One Reply to “December 16, 2018 letter.docxDecember 16, 2018 Dear Governor Desantis and Fl. Education Commissioner Corcoran, Hello, my name is Bill Detzner. As this is a public school problem, I am sending this letter to BOTH of you. I am a retired school teacher from Miami Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS). Over a period of three and a half years, I have sent 51 (fifty-one) certified letters to MDCPS officials, (and kept the receipts to prove those letters were received.) I sent 7 of those letters to MDCPS Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, 9 to United Teachers of Dade (UTD) President Karla Hernandez Mats, 31 letters to MDCPS school board members, and 3 letters to Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart. I have received literally not a single word of response to those 51 certified letters. NOT. A. SINGLE. Word. (Superintendent Carvalho gives the appearance of being a “Kiss up, Kick down” bureaucrat.) That is why I am turning to you for help. When I finish this letter, I will also write to Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and numerous Florida newspapers. All of what I touch on in this letter is covered in great detail in my blog (mdcpsallegations.com). I will include this letter in my blog, so my readers will be aware of this, my second communication to you about the problems plaguing Neva King Cooper School (NKC) for the last six and a half years. NKC is a public school exclusively for Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) children, with IQ’s of 25 and below. During the 2011-2012 school year, NKC was facing the prospect of having a new, totally inappropriate curriculum unilaterally forced upon it, coupled with the fact that although the money allocated to MDCPS INCREASED every year, the money allocated to individual schools within the district DECREASED every year. As a result, NKC decided to exercise its (supposedly) legally protected right to convert from a public school to a charter school. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho blatantly and flagrantly broke many state laws in his successful attempt to smash NKC’s conversion attempt. You can read about this in DOAH13-1492. Although MDCPS was found guilty of numerous egregious violations of Florida law in illegally smashing NKC’s conversion attempt, the law provides for NO PENALTIES WHATSOEVER for superintendents who illegally smash public schools attempts to convert to charter schools. The law also provides for no penalties for superintendents who illegally retaliate (for six and a half years and counting) against school staffs who attempt to convert to charter schools. For this reason, the long suffering staff of NKC hopes the Florida legislature will revisit this legislation and either insert draconian penalties against superintendents who illegally smash conversion attempts, or totally repeal the “law” suckering public school teachers into putting their careers on the line in the naïve belief that they will be protected from retaliation if they attempt to convert their public school to a charter school. I am also hoping that after reading my blog, Governor Desantis will make the decision to withhold all or part of MDCPS funding until the district is in compliance with Florida law. Had the conversion process at NKC been allowed to occur, the school would have realized a HUGE budget surplus at the end of every school year (due to not having to subsidize the gargantuan (and still growing) MDCPS downtown bureaucracy.) This would have meant that although MDCPS educators had not been given a raise in many years, NKC could have afforded itself the luxury of granting its staff generous raises every year, while still maintaining a comfortable surplus in our school budget. Additionally, we would have had the freedom to present our students with a FAR better curriculum than the one the district ultimately imposed on us. It is the belief of many NKC staff that had MDCPS Superintendent Carvalho not brutally and harshly (not to mention illegally) smashed NKC’s conversion process and made an example out of NKC, within 5 years, an overwhelming number of MDCPS schools would have converted to charter schools, greatly reducing the power of both Superintendent Carvalho and UTD boss Ms. Hernandez Mats. I want to strongly emphasize that although many public schools throughout Florida have successfully transitioned to charter schools, only one conversion attempt (NKC) has ever been attempted in MDCPS. That attempt was so brutally and harshly crushed that unless Florida laws get some real teeth against retaliation, or Mr. Carvalho is replaced as the MDCPS superintendent, there will NEVER AGAIN be so much as even an attempt to convert a MDCPS public school to a charter school. I want to strongly emphasize that the NKC principal who attempted to convert to a charter school, Dr. Alberto Fernandez, had been rated by MDCPS as THE most effective administrator in the district. Additionally, year after year, Dr. Fernandez received nearly the highest approval ratings by both MDCPS officials and the annual staff and parent satisfaction surveys. The assistant principal at that time, Mr. Henny Cristobol was also rated as highly qualified by both staff and parents. Despite these impressive ratings, Dr. Fernandez and Mr. Cristobol were NOT returned to their posts at NKC after DOAH 13-1492 found they had been illegally removed from those posts. They were denied their wish to return to NKC despite the recommendation of the judge in DOAH 13-1492, and despite numerous letters. petitions, and requests made to Superintendent Carvalho by both staff and parents that this be done. I also want to note that BOTH of these administrators were removed DURING the school year, NOT at the end of the school year. I make this point because MDCPS may attempt to make the argument that removing the HORRIBLE present NKC administrators during the current school year is not a good idea. For the last six and a half years, Superintendent Carvalho has appointed principal Dr. Tracy Roos and assistant principal Mrs. Alicia Fernandez (Screamer) as the two NKC administrators. My blog (mdcpsallegations.com) is filled with example after example of BOTH of those administrators knowingly and willfully making false and potentially career ending charges against NKC staff and deliberately creating a hostile work environment at NKC for SIX AND A HALF YEARS. United Teachers of Dade (UTD) President Ms. Hernandez Mats is fully aware of this situation, as I have sent her 9 unanswered certified letters. Here are just a few of the egregious illegal retaliatory actions done by BOTH present NKC administrators. Assistant principal Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) allegedly knowingly and willfully filed potentially career ending charges against former NKC teacher Mr. Rick Massa, accusing Mr. Massa of cheating on the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA), the high stakes annual achievement test that is given to Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) children. As my blog explains, another teacher was present in Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) office when Mr. Massa reported to Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) to show Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) that he (MR. Massa) received the testing materials with the correct answers already marked, presumably by the teacher who tested his class prior to turning the testing materials over to Mr. Massa. The teacher who witnessed the conversation where Mr. Massa showed Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) the testing materials he received with the correct answers already written in is a new teacher who will never have tenure and can be dismissed at the end of the school year throughout his/her career. This teacher, having a deeply justified fear that the MDCPS investigative bodies exist NOT to root out corruption, but to hide it and then to retaliate against the whistleblower at the conclusion of the sham “investigation” was too fearful of losing his/her job to testify as to what he/she overheard in Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) office. Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) then allegedly perjured herself in her deposition in the lawsuit that Mr. Massa filed against MDCPS. If the Governor is willing to call in an investigative body that is independent of MDCPS (such as the National Labor Relations Board, or the Florida Bureau of Investigation, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation), and if that investigative body will guarantee this person protection against retaliation by MDCPS, this person will testify as to what he/she heard that day in Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) office. As you may have guessed, Mrs. Fernandez has a nickname. Her nickname is Screamer. Whenever Mrs. Fernandez becomes upset at an NKC staff member (and she has an extremely low frustration threshold), she throws a screaming temper tantrum (UTD boss Ms. Hernandez Mats is well aware of this, but the fact that dues paying members of UTD who have the misfortune of working at NKC have been subjected to Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) temper tantrums for six and a half years does not appear to concern Ms. Hernandez Mats very much.) My blog describes an incident where Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) screamed at me nonstop for 20 (twenty) minutes! As I said in my blog, I got off with a measly 20-minute screaming temper tantrum because I am Caucasian. Although all of the NKC staff suffer a deliberately cultivated hostile work environment, African Americans suffer more frequent and longer hateful screaming tirades at the hands of Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer). As Superintendent Carvalho, the 9 school board members, and Ms. Hernandez Mats are well aware, the African American NKC staff refer to the school as a “Plantation” and believe (with ample evidence to back up this belief) BOTH Dr, Roos and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) are openly hostile and racist to African American staff. As Superintendent Carvalho, the 9 school board members and Ms. Hernandez Mats also know, Dr. Roos illegally forbade almost al NKC African American staff from participating in the MANDATORY annual staff satisfaction survey. This frees both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) to become even more hostile and hateful to African American staff in the future, as these staff are illegally forbidden to provide feedback in the MANDATORY annual staff satisfaction survey. Another example of Dr. Roos open hostility toward African American staff is her DISGRACEFUL treatment of both Ms. Green and Mr. Jackson, which I described in great detail in my blog. In a nutshell, Shortly after Ms. Green’s daughter was brutally murdered, (and her home seriously damaged by Hurricane Irma), Dr. Roos allegedly gave Mr. Jackson (an African American custodian at NKC and one of Ms. Green’s closest friends) an illegal order to deliver Dr. Roos threat to Ms. Green to have Ms. Green involuntarily transferred to another school. When it looked like Dr. Roos might suffer adverse consequences for this seemingly overtly racist action, Dr. Roos allegedly summoned Mr. Jackson to a closed-door meeting in Dr. Roos office and allegedly threatened to terminate Mr. Jackson’s employment unless he recanted his statement saying Dr. Roos had ordered him to deliver Dr. Roos threat to Ms. Green. If an independent investigative body is called in, they might want to hear what both Ms. Green and Mr. Jackson have to say about this. Although MDCPS was well aware of Dr. Roos flagrant and egregious violations of Ms. Green and Mr. Jackson’s rights, astonishingly, a few weeks later, MDCPS saw fit to nominate Dr. Roos for the prestigious Principal of the Year Award! As I stated in my latest blog entry, Ms. Green and possibly Mr. Jackson give the appearance of being in grave danger of facing job termination, should Dr. Roos receive one of her famous “anonymous” phone calls accusing these African American employees of physically and/or sexually abusing one or more NKC students. Dr. Roos also stands accused of physically assaulting an African American Profoundly Mentally Retarded NKC child. I talk about this incident at great length in my blog. Most PMH students have neither the ability to speak or communicate in any way or to defend themselves from physical assault, making them extremely vulnerable to physical abuse at the hands of unscrupulous adults. This African American student was returned to NKC at the end of the school day, as there was no one from his home to meet him at his bus stop. By the time the bus returned this child to NKC, his teacher had already gone home for the day, although Dr. Roos was still on campus. Although Dr. Roos is contractually OBLIGATED to accept custody of this child, she allegedly attempted to refuse to accept custody of the child. Both the bus driver and the bus aide allegedly escorted this student off the bus and left him next to Dr. Roos and began to drive away. At that point, both the bus driver and the bus aide allegedly observed Dr. Roos physically abuse this child. At that point, the two bus people stopped the bus, got off the bus, and confronted Dr. Roos and told her to stop physically abusing the child. The next day, these two bus personnel handed the assistant principal a referral, a legal document detailing the allegations against Dr. Roos. A third person who allegedly observed Dr. Roos physically abuse this African American child is an African American NKC staff member who is a 30-year MDCPS employee and a 30-year UTD member. This person is allegedly too terrified of retaliation from MDCPS goons/thugs to report what he/she observed. An independent investigative body may wish to ask this person what he/she observed that day. The mother of this child was outraged when she discovered the abuse her child had allegedly suffered. She threatened to both go to the press and to hire an attorney. Mysteriously, she very quickly became quiet. Dr. Roos allegedly phoned this woman and threatened to have the child removed from his home and involuntarily placed in a foster home unless the mother ceased defending her son against possible future acts of physical violence at the hands of this seemingly out of control principal. If an independent investigative body is called in, they might wish to ask this mother if she received threatening phone calls from Dr. Roos and/or the thugs/goons of MDCPS. Although MDCPS MANDATES that a principal accused of physically abusing a child be removed from campus, until an investigation is completed, this was not done, and Dr. Roos remains on campus, putting PMH students who can neither speak or physically defend themselves at risk for possible physical attacks at the hands of Dr. Roos. As I explained at great length in my blog, Dr. Roos gives the appearance of being subject to wild mood swings, and an inability to control her destructive urges. (Superintendent Carvalho was aware of this fact when he declined to remove Dr. Roos from campus AFTER Dr. Roos was accused of physically abusing a Profoundly Mentally Retarded child!) In my blog, I described how Dr. Roos once told me she suffers from an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I also said that on at least two occasions, Dr. Roos suffered prolonged, uncontrollable crying jags in full view of the NKC staff. Governor Desantis, do Profoundly Mentally Retarded children, who are largely incapable of either speech or defending themselves have the right to be protected from physical assault by the principal of the school? If one of the primary goals of a school for PMH children is to protect them from physical abuse, does it make sense to leave a principal who has been accused of physically abusing a child in charge of the school? Has this principal set a good example of how Profoundly Mentally Handicapped children should be treated by staff? Are taxpaying parents who are paying the salary of the school principal (and the MDCPS officials including the Superintendent who decline to remove a principal who clearly represents a danger to PMH children) obligated to send their child to a school where that child is at risk for being physically abused by the school principal? (As the reader will discover shortly, the LEGAL answer to this last question is YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!) Given the fact that the MDCPS Superintendent, the 9 school board members, and Ms. Hernandez Mats have been fully appraised of this situation and have taken NO ACTION WHATSOEVER to safeguard these children, would the Governor, upon learning of this crisis situation, have both a legal and moral OBLIGATION to step in to insure the safety of these extremely fragile and vulnerable children? (Remember, MDCPS says it has ZERO tolerance for bullying.) Would the governor also have a legal and moral OBLIGATION to impose whatever penalties are commensurate with the violation of the law(s) that occurred including but not limited to termination of employment, permanent revocation of all Florida teaching/educational licenses for people found in violation of the law, including Superintendent Carvalho, the 9 school board members, UTD President Ms. Hernandez Mats, Dr. Roos, and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) A few years ago, NKC was involuntarily converted to a new curriculum (the Unique Learning System) that is so far above the intellectual capacities of PMH children that little or no learning will ever take place during the up to 19 years children will attend NKC. (When this new curriculum was first introduced, it was so unpopular with parents that they showed up with picket signs outside the school.) One mother stopped sending her child to school, saying her child was learning nothing and the new curriculum of NKC was a waste of her child’s time. Rather than improve the quality of the curriculum, MDCPS trotted out its favorite war club and threatened to place the child into a foster home unless the mother resumed sending her child to NKC! So, in answer to the earlier asked question about whether a parent is legally obligated to send their child to a school where that child is at risk for being physically assaulted by the school principal, the reader can see that the answer is a RESOUNDING “YES”, lest the child be involuntarily taken out of its home and placed into a foster home (where physical and/or sexual abuse is a possibility). Since parents do not have the ability to protect their severely retarded children from either a physically abusive principal or a HORRENDOUSLY inadequate curriculum, the logical choice is for parents to withdraw their children from the Hell Hole that NKC has become and enroll their children into a charter school for PMH students. The problem is that no charter school exists in MDCPS for PMH children. (Recall that in case DOAH 13-1492, Superintendent Carvalho illegally crushed NKC’s attempt to convert to a charter school. Governor Desantis, will you and the Florida legislature introduce legislation to compel MDCPS to allow a charter school to form for PMH students? Regrettably, physical abuse at the hands of a seemingly emotionally fragile principal is not the only safety danger NKC children face on a daily basis. Here is a thumb nail sketch of an event I described in great detail in my blog. A few years ago, a student in Mr. Massa’s class began to choke on his food. (This child is so prone to choking events that this fact is noted on his Individual Education Plan.) Mr. Massa took immediate and appropriate action and the child expelled the food he was choking on without losing consciousness. Nevertheless, Dr. Roos filed potentially career ending charges against Mr. Massa. The entire staff witnessed Mr. Massa’s appropriate and timely actions and saw that he was threatened with potentially career ending charges, despite doing everything he was supposed to do. As a result of this, NKC staff now have a very deep fear that if a child in their class begins to choke on their food (PMH children are very much at risk for this) even if that teacher takes immediate and appropriate action, the teacher may be at risk for losing his/her job if the teacher has knowingly or unknowingly displeased either Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) As a result, that teacher may hesitate for up to a minute (hoping the choking child coughs up the food he/she was choking on) before summoning help from our on-site school nurses. That one-minute delay may literally mean the difference between life and death for a profoundly mentally handicapped child. As I mentioned in my blog, it took a teacher (who is no longer a teacher at NKC due to Dr. Roos extremely abrasive personality) who was a fully trained Fire Academy paramedic who rode ambulances on weekends nearly three minutes to extract a pancake that one of our students nearly choked to death on. That particular choking incident happened BEFORE Dr. Roos decided to use choking incidents as a weapon to get rid of teachers who had somehow knowingly or unknowingly displeased her. If the teacher in this incident, fearing his/her job was at stake had waited an extra minute before summoning help, the child probably would NOT have been saved, but would have died. (A few years after graduating from NKC, that child suffered a fatal choking incident at his group home.) Again, to fully understand the situation depicted in this thumb nail sketch, you need to read my blog, where I discuss this problem in great detail. Every day that a parent sends their child to school at NKC, they are playing Russian Roulette with their children’s life. Shockingly, Superintendent Carvalho and the 9 school board members have known about this easily preventable artificially induced elevated risk of a horrible death via choking since June 2015, (I have included this letter in my blog) and have done NOTHING to safeguard Profoundly Mentally Handicapped children!!! (NKC staff and parents are wondering if this may be grounds for dismissal for the above-mentioned people from their posts) Timothy McVeigh, the monster who blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma (because he was angry at the government) killed many kindergarten children who were housed in that building. When asked how he could justify such cold-blooded murder, Mr. McVeigh merely shrugged his shoulders and called the deaths of these innocent children “collateral damage.” In one of my many unanswered letters to Superintendent Carvalho, I accused Superintendent Carvalho of being a kindred spirit to Mr. McVeigh because the Superintendent gives the appearance of being willing to put the lives of Profoundly Mentally Handicapped children at risk (I.e. collateral damage) in his effort to punish IN PERPETUITY the NKC staff who exercised their (supposedly) legally protected right to convert from a public school to a charter school. If one or more profoundly mentally handicapped children are harmed as a result of Superintendent Carvalho’s knowing and deliberate recklessness, will he merely shrug his shoulders and call it “collateral damage?” Only a sadist continues to beat a dog after its spirit has been completely broken. Is it possible that just as Dr. Roos gives the appearance of being unfit to be a school principal, Superintendent Carvalho gives the appearance of being unfit to head the nation’s fourth largest school district? In my blog, I described a second allegation of Dr. Roos physically assaulting a person. This incident involved an NKC staff member. I described this event in great detail in my blog. Dr. Roos allegedly was screaming at the staff member who was meekly staring at the floor. Dr. Roos then allegedly seized the staff person’s jaw and jerked this person’s jaw upwards until the victim was making involuntary eye contact with Dr. Roos. and screamed “Look at me when I am talking (i.e. screaming) to you.” Governor Desantis and Commissioner Corcoran, I am going to tell you something I have never mentioned in my blog (because I feared the goons/thugs of MDCPS would retaliate against the helpless serf this happened to) That person, who transferred to another school as a result of this alleged assault is a social worker. GOERNOR DESANTIS AND COMMISSIONER CORCORAN, IF A SOCIAL WORKER DOES NOT HAVE ENOUGH CONFIDENCE IN THE INTERNAL INVESTIGATIVE BODIES OF MDCPS TO REPORT THIS INCIDENT DUE TO FEAR OF RETALIATION, DOESN’T THAT INDICATE MDCPS IS INCAPABLE OF POLICING ITSELF AND NEEDS TO BE TAKEN OVER BY THE STATE UNTIL INTERNAL CONTROLS ARE ESTABLISHED TO PREVENT MDCPS FROM RETALIATING AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWERS??? An investigative body independent of MDCPS may wish to invite this social worker to tell what happened to her that day in Dr. Roos office. Every year, PMH children with IQ’s of 25 and below are given an achievement test called the Florida Alternate Assessment. (FAA) When Dr. Alberto Fernandez was the NKC principal, our students scored very low on this test, year after year. When Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) became the NKC administrators, Profoundly Mentally Handicapped children have for the last 6 years achieved scores that are FAR above their ability levels. Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) receive financial awards every year for these statistically improbable scores. If an independent investigative body wishes to investigate this matter, I can provide the names of two people who may be able to shed some light on these astonishingly high scores. Governor Desantis, I am going to publish my letter to you on my blog, which is read by both NKC parents and staff, so they will know that you have been fully informed of the deplorable situation that has existed at NKC for SIX AND A HALF YEARS. Governor, prior to writing this letter, I did a little background research on you. You bear a startling resemblance to the President of France (Emmanuel Macron) in terms of your career trajectory. Like yourself, Mr. Macron’s rise to the top has been meteoric. Like yourself, Mr. Macron graduated from some of the most prestigious universities in the nation. At the age of 27, Mr. Macron was the European head of what is arguably the world’s most powerful bank (Goldman Sachs) Like you, in his early forties, Mr. Macron was elected to a very prestigious post. (In his case, the leader of the French Government) Until recently, Mr. Macron was widely viewed as one of the most powerful leaders in Europe. Today Mr. Macron is fighting an uphill battle for his political survival. (Hopefully, this is the point where the similarities between yourself and Mr. Macron will end.) Mr. Macron’s downfall happened because he chose to ignore very clear warnings he was given. Governor Desantis, like Mr. Macron, you are presently sitting on top of an ominously rumbling volcano. The name of YOUR deeply rumbling volcano is MDCPS. The public has a very deep feeling of protection and affection for mentally retarded children. If you choose to do nothing about the current intolerable situation at NKC, one or more Profoundly Mentally Handicapped children are going to go to the hospital, or the morgue. If that happens, I will move Heaven and Earth to get the story into the newspapers, and your political career may suffer irreparable damage. If, on the other hand, you take steps to insure that PMH children are safe and have access to a high quality curriculum, myself, NKC parents and NKC staff will loudly sing your praises. NKC parents and staff are wondering if it would be possible for BOTH Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) to be transferred out of NKC during the Winer Holiday (December 22-Jan. 6). As Superintendent Carvalho seems intent on punishing the NKC staff IN PERPETUITY, the staff are worried that Mr. Carvalho may replace the present administrators with different administrators who are as bad or even worse than the present ones. For this reason, as a show of good faith, the NKC staff is asking you to ask Mr. Carvalho to replace the present NKC administrators with the two administrators who were illegally removed from their posts. This would be Dr. Alberto Fernandez as the principal and Mr. Henny Cristobol as the assistant principal. Also, given the egregious level of offenses over a six and a half year period, all NKC stakeholders are hoping that penalties commensurate with violation (s) of the law will be assigned to everyone from Superintendent Carvalho on down if an independent investigative body determines law breaking has occurred. Finally, NKC stakeholders are hoping that all members of the Florida K-12 Education Committee will be provided with a copy of this letter at the next legislative session in March. As the readers of this letter can hopefully see, Superintendent Carvalho, the 9 MDCPS school board members, and UTD President Karla Hernandez Mats are the best argument for why charter schools need to replace public schools as quickly as possible. Governor Desantis and Commissioner Corcoran, the NKC stakeholders want to wish both of you a joyous holiday. Sincerely, Bill Detzner Bill Detzner 7722 SW 99 St. Miami, FL. 33156 billdetzner@bellsouth.net”
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