoff and Holtz? Keenan controls the insurance market for the Southern Region of California. Keenan is not interested in creating policies to protect the health and safety of students why should they the more the school district teachers and administrators screw up the better for them. It means higher premiums and more billable hours for both Keenan and Daniel Shinoff.

It is a win win game!

Plus lets not forget the San Diego County Office of Education scam or should we call it SELF-insured JPA in which Keenan is a member of the “SELF-SUPPER POOL.”

Now who is their leading man? Daniel Shinoff of course he creams the billable hours for both SELF and Keenan. Talk about conflict of interests and incestuous relationships.

Lets add Leslie Devaney who is an attorney at SASH a registered lobbyist who ran against Mike Aguirre and A bubby, buddy of our own DA Bonnie Dumanies.

Yes in the end nothing is about education or children but about racking in million of dollars of public funds. The more violations of the law the school districts have the better for SASH, Diane Crosier, Keenan and Associates and SELF.

MORE BILLABLE HOURS AND HIGHER PREMIUMS!!!!!!

Lets look at Poway Unified School District Danny is racking in the dough there in his own hometown. Poway Unified School District has some of the most egregious violations, from students getting sodomized, molested, gay students getting discriminated, brutality against special education, students beating up migrant worker, noses hanging, racial graffiti, and much more. The difference from PUSD and VUSD is that PUSD parents sue the school district. While VUSD parents don’t. It makes no difference though with Danny at the helm spending millions of dollars to get one single case dismissed with dozens of motions to dismiss and more motions to dismiss to wear down just about any attorney in town.

NOW WHO IS THE BIGGEST BULLY?


WE need to start a list of Danny’s body count how many children and parents have been screwed by Daniel Shinoff and his follies?

Here are some sites that I found inspired by Scruggsm v. Meriden Board of Education case.

http://www.freewebs.com/agpcabinc/index.htm

Where is the love? Remembering The Children Album powerpoint or video Pictures of 33 of the children remembered here.

http://www.ravendays.org/

www.ravendays.org

Names of children driven to bullycide.

The Tragic Consequences of Bullying...Remembering The Children We Love
2/8/2005-L.W. vs. Toms River Regional Schools Board of Education
Newark, NJ -- In a case that highlights the damaging effects of bullying on

"Rats & Bullies"
www.ratsandbullies.com
www.freewebs.com/parentsagainstbullies

Scruggsm v. Meriden Board of Education3:03CV2224(PCD)
(2nd Cir.2005)lower court ruling
http://www.websupp.org/data/DCT/3:03-cv-02224-89-DCT.pdf

School Bullying in Connecticut: Can the Statehouse
and the Courthouse Fix the Schoolhouse? An Analysis
of Connecticut’s Anti-Bullying Statute.
http://www.law.uconn.edu/journals/cpilj/contents/archives/vol7/Bloom.pdf

Anonymous said...

Danny Seiler a former Vista Unified School District and Guajome Park Academy student was sent to Daystar facility in Texas where he dies shortly. The death was ruled a suicide.


http://www.sdcourt.ca.gov/portal/page?_pageid=55,1056871&_dad=portal&_schema=portal
SEILER vs CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION ET., Al..

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/10/19/news/top_stories/10_18_0420_03_04.txt

Mother of VUSD student files wrongful death suit against Vista Unified School District, county agencies for her son’s death a former student of Guajome Park Academy.

http://www.nospank.net/n-j03.htm

http://www.hope4kidz.org/news/dayStar.html

The 100 or so Daystar residents are exceptionally good at one thing. They make a lot of money for a man named Clay Dean Hill.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/05/01/news/coastal/23_27_444_30_04.txt

Texas facility cleared in death of VUSD student

Anonymous said...

Parents of slain teens ask judge to end suit

They sued in shooting deaths at Santana High

By Leonel Sanchez
STAFF WRITER

February 3, 2006

SANTEE– The parents of the two boys killed in the 2001 shooting at Santana High School have asked a judge to dismiss their four-year-old lawsuit against the Grossmont Union High School District.

The case had been scheduled to go to trial today, though delays were expected.

Kenneth Hoyt, who represents the families of Bryan Zuckor and Randy Gordon, said his clients agreed with his recommendation to drop the lawsuit and avoid what could have been a long and costly trial.

“It is absolutely clear that the school district is committed to winning the case at all costs,” Hoyt said this week in a statement addressed to “friends and concerned parties.”

Yesterday, he said he offered to drop the suit if the district agreed not to pursue attorney fees from his clients, who could not be reached for comment.

Dan Shinoff, an attorney for the district, said the district agreed to the offer “though we were never going to pursue costs from these families.”

“These families have gone through enough. We simply hoped that they wouldn't go down this path, which I think would have been very difficult for them,” Shinoff said.

Michelle and George Zuckor and Mari Gordon-Rayborn filed suit in 2002, accusing the district and others of negligence and wrongful death.

They said the district failed to detect warning signs exhibited by Charles “Andy” Williams, the student convicted of fatally shooting their sons and wounding 13 others March 5, 2001, at the Santee campus.

The district has maintained that Williams' crimes were not foreseeable.

In December, Superior Court Judge Lillian Lim rejected the district's request to dismiss the case, paving the way for a February trial.

The judge also ruled the parents were not entitled to punitive damages.

The district appealed Lim's refusal to dismiss the case but its lawyers said they were also ready to go to trial. “We're just thankful it didn't end up there,” Shinoff said.

Hoyt said he wasn't ready for trial and was considering asking for a postponement as late as last month.

The families at one time asked for as much as $1 million, which would have been awarded to the brothers and sisters of the boys killed, Hoyt said.

Last year, the families proposed dropping the suit if the district agreed to hold a conference on youth violence. The district rejected the offer, saying it had already held forums and increased safety at all its campuses.

The families then offered to drop the suit for $100,000, but that too was rejected by the district.

Hoyt mailed his request to dismiss the case to Superior Court Judge Ronald Styn on Tuesday.

“On behalf of the plaintiffs I have offered to dismiss this case in exchange for a waiver of all attorney fees and costs,” Hoyt wrote.

He said yesterday he hoped the district would still consider holding a forum since “the threat of litigation is now over.

Leonel Sanchez: (619) 542-4568; leonel.sanchez@uniontrib.com