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