September 4, 2018
Dear Dr. Johnson,
Hello, my name is Bill Detzner. I retired after 30 years as a Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) teacher. I spent the last 25 years of my career at Neva King Cooper School (NKC) a public school for Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) children. I was also the UTD building steward at NKC for 10 years. You can read about the many terrible things that have been happening at NKC FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS on my blog mdcpsallegations.com I have written to you twice before and you have not responded to my letters. While the staff of NKC are not very happy at all that the NAACP has not responded to our two pleas for help, as a former UTD steward for my school, I have a great deal of sympathy for the position you (Dr. Johnson) are in as both a former vice president of UTD, and as the current president of the Miami NAACP. Dr. Johnson, my guess is that you did not respond to our two pleas for help because you assumed that UTD could, should, and would respond to its members desperate need for help. Dr. Johnson, I am very sorry to have to say that UTD is only a tiny shadow of what it used to be back when you so capably and eloquently served as its vice president. I have sent a total of 18 certified letter to MDCPS officials. Six went to UTD president Karla Hernandez Mats, 6 went to Dr. Larry Feldman, (the school board member that is supposed to serve the NKC school) and 6 letters went to Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. I have received literally not a single word of response to ANY of those 18 certified letters. Not. A. Single. Word. (I have kept all 18 of my green return receipt cards, so I have proof that the people I sent those letters to received them.) Ms. Hernandez Mats is so controlled by Mr. Carvalho that I think she gets permission from him 30 days in advance before she even sneezes. NKC has been in a state of total lockdown for SIX YEARS (now starting the seventh year), ever since Dr. Tracy Roos became the NKC principal, and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez became the assistant principal. NKC has been in lockdown for SIX YEARS because Superintendent Carvalho is very angry at the school for attempting to convert from a public school to a charter school. Both these NKC administrators give the appearance of being very prejudiced against African Americans. I have listed 5 examples below of what appears to be extreme prejudice by BOTH these administrators against African American employees at NKC. Again, all these events are discussed at length in my blog.
1) Last fall, shortly after Hurricane Irma damaged her home, an NKC paraprofessional named Mrs. Green suffered the tragedy of having her daughter murdered, leaving behind a five -year old grandchild, who was in the house at the time of the murder. Although he has not been charged, many people think the husband was responsible for this death. Mrs. Green was granted an emergency leave to bury her daughter and obtain temporary custody of her grandson. On her first day back at work, Mrs. Green crossed paths with Dr. Roos in the hallway. Rather than express her (Dr. Roos) condolences, Dr. Roos wordlessly turned her back on Mrs. Green and walked away. The next day, Mrs. Green spoke very briefly with Dr. Roos. (again, Dr. Roos never expressed her condolences to Mrs. Green.) At NKC, courtesy and respect are a one-way street. Staff are courteous and respectful to administrators. However, FOR SIX YEARS, courtesy and respect are not shown to staff by NKC administrators. Furthermore, showing courtesy and respect to administrators is NOT enough to keep staff out of trouble. NKC administrators expect AND GET extremely meek and deferential treatment from staff. Mrs. Green, wracked by grief, was polite and courteous to Dr. Roos when she (Mrs. Green) spoke to Dr. Roos, but she did not bow and scrape. Dr. Roos then “allegedly” did a very evil thing. (To protect myself legally, I will use the word “allegedly,” even though I am certain that this and other events described later in this letter occurred.) Dr. Roos then summoned one of Mrs. Green’s closest friends, an African American custodian named Mr. Aaron Jackson. Dr. Roos then allegedly ordered Mr. Jackson to deliver a very thinly veiled verbal threat to Mrs. Green. The alleged verbal message was, “Tell Mrs. Green that if she is not happy here [at NKC], Dr. Roos can easily arrange an [involuntary] transfer for her.” MDCPS regulations state that disciplinary matters are a very sensitive and private matter and are to be handled privately between ONLY the affected employee and the administrator. MDCPS regulations also state that even if an employee is given an order he/she believes is illegal, that order is to be carried out, lest the employee be charged with insubordination. Can you imagine the terrible sense of anguish Mr. Jackson must have felt as he delivered this cruel message to one of his closest friends, whose daughter had been brutally murdered just days ago? Dr. Johnson, unless you are unfortunate enough to be an NKC employee, it is difficult to understand the very, very deep sense of fear that staff there have of being fired from their jobs (again, FOR THE LAST SIX YEARS.) If an employee is stupid enough to report a contract violation to UTD, the union will do NOTHING WHATSOEVER, and then turn a blind eye as the employee is retaliated against once the “investigation” (wink, wink) is completed. After Mr. Jackson repeated Dr. Roos thinly veiled threat to her, Mrs. Green had a “Rosa Parks moment,” because she decided she was sick and tired of being disrespected. She then did something that most NKC serfs would call “career suicide.” Mrs. Green reported Dr. Roos to the MDCPS authorities. A meeting was scheduled to discuss Mrs. Greens’ concerns. That meeting was postponed, but Mrs. Green was never informed of this fact. At the end of the school day, Mrs. Green reported to the assistant principal’s office and sat in that empty room for an hour, waiting for a meeting that everyone except her knew had been postponed. While Mrs. Green sat in that empty office, Dr. Roos then allegedly summoned Mr. Jackson to a closed -door meeting in Dr. Roos office. (Staff members saw Mr. Jackson enter and leave that lengthy meeting in Dr. Roos office.) At that meeting, Dr. Roos allegedly threatened Mr. Jackson with immediate termination unless he recanted saying that Dr. Roos had ordered him to make that cruel comment to Mrs. Green. Mr. Jackson, fearing his job was on the line, then recanted saying that Dr. Roos had ordered him to deliver a threat to Mrs. Green. If one is to believe Mr. Jackson’s recantation, then one has to believe that Mr. Jackson, a very kind -hearted person, would willingly subject one of his closest friends to a terribly cruel threat on his own initiative shortly after the brutal murder of his close friend’s daughter. A second meeting was scheduled to address Mrs. Green’s concerns. That meeting was also canceled, and never rescheduled. Apparently, MDCPS did not think the very serious threats made against this 20+ year African American employee after the murder of her daughter were worth even one meeting to discuss! Regrettably, MDCPS was not finished humiliating the African American employees of NKC. A few weeks AFTER this disgraceful event, MDCPS saw fit to nominate Dr. Roos as a candidate for one of its most prestigious awards. Astonishingly, Dr. Roos became a candidate for the Principal of the Year Award!
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT BOTH MRS GREEN AND MR JACKSON ARE IN DANGER OF BEING TERMINATED DURING THE 2018-2019 SCHOOL YEAR. A little background information is needed before I explain how these two fine people could be fired during the present school year. Prior to my retirement, Dr. Roos summoned me to her office for a meeting. She asked me to be seated at a table containing several chairs. I randomly selected a chair and sat down. Dr. Roos gave me a deeply disapproving stare. I knew I had somehow upset Dr. Roos, but I had no idea what my offense was. Dr. Roos continued to give me the evil eye, but as I had no idea what I had done to offend her, I had no idea how to escape her disapproval. After a long and intense stare down, Dr. Roos told me I was sitting in the wrong chair and told me she wanted me to sit in the chair right next to the chair I was seated in! Dr. Roos then “allegedly” told me she suffers from an obsessive- compulsive disorder. (Again, even though Dr. Roos personally told me this, I will use the word “allegedly” to legally protect myself.) Dr. Roos often appears to be sullen, lethargic, in a bad mood, and having very little energy. All of this changes dramatically when Dr. Roos actions have caused one or more staff to be in trouble, even if the staff member is in trouble because Dr. Roos exaggerated or even straight out lied. When Dr. Roos actions have caused a staff member to be in trouble, she seems almost giddy with joy and happiness, and she seems to have an incredible amount of energy. Dr. Roos gives the appearance of being almost addicted to the joy and energy boost she experiences when she has been very nasty to a person, deeply humiliated a person, or caused that person to be at risk for losing his or her job. Perhaps I am wrong here, but Dr. Roos does not appear to be able to control her impulses to be deliberately hateful or to humiliate her staff, tell outright lies in order to cause trouble or even danger of job termination for the NKC staff. Again, my blog tells of many examples of this. Additionally, Dr. Roos gives the appearance of being an extremely vicious and vindictive person. If a staff person has made Dr. Roos look bad, even if it is entirely the fault of Dr. Roos that she (Dr. Roos) appears in a bad light, Dr. Roos allegedly WILL NOT REST UNTIL SHE HAS EVENED THE SCORE. Dr. Roos looked bad as a result of her vicious and cruel actions against both Mrs. Green and Mr. Jackson. In the past, Dr. Roos has waited until the following year to get her revenge so that it doesn’t look like revenge. In the past, Dr. Roos favorite tactic is to receive an “anonymous” phone call, accusing the person she (Dr. Roos) wants to get even with of a very serious offense. While I hope I am wrong, I suspect that sometime during the 2018-2019 school year, Dr. Roos is going to receive an “anonymous” phone call accusing Mrs. Green and/or Mr. Jackson of physically and/or sexually abusing one or more PMH students. As very few of these severely mentally retarded students are able to speak, these charges will be extremely difficult to disprove. IF MRS GRREN OR MR JACKSON FIND THEMSELVES ACCUSED OF THESE OFFENSES, YOU CAN BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR THAT NEITHER UTD OR MR CARVALHO WILL LIFT A FINGER TO PROTECT THEM. For this reason, I am hoping that the NAACP will stand up for these two African American employees, because UTD will not.
2) At the end of the school year, it is MANDATORY that every staff member, both teachers and para-professional fill out an anonymous, on-line “staff Satisfaction survey”. This survey asks staff to rate their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their school site administrators. Prior to the last six years, our previous administrators, principal Dr. Alberto Fernandez and assistant principal Mr. Henny Cristobol received very high approval ratings from the staff, year after year. However, during the last six years, both principal Dr. Roos and assistant principal Alicia Fernandez have been rated, year after year, as among the worst administrators in MDCPS. Last spring, in an effort to raise the horribly low staff satisfaction survey scores, the para-professionals were illegally forbidden to take part in this MANDATORY survey. At NKC, there are almost as many paraprofessionals as there are teachers (due to the fact that teachers need help lifting wheelchair bound students in and out of their wheelchairs to change diapers.) Most of the para-professionals are African American. Only a small percentage of the teachers are African American. In this MANDATORY survey, nearly half of our staff, and almost all our African American staff were illegally forbidden from participating in this MANDATORY survey. Dr. Johnson, the staff of NKC are BEGGING you to PLEASE involve the NAACP in addressing this grievance. What the NKC staff would like the NAACP to do is to partner with NKC in filing a grievance with the US. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights against MDCPS for this egregious civil rights violation. The address of the agency is: U.S. Dept. of Education/ Office for Civil Rights/ Atlanta Office, Southern Division/61 Forsyth St. SW/ Suite 19T10/Atlanta, GA. 30303. The contact person would be Michelle Reid (404) 974-9386 (I have found her to be very helpful) or Arthur Manigault at (404) 974-9376. The UTD steward at NKC is Mr. Brett Darwin Brown. I think you will also find him to be quite helpful. This needs to be done quickly, as civil rights complaints need to be filed within 6 months of the event, or they don’t count. As this event occurred last spring, this complaint will need to be filed as soon as possible.
3) 3) Last spring, the lead secretary for our school retired. Her obvious replacement was an African American woman who has been a MDCPS employee for 30+ years. This woman is an extremely competent, pleasant, hard- working team player who gets along well with everyone. She is punctual and has nearly perfect attendance There is not a single secretarial skill that she cannot perform in a timely fashion. To the astonishment of the entire staff, this exemplary employee was passed over for promotion, and Dr. Roos hired a secretary from outside NKC, which meant this new secretary had to be taught her job. At NKC, African Americans are frequently passed over for promotions by the NKC administrators.
4) The assistant principal of NKC (Mrs. Alicia Fernandez) has a nickname. Her nickname is “Screamer.” She has this nickname because when she is upset with a staff member, (and she gets upset easily, and very often) she screams at them. In my blog, I discuss an incident where Mrs. Alicia Fernandez screamed at me, nonstop, for 20 minutes! On 4 separate occasions during her tirade, I asked her to lower her voice. The first time I made this request, she very briefly lowered her voice, then went right back to screaming at me. The other 3 times I asked her to please lower her voice, she simply ignored me. Every time I tried to say something during her screaming tirade, she just shouted me down. Dr. Johnson, I am a military veteran, and I have to tell you that even during army boot camp, not even army drill sergeants screamed at me as long, as loud, and as disrespectfully as Mrs. Fernandez (AKA “Screamer”) did. When Mrs. Fernandez finally left my classroom after her 20- minute long Screamathon, I felt very deeply humiliated and emasculated. When I reported Mrs. Fernandez temper tantrum to Dr. Roos, Dr. Roos shrugged her shoulders and said, “Well, Bill, you must have done something to upset her!” At no time did either Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez ever offer me an apology for Mrs. Fernandez unprofessional behavior. Dr. Johnson, I have to be very candid with you. As badly as Mrs. Fernandez treated me that day, I got off easy. I am Caucasian, and both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez treat African Americans with even more disrespect and contempt. There is an African American para-professional who has a 20+ year unblemished record at NKC. He is a hard worker who cares deeply about mentally retarded students He has been the victim of Mrs. Fernandez Screamathons at least twice. The second time, after Mrs. Fernandez ignored his numerous requests that she lower her voice, he simply exited her office, saying he would be happy to resume the “discussion” when she had calmed down. He also stated that in the future, he wanted his UTD steward to be present whenever he was called to either administrators office. For this “offense” he was summoned to Dr. Roos office, and BOTH administrators then read him the riot act, and threatened to place a charge of insubordination in his file. At no time has this gentleman ever been offered an apology from either Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez for Mrs. Fernandez unprofessional screaming tirades. Are there other African American NKC staff who have been the victim of one or more of Mrs. Fernandez screaming tirades, but not reported it because they knew UTD would do little or nothing to protect them? I would bet my bottom dollar that this is the case
5) The head custodian of NKC was an African American man with a 30- year unblemished record at MDCPS. Shortly after Dr. Roos became the NKC principal, this man was summoned on numerous occasions to Dr. Roos office and shouted at and spoken to in a very disrespectful way by Dr. Roos. In anger, one day this man said some things that were probably best left unsaid, and he was involuntarily transferred to another school. It does seem very strange that a man can work for 30 years, have not a single blemish on his record, and a few months after Dr. Roos became the principal, he is suddenly ( for the one and only time in his career) a “problem employee.”
Dr. Johnson, if you read my blog, you will be astonished at how badly NKC staff have been treated for SIX YEARS. The NKC staff is VERY, VERY angry, and VERY, VERY frightened. That is not a good combination. You can only mistreat people for so long before they feel they are in a position where they feel they have nothing to lose. Dr. Johnson, the NKC staff feel that there is NOBODY in a position of authority who is willing to help them. To be quite honest, they are not at all happy that the NAACP has not helped them. Several NKC staff have urged me to post the 2 unanswered letters I have sent to the NAACP on my blog in an attempt to prod the NAACP into taking action to help them. As a compromise, I offered to send the NAACP a third letter, and then publish all 3 letters on my blog if the NAACP declined to respond in the near future. Dr. Johnson, NKC is like a rumbling volcano. Smoke is pouring out of the mountaintop, the ground is rumbling and shaking, and there is a strong smell of sulfur in the air. If the NAACP declines to help the NKC staff, perhaps some of the wealthy donors who make generous financial contributions might become less enthusiastic about contributing to the wonderful organization that the NAACP has always been.
Here are the actions that the NKC staff are hoping the NAACP will take on their behalf. 1) Would the NAACP be willing to write a letter to Superintendent Carvalho, asking that both principal Tracy Roos and assistant principal Alicia Fernandez be removed from their posts at NKC immediately? 2) Would the NAACP be willing to partner with the NKC staff in filing a civil rights grievance with the civil rights office of the Dept. of Education? 3) If an investigation reveals wrongdoing by either NKC administrator serious enough to merit dismissal as MDCPS employees, would the NAACP be willing to insist that this be done? 4) Superintendent Carvalho gives the appearance of being a very vicious and vindictive man. The NKC staff has a well- founded fear that if Mr. Carvalho replaces the two present NKC administrators, he will replace them with new administrators who are as bad or even worse than the present ones. Given the fact that in legal case DOAH 13-1492, it was recommended that both principal Dr. Alberto Fernandez and assistant principal Henny Cristobol be returned to NKC, and given the fact that MDCPS previously rated Dr. Fernandez as the most effective administrator in the district, and given the fact that both previous NKC administrators enjoyed high approval rating year after year on both the staff and parent satisfaction surveys, would the NAACP be willing to ask Superintendent Carvalho to restore the previous NKC administrators to their posts? 5) Would the NAACP be willing to ask that the National Labor Relations Board be called in to do a complete audit of MDCPS to determine how well civil rights laws are being enforced? 6) Would the NAACP be willing to send a copy of any correspondence they send to any party to either the NKC union steward (Mr. Darwin Brett Brown), or myself as a courtesy, so we can report how things are going to NKC members? God Bless you and Thank You Dr. Johnson for any help you and the NAACP are able to provide in these areas.
Respectfully,
Bill Detzner
Bill Detzner/7722 S.W. 99 St. Miami, Fl. 33156 billdetzner@bellsouth.net mdcpsallegations.com
Allegations against Miami-Dade County Public Schools