Louisiana teacher removed from school board meeting in handcuffs, booked into jail

Our schools belong to the public, as do our police forces. Police should not help school officials intimidate members of the public in open meetings. In this case, if a teacher deserved to be arrested for engaging in a question-and-answer session during public comment, then the school board members who also took part in the question-and-answer session should have been arrested. But why would anybody want to arrest either a citizen or a public official for discussing a matter of public interest?

It appears that the superintendent has some problems, and the board needs to take charge.

Story 1:

KATC: Vermilion Parish teacher removed from school board meeting in handcuffs, booked into jail

Jan. 9, 2018

The Acadiana Advocate

A Vermilion Parish middle school teacher was removed from a special school board meeting on Monday night in handcuffs, according to a report.

Update: Deyshia Hargrave was booked into the Abbeville City Jail after the incident on counts of remaining after being forbidden and resisting an officer, even though the school board decided not to press charges, KATC reported. She has since bonded out of jail...




Story 2:

"I have never seen a man removed from this room."

Louisiana teacher who criticized superintendent raise later handcuffed

KATC

Jan 9, 2018

...Her removal did not go unnoticed by one woman at the meeting. "What happened here tonight. The way that females are treated in Vermilion Parish. I have never seen a man removed from this room. Never. I have never seen a man removed from this room."...


Story 3:

Teacher removed from school board meeting in handcuffs

By Max Jaeger

January 9, 2018 

New York Post

A Louisiana teacher was violently arrested at a public school board meeting Monday night after she questioned her superintendent for giving himself a raise when teachers and administrators were made to go without.

Rene Rost Middle School English teacher Deyshia Hargrave was asked to leave the meeting because she was asking questions instead of making declarative statements during a public-comment portion of the Vermilion Parish school board meeting, according to KATC TV-3.

But once a city marshal got her out into a hallway, he started roughing her up as he slapped on the silver bracelet...

When she was called on to speak a second time, board president Anthony Fontana ruled her out of order and called in the marshal, the outlet reported.

Boston charter school leaders' big earnings should help reset expectations in education.

The Pay Leaders Deserve
By Frederick M. Hess
U.S. News and World Report
Aug. 7, 2017

Last week, The Boston Globe ran a front-page story on the pay of Boston's 16 charter-school leaders. Headlined "Charter School Leaders Making Big Money," it reported that most of the charter leaders earned total compensation of $150,000 to $200,000 in 2016, with three topping $200,000.

The Globe pointedly noted that Boston's superintendent, Tommy Chang, earned $272,000 last year for leading a 55,000 student district—while most of these charter schools enroll something closer to 500 or 600.

What to make of these data? One could obviously conclude that Boston's charter leaders are wildly overpaid...

But perhaps something else is going on.

It may be that terrific school leaders are underpaid...

Discipline in schools: are the adults worse than the children at Horton and Castle Park Elementary Schools?

Here are two stories of misbehavior at schools. In the first, students became noisy in the cafeteria and grabbed a bathroom pass from an employee's pocket. In the second, teachers celebrated the last day of school by saturating curtains, walls, upholstered furniture and carpet in the teachers lounge with soda and desserts that were left over from parties in their classrooms.

Too many adults in schools confuse authority with power. They think whoever has power gets to do whatever they want. Quite a few teachers and administrators are as desperately in need of lessons in respect as the worst-behaved students.

Story One

ACLU criticizes S.D. elementary school for forcing students to plank

Maureen Magee

San Diego Union-Tribune
Dec. 5, 2016

Horton Elementary School in southeastern San Diego has come under fire for disciplining students for misbehavior by forcing them to hold a plank position on a hot blacktop surface, which the ACLU said amounts to corporal punishment.

An incident occurred in October when a ruckus erupted in the cafeteria after a student reportedly took a bathroom pass from an employee’s pocket. The school replaced open recess for fourth- and fifth-graders with structured exercising, including the plank or push-up position.

Some of the students’ parents were banned from campus for 14 days under threat of prosecution after they complained to the principal...

San Diego Unified disagrees that corporal punishment was used, rather Horton “modified open recess” for the students for three days “as a result of unruly behavior displayed by students during the lunch period on Oct. 14,” district spokeswoman Shari Winet said in a written statement...

The rowdy lunchtime incident prompted staff to summon the principal, Staci Dent, who arrived at the cafeteria to find some students pounding on their desks or tables...

According to the ACLU and parent complaints filed with the district, students were “forced to get into a push-up or ‘plank’ position, and hold the pose for a significant period of time, potentially as long as several minutes.” Some developed blisters on their hands after they “were forced to hold their hands against the scalding hot blacktop” or face time in juvenile hall, according to the principal’s threats, the ACLU said in its letter to Marten.

...The principal sent “stay away” letters to at least four parents informing them they were banned from campus for 14 days under a provision in the Penal Code. The letters threatened the parents with arrest and prosecution should they “enter onto district property in the future and should they cause disturbance or disruption....Read more here.

Story Two--Food Fight at Castle Park Elementary
by Maura Larkins
Dec. 11, 2016

There was a huge food fight at Castle Park Elementary School when I was a teacher there.

The walls, furniture and carpet of the teachers lounge were saturated with sodas and cake on the last day of classes. It took the custodians over a week to clean it, and another week for it to dry. There were absolutely no consequences for any of the immature, negligent teachers who made the mess. (No students were involved.)

The next year one of the teachers returned to the lounge on the last day of school wearing a raincoat. She was planning to do a repeat performance, but no one else was interested.

The teacher in the raincoat (I'll call her "R" for raincoat) had a habit of becoming enraged when students weren't suspended when she demanded it. She and her "family" (I kid you not; that's what her clique of teachers called themselves) controlled the principal and the district administration.

"R" also caused huge legal bills for the district and was finally transferred out as part of the "Castle Park Five" when the district tried to retake control of the school from the rogue teachers.

Ironically, David Loy, chief counsel for the San Diego ACLU, went out of his way to cover-up everything that happened at Castle Park Elementary. He went out of his way to undermine my First Amendment rights in this law suit. I suspect that some wealthy ACLU donor (someone like Irwin Jacobs) gives large donations to the ACLU and in return asks the San Diego ACLU to foster his pet projects, one of which is to increase the arbitrary power of school administrators. Irwin Jacobs is my top suspect because he has spent huge amounts of money trying to mold schools to fit his vision, which even included packing the SDUSD board with unelected board members.

I think the adults at Horton Elementary would have been more successful at encouraging kids to value self-control if they involved the kids in some highly organized but fun physical activities.

Is the dumbest person on the staff in charge of the school?

In my experience there are many school administrators who aren't the brightest bulbs on the porch. In addition there is a problem of arrogance and egotism and lack of empathy in some principals' offices. But if dressing as Donald Trump was a dumb thing to do, voluntarily posing with a woman dressed as Hillary in prison garb was much worse. One wonders if this principal and his secretary planned this display.

Virginia principal dresses as Trump, secretary as Clinton in prison garb
by Vernon Freeman Jr.
Daily Kos
November 2, 2016

Principal Mark Rowicki dressed as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump 

and School secretary Stephanie Corbett dressed as Hillary Clinton. (R.E. Lee High 

School website/Emberly Lynn Martin Facebook)

STAUNTON, Va. – Some Virginia parents are outraged after the Principal at Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton dressed up as Donald Trump and a school secretary dressed as Hillary Clinton, in prison garb, for Halloween.

A photo of pair was posted on the school’s website in a Halloween photo album of costumes worn by students and staff...

The photo has since been removed.

Since the photos went public, parents in Staunton have criticized the administration for the “politically charged costumes” on school grounds.

One of those parents was Emberly Lynn Martin, who graduated from the high school and has two daughters.

“I don’t care who you are or are not voting for. You are professionals, who work with children. Some more impressionable then others. The fact that any school official would think it’s okay to dress like this leaves me appalled and floored,” Martin wrote on a Facebook post with the controversial image. “What message are you sending to any of them when their high school principal dresses up like a man who wants to deport them, says things like “she’s a nasty woman”, or “grab em by the p—–?”...

A typical American school? This school doesn't want this parent to talk about what's going on in classrooms

 This sounds just like my school: those in charge don't want to talk; they have spies and a gossip mill to keep everyone in line; power depends on politics, not professionalism; the goal is to present a facade of a smooth-running machine to the public.

I believe there should be a whole lot more open, honest communication at schools.

I like the idea of parents creating their own groups outside the control of the PTA, and inviting teachers and principals to come and talk to them. I do think that more time should be set aside for teachers to communicate with parents and with each other. I think the school should make sample iPads available for parents to peruse, but I think I might feel uncomfortable if another parent were photographing my child's written or digital work.

I also think teachers need to be paid a lot more, and be more accountable.

Is this volunteer parent an enemy spy? A school district treats her like one.
By Jay Mathews
Washington Post
September 4, 2016

March 18 was a typical day for Melissa Dana, a parent and physician who volunteers as a classroom aide in Falls Church City schools. Her local elementary school was having an Ancient Civilizations Festival. She played a 15-minute video for each class and helped students use an app on their iPads to write Chinese calligraphy.

As instructed by the school’s teachers, she checked to see if the children were working just on calligraphy and not other parts of the app. Curious about what her child was learning, she looked at some of the apps. She took screen shots so she could view them later at home. She noted what students were doing with the technology and took some photos of what was on their iPads without identifying any student.

She also asked her child’s teacher about the activity, chatted with another teacher who was a friend and, on her way out, stopped to talk to the librarian.

That’s when it gets weird. All of her movements were reported to Falls Church City Schools Superintendent Toni Jones.

Photo:  Supt. Tori Jones

Jones called Dana in five days later and gave her a letter saying she better watch her step. “Please accept this as a formal notification that making interview or meeting requests and impromptu questioning which causes staff to feel uncomfortable is not appropriate during the course of the school day and/or on school grounds,” said the letter, which ended with “Regards, Toni.”

Despite 14 years of unpaid effort on behalf of the city’s schools, Dana was told by Jones she would no longer be allowed to volunteer if she did not mend her ways.

Dana has been a critic of Jones. Such tension between school leaders and active parents is common but rarely reported. School districts say they welcome outsider involvement. The Falls Church City school board’s mission statement says “our schools must be responsive and accountable to the community.” But parents like Dana often feel a chill if they ask too many questions.

In a statement, the school district said Jones warned Dana in part because “we are careful to protect student privacy and data.” It also bothered staff that Dana had asked to meet with staff members “on more than 20 occasions” during the school year and “wrote over 2,100 emails to 145 separate FCCPS email accounts,” according to the statement.
The best teachers I know like dealing with parents. A teacher who worked last year at an elementary school told me a majority of her colleagues “were thrilled that Melissa was asking questions.” Jamie Scharff, an International Baccalaureate teacher at George Mason High School, said he has “never met a parent as sincerely dedicated to helping the schools” as Dana.

Jones’s letter accused Dana of “attempting to log on inappropriately to at least one technology device, and taking random pictures not associated with tasks assigned to you in your role as a parent volunteer.” Dana said the charge of logging on inappropriately was “absolutely false” and “I was taking very specific pictures of the activity to which I was assigned.”
What bothers me most is the school district presenting her large number of emails as a sign of misbehavior. Dana told me she was concerned by teacher complaints of mismanagement and made hundreds of contacts with parents and teachers, plus school board members. What’s wrong with that? She said 234 people emailed her their support for a satisfaction survey she was advocating.

In May, several people, including Dana and her husband, formed a group called The Falls Church Way, seeking more input on school policy for parents, teachers and community members. The group wants the board to include staff, parents and community members in its evaluation of Jones this month. Jones has agreed to meet with the group every month.
School officials often consider such groups a nuisance. But asking questions can lead to meaningful change. Smart administrators know that and listen carefully to parents before threatening to ban them from volunteering.

Jay Mathews is an education columnist and blogger for the Washington Post, his employer for 40 years.

A typical American school? This school doesn't want this parent to talk about what's going on in classrooms

Is this volunteer parent an enemy spy? A school district treats her like one.

By Jay Mathews  

Washington Post

September 4, 2016

 

March 18 was a typical day for Melissa Dana, a parent and physician who volunteers as a classroom aide in Falls Church City schools. Her local elementary school was having an Ancient Civilizations Festival. She played a 15-minute video for each class and helped students use an app on their iPads to write Chinese calligraphy.
As instructed by the school’s teachers, she checked to see if the children were working just on calligraphy and not other parts of the app. Curious about what her child was learning, she looked at some of the apps. She took screen shots so she could view them later at home. She noted what students were doing with the technology and took some photos of what was on their iPads without identifying any student.
She also asked her child’s teacher about the activity, chatted with another teacher who was a friend and, on her way out, stopped to talk to the librarian.

 

That’s when it gets weird. All of her movements were reported to Falls Church City Schools Superintendent Toni Jones. Jones called Dana in five days later and gave her a letter saying she better watch her step. “Please accept this as a formal notification that making interview or meeting requests and impromptu questioning which causes staff to feel uncomfortable is not appropriate during the course of the school day and/or on school grounds,” said the letter, which ended with “Regards, Toni.”

Despite 14 years of unpaid effort on behalf of the city’s schools, Dana was told by Jones she would no longer be allowed to volunteer if she did not mend her ways.

Dana has been a critic of Jones. Such tension between school leaders and active parents is common but rarely reported. School districts say they welcome outsider involvement. The Falls Church City school board’s mission statement says “our schools must be responsive and accountable to the community.” But parents like Dana often feel a chill if they ask too many questions.

In a statement, the school district said Jones warned Dana in part because “we are careful to protect student privacy and data.” It also bothered staff that Dana had asked to meet with staff members “on more than 20 occasions” during the school year and “wrote over 2,100 emails to 145 separate FCCPS email accounts,” according to the statement.
The best teachers I know like dealing with parents. A teacher who worked last year at an elementary school told me a majority of her colleagues “were thrilled that Melissa was asking questions.” Jamie Scharff, an International Baccalaureate teacher at George Mason High School, said he has “never met a parent as sincerely dedicated to helping the schools” as Dana.

Jones’s letter accused Dana of “attempting to log on inappropriately to at least one technology device, and taking random pictures not associated with tasks assigned to you in your role as a parent volunteer.” Dana said the charge of logging on inappropriately was “absolutely false” and “I was taking very specific pictures of the activity to which I was assigned.”
What bothers me most is the school district presenting her large number of emails as a sign of misbehavior. Dana told me she was concerned by teacher complaints of mismanagement and made hundreds of contacts with parents and teachers, plus school board members. What’s wrong with that? She said 234 people emailed her their support for a satisfaction survey she was advocating.

In May, several people, including Dana and her husband, formed a group called The Falls Church Way, seeking more input on school policy for parents, teachers and community members. The group wants the board to include staff, parents and community members in its evaluation of Jones this month. Jones has agreed to meet with the group every month.
School officials often consider such groups a nuisance. But asking questions can lead to meaningful change. Smart administrators know that and listen carefully to parents before threatening to ban them from volunteering.

8

Jay Mathews is an education columnist and blogger for the Washington Post, his employer for 40 years.

Neil Hamburger

4:03 PM PST

"The best teachers I know like dealing with parents."

You must not know many teachers. The best teachers resist dealing with parents because parents want their snowflake to be given less work, or easier work, or to have their C bumped up to an A for no good reason. The sheer amount of nonsense parents ask for is outrageous. Bad teachers just succumb to it because they don't care.

Gator1151

3:55 PM PST

I see the school district superintendent came from Oklahoma. You could ask those parents if they were sad or glad to see her go. But who tattled on the volunteer to start this mess? Looks to me like those elementary school teachers need adult supervision themselves.

Sean Derry

3:52 PM PST

Teachers are in the business of managing the education of children, not managing adults. I don't think the average person in the public realizes how little time teachers have to belabor the minutiae of school policy with parents. Your child's teacher is usually dealing with 20-25 children and their parents. That is one person serving as the contact point for 60-75 people, plus the demands of paperwork, planning and dealing with whatever management throws at them.

Volunteers should volunteer. No teacher trying to assist 20 plus little children needs an adult volunteer who needs monitoring and attention. Would you walk into an ER and follow the staff around taking pictures and asking questions after a major car crash? By the way, a child's identity and image is private and schools are legally obliged to be discreet. Do you want a volunteer in your child's classroom to be wandering around and snapping pictures for unknown reasons? Think about it.

Most schools have steering committees that involve parents. This volunteer should join or start such a committee and stick to actually volunteering in the classroom.

taverngeek

3:47 PM PST

The risk for school administration is that involved parents and volunteers can decide to run for the school board and become the administrator's boss. It is far better for administration to answer questions than risking inspiring a questioning person to run for the local school board. 

Kary Bear

3:37 PM PST

Sounds like typical office politics to me. 'Office politics' means 'bullying and pressure to fit in' really just worded in a more adult way for grown ups who don't want to admit they act just like kids. But it's normal, sadly, and what goes on in any work place or any place where many people work together, unfortunately. It's just a part of life, and when someone feels on edge because they worry you might threaten their security, their job, or even their unaccounted for corruption, they will retaliate most of the time. That's when you need to cross all your t's and dot all your i's and sorry, but, snapping photos in a classroom setting without permission is wrong. So of course they're going to use it against someone when they're just looking for something to use against you. They can't know for sure what she took a picture of, and taking pictures of other children's phones and such, IS inappropriate.

MatthewWP

3:37 PM PST

What's Jones hiding?

MontereyTwilly

3:20 PM PST [Edited]

She sounds like a great employee to me. This is so common in schools and in business, an employee does great work and their superiors get threatened. Jones should be investigated.

pcwag

3:17 PM PST

Guilty of impersonating a real teacher, which today borders a crime.

Man who oversaw Flint lead poisoning switched to manager of Detroit Public Schools

So you've ruined a town and poisoned its children—what next? Bill them for your legal costs

By Mark Sumner  

Monday Apr 25, 2016 

REBLOGGED BY Daily Kos

Darnell Earley was appointed as emergency manager of Flint, Michigan, by Gov. Rick Snyder. As emergency manager he had expansive powers including control over the city’s public works, and while it was yet another Synder-appointed emergency manager who signed the contract to start pumping water out of the Flint River, Earley was the man in charge when the switch over actually happened and lead started leaching into the water delivered to homes.

Earley is, with some justification, under criminal investigation as part of the ongoing Flint crisis. So it’s not surprising that he’s hired a lawyer. What is surprising is what he did with his legal bills.

Former Flint emergency manager Darnell Earley tried to bill the cash-strapped city $750 an hour for an attorney to sit with him while he was questioned last month in Washington by a congressional committee and to represent him in ongoing criminal investigations related to the Flint drinking water crisis, records obtained by the Free Press show.
Earley, whose office was searched by state investigators on Feb. 29, and who told the City of Flint on March 11 that he is under criminal investigation in connection with the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water, wants the city to pay legal fees that already have topped $75,000 and continue to grow, records obtained under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act show.

Nothing shows that you have nothing but the best interests of a city caught in a budget crunch firmly in mind like billing them $75,000 because you—whoops!—slipped a lead mickey to its kids.

Those worried about Earley (a select group) might want to know what he’s been up to in the last year.

The state moved Earley from the Flint job — where he served from September 2013 to January 2015 — to a new post as emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools. Earley served with DPS until Feb. 29, stepping down from the $225,000-a-year job amid controversy and with the school district in worse financial shape than when he took office.

Has anyone seen former FEMA director Michael Brown lately? Seems like these two might have a lot to talk about.

New Mexico Investigates School's Hiring of Sex Abuse Suspect

Why am I not surprised that Jay Martinez was an award-winning educator? It's long past time for an effective evaluation system for teachers--partly because we need to know who we're dealing with when teachers move into jobs as administrators.

New Mexico Investigates School's Hiring of Sex Abuse Suspect

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUG. 24, 2015

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico's attorney general said Monday he will investigate how the state's largest school district hired a high-level administrator who faces child sex abuse charges in Colorado.

The district's new superintendent, meanwhile, faces increasing pressure to resign over the debacle.

Attorney General Hector Balderas announced his office will look into why Albuquerque Public Schools' safety protocols were dismissed and former deputy superintendent Jason Martinez was hired in June before a background check was completed.

Superintendent Luis Valentino hired Martinez to head the district's instruction and technology division.

Martinez resigned abruptly last week. It later surfaced that he faces four felony counts of sexual assault on a child in Colorado involving two victims. Two previous counts have been dismissed, according to the Denver District Attorney's Office.

A lawyer for Karen Rudys, the district's interim assistant superintendent for human resources, said Valentino was informed multiple times about Martinez refusing to complete his background check but ignored those concerns.

"This was a horrific breach of trust for the parents of APS," Balderas told The Associated Press on Monday. He stopped short of saying if his office would seek criminal charges, but he said the office will see if the district conducted necessary criminal background checks on other employees.

Valentino was selected for the superintendent post in June, and the school board plans to vote Thursday on whether he should be dismissed...

The Denver Post reported Martinez won a districtwide award in 2011 for helping design The Digital Door Project, which gathers data for teachers and principals, including individual student data, to help improve standardized test scores...

UCSD administrators punish a male student without considering the facts

UCSD is not alone when it comes to abusive administrators. A recent case at UCSD sounds sadly familiar.

In the case below, the woman who brought charges of sexual assault seems to have lost perspective about one instance of touching in between two acts of consensual sex with another student.

UCSD administrators also lost perspective.  They threw out most of the evidence in the case.

And then dean Sherry Mallory and the UCSD council of provosts made the situation worse by using abusive measures to deprive a student of due process:

Judge Pressman simultaneously found that the school's dean Sherry Mallory and the council of provosts increased the period that John Doe would be suspended from school each time he tried to appeal the board's decision.

Why do college and K-12 administrators rather frequently act in an arbitrary and abusive manner?

Because they can.

They have lawyers who will help them get away with improper actions--most of the time. Very frequently the Superior Court will rubber stamp just about any action by school officials, but in the following case, the Superior Court didn't tolerate UCSD's abusive behavior in a Title IX hearing.

In my experience, public entity lawyers FREQUENTLY FAIL to advise public officials that they must follow the law.  Perhaps the lawyers fear the officials will find other lawyers who will help the officials achieve their goals, whether those goals are lawful or not, rather than instructing them to follow the law.

Judge says "regret" at root of rape case

UCSD student exonerated of sexual assault charges

By Dorian Hargrove 

San Diego Reader

July 13, 2015

Administrators at the University of California San Diego failed to properly investigate sexual assault allegations against a male student and increased sanctions against him for appealing their decision, ruled superior court judge Joel Pressman on Friday, July 10. 

A female student accused the 20-year-old male, known as John Doe, of inappropriately touching her on the morning of February 1, 2014. The male student denied these allegations and later told an officer who was investigating the accusations that the two had had sex both the night before and after the alleged touching occurred. However, John Doe's statements to investigating officers, as well as other evidence, was not allowed to be presented during the Title IX sexual misconduct hearing.

"The Court finds that substantial evidence does not support the finding of non-consensual sexual activity," reads judge Pressman's July 10 ruling. "First, as stated above, crucial findings...were based upon [the officer's] investigation summary that was not presented at the hearing in any meaningful way. Given the fundamental unfairness of relying on this report without a meaningful opportunity for petitioner to challenge its contents, the court has no choice but to exclude the report from consideration in evaluating whether substantial evidence exists to support the conclusion."

Furthermore, ruled Pressman, "The only evidence presented in any meaningful way at the hearing was the testimony of [the woman]…. Additionally, Ms. Roe admitted that she voluntarily continued consensual sexual activity with Mr. Doe later that very same day. The court is not weighing Ms. Roe's credibility. But the incident on the morning of February 1, cannot be viewed in a vacuum. When viewed as part of the entire narrative, the sequence of events do [sic] not demonstrate non-consensual behavior. What the evidence does show is Ms. Roe's personal regret for engaging in sexual activity beyond her boundaries."

Judge Pressman simultaneously found that the school's dean Sherry Mallory and the council of provosts increased the period that John Doe would be suspended from school each time he tried to appeal the board's decision.

Initially, the Title IX panel ordered that John Doe serve a semester suspension, avoid any contact with the woman, sexual harassment classes, and counseling. Doe, however, appealed their ruling to Mallory. In response, Mallory increased his suspension from a semester to an entire year, forcing the student to reapply to the school. The student then appealed to the council of provosts. They denied his appeal and added an additional semester to his year-long suspension.

"Given the lack of rationale by both Dean Mallory and the Council of Provosts for the increased sanctions, it appears the increased sanctions are punitive towards Petitioner for appealing the decision of the Panel," ruled Pressman.

The handling of sexual assault investigations has come under increased scrutiny at colleges across the country. Title IX grants colleges the authority to investigate and conduct hearings on alleged assaults. The hearings are not criminal hearings, but school administrators do have the authority to expel students. 

In April 2015, a male student at San Diego State University filed a lawsuit against the school for expelling him after a female student accused him of forced copulation. According to the complaint, the student, Francisco Sousa, was not allowed to provide text messages and other evidence that proved his innocence. He has since filed a claim with the California State University's risk management department, a prelude to a lawsuit.

Attorneys for the UCSD student celebrated Pressman's decision as a step in the right direction.

“It’s encouraging to see courts recognizing that sexual misconduct complaints on campus cannot be resolved at the expense of Constitutional rights and fundamental fairness,” said Mark Hathaway, an attorney for John Doe in a statement. 

“Colleges and universities must treat all students fairly, regardless of gender. All too often the male student is just presumed responsible and given no access to any campus resources. Hopefully Judge Pressman’s ruling will help correct the imbalance.”

Ex-San Ysidro district superintendent Manuel Paul admits squeezing contractor for donations

If we look at the extremely high percentage of women and people of color among the officials indicted by the District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit over the years, we are forced to conclude one of two things:

1) either women and people of color are more corrupt than white males; or

2) the people who are targeted for prosecution do not enjoy the same protections and immunities that white male public officials in San Diego tend to enjoy.

I'm not saying that the DA is racist.  I don't think that's it.  I think the explanation for the gender and color imbalance is simply that the public officials with the most power tend NOT to be women or people of color.  The truly powerful public officials are mostly white males, and the DA wouldn't dare go after them.

And the big money isn't in parking lots in San Ysidro.  It isn't even in $20 million solar panel deals.

A few years ago the FBI was investigating kickbacks to public entities in San Diego from insurance companies. Nothing ever came of that. My guess is that they couldn't find an ideal defendant to indict: someone without connections in the high ranks of the San Diego political establishment.

Here is a link to my page about the County of Santa Clara vs. Driver Alliant Insurance Services, Inc., et al lawsuit.  These are the types of transactions that involve significant amounts of money.  The really big deals are not as much fun for the political establishment to talk about as a small cash envelope in a parking lot--so you don't read about them much in the paper. The big players almost always avoid criminal court. Note the lack of prosecutions in the 2009 Financial Crisis that was caused by the greed of the wealthy and powerful.

The big guys generally don't see the inside of a criminal court, and their civil cases get settled, not tried, where the public might get wind of what actually happened. (Of course, the Manuel Paul case wasn't tried in court, either. Why no trials? Who knows what information might come out in a trial that might expose a big fish?)

Here's a sample of a school district deal worth $1 billion: Superintendent John Deasy of Los Angeles Unified school district (LAUSD) probably isn't worried. I suspect that you need a lot better political connections to become superintendent of LAUSD than you do to get the top spot in San Ysidro School District.

Given that we live in a system in which huge corporation and billionaires believe they can buy elections, it's sort of embarrassing that the FBI is chasing down such small-time players.

Clearly, Bonnie Dumanis and the FBI aren't going to be able to stop campaign finance corruption.

But wouldn't it be nice if the public--and Bonnie Dumanis--started looking a little closer at some of the well-heeled districts on the north side of town?

In CVESD we also had a superintendent using his power to affect the school board election.



See all posts on white chalk crime.

Ex-San Ysidro district superintendent Manuel Paul admits squeezing contractor for donations
Channel 10 News
Aug 20, 2014

SAN DIEGO - A former San Ysidro School District superintendent pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to extracting political contributions from a prospective contractor by threatening to withhold work on future building contracts.

Manuel Paul, 63, faces up to a year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine when he is sentenced Nov. 18.

According to his plea agreement, Paul admitted he asked a contractor to contribute $3,600 to three political candidates for the 2010 School Board election...

Read more.

It’s the students who lose when universities pay enormous salaries to upper-level administrators while cutting faculty salaries

What parents need to know about college faculty
BY Joseph Fruscione
PBS
August 14, 2014

Editor’s Note: Another school year is about to start, and parents will soon be packing their teenagers up for college. But do they know who’s teaching their kids?

America’s college and university faculty doesn’t look like it did when parents were in school. Today, adjunct professors represent more than 70 percent of all faculty. These teachers aren’t tenure-track, and they’re probably teaching on multiple campuses to make ends meet because they earn an average of $2,500 per course (with three or four courses per semester). That makes it hard for your sons or daughters to find their office hours — if they even have offices (most of them don’t).

Joe Fruscione used to be one of those adjuncts. But after 15 years shuffling among three Washington, DC-area universities, he’s left that world to pursue a career as a freelance writer and editor and activist. Last month on this page, he wrote about the petition he and other adjuncts will be delivering to the U.S. Department of Labor...

It’s the students who lose...when universities “pay enormous salaries to upper-level administrators while cutting faculty salaries by dismantling tenure and moving faculty to piecemeal adjunct positions...

Judge rules against NCAA in Ed O'Bannon antitrust lawsuit

 It's time to take a look at education administrators.  The culture of school administrators from elementary through college is supports the personal and political agendas of those in charge rather than the advancement of students.

See all posts on bad administrators.

Judge rules against NCAA in Ed O'Bannon antitrust lawsuit

By Lee Romney 

Los Angeles Times

August 8, 2014

Former UCLA star Ed O'Bannon prevails in landmark lawsuit against NCAA

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken dealt a major  blow Friday afternoon to the NCAA and its long-held value of amateurism, ruling in an antitrust case that the association's policies banning athletes from profiting from their own names, images and likenesses  “unreasonably restrain trade.”
Wilken issued her ruling five weeks after a bench trial in the case brought by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon on behalf of Division I men’s basketball and football players concluded.

Wilken, however, stopped short of lifting rules that bar student-athletes to receive money for commercial endorsements while in school, saying that would  “undermine the efforts of both the NCAA and its member schools to protect against the ‘commercial exploitation’ of student-athletes.”...