May1, 2019 Letter to Governor DeSantis, the Florida Commissioner of Education, and the Office of the Inspector General,

Dear Governor DeSantis, the Florida Commissioner of Education, and the Office of the Inspector General,

Imagine the following scenario. A man stands accused of murder. The police ask the suspect if he committed the murder. The suspect denies committing the crime. The police then summon the murder victim’s family and tell the astonished family that since the suspect has denied committing the crime, the police have decided to drop all charges against the suspect and close the case. That is pretty much what happened to me when I appealed to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to investigate alleged cheating on the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA) by the two administrators of Neva King Cooper School (NKC)

To refresh your memory, my name is Bill Detzner. My blog is mdcpsallegations.com, and I wrote you a letter in December 2018 detailing a long list of alleged illegal activities done by NKC principal Dr. Tracy Roos and assistant principal Mrs. Alicia Fernandez. (Screamer) . NKC is a school exclusively for Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) students. My OIG correspondence number is 2019020022.

Just a few of the many alleged incidents described in my blog are two alleged physical assaults by the school principal. One of these alleged assaults was against the school social worker. The other alleged physical assault was against a PMH student of the school! Two Miami Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) bus drivers who observed this event filed formal charges against Dr. Roos. An African American who is a 30 year employee of MDCPS allegedly also witnessed this alleged incident but is too terrified of retaliation by MDCPS to testify as to what he/she observed.

In my blog, I also mentioned an alleged confession by the principal to me that she (Dr. Roos) suffers from an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. (I am using the word alleged even though I personally heard Dr. Roos make this statement to me.) In my blog I also mentioned many overtly racist actions (including allegedly forbidding the majority of African American employees from participating in the annual MANDATORY staff satisfaction survey)allegedly taken by both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) against the African American staff of NKC.

I also cautioned that there is a constant danger of PMH children suffering a horrible and easily preventable death from choking to death on their food at mealtimes, due to what appears to be a decision by the 2 administrators to use the choking incidents that occur at NKC as a weapon to get rid of teachers that one or both of the two administrators at NKC do not like. I describe this in great detail in my blog (mdcpsallegations.com) In my blog, I have also described that Dr. Roos gives the appearance of becoming increasingly emotionally unstable (i.e. at least two alleged uncontrollable crying jags in front of the school staff). Dr. Roos behavior gives the appearance of becoming increasingly erratic and irrational.

Governor DeSantis, if Dr. Roos has yet another alleged emotional meltdown , snaps, and there is yet another allegation of Dr. Roos physically assaulting yet another staff member , or worse yet, another PMH student who literally cannot defend himself/herself or speak to tell what Dr. Roos has allegedly done to him/her, are you ok with the fact that it happened on your watch, and that you were fully appraised of the situation? I am again asking the question that I asked in my December 2018 letter that none of the three of you have answered. DOES A SEVERELY MENTALLY RETARDED CHILD HAVE A RIGHT TO BE SAFE FROM PHYSICAL ASSAULT AT THE HANDS OF A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL?

Every day, the parents of NKC children are faced with a cruel choice. Their two choices are: 1) Send their child to school at NKC where the child faces the risk of possibly choking to death on his/her food, or facing the risk of allegedly being physically assaulted by Dr. Roos should she experience yet another emotional meltdown. 2) Keep the child out of school and have child protective services forcibly remove the child from his/her home and placed in a foster home where the child runs the risk of being physically and/or sexually assaulted by an abusive foster parent. There are no charter schools for PMH children in MDCPS, so these are the only two choices available to the parents of NKC children. Also, parents of NKC children are forced to pay the salary of a principal who has allegedly physically assaulted an utterly defenseless and speechless PMH child. This principal, on a daily basis also allegedly exposes these children to an entirely preventable horrible death by choking on their food.

In response to my December2018 letter to you, the OIG sent me a letter asking for the names of people who could testify as to possible cheating on the FAA by the two NKC administrators. In my February 26,2019 letter to the OIG, I listed SIX people (in addition to the two NKC administrators) who I felt could shed some light on possible cheating on the FAA. To my astonishment and dismay, the 4 most important people on that list were never interviewed. In the order of the importance of their testimony, those 4 people who were NOT interviewed are 1) former assistant NKC principal Mr. Adrian Sanchez, 2) Mr. Rick Massa, 3) Ms. Luz Morales, and 4) Ms. Julie Besherat. Even more shocking, even though I warned you in my December 2018 letter that MDCPS is an extremely corrupt school district, and even though MDCPS has a clear conflict of interest in that the district will look very bad and face possible sanctions if it submits a report admitting the two NKC administrators cheated on the FAA, the OIG foolishly allowed MDCPS to investigate itself , even though I BEGGED the OIG to appoint an independent agency such as the Florida Bureau of Investigation, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct the investigation. Not surprisingly, on April 29, 2019, I received an email announcing that MDCPS had cleared itself of all wrongdoing, and the OIG therefore considers the case closed. Hence my analogy to the murder suspect who is cleared of all charges simply because he declares his innocence.

Governor DeSantis, can you please ask the OIG to clarify two unresolved issues regarding this recently completed investigation. The first issue is whether the OIG conducted the investigation independently, or whether it allowed MDCPS to investigate itself, and then accepted the results of MDCPS report wholly and without question. When I received the OIG email announcing that my claim had been investigated, found to be without merit, and dismissed, I phoned the OIG office and asked who conducted the investigation. The OIG person asked for my OIG correspondence number. When I gave her that number, she told me that MDCPS had been allowed to conduct the investigation, and that the OIG accepted the results of that investigation wholly and without question. When I protested to the OIG about this, they (the OIG) insisted the investigation was done solely by the OIG, and not by MDCPS The second issue I am hoping you will ask the OIG about is the dispute as to whether or not FAA scores at NKC showed a dramatic improvement when Dr. Alberto Fernandez ceased to be the NKC administrator, and Dr. Roos took over as the NKC principal. To quote from the email I received from OIG: “The OIG also analyzed the test scores from 2013-2018 and found the scores were anything but astonishingly high, let alone high.” When Dr. Alberto Fernandez was the KNC principal, the students were tested for a period of many years on the FAA. Never once during that time was the staff ever offered a bonus due to high scores on the FAA. During two of the three years I worked at NKC under Dr. Roos, the staff won a financial bonus based on our school’s performance on the FAA. I want to emphasize that those bonuses are awarded SOLEY on the basis of outstanding student performance on this test. Governor DeSantis, can you please ask the OIC why the NKC staff was awarded bonuses for two years if a dramatic improvement in FAA scores did not occur once Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez (Screamer) became the NKC administrators?

Governor DeSantis, at BEST, this sham “investigation” by your OIG seems very slipshod and sloppy. At its worst, it gives the appearance of being an attempt to whitewash the on-going 7 year rape of NKC and give yourself plausible deniability of responsibility if Dr. Roos or Mrs. Alicia Fernandez (Screamer) commits one or more felony offenses such as allegedly physically assaulting a PMH child or cheating on the FAA. Governor DeSantis, if this happens, will you attempt to hide your negligence by claiming that you conducted a (lame) investigation, and your OIG found the charges to be without merit?

As I stated in my December 2018 letter to you, I am a political atheist. Governor DeSantis, if one or more NKC children chokes to death on his or her food, or is allegedly physically assaulted, I will move Heaven and Earth to get it into the papers that you were fully appraised of the events in my blog and did nothing to stop an entirely preventable tragedy.

The shooting of 34 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglass (17 of them fatally) has been called the most easily preventable school shooting ever. Nicolas Cruz gave clear and unmistakable warnings of his murderous intentions. The political repercussions of that event are still being felt. I am sure you will agree that it is much easier to be proactive and prevent a school tragedy than it is to deal with the political repercussions of failing to take appropriate action. Both Dr. Tracy Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez (Screamer) give the appearance of being ticking time bombs. Governor DeSantis, you won the governors race by a slim margin. People feel ENORMOUSLY protective of severely mentally retarded children. If (may God forbid it) an entirely preventable tragedy happens at NKC, how do you think that will effect your poll numbers in the next election? If you remember the Presidential election between George H.W. Bush and Governor Michael Dukakis, the governor had what appeared to be an insurmountable lead over Mr. Bush. Then the press was given the story of Willie Horton and it was all over for the Governor’s Presidential ambitions. Governor DeSantis, I am hoping you are smart enough not to let NKC become your “Willie Horton moment.”

Governor DeSantis, on bended knee I am literally BEGGING you to reopen the investigation into possible cheating on the FAA by the two NKC administrators . I am BEGGING you to appoint an agency independent of MDCPS (such as the Florida Bureau of Investigation, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation)to do this investigation. I am BEGGING you to interview ALL of the people I mentioned in my February 26, 2019 letter to the OIG. I am BEGGING you to examine all FAA answer sheets (looking for frequent reassure marks) from the time Dr. Roos became the NKC principal to the present, and if one or both NKC administrators are found to be guilty of cheating on the FAA, I am BEGGING you to assign a penalty commensurate with the offense committed including but not limited to permanent forfeiture of BOTH Florida teaching licenses and pensions. Also, if the investigation determines that MDCPS officials willfully falsified their recent investigation, penalties commensurate with those violations need to be assigned.

If the governor sees fit to recommend that the two previous NKC administrators who were illegally removed in case DOAH 13-1492 (Dr. Alberto Fernandez and Mr. Henny Cristobol) are restored to their posts, I think that would be very helpful towards ending the 7 year crisis at NKC.

Commissioner Corcoran and Mr. Rawls, perhaps I am wrong here, but if Governor DeSantis receives a great deal of negative publicity because the two of you failed to take actions that could have prevented that negative publicity to the Governor, there is a possibility that the Governor may become very unhappy with the two of you.

I want to disclose a few things about myself before I close this letter. Both my wife and I are retired teachers of NKC. My wife was both a certified music therapist and the NKC music teacher, and I was an NKC classroom teacher for 25 years. As my wife and I have no children of our own, we have become very protective of the children of NKC. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am like a dog with a bone. As a retired man, I have unlimited amounts of time and energy to advocate for PMH children. Governor DeSantis, if the children of NKC continue to be exposed to entirely preventable danger at the hand of Dr. Roos and Mrs. Alicia Fernandez (Screamer), I will pay a visit to the Florida Democratic Party headquarters and every Florida media organization that I can think of to present my case. If, on the other hand, you choose to safeguard and protect the PMH children of NKC, I will simply disappear, never to be heard from again. (which is what I would prefer to do.)

This letter will be posted on my blog, along with all the previous communication I have had with you.

Respectfully, Bill Detzner

Bill Detzner 7722 SW 99 St. Miami, FL 33156 billdetzner@bellsouth.net 305-279-5488