Yet Another Plea For Mercy For Severely Mentally Retarded Students

September 6, 2022

Hello Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez, Commissioner Manny Diaz, Superintendent Dr. Dotres, and school Board Member Luisa Santos. My name is Bill Detzner. My blog is mdcpsallegations.com I am writing on behalf of the deeply frightened parents of the students of Neva King Cooper School. As I have said repeatedly in the past, these parents DEEPLY, DEEPLY dislike Dr. Roos. These parents feel that if they complain to MDCPS authorities about Dr. Roos, Dr. Roos might physically assault their Severely Mentally Retarded children and the Gestapo like Office of Professional Standards will then sweep the matter of Dr. Roos TEN YEAR mismanagement of Neva King Cooper School under the carpet, and look the other way if Dr. Roos chooses to physically assault the children of the parental whistleblowers. Superintendent Dotres, there is nothing new in this email that I have not discussed in detail in the two previous emails I sent you during the summer months shortly after the tragedy at the Uvalde elementary school when you had a golden opportunity to replace Dr. Roos as the principal of Neva King Cooper School, a center exclusively for Severely Mentally Retarded students.

The very frightened parents of those Severely Mentally Retarded minority students were confident you would make this DESPERATELY needed change because they assumed (note past tense) that you were a decent human being. I assumed you would make this DESPERATELY needed change because failure to do so could cost you your job as the MDCPS superintendent. I guess both the parents of Neva King Cooper and myself were a bit naive as to how impervious you and the school board of MDCPS are to the needs of Severely Mentally Retarded minority children. As this is my first email to both Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez and Commissioner Manny Diaz, I will give some background information. As the information in this email is only the tip of the iceberg concerning the horrors that have gone on at Neva King Cooper School (NKC) for TEN YEARS, I strongly urge new readers to read my blog (mdcpsallegations.com) to familiarize yourself with things I will only touch on in this email.

Dr. Roos has allegedly physically assaulted 2 minority staff members and one Severely Mentally Retarded African American child. The name of the student Dr. Roos allegedly physically assaulted is Tadarian Williams. There were school cameras where this alleged assault took place. According to the MDCPS police, what the cameras showed was “inconclusive.” Investigators might want to interview those police officers to determine what the cameras showed. Two African American bus drivers witnessed this alleged physical assault and submitted written statements stating what they had observed. The two bus drivers allegedly experienced extreme pressure by MDCPS to retract their statements. I think this retraction may have happened. The mother of African American student Tadarian Williams threatened legal action against MDCPS. She very rapidly dropped the matter. I am wondering if she dropped this matter in response to threats from MDCPS, Dr. Roos, and the child protective people of Miami Dade County. I know that the Miami Dade County child protective people were aware of this problem, because I spoke to them at great length on the telephone.

Lt. Governor Nunez, I know that MDCPS has become the target of a grand jury investigation regarding safety concerns. Could you please forward a copy of this email to them and ask them to investigate the matters I discuss in this email?

The second alleged physical assault by Dr. Roos occurred against a Hispanic social worker. I discussed this in great detail in my blog. I believe this woman is now retired. If the grand jury would like to question this woman as to why a SOCIAL WORKER was too intimidated to report an alleged PHYSICAL ASSAULT to the Gestapo like Office of Professional Standards, I will be happy to contact this woman and put her in touch with you.

The third alleged physical assault by Dr. Roos was against African American school custodian Ms. Sabrina Crawley Cross. Ms. Crawley Cross submitted a very detailed account of this alleged assault to the Gestapo like Office of Professional Standards. I believe the report was submitted to Ms. Garcia. As usual, nothing was done about this complaint. Perhaps the grand jury would like to do an in-depth investigation of the Office of Professional Standards. (OPS) to see how many reports of wrongdoing submitted resulted in actual disciplinary action being taken. Another thing that might be investigated is to ask how many whistleblowers were retaliated against for reporting alleged abuse to the OPS.

There were only two witnesses to the alleged assault of Ms. Crawley Cross. Their names are bus aide Sandra Welch-Slater, who submitted a statement as to what she observed, and school security person Leon Mitchell. The grand jury might want to ask Mr. Mitchell if Dr. Roos and or MDCPS pressured him not to make a statement. Bus aide Ms. Welch-Slater might be asked if she experienced retaliation, or the threat of retaliation for her written statement.

It is alleged that Dr. Roos pressured Neva King Cooper (NKC) staff who did NOT witness this alleged assault to write statements exonerating Dr. Roos of blame. If such statements exist, the grand jury might wish to interview these people to see if Dr, Roos pressured them into making those exonerating statements.

Ms. Crawley Cross suffered injuries as a result of this alleged physical assault that were so severe that she had to go on workman’s compensation. THE WORKMANS COMPENSATION PAPERWORK WAS ALLEGEDLY SUBMITTED BY A PERSON OTHER THAN MS CRAWLEY CROSS. If this is illegal, the grand jury might wish to ask who submitted this paperwork, and who ordered this person to submit this paperwork WITHOUT THE KNOWLEGE OR CONSENT OF Ms. Crawley Cross. If this is a violation of the law severe enough to merit dismissal of employment, loss of pension, and or incarceration, I ask that this penalty be levied against Dr. Roos. I ask this because there are additional allegations mentioned in my blog that are not mentioned here. (For example, Dr. Roos allegedly cheated on the Florida Alternate Assessment exam, and received a financial award for doing this (see my blog) I asked the State of Florida to investigate this matter, and MDCPS did the investigation, and absolved Dr. Roos of all blame. (Perhaps a different grand jury might wish to investigate the level of cheating by MDCPS on the yearly achievement tests.)

Dr. Dotres, in the days immediately following the Uvalde tragedy, I wrote you TWO emails asking that you use the summer vacation to replace Dr. Roos as the NKC principal. Although there is nothing wrong with having a WHITE principal in a school that is predominantly minority staff and minority students, there is something DEEPLY, DEEPLY troubling about returning a principal who has allegedly PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED THREE minority students and staff.

As you already know, Dr. Roos is DEEPLY, DEEPLY disliked by BOTH the minority parents and minority staff of NKC. I worked at NKC for three years with Dr. Roos as the principal. Dr. Roos is openly hostile and disdainful of both minority parents and minority staff. (A quick glance at the yearly staff and parent satisfaction surveys will bear this out.)

The NKC staff has a very deep level of contempt and lack of respect for a principal who has allegedly physically assaulted a completely helpless Severely Mentally Retarded African American child who does not even have the ability to speak for the “crime” of making Dr. Roos perform her CONTRACTUAL duty of staying late at school with the child, who was NOT to blame for the fact that there was no one waiting for him at his bus stop at the end of the day on ONLY ONE OCCASION (see my blog)

Dr. Dotres, the very frightened parents of NKC assumed (again, past tense) that you were a decent human being, and that the very deep grudge that prior superintendent Alberto Carvalho had for the students, parents, and staff of NKC for the “crime” of attempting to convert from a public school to a charter school (see DOAH 13-1492 and my blog) ended when you replaced Alberto Carvalho as the school superintendent. Many deeply frightened NKC parents feel that you, Dr. Dotres, intend to continue the punishment of NKC in perpetuity for the “crime” of attempting to convert from a public school to a charter school, and that you intend to use the implied threat of physical assault by Dr. Roos against Severely Mentally Retarded minority children both to punish NKC parents for their enthusiastic support of the charter school attempt, and to keep those parents silent and not voicing their deep unhappiness with both Dr. Roos and yourself, as the MDCPS superintendent. For this reason, I am hoping the grand jury will invite parents to submit ANONYMOUS reports about their feelings about MDCPS, Dr. Roos, and Dr. Dotres. Lt. Governor Nunez, I am also asking you to ask Commissioner Manny Diaz to recommend that Dr. Dotres be removed from his post as the MDCPS superintendent for failure to protect Severely Mentally Retarded minority children from physical assault by school principal Dr. Roos.

Ms. Luisa Santos, I am once again asking you as the school board member that represents NKC to author a letter asking Governor DeSantis to relieve Dr. Dotres of his duties as the MDCPS superintendent for failure to protect Severely Mentally Retarded minority students from physical assault by Dr, Roos. I am also asking that Dr. Roos be IMMEDIATELY and PERMANENTLY be removed as the NKC principal. If her offenses merit termination of employment, loss of pension, and incarceration, I am asking that those penalties be imposed.

I worked as a teacher at NKC for twenty-five years. Three of those years were under Dr. Roos, I am not a psychologist, and therefore, I cannot diagnose a person. Having said that, I have a master’s degree in guidance and counseling and an extensive background in psychology. I can say that Dr. Roos gives the appearance of being a very unhappy and angry person with wild mood swings, poor judgement, and poor impulse control. She also gives the appearance of being a bully who seems to take pleasure in intimidating and humiliating people. Dr. Dotres, many NKC parents read my blog, know that you have been fully appraised of the crisis situation at NKC, and give the appearance of giving Dr. Roos a blank check to physically assault both minority Severely Mentally Retarded students and minority staff with virtual impunity. Dr. Dotres, given the EXTREMELY HIGH level of mutual dislike and distrust between WHITE Dr. Roos and minority children and minority staff, and knowing you intend to do little or nothing to rein Dr. Roos in, what do you suppose is going to happen the next time Dr. Roos “loses it” and allegedly physically assaults another Severely Mentally Retarded minority child? Do you suppose an enraged parent, knowing you will do NOTHING to protect the most helpless and vulnerable children of all might resort to a little “street justice?” The enraged parent, knowing that one punch or a hundred punches results in the same punishment may send Dr. Roos to either the hospital or the morgue. At that point, not even the Miami media (which the MDCPS seems to own) will be able to sweep that under the carpet. While I am on the subject, should the MDCPS find itself in a storm of bad publicity, getting a gag order against me will not work. I have given friends (note plural) copies of everything on my blog and permission to publish or release to the press everything on my blog and in other places if I am silenced.

Lt. Governor Nunez, earlier I alluded to DOAH 13-1492. I urge you to bring this to the attention of Governor DeSantis after he has won reelection in November. NKC attempted to convert from a public school to a charter school. MDCPS broke every rule in the book to smash this attempt and made no attempt to hide their illegal activities. This is because Florida laws provide NO penalty for school districts that illegally smash attempts by public schools to convert to charter schools After the election, could you please ask Governor DeSantis to revisit this law, and write in very serious penalties for school districts that violate this law? There are MANY MDCPS that will stampede for the exits once they know Dr. Dotres can no longer illegally crush and punish schools who avail themselves of this option.

Commissioner Diaz, the very frightened NKC parents feel MDCPS intends to punish them in perpetuity for the “crime” of attempting to pursue the supposedly legally protected option of converting from a public school to a charter school. They fear that if Dr. Roos is replaced as the NKC principal, MDCPS will install a principal as bad or even worse than Dr. Roos. For this reason, many NKC parents are hoping you will recommend that MDCPS reinstate Dr, Alberto Fernandez as the NKC principal. He had some of the highest parent AND staff yearly approval ratings in the entire district during his 14 year tenure as the NKC principal. At one point, MDCPS rated Dr. Alberto Fernandez as the most effective administrator in the county.

I am also hoping that the grand jury will invite Mr. Javier Ruiz Lopez to testify about the abuses of Dr. Roos. As I described in my blog, Mr. Ruiz Lopez was injured at NKC in the performance of his duties. Although he was in great pain, Dr. Roos allegedly refused Mr. Ruiz Lopez permission to see a Workmans compensation doctor. Mr. Ruiz Lopez then went over Dr. Roos head and phoned Dr. Roos boss, who gave Mr. Ruiz Lopez permission to see a workman’s compensation doctor. When Dr. Roos discovered what Mr. Ruiz Lopez had done, she became very abusive and insulting, and began shouting at Mr. Ruiz Lopez. Dr. Roos then submitted a letter of reprimand to Mr. Ruiz Lopez personnel file for insubordination. I am hoping the proper authorities will invalidate this letter of reprimand.

Pepe, as the superintendent of MDCPS, I am going to end this letter with an observation about you. As this is the most important sentence of the entire letter, I am hoping you will read it as many times as you need to understand what I am saying. PEPE, YOU AND SUPERINTENDENTS OF YOUR ILK MAKE THE SCHOOL MASS SHOOTINGS OF SANDY HOOK, PARKLAND, AND UVALDE NOT ONLY POSSIBLE BUT INEVITABLE. Pepe, if you want to vastly improve the quality of education at MDCPS, you can do so by resigning immediately. This will allow a man or a woman with courage and vision to assume the helm of the nation’s fourth largest school district.

I deeply abhor violence and will do everything I can to prevent violence anywhere, especially in schools. MDCPS says it has “A ZERO TOLERANCE FOR BULLYING.” It is hard to reconcile that statement to a WHITE principal who remains at the helm despite THREE alleged PHYSICAL ASSAULTS against A SEVERELY MENTALLY RETARDED AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILD AND TWO MINORITY STAFF.

Dr Dotres, I will not be silenced, and I will not go away until the Severely Mentally Retarded minority students and minority staff of NKC are safe from physical assault by the WHITE principal of that school.

Sincerely,

Bill Detzner