Second Letter To Governor Rick Scott

Dear Governor Scott,

Hello, my name is Bill Detzner. On May1, 2018, I sent you a letter, stating my deep concerns about the situation at Neva King Cooper (NKC), a public school exclusively for Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS), the nation’s fourth largest school system. Since the time of my letter, things at that unfortunate school have ominously taken a turn for the worse, and my fear is that an explosion is immanent unless you as the governor personally intervene . If you need an in-depth description about the SIX YEAR crisis at NKC, my blog can be accessed at mdcpsallegations.com. (Governor Scott, I know that you are a bald man, but if you DID have hair on your head, reading my blog would cause your nonexistent hair to curl!) I have been in phone contact with Elizabeth Harris, who is the education reporter for the New York Times (NYT). She is aware of my blog and has promised to explore the possibility of the NYT doing one or more stories about my blog. Additionally, I am in the process of establishing contact with students/parents of Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School. My guess is that they share my conviction that violent, entirely preventable deaths on school grounds are unacceptable, whether they occur from a madman with a gun, or a superintendent who knowingly and willfully exposes profoundly mentally handicapped children to choking to death on their food. Governor Scott, if you do nothing to defuse the crisis at NKC, and a tragedy ensues, and the public discovers that you received not one but two letters warning you of this preventable potential tragedy, my fear is that your popularity will plummet sharply with Florida voters. I have an additional concern that you should be aware of. The NKC principal, Dr. Tracy Roos gives the appearance of being mentally unstable, with extreme mood changes, and engaging in erratic and unpredictable behavior. Let me add the disclaimer that I am not a psychologist, and these are merely my perceptions, and I am not attempting to make a mental health diagnosis of Dr. Roos. Having said that, I have a masters degree in the field of guidance and counseling, and a background in psychology. As I do not want to be sued, I am going to use the word “allegedly,” even though I personally experienced the event I am going to describe to you. One day, Dr. Roos called me into her office for a conference. In her office, Dr. Roos asked me to be seated at a round table with several chairs under that round table. As Dr. Roos did not indicate a preference for which chair I sat in, I randomly chose a chair to sit in. Dr. Roos’ formerly friendly demeanor instantly changed to a very stern demeanor, and she glared at me. I was aware that I had done something to displease Dr. Roos, but I had no idea what I had done to displease her, so I gazed at her quizzically. In a very stern voice, Dr. Roos allegedly told me I was sitting in the wrong chair, and patted the back of the chair (right next to the one I was seated in) and asked me to move to that chair. Dr. Roos then allegedly told me that she suffers from an obsessive compulsive disorder. Dr. Roos gives the appearance of receiving a great deal of satisfaction from causing emotional distress to anyone under her authority. Often, Dr. Roos gives the appearance of being very lethargic and moody. However, when her (Dr. Roos) actions have caused acute emotional distress to an employee, Dr. Roos gives the appearance of being highly energized and almost giddy with happiness. Dr. Roos gives the appearance of almost being addicted to the happiness and energy lift she appears to get when her (Dr. Roos) actions have caused emotional distress to an employee.    During the 2011-2012 school year, NKC attempted to exercise its legal right under Florida law to convert from a public school to a charter school. MDCPS superintendent Alberto Carvalho illegally smashed NKC’s attempted charter school conversion process (you can review the legal case in DOAH 13-1492), and illegally transferred both principal Dr. Alberto Fernandez and assistant principal Mr. Henny Cristobol out of NKC.  The new NKC administrators, principal Dr. Tracy Roos and assistant principal Alicia Fernandez have ruled NKC with an iron fist, and for the last six years, NKC has been virtually under lockdown, with collective punishment being administered to the entire staff. Florida law explicitly forbids punishment against employees who attempt to convert to a charter school. Regrettably, the Florida law that prohibits retaliation against employees who attempt to convert to a charter school contains NO penalties for superintendents who violate that law!!! Governor Scott, can you please ask the Florida legislature to either repeal this law entirely, or add penalties sufficiently severe to detract superintendents from smashing and then punishing conversion to charter school efforts? In an effort to keep MDCPS officials appraised of this SIX YEAR crisis, I have sent 5 certified letters to Superintendent Carvalho, 3 certified letters to MDCPS school board member Larry Feldman, 2 certified letters to MDCPS school board member Steve Gallon, 3 certified letters to the Office of the Commissioner, Florida Department of Education,  and  5 certified letters to United Teachers of Dade (UTD) president Karla Hernandez-Mats. It is a lucky thing that I saved the green cards showing that these people received my certified letters, because not one of these people had the professionalism and courtesy to respond to ANY of my letters.! There are 3 flashpoints that could potentially cause an explosion at NKC , and I will discuss those 3 flashpoints in detail. The first flashpoint is what appears to be blatant racism against African-American staff exercised by Superintendent Carvalho, Tracy Roos, and Alicia Fernandez. Mrs. Fernandez has a nickname. Her nickname is “Screamer,” because when she is upset with a staff member, she engages in lengthy screaming jags against the unfortunate staff member. One of her victims is an African-American gentleman, who has endured at least two of her screaming jags. After one of these attacks, this 20 year employee stated that he wished to have the school UTD steward present during any further “discussions” with “Screamer” (i.e. Mrs. Fernandez) The second potential flashpoint is Superintendent Carvalho’s apparent willingness to subject profoundly mentally retarded students (who literally cannot speak for themselves) to a violent and easily death of choking to death on their food by using them as “bait” in an effort to “get” staff who exercised their right to explore conversion to a charter school. The third flashpoint is the numerous draconian punishments that the 2 NKC administrators have doled out to KNC staff for SIX YEARS!  (Again, these incidents are fully discussed in my blog.) Superintendent Carvalho seems to be fully on board with this SIX YEAR punishment of the NKC staff. I say this because shortly after he illegally smashed NKC’s attempted conversion process, Mr. Carvalho paid his one and only visit to NKC. In the presence of witnesses, who still work at NKC, Mr. Carvalho made the following thinly veiled threat: “This is a MDCPS school, and it will continue to be a MDCPS school, and if anyone wants to change that, they are going to have to come through me.”

Here is why I feel  Superintendent Carvalho, Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez are actively practicing racism at NKC.  (I will try to be brief here, because this incident is fully discussed in my blog). Shortly after Hurricane Irma seriously damaged her home, Mrs. Green, an African-American teaching assistant with over 20 years in the system, suffered the brutal death via a hand gun of her (Mrs. Green’s) daughter. Although her daughter’s husband has not been indicted for this death, many people suspect him of murdering his wife. Mrs. Green’s five year old grandson was in the home when the death via hand gun occurred. The child was heavily traumatized by the incident. The child needed to be consoled, and Mrs. Green needed an emergency leave to gain temporary custody of her grandson, and to repair her hurricane damaged home. This leave was granted by MDCPS. Perhaps Dr. Roos felt that  MDCPS had granted Mrs. Green too much leave time, as Dr. Roos behavior toward Mrs. Green when Mrs. Green returned back to work was decidedly ungracious. On Mrs. Green’s first day back at work, Dr. Roos and Mrs. Green encountered each other in the school hallway. Rather than express her condolences to Mrs. Green, Dr. Roos made the decision to turn her back on Mrs. Green and wordlessly go the other way. Regrettably, that was the high water mark of Dr. Roos behavior towards this grieving grandmother. At NKC, courtesy and respect is a one way street. It is given by the staff to the 2 administrators, but that courtesy is NOT returned to staff by the 2 NKC administrators. (As I said earlier, assistant principal Alicia Fernandez’ nickname is “Screamer.”) It is NOT enough for staff to be polite and courteous to the NKC administrators. BOTH administrators EXPECT AND GET EXTREME SERVILITY AND DEFERENCE from staff, especially from African-American staff. (I’ll discuss another incident of this shortly) Mrs. Green, in the depths of grief, was polite and courteous to Dr. Roos, but not servile and meek. I do not know what Dr. Roos’ motives were for her next unspeakably cruel and demeaning actions. Perhaps Dr. Roos felt that Mrs. Green needed to be “taught a lesson” and “put in her place.”  For whatever reason, Dr. Roos then summoned a very close friend of Mrs. Green, an African-American custodian named Mr. Aaron Jackson. Dr. Roos then allegedly ordered Mr. Jackson to personally deliver the following verbal message from Dr. Roos to Mrs. Green. Dr. Roos alleged message was, “Tell Mrs. Green that if she is not happy here at NKC, Dr. Roos can arrange for an [involuntary] transfer to another school.” Contractually, administrators are FORBIDDEN from disclosing disciplinary matters involving an employee to any other employees. Also, employees are taught that if they (the employee) are given an order by an administrator, even if the employee thinks the order may be an illegal order, that employee MUST carry out that order, or face a charge of insubordination. Can you imagine the conflict and emotional turmoil Mr. Jackson must have experienced as he was forced to deliver Dr. Roos thinly disguised threat to a dear friend who was so depressed and bowed by grief that she could barely drag herself out of bed to come to work in the morning?  Mr. Jackson did as he was told. Mrs. Green then had what some people would call a “Rosa Parks moment.” Mrs. Green decided she was sick and tired of being disrespected. Mrs. Green then did something that in “The People’s Republic” of MDCPS can only be described as career suicide. She reported Dr. Roos to the appropriate MDCPS internal investigative body. As I discuss in my blog, in “The People’s Republic” of MDCPS, internal investigative bodies exist NOT to remedy offenses committed by MDCPS officials, but to sweep those offenses under the carpet, and then to retaliate against the employee that was stupid enough to report those offenses. A meeting was scheduled by MDCPS with Mrs. Green to discuss the incident. That meeting was then rescheduled for another day. Dr. Roos failed to inform Mrs. Green that the meeting was rescheduled. At the end of the school day Mrs. Green went to the assistant principal’s office and waited for an hour in that empty room for a meeting that never took place. It was an extremely humiliating experience for Mrs. Green. While Mrs. Green was out of sight in the assistant principal’s office, Dr. Roos then allegedly convened a hastily arranged closed door meeting with Mr. Jackson. At that meeting, Dr. Roos allegedly threatened to (illegally) terminate Mr. Jackson’s employment as a custodian unless he recanted that Dr. Roos had forced him to deliver that hateful message. Mr. Jackson, knowing he had a family to feed, recanted his statement. (There are witnesses who saw Mr. Jackson enter and leave Dr. Roos office for a lengthy closed door meeting.) So, if Mr. Jackson’s [forced] recantation is to be taken at face value, it would mean that Mr. Jackson, of his own initiative, decided to deliver a very hateful message to one of his closest friends, in her moment of greatest grief and vulnerability. Other than the soulless career bureaucrats in “The People’s Republic” of MDCPS, does anyone else really believe that nonsense? MDCPS rescheduled Mrs. Green a second time, and also failed to show up for that meeting either. The result was that MDCPS scheduled 2 meetings with Mrs. Green, stood her up both times, AND NEVER MET TO DISCUSS HER CONCERNS!!! As humiliating as this was to Mrs. Green, Mr. Carvalho and MDCPS were not yet finished rubbing the face of this grieving grandmother into the dirt. Perhaps they felt that one last slap in the face was needed to show what happens to African-Americans bold enough to attempt to assert their federally mandated employee protections. A few weeks AFTER Dr. ROOS disgraceful actions, Dr. Roos became a nominee for the prestigious MDCPS Principal of the Year Award!! If Dr. Roos is one of the BEST principals of MDCPS, can you imagine what the underperforming principals must be like? Regrettably, the WORST may be yet to come in this disgraceful affair. Dr. Roos gives the appearance of being a very vicious and vindictive person. In Dr. Roos’ eyes, it is possible that she blames both Mrs. Green and Mr. Jackson for the fact that Dr. Roos got very, very brief negative attention from Dr. Roos superiors. In the past, if Dr. Roos felt she had a score to settle with an employee, she would wait until the following year (in this case, the 2018-2019 school year.) to settle that score. I am DEEPLY,DEEPLY worried that both Mrs. Green and Mr. Jackson are in very great danger of suffering from MASSIVE (possibly career ending) retaliation at the hands of Dr. Roos. In my blog, I discuss the mysterious “anonymous” phone calls that Dr. Roos sometimes receives, accusing employees of very serious wrongdoing. By a very curious coincidence, these employees are always employees Dr. Roos has a score to settle with. If Dr. Roos takes a page out of her old play book, sometime during the 2018-2019 school year, Dr. Roos will receive one of her anonymous phone calls, accusing these two sitting ducks (i.e. Mrs. Green and Mr. Jackson) of sexually and/or physically molesting one or more NKC students. If this happens, my guess is that neither Superintendent Carvalho or UTD president Karla Hernandez Mats will lift a finger to defend either one of these African-Americans

Yesterday, (August 17, 2018) I had lunch with a few current NKC employees. During lunch, an African-American paraprofessional made the statement that she had made extremely flattering compliments to both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez that she didn’t mean, and that those compliments were highly undeserved. I suspect that making these flattering statements was an extremely humiliating experience for this very proud and dignified person. Earlier, I stated that BOTH administrators expect AND GET very servile, deferential treatment from NKC employees. Now that tenure has been eliminated, an employee who is not sufficiently meek and humble can be fired with little or no recourse. While this is not a STATED condition of employment, at NKC, it is an understood condition of employment. I have known this paraprofessional for many years. She is an incredibly hard working and highly competent person. If she decides to attend college and obtain a teaching degree, she would make an outstanding teacher Wouldn’t it be a nice thing if “The People’s Republic” of MDCPS were to  join the rest of the United States and make competency and dedication and not meekness and servility the conditions of employment? It is, after all Federally MANDATED, and even “The People’s Republic” of MDCPs is a part of the United States. My observation is that while ALL NKC employees are pressured and expected  to grovel before their two NKC administrative “Masters,” it appears that African-Americans are expected to grovel the  most.

Another area in which African-Americans at NKC appear to be discriminated against is in the area of advancement within the school. For example, the head secretary of the school recently retired. A very competent and highly trained African-American woman with over 30 years in the system was inexplicably passed over for this promotion and Dr. Roos hired a person from outside NKC to fill this position

Yet another example of what appears to be discrimination of an African-American is the sad fate of the head custodian of NKC. This gentleman had served for 30 years in the system, with an unblemished record. All of that changed when Dr. Roos became the new principal. As I said earlier, Dr. Roos gives the appearance of going out of her way to humiliate and harshly treat her employees. Perhaps in the heat of the moment, this man made some inappropriate remarks, but doesn’t it seem odd that a man can have a30 year unblemished record, and shortly after Dr. Roos becomes the principal, this man suddenly becomes “a problem employee?”

The second potential flashpoint I want to discuss is the entirely preventable danger profoundly mentally handicapped children at NKC have of choking to death on the food they consume on the school campus at breakfast or lunch. A few years ago, during mealtime, a young man that I will refer to as Toby (not his real name) began to choke on his food. Toby is so prone to choking incidents that this fact is noted on a legal document called the Individualized Education Plan (IEP). When Toby began choking on his food, his teacher took immediate appropriate action, and Toby ejected the food he was choking on without losing consciousness. His only ill effect was a red face. Following this incident, Toby went back to eating his meal. The entire school witnessed this incident, and we were sure this teacher was going to be lauded for his prompt and correct actions. To our astonishment and dismay, Dr. Roos filed a potentially career ending charge of child endangerment against this teacher. Please read my blog, because I discuss in great detail the pains Dr. Roos appears to have gone to in order to manipulate people to make a case for pressing charges against this teacher. As a result of this incident, NKC teachers have a [well founded] fear that if a child in their care begins to choke, even if that teacher takes immediate corrective action, the teacher (fearing his or career may be on the line) may hesitate for 30 second to a minute before notifying the school on-site nurses. As deeply lodged food sometimes takes a few minutes to dislodge, that 30 second to one minute delay could literally mean the difference between life and death for a Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) child. Superintendent Carvalho has been aware of this situation since June 2015. For three years now, Superintendent Carvalho has played Russian Roulette with the lives of PMH students. For reasons known only to God, Superintendent Carvalho has made the astonishing decision to return Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez to NKC during the 2018-2018 school year, so he is willing to roll the dice yet again. I hope he gets lucky again, but the law of averages says that if you play Russian Roulette long enough, sooner or later you are going to find a live round in the chamber. Governor Scott, if you ask me how capable the NKC on-site nursing staff is of preventing an NKC student from choking to death, the honest answer is that I do not know the answer to that question. It is unlikely that Superintendent Carvalho, or Dr. Roos or even the on-site NKC nursing staff itself knows how capable it is of preventing a choking death. Here is why.  Due to the fact of Dr. Roos’ highly offensive and bullying personality, the turnover rate of nurses assigned to NKC by the staffing agency that fills these positions is EXTREMLY high. At one point, Dr. Roos fired almost the entire nursing staff all at once!. I would be very surprised if similar purges haven’t happened since I left NKC. I imagine that NKC is staffed by whatever nurses are willing to put up with Dr. Roos’ extremely abrasive personality. My guess is that highly trained nurses who have other options avoid NKC like the plague, leaving the least trained nurses to “get their feet wet” by working at NKC.  I have sent 5 unanswered letters to superintendent Carvalho concerning this problem. I have suggested 3 steps that I think would greatly reduce the chances of an accidental choking death from happening at NKC. Those three steps are: 1) Remove both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez, and replace them with the two previous administrators (who were illegally removed by Superintendent Carvalho) Those two people are principal Alberto T. Fernandez and assistant principal Mr. Henny Cristobol. 2) Provide annual training for all NKC staff in lifesaving first aid. If staff who successfully complete this training could be awarded master plan points toward recertification of their teaching certificates, this would be wonderful. 3) Have the superintendent issue a statement that in the future, staff who  carry out their duties in an appropriate manner will not face disciplinary measures.

The third potential flashpoint at NKC is the fact that NKC has been in a state of lockdown for six years now. I do not think you as Governor know how desperate the situation has become at NKC. It is not a situation where your career could end if you make even the tiniest mistake.  The fact is, if either of the administrators dislike you, charges will be brought against you that are either wholly (and knowingly) false, or wildly distorted and exaggerated, even if you have done nothing wrong. Governor, did you know that last year, a 30 year veteran teacher who is a former teacher of the year award winner and an outstanding teacher in every regard had a nervous breakdown right on campus during duty hours, with students in her classroom?  Governor, Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) students may not know exactly what is going on, but they are very attuned to a teacher’s emotional state. When teachers are very highly stressed, every day, for six years, it also takes an ENORMOUS toll on the PMH child’s sense of security and well-being. Being an outstanding teacher in every regard has no bearing on whether or not entirely false or wildly exaggerated, possibly career ending charges will be leveled against you by an administrator who appears to suffer from wild mood swings, appears to derive immense satisfaction out of creating chaos and emotional distress in people’s lives, and allegedly confesses that she suffers from an obsessive compulsive disorder Did you know that last year, a veteran teacher with 17 (SEVENTEEN)  years in the system simply retired, because he could no longer deal with the humiliation and abuse both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez deal out on a daily basis? Did you know that this year, we lost 8 teachers  (nearly half of our staff) due to transfers to other schools? Did you know that we lost nearly the same amount of teachers the year before as well? Did you know that in the 6 years that Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez have been the NKC administrators, NKC has been either at or near the lowest scoring school on the staff satisfaction survey for the entire county? Did you know that in an effort to prop up the abysmally low staff satisfaction surveys, this year the paraprofessionals were illegally prevented from taking that survey? Did you know that once I endured a 20 minute, nonstop screaming jag from assistant principal Alicia Fernandez? (hence her nickname, Screamer) Governor, On four occasions during her 20 minute screaming tirade, I asked Screamer to please lower her voice. The first time I made this request, Screamer did indeed very briefly lower her voice. The other three times, she simply ignored me. Every time I tried to interject a comment in my defense, Screamer simply shouted my down! Governor, I am a military veteran. Nothing I encountered in the military, even during army boot camp came close to the Screamathon Mrs. Fernandez subjected me to.

Governor, I want to stress that as much as the NKC staff have suffered during the past 6 years,  the profoundly mentally handicapped students of our school have suffered FAR,FAR worse.  For example, many of our students are confined to wheelchairs. If a child sits in his/her wheelchair all day long, day after day, after a period of several years, that child’s body irreversibly freezes into a permanent sitting position, causing EXCRUCIATING pain in adulthood. When Dr. Alberto Fernandez was our school principal, our school used the M.O.V.E. curriculum, which got students out of their wheelchairs and into some very expensive physical therapy equipment that stretched their muscles and kept those muscles from atrophying. This very helpful and worthwhile M.O.V.E. curriculum has been completely eliminated since Dr. Roos became our principal, and that very expensive physical therapy equipment now sits in storage, gathering dust and rust. A second way NKC students are suffering is because our school now uses a curriculum called the Unique Learning System that is COMPLETELY inappropriate for our students because it is far, far above their intellectual capabilities. Imagine a class of remedial math students and announcing that from now on those students will be taking an honors calculus class! That is similar to what happened to our students Our school used to use a curriculum that was approved by MDCPS called the Small Step Curriculum (SSC) That program breaks down complex tasks into a series of simpler tasks that are taught one at a time. A child who learns to perform a series of simple tasks in sequential order can then perform a complex task. In my blog, I described how the Small Step Curriculum (SSC) was used to teach a child that I called Grace to independently tie her own shoelaces. Governor, every school has their “best and brightest” and a school for profoundly mentally handicapped children is no exception. Using the SSC, we were able to achieve our goal of placing our “best and brightest” into a sheltered workshop when they graduated from NKC. Here is the contrast between the Unique Learning System(ULS) and the Small Step Curriculum (SSC). Under the ULS, there is a very strong possibility that a student can attend NKC for up to 19 years and learn absolutely nothing. Under the SSC, our best and brightest got into a sheltered workshop, and nearly every child in the school learns self-help skills that greatly enhance the quality of their life. There is no greater Hell than to spend one’s entire life warehoused in a state run facility  for the rest of your life, with no chance to experience life outside those walls, because you didn’t master the skills necessary to get you into a sheltered workshop. The only greater suffering would be if you also suffered excruciating pain all day long because your body was permanently frozen into a sitting position because nobody took the effort to put you into physical therapy equipment to prevent your muscles from atrophying. Did you know that at one time, MDCPS rated Dr. Alberto Fernandez as the most effective administrator in the entire county? Governor, if you were to ask me what single action would do the most to restore Neva King Cooper School to its former greatness, my answer would be to reinstall Dr. Alberto Fernandez as the principal. and Mr. Henny Cristobol as the assistant principal. Governor Scott, do you have the authority as governor to take this step, ?

Governor, there is a strong possibility that one or both NKC administrators have committed criminal activities in their capacity as NKC administrators. For example, when Dr. Fernandez was the NKC administrator, student performance on the annual achievement test , the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA) was quite low every year. When Dr. Roos became the NKC principal, student achievement on this test inexplicably soared to astonishing levels. The MDCPS internal investigative bodies appear to be very corrupt and  appear to serve only to cover up illegal activities by MDCPS officials. Can you as governor order another agency to investigate possible cheating on the FAA by NKC administrators? Another possible criminal activity involves assistant principal Mrs. Alicia Fernandez allegedly knowingly and willfully filing false charges against a teacher for cheating by that teacher on the FAA. As I discussed in my blog, there is a teacher who is still in MDCPS, but no longer at NKC who observed this accused teacher telling Mrs. Fernandez that when he (the accused teacher) received the test booklet, the correct test answers had already been put into the reusable testing materials by the teacher who administered the test to his class before turning over the testing materials to the teacher who was then accused of cheating. Mrs. Alicia Fernandez then allegedly perjured herself in her sworn deposition in the ensuing lawsuit. Finally, there is the matter of Superintendent Carvalho. Many illegal labor law practices have occurred at NKC for six years. My blog and my return receipt green cards from my numerous letters to both Mr. Carvalho and Karla Hernandez Mats prove that both of these officials were well aware of the problems at NKC and did nothing to solve those problems. Governor Scott, do you as Governor have the authority to ask the National Labor Relations Board, or any other agency to investigate these people for nonperformance of their duties? If Superintendent Carvalho, Dr. Roos, and or Mrs. Alicia Fernandez are found to be in violation of the law, can a penalty commensurate with their offense(s) be imposed? Governor, my concern is that for too many years, MDCPS officials have violated the law with impunity. This will stop only when offenders are assigned proper penalties for their violations. It is not enough to merely shuffle Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez, or Mr. Carvalho to another post. If they are found to be guilty of offenses meriting their dismissal from their posts (with or without their pensions) that is the penalty that needs to be imposed. If they are found to be guilty of crimes that merit prison time, that is the penalty that needs to be imposed. A strong message needs to be sent that teachers are not the only ones who will be held accountable for their actions. Additionally, the current situation at NKC is highly volatile. If one were on a tiny island, and there was an active volcano on that island,and smoke was pouring out of the top of the volcano, with an ominous sulfur smell in the air, and the ground rumbling and trembling, it might be a good idea to get off that island. That is the current situation at NKC. It is possible that things could get out of hand very quickly. To defuse the situation, is it possible that Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez could be immediately removed from NKC and interim administrators placed at the school until the investigation is completed?  It is extremely unfair that the very popular and effective former NKC administrators were  removed very, very quickly (it was only 2 months from the time they got into hot water with Mr. Carvalho until they were BOTH removed,) The single charge against them was that they were attempting to intimidate staff into voting to convert to a charter school. After these two administrators were permanently removed from NKC, and it was impossible for them to retaliate against staff, the question was asked: How many staff felt that either Dr. Fernandez or Mr. Cristobol were trying to intimidate staff? NOT A SINGLE STAFF PERSON SAID THEY FELT THREATENED OR INTIMIDATED BY EITHER ONE OF THOSE ADMINISTRATORS.  In contrast, both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez have been intimidating the staff for SIX YEARS, and both Mr. Carvalho and UTD have been fully informed of that illegal intimidation, and neither one has lifted a finger to end that intimidation. I’ll end with a quote:

“Only the weak hit the fly with a hammer.” -Bangambiki Habyarimana-

Respectfully,

Bill Detzner

Bill Detzner/ 7722 S.W. 99 Street/ Miami, Fl. 33156/ (305) 279-5488 billdetzner@bellsouth.net