The biggest lie has always been to keep quiet; and the best life-enhancer is to provoke, unsettle, rile – in short, to make people face the truth.
Gore Vidal
Monday, July 06, 2009
Council-of-Trent-Lookalike Hillsborough County SchoolBoard Meeting with Ultimate Authority Elia the Central Figure in Red at the Front and All Administrative Servile Staff Ringing the Ultimate Authority and Murmuring "Halleluja, Ultimate Authority Elia" in a Gregorian Chant with a Gladys-Knight-and-the Pips Background of "Midnight Train to Georgia, Dodah, Dodah
Linda, the material you sent me on Professional Standards operation says that at the end of the case, Ms. Kipley must write a report on an investigation and its outcome.
I think I have asked you twice for this information. This will be a third request.
I amend this third request to include the whole file on the Steve Kemp case. It is now public information. I can come to your office to review it.
I have also asked for the last five cases' Professional Standards reports. I request their complete files also. I can review these five files in your office when I come to review the Kemp report.
I will expect you to have these by the 14th of July, the next board meeting, for my review in your office. I understand that you will have the names of the people appointed to new principal positions on the July 14 agenda for anyone who is interested in them. I would like to have that list before the board meeting on July 14.
I have not had a "yes" or a "no" from Mr. Valdez as to whether he will investigate the Professional Standards cases I filed against Mr. Smiley, Ms. Sosa, Ms. Kipley, and Ms. Morris. Citizens deserve answers to the questions they present to public employees. Since Mr. Valdez has failed to respond to my emailed question after several weeks, I would appreciate your getting from the gentleman an official "yes" or "no" on this question.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have pursued this issue differently back in 1996.There is irony in this story because the teacher had also changed documents. I had the copy of the original to prove that point.
The then Area Director has long since retired. The last I heard anything about him was he had an unsuccessful bid for a school board position.
The whole group involved in all of the unethical events that happened during that time opened my eyes. The end result was I think I did a pretty good job of advocating for my son, but not changing the system. Publish this comment. Reject this comment. Moderate comments for this blog.
You do what you can as long as you can, Richard: that is all that duty requires of any of us human beings.
I burned out in the Women's Movement. So much to do, so overwhelming the task. So few people pitching in to help. I became the hit man, and discovered it was not a fun job.
One day I threw out my voluminous files and walked away. Any human being retains the right of hanging up his or her gloves at a time chosen. I read. I went to the opera. I needlepointed rugs for my granddaughters' weddings.I baked cakes. Then I stuck my toe back into the maelstrom to help Bart Birdsall when the Professional Standards gulag framed him with a false charge two years ago.
So here I am now, about to file a charge with the state child-abuse people against the board and administration, the special-ed trio of administrators who choreographed Steve's torture, and Kipley, the home-ecenabler who refused to acknowledge the charge I filed against the three guilty adm inistrators in special-ed authority.
Administration hacks won't even answer my question about what they are going to do about my charges of child abuse in the Special-ed Department, where they framed Steve Kemp. They do not punish administrators. Not ever. One could murder somebody during the height of the board meeting out in the lobby, and Tom Gallagher would stride out to fabricate a case of self-defense. The board follows Elia's lead in backing up erring adminstrators, ready to spend the money necessary to rehabilitate them and set them up in a higher, better-paying sinecure. Look at the Smith case as paradigm. Elia proposed to spend $4500 each for Smith and her vice principal to go to Eckerd's for psychic makeovers and hired Smith a coach to teach her how to be a human being.When the Alafia parents said no deal, Elia esconsed Smith in ROSSAC until she could find her a higher, better-paid job. Steve wants to just fade back into the classroom now that the administration saw it had to snuff that ridiculous charge against him before it got around town and demonstrated how it treated the teachers to whom they offer false praise from the podium for politics' sake.
Steve naively thinks he is past the hideous treatment he got from Kipley and Elia with the board's collusion. He is wrong. They are vindictive and never forget. Look what happened in the Wiesner case. He won it, but when he came back to work, the torture promptly began anew. They never learn. They just bull ahead to repeat the task again.
Kemp is even naive enough to think April Griffin put in a word behind the Iron Curtain to ameliorate his condition.
If April Griffin had one ounce of courage and concern for the shoddy, dangerous treatment of the special-ed children, she would have blasted the Professional Standards administrators' conduct and demanded an investigation of it. She would have demanded corrective action for the sake of the safety of the special-ed children. She would have waded into the Professional Standards cess pool and made it into a real professional-standards apparatus and not a machine to terrify teachers with losing their jobs by faking cases against one at a time as a continuing negative example of the administration and board's ability do as they please with their power to retain control over the state money that rolls into ROSSAC based on student head count. April and the board are always preaching children's safety. What's safe about the situation that Steve Kemp's charge adumbrates? What's condign about Linda Kipley's throwing my charge against the three administrators into the trash bin?
Thank God, Steve Kemp had enough chutzpah to keep his blog. I think that's why the administration targeted him: his blog discussed educational issues; the administration and board don't want any information to contradict the sanitized spiels which come out of the Public Affairs Laundromat. The board and administration are so stupid that they think they can shut down blogs and hence shut down the bad publicity that the truth about how they run the schools provides. To crack their racket, the public must become aware of what is going on at the administration and board that debases the schools. I hope to contribute to that public awareness so that better board candidates get elected.
That county teachers are doing what teachers do--passing on knowledge to their students-- is testimony to their effectiveness. Ironically, the administration that won't even give the students and teachers a place on the board agenda use the teachers' and students' performance as a sign of the administration and board's effectiveness and right to power--arbitrary and sadistic though it be.
I am glad you shielded your son. Most of the special-ed parents are oblivious to how the schools mistreat and disenfranchise their children. The parents trust to the system to treat their children well. Their misplace their trust.
The objective correlative to fuel this mistrust is the infamous picture of the "classroom" for the retarded children that Steve snapped during his time there. It is a junk room with unstable piles against the walls that the children constantly tried to investigate and pull down on themselves Steve said.
The student that Steve hooked to the chair with the harness he wore all day when the aide should have removed it at the time the the student entered the classroom symbolizes what supervisors allowed because they thought nobody was looking. I am a registered nurse who has worked in mental institutions. Staff often use restraints for its convenience, not for the patients' safety. So does the special-ed division of the Hillsborough County schools.
That unremoved harness represents a violation of the spirit of the state restraint law, but those administrators apparently tolerated it and didn't rebuke people who failed to remove the harnesses when the children arrived in the classroom because the violators were the regulars, not a substitute who was ignorant of all aspects of these children's care. The supervisers felt justified in applying the ambivalent rules to a strange teacher who was not one of the gang whom they threw into the classroom with no protocols explained to him.
Steve's ignorant use of the harness was because he didn't know restraint protocol. He knew nothing about teaching special-ed children. Steve was not a special-needs-trained teacher and had never taught these children before being placed into a classroom-junkroom with severely retarded children without a syllable of orientation. Steve had no proper education for the job.This gesture by the special-ed administrators shows contempt for special-ed children and indifference to their safety and needs.
The administration ignored my charges against these three administrators--Smiley, Sosa, and Morris-- the actions of whom were sustained and systemic. When I filed a Professional Standards charge against Kipley for colluding in the abuse of children by ignoring my charges against the three, she tardily responded by taking some words out of context from one of my past emails to her.
Kipley considered twisting my words adroit administration. That's an index of her intelligence, low-level training, and ethics. Her toying with children's safety is just what one would expect from the home-ec trained Kipley's education, yet the administration awarded her an important and sensitive position after the teachers at Hillsborough High refused to tolerate her lying, unethical conduct of the principal's job. Instead of firing Kipley as the administration should have, it promoted her to a higher-paying, more important position with her name's appearing next to the board members' on school stationery. The head of Professional Standards should be a brainy, super-ethical, highly credentialed person in this sensitive job, not a specimen like Kipley.
On the beach we had a splendid fireworks display last night that enchanted my husband, former longest-serving mayor of Madeira Beach. He declared it the finest fireworks display that the city had ever mounted. The which reminds us that the world goes on outside the foul atmosphere of perfidy and dirty tricks in ROSSAC and the board room of the Hillsborough County school system.
I hope your family had a festive 4th of July. The children on the beach outdid themselves this year with popping firecrackers at frequent intervals until I could have screamed while I read another book on the Manhattan Project and how we started the arms race by bombing two Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.
But life goes on. As Scarlett O'Hara said. "Tomorrow is another day." on which we will pick either up the gauntlet again to enter the fray of life's burdens and opportunities or say, "To hell with it." lee
PS: I think that administrator who ran against Susan Valdez the last election is the one you refer to. Susan's bad; but he would have been worse. I think his wife ran against somebody the election before him. Those administrators can't stand to leave the scene of their power and glory.
"...Along with the identifying data, it contains the Subjects and the original grades. Two of the original grades were 'D's. They have been slashed through and have 'C' written next to them.
At the very bottom of the form is the following written by a teacher about an Area Director. It states:
' * These grades have been changed as per (name withheld)'s request although I feel it is unethical to do so. I have changed them solely to avoid any charges of insubordination'.
Once again, this is one 'small piece' of the dynamics I faced for many years."
Richard, people can't change grades even under duress from a higher-up. I ran into this problem at HCC. When my immediate administrator pressured me to pass a student who had plagiarized his term paper off the Internet, I said, "Keep this up, Jo Ann, and I will go before the board and report you." She stopped.
Another time an administrator changed the grade of a teacher friend of mine from failing to passing for a student. My friend with a Ph.D. but no guts did not have the moxie to fight. I fought for her. I called the president, Gwen Stevenson, twice. I told her she had to do something about that administrator's illegal action. The second time I called, I told her I would see that the action was made public and report that she did nothing about it. She then fired him. But he got a job at another college, of course. If I had had a good horse under me, I would have followed him.
But I tell you what I have found out in my years of civil-rights work: evil is a growth industry. Just get up every day and do what you can with the first piece of skulduggery you come across. Tomorrow, there will be plenty more to tackle.
Don't be afraid to confront and speak truth to power. Don't hang back and think they will reform themselves. Don't be nice. Don't beg. Don'plead. Don't cajole. Don't snivvel. Be sufficientlymean so that the thugs get the idea that you mean business.
Give me enough information to identify the administrator, and I will ask him or her about the incident. I won't get killed. Just hated and feared.
I am glad to get your email address. I lost it and have had to leave you out on the email rounds. lee
This police chief has the same mindset as the administration and board of the Hillsborough County school system.
Sometimes you have to cheer when the courts get it right and defend the victim against these ghouls. This case is not as bad as the Erwin case, but it's in the ballpark.
Give somebody authority--even a little bit--and you will find out what that person is made of. lee
JAAPL HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
In McGreal v. Ostrov, 368 F.3d 657 (7th Cir. 2004) James T. McGreal was a police officer for the Village of Alsip, Illinois. His superior officers, Chief of Police Kenneth Wood and Field Operations Commander Lt. David Snooks, were appointees of the longstanding mayor, Arnold Andrews. Mr. McGreal, following a series of incidents in which he felt that the mayor and other village officials had acted improperly, challenged Mayor Andrews in the 1997 election. After his failed attempt to unseat the mayor, Mr. McGreal found himself under "unprecedented scrutiny" from his departmental superiors. He filed reports detailing the alleged infractions, which in one case initiated an investigation into the conduct of the mayor.
In November 1997, Mr. McGreal was ordered to appear for an administrative interview to address the matter. Despite his undergoing many hours of interrogation over four months, no charges or disciplinary actions were brought against him. Instead, he was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation to assess his fitness for duty.
Mr. McGreal was forced to sign a waiver with respect to the confidentiality and privacy of the information given to the psychologist and the dissemination of his report. He signed the waiver and noted it was "under duress." The psychologist's lengthy and detailed report concluded that to remain on the force, Mr. McGreal must "undertake a course of psychotherapy directed toward helping him gain insight into the vagaries of his reasoning processes, their potential for disruption in the police department and the community, and the relationship to his own psychological needs and functioning." Mr. McGreal agreed to the therapy, but Chief Wood chose to place him on paid sick leave until further notice. Mr. McGreal sued, and two weeks later he was terminated on the basis of "various acts of misconduct." Subsequent to the receipt of the report, Chief Wood forwarded the report to Mr. McGreal's colleagues in the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), supposedly in response to a grievance filed by Mr. McGreal, who objected to the disclosure of the report and questioned the validity of his consent and also the scope of the information disclosed in the report.
Mr. McGreal's suit claimed deprivation of First Amendment rights, deprivation of speech rights, and violation of the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act arising from the disclosure of the psychological report. The defendants moved for a dismissal of the final count, noting that there was no therapeutic relationship between the psychologist and Mr. McGreal and that further, Mr. McGreal had signed a waiver of confidentiality. The defendants moved for summary judgment on the remaining counts. The court granted judgment in favor of all the defendants, and Mr. McGreal appealed.
The lower court, in granting the defendants' motion for summary judgment, found that the Illinois statute (the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act, 740 ILCS 110/1 et seq.) did not apply in this situation, because Mr. McGreal was not a "recipient" of the psychologist's report pursuant to the waiver he signed.
The questions of law presented to the appellate court included whether Mr. McGreal's First Amendment right outweighed the "government's interest as an employer in efficiently providing government services," and if not, would Mr. McGreal have been disciplined "even in the absence of his speech?" The final question, most pertinent to psychiatry, was whether the psychologist's fitness-for-duty report was covered by the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act.
Ruling and Reasoning
The standard for granting a motion for summary judgment, as set forth in this case, is that Mr. McGreal need only demonstrate a genuine issue of material fact as to each element. All facts are construed in a light most favorable to Mr. McGreal, the party opposing summary judgment, and the court draws all reasonable inferences in his favor.
The appeals court found that Mr. McGreal's statements were worthy of First Amendment protection and that they played a substantial role in the department's decision to terminate him. However, they felt that there were "too many open questions" for a court to decide whether Mr. McGreal's First Amendment protection of speech was outweighed by the need for an employer to restrict such speech in the interest of "effective and efficient public service." With regard to The Village of Alsip's contention that it could not be held liable for the independent acts of the elected and appointed officials, the appeals court found instead that the Mayor and Chief Wood were acting as "final policymaking authorit[ies]" in initiating the termination process and mandating psychotherapy. This brings us to the final question of whether Mr. McGreal's communication with the appointed psychologist was protected by the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act.
The appeals court found that Mr. McGreal was entitled to have a jury hear his claim regarding the necessity of the ordered psychological evaluation and whether the extent of the report's dissemination went beyond the circumscribed departmental interest to establish his fitness for duty. The court of appeals held that the psychological fitness-for-duty evaluation was protected under the Confidentiality Act. The appeals court reasoned that the evaluator was a psychologist, thereby qualifying as "therapist" under the Act, and that his examination and diagnosis qualified as mental health services, for which Mr. McGreal was recipient. Therefore, the final document constituted a protected mental health record.
The Illinois Supreme Court had held, in Sangirardi v. Village of Stickney 342 Ill. App.3d 1 (2003), that a police chief maintained authority to order fitness-for-duty evaluations of his officers in the interest of public safety and that logically the police chief was entitled to the results of the examinations. The appeals court pointed out that the Illinois Confidentiality Act contained a detailed consent form, as well as a defined exception to the strict confidentiality, that is, the consent to disclose. Therefore, there was no necessary conflict between the need for disclosure and the right to privacy. Any such disclosure, however, was restricted to "that which is necessary to accomplish a particular purpose." While Mr. McGreal had reluctantly agreed to sign a Consent for Evaluation form, under orders from Lt. Snooks, this consent was inconsistent with what was provided by the statute. Furthermore, Mr. McGreal's psychological evaluation, which included sensitive personal information not relevant to his fitness for duty, had been disseminated far beyond the superiors responsible for the determination of his fitness.
The appeals court noted that:
The Confidentiality Act contains no disclosure exception for police departments performing mental health examinations to determine fitness for duty. It does allow for disclosure on consent, but the consent form used here does not meet the standards set forth by Illinois law. See 740 ILCS 110/5(b) (listing what is required for valid consent).
Further the appeals court noted:
...that a recipient may consent to disclosure of information for a limited purpose and that any agency or person who obtains confidential and privileged information may not redisclose the information without the recipient's specific consent.
Discussion
With every forensic psychiatric evaluation, we begin with a statement documenting our disclosure to the evaluee that the information will be used in a report to the referring party and is, therefore, not confidential. We also explain that although we are psychiatrists, we have no patient-doctor relationship with those whom we evaluate in a forensic context. Yet, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals interpreted the application of the Illinois statute such that by virtue of the fact that the evaluator was a psychologist and in this role assessed Mr. McGreal, the forensic evaluation was construed as a mental health service. The report produced was therefore protected. The appellate court recognized that the statute does provide for a waiver in limited circumstances, but those exceptions must be narrowly read. The key facts on which this case turned are: (1) the waiver used did not meet the statutory exception to nondisclosure; (2) the Alsip Police Department redisclosed the report to another party, not required within the purpose of evaluating Mr. McGreal for his fitness for duty; and (3) the standard for review was that of a summary judgment motion interpreting an Illinois state statute. Thus, the McGreal decision instructs that forensic psychiatrists must follow the confidentiality statute(s) applicable in their jurisdiction. This means obtaining the legal consent specified by any relevant mental health confidentiality statute and limiting the dissemination to those permitted under the statute.
McGreal also raises questions about the "no doctor-patient" relationship that we define at the outset of our evaluations. This self-serving descriptor allows us to negate assumptions presumed in our medical role that cannot be reconciled with our forensic role. As forensic evaluators, we cannot promise to "first, do no harm" and that everything disclosed will remain strictly confidential. Yet, it is not only our psychiatric skill that allows us to elicit information from those we evaluate, but also the benevolent authority that is subsumed in the role of psychiatrist. It is precisely because of this combination of skill and authority that we are capable of eliciting information that an evaluee might not otherwise disclose. McGreal serves to remind us that with privilege comes responsibility. Under the wording of the Illinois Confidentiality Statue, by virtue of our identity as psychiatrists, we are providing mental health services to those we evaluate. Redefining ourselves at the start of the interview does not dismiss the evaluees' perceptions of us or reduce their vulnerability to our authority.
In sum, McGreal cautions that confidentiality remains paramount in all psychiatric services, and proper consent to disclosure should be obtained. Sensitive personal data that are irrelevant to the purpose of an evaluation should be withheld in the interest of privacy. And finally, we are reminded that disclosure is limited in scope and is permitted only for the purpose for which consent was provided.
Andrea Stolar, MD
Forensic Psychiatry Fellow Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH
Leslie M. Koblenz, MD, JD
Staff Psychiatrist Northcoast Behavioral Health Care Cleveland, OH
Would you change students grades if ordered by administration to do so? This teacher refused and lost her job.
Background Story
Paula Payne, high school English teacher at West Feliciana High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has been a teacher for 16 years. She has the reputation of being a tough teacher with high expectations. Her students refer to her class as the "House of Payne." She also has creative ideas in teaching her lessons. For example, she asked students to dress in togas for class when studying Shakespeare. She also began a Renaissance Festival at the high school. [Penny Brown, Theadvocate.com, March 30, 2007]
One would think that in the era of No Child Left Behind and the new emphasis being placed on rigor and relevance, Payne would be considered a model teacher by her principal. She was not.
Fall of 2004
In the first six weeks of the fall semester, Payne gave 70 percent of her English students a D or an F. 180 sophomores were not doing well in English II. How were the students doing in other classes? Much better. How were freshmen, juniors and seniors doing in other classes? Much better. Information that the jury heard about how rigorous her classes were is not available. Was she unreasonable in her expectations or do other instructors have exceptionally low expectations? That is something the jury had to take into consideration.
Louisiana Law
The State of Louisianna bars any principal, superintendent or school board member from tampering with grades submitted by a teacher. However, Payne maintains that she was told to change her grades by principal Michael Thornhill or she would be assigned to teach in the behavior modification clinic for troubled students.
Louisiana Education Association
A reasonable teacher in this vulnerable position would contact her local education association and seek legal advice. In November of 2004, Payne was asked to meet with administrators and she agreed but she wanted to be accompanied by members of the LEA, Louisiana Education Association. Superintendent Lloyd Lindsey and Thornhill refused to meet with her if a representative was present from the LEA. She was suspended for five days because she refused to meet with administration alone. It is standard procedure for a representative of an Education Association to meet with a teacher and a teacher's right to do so. Payne also told her story to a local television station that aired the story making this a public issue.
January 2005
In January, she was suspended for 45 days by the West Feliciana School Board for willful neglect of duty. After the 45 days were served, she returned to work but was no longer the English II instructor. Her new position was library monitor and tutoring--except there were no students to tutor. She was reduced to teaching only two English classes. Payne resigned at the end of the school year.
Lawsuit
Payne sought legal advise from Jill Craft, her attorney, and filed a suit two years ago. Just last week, the case went to trial and a four-man, five-woman jury awarded Payne $1.4 million. $1.2 million for mental anguish and $200,000 in punitive damages.
After the verdict, Payne said, "I'm just so thankful the truth is known there. It's wrong for an administrator directly or indirectly to force a teacher to change grades. Teachers have rights, and they should be treated with respect."
The jury found the school guilty of the following:
violating Payne's First Amendment rights
harassing her about altering the grades
retaliating against her for refusing to do so
speaking about the matter to the media
Administration Claims
School administrators claim that they never demanded she change any grades. And, they claim that they did not retaliate against Payne for refusing to meet with them without an LEA representative. Obviously, the jury believed Payne's version of the story.
Payne now teaches English to prisoners at the Dixon Correctional Center. She has no plans to return to teaching in Louisiana public schools.
Dear Vox: Norman Mailer was an utter sexist shit who beat up his wives.
I dragged my husband to a lecture with him, Germaine Greer and a whole bunch of New York intellectual luminaries including Diana Trilling in NYC forty years ago.
You could see that Mailer was taken with Germaine Greer: she was a foot taller than he and probably tripped his bondages fantasies.
Some woman came to the microphone at question time and queried Mailer's sexism, which included women's not using contraception because it "diminished the pleasure of men."
Mailer's response was, "You dames just don't understand men, which I outlined in The Naked and the Dead."
Germaine Greer--may egalitarian gods and goddesses bless this brilliant, beautiful woman---got up on the stage and stalked into Goader's space. She raised herself to her full six feet, two over diminutive personage Mailer, having the the hots for her as his fantasy Valkyrie female who could ring his five feet, three-inch chimes sans contraceptives, and said, looking down her nose at short-stuff Mailer, "Really, Norman, your Naked and the Dead is not the Divine Comedy. "
The hall erupted in laughter, and Norman slunk to his seat.
Coming home to Flushing, our four children and bourgeosie reality, my husband said, "Hell, why do you drag me to these feminist shoot-outs when I could be home watching the Yankees?"
"Because. dear." I replied, "you have had the ineffable privilege of marrying a woman rabble-rouser who is part of the fertilizing lump that changes history."
Love to to Vox Populi,
lee
-----Original Message-----From: Vox Populi [mailto:justme.vox@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 12:55 AMTo: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.comSubject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on Never Bow Down Before Flapdoodle.Vox Populi has left a new comment on your post "Never Bow Down Before Flapdoodle": Tell it !!! Very declasse' of the unsainted mr. CSL.I laugh so hard at these frumped up egos .. same as when Norman Mailer died .... (not that norman is ANY comparison) BUT .. the guy in sanfran or sandiego who had obviously been writing a five page diatribe for decades as he stewed in envy.This is what one gets from CSL, as well.If I were jealous of someone and wanted to best them I'd damn sure be doing it toe to toe. Not the wimpy way. Publish this comment. Reject this comment. Moderate comments for this blog. Posted by Vox Populi to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 9:55 PM
Lee--
Is there a list of title and salaries for those NOT school based? Salaries for teachers are on a chart.
Thanks--
I don't know the answer to this question; does anybody out there have a response for this reader? lee
Eking out Public Information for my needlepoint quilt of the school system:
Message
Mr. (Dr.?) Otero:
About two years ago when Dr. Hamilton was due to retire, my impression was that he stayed past his July retirement date in a job created especially for him. At that time, a penciled-in caret appeared on the school Web page over your name adding Dr. Hamilton's name.
I thought this was an odd way to amend the official Web page since a computer-savvy person would have gone into the program and inserted the name with regular text after years. I said at the time that the insertion seemed to say that there were two deputy superintendents getting two salaries for the same job.
Can you shed light on when and why someone penciled in this careted insertion above your name and give your assessment to Ms. Cobbe of Public Affairs, whom I expect to convey it to me?
lee drury de cesare
I thought you might enjoy a book review I did recently. I can't concentrate on the Hillsborough County school system all the time. It would make me dumb. So I refresh my mind with the National Inquirer and reviewing some flossy book or other. This review is on Claude Levi Strauss's The Savage Mind.
Review of Claude Levy-Strauss's The Savage Mind
I suffered through this dense twaddle because the "critics" said it was profound.
Foucault and CLS have in common a designedly dense prose that doubles back on itself and aims to thwart comprehension ofsimple ideas tortured into twisted linguistic shapes to make them seem profound. I call this style pretentious flapdoodle.
After wading through every nuance of primitive people's relationship with totems--bears and opossums get their totemisticdue--to a degree never imagined by a sane soul and undoubtedly never invented by the natives but by Mr.CLS's cross-eyed imagination,the final chapter administers the coup de grace by exploring without mercyMr. CLS''s disagreements with Sartre. He shreds existentialism and Satire to tatters and kicks them to the curb.
This act shouldn't surprise since CLS has sneered at just about every big-time thinker in Western history throughout this book. Beating up on Sartre seems ungallant inasmuch as Sartre is only recently dead and Mr. CLS still alive at 100.
CLSsavagesSartre I wagerbecause the latter occasionally writes a coherent sentence.
The fool reviewers at the flossy publications of theNew York Times, TheObserver, and The Saturday Review quoted in the back-cover blurbsdo obeisance before this clotted production to make people think they are among the elect that can appreciate this opaque tome on totemism with its cover-to-cover intellectual pretension, opaque allusions, and God knows what all.
Linda, here are the data below from the state pension people on Dr. Hamilton's retirement record.
I believe that the June date locates his beginning of the job that Ms. Elia created for him. That's when his name showed careted in pen or pencil above Mr. Otero's on the school Web site.
The clerk who handled his new job's record told me Dr. Hamilton's name went on that job before it was even posted officially. I am sure she did not realize she was giving out covert information, and if I knew her name, I would not reveal it because the poor woman would be drawn and quartered.
If Dr. Hamilton began his monthly pension benefit In July of 2007, I believe that the $6.548.95 state pension he received while still working for a salary on his created job in the school system.
I don't know when he began his IRS benefit, but I can find out by laying out the whole problem to the IRS and asking its services to assist me.
I figure that Dr. Hamilton's take comes to more than $78,000 a year in pension benefits alone; plus he gets Social Security as well. Plus his salary for the created job at the school board meant even more money for him.
All in all, the total is quite a haul. It puts into vivid contrast teachers' meager benefits and reveals why fellows who don't know the difference between "your" and "you're" head for the administration redoubt when they exit college instead of the class room.
I doubt that the IRS would consider this arrangement kosher.
I will find out if necessary. The school's money people must have a record of the payments Dr. Hamilton got on the $140,000 salary that the clerk told me the created job got. They can't give out tax money without keeping a record of it.
In a regular board meeting, I recall the chair of the board's saying that Dr. Hamilton was retiring to attenuated applause sometime in the fall of 2008. I think it was November.
What I can't figure out is why somebody who rakes in Dr. Hamilton's opulent tax-supplied monthly take would not be parading on one of those nude beaches in the Riviera demonstrating his physique to admiring hordes of groupies of the rich people who can afford to live there and living off their crumbs.
Another mystery is why Dr. Hamilton continues to extract tax monies via his sweetheart arrangement of Mixon and Associates in Tallahassee.
When is enough enough?
I am old. But one never gets too old to be astonished by such sagas of greed.
Please send me a record of the last two years employment of Dr. Hamilton for the school board with dates. Please include the monthly payout for the post-retirement-date job beginning in July and ending, I believe, in November.
When asked such questions as the above, the customary response of the ROSSAC quidnuncs is to try to make a case for anyone's asking questions like these as a crazed individual who needs a strait jacket, not information. Aged and frail though I am, I will psychologically and intellectually arm wrestle the whole ROSSAC horde of C students to quell that accusation.
I would not want to be on the public-affairs team who had to deal with a scenario like the one outlined above.lee drury de cesare
-----Original Message-----From: Inman, Ryan [mailto:Ryan.Inman@dms.myflorida.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 9:20 AMTo: leeSubject: RE: Regarding your Public Records RequestMr. De Cesare, Thank you for the additional identifying information. Mr. Hamilton enter the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) July 1, 2002 with an initial monthly benefit of $5,649.17. He terminated from the DROP program June 30, 2007 and received payment of his DROP accrual in the amount of $420,340.55 as a direct rollover. He then began receiving his monthly benefit directly in the amount of $6,548.95 in July of 2007. I hope this information fulfills your public records request. Please let me know if there is anything else I can provide you. Thank you and have a wonderful day!Ryan M. InmanSenior Benefits AnalystDivision of RetirementTelephone: 850/488-5706 or Toll-free: 877/377-1737Email: Ryan.Inman@dms.myflorida.comwww.FloridaDiscountDrugCard.com"With A Servant's Heart, We Serve Those Who Serve Florida"DISCLAIMER NOTICE: This email, along with any included attachment(s), is intended for use only by the person(s) or entity to which it is addressed. This message may contain confidential, proprietary, and/or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. You are hereby notified that you are prohibited from printing, copying, storing, disseminating or distributing this communication. If you received this communication in error, please notify the sender by email or by telephone at (850) 488-5540 or toll-free at (866) 738-2366 if Tallahassee is not a local call for you. All record of the communication you received in error (electronic or otherwise) should be destroyed in its entirety. Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in this matter.From: lee [mailto:tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 12:03 AMTo: Inman, RyanSubject: RE: Regarding your Public Records RequestDr. Hamilton worked for the Hillsborough County School Board. THank you. lee de cesare-----Original Message-----From: Inman, Ryan
[mailto:Ryan.Inman@dms.myflorida.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 5:37 PMTo: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.comSubject: Regarding your Public Records RequestMr. De Cesare,Thank you for your public records request. With 47 “James Hamilton”s in our system, I will need some other identifying information in order to provide the information you have requested. Please tell me who the employer is for the Mr. Hamilton you are inquiring about or give me a birth date, Social Security number and/or a middle initial to use as an identifier. Thank you.Ryan M. InmanSenior Benefits AnalystDivision of RetirementTelephone: 850/488-5706 or Toll-free: 877/377-1737Email: Ryan.Inman@dms.myflorida.comwww.FloridaDiscountDrugCard.com"With A Servant's Heart, We Serve
Those Who Serve Florida"DISCLAIMER NOTICE: This email, along with any included attachment(s), is intended for use only by the person(s) or entity to which it is addressed. This message may contain confidential, proprietary, and/or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. You are hereby notified that you are prohibited from printing, copying, storing, disseminating or distributing this communication. If you received this communication in error, please notify the sender by email or by telephone at (850) 488-5540 or toll-free at (866) 738-2366 if Tallahassee is not a local call for you. All record of the communication you received in error (electronic or otherwise) should be destroyed in its entirety.
Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in this matter.
Council-of-Trent-Lookalike Hillsborough County SchoolBoard Meeting with Ultimate Authority Elia the Central Figure in Red at the Front and All Administrative Servile Staff Ringing the Ultimate Authority and Murmuring "Halleluja, Ultimate Authority Elia" in a Gregorian Chant with a Gladys-Knight-and-the Pips Background of "Midnight Train to Georgia, Dodah, Dodah
Lee--
Is there a list of title and salaries for those NOT school based? Salaries for teachers are on a chart.
Thanks--