Is The Nation’s Fourth Largest School District A Criminal Enterprise?

Due to other obligations, I have been unable to post my March 31 email to Superintendent Dotres and Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. I will post that email when I get the time.

A week ago, in front of one of the largest tv audiences of the year, Chris Rock was viciously physically assaulted and publicly humiliated in an unprovoked attack. Mr. Rock, realizing that he is a role model, and realizing that millions of young, impressionable people were watching, made a split second decision to take the high road and not retaliate. In sharp contrast to MDCPS, the authorities of the Academy Awards made the decision to send a swift and unmistakable signal that they have “a Zero tolerance for bullying.” At MDCPS, this is nothing more than an empty and laughable slogan. At MDCPS, bullying and even physical assaults by administrators against staff who often decline to report these assaults due to fears of termination of employment are rapidly increasing. Dr. Dotres, as the new MDCPS superintendent, you have a very narrow window of opportunity to either establish yourself as a fair but firm enforcer of the rule of zero tolerance for physical assaults by administrators against staff and children, or to turn a blind eye and pretend not to see what is plainly in front of you. If you blink now, it will be difficult or impossible to regain your authority as the MDCPS superintendent.

Mr. Rock, as a very wealthy and very powerful and well connected man, enjoys several privileges that enabled him to take the high road. His wealth insures the financial security of himself and his family. That wealth and fame also gives him access to very powerful attorneys. Mr. Rock knows the chances of further attacks by Mr. Smith are remote, given Mr. Rock’s wealth and power. Mr. Smith is NOT Chris Rock’s boss, and Mr. Rock has the luxury of never having to meet or deal with Mr. Smith again, if that is his choice

Not all people are as rich or as powerful as Chris Rock, People who do not share the privileges of Chris Rock have markedly fewer options available to them when physically assaulted. Ms. Sabrina Crawley Cross is a MDCPS custodian. A few months ago, Ms. Crawley Cross allegedly suffered an unprovoked physical assault at the hands of WHITE Neva King Cooper (NKC) school principal Dr. Tracy Roos. That alleged unprovoked physical assault was so savage that Ms. Crawley Cross was forced to go on workman’s compensation. Shortly after this alleged physical assault, Dr. Roos allegedly accused Ms. Crawley Cross of being a liar and allegedly taunted Ms. Crawley Cross by saying “Nobody in the district is going to believe you.” This taunt certainly appears to be true, as a few months have elapsed, Dr. Roos appears to have suffered NO ADVERSE CONSEQUENCES WHATSOEVER, AND MDCPS GIVES THE APPEARANCE OF CLOSING THIS INVESTIGATION AND TAKING NO FURTHER ACTION. Given the fact that this is the THIRD alleged physical assault by Dr. Roos against a minority person, it is difficult to draw any other conclusion other than that MDCPS permits physical assaults by WHITE administrators against minorities. This leads to a question. That question is: When minority students or minority staff report to MDCPS, have they given implied consent to be physically assaulted by WHITE school administrators? As the other two instances of Dr. Roos alleged physical assaults will be illustrated later on in this blog entry, the answer to that question appears to be an emphatic YES! YES! YES! Federal Law outlaws this kind of criminality. MDCPS accepts Federal funding, although it is blatantly defying Federal law. For this reason, I am hoping that both Federal and state funding for MDCPS will be terminated, until such time as MDCPS WHITE administrators are no longer allowed to physically assault minority students and staff with impunity.

I do not know whether Ms. Crawley Cross has returned to work yet. If she has and is back at NKC, this means that she reports daily to a woman who has allegedly physically assaulted her in the past. During her TEN YEAR REIGN as the NKC principal, Dr. Roos has taunted, humiliated, and threatened her staff at every opportunity. If possible, Dr. Roos does this in the presence of co-workers, to add to the shame and humiliation of her victim. She gives the appearance of deriving ENORMOUS pleasure out of doing this. As Ms. Crawley Cross is paid a very modest salary, and needs every dollar she is paid, she had no choice but to submit to Dr. Roos physical assault. If she is back at NKC, she has no choice but to submit to whatever additional emotional abuse Dr. Roos chooses to dish out. Please understand that in addition to the alleged physical assault, Ms. Crawley Cross suffered extreme humiliation and shame, as well as a loss of a considerable amount of prestige among her peers for not responding with violence against a physical assault by a WHITE woman that Ms. Crawley Cross (an African American woman) could probably have beaten to within an inch of her life, had she chosen to do so. There is the implied threat that MORE physical assaults by Dr. Roos against Ms. Crawley Cross will occur in the future, because as Dr. Roos accurately predicted, “Nobody in the District is going to believe you.” If Dr. Roos either snaps, or makes a conscious decision to again physically assault Ms. Crawley Cross, the fault will lie solely with YOU, Dr. Dotres, because whether deliberately or not, by allowing Dr. Roos to suffer few or no adverse consequences for her THIRD alleged physical assault against a minority person, you sent a very clear and loud message to both Dr. Roos and every other MDCPS administrator that if an administrator physically assaults a minority student or staff member, Dr. Dotres “has their back.” Dr. Dotres, if Ms. Crawley Cross is forced to work under the “care” of Dr. Roos, you need to know that Dr. Roos will deliberately shame, bully, and humiliate Ms. Crawley Cross every time the opportunity presents itself. Also, given the fact that YOU Dr. Dotres give the appearance of tolerating physical assaults by a WHITE principal against a minority custodian, doesn’t that make NKC a “Plantation?” If this abuse is happening in other MDCPS, would it be fair an accurate to say that the nation’s fourth largest school district is a “Plantation?” If Dr. Roos is allowed to physically assault both minority students and staff with virtual impunity, doesn’t that make her a “Plantation Overseer?” Does Dr. Roos have your blessing to have the minority employees of NKC address her as “Massa” (i.e master)? If you allow Dr. Roos to physically assault minority staff and students while you turn a blind eye, doesn’t that make not only Dr. Roos but YOU Dr. Dotres a racist?

If Ms. Crawley Cross has been transferred to another school, her situation is only marginally improved. Dr. Dotres, as I said before, by making the choice to NOT punish Dr. Roos for her alleged THIRD physical assault against minorities, you have sent a very clear an unmistakable signal that the new superintendent has “got the backs” of administrators who physically assault minority students and/or staff. As Dr. Roos astutely observed “Nobody in the district is going to believe you,” so if Ms. Crawley Cross is transferred to a new school, and is again physically assaulted there, it is possible that the MDCPS “see no evil, hear no evil” investigators will simply say that this is the second accusation Ms. Crawley Cross has made against a second administrator. Administrators who are predators will be aware of this vulnerability. I hope that if Ms. Crawley Cross is at a different school, she is lucky enough to have increasingly rare administrators who are decent human beings. This is not to say that there are not honorable school site administrators. Having said that, the number of predatory school administrators has increased markedly over the last several years. A superintendent who wishes to do more than just draw a large salary and be fawned over will make it his/her business to weed out predatory administrators when they violate the law.

If the investigation of Dr. Roos allegedly physically assaulting Ms. Crawley Cross has been closed, the NKC stakeholders very strongly wish for it to be reopened. It would be very helpful if Dr. Roos could be immediately removed from NKC during the investigation. I say this because a second person, I think it was the NKC security guard (Ms. Crawley Cross can tell you who the second person who observed the incident is) observed this event. He is a recent hire, and he is allegedly fearful of losing his job if he is honest about what he saw. (Having dealt with the Office of Professional Standards (OPS), the MDCPS police, and other MDCPS officials myself, I can tell you his fears are justified. MDCPS investigative officials give the appearance of wanting to shield administrators from the consequences of their wrongdoing, and then punish whistleblowers.) This person will be more likely to accept an invitation to testify as to what he saw if Dr. Roos is removed from campus. Dr. Dotres, if finding the TRUTH of what happened on that day is important to you, you could provide this person with your personal contact information, and tell him to contact you if he suffers any retaliation from MDCPS as a result of his testimony. There are two additional allegedly illegal things Dr. Roos did after she allegedly attacked Ms. Crawley Cross. First, although Ms. Crawley Cross never filled out workman’s compensation forms, somebody at NKC, without Ms. Crawley Cross knowledge or permission, filled out those forms. Therefore, a good deal of the information on those forms is probably incorrect. If it is illegal to fill out workman’s compensation forms without the permission or knowledge of the victim, could it be determined who the person was who filled out those forms, and who gave the order that those forms be filled out? If this is illegal, can the maximum penalty be imposed for that offense, even if it means a loss of pension, in addition to termination of employment?

Also, although only 2 people actually witnessed this alleged physical assault, Dr. Roos allegedly pressured/threatened NKC staff who did NOT observe the event into writing false statements, absolving Dr. Roos of all guilt. Can this be investigated? If it turns out to be true, can the maximum penalties by applied against Dr. Roos for tampering with evidence?

If it is possible, can you also please reopen the alleged cheating scandal investigation against Dr. Roos and Ms. Alicia Fernandez for alleged cheating on the Florida Alternate Assessment (FAA). My blog, mdcpsallegations.com discusses this in great detail. A baseline of many years of student performance under Dr. Roos predecessor (Dr. Alberto Fernandez) shows a baseline of very poor performance over a span of several years. When Dr. Roos became the school administrator, student performance skyrocketed to statistically improbable levels. Dr. Roos received financial rewards for this astonishing increase in student performance. My accusation was that Dr. Roos and the assistant principal Ms. Alicia Fernandez erased some of the penciled in incorrect answers on the answer sheets and then penciled in the correct answers to enhance student scores. Can those penciled in answer sheets be reexamined for erasure marks? When I brought this matter before the Florida Dept. of Education, they allowed MDCPS to conduct its own investigation, with no state supervision, and MDCPS fully exonerated Dr. Roos. If a reopened investigation reveals cheating by Dr. Roos, can the penalty of both termination of employment and loss of pension by applied to Dr. Roos?

One of Dr. Roos other alleged physical assaults involved a Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (PMH) African American child who was returned to NKC very late in the afternoon because there was no one home to escort the child when the bus arrived at his bus stop at the end of the day. When the two bus drivers on that bus returned the child back to NKC to the “care” of Dr. Roos, the two bus drivers allegedly observed Dr. Roos physically assault the boy for the “crime” of inconveniencing Dr. Roos by making her stay at NKC past her customary departure time. Both bus drivers wrote up and submitted all of the appropriate paperwork describing what they observed. Somebody at MDCPS applied a great deal of pressure against those two bus drivers, and forced them to drop the matter. I went to Child Protective Services and gave them an in-depth briefing as to names, dates, times, contact information, etc. They ruled that the event never happened. The mother of this child (Tadarian Williams) threatened to sue MDCPS over the incident. She very quickly dropped the matter.

Dr. Dotres, I want to submit a hypothetical situation to you. Suppose a person such as myself were to be in contact with an indepentent, free lance investigative reporter who has all the information I have given you. Suppose this investigative person were to be in contact with the two silenced bus drivers, and he/she knows who from MDCPS silenced them. Suppose this investigative person was also in contact with the mother, who had supplied him/her with the names of the MDCPS officials who had silenced her? Is this information you would want coming into public knowledge? Did MDCPS and Child Protective Services conspire and work together to kill the investigation of child abuse by Dr. Roos? Dr. Dotres, is this something you want an investigative reporter to be looking into? Is it possible that Dr. Roos has become too big of a liability for MDCPS to protect? The NKC stakeholders are NOT interested in Dr. Roos receiving a slap on the wrist for her TEN YEARS of egregious violations. If termination of employment AND loss of pension are appropriate penalties, that is what needs to be applied.

Dr, Roos other alleged assault victim was a Hispanic SOCIAL WORKER!!! This person was not a UTD member. Her only other hope for redress for her alleged physical assault at the hand of Dr. Roos was OPS. Dr. Dotres, a SOCIAL WORKER had so little confidence in OPS to conduct a fair investigation, and then not retaliate against her for being a whistleblower THAT SHE NEVER REPORTED THE PHYSICAL ASSAULT AGAINST HER!!! Dr. Dotres, if a SOCIAL WORKER does not trust the reliability of OPS, what does that tell you about the reliability of OPS to investigate wrongdoing by MDCPS administrators? Dr. Dotres, I am afraid I have some bad news for you. This social worker is now retired. MDCPS has no power to intimidate her. What if the investigative reporter were to be in contact with this social worker? Do you suppose this social worker might be able to provide a vivid description about both Dr. Roos assault and the reasons she did not trust OPS enough to report the incident?

There is also the matter of the failure of OPS to investigate or punish Dr. Roos for her alleged cursing during a Zoom presentation in the spring of 2020. Although both myself and at least one parent supplied OPS with written complaints about this incident, we heard not a single word from OPS on this matter. If MDCPS has somehow “lost” this Zoom tape, (wink, wink) do not worry. The NKC stakeholders have two copies of that tape. Dr. Dotres, do you suppose an investigative reporter might have an interest in that tape?

In my blog, I discussed an incident where Mr. Rick Massa (now retired, and therefore able to speak freely), inadvertently set himself up for potentially career ending charges. This involved Mr. Massa’s administration of the yearly high stakes achievement test given to PMH students. (the FAA) As only a few copies of test materials were given to the school, teachers were not able to administer school wide tests over a range of a few days. Instead, one teacher would test all of the students in his class, and them give the testing materials to the next teacher to use. Mr. Massa inherited the testing materials from a first year teacher who had just finished administering the test to his class. As the test can be bewildering, the first year teacher had penciled in all of the correct answers when he handed over those testing materials to Mr. Massa. Mr. Massa, knew that both Dr. Roos and assistant principal Alicia Fernandez were looking for any excuse to terminate his employment, so when he received the testing materials with the penciled in correct answers, he went to Ms. Fernandez office and showed her the materials with the penciled in correct answers. Another young teacher who did not have tenure was in Ms. Fernandez office and overheard the discussion between Mr. Massa and Ms. Fernandez. Ms. Fernandez assured Mr. Massa that she understood, that Mr. Massa would not be held accountable for the condition of the testing materials, and told Mr. Massa to begin administering the test to his class. Mr. Massa then began testing his students. Twenty minutes later, Ms. Fernandez used her master key to enter Mr. Massa’s classroom, quietly observed him for a few minutes, and left, without saying a word. Three days later, on a Friday afternoon, five minutes before teachers were to be dismissed for the weekend, Mr. Massa was summoned to Dr. Roos office where Ms. Fernandez announced that she was filing potentially career ending charges against Mr. Massa, because she had caught him “cheating” of the FAA test, because she had “caught” him with penciled answers in the testing materials. Mr. Massa filed a lawsuit against MDCPS. When he approached the untenured teacher and asked if she would testify as to what she overheard in Ms. Fernandez office, the untenured teacher became extremely upset. She told Mr. Massa that she had three kids at home to feed, and if she testified on behalf of Mr. Massa, she would be terminated from employment.

Dr. Dotres, I am telling you this story to let you know that at NKC, getting teachers fired or hastily transferred to other schools was a sport that both NKC administrators played. At NKC, the danger is not that if you break the tiniest rule, you will be terminated. The reality is that even if you dot every “I” and cross every “t”, if the NKC administrators can lie and frame you for a crime you never committed, you are history. This is a sport Dr. Roos continues to play to this day.

I worked under Dr. Roos for 3 years. Every day when I reported to work, I wondered if I might be in jail on trumped up charges before the day ended. After I retired, my wife told me that she would not speak to me for an hour after I came home from work, just to give me time to decompress.

Another teacher, who was an outstanding teacher and a former teacher of the year award winner suffered an acute anxiety attack at work one day that was so severe that paramedics had to be called. This teacher never had an anxiety problem prior to the arrival of Dr. Roos. Dr. Roos, who never misses an opportunity to publicly humiliate a staff member, waited until the very last day of school that year (a teacher workday) to humiliate this outstanding teacher. Dr. Roos called a MANDATORY faculty meeting. She then began distributing small trophies and citing why each teacher was getting the award. The staff immediately smelled a rat, because Dr. Roos NEVER has a pleasant thing to say to anyone. Every staff member got an award….except for the teacher who suffered an acute Dr. Roos induced anxiety attack. The entire staff left that mandatory faculty meeting feeling like they had been slimed by Dr. Roos, which of course they were.

It is odd that Dr, Roos chose to humiliate this teacher for an emotional meltdown, given the fact that once during a faculty meeting Dr. Roos went into an uncontrollable crying jag, accusing the staff of disloyalty to both her and the children of the school. As a result of this incident, a letter was written describing Dr, Roos emotional meltdown at a faculty meeting and signed by two thirds of the NKC staff and sent to OPS. We asked that Dr. Roos be relieved of her duties as the NKC principal. Dr. Dotres, I think you know the outcome. As with every correspondence I have sent to MDCPS, including 3 emails to you, the response was total silence. Not. A. Single. Word. While I hope I am wrong, my guess is that is going to be your response to this blog entry. Perhaps when mainstream media is no longer able to sweep this scandal under the carpet, you will choose to be more communicative

Mr. Javier Ruiz Lopez has filed a complaint with the Department of Education Civil Rights division against MDCPS for Dr. Roos refusal to allow him to see a workman’s compensation doctor following his on the job injury last fall at NKC. This is clearly illegal. I am asking you to investigate Dr. Roos for this offense. When Mr. Ruiz Lopez went over Dr, Roos head to Dr. Roos boss to get permission to see a doctor, Dr, Roos was the first to begin screaming at Mr. Ruiz Lopez. When Mr. Ruiz Lopez, who was in very great pain, began screaming back at Dr. Roos, she filed a charge of insubordination against him. I am asking you to both dismiss this charge against Mr. Ruiz Lopez, and to issue him an apology for the inexcusable behavior of Dr. Roos.

Dr. Dotres, I am issuing a few challenges to you. My first challenge is that you allow the NKC staff to submit ANONYMOUS descriptions to your office as to what they have experienced FOR TEN YEARS under Dr. Roos. I guarantee you that what is described in my blog is merely the tip of the iceberg. The second part of my challenge is to compare both staff and parent satisfaction surveys and staff turnover rates both under Dr. Roos and her predecessor as the NKC principal, Dr. Alberto Fernandez. My guess is that Dr. Roos has for several years had a very high percentage rate of staff turnover and staff/parent satisfaction survey that is very low.

Dr. Dotres, did you know that MDCPS at one time rated the previous NKC administrator, Dr. Alberto Fernandez as the single most effective administrator in MDCPS? I challenge you to look at Dr. Fernandez staff/parent satisfaction surveys. The third part of my challenge to you is to reinstate Dr. Fernandez as the NKC principal when you have removed Dr. Roos from this post. The NKC stakeholders hope you will remove Dr. Roos from the NKC campus just as quickly as possible. The greatest fear of NKC stakeholders is that you will choose to continue to punish NKC (for the “sin” of attempting the supposedly legally protected activity to convert from a public school to a charter school) by appointing a new principal who is as bad or even worse than Dr. Roos. If you choose to return Dr. Alberto Fernandez to his post as the NKC principal, you will send an unmistakable signal that MDCPS TEN YEAR LONG war against NKC is finally over. Dr. Dotres, you can afford to be generous here. MDCPS illegal smashing of NKC’s conversion attempt was so nakedly brutal that neither NKC or any other MDCPS will ever again attempt to convert to a charter school. MDCPS has made it abundantly clear that although other Florida public schools have converted to charter schools, MDCPS is powerful enough to thumb its nose at Florida law. We understand that any further attempts by a MDCPS to convert to a charter school will be crushed like a bug under a shoe heel. All of the “troublemakers” such as myself who supported this conversion effort have been bullied/muscled into either early retirement, or a transfer to another school. I want to caution you that although MDCPS is powerful enough to successfully thumb its nose against Florida charter school conversion rules, it is NOT powerful enough to thumb its nose against FEDERAL laws which prohibit physical assaults by WHITE school officials against minority severely mentally retarded children and minority staff.

Dr. Dotres, I have a final request of you. Given the fact that MDCPS illegal smashing of NKC’s charter school conversion attempt destroyed the careers of both principal Alberto Fernandez and assistant principal Mr. Henny Cristobol, I am wondering if MDCPS would be willing to write each of them a letter of apology?

Whether you know it or not, you have heated up the already dangerous level of tension at NKC several notches. The worst thing you can do to very desperate people who are nearly at the end of their rope is to temporarily give them hope, and then to dash that hope. When you became the MDCPS superintendent, NKC parents who fear Dr. Roos will physically assault their severely mentally retarded children with impunity thought that Dr. Roos alleged assault of the African American custodian would result in you doing your job and removing Dr. Roos as the NKC principal. However, when you made the decision to fold like a cheap suit and allow Dr. Roos to remain as the NKC principal, you dashed their hope. The very, very unhappy NKC parents now realize that you don’t intend to lift a finger to protect the most vulnerable children of all against a principal who gives the appearance of being deeply prejudiced against minority children, very emotionally unstable, and very angry, with very poor impulse control.

Dr. Dotres, I am not naive enough to think that you will make these changes just because those changes are in the best interest of profoundly mentally handicapped children. My hope is that you are smart enough to see that failure to protect these children will result in the loss of your job in the near future. When “the bad stuff hits the fan.” you are going to find yourself munching on a manure sandwich, minus the bread.