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
In the Kemp file that you sent me, a list of documents appears on a page entitled "investigation."
The first document is Hilllsborough Sheriff's Police Report Number 08-400025; the second document listed is a two-page written document by ESE supervisor Ron Smiley.
Then the teacher Mufero document is listed in the third place. It's there.
The Report 08-40025 is missing from the packet as is the two-page written product of Ron Smiley.
Vox, I am putting this frontpage as you requested.
I tell you what: you know a lot of things I don't. Your survey powers are greater than mine. You need to start your own blog, then just lock and load and fire at will. I will read you faithfully and pick up on anything that pertains to the schools to pursue.
I feel now that I am fighting on all fronts of the schools. They are my specialty because I was a college professor during most of my work life. I know the education racket inside out.
But you are a polymath of evil. You tell me about things going on in the Bay Area that I don't know diddly about. Start up your blog on Blogspot. Call it Vox Populi. That is an inspired name. I will read it every day and be your most devoted fan.
You don't have a paying job, do you? I don't see how you can and keep up with all the events you have in your duffle bag.
I will send this to Goader. He is on a learning curve in the racket of civil rights. Let's cut him a little slack. He is my Great White Hope to take over the monitoring of the school system. Then I can retire to going to opera productions around the globe and needlepointing more rugs and pillows for my grandchildren as all proper grannies do.
But never forget that you have a supporter of you and your nascent blog in me. Buddies, to the end, Granny and Vox: the litigious duo of age and beauty.
Fight on, Vox. The fight for a better world is what we should commit our lives to.
Once more into the breach.
With love, admiration, and undying support,
Granny Lee
Vox Populi has left a new comment on your post "Pressing the case on the Goader Crucifixion Reco...":
lee is goader KIDDING??? HE is over at katherine durkin robinson's blog making nice with a woman who can't keep her clothes on .. raises her children to hate and also wrote point blank in creative loafing that ONLY RICH UNDISABLED PEOPLE should have children. Go read it right there in black and white. Not only that but she used to pull some pretense about sticking up for teachers and standing up to maryEllen elia only I notice she never got called on the carpet. EVER. hmmm. She's a trash blogger and she has talked of students' personal lives on her blog and been called out for it. By REAL bloggers. I would think that goader might take heed that it's very possible that backstabbers and faux FEMINISTS such as kate are very much part of the problem of the setups and backstabbings at the schools. NO ONE who claims to be a feminist constantly takes their clothes off on their blog and degrades women while stating in CREATIVE LOAFING that ONLY THE RICH SHOULD HAVE CHILDREN. Goader, don't let the fake tits and the fake smile and umm the fake GUTS fool you .... I"m kinda disgusted. Kate's husband and she make a FINE LIVING FROM WAR so it's a conflict of interest for her to promote don't ask don't tell. PLEASE PUBLISH THIS rather than replying through email.
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 10:29 AM
Office of the General Counsel
Department of Children and Families
1317 Winewood Blvd
Building 2, Room 204
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0700
8/4/2009
Dear Counselor:
I don't know the chain of command in the child-protection agency, but I found your name on the Web as the attorney for the child-protection district of Hillsborough County, and since your title sounds authoritative, I shall write you to see if you can intervene on the side of children's safety in HillsboroughCounty.
I enclose a letter to Sheriff Gee, HillsboroughCounty, regarding a strange assistant principal at KingHigh School who called boys in his office, had them take off their shoes and socks behind closed doors, and popped their toes. I don't know if the child-protection investigators that work out of the Sheriff's office are part of the orthodox child-protection state apparatus or not. But in this toe-cracking case, I submit that they have done their job ill and betrayed the children's safety.
A teacher called me about two months ago and cited the situation saying one of the mothers of these boys was very upset and asked me what to do.I said to get in touch with the Secretary of Education, that the board and administration were notinterested in the safety of children despite their political slogans but in presenting a picture to the public of how wonderful the board and administration run the schools, evidence to the contrary.
A few days ago the enclosed article appeared in the SPTimes.A similar one appeared in the Tribune.
The thing that astonished and upset me was the investigating agencies' response to this outrageous case of foot fetishism in the public schools pursued by a member of the administration for over two and a half years without the administration- oversight people's discovering it. All investigative efforts pooh-pooh the toe-cracking's significance, saying it did not rise to the level of assault.
Perhaps it doesn't, although I think making male students take off their shoes and socks in his office so that he could manipulate their feet for what I infer to be the supervisor's psychosexual gratification is assault in my book.It is certainly assault on the boys' psyches.
One of my grandsons called the behavior "sicko."And sicko it probably is: this behavior suggests pediatric pedophilia,yet not only the sheriff's department but also the attorney general's office misread the situation either from ignorance or pretended ignorance by saying it didn't rise to the level of assault, studiously avoiding mental assault. They kicked it over to the School Board for resolution.
Not a chance of concern about safety of the children from the School Board or administration.
The School Board of Hillsborough County and the Professional Standards Office have a history of using that office to cow teachers into silence about the way the higher-ups misrun the schools.The administration blows small gestures up or invents wrongdoing by teachers whole cloth to keep them subdued. They want the teachers and their students to provide the tax money for them to manipulate power and act like Lords of the Universe and to just tote that barge and lift that bale and shut up.
The administration and board caterwaul about student safety all the time on the political podium, but they let a case like this pass as innocuous fun behavior on the part of an administrator.Their main interest is to maintain the ignorance of the public on how they misrun the schools, use the Professional Standards office that is run by a home-ec- degreed woman to coerce teachers with the fear of losing their jobs, and insure that only laundered information gets fed the public by the Public Affairs Laundromat about the way the schools neglect the safety of children as this toe-cracker case well illustrates.
I think the blasé attitude toward this unhealthy administrative behavior constitutes discrimination against boys. Boys have to maintain stoic toughness when girls get to cry and complain.If boys complain, they get the label of sissies.That's probably why these boys put up with this toe-cracking invasion of their privacy and the integrity of their bodies for two and a half years while the on-site administrators such as the principal turned a blind eye.If girls were lured to behind closed doors to take off their shoes and socks so that what my grandson calls a "sicko" could manipulate their toes, I suggest that there would have been a different response to this unseemly behavior of an administrator who has been forgiven and allowed to go forward with the flowering of this pedophilia activity until it ends in lord knows what.
I have a grandson in the HillsboroughCounty school system, Counselor.For his sake and for the sake of the other boys in the school system in regard to whom the School Board that preaches child safety in prepared political statements on the board dais but does nothing when a perilous case of administrative behavior comes before them, that you discover a way to help these boys.I urge you to find an avenue to get this administrator referred to a psychiatrist for an evaluation of this psychosexual fetish so that the board can be forced to present these data to the public in order that the public can ascertain the degree to which the School Board exercises vigilance and protects the county's children's safety.
Hillsborough Council of Trent Board Hillsborough Council-of-Trent Board Convenes to Investigate the Professional-Standards Violations of Teachers Real or Manufactured
Ms. Cobbe: I would like the last two end-of-case letters sent by Ms. Kipley to administrators whom she investigated.
I also request the number of teachers and number of administrators against whom Ms. Kipley has investigated charges in the past two years.
Thank you for this public information. Lee Drury De Cesare
I await your tally of the number of Professional Standards cases for which Mr. Gonzalez has written the terminal letter instead of Ms. Kipley.
What is taking Mr. Gonzalez so long to get this letter written? This editorial sloth confirms my repeated recommendation that the board fire him.
I have had experience with Mr. Gonzalez's footdragging on promised documents. He promised both me and Bart Birdsall that he would write a handout to go to teachers who landed in the Professional Standards juggernaut for teachers to cite the measures they could take to protect themselves.
Two years later, I and Birdsall await that letter.
I suggest that the board and administration overrates Mr. Gonzalez's legal talents. He's a C student at best. I am a teacher: I know all the hallmarks of a C student. Mr. Gonzalez exhibits all of them. And his eating chips and drinking soft drinks on the podium during meetings show that he hasn't any idea of attorney protocol to make the board look like a serious body. I may have to turn him in for this on-the-job gaucherie to the Ethics Commission of the Florida Bar, to which he is no ornament.
Give me an estimated time of completion for Mr. Gonzalez's substitute summary statement outlining the Steve Kemp put-up case. I predict it will be full of holes that I will delight in pointing out.
The board and Ms. Elia should have bethought themselves before allowing this false case against Kemp to go forward and to keep him on suspension for a year. Nothing shows more clearly that the board and administration are in over their heads in the management department.
Bottom Line: Pray yield me a due date that I can expect Tom Gonzalez's summary of the Kemp crucifixion will be forthcoming. I am sure that the governor, the governor's task force on child abuse, the attorney general just foaming at the mouth for an election issue such as this, and the head of the Child Protection Services statewide will read Mr. Gonzalez's lucubrations on the Kemp case with great interest. I will.
The Administration Council of Trent Hems and Haws About Public Information
Anybody who sets out to get public information should dig in for the long haul. lee
Perhaps a non-standard policy with no definite procedure is the custom in this administration. Exceptions require citation if they are part of a valid policy. Otherwise it is not a policy. A policy is a definite course of action. Please tell me how many times lawyers instead of Ms. Kipley have crafted these end statements? ldd
from Cobbe: I don't think the timeframe is the reason. If an employee under investigation hires an attorney, the attorneys communicate on their clients' behalf. Just because a policy mentions no exceptions doesn't mean there are no exceptions. Linda E. CobbeExternal Communications ManagerHillsborough County
Public Schools901 E. Kennedy Blvd.Tampa, FL 33602813-272-4602 (O)813-493-6964 (C)813-272-4510 (F)Our mission is to provide an education that enables each student to excel as a successful and responsible citizen.
lee writes: I am glad to hear that those five files represented your belated delivery of the files requested on the other cases. I had asked for those files so long ago that I did not recall the request. I am glad to know that citizens' requests for public information stay active in your office until you fulfill them.
I look forward to the attorney's product that replaces Kipley's usual summary letter on the Kemp case,
lee writes: Can you answer this question, please? Since the Professional Standards protocol you sent me said that Ms. Kipley drafts the final summary letter and mentions no exceptions, why is the board attorney, Mr. Gonzalez, doing the job in this case? Was Mr. Kemp's case in any way unorthodox so as to require legal language? An explanation from either you or him would be most welcome. An additional question: How many Professional Standards close-out files has the attorney written in the past two years instead of Ms, Kipley, and where in the administrative protocols may I read the rationale for this departure? Lee De Cesare
-----Original Message----- From: Linda Cobbe [mailto:lcobbe@sdhc.us] Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 1:09 PM
To: lee Subject: Re: summary file on Steve Kemp missing
The five files on other employees are not part of the Kemp file. You asked for the last five disciplinary outcomes; that's what those are. They are not connected to the Kemp case in any way, except that they were mailed to you in the same envelope.
Our attorney is preparing the final letter for Steve Kemp. I will send it to you when I get it.
Linda E. Cobbe
External Communications Manager
Hillsborough County Public Schools
901 E. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33602
813-272-4602 (O)
813-493-6964 (C)
813-272-4510 (F)
Our mission is to provide an education that enables each student to excel as a successful and responsible citizen.
lee writes:
Ms. Cobbe: The file Professional Standards files you sent me for Steve Kemp's investigation for child abuse does not substitute for the summary record by Ms. Kipley that the rules you sent me about a Professional Standards investigations dictate must be part of the Kemp file.
An example of such cumulative file appears below. Oddly enough, Ms. Kipley's file on Mr. Kemp contains five such files referring to other teachers who have been investigated by Professional Standards, but no such file on Mr. Kemp. He is due one.
May I have the analagous Kemp summary letter from the Kemp file, please, to complete the file I paid for?
Thank you.
Lee Drury De Cesare
~
Hillsborough County PUBLIC SCHOOLS ~Uzg~n
Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia
School Board
Carol W. Kurdell, Chair Susan L. Valdes, Vice Chair Doretha W. Edgecomb Jennifer Faliero
April Griffin
Jack R. Lamb, Ed.D. Candy Olson
Deputy Superintendents Kenneth R. Otero Daniel J. Valdez
General Manager of Professional Standards Linda A. Kipley
Gregg Wicktor
126 Silver Falis Drive Apollo Beach, FL 33572
On March 4, 2009, you met with me to discuss an investigation conducted by Dr. John Hilderbrand, Director of Accountability and Assessment. The investigation was conducted regarding a testing violation that was reported to the office of Professional Standards by Clyde Trathowen, Principal of Spoto High School.
Dr. Hilderbrand's investigation revealed that you provided your Integrated Science students at Spoto High School a semester exam worksheet that you admitted you constructed from the District semester exam. Specifically, you reproduced 60 of the 93 questions that were to be given on the exam.
When questioned as to why you provided your students with the exact exam questions on their study guide sheet, you stated that your students were behind, and you did not think it was fair to test them on content you had not covered in class. Due to your poor decision-making, the District was forced to construct a new Integrated Science exam, and delete the one you compromised.
It is a teacher's responsibility to pace the instruction of the subject content to make sure that those areas as outlined in the curriculum are reviewed with the students through the normal course of your instructional delivery. Your failure to provide your students the necessary content exposure to be proficient on the semester exam has deprived them of knowledge that is critical to their overall success as high school students.
As a result of your actions, you are required to meet with Mr. Trathowen or his designee, to review testing protocol for semester exams, MAP exams, FCAT, and any other State or District tests that you may be required to facilitate in your capacity as a classroom teacher. This meeting should take place before any District or State test is given for the 2009-2010 school year. Be aware that if this incident was not reflected in your annual evaluation completed for the 2008-09 school year, it will be reflected in your 2009-2010 evaluation.
You are hereby reprimanded for your unprofessional behavior, and any future incidents will result in a recommendation to dismiss you from employment. This letter will be placed into your personnel file on or after July 24, 2009. Florida Statute gives you the right to respond and any response you choose to make will be attached upon my receipt of it.
. Sincerely, ~
~ .
Linda A. Kipley
General Manager of Professional Standards
CERTIFIED MAIURETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED C: Daniel J. Valdez, Deputy Superintendent ~
Clyde Trathowen, Principal, Spoto High School /
Phil Carr, Assistant Principal for Curriculum, Spoto High School / Rachel Frierson, CTA representative .;
School District Information: 813-272-4000. Web Site: www.sdhc.k12.f1.us
Perhaps a non-standard policy with no definite procedure is the custom in this administration. Exceptions require citation if they are part of a valid policy. Otherwise it is not a policy. A policy is a definite course of action.
Please tell me how many times lawyers instead of Ms. Kipley have crafted these end statements? ldd
I don't think the timeframe is the reason. If an employee under investigation hires an attorney, the attorneys communicate on their clients' behalf. Just because a policy mentions no exceptions doesn't mean there are no exceptions.
Linda E. Cobbe External Communications Manager Hillsborough County Public Schools 901 E. Kennedy Blvd. Tampa, FL 33602 813-272-4602 (O) 813-493-6964 (C) 813-272-4510 (F)
Our mission is to provide an education that enables each student to excel as a successful and responsible citizen.
"lee" writes: I am glad to hear that those five files represented your belated delivery of the files requested on the other cases. I had asked for those files so long ago that I did not recall the request. I am glad to know that citizens' requests for public information stay active in your office until you fulfill them.
I look forward to the attorney's product that replaces Kipley's usual summary letter on the Kemp case,
Can you answer this question, please? Since the Professional Standards protocol you sent me said that Ms. Kipley drafts the final summary letter and mentions no exceptions, why is the board attorney, Mr. Gonzalez, doing the job in this case? Was Mr. Kemp's case in any way unorthodox so as to require legal language? An explanation from either you or him would be most welcome. An additional question: How many Professional
Standards close-out files has the attorney written in the past two years instead of Ms, Kipley, and where in the administrative protocols may I read the rationale for this departure? Lee De Cesare
-----Original Message----- From: Linda Cobbe [mailto:lcobbe@sdhc.us] Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 1:09 PM To: lee Subject: Re: summary file on Steve Kemp missing
The five files on other employees are not part of the Kemp file. You asked for the last five disciplinary outcomes; that's what those are. They are not connected to the Kemp case in any way, except that they were mailed to you in the same envelope.
Our attorney is preparing the final letter for Steve Kemp. I will send it to you when I get it.
Linda E. Cobbe
External Communications Manager
Hillsborough County Public Schools
901 E. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33602
813-272-4602 (O)
813-493-6964 (C)
813-272-4510 (F)
Our mission is to provide an education that enables each student to excel as a successful and responsible citizen.
"lee" writes:
Ms. Cobbe: The file Professional Standards file you sent me for Steve Kemp's investigation for child abuse does not contain the summary record by Ms. Kipley that the rules you sent me about a Professional Standards investigations dictate must be part of the file.
An example of such cumulative file appears below. Oddly enough, Ms. Kipley's file on Mr. Kemp contains five such files referring to other teachers who have been investigated by Professional Standards, but no such file on Mr. Kemp. He is due one.
May I have the analagous Kemp summary letter from the Kemp file, please, to complete the file I paid for?
Thank you.
Lee Drury De Cesare
~
Hillsborough County PUBLIC SCHOOLS ~Uzg~n
Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia
School Board
Carol W. Kurdell, Chair Susan L. Valdes, Vice Chair Doretha W. Edgecomb Jennifer Faliero
April Griffin
Jack R. Lamb, Ed.D. Candy Olson
Deputy Superintendents Kenneth R. Otero Daniel J. Valdez
General Manager of Professional Standards Linda A. Kipley
Gregg Wicktor
126 Silver Falis Drive Apollo Beach, FL 33572
On March 4, 2009, you met with me to discuss an investigation conducted by Dr. John Hilderbrand, Director of Accountability and Assessment. The investigation was conducted regarding a testing violation that was reported to the office of Professional Standards by Clyde Trathowen, Principal of Spoto High School.
Dr. Hilderbrand's investigation revealed that you provided your Integrated Science students at Spoto High School a semester exam worksheet that you admitted you constructed from the District semester exam. Specifically, you reproduced 60 of the 93 questions that were to be given on the exam.
When questioned as to why you provided your students with the exact exam questions on their study guide sheet, you stated that your students were behind, and you did not think it was fair to test them on content you had not covered in class. Due to your poor decision-making, the District was forced to construct a new Integrated Science exam, and delete the one you compromised.
It is a teacher's responsibility to pace the instruction of the subject content to make sure that those areas as outlined in the curriculum are reviewed with the students through the normal course of your instructional delivery. Your failure to provide your students the necessary content exposure to be proficient on the semester exam has deprived them of knowledge that is critical to their overall success as high school students.
As a result of your actions, you are required to meet with Mr. Trathowen or his designee, to review testing protocol for semester exams, MAP exams, FCAT, and any other State or District tests that you may be required to facilitate in your capacity as a classroom teacher. This meeting should take place before any District or State test is given for the 2009-2010 school year. Be aware that if this incident was not reflected in your annual evaluation completed for the 2008-09 school year, it will be reflected in your 2009-2010 evaluation.
You are hereby reprimanded for your unprofessional behavior, and any future incidents will result in a recommendation to dismiss you from employment. This letter will be placed into your personnel file on or after July 24, 2009. Florida Statute gives you the right to respond and any response you choose to make will be attached upon my receipt of it.
. Sincerely, ~
~ .
Linda A. Kipley
General Manager of Professional Standards
CERTIFIED MAIURETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED C: Daniel J. Valdez, Deputy Superintendent ~
Clyde Trathowen, Principal, Spoto High School /
Phil Carr, Assistant Principal for Curriculum, Spoto High School / Rachel Frierson, CTA representative .;
Ms. Cobbe:The Professional Standards file you sent me for Steve Kemp's investigation for child abuse does not contain the summary record by Ms. Kipley that the rules you sent me that a Professional Standards investigation dictates must be part of the file.
An example of such a cumulative file appears below.
Oddly enough, Ms. Kipley's file on Mr. Kemp that you sent to mecontains five such files citing the cases of other teachers who have been investigated by Professional Standards, but no such file on Mr. Kemp. He is due one.
May I have the analogous Kemp summary letter from the Kemp file, please, to complete the file I paid for?
Thank you.
Lee Drury De Cesare
~
Hillsborough CountyPUBLIC SCHOOLS ~Uzg~n
Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia
School Board
Carol W. Kurdell, Chair Susan L. Valdes, Vice Chair Doretha W. Edgecomb Jennifer Faliero
April Griffin
Jack R. Lamb, Ed.D. Candy Olson
Deputy Superintendents Kenneth R. Otero Daniel J. Valdez
General Manager of Professional Standards Linda A. Kipley
Gregg Wicktor
126 Silver Falis DriveApollo Beach, FL33572
On March 4, 2009, you met with me to discuss an investigation conducted by Dr. John Hilderbrand, Director of Accountability and Assessment. The investigation was conducted regarding a testing violation that was reported to the office of Professional Standards by Clyde Trathowen, Principal of SpotoHigh School.
Dr. Hilderbrand's investigation revealed that you provided your Integrated Science students at SpotoHigh School a semester exam worksheet that you admitted you constructed from the District semester exam. Specifically, you reproduced 60 of the 93 questions that were to be given on the exam.
When questioned as to why you provided your students with the exact exam questions on their study guide sheet, you stated that your students were behind, and you did not think it was fair to test them on content you had not covered in class. Due to your poor decision-making, the District was forced to construct a new Integrated Science exam, and delete the one you compromised.
It is a teacher's responsibility to pace the instruction of the subject content to make sure that those areas as outlined in the curriculum are reviewed with the students through the normal course of your instructional delivery. Your failure to provide your students the necessary content exposure to be proficient on the semester exam has deprived them of knowledge that is critical to their overall success as high school students.
As a result of your actions, you are required to meet with Mr. Trathowen or his designee, to review testing protocol for semester exams, MAP exams, FCAT, and any other State or District tests that you may be required to facilitate in your capacity as a classroom teacher. This meeting should take place before any District or State test is given for the 2009-2010 school year. Be aware that if this incident was not reflected in your annual evaluation completed for the 2008-09 school year, it will be reflected in your 2009-2010 evaluation.
You are hereby reprimanded for your unprofessional behavior, and any future incidents will result in a recommendation to dismiss you from employment. This letter will be placed into your personnel file on or after July 24, 2009. Florida Statute gives you the right to respond and any response you choose to make will be attached upon my receipt of it.
. Sincerely, ~
~ .
Linda A. Kipley
General Manager of Professional Standards
CERTIFIED MAIURETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED C: Daniel J. Valdez, Deputy Superintendent ~
Clyde Trathowen, Principal, SpotoHigh School /
Phil Carr, Assistant Principal for Curriculum, Spoto High School / Rachel Frierson, CTA representative .;
I recently received from Linda Kipley's office a file of Mr. Steve Kemp's investigation that lasted over a year in which he was on probation for his putative child abuse. Ms. Kipley included in the file hortatory letters sent to teachers reported to Professional Standards for what the administration chose to label professional breaches.
The thing that struck me about these files--besides Ms. Kipley's sending them to me when she knew they would appear on my blog---was that if you examine personnel files in the Public Affairs office, you never get any narratives of misconduct such as these reveal. The elves scrub the personnel files clean of all revealing information. I know this statement to be true because I have examined any number of personnel files in the Public Affairs office.
This circumstance leads me to believe that the school keeps two sets of files: one for show and one secret for the in-crowd.
The present instance of La Kipley's sending these files in addition to the Kemp file to me suggests that in this, as in all things, the administration is duplicitous. It does not want the public to know what is going on in the schools. Both the board and the administration I infer insist on this double-file system. They want to look good to the public and to hell with the facts.
If the administration practiced open government, there would be a record, for example, of Ms. Kipley's stormy exit from Hillsborough High School as principal before the administration gave her the Professional Standards job without competition instead of firing her as it should have done.
The scuttlebutt was that Ms. Kipley's history of lying was such that many teachers would not go into a conference with her without a recorder in their hands.
That the board brought this malignant personality into Professional Standards to reign over the lives of teachers and to use her hypertrophied power to make their lives miserable with false charges and cruel punishments that she never uses on administrators says something about how much the board and administration value teachers. It says they don't value them at all; they tolerate them to reap the money the state sends to ROSSAC on the head count of teachers' students.
The board, I believe, despises and fears teachers despite its members' saccharine praise of teachers on the board podium for political consumption. They know that parents value teachers, and parents vote, hence the false praise of teachers. When I asked the board several times to give teachers and students a settled slot on the board agenda, the whole gang looked at me as if I were mad.
I am convinced that if an inattentive community of voters woke up and became aware of the board and administration savagery to teachers--but not administrators--through the Professional Standards system, the voting public would hold the board's feet to the fire as it should on this continuing injustice to teachers via Ms. Kipley's savagery egged on by Ms. Elia.
Apparently the guy in this recital that I append below did something wrong: he spanked a child. Even if he did it with the grandparents' permission, the physical punishment was wrong; corporeal punishment exacerbates violence in a child. It does not abate it.
At least there was basis for the teacher's rebuke in this instance. There was none but a made-up charge in the first case that I witnessed involving a Professional Standards charge against Bart Birdsall. It had no reason except that the malignant power of a Professional Standards charge, Ms. Elia believed, would make Bart rein in his practive of sending emails from his home to the county library protesting the curtailment of gays' rights to library services to appease homophobes. Commissioner Ronda Storms got the hateful piece through the Commission. She's a gay hater.
There was also, I suspect, Ms. Elia's fear that if the fens-and-bogs homophobes at the county's periphery knew that a gay teacher could exercise his First Amendment rights on behalf of gays, this knowledge would madden them and make hordes advance on her office chewing tobacco, spitting, and wearing overalls. Their names would all be some generic of "Sonny Boy," and they would march with pitchforks and baying bloodhounds. Ms. Elia fears these types, this terror being the reason she wilted and did away with the holiday change that offended them a couple of years ago because they interpreted it as a diminution of Jesus's hegemony.
Ms. Elia hates bad publicity, and these primitives scare her on that front too. I myself do not fear such gentry. I was born in the little town White Oak, Georgia, where all of the men are named "Little Luke" or "Junior" or "Bubba" and are members of the filling station culture.
Another reason for La Elia's using Professional Standards to scare Bart was that she had just got the job and wanted to strut her power. She got the job not through merit but through the chicanery of the board, which lowered the academic standards for her and ignored her lack of experience. Board members didn't pick any of the excellent candidates that could have done a superb job of superintendent for the county schools.
I read the files for that hiring. Trust me. The academic world is my bailiwick. Ms. Elia was the least qualified of the candidates.
The board's provincialism and self-protection, with one board member's telling me that a certain candidate with the best credentials was "too uppity"--played its part in the wrong-headed selection of Ms. Elia for the job. And before that, the board had picked Earl the Pearl Lennard, in charge of torturing Mr. Erwin for asking Lennard to do something about crime at ROSSAC. After Erwin's request, people inferred that Lennard, other high-level administrators, and the board were benefiting from the crime thus wanted it to continue, and that greed was the reason they wanted the whistle blower run out of town. Instead of shutting down crime on campus, Lennard tried to make people think Mr. Erwin was crazy and then to fire him deprived of his pension. Then Mr. Erwin took the gang to court and won his whistleblower case and a settlement. The jury didn't believe a word the ROSSAC Liars Club said. The taxpayers paid for the administration and board crime with the settlement.
The board had blown $35,000 of taxpayer money on nationwide advertising to cover board members' selfish, irresponsible asses in hiring a person such as Elia to be superintendent, not because she had the best record among the candidates but because she would let the board members to continue to sit on the board as ceremonial potted plants between forays of running around town to various political hoedowns with tubs of tax-paid food for them to gobble.
Board members go to multiple events supposedly to advertise their soi-disant sponsorship of education, but the real reason is to eat, eat, eat. It's hog-trough fare on the taxpayers' dime.
We infer board gluttony to be the case by observing from the audience on board nights the torpor on the podium of board digestive systems taxed to the limit with processing rich food consumed far too often at these political hog-trough celebrations. We have also diagnostic opportunities provided when a fat board member waddles behind the podium upon a pretended potty break but really for a respite from the bruising business of pushing the green button for anything Ms. Elia says.
These paragons are the guardians of the community's children's safety. They don't look to me as if they intend to do diddly to have the toe-cracking assistant principal at King High referred to a psychiatrist to ascertain the basis of his fetish for boys' feet and determine whether his sicko activity points to the Freudian pedophilicpsychosexual pathology of fear of castration with the feet as the substitute penis. I am sorry for the diction, but you can't discuss Freud without it.
Somebody in the administration and board must know about foot fetishism. We exempt Ms. Kipley because her home-ec training didn't include any intellectually rigorous fare. But reputable colleges and universities require a psychology course in the core curriculum. Somebody in the adminisistration took one to be sure. Why didn't that person speak up? He or she was afraid of being fired is why.
There are two on the board dais who have not spent a day in a college or university, and the others have academic-lite degrees from marginal institutions as far as I can tell. With such C and D students from Podunk U as board members who surrender their authority to Ms. Elia so that they can frolic in the public eye and gobble down tax-subsidized chow at community festivals, it's a wonder that things are not worse than they are.
More Kipley-provided teacher rebukes are on the way after the one below. I will end with the Kemp file. It will take me a while to scan in. lee
School Board
Carol W. Kurdell, Chair Susan L. Valdes, Vice Chair Doretha W. Edgecomb Jennifer Faliero
April Griffin
Jack R. Lamb, Ed.D. Candy Olson
~
HillsboroughCoun!y PUBLIC SCHOOLS ifzcelhtceUt (ff~n
Superintendent of Schools MaryEllen Elia
Deputy Superintendents Kenneth R. Otero Daniel J. Valdez
General Manager of Professional Standards Linda A. Kipley
James P. Parker 2704 Varsity Place Tampa, FL 33612
On January 29, 2009, allegations were reported to the office of Professional Standards by the Child Protective Investigative Department that a complaint was filed with their office that you had "whipped" a student assigned to your classroom at Robles Elementary School. In addition, the Tampa Police Department was involved. During their [its: pronoun reference to "Department"] investigation into the allegations, you were removed from the classroom, [no comma: splits a compound verb]and placed on paid status until the District could review their [its: pronoun reference] findings.
Though the Child Protective Investigative Department and Tampa Police Department closed their case with no indicators, they did so only because the grandparents of the student indicated they gave you permission to "whip" their grandson. You openly admitted to the Child Protective Investigator that you whipped the student four times with an open hand because the student had been in trouble recently for fighting,[no comma: splits a compound verb] and was suspended for two days.
During our meeting on March 10, 2009, we discussed that even though the grandparents gave you permission to spank their grandchild, the School District does not approve or condone any corporal punishment given by teachers. It is your responsibility to create a safe and caring environment free from physical or mental harm. Your actions are considered inappropriate, [no comma: splits a compound verb] and will not be tolerated by the District.
On March 11, 2009, you were returned to your regular classroom duties with the expectation that you would conduct yourself as a professional. As a result, you agreed to accept a three-day suspension without pay. The dates that you and Bonnie McDaniel, Principal of Robles Elementary School, have agreed upon on [are] August 18, September 18, and October 9,2009.
In addition; you are directed to contact Chuck Fleming, Director of Teacher Training and Staff Development, at 840-7021, [superfluous comma: compound verb] and schedule an ["a": precedes a word that sounds as if it began with a consonant] one-on-one training in ''Professionalism through Integrity," the Code of Ethics, [Omit comma: "that" clauses are restrictive.] that will include an online component. Documentation of successful completion must be forwarded to the office of Professional Standards no later than August 17, 2009. [This writer overuses the passive voice, a practice that makes her sound weak and indecisive: "Your supervisor must forward..."]
You are hereby reprimanded for your poor decision-making. A copy of this letter will be placed into your personnel file on or after July 24, 2009. Florida Statute gives you the right to respond [comma: compound sentence] and any response you choose to make will be attached upon my receipt of it. Be reminded that a positive perception of you as an elementary [hyphenated adjective before a noun] school teacher by the community, parents, students, teachers, school administrators, and District officials is critical to your overall success as an educator.
Any future incidents of inappropriate physical contact with students will result in a recommendation that your employment be terminated. If you need assistance in contacting Mr. Fleming, do not hesitate to contact my office at 840-7128.
~~;j
LindaA.Ki~
General Manager of Professional Standards
Certified Mail/Return Receipt Requested
C: Daniel J. Valdez, Deputy Superintendent
Bonnie McDaniel, Principal, Robles Elementary School .;
Chuck Fleming, Director of Teacher Training and Staff Development ./ Personnel file j
Ms. Elia's Dog
