Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch

I tried to get the Doug Erwin files from Tom Gonzalez. I was asking for public information which he wouldn't send me or even acknowledge that I had requested them. Not producing public information to a citizen was one complaint I made against Mr. Gonzalez in the Florida Bar Ethics Commission charge.

I wanted to examine the files so that I could determine whether Tom Gonzalez counseled the board to sue Mr. Erwin.

Three of the ghouls are still on the board who crucified Erwin: Olson, Kurdell, and Lamb. They must have all voted to sue Mr. Erwin. He won the case and, I believe that there was an appeal, which he won too. He got a small settlement too, but I bet that Gonzalez's firm got a bundle. I want those figures. Gonzalez is stonewalling.

Mr. Erwin left the school district in which he had worked so many years in different capacities. I saw his name on the principal list at Armwood, where now the ghoulish Hutek retaliates against teacher Bruce Burnham for daring to come to a board meeting to protest Elia's loading an extra class on teachers to solve her budget problems.

Mr. Erwin got the Moral Courage Award from HIllsborough County, but not one board member showed up for the ceremony.

Apparently, the parents in this recital below also won against the school board eventually and got the Moral Courage Award. God bless them for having the stamina and guts to fight.

The Erwin case and this one convince me that the administration and board are evil. They savage people with one iota of remorse.

The firing of Marc Hart and covering up for Pole Girl Falliero is another instance of wicked conduct. Elia told Valdez to fire him. Valdez told Hart that unless he quietly resigned "things would get ugly." So Hart resigned. People in the schools have been brainwashed into rolling over for this wicked ROSSAC crowd. It would not take many who refused to roll over to break the pattern of the board's sadism. Bart Birdsall fought them and won.

But when the case goes into the courts as with Doug Erwin, the taxpayers pay for the savaging of a good person by wicked people.

And make no mistake who is responsible for this situation: it is the gutless, complicit school board.

When I first got interested in the school-board mess, teachers naively thought the board would rescue them. They should have been sophisticated enough to know better. The school board's colluders are the most guilty element in the whole ugly parody of government's looking out for the people. The board is looking out for its ceremonial place on the dais and with catering to Ms. Elia or whichever petty tyrant they put into that office. Never fool yourself again about who is responsible for your miserable job conditions. It's the board.

Teachers went ga-ga over April Griffin's few crumbs of attention to them. I have asked April and Susan to carve out a place on the board agenda for teachers and students. They have not done it. They have not even responded to my request.

Lamb, Kurdell, Ethridge, and Valdez are running again for election. Their filing dates and addresses will be on the Supervisor of Elections Web soon. Look the addresses up and write each candidate to tell you whether he or she will extend the time for public comment from 3 to 5 minutes and whether he or she will insert into the board agenda a teachers' and students' slot so that these excluded members of the school community will feel that they are not shut out of the process of the running of the schools in which they teach and learn. lee

lee

From: The Special Ed Concierge [mailto:interestedinbestpractices@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 12:53 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Answer to the reader about the 3-minute restricti....

The Special Ed Concierge has left a new comment on your post " Answer to the reader about the 3-minute restricti...":

Everyone knows that Doug Erwin won the moral courage award in 2006.

The Whiteheads won it in 2002.

Both of them were up against the Hillsborough County School Board.

"......KEITH AND NIKOLE WHITEHEAD HAVE LED A COURAGEOUS BATTLE AGAINST THE HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT ON BEHALF OF THEIR SON, ANDREW, AS WELL AS ALL CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES.
DO YOU-ALL WANT TO COME AROUND HERE SO WE CAN GET YOU ON THE CAMERA.
BECAUSE WE WANT EVERYBODY TO SEE YOU THROUGH THE COUNTY.
WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU'RE COVERED.
WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN RESOLVED THROUGH A SINGLE PHONE CALL RESULTED IN AN EIGHT-YEAR LEGAL FIGHT, WHICH COST THE COUPLE AT LEAST $1 MILLION IN ATTORNEYS' FEES.
THIS BEGAN WHEN THE ONE-HOUR PER WEEK OF SPEECH THERAPY THAT WAS PROMISED TO ANDREW, WHO WAS BORN WITH HEART, MUSCLE, AND MOTOR PROBLEMS IN ADDITION TO MENTAL RETARDATION WAS DISCONTINUED WITH NO NOTICE TO HIS PARENTS.
AFTER ATTEMPTS TO REMEDY THE PROBLEM WITH THE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT FAILED, THE WHITEHEADS COMPLAINED TO THE UNITED STATES OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS.
WHAT FOLLOWED WAS A HEART-WRENCHING BATTLE FOR THE WHITEHEADS TO RECEIVE THE RIGHTS THEY FELT THEY DESERVED FROM OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM.
THE DETERMINATION OF KEITH AND NIKOLE WHITEHEAD HAS CHANGED THE WAY OTHER PARENTS AND EDUCATORS INTERACT.
LOCAL PARENTS OF DISABLED CHILDREN HAVE PRAISED THE EFFORTS OF THE WHITEHEADS AND HAVE CREDITED THEM WITH HAVING A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THEIR CHILDREN.
A RIVERVIEW FATHER WHO HAD WRESTLED WITH THE SYSTEM ON BEHALF OF HIS DEAF AND BLIND SON SAID HE FIRMLY BELIEVED HIS SON WOULD BE IN AN INSTITUTION IF THE WHITEHEADS HAD NOT WON THEIR COURT FIGHT.
ANOTHER PARENT STATED THAT NIKOLE WHITEHEAD'S ATTENDANCE AT A DISTRICT STAFF MEETING WITH PARENTS TO DISCUSS SERVICES FOR THEIR DISABLED CHILDREN RESULTED IN HER DAUGHTER BEING PROVIDED THE LARGE-PRINT BOOKS AND SPECIAL CHAIR THAT WAS NEEDED DUE TO SPINA BIFIDA.
IN ADDITION TO THEIR COURAGE, WHAT MAKES THE WHITEHEADS IDEAL WINNERS OF THIS AWARD IS THEIR DETERMINATION TO KEEP UP THE FIGHT, DESPITE THE REALIZATION EARLY ON THAT NONE OF THEIR EFFORTS WERE GOING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THEIR OWN SON, ANDREW, BUT THEY KNEW THAT IT MIGHT MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR OTHER CHILDREN FACED WITH THE SAME CHALLENGES IN THE FUTURE.
ACCORDING TO MANY OTHER TESTIMONIES FROM PARENTS LIKE THOSE I JUST MENTIONED, KEITH AND NIKOLE'S RESOLVE WAS NOT IN VAIN BECAUSE IT DID AND IT CONTINUES TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
THEREFORE, I AM PLEASED TO PRESENT TO BOTH OF YOU THIS MORNING THE 2002 MORAL COURAGE AWARD.
AND LET ME GET THAT FOR YOU.

http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/htv/caption/scripts/ar020327.txt

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Posted by The Special Ed Concierge to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 9:53 AM

From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 3:15 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Answer to the reader about the 3-minute restricti....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post " Answer to the reader about the 3-minute restricti...":

The board should at least allow 5 minutes for public comment. You can not say anything very important in 3 minutes. It is degrading to people. The very least they should give 5 minutes. When there is a major issue at hand and the place is packed they may have to cut it to 3 minutes so that the most people can speak, but on regular nights it should be 5 minutes.

They just don't want to stay late. They probably want to go home and watch some tv show. It is probably why they moved the board meeting to 3pm. Candy Olson complained one time that they changed the time to end earlier and they still end at the same time. I think she was worried about missing her favorite tv program.

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Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 12:15 PM