Monday, January 26, 2009

I Got a Hit! Pray, Everybody, Pray

Thank you, Penny. Thank God there are people who work for such entities as the
Southern Poverty Law Center. lee

-----Original Message-----
From: Penny Weaver [mailto:Penny.Weaver@splcenter.org]
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 12:08 PM
To: lee De Cesare
Subject: Re: Comment on the Center's Work

Lee,

I am forwarding your message to our attorneys working on this issue. Thanks
for writing.

Penny Weaver
Southern Poverty Law Center
400 Washington Ave.
Montgomery, Alabama 36104
www.splcenter.org
334/956-8200




On 1/26/09 10:59 AM, "lee De Cesare [Contact form]"
wrote:

> ---------------Message from---------------
> Ms. lee drury De Cesare
> tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
>
> 15316 Gulf Blvd. 802
>
>
> FL
>
> United States
> 727-398-4142
>
> ---------------Message---------------
> Sent 2009-1-26
> for_center_news: 1
> Subject: Comment on the Center's Work
>
> Poverty Law
> Center:http://www.splcenter.org/pdf/dynamic/legal/Hillsborough_Complaint.pdf
>
> Do I understand correctly that you have a case currently against the
> Hillsborough County school district for the mistreatment of special-needs
> children?
>
> If so, I think I have some confirmatory data supporting that case.
>
> I am helping a guy named Steve Kemp, who is a special-ed teacher of mentally
> slow students. The special-ed people threw him into a classroom of severely
> retarded students without giving Steve any training for an unfamiliar student
> population. The aide left on account of "burn-out," and he was by himself.
> When two large male students started acting up at once, he hooked the harness
> of one to a stationery object so that he could deal with them one at a time.
>
> We later learned that these harnesses (I guess for the bus) were supposed to
> come off when the students entered the classroom. The people on duty prior to
> Steve who were savvy about the care of these students had not removed the
> harnesses.
>
> While Kemp was dealing with the first student, in came the supervisory team,
> the ones who had given him no training for this unfamiliar work. They said the
> harnessing of one boy to a stationary object was child abuse. Later that day,
> one went to the Sheriff?s office and filed a charge against Steve for child
> abuse.
>
> Despite this extant charge of child abuse, however, the department left Steve
> in the room caring for the children for six more days. The question is this:
> How can Steve be a child abuser when the supervisors left him with the
> children he may have abused? Doesn?t this show poor judgment by the same
> people who were supposed to train him for an unfamiliar area before they put
> him into that environment?
>
> The administration and board oppose free speech and especially teacher blogs
> that discuss problems at schools. The superintendent's, board's, and
> administration's spin is that there are no problems in the schools: none at
> all.
>
> Steve has a blog that is mildly critical of the schools. I believe that this
> unorthodox charge in which the guilty supervisors who gave Steve no training
> for the job but later charged Steve with child abuse is a subterfuge for
> firing a person who has a blog that comments on the schools. I think the six
> days? lapse in time was so that the administration and Ms. Elia could chew
> over whether to use the incident as a pretense to fire Steve.
>
> Supervisor Elia uses the Professional Standards office to cook up cases
> against targeted teachers to get rid of them. The woman heading it up, one
> Linda Kipley, is a fellow sadist that keeps the records and shapes the
> strategies to fire teachers who let out a peep of complaint. This procedure
> means the teachers are terrified of losing their jobs if they complain even
> about the most egregious cases of mistreatment of them by the administration
> and superintendent.
>
> The board pretends it does not know what is going on in order not to be
> responsible for making any decisions.
>
> Would this case buttress you case against the district? If so, I will ask
> Steve to get in touch with the agency.
>
> Lee Drury De Cesare
> 15316 Gulf Blvd. 802
> Madeira Beach, FL 33708
> 727-398-4142
> Posted by twinkobie at 8:04 AM 0 comments

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hillsborough needs to be sued. The board is a bunch of unethical crooks who are a disgrace to this county. The poor children! The school board should be ashamed of itself. Everyone of them should resign in disgrace and shame and pray to God to forgive how they have screwed the children of Hillsborough County.