letter to Dr. Johnson.docx

October 5, 2017
Dear Dr. Johnson,
Good morning! My name is Bill Detzner. I am a retired MDCPS teacher. I taught students at Neva King Cooper (NKC) a school exclusively for profoundly mentally retarded children. Many years ago, I was a UTD building steward. The only thing about being a UTD steward I did not like was the monthly building steward meetings downtown. I do not like meetings, and I thought the monthly meetings were mostly very boring. The only part of those meetings I enjoyed was “The Dr. Shirley Report.” Dr. Johnson, I don’t know if you are aware of it, but you are a very powerful and passionate public speaker. I always felt energized and uplifted after your presentations. Although I never got the chance to know you personally, I got the feeling that you are a deeply spiritual person. This is important to me, because I am also a deeply spiritual person.
I am writing to you today in reference to two African-American employees of Neva King Cooper (NKC). Those two fine people are Mrs. Green and Mr. Jackson. Mrs. Green is one of the kindest, sweetest people I know. She is the kind of person who always puts other people first. One year, when Mrs. Green and I were working together, we had a young man who came from a very poor home. His clothes were clean, but old and worn. Mrs. Green bought this young man new clothes and shoes out of her own pocket, and para-professionals are not paid nearly enough for all the hard work they do. As for Mr. Jackson, he is a complete gentleman. He is the kind of man any mother would be proud to claim as a son.
Recently, Mrs. Green’s daughter was brutally murdered. On her second day back to work after that tragedy, Mrs. Green had a brief chat with the NKC principal, Dr. Tracy Roos. Although Mrs. Green was very polite and courteous to Dr. Roos during this brief chat, somehow Mrs. Green offended Dr. Roos. Dr. Roos then told Mr. Jackson to deliver a verbal message to Mrs. Green. That message was: “Tell Mrs. Green that if she is unhappy here at NKC, Dr. Roos will be happy to arrange for a transfer of Mrs. Green to another school.” Both Mrs. Green and Mr. Jackson are extremely upset by this .Mrs Green was so upset that she took the bold and risky step of filing a formal complaint against Dr. Roos. I use the words “bold” and “risky” because both Dr. Roos and assistant principal Mrs. Alicia Fernandez are very brutal and ruthless people who have ruled NKC with an iron fist for the last five years. Those few people courageous enough to report the NKC administrators’ numerous contract violations to either UTD or MDCPS have had potentially career ending charges filed against them by one or both NKC administrators.
Dr. Johnson, both Mrs. Green and Mr. Jackson are in grave danger of having completely false charges such as sexually or physically abusing a child filed against them by one or both NKC administrators. I have been writing to MDCPS superintendent Alberto Carvalho for over two years now, but I am just a little tiny retired school teacher, with only a very tiny voice, and no power, and Mr. Carvalho has not even bothered to answer any of my letters. (I have enclosed a copy of my latest letter to Superintendent Carvalho for your inspection.) Dr. Johnson, Mr. Carvalho can afford to ignore me as he only responds to power. The NAACP is one of the mightiest, most powerful organizations in the U.S. If the NAACP warns Mr. Carvalho that retaliation against either Mrs. Green or Mr. Jackson will not be tolerated, those two individuals will be safe. Thank You, and God bless you for the WONDERFUL work you have done, both for UTD and NAACP.

Respectfully,
Bill Detzner
Bill Detzner/ 7722 S.W. 99 Street/ Miami, FL. 33156