I am writing this letter today (April 30, 2020) to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, and the Inspector Generals of both the state of Florida and the US Department of Education. I am writing yet another letter to plea for your help, because I fear one or more entirely preventable acts of violence may occur at Neva King Cooper (NKC) School that will endanger the safety of Severely Mentally Retarded (SMR) students. I am sending you this letter because I want to leave a paper trail to show that all of you have been notified on several occasions of the potentially explosive situation that exists at NKC. If an entirely preventable act of violence occurs at NKC that puts SMR children in harms way, I do not want any of you to be able to bray that you had no idea this situation has existed.
My blog is mdcpsallegations.com A blog entry I would like you to read before you continue reading this letter is “Letter to Dept. of Ed. IG and Secretary Betsy DeVos.” This will not be the first time you have read this blog entry. The first time you read it was Novenber 14, 2019. You did virtually NOTHING (except to send me a response written in legalese ) in response to my plea to you for help. The blog entry contains a lengthy (but not exhaustive) list of the Florida and Federal statutes broken by NKC principal Dr. Tracy Roos and assistant principal Mrs. Alicia Fernandez (Screamer).
A question that is the entire point of this letter is: GIVEN THAT BOTH OF THESE SEEMINGLY VERY ANGRY WOMEN WHO GIVE THE APPEARANCE OF BEING EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE PERFORMED SO MANY EGREGIOUS AND ILLEGAL ACTIONS BEFORE THE CORONA VIRUS EPIDEMIC, WHAT THINGS DO YOU THINK THEY ARE CAPABLE OF AFTER THE PANDEMIC PUTS THEM AND EVERYONE ELSE INTO A HIGHLY STRESSFUL AND HIGHLY UNCERTAIN FUTURE?
Dr. Roos certainly did not waste time in providing an answer to this question. On April 17, 2020, at 10:30 AM, during a Zoom instruction viewed by Severely Mentally Retarded (SMR) students, parents, and NKC staff, Dr. Roos allegedly launched into a profanity laced tirade (including but not limited to the word “f*ck.”) A PARENT HAS A COPY OF THIS ZOOM “INSTRUCTION.”
Keep in mind that this happened at a time which should have been a time of very low stress for Dr. Roos. Due to the Corona Virus, there were no students or staff on campus. The only thing Dr. Roos needed to do was participate in this Zoom presentation. Given the fact that Dr. Roos seems incapable of maintaining a professional demeanor in even the least stressful environment, how do you suppose she will react next August when she faces parents who themselves are facing an INCREDIBLE level of stress due to the terrific financial and emotional stresses they will undoubtably be experiencing?
In the blog entry I asked you to read, I presented 3 chilling scenarios of the physical violence Dr. Roos or Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) could potentially face at the hands of either one or more angry NKC parents or NKC staff. Keep in mind that I gave you this warning BEFORE the Corona virus sharply elevated the stress levels NKC administrators, staff, and parents will be experiencing. What do you suppose might happen if Dr. Roos allegedly physically assaults yet another African American SMR child? What do you think might happen if Dr. Roos allegedly physically assaults yet another staff member? What do you think might happen if assistant principal Mrs. Fernandez again allegedly subjects yet another staff member to one of her uncontrollable 20+ minute screaming tirades? As you already know, both Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez have forbidden staff from exiting when the staff member is at the end of his/her rope as a result of Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) lengthy temper tantrums. As you already know, Dr. Roos gives the appearance of using choking incidents by SMR children at mealtimes to file potentially career ending charges against staff who have knowingly or unknowingly displeased her. This using of SMR children as “bait” to terrorize teachers puts SMR children at risk for dying a violent and easily preventable death by choking on their food. What do you suppose might happen if Dr. Roos continues to do this, and an NKC child dies as a result? Keep in mind that BEFORE the Corona virus, BOTH African American NKC parents and African American NKC staff referred to NKC as a “Plantation” due to what they perceive as rampant racism by both NKC administrators. What do you suppose might happen if Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez (Screamer) continue to alienate African American parents and staff? Dr. Roos also has a long “track record” of discrimination against Hispanics (see my blog)
My hope is that after reading the lengthy list of HORRENDOUS abuses committed by BOTH NKC administrators, the readers of this letter will conclude that the present NKC administrators have poisoned the well so completely and alienated all NKC stakeholders to the point where immediate replacement of those two administrators is the only possible remedy.
As the readers of this letter already know, most NKC stakeholders believe that Superintendent Carvalho has kept NKC under what appears to be lockdown and collective punishment for EIGHT YEARS for pursuing the supposedly legally protected activity of exploring conversion from a public school to a private school (See DOAH 13-1492 for the legal findings of the resulting lawsuit.) As a result, the NKC stakeholders have a well founded fear that Mr. Carvalho intends to punish NKC in perpetuity. The NKC stakeholders fear that even if Mr. Carvalho replaces the present 2 NKC administrators, he will replace them with new administrators as bad or worse than the present administrators. For this reason, as a show of good faith, the NKC stakeholders are hoping Mr. Carvalho will reinstate both Dr. Alberto Fernandez as the NKC principal and Mr. Henny Cristobol as the NKC assistant principal. As Mr. Carvalho gives the appearance of being a very vindictive man, he is unlikely to take this action unless he is ordered to do so. I am therefore asking either the state of Florida or the US Department of Education to order Mr. Carvalho to take this action.
Both the Florida and Federal Dept. of Education buraeucrats are fond of braying that I need to take my concerns to the Miami- Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS). This is a very hypocritical thing to say. As both the Federal and Florida education bureaucrats are aware, I have written over 50 letters over a 5 year period of time to the MDCPS and received literally NOT A SINGLE WORD OF RESPONSE to those letters. Also, the situation at NKC has gotten WORSE over the last several years.
As you are aware, the purpose of the Florida Inspector General (FIG) is to investigate corruption within Florida public schools. If the FIG cannot or will not perform this task, its highly paid employees should be terminated, and the FIG disbanded. The purpose of the Federal Inspector General is to investigate any corruption that a state has not adequately investigated. If the Federal Inspector General cannot or will not perform this task, its highly paid employees should also be terminated and the agency dissolved.
As the readers of this letter already know, the stakeholders of NKC have been failed miserably by both the Federal anf Florida Education Inspector Generals.
To refresh your memory, I contacted the Florida Inspector General (Edward Rawls Jr.) I said I suspected that both NKC administrators were cheating on the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA) by erasing some of the incorrect penciled in responses on the answer sheets and then penciling in the correct responses. I cautioned the IG that MDCPS is an extremely corrupt organization (many people, myself included, view MDCPS as a criminal enterprise), and that an agency independent of MDCPS would have to conduct the investigation. A few weeks later I received an email stating that no erasure marks had been found, AND THAT THERE WAS NO IMPROVEMENT IN STUDENT PERFORMANCE AFTER DR ROOS AND MRS FERNANDEZ BECAME THE NKC ADMINISTRATORS. I was very puzzled by this, because although I had never received a financial bonus in the many previous years I had administered this test to NKC students, I HAD received financial bonus checks in both the second and third year that Dr. Roos was the NKC principal. I want to strongly stress that these financial bonus checks are given ONLY for substantial improvements in student performance. The obvious question is: If student performance did not improve, then why did I receive financial bonus checks for 2 years? (Dr. Roos and Mrs. Fernandez also received financial bonus checks these two years. If they cheated to receive those checks, that is a clear case of fraud, and well within the area of authority for the Florida IG. The penalty for cheating on the FAA is termination of employment and loss of pension. I am asking that an investigative body INDEPENDENT of MDCPS, such as either the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the Florida Bureau of Investigation conduct a new investigation into this matter If one or both NKC administrators are found to have cheated on the test and received financial compensation for this cheating, I am asking that the proper penalties be enforced. If MDCPS is found to have willfully falsified the investigation of cheating by the NKC administrators, I am asking that the proper penalties be applied to MDCPS. The authorities might want to do a district wide audit of MDCPS to see how widespread cheating is on the yearly achievement test. If cheating is found to be widespread, perhaps the state or the Feds. might wish to consider relieving Mr. Carvalho of his duties and placing MDCPS under state supervision until such time as the district meets Florida standards. Also, if the Federal Department of Education is unhappy by the way that the state of Florida has mishandled my investigation request, perhaps the Federal Dept. of Education might want to place the Florida Dept. of Education under Federal authority until such time as Florida is in compliance with Federal standards If MDCPS is found to be out of compliance with Florida and/or Federal standards, I would strongly encourage funding to be halted until such time as MDCPS is in compliance with both Florida and Federal guidelines.
If school districts in Florida that are accused of cheating on the yearly achievement tests are allowed to investigate themselves, and if there are financial rewards for cheating on the test, with little or no risk of being penalized for this cheating, one has to wonder how widespread cheating is in Florida in the yearly achievement test? This might be an area that the Federal Dept. of Education may wish to explore.
As I could not understand how it could simultaneously be true that I had received financial bonus checks for two years if there had been no improvement in student performance, I phoned the secretary at the Florida IG and asked her who conducted the investigation. She told me she could not answer that question unless she had my case number. When I supplied that information, the secretary told me that MDCPS had been allowed to independently conduct the investigation, and that its results were accepted without review.
The sole purpose of my 5 year crusade has been to make NKC a better place for all of the stakeholders. Those stakeholders, in order of importance, are SMR students, NKC parents, and NKC staff. If I felt that flattering educational bureaucrats would accomplish this goal, my flattery would be so extreme as to be nauseating. I have written very polite and deferential letters to educational bureaucrats, and heard only silence in response. My instinct is that if I am honest but very frank in my comments to educational bureaucrats, the unpleasant and unflattering light they are cast into will (hopefully) motivate them to do the right thing for SMR children, just to avoid unfavorable publicity. I will therefore be very blunt in the following appeal to the 5 recipients of this letter, in the hopes they will do the right thing, just to shut me up. I further promise that if these people do the right thing for SMR children, I will fold my tent and go home.
Sercretary DeVos, your critics say you have no experience or qualifications in the field of Education. They say you were awarded this post solely as a reward for being a very generous donor to the Republican Party. When your confirmation vote came up, the vote was strictly along party lines, and Vice President Pence had to cast the deciding vote in order to insure your confirmation. As I am sure you know, the public views you as the single most unpopular member of the Cabinet. One of your decisions that has led to your unpopularity is your ruling to hold students liable for student loans made to for profit colleges that had fraudulently represented themselves as accredited colleges, when this was not the case. The public views your stewardship of the nation’s schools as an effort on your part to turn the public education of America’s children over to for profit charter schools, much like the prison industry has been turned over to for profit corporations. Many people suspect this is being done because these for profit institutions contribute heavily to political candidates of both parties. In my previous letter to you. I asked you a very blunt question. My question was, “If a SMR child dies a very violent and entirely preventable choking death, are you ok with that?” Judging from the very tepid and timid response I got from your representative, the answer to that question appears to be a very emphatic YES.
Secretary DeVos, all of my correspondence to you is on my blog. If there is an entirely preventable tragedy at NKC, people feel very protective of SMR children, and will react very negatively to your lack of action. They may ask themselves why you should remain the Secretary of Education if you are either unable or unwilling to protect the most fragile and vulnerable children of all, the Severely Mentally Retarded. For this reason, I am hoping you will choose to intervene on behalf of SMR children, because after EIGHT YEARS OF COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT FOR THE NKC STAKEHOLDERS, FOR THE ‘CRIME’ OF ATTEMPTING THE SUPPOSEDLY LEGALLY PROTECTED ACTIVITY OF CONVERTING TO A CHARTER SCHOOL, it is clear that Superintendent Carvalho will do the right thing for NKC ONLY if he is ordered to do so by someone such as yourself. Finally, in the past, parents who complained about the shoddy performance of Dr. Roos were allegedly threatened by Dr. Roos/MDCPS with having their children involuntarily removed from the child’s home and placed into a foster home, where physical/sexual abuse sometimes happens. The parents who are complaining about Dr. Roos alleged profanity during the Zoom presentation are DEEPLY fearful that their children may face this threat. Will you please inform Superintendent Carvalho that your office will not tolerate this kind of retaliation from MDCPS? Fear of retaliation is a very poor way to stifle dissent in the nation’s fourth largest school district.
Governor DeSantis, I have been in contact with you concerning the crisis at NKC ever since you were the governor elect, and I have kept a copy of every correspondence I have sent you. If an entirely preventable tragedy happens at NKC, what kind of publicity will that generate for you? People are very protective of Severely Mentally Retarded children. As I noted in one of my many unanswered letters to you, in the summer of 2019, when the legislative session had ended and you had few duties (other than cutting ribbons for the grand openings of new commercial ventures) you had time to go on an all expense paid junket to Israel, but not to take time to protect the most fragile and vulnerable children in Florida, the SMR. Voters may question your motives for this neglect.
In another unanswered letter I sent you, I said that I had read that some computer hackers were hacking the computers of small cities in Florida, and threatening to allow people in hospitals in those towns to die unless a ransom was paid to unlock those computers. I said that some Floridians might view you in a similar light as those computer hackers. I made this statement because you give the appearance of being a “pay to play governor.” I say this because although you have a legal DUTY to protect the most vulnerable of all Floridiams (Severely Mentally Retarded children), you took no action whatsoever, even though I sent you and Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran several certified letters advising you of the entirely preventable danger Superintendent Carvalho was and is exposing these children to. Governor DeSantis, I asked you a very blunt question. My question was: If you do not receive a sizable financial contribution to your reelection cam paign, are you ok with one or more of these children suffering a horrible and entirely preventable death from choking on their food?” Judging from the lack of action on the part of either yourself or Mr. Corcoran, I am guessing the answer to this question is an emphatic YES.
Governor DeSantis, I have another question for you. If I or any other NKC stakeholder had been able to make a sizable contribution to your reelection campaign, which entity would have done the investigation as to whether or not MDCPS cheated on their yearly achievement test? Would it have been MDCPS, or would it have been a truly independent organization? Is your outrage and indignation as to cheating on the achievement test, or all of the other illegal activities that have occurred at NKC dependent on whether or not you get a sizable political contribution? Is it possible that the bigger the financial donation you receive, the greater your outrage and level of proactive measures you take in response?
Governor DeSantis, I am asking that you and Mr. Corcoran also take all of the actions I have asked for in this letter.
My final comments are to Mr. Corcoran and the Inspector Generals of both Florida and the Federal Dept. of Education. As the three of you know, no political figure wants to take the hit for her/his mistakes. They will make underlings take the fall for those mistakes. You three people are the underlings. If you want to preserve your very well paid jobs, the best way to do so might be to do the things I asked you to do in this letter.
Sincerely,
Bill Detzner
Bill Detzner/7722SW 99St./Miami, Fl.33156/billdetzner@bellsouth.net