Letter To Mr. Carvalho

28 June 2017
Hello Mr. Carvalho,
A frog and a scorpion gazed anxiously at a rushing river. Close behind them, a ferocious forest fire crackled ominously. If they could cross the rushing river, they would be safe. If not, they would suffer a horrible death. “Please allow me a ride on your back as you swim across the river,” the scorpion begged the frog. “Are you crazy? You’ll sting me and I’ll die,” replied the frog. The scorpion retorted,” I promise you, I will not sting you, because if I do that while you are swimming across the river, we will both die.” “Hmmm,” the frog said thoughtfully. “That makes sense. Ok, hop on and I will save your life.” As soon as they reached the safety of the far shore, the scorpion stung the frog. “Why did you do that to me after I saved your life?” asked the bewildered frog. “I did it because I can’t stop myself,” the scorpion chortled gleefully.
Mr. Carvalho, my name is Bill Detzner. I taught severely mentally retarded children at Neva King Cooper (NKC) for 25 years. This is the THIRD (3’RD) letter I have written to Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS)regarding the inexcusable behavior of the 2 administrators of NKC, who have, over the last 5 years, done many seemingly deliberately hurtful and vindictive things to the NKC staff. Like the scorpion, they seem to do these things because”they can’t seem to stop themselves.” The names of those two administrators are Dr. Tracy Roos, (principal) and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez, (assistant principal). Mr. Carvalho, I think you and I would both agree that the scorpion character in this fable is a very vindictive character. Mr. Carvalho, would you and I also be in agreement that like the scorpion, you too are a very vindictive individual? I ask this question because in June 2015, I sent a 16 -page letter to Dr. Larry Feldman (school board member), Dr. Martha Perez (school board member), Perla Tabares-Hantman (school board member,) Barbara Mendizabal, and Dr. David More. In that 16- page letter, I went into great detail about the very serious, potentially career ending charges that were leveled against Mr. Rick Massa, a teacher at NKC. Although Mr. Massa had a spotless record for the first 36 years of his career, during a 2 -month period at NKC, BOTH Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez filed 7 devastating charges against Mr. Massa. Whether by coincidence or by design, Mr. Massa, myself, Luz Morales, and all the other NKC staff who have had disciplinary problems with both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez were supporters of exploring the option of converting to a charter school. (Conversely, NKC staff who were NOT interested in exploring charter school conversion have had relatively few problems with either Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez.) Mr. Carvalho, it strains credibility to believe that NONE of these very 5 senior MDCPS officials saw fit to share my letter with you. I think it would be a safe bet to say that you were aware of the numerous very serious accusations made against Mr. Massa. Four months after MDCPS received my letter, a very scary and sinister thing happened to Mr. Massa. Although 6 of the 7 accusations against Mr. Massa had been dismissed due to a lack of evidence, and despite the fact that the 1 remaining charge against Mr. Massa was of a very minor nature, Mr. Massa, on very short notice, was summoned to a meeting downtown. Although Mr. Massa had a lawyer, his lawyer was not allowed to attend this meeting. At this meeting, senior MDCPS officials told Mr. Massa he had only 2 options. Those 2 options were to either retire immediately or to be terminated. What Mr. Massa was NOT told was that due to the fact that the only as yet unresolved charge against him was very minor, he had the additional option of simply exiting that meeting and continuing his career. Fortunately for Mr. Massa, his attorney made him aware that he had this option. Mr. Carvalho, it is very difficult to believe that this termination meeting took place without your knowledge and approval. (If you were unaware of this meeting, one has to ask what other things are happening in MDCPS without your knowledge and consent.) Mr. Carvalho, would it be fair and accurate to say that yourself, Dr. Roos, and Mrs. Fernandez share the scorpion’s vindictiveness?
Mr. Carvalho, I am asking that you share both this letter and my blog (www.mdcpsallegations.com) with both the entire MDCPS school board and all of the members of the Superintendent’s Cabinet.
My second correspondence with MDCPS occurred in April 2017. It consisted of my blog and a certified letter (return receipt requested) that I sent to you, Mr. Carvalho. I also sent copies of my blog to the Florida state education authorities in Tallahassee, the Federal education authorities in Washington, D.C., and United Teachers of Dade (UTD) Additionally, I sent a copy of my blog to the Matt Drudge Report. (The Matt Drudge Report is the most widely read blog in the U.S. Mr. Drudge became prominent in the 1990’s when his revelations about the Monica Lewinsky affair nearly ended Bill Clinton’s presidency.) Finally, I sent copies of my blog to bloggers Dr. Gary North and Dr. Rich Swier. Dr Swier was kind enough to publish my entire blog in 7 installments. (It can be accessed at www.drrichswier.com). The title of my blog is Multi-Year Disaster at Neva King Cooper. Dr. Swier’s blog has a monthly audience of over 1,000,000 highly educated, financially affluent, and politically powerful people.
My June 2015 sixteen- page letter had no effect on moderating either Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez behavior toward the NKC staff. My April 2017 blog publication and certified letter to Superintendent Carvalho also had no effect on moderating the extremely abusive interactions both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez have with the NKC staff. A person could be forgiven for believing that the pressure of a UTD visit to the NKC campus to investigate alleged contract violations by both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez, plus a recently published very critical 40- page blog about these two administrators, plus my certified letter to Mr. Carvalho would cause these two administrators to tone down their extremely unpleasant interactions with the NKC staff at least for the remaining month and a half remaining in the school year. Regrettably, this assumption is untrue. Like the scorpion who does vindictive things because it can’t stop itself, the two NKC administrators “brought the hammer down” on the long suffering NKC staff during the closing days of the 2016-2017 school year.
During the last days of school, several staff members had a t-shirt made that said,”Straight out of Neva.” They wore this shirt at NKC. The fact that those serfs (I mean employees) were entirely within their contractual rights to wear those shirts to work (there was nothing obscene, controversial, or political on those t-shirts) was unimportant to Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez. Both of these administrators are EXTREMELY controlling people who want to control even the most minute details of what occurs at NKC, even if the UTD contract specifically forbids them from doing certain things. At the very stormy and confrontational faculty meeting that followed those staff members wearing those t-shirts to work, Dr. Roos stated that she was deeply offended that staff members did not first seek her permission and approval for this t-shirt!!! (even though the employees had no contractual obligation to do so!) At the risk of being accused of insubordination, one of the staff spoke up and noted that earlier in the year, another group of NKC employees (who Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez like) had also made up t-shirts that they then wore to work, without consulting Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez in advance, and not a single word was said to these employees. A prudent administrator, realizing that A) she had no contractual right to make the statements she was making and B) having it pointed out to her that another group of employees had done the exact same thing, with no adverse consequences would have backed off. Not only did Dr. Roos NOT back off, she intensified her attack. She then required each person who had worn the “offending” shirt to attend a one-on-one additional scolding in her (Dr. Roos) office. During the one-on-one additional scolding (Again, when the contract was not violated), Dr. Roos was once again unable to control her emotions and began weeping uncontrollably. To refresh your memory, Mr. Carvalho, a few years ago, at a faculty meeting, Dr. Roos became very abusive in stating to the entire faculty that we (the entire faculty) were doing a very poor job of taking care of the children. She then stated that she was ashamed of us and began weeping uncontrollably. The NKC staff sent MDCPS a petition signed by nearly the entire staff asking that Dr. Roos be given the proper sanction for this offense. MDCPS did what it always does when it receives unwelcome news: Our petition was met with total silence. MDCPS did not even have the common courtesy and decency to acknowledge having received the letter. Mr. Carvalho, two months ago, I sent you a certified letter. You also did not have the common courtesy and decency to even acknowledge receipt of that letter. I am guessing that you will also not reply to this letter, even though it contains a number of very serious allegations against MDCPS. Just as it seems that Dr. Roos first uncontrollable weeping was ok with MDCPS officials, my guess is that this latest episode of her uncontrollable weeping will also be ok with MDCPS officials. It seems that courtesy and respect are a one -way street at NKC. It is given by employees/serfs to the administrators/masters, but it is not returned. For example, Mr. Carvalho, you have known for two years now that NKC administrators SCREAM at NKC employees when there are no witnesses, and you have done nothing about it. You also know that there is an allegation of Dr. Roos physically assaulting an NKC employee, and nothing was done about that either. One final note concerning the t-shirt event that Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez chose to turn into a MAJOR confrontation between staff and administrators: If both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez were not ENORMOUSLY unpopular at NKC, those t-shirts would never have been made in the first place!
Neither Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez permit even the tiniest bit of dissention from the peasant/serf NKC employees. Here is yet another example of that. One day, while eating his/her lunch in the teacher’s lounge, a teacher made the mistake of stating his/her opinion that the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA) is an unsuitable test for profoundly mentally retarded children. (This belief is shared by nearly the entire NKC staff.) One might think that since A) This comment was made inside the teacher’s lounge during lunch hour and B) At best, this comment was a very mild and bland criticism, that Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez would just let it go, but that’s not the way things work in “The People’s Republic” of NKC. Like the scorpion, these two administrators just can’t stop themselves. One of Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez many snitches was present in the teachers’ lounge when this statement was made and ran off to tattle on this poor, trusting soul. This teacher was not even allowed to finish his/her lunch before being summoned by Dr. Roos to her office and being SCREAMED at and told under NO conditions was this person EVER to say anything negative about the FAA again. (It should be noted that contractually, a MDCPS employee is entitled to a 30 minute, uninterrupted, scream- free lunch break. Evidently, this contractual rule does not apply in “The People’s Republic” of NKC.) Both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez are scorpions who will not hesitate to retaliate against this person for the fact that I am aware of this event. If this is Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez BEST behavior, (when they are supposedly under the microscope of both Superintendent Carvalho and UTD,) can you imagine what they will do if they are allowed to return to NKC next fall???
Mr. Carvalho, since you either can not or will not control the behavior of Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez, I am sending copies of this letter to both the Florida and Federal educational authorities (plus all the blogs I have previously mentioned.) Given the fact that you seem either unwilling or unable to put your own house in order, perhaps outside educational authorities will be able to put your house in order for you. Here are some additional things state and Federal educational authorities might want to look into: 1) Why is there such a yawning chasm between the FAA test scores when Dr. Alberto Fernandez was the NKC principal, as opposed to the dramatic and astonishing improvement in scores when Dr. Roos became the NKC principal? Yep, since Dr. Roos became the NKC principal, profoundly mentally retarded students, with IQ’s of 25 and below have achieved some ASTOUNDING FAA test results. Investigators might want to question any NKC staff who assisted Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez in maintaining custody of FAA testing materials, both present staff and staff who have since transferred to another school site to see if either Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez asked them to do anything contrary to FAA guidelines. 2) Why is it that the MDCPS in-house self-policing bodies seem to nearly always vindicate accused MDCPS officials, while the whistleblowers then suffer unlawful retaliation?
I would also like to ask MDCPS board members and Superintendent’s Cabinet members to compare and contrast both the staff and parent satisfaction surveys of both the administration of Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol and the administration of Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez. If you find that Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol have performed significantly better than Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez, on these staff and parent satisfaction surveys, I ask you to recommend that Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol be returned as the administrators of NKC.
Mr. Carvalho, I am going to lay my cards on the table. My phone rings off the hook with complaints from NKC staff about BOTH Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez. If either one of those scorpions is returned as NKC administrators next fall, I am going to publish Part Two of my Multi-Year Disaster at Neva King Cooper blog on Dr. Rick Swier’s blog. Part Two of my blog will be as long as Part One was, and the allegations will be as serious as the allegations in Part One. I will again send copies of Part Two of my blog to both the state education authorities in Tallahassee and the Federal authorities in Washington. I will also send copies of my blog (both parts One and Two) to every member of the Florida Senate and House education committees. Additionally, I will send my blogs to the National Labor Relations Board and the ACLU. I will also include all of the letters I have written to you as a part of my blog. My goal is to reach a tipping point, where the pain you as superintendent of schools receive as a result of keeping either Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez as NKC administrators becomes unacceptably high. Mr. Carvalho, I am a very patient and persistent man. As a retired teacher, I have a great deal of free time to devote to this pursuit.
Mr. Carvalho, I would like to give school board members and members of the Superintendent’s Cabinet some additional information on how NKC came to be the sad and pathetic place it is today. In the 2011-2012 school year, the NKC principal, Dr. Alberto Fernandez and his assistant principal, Mr. Cristobol, along with the faculty council decided to explore NKC’s legally protected option of converting from a public school to a charter school. MDCPS illegally smashed NKC’s charter school conversion exploration. The reason I say MDCPS actions were illegal is because in legal case DOAH 13-1492, the judge ruled that MDCPS was guilty of unlawful reprisal and abuse of authority. Given the fact that Mr. Carvalho is the superintendent of MDCPS, it is probably fair to say that the blame for the illegal actions of MDCPS lies with Mr. Carvalho. Although both staff and parent satisfaction surveys for several years indicated a very high level of satisfaction with both Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol, by both parents and staff for a period of several years and although the presiding judge in the case recommended that Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol be returned to their posts as NKC administrators, Mr. Carvalho declined to take this action and reassigned them to other posts within MDCPS. Mr. Carvalho, during his entire tenure as MDCPS superintendent, has only visited the NKC campus once. That one very brief visit was shortly after Mr. Carvalho had illegally removed Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol from their posts. During his very brief visit, Mr. Carvalho made the following statement in the main office of NKC. He said, “This is a Miami-Dade County public school. It will always be a Miami-Dade County public school, and if anyone wants to change that, they need to go through me.” There are several current NKC employees who heard Mr. Carvalho make that statement and are willing to testify to that effect. News of Mr. Carvalho’s visit and his statement swept through the school like a wildfire. After Mr. Carvalho illegally removed BOTH administrators almost 2 months PRIOR to the end of the school year, the staff was in a state of shock. The NKC staff viewed Mr. Carvalho’s statement as a thinly veiled threat against the entire staff. The staff felt that Mr. Carvalho could and would do to other staff members what he had done to the two NKC administrators. The actions of the 2 present NKC administrators, Dr. Tracy Roos (principal) and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez (assistant principal) over the last 5 years certainly seem to be acts of retaliation by BOTH of these administrators against NKC staff members who expressed an interest in exploring converting to a charter school. For example, Ms. Luz Morales, (case number DOAH 145-2439) on the recommendation of Dr. Roos, was illegally terminated and reemployed only because a judge ordered it. Mr. Darwin Brown (teacher and our UTD steward,) Ms. Yolanda Deya (teaching assistant) and Ms. Zenaida Castellanos (teaching assistant) were informed by Dr. Roos that Dr. Roos had received an “anonymous” phone call stating that these 3 individuals were illegally using a ruler to discipline one of the students in their class. A few things need to be noted here. 1) This is not the first time Dr. Roos has received an “anonymous” phone call prior to initiating disciplinary action against a staff member. 2) Dr. Roos is required by law to open an investigation into every allegation of child abuse. I am, hoping investigators will check to see if Dr. Roos followed this procedure after the “anonymous” phone call. 3) As a result of these unproven allegations, Ms. Yolanda Deya, a very fine and hard- working teaching assistant with an unblemished 26 -year record abruptly retired at the end of the school year. Other instances of what appear to be retaliation against charter school conversion supporters by NKC administrators include myself (Bill Detzner). Shortly after I wrote a letter urging parents to join our school PTA (I wrote this letter at the request of Dr. Roos, who read my proposed letter, approved it, and told me to send the letter home with students.) Shortly after words, Dr. Roos received yet another one of her mysterious “anonymous” phone calls, informing her (Dr. Roos) I had broken some obscure rule forbidding a PTA letter to be sent on school stationary. Dr. Roos then held THREE meetings with me (she screamed at me and was very abusive and insulting during all 3 of these meetings) and told me she was going to place a letter of reprimand in my personnel file for writing a letter that she asked me to write and then approved. The letter of reprimand was rescinded ONLY after Dr. Roos was summoned to a meeting downtown and ordered by MDCPS to apologize to me and not place that letter in my file. Later that year, for the one and only time during my 30- year career, Mrs. Alicia Fernandez failed me on my yearly teaching observation. She observed me for 20 minutes, the bare minimum of time needed to make an observation legal. The contract states that a failing observation can be given ONLY if an observation takes an entire class period of approximately one hour, but I guess a legal contract does not mean much in “The People’s Republic “of NKC. To add insult to injury, Mrs. Fernandez was on her cell phone almost the entire time of my observation, and made no attempt to hide the fact that she was on her cell phone. In her follow up post-observation “chat” with me, Mrs. Fernandez SCREAMED at me for 20 minutes. I was literally not allowed to speak. Every time I attempted to say something, Mrs. Fernandez simply shouted me down! I am a military veteran. Even during army boot camp, I was not shouted at the way Mrs. Fernandez shouted at me during my post-observation “chat”. Perhaps Mrs. Fernandez felt that because I had supported exploring the option of converting to a charter school, I deserved that treatment. Sadly, at no time afterwards did Mrs. Fernandez apologize for her behavior. Given the fact that in the past I had been selected as my school’s teacher of the year, my “failure” that day seemed odd. A final irony is that Mrs. Fernandez told me that the lesson she had failed me on was an outstanding lesson!
Mrs. Fernandez then also failed (again, for the first time in his 30- year career) Mr. Tebilio Diaz. (However, as both of us then passed our follow-up observations, we received passing evaluations for that year.)
A staff member (who chooses to remain unknown) was in Dr. Roos office and Dr. Roos was allegedly SCREAMING at this person. This person had his/her head down and was staring miserably at the floor. Dr. Roos then allegedly seized this person by the jaw and jerked his/her head upward into Dr. Roos’ face and allegedly screamed, ”Look at me when I’m talking to you.” This person was not a member of UTD, although the spouse of this person was a UTD member. Their finances were such that they could not both afford UTD membership. This person did not have enough confidence in the investigative bodies within MDCPS to keep him/her safe if he/she reported the incident This person has since transferred to another worksite within MDCPS. However, it took many months for this person to escape ”The People’s Republic” of NKC via another MDCPS worksite. One can only imagine the dread this person faced every day as he/she reported for work at NKC, wondering if he/she would again face the violation of physical assault in the work place by her employer. Apparently, the right of employees to be safe from physical assault by their employers that exists in the rest of the U.S. does not seem to apply to “The People’s Republic” of NKC. Mr. Carvalho, does it bother you that a MDCPS employee who was allegedly physically assaulted by a MDCPS principal then did not feel safe enough to report that incident to the appropriate MDCPS agency? Perhaps if the Federal or state of Florida educational authorities were to take over the day to day operations of MDCPS, this situation could be remedied.
Probably the most egregious instance of what appears to be retaliation against a supporter of the charter school conversion would be Mr. Rick Massa. Although he had a previously unblemished 36- year record, in the span of 2 months Mr. Massa found himself accused (by BOTH Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez) of 7 very serious charges, including possibly sexually molesting a student, cheating on the FAA, and gross neglect of a student.
Based on Mr. Carvalho’s statement during his visit to NKC and based on the actions of both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez over the past 5 years, myself and most of the NKC staff feel that the 3 above named individuals view NKC as a rebellious and conquered entity that deserves a heavy and lengthy punishment. Here is a 2 -year old quote from the letter I sent in June 2015. “If the goal of the punishment our staff has received for 3 years is intimidation, that goal has been achieved. Our staff feels deeply intimidated by the district. The NKC staff COMPLETELY abandoned the idea of converting to a charter school two and a half years ago. Any staff member foolish enough to bring up the subject of converting to a charter school would immediately be vigorously opposed by the entire staff. The NKC staff understands that a district response to a conversion request would be swift and brutal.” [due to the fact that although these repressive actions by the district are illegal, no penalty will be suffered by Florida school districts who willfully violate that law] “Therefore, if the district is punishing our staff to prevent a charter conversion, that punishment can stop. Perhaps the district should declare an amnesty for the NKC staff. A hundred years from now, NKC will still be a public school. If the district is punishing NKC as an example of what happens to schools that attempt to convert to a charter school, then I suppose the punishment will continue.”
Well, Mr. Carvalho, it is now 5 years after you illegally smashed NKC’s attempt to explore charter school conversion, and what appears to be punishment and retaliation continues unabated. Mr. Carvalho, at what point will you feel that NKC has been punished and retaliated against enough? Will it be 7 years, 10 years, or the length of your term as superintendent? If you intend to appear to punish and retaliate against NKC for the duration of your term as superintendent, it is my fervent hope that your term of office will soon end.
If records exist that show the number of staff who left NKC during the time Dr. Alberto Fernandez was the NKC principal, they can be compared to the number of staff who left NKC after Dr. Roos became the principal of NKC. These numbers will show that staff retention has greatly diminished since Dr. Roos came to NKC. State or Federal investigators might wish to invite staff who left NKC after Dr. Roos became the principal to share their reasons for leaving NKC. I am sure they will hear some hair- raising stories.
A few years ago, Mr. Rick Massa had a student in his class who had it written on his Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that the young man was prone to choking incidents. The obvious solution to this problem is to very closely monitor this student during meal times. However, the class consists of several students and those other students have frequent and unannounced seizures or behavioral/emotional outbursts, making it impossible to monitor this student at all times. One day, during meal time, this young man began to choke on his food. Mr. Massa took immediate, proper, and proactive action, and the student quickly expelled the food he was choking on. He never lost consciousness and his only ill effect was a red face. The child then went back to eating his meal. As the entire school eats in the cafeteria at the same time, the entire staff witnessed this choking incident. The entire staff felt that Mr. Massa should have been warmly congratulated for his prompt actions that safeguarded this young man’s well- being. Both the on-site NKC nursing staff and the paramedics from the fire department that Dr. Roos summoned to NKC after this incident occurred assured Dr. Roos that the young man had suffered no ill effects as a result of his brief choking incident. Nevertheless, Dr. Roos made the astonishing decision to charge Mr. Massa with gross neglect of a child! In what kind of perverted, twisted school does taking prompt and correct actions to save a child from choking constitute gross neglect of a child??? As a result of Dr. Roos action, myself and the rest of the NKC staff have a fear that if a child under the care of an NKC staff person begins to choke, even if it is not the staff person’s fault that the child is choking, and even if the staff person takes immediate and corrective action and the child suffers no ill effects, that staff person may still be charged with potentially career ending charges. Mr. Carvalho, I am greatly disappointed by the fact that what I am telling you right now is something I am telling you for the FOURTH time. The first time I brought this to your attention was June 2015, TWO YEARS AGO. You have chosen to do absolutely nothing when 3 easily implemented actions on your part would greatly reduce the risk of a severely mentally retarded child at NKC choking to death. So here (for the fourth time) is the scenario that exists of an artificially elevated risk of a fatal choking incident occurring as a result of what appears to be Dr. Roos decision to use a choking incident as a weapon against NKC staff. If a child begins to choke, the NKC staff member, fearing his/her job may be at stake, (even if he/she is blameless and takes immediate corrective action), may choose to delay notifying the NKC administrators, or the nursing staff, hoping the child spontaneously ejects the food. In a choking incident, every second is important, and a 30 second to one minute delay in summoning help may literally mean the difference between life and death. During the 25 years I worked at NKC, there were 3 near death experiences. Two involved students who nearly choked to death on their food. The other involved a staff member who suffered a heart attack and stopped breathing. In all 3 of these incidents, the lives were saved NOT by our on-site nursing staff, but by Mr. Frank Lozada, a teacher at NKC who trained as a paramedic at the fire academy and rode ambulances on the weekends. Regrettably, Mr. Lozada joined the long, long line of staff who have left NKC since Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez became the NKC administrators. On an absolutely perfect day, with no red lights and no traffic, the paramedics can reach our school in 3 minutes. If you add an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute that a staff member may delay seeking help for fear of losing his/her job, the situation could change from a life saved to a life lost, or a child who could walk prior to the choking incident to a child being confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his/her life due to irreversible brain damage due to oxygen deprivation. In one of the choking incidents, it took Mr. Lozada (who was on-site at the time of the choking incident) nearly 3 minutes to dislodge the food blocking the student’s airways. Here are the 3 easily implemented steps Mr. Carvalho could take to reduce the artificially elevated risk of a fatal choking incident at NKC. 1) Replace Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez as the NKC administrators. 2) It would be helpful if Mr. Carvalho were to send a memo to NKC staff stating that in the future, staff who perform their duties with due diligence will not be charged with wrongdoing. 3) Offer CPR training to all NKC staff during one of the teacher workdays. This needs to be done on an annual basis. Staff who successfully complete this course could be awarded master plan points. When Dr. Alberto Fernandez was the principal of NKC, CPR training was provided to all staff every year. To my knowledge, Dr. Roos has not provided this training.
Timothy McVeigh, the evil man who bombed the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killed dozens of kindergarten children in that bombing. When he was asked about his thoughts about these murdered children, he shrugged his shoulders and called them “collateral damage.” Mr. Carvalho, the severely mentally retarded children of NKC have IQ’s of 25 and below. They played no part whatsoever in the failed attempt to possibly convert NKC to a charter school. If you continue to take no corrective action, and one or more severely mentally retarded children needlessly dies as a result of your inaction, will you shrug your shoulders and consider that death or deaths to be ‘collateral damage?” Mr. Carvalho, your failure to correct an easily correctible dangerous situation for severely mentally retarded children FOR OVER 2 YEARS goes beyond criminal negligence. It is evil.
Sincerely,
Bill Detzner
Bill Detzner
7722 S.W. 99 Street
Miami, FL. 33156
P.S. I am including the list of 14 things I would like state of Florida and/or Federal Education authorities to examine with this letter.