Emails to Brigid Benincasa chronological order

Re: [EXTERNAL] Checking in

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Mon, Sep 19, 2022, 10:20 AM

to Brigid

Brigid,

I had one more question...If I need these teachers to go 'on record' against Dr. Collins, can the DOJ provide assurances that if there is retaliation, it will get involved and help? My wife is a teacher for Huntsville City, and I'm also worried about them retaliating against her (and me, to a lesser extent, but I'm tenured).

Just to keep you in the loop, I sent a question to Dr. McNeal about administrators asking teachers to assign grades when they have never taught the students. She responded in an email and stated that this type of thing doesn't happen. I then typed, "That's now what one teacher who is willing to go on record said. She said that the principal told her to enter passing grades for all of the students." I asked, "Just for clarification, this is not district policy, right?"

She has never taken more than one hour to answer any of my questions. This was sent at10:00 on Friday. I have a feeling that she took it to legal and they're trying to figure out how to handle the questions I ask next. Let me know when your managing attorney is back in the office. Since they won't be in the office this week, should I not expect a response until next week?

Have a great Monday,

On Mon, Sep 19, 2022 at 8:03 AM Benincasa, Brigid (CRT) <Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov> wrote:

Hi Jason,

I spoke with my colleagues on Thursday and shared with them the documents you sent on Friday (thank you for providing those). We will be in touch, and I apologize if we are a bit delayed; our managing attorney is out this week.

Thank you,

Brigid

Brigid Benincasa | Trial Attorney

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

Educational Opportunities Section

Direct: (202) 616-2540 | Main: (202) 514-4092 | Fax: (202) 514-8337

Email: Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov

From: Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2022 12:09 PM

To: Benincasa, Brigid (CRT) <Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov>

Subject: [EXTERNAL] Checking in

Brigid,

Did you get any guidance from your colleague on what the best course of action is moving forward?

Thank you in advance,

Jas

Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Huntsville, AL 35899

256.824.6181

Good teachers make their students feel seen.

-Jason O'Brien

October 20 email to Pape and Brigid re: McNair investigation

DAC Update

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Thu, Oct 20, 2022, 12:21 AM

to Brigid, Chris

Brigid and Chris,

Attached is a summary to date of my investigation as part of my duties on the Discipline Committee. Chris, I have been informed by the HCS attorney that it is in the best interest of the witnesses, and of the ongoing investigation that you do not share this with anyone so as not to alert the target of the investigation.

If either of you have any questions, please let me know.

Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor of Education

University of Alabama in Huntsville

One attachment • Titled “DAC Investigation McNair 10.19.22

Attachment: DAC investigation McNair 10.19.22

October 19, 2022

Chris (Gregory) and Brigid,

I am officially reporting my progress on the Discipline Committee as a member of the DAC. I apologize for the length of this report, but I wanted to update you as well as get all this down for DAC, whether it ends up in the final report or not.

I began this investigation when I was tipped off by a former teacher at McNair Junior High School. She told me a story about the principal never allowing teachers to write students up and how the principal made her change all kids’ grades to 60s.

I began collecting data on September 2, 2022. Over the next few days I spoked with several witnesses. By September 15, I was so concerned about the illegality and severity of Collins’ actions, that I forwarded my evidence to Brigid and waited for advice on how to proceed.

After passing the information on to her superiors, Brigid told me that the DoJ was going to notify the District of the evidence, without naming witnesses. The District would then be expected to perform an adequate investigation of the claims.

I am trying to cultivate a good relationship with Chris Pape, and I did not want him to get blindsided by the news, so on October 7th I notified him that I had important information regarding the conduct of a principal and that I wanted to talk to him about it. He listened and I named Dr. Collins and he called her a ‘bad actor’ and said, “I’ve heard these allegations before, but no one is willing to go on record.” He assured me that if I shared my information with him and gave him access to witnesses, that he would conduct the investigation.

Since then, Chris and I have been working closely together on scheduling and interviewing witnesses. As of right now, five former teachers who worked under Dr. Collins have provided lengthy testimony. Chris Pape said today, “What all of you are saying is 80% the same thing. The other 20% are your different experiences and how you remember it, which is even more plausible than if you all said the exact same thing.” I have another two witnesses that have agreed to provide evidence, both security guards, and I have two other teachers that I am positive I can convince to speak candidly. My plan is to have enough witnesses that if a couple do not follow through, we still have enough. A second (and as important reason) is that I want as many witnesses as possible so Collins can’t direct her anger at one or two people.

Interview Process:

The interviews were all conducted by Chris and his associate Zach.

Monday: Teacher #1

Tuesday: Teacher #2, Teacher #3, Teacher #4

Wednesday: Teacher # 5

I have sat with three of the five interviewees (in black). Interviews were a minimum of 1:30 and two went over two hours.

Below are some of the most egregious examples of her behavior. I am not going to edit the curse words, except the racial slur.

⦁ 90-95% of the students earned failing grades and were ‘socially promoted’ at the direction of either Dr. Collins, or her Reading Specialist, Mrs. Walker. Walker served as the ‘good cop’ under “Doc” (as she has everyone call her). Walker and Collins both cited “District Policy” or “from Downtown” when coercing teachers into falsifying grades. NO ONE WAS ALLOWED TO FAIL. Dr. Collins actually got on the intercom one day and said, “Remember teachers, none of the students can earn less than a 60.” You can imagine what that did to the work ethic of the others.

⦁ Unreported sexual assaults (faculty and students); Teacher warned SPED teacher that STUDENT X had threatened to hurt another student. Warned the SPED teacher twice. STUDENT X waited until the other student as in the locker room and knocked him to the ground and kicked all four of his front teeth out, which required reconstructive surgery. SPED teacher blamed victim for “smarting off to STUDENT X.”

⦁ Teacher repeatedly had her breasts and buttocks touched by students. Males would call her “Wifey” (that’s a porn reference, because I know neither of you would know that), MILF. Teacher reported (getting tears in her eyes) “I didn’t report it every time, you know, just the really bad ones.” When she sent a student to the office for rude comments, Collins called the teacher to her office and wrote her up for “cussing at the student.” Teacher accidentally recorded the entire class and Collins still wrote her up. The message was clear, no sexual harassment claims.

⦁ Discipline: Mr. King was her assistant principal (he’s retired). He was her ‘fixer.’ When teachers would enter a level IV in BLOOM’S, they would go back in and in one instance, this happened: Teacher saw Samantha slap Kim across the face out of anger. Kim does not retaliate. Teacher writes up Samantha, who comes back to class five minutes later. Teacher checks BLOOM’S later in the day and the TEXT of the write up had been changed from “Samantha slapped Kim across the face. She is being written up for fighting” to a Level I offense, and the text said, “Samantha had a disagreement with another student.”

⦁ “Dr. Collins made everyone’s life miserable, every day.” That was the common thread. How? After watching a teacher teach for 35 seconds, she stood up and said, “I can teach this better than you, either go sit down or leave the room and go out in the hallway.” She did this routinely.

⦁ Language: She would scream at students in the hallways. She would call students “Fucking Ni___s (hard R). Called students “Retarded” over the loudspeaker. Said “Shit” incessantly. Cursed EVERY SINGLE DAY AT STUDENTS.

⦁ Teacher witnessed Collins get into an argument with a student. When the student said, “Fuck you” to Collins, she threw her half full bottle of water at the 8th grader and hit him in the head. Then the teacher who saw this said, “And then, two days later, Mr. Fletcher, the security guard and I were talking and he said Collins had him erase the tape.” The way Collins was about anyone challenging her authority, had he not done it, she would have fired him and erased it herself.

⦁ Attendance: Students stayed on the roll all year who never came to school All faculty were instructed to assign grades of 60. They missed deadlines for sending truancy letters and Collins said, “Just click that you sent the letter and go to the next step.”

⦁ When teachers had documentation to fail students, Collins would make them sign a ‘change of grade’ form using the phrase “It’s district policy to assign at least a 60.” Teachers all decided to write “Per Dr. Collins” as the reason. That left a paper trail, which I hope Chris has found. One teacher said that Collins sent her an email saying “Remember to change Ricky’s grade to a 60, per district policy.” They have to be able to find those emails on the server.

⦁ Collins gaslit her teachers incessantly. Told the teachers that they ‘needed to get better at classroom management’ and blamed them for everything. All the teachers confided in me that Collins made them doubt themselves as teachers. Kids knew there were no consequences, so teachers had no power. Collins would publicly berate teachers by name in faculty meetings while heaping praise on her lackeys.

⦁ One teacher had a miscarriage of twins and needed a D n C and Collins wouldn’t give her time off. The teacher scheduled the procedure on Saturday morning and because Collins wouldn’t give her time off went back to school on Monday morning. She said “I was in both physical pain and emotional pain because I just lost my twins” (That was the hardest part of any of the interviews).

⦁ I know of five different teachers who had this experience with Collins: They came to her to resign and said, “I will teach until the end of the year.” Collins then says, “You need to resign right now so I can advertise the job. You can stay on, just resign so I can get the best teacher in here for the kids.” Teacher resigns. Three months later, the teacher gets a letter from the ALSDE saying “A complaint was made against your license. An investigation was undertaken. No disciplinary action will take place at this time. However, if you have another complaint in the future, this one may be considered. Remember to always conduct yourself as a professional educator, blah, blah.” Collins filed a complaint alleging that the teachers resigned without giving two weeks’ notice, when she made them resign on the spot. She blackballed two teachers (one tried unsuccessfully for a year) and the other put in more than 100 applications and no one ever called back. Collins filled out her reference on the ALDSE website, and the teacher assumed that Collins checked “yes” on the question that said “Do you have any reservations about this person teaching children?” That’s all it would take.

Chris Pape has guaranteed that retribution will not be tolerated against any of the witnesses. Two of the witnesses still work for HCS. Mr. Pape said he is meeting with Superintendent Finley on Monday to discuss their evidence and to decide how to move forward with any possible action.

I spoke with all of the witnesses tonight and thanked them again for their testimony, and then asked that they not discuss specifics of the case with one another from here forward. All agreed. I have Chris Pape’s assurance that before Dr. Collins is given a notification with information which either directly identifies, or could be used to identify the witnesses, he will inform me so I can tell them.

I will send an update when something significant happens.

Jason O’Brien

Vice-Chair

Desegregation Advisory Committee

Re: [EXTERNAL] A favor

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Thu, Oct 27, 2022, 8:26 AM

to Brigid

I will call at 10:00 a.m. your time tomorrow. Thank you so much.

Jas

On Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 8:25 AM Benincasa, Brigid (CRT) <Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov> wrote:

Hi Jason,

I’m tied up today but have more flexibility tomorrow. Let me know if there’s a time that works for you between 10am-12pm EST, 1-2pm EST, or 3-4pm EST.

Thanks,

Brigid

Brigid Benincasa | Trial Attorney

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

Educational Opportunities Section

Direct: (202) 616-2540 | Main: (202) 514-4092 | Fax: (202) 514-8337

Email: Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov

This email message contains confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. It may also contain legally privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify me by email and destroy all paper and electronic copies.

From: Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2022 9:05 AM

To: Benincasa, Brigid (CRT) <Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov>

Subject: [EXTERNAL] A favor

Brigid,

I need your help and advice with something. Can we schedule a 15 minute call today or tomorrow? It's time-sensitive and I want to catch you up on what's happening in Huntsville City. It's way too much to type and it might be another one of those issues that you can take to your boss.

Thanks in advance,

Jason

--Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor of Education

University of Alabama in Huntsville

OCTOBER 28, 2022 Dr. O’Brien spoke with Brigid Benincasa and relayed concerns. I did not take field notes of this meeting

Confidential informant list

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Sat, Oct 29, 2022, 9:07 AM

to Brigid

Ms. Benincasa,

I am currently conducting an investigation regarding the new progress monitoring requirements under Dr. Scott's Project BOOST. .

The following employees of HCS have provided confidential responses to me in person. To date, I have only used one name (Informant 1) and she was treated differently by her principal. I called the principal on October 21st, and she assured me that no retaliation would occur and then she said the same thing to the informant. Since then, everything has been normal for Informant 1. It should be noted that Informant 1 is my spouse.

I have not released any information gleaned from my investigation into this matter, but on Monday, I will send a summation of my findings to you and the appropriate personnel in HCS (and I will cc Mr. Pape on the findings).

The following people have provided either testimony, or confidential documents (e.g., emails, text messages, PowerPoint presentations which were only to be viewed by principals).

Lorie O'Hearn-O'Brien

Ava Travis

Sara Turner

Beth McKay

All have provided either sensitive documents which were not for public release, including power points and emails, or recorded testimony which will be transcribed and reported anonymously. In the report, I will use pseudonyms for each.

Due to the fear of retaliation, I am not going to release the names of the informants to Chris Gregory, (per his request).

Mr. Pape has ensured me that his office will not tolerate retaliation against witnesses who provide truthful testimony to the DAC. All Confidential Informants have been instructed to contact me immediately if they feel they are being retaliated against, and if that happens, I will contact you and Mr. Pape immediately.

Thank you for helping to protect the civil rights of both the informants and the students that they serve.

Dr. O'Brien

Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor of Education

University of Alabama in Huntsville

HCS stonewalling

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Tue, Nov 1, 2022, 10:26 AM

to Brigid, Chris, Nicholaos

Brigid,

This is NOT TO BE SHARED WITH HUNTSVILLE CITY SCHOOLS.

This week, I have been driving to different schools to check the DAC boxes. I stopped by a local elementary school and introduced myself to the principal as the new Vice Chair of the DAC.

At one elementary school, I introduced myself to Mr. Hovet Dixon and the assistant principal and asked if I could attend a faculty meeting to introduce myself and let the teachers know that the DAC boxes will be checked from now on.

The assistant principal had a weird look on her face and she said, "Can I talk to you about my principal? It's important?" I nodded and she followed me outside.

The principal saw her talking to me and immediately exited the school and walked up to us. The AP said, "You're not going to believe..." I said, "here comes your principal, stop talking."

The principal walked up to us and we all said goodbyes.

The AP's name is Patsey Thomas. I sent her the following email:

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Mon, Oct 31, 8:39 PM (13 hours ago)

to patsey.thomas@hsv-k12.org

Ms. Thomas,

My personal email that I use to conduct DAC business is jason.ob.1970@gmail.com.

My cell is 256-694-5129. I would prefer you not contact me on a district issued cell, nor from your work email because I prefer privacy in our interactions. I hope to hear from you soon.

Jason

I have not heard from her. I suspect that HCS is monitoring emails which come from my email address.

I then introduced myself to Dr. Stewart Thorson, principal of Chapman Elementary. He invited me into his office and we spent fifteen minutes talking about the DAC. He provided new information regarding the inquiry I'm conducting on Project BOOST. I gave him my personal email doctor.ob.1970@gmail.com and told him to reach out if he had any more questions about the DAC or if he wanted to provide any new information regarding my inquiry. He said "My personal email is weird, don't delete it when you see it."

When I went to see him this morning, to ask if I could attend a faculty meeting, when I asked to be let in the building, I was made to wait outside until Dr. Thorson came to the lobby. I have NEVER been asked to wait outside while an administrator is called and I routinely visit schools to supervise student teachers and teach lessons in classrooms.

Dr. Thorson met me in the lobby and said, "Dr. O'Brien, I have been instructed not to talk to you, unless it's DAC business." I said, "This is DAC business." He said, "I'm sorry, I'd rather not. I'm so sorry."

When I got back to my office, I had an email in my inbox, which I have copied below:

Thadd D <XIIpilae@protonmail.com>

8:56 AM (1 hour ago)

to doctor.ob1970@gmail.com

Tap the brakes on your school visits. They are on to you.

In case he faces consequences for talking to me, I would like to submit Dr. Steward Thorson's name as an informant on the Project BOOST inquiry. I don't know what ramifications he may face, but he mentioned yesterday that he doesn't have tenure, and that he can be terminated.

Attached is the Draft form of the report I have been working on, which triggered the District to behave like this. I will send an email addressing this later today to the District and I'll cc you.

I apologize in advance, but I think this is going to get worse before it gets better. And, apparently, I'm making people mad, so I must be doing something right.

Jas

Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor of Education

University of Alabama in Huntsville

Attachment titled: Progress Monitoring Requirements Final Report

Desegregation Advisory Committee Report

November 1, 2022

Desegregation Advisory Committee

DAC Chair: Christopher Gregory

DAC Vice-Chair: Jason O’Brien

Secretary: Nick Jones

This report was written by Jason L. O’Brien, Ph.D., under the auspices of the Desegregation Order. None of the following report is in any way affiliated with the university at which I work, and any statements of opinion are my own.

From: Desegregation Advisory Committee (DAC)

To: Ms. Christie Finley, Superintendent

Dr. Timothy Scott, Assistant Superintendent

Dr. Monte Linebarger, Director of Middle Instruction

Ms. Michelle Watkins, School Board Member, District 1

Ms. Holly McCarty, School Board Member, District 2

Ms. Andrea Alvarez, School Board Member, District 3

Re: New Progress Monitoring Requirements for teachers in HCS

Under the Desegregation Order, the Desegregation Advisory Committee (henceforth, DAC) has the power to gather data for use in its final report, which is used to determine the extent to which Huntsville City Schools (henceforth referred to as the District) is making a good-faith effort to reach unitary status, in which the District is supplying an education for its students which is equitable, and gives all students a chance to succeed, regardless of their race or ability levels.

The Desegregation Order states, “Periodically, the DAC will review data and other information and, where appropriate, make recommendations to the Superintendent regarding implementation of the terms of the Consent Order for so long as each term remains in effect” (Desegregation Order, 2015, p. 85, IX.I). The Consent Order goes on to state “To ensure that the DAC has sufficient information to enable it to fulfill its responsibilities, the District will share appropriate information and documents requested by the DAC…the District will respond in a timely manner to any requests made by the DAC” (2015, p. 85, IX.J.) The next section states “If the DAC believes that its request for information has been unreasonably denied, by the District, the DAC will inform both Parties. Within a reasonable time after receiving this information, the Parties will confer in an attempt to resolve the issue” (p. 85).

The following report outlines the findings of the DAC. This specific investigation was conducted by the Vice-Chair of the DAC, Dr. Jason O’Brien, who received approval to conduct the investigation from the DAC Chair, Mr. Christopher Gregory. To gather data, Dr. O’Brien relied on several teachers who are currently employed with HCS. Teachers who provided testimony and documents will be referred to using pseudonyms to protect their identity so they will not be retaliated against from District personnel (a common concern).

The following report will be organized as follows: It will begin with an Executive Summary which outlines the overall findings of this inquiry. Then this report will contain a DETAILED summary of findings, with specific evidence to support the claims made in the report. The last section of the report will contain several follow-up questions specifically for Dr. Scott’s office to respond to “in a timely manner” per the Desegregation Order. The last section of this document will contain appendices with artifacts provided by confidential informants, including the data sheets, electronic communication from principals, and threats from administrators stating the consequences for not submitting the required PM documents.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Dr. Timothy Scott, Assistant Superintendent, has implemented new ‘progress monitoring requirements” (henceforth PM), in the form of excel spreadsheets. These spreadsheets are to be completed by most teachers in the District and is to be turned in by 3:00 p.m. on November 7, 2022 to their respective teachers. However, at least two elementary schools have principals who have ‘opted out’ of this data collection.

The PM spreadsheets, which were developed by teachers and principals rather than from Dr. Scott’s office, require teachers to report on the academic progress made by their students in the areas of reading and mathematics.

As written, the PM sheets lack construct validity. Simply stated, the PM forms gather data that is neither valid nor reliable, because there is no standardization of the forms, nor is there an academic standard attached to ANY of the reading or math standards used for reporting.

Teachers are required to report “Number of students who scored 80% or higher on reading assessments,” and “Number of students who made progress in Tier 2 Instruction,” as well as “Number of students who made progress in Tier 3 instruction,” and “Number of students who made progress in Focus Learning.” Due to resistance from principals, Dr. Scott has changed the reporting requirements twice: First from weekly to bi-weekly, then from bi-weekly to monthly.

Without standardization and guidance, teachers are able to choose which assessments they report to the District. When queried, several teachers provided information, some of which is below.

Interview sample:

OB: What assessments do you use to report that ‘at least 80% of the students made progress?

Informant 1: (3rd grade teacher, non-title I school); That depends. Do I want myself to look good? Then I’ll choose (scanning gradebook), well, I’m not going to choose that one, they did horribly. I’ll choose this one (points to assignment). Now, if I want to show growth, I’ll use a different one that they do poorly on, and then choose another one that is easier to make it look like they demonstrated more growth.”

Dr. OB: What about “Number of students in Tier 2 that made progress?” What will you report for that one?

Informant 2: (5th grade teacher, non-title I) To be honest, I’m not even sure which students are supposed to be in Tier 2, because I have more students struggling now than in the past seven years. We don’t have clear guidance. Like, why are they making us do progress monitoring when we are already doing progress monitoring?

OB: Let’s assume you have a group of students in Tier 2, how will you report which are ‘making progress’?

Informant 2 (4th grade, Title I): I’ll make it up, just like the rest of the stuff on this form. The thing is, OB, we have grades in our gradebook which the District can simply pull without any additional effort. We have adaptive learning software that puts the grades in our book and at least that would be a true comparison. This data is all meaningless. How do you think that makes us feel? Like the District is more worried about data than kids.

Informant 5 (5th grade teacher, non-Title I): “I am so tired of hearing about data. I just want to raise good citizens who are emotionally healthy and who are good people. I went back and got my teaching degree because I love teaching kids. I don’t mind working at night and on the weekends if it’s helping kids, but this doesn’t help my kids. If you want to help me, give me more time to teach my kids and less time to worry about data. I know my kids. Let the District gather data from my gradebook.

The new progress monitoring requirements:

⦁ Contain invalid data that teachers can ‘make up’ to show the administration what they think they want to see.

⦁ Set 80% as an arbitrary ‘cut score’ without any justification as to why that constitutes ‘progress.’

⦁ Cause teachers extra work that will cause less instruction or more work at home.

⦁ Are causing many teachers to consider leaving the teaching profession.

Based on the serious validity issues with the PM data, the District should seriously consider terminating the new PM requirements immediately and instead collect data from one of the myriad learning programs the District uses with students, such as iReady.

The following report will offer details gleaned from the DAC inquiry conducted between and 10/31/22

DAC Full Report on Progress Monitoring Requirements

Context:

Beginning with the hiring of Dr. Casey Wardynski, the District began implementing a myriad of policies which have focused on the notion of being “data driven.” Beginning with the STAR test, students began to become ‘data points’ and during ‘data meetings’ administrators would stare at walls covered with pieces of green, yellow, and red papers, all indicating the reading (or math) level of the students.

While students were becoming data points, the District was implementing Reductions in Force (RIFs), and under the former superintendent, administrators were shuffled like cards from building to building. Simultaneously, teachers were routinely dismissed without cause in year three so they couldn’t earn tenure and thus earn due process protections from administrators.

Lack of administrative continuity, high teacher turnover, and a focus on being ‘data driven’ have resulted in a working environment for teachers which has lead many to leave the profession altogether. The new PM requirements, for many teachers, are the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Narrative:

Project BOOST was introduced by Dr. Tim Scott, at a meeting with principals on September 15, 2022 (see Appendix A: BOOST PowerPoint). Slide Two states “The designated schools [for Project BOOST] were selected based on multiple subgroups performing below the 20% mastery level on the ACAP reading and/or math assessments. The designated elementary schools are the following: Dawson, Rolling Hills, Sonnie Hereford, Montview, McDonnell, Highlands, Lakewood, Ridgecrest, Morris, MLK, Providence, and Williams.” Four middle schools were also included: Chapman, Morris, Whitesburg, and McNair. However, the middle schools are not included in this report. The elementary schools are all Title I schools and most of the students are POC who also live at or below the poverty level.

On September 30, 2022, (the Friday before Fall Break), teachers at some schools in the District were informed that there would be new requirements for teachers to monitor student progress in both Reading and Math. When teachers at one non-Title I school complained to the Principal who relayed the message, the principal said, “It could be worse, you could be working at the Title I schools, they have more work to do under Project BOOST.”

Since announcing the new project (which stands for Building Opportunities & Ownership for School Transformation), Dr. Scott has changed the requirements two times. First, from weekly reporting to bi-weekly reporting, and then from bi-weekly to monthly reporting. In both cases, it was reported to me by informants that Dr. Scott changed the requirements because of the pushback he faced from principals trying to protect teachers.

For the schools that have principals who are unable or are unwilling to defy Dr. Scott, teachers have been warned that the first PM data are due on November 7, 2022 and that completing the PM sheets is considered part of their responsibilities and not optional.

During the week of 10/24, a teacher from a Title I school shared the following message sent from the principal:

Teachers,

BOOST data sheets and questionnaires are due on Monday, 11/7. This is a HARD deadline. I must have them in my hands or emailed to me by 3:00 p.m. on Monday. This gives you the weekend, if you need extra time. Teachers that do not submit data by the deadline will be required to sign written documentation.

This message raises several concerns:

What is ‘written documentation’ in this context? Can teachers be written up or even fired for not submitting data? Should the teachers be thankful that the deadline allows them to spend their personal time on the weekend working on meaningless data sheets that contain made up data? Data which

Progress Monitoring Spreadsheet Analysis

The PM sheets I will share are being used by teachers at one non-Title I school and one Title I school. Both contain the same data. To see the full PM sheet, see Appendix B (PM Sheets).

Reading Whole Group Data Reading Whole Group Data

Dates Number of Students that scored 80% or better on reading classroom assessments Number of Students that scored 80% or less on reading classroom assessments

Teachers are required to fill out “number of students that scored 80% or better on reading classroom assessments. There is no standard attached to the reading assessments. Nor is there ANY standardization of the measurement instruments. Teachers can choose which assessments they use to report data depending on what they want to show. One interview response was particularly illustrative and will be quoted at length.

OB: Since you have such little guidance on what assessments you use, you’re always going to choose the assessment that they did the best on, right?

Informant 5: (5th grade teacher, non-Title I) Maybe, or maybe I could choose lower numbers for one week to show growth.

OB: So you can do whatever you want?

Informant 5: Sure, why not? Who’s going to know if I do that? Who’s going to know?

OB: So this is all meaningless. Let me ask you this. What is the purpose for this additional data gathering?

Informant 5: There is no purpose. It’s meaningless. I am evaluating one thing, and my neighbor might be evaluating another thing. How can you compare the two things that aren’t alike? Remember, we don’t even have standards attached to any of this stuff, we get to choose. This data is useless, it serves us no purpose. It definitely doesn’t help raise my kids’ reading scores and the time I spend on it takes away from the 500 other things I already have to do.

END INTERVIEW QUOTES

The remainder of the PM spreadsheet contains data from Tier 2, Tier 3, Focus Learning, Tutoring, and another category which states “Number of students in subgroups that made progress.” See below:

Tier 2 Tier 3 Focus Learning Tutoring Subgroups

Number of Students in Tier 2 Number of students that made progress Number of Students in Tier 3 Number of students that made progress Number of students in Focus Learning Number of students that made progress in focus learning. Number of students in Tutoring? Number of students that made progress in tutoring Number of students in subgroup that made progress

*Tier 2 is considered “small group” instruction. *Tier 3 is one-on-one instruction

*Focus learning is

The PM data sheet asks teachers to report the “Number of students in Tier 2 that made progress.” The relevant question is, “Progress on what?” What data are the teachers supposed to use to measure ‘progress’?

More than one teacher wasn’t clear as to which students were supposed to be classified as “Tier 2.”

OB: Tell me how you measure “Number of students in Tier 2 who made progress.” And, by the way, is the 80% still used here? Where did the 80% number come from?

Informant (3rd grade, Title I): It came from Dr. Scott’s office. We have no idea where 80% came from.

OB: Okay, so how are you going to respond to that category for Tier 2 students?

Informant: (pauses) Well, not everyone is clear on what Tier 2 means. We all have conflicting ideas.

OB: But to report this, you have to know which students are supposed to be in Tier 2, right? Your principal doesn’t say ‘these students are in Tier 2’?

Informant: Right, we get to determine who is Tier 2 in our classrooms. But there is a lot of disagreement about who should get Tier 2 instruction.

OB: Explain, please.

Informant: The curriculum specialist thinks that everyone should be in Tier 2. We’re really not sure.

Ditto for Tier 3, and Focus Learning. Not all students participate in tutoring, and I didn’t investigate it.

I contacted a former colleague, Dr. Jason Smith, currently the Director of Data Analysis for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. After reviewing the PM sheet, these were his comments:

Jason,

If there are instructions or guidance I have not seen that would address the concerns below, my opinion might change, but for now, these are my main issues:

1) What assessment should teachers use?

If teachers can choose whatever assessment they wish, then comparisons across the district are invalid. Even comparing across classrooms within the same building would be inappropriate, if teachers are all using different assessments.

2) What constitutes progress?

Without a consistent definition, one cannot make comparisons or know where additional support or intervention would best be targeted.

3) What is the significance of 80%? Given that we don’t know what assessment is being used, this is a meaningless cut point.

On 10/19/22, I met with Dr. Scott in his office and asked him to explain the data reporting requirements. The following is a summation of my field notes:

During our meeting, I asked about the onerous requirements of Project BOOST, and he said, “We are already doing progress monitoring, it’s a best practice.” He then went on to state, “the new requirements are supposed to be done by principals, not teachers. My teachers need to do a better job communicating my expectations.”

I relayed my concerns about the impact that these additional requirements were having on morale and that this is going to cause teachers to leave. I asked if I could gather data from teachers using an electronic survey, focus groups, or random sampling of ten teachers from any of the elementary schools. He responded that he “didn’t have the authority to authorize a survey and that I would have to talk to the staff attorney, Chris Pape.”

All available evidence suggests that the new PM requirements will result in invalid data being reported to the District regarding student progress. Furthermore, these requirements are causing resentment and frustration for teachers at a time when the nation is experiencing a severe shortage of teachers.

I will end this with two quotes from teachers, both of which reflect very serious issues and which the District should consider:

Informant: (fourth grade, Title I) They act like they don’t trust us to do what’s right for our kids. We are all sick of being treated like children. Protect our teaching time, give us at least SOME of our planning periods so we can catch up on grading, and you know, actually plan our instruction. I’m tired of working on the weekends, especially on bull—it PM sheets that are meaningless.

Informant: (third grade, non-Title I) We are floundering in third grade with the literacy act and aren’t getting any help even with a Reading Coach. Apparently reading coaches aren’t supposed to coach and work with students anymore. Their job is to collect and manage data. It’s not helpful to us and we need help with the new curriculum for reading. One of my teammates has panic attacks regularly at school and I’m now on anxiety medication.

I already progress monitor my kids every other week using the gap analysis forms they are making us do and that’s based of ORF DIBELS and I-Ready lessons. All the while I’m also supposed to perform miracles in math. We need support and we aren’t getting it. We have some kids with IEP’s who are not receiving services regularly because the SPED department is so overrun, too. I don’t know how long I can do this, OB.

In light of the information presented above, the DAC formally requests the following information:

The only logical course of action for the District is to immediately stop Project BOOST and the additional PM requirements. Teachers in Title I schools have additional requirements and all were targeted due to their low reading and math scores, by Dr. Scott’s own admission. This is not unitary status, and the result is to punish teachers who teach in these schools with additional work which does nothing to help students progress in reading and math.

Not all schools are participating in the new PM requirements. At least one non-Title I school and one Title I school have principals who have convinced Dr. Scott that their teachers do not need to participate in the PM.

⦁ The DAC would like to see a list of all schools participating in the new PM requirements as well as those schools which are not participating.

⦁ The District uses an outside company called “Ripple Worx” to collect anonymous survey data. Teachers have reported providing candid answers when filling out the survey, particularly regarding work climate and well-being. The District pays for these surveys using public tax dollars, but according to Dr. Scott, “The survey results are not given to me or my department. Thus, I do not have access to the survey results.” Therefore, the DAC requests to see the full set of survey responses as they were collected from teachers. Specifically, the DAC is interested in the results from the survey sent on February 9, 2022 which focused on teachers’ perceptions of the school year as well as the survey disseminated on March 9, 2022 which focused on teachers’ time.

⦁ The DAC requests a detailed explanation in writing of what the District is going to do with the new PM data once it is collected. This is the most pressing question regarding these data.

⦁ Teachers have been threatened that they will have to sign ‘written documentation’ if they fail to produce these PM sheets by their deadlines. What exactly does this mean?

⦁ Does Superintendent Finley support these new requirements?

⦁ Appendix C contains the Alabama statute which states, “County and city boards of education and the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind shall be required to provide each teacher employed a minimum of 30 minutes of time free of instructional or supervisory responsibilities each teaching day. The PM data meetings are often conducted during teachers’ planning periods, which seems to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the statute. Does the District consider a teacher’s planning period an appropriate time to discuss data, even if it deprives the teacher of time to plan their instruction?

Confidential informants

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Wed, Nov 9, 2022, 7:39 AM

to Brigid

Brigid,

Teachers in the district are terrified of giving testimony to me. Laura Worshim (principal at Providence Elementary) told the faculty that if they say anything negative about the District, teachers can be terminated. This is making it very difficult to gather accurate data to make recommendations to the District.

The following teachers have given confidential testimony to me and I want you to know their names in case they are retaliated against:

Tamara Grasham (teachers being required to use their own data for apps which they are required to use)

Cynthia Rutledge Owens (black mold so bad that the fifth grade teachers are getting sick)

Michelle Reed (student brought a knife to school, and has threatened to kill the teacher, nothing was done)

I have no idea how much you can protect them, but I want you to know that the District is basically using a 'gag order' on teachers because they know I'm reaching out.

Please send an email confirming receipt of these names.

Thank you for your help and support,

Jas

Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor of Education

University of Alabama in Huntsville

Talk

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 7:04 AM

to Brigid

Brigid,

I need to talk to you. It's serious. I'm not sure who I can trust, because teachers are starting to share what's happening, and I'm not sure who to tell, because the chair of the DAC is good friends with a principal who a teacher just implicated in a horrible possible scandal.

Remember the last time I sent you my concerns and I asked you to take it to your boss? This is worse and I need to talk to someone at the DoJ. It's literally at the point that I am considering filing a whistleblower complaint.

Before we talk, I need to get a question answered from you in writing:

Question:

If I send you something and ask you not to share it with HCS, can you assure me that you will not share it with Chris Pape without my permission?

If the answer is no, then I don't need you to call. If the answer is yes, please respond IN WRITING, and then we'll schedule a phone conversation.

Full disclosure: I was warned by someone I trust that I should not trust anyone at the DoJ because LanierFord (and J.R. Brooks, who is the key to all of this) has attorneys in D.C. who will run interference for the District.

This is potentially a national news story...and I don't know if I need to hire an attorney, because I've been warned that I'm being watched and that "the District is on to me."

I'm trying to do what's right, but I'm getting pretty concerned about repercussions.

Please get back with me as soon as possible.

I am a pretty good judge of character, and I feel like I can trust you, but I asked you to help point me in the direction of publicly available resources and you never got back with me, so I'm trying to cover my bases. None of this is personal.

Jas

Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor of Education

University of Alabama in Huntsville

__________________________________

Re: [EXTERNAL] Confidential informants

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 2:33 PM

to Brigid

I needed that. I'm scared.

I'll send something soon. I thought my dean had my back, and I don't know.

On Thu, Nov 10, 2022 at 2:04 PM Benincasa, Brigid (CRT) <Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov> wrote:

Hi Jason,

Thank you for sharing this information with us.

Thanks,

Brigid

Brigid Benincasa | Trial Attorney

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

Educational Opportunities Section

Direct: (202) 616-2540 | Main: (202) 514-4092 | Fax: (202) 514-8337

Email: Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov

From: Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2022 8:40 AM

To: Benincasa, Brigid (CRT) <Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov>

Subject: [EXTERNAL] Confidential informants

Brigid,

The following teachers have given confidential testimony to me and I want you to know their names in case they are retaliated against:

Tamara Grasham (teachers being required to use their own data for apps which they are required to use)

Cynthia Rutledge Owens (black mold so bad that the fifth grade teachers are getting sick)

Michelle Reed (student brought a knife to school, and has threatened to kill the teacher, nothing was done)

I have no idea how much you can protect them, but I want you to know that the District is basically using a 'gag order' on teachers because they know I'm reaching out.

Please send an email confirming receipt of these names.

Thank you for your help and support,

Jas

18 of 42

Confidential

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Thu, Nov 10, 2022, 6:27 PM

to Brigid (sent 11/10) the date got cut off

Brigid,

I typed a long narrative, but when you read it, I'm pretty sure you're going to have to do something

about it. Everyone will know it was me and I am worried about retribution.

I have a question counselor, if you can answer it:

What protection would I have if I submit what I have to you and it's serious enough that you have to

take action and EVERYONE knows that Mrs. O'Brien's husband was the one who did it?

Or my son Quinn? Or my 18 year old son or my 26 year old daughter?

If we experience threats or retaliation (she works for HCS), should I feel like the DoJ has my back?

This is outlier stuff, I know, but here we are.

I'm going to see what data rolls in this weekend and as long as nothing happens of event in the

early week, I will call you and tell you a story and you can tell me what you think. It will be a

hypothetical story.

Please tell me a time that you are available to talk.

I appreciate you.

Jas

Re: [EXTERNAL] Confidential

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Mon, Nov 14, 2022, 9:16 PM

to Brigid

Brigid,

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

I have a lot to share...*sigh

Jas

On Mon, Nov 14, 2022 at 1:56 PM Benincasa, Brigid (CRT) <Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov> wrote:

Hi Jason,

My colleague, Kelly Gardner, and I are available for a call between 10-11am on Thursday, 11/17. Please let me know if that time works for you.

Thank you,

Brigid

On 11/17/22, I spent 40 minutes on a call with Brigid and her colleague. I did not take field notes but I mentioned a lot of the things I wrote in my “stream of consciousness narrative” below: I never sent the SoC narrative because it had statements of opinion that I did not want used against me, and I did not redact informants. It starts on the next page

Titled: Stream of Consciousness Narrative of events from 9/22 – 11/13/22

I brought the Carlita Collins case to Chris Pape and he's been sitting on it for several weeks. I'm almost not convinced he's going to do what's right. I notified him last week that informant teachers at her school were saying that she was starting the pattern of behavior again...berating children and making faculty members stand up and recite their job descriptions out loud. I spoke with a school board member who said that he’s pThe Architectably going to give her a ‘soft exit.’ In other words, they will confront her with the information and allow her to resign and sign a document saying that she can’t appeal or sue. This school board member was told by the Committee of 100 and the mayor that the worst thing that can happen to HCS is for ‘bad press.’ This is why they are all hiding the illegal stuff that’s going on.

Last week I began checking the DAC boxes to hopefully introduce myself to the principals to see who I got a good 'vibe' off of. Hovet Dixon is a principal at Ridgecrest, he's important. I went in to his school and introduced myself to him and I asked if I could come back and introduce myself to the faculty to tell them about the DAC boxes (which no one uses). He said 'sure, come at 3:00.' I wanted to know if he would recognize my name and tip off that I'm on the 'naughty list.' (I know this sounds manipulative, but it's working really well and I’m really good at reading people).

Right after he walked away from me, his AP approached me and asked if I was on the DAC. I said yes and she said, "I have to tell you something outside, it's important." When we were outside, she said, "My principal.." I stopped her because her principal had pushed the door open and was making a beeline to us. I said, "Have a good day" and walked away.

I reached out to her via her District email and gave her my personal email and she never responded. I think she got spooked.

I produced the PM report and submitted it to Dr. Scott on the Friday before it was due from teachers, so they would be able to see it. I couldn't figure out how to get the information to the principals quickly, so I went to the District's website and copied and pasted all 48 elementary principal emails into a document (now it's saved) and sent the report to every one of the elementary principals.

My network of teachers said that they still had to turn them in or face a write up. So, I went on the HCS website and typed out 122 elementary teachers' emails (all third grade through fifth) and sent it to them so they would know that there were serious issues with the construct validity, that the data were not useful and a waste of time, etc...I didn't want teachers to have to go home and work on something meaningless.

In the email, I said I'm an ally and send me things to my doctor.ob.1970@gmail.com email.

The District didn't know what to do. I notified Chris Pape that this email was for formal DAC inquiries and to have him tell you the District was going to block it. I'm always about three steps ahead of them...

A few were immediate...the ones with the least to lose came out and started telling me what's truly going on (check the end of this document for some stories). Don't miss the three pictures of black mold that the District knows about but won't do anything about at Rolling Hills Elementary. Remember Highlands? The school they "renovated" last year? They didn't have electricity for three days.

This is the letter with the mold, so you read it here and you see what I'm up against:

Dr. O'Brien,

My name is Cynthia Rutledge Owens and I am Rolling Hills Elementary where I have never gotten 30 minutes planning a day . I’m addition , I am quite certain there is black mold and aphetas growing in my classroom as well as the other 2 fifth grade classrooms . We are constantly seeing doctors for everything from upper respiratory infections to walking pneumonia since school started .. we need help .

I am a veteran teacher of 26 years and was trying to hold out longer ; I’ve worked all over the nation as a former military officer’s wife and never seen anything like this .. including back in Huntsville before .. as a gifted teacher .. we don’t have support with discipline , and are constantly interrupted during our instructional time .

I pray and hope you can help us.. I’m contacting the union as well over my HVAC unit and other matters .

Thanks , Cynthia

____________________________________________________________________________

Now I have a target on my back.

But, one principal agreed with me and warned me that the district was 'on to me.' His name is Stewart Thorson, and he's not a bad guy, but I don't think he's a good guy, because he knows what's going on too.

I have an informant downtown in the district office. He has agreed to help me with some financial information that is publicly available, but hard to find. One thing making it harder to find is the way that the District hides expenditures.

Specifically, there used to be a ‘check register’ that anyone could ask to see, which listed the check number, the amount paid, the person to whom the money was paid, and a brief explanation of what the money was for. (E.g., $2,354 to Jason O’Brien, for consultation services on Project BOOST). Now the District groups all the expenditures by category, using category codes that one would have to look up to find. That’s how they can hide payments to people without scrutiny.

For instance: Last year, there was a conference and all the board members and the superintendent attended. Elisa Ferrell, Michelle Watkins, and Christie Finley all declined to stay in the $200/night hotel on site and instead rented three bedroom/four bathroom condos off site. Finley paid for it with her District credit card. This is one of the many reasons I have to believe that Finley is leaving this year. Watkins isn’t running again (she knew that if someone called her on it, that she wouldn’t have to answer for it to voters). Ferrell knew she wasn’t running again, so it was a no-brainer.

When Alvarez was running for school board, she filed a FOIA request to see how much they spent on accommodations, and the District never answered her request. Alvarez told me in a personal conversation that they tried to trap her into taking luxury accommodations saying “We all do it.” She declined. The Committee of 100 and the mayor did everything they could to keep her from getting elected…because she won’t play ball with them.

Back to our story…It's always about the money...

Look at the highest paid administrators. Why are they making so much more than the other principals with less experience? Why did Dr. Scott and Dr. Finley get 14K and 11K raises, respectively, on January 31, 2022? Why did Superintendent Finley then try to circumnavigate the Board for a bigger raise? When she was told no, she asked if she could give them some other 'gift' because they 'earned it with their hard work."

Why I think Finley is leaving in August? Because she knows the house of cards is coming down, because they all know that teachers are talking to me. I’m assuming that they’re monitoring emails…

If you recall, Chris Pape is going to employ the "bad actor" defense for Collins...that she was doing it in isolation.

She wasn't.

This is what shook me last night. I was talking to Michelle Reed, former student, currently a fifth grade teacher at Heritage under Hovet Dixon. Michelle has an African-American child who brought a knife to school, Hovet Dixon did nothing. Student is gifted, but has horrible trauma and as a result is exhibiting menacing and threatening behavior at school.

Michelle was scared the child was going to hurt her or another child and nothing was being done, so she called me and she sent me the letter that's attached, and I forwarded a message to Chris Pape saying “it’s a safety issue” and he responded with something like “I’ve forwarded it to the appropriate person, thanks for letting me know.”

In the meantime, this child in fifth grade is getting worse. Dixon does nothing, and they can’t even get security to check her bag for weapons.

A couple days ago, she got mad because Michelle wouldn’t let her leave and go home and she grabbed a pencil and stalked around the room sharpening it, looking at the kids in the room, scaring the shit out of them. Michelle asked her to sit down and stop sharpening her pencil and glaring at everyone. She wouldn’t. Michelle got the kids to stand up and get out of the room and had security come take the pencil away from her. After reporting this, Michelle went to the principal and requested a meeting.

Michelle recorded the meeting. At it, Dixon said, “Did she lunge at you?” Michelle said “no” and he said, “Well, that’s the pThe Architectlem.” She said, “Do I have to get stabbed for her to get in trouble?” and he said, “No, that’s now what I meant.” Dixon does not know Michelle recorded the conversation. Next he said something like “What have you done to foster a positive relationship today?” Total gaslighting…

Here’s where you’re going to lose your f’ing mind.

I know that at McNair under Collins, Mr. King (AP, now retired) under-reported discipline by deleting text or downgrading BLOOM’S write ups from a level four to one that’s not reported. Remember the unreported sexual assault on Beth McKay?

I haven’t even started to investigate the high schools, but I wondered how the elementary principals game the discipline system. I found out one way. Michelle took copious amounts of hand written notes. I asked why. She said, “My Bloom’s was down until last week.” BLOOM’S is the behavior software. Without it working you can’t report any discipline issues. I said, “Wait, that doesn’t happen. You have to have it when you log on.” She said, “I have 12 unanswered emails from my principal and AP asking them to fix it.” (they’re attached). No response. She finally sent a ticket to the help desk downtown and it was fixed that day.

I said, “Do you think he shut you out of BLOOM’s?” She said, “I thought about it, but I didn’t want to sound crazy.” That’s what gaslighting does…they prey on young teachers (mostly female) and blame them for the pThe Architectlems the administration won’t address. The result is that teachers end up doubting themselves and end up thinking that the stuff they’re seeing is ‘normal.’ This is systemic…it’s happening in both Title I and non-Title I schools

I asked, “Did anyone else get locked out of BLOOM’s?” She said, “Only two others that I know of.” You see where this is going, right?

The others were first year teachers who had horrible classroom management, but according to Michelle, “both got help” from the administration and THEN their BLOOM’S worked again.

So, the middle and high school administrators either delete the wording or change the classification without consequences…and at the elementary schools, Hovet Dixon disables BLOOM’S so the teachers can’t use the system to report level IV behaviors.

When I went and looked at the salaries, I saw how much Collins and Leverette and Dixon are making (the mean salary for those knuckleheads is 107K…I wonder how big their raises have been under Finley)…I am convinced that the district has told Collins about the information they have and are now negotiating with her so she’ll sign a waiver giving up her right to appeal if she resigns and goes away. THEY DO NOT WANT ANYONE TO KNOW.

Highlands elementary school—Hovet Dixon—$123,795.00

McNair Junior High School—Jamarious Harris—this is his first year. I met him checking the DAC boxes. He is way too kind to be working there, and he’s not getting paid, so he might not know anything. He’s not in the top 32 salaries in the district

Jemison High School—DeMetrius Harris Leverette—136,077—I have a student named Anson Helton with whom I just touched base today. He loves his job. He admitted that 90% of his kids are socially promoted. He’s writing something up right now.

Steven Six (real name) is a teacher at McNair. He has an email from his AP admonishing the teachers for filling out a BLOOM’S write up without coming to talk to him first. That’s another variation of how you game modify the Level IV Bloom’s write up. Administrators say “you can’t use bloom’s without my permission.” They train the first year teachers who don’t know better and think that this is how it is at all schools. If the teachers aren’t absolutely loyal (the loyalty test is to get you to change grades, not do write ups, and whatever crazy shit they ask you to do). Then what happens? Most times, they still lay you off at the end of year 3.

When a teacher would come to Collins in May and say “I’m finishing the year out” she would say “You have to resign right now so I can advertise” and then send a complaint to the State against their certificate for ‘not giving two weeks’ notice.’ I have documentation from Sherry Mayberry. She shared the letter from the state saying “We investigated you but nothing was done. This complaint can be used against you in the future should someone else complain about you.” The result is that she is afraid to ever go against a principal again.

At McNair, they had nominations for Teacher of the Year…Steven Six said, “To be eligible, you have to have been here three years. There was only one content teacher and a PE teacher and another specials teacher.”

This is how you keep the secret. Hire people (like Anson) who need the job. Single moms are easy targets. Gaslight and blame them for the bad behavior of the kids, even though the admin isn’t allowing write ups. The kids find out that they can’t fail (Collins announced over the loudspeaker several times “Teachers, remember that students can earn nothing lower than a 60 on all grades.” She did this to create chaos. Can you imagine teaching in that environment? They are all traumatized. I have 20 examples of teachers saying they are ready to walk out the door the first chance they get.

Today, I was telling my dean how bad all this is, and she said, “Well, there’s something I need to tell you.” Two principals (who are my Chairperson’s sorority sisters) have contacted your colleague Monica to make sure that everyone here knows what you’re doing.”

I said, “Did they say good things or bad things?” She lied to me…She said, “I don’t think it was good or bad.” She’s a horrible liar.

Then she said, “And, I know that Tasheria Price (a former student who is AA and who has climbed the ladder very quickly at HCS) told our Administrative assistant “Dr. O’Brien’s work is causing trouble for the district. I hope this doesn’t affect the District’s relationship with UAH.” She knows everything. That was the District’s way of getting the message to us, I’m almost positive. I don’t trust anyone at this point. Tasheria has been there less than 10 years. She has a master’s degree…She’s making $88,900. That is WAY more than the normal step schedule for teachers.

Chris Gregory, the DAC Chair? I started to tell him about Dixon and he said, “Hovet? He’s like a brother to me, he’s a good man.”

I told him that if he tipped him off that I would never speak to him again and he assured me he wouldn’t.

Brigid, I don’t trust anyone.

What’s going to happen when I start digging at Jemison and Columbia (which has a graduation rate of 77%)? I’ll find one teacher at the elementary schools and then one more will talk. If not, I’ll email the schools with a questionnaire I created.

The District still won’t answer my request about the PM documents, even though teachers are having to ‘back date’ them. Dr. Scott told principals that if they don’t write up their teachers, that the principals will be written up.

So, I knew he wasn’t going to get rid of the PM sheets, because of his fucking ego, so I gave him enough rope to hang himself. He had an emergency meeting on Friday for principals to deal with my PM blast to the principals. I’m now getting messages from teachers saying “They’re making us change the forms, but the new ELA standards don’t align with the ACAP stuff. And he’s making us do the same assessments each week.”

See what I did there? He backed himself in a corner and the only thing he could have done was acknowledge that it was a shitty idea (I think he spent more time thinking of the name “Building Opportunities & Ownership for School Transformation” than actually thinking about what the data could be used for, which was nothing). This is the ‘put lipstick on a pig’ bullshit they do.

Why didn’t the Superintendent stop it? Because she is AWOL. She is unwilling or unable to make any decisions without Chris Pape’s approval. She’s running out the clock until she can retire with a very nice pension…

Andy Craig is going to be the new superintendent. How do I know? Because the District is quietly getting ready to advertise for a new Asst CSFO so Andy Craig can train him in time for Finley’s departure.

Finley will say she’s leaving, the board will vote 5-0 to put Craig in as ‘acting superintendent’ (he just so happens to have 20 years’ experience as Hoover superintendent…I haven’t even had a chance to look at his bullshit, I’m sure he’s connected to someone).

He’ll “Do a fine job” and he’ll be anointed after a year, with a 3 to 2 vote (Carlos, Holly, and Ryan)…I’ve tried to get in with Holly, but she is keeping me at arm’s length. I timed the email blast right before I emailed her, because if she was Committee of 100, she would have not responded. If she’s an ally, then they might actually do a real search for a superintendent.

But you see why they can’t, right? If they get a real superintendent, his first day on the job, everybody is going to be running to him to be the first to report that they didn’t have a choice to change grades and Bloom’s…and that’s only if he’s willing to change things. I suspect not.

What’s behind this??????

Lanier Ford bills the District between 800k and 2.4K each year. There is no incentive to stop people like Tim Scott and Carlita Collins, who I honestly think tries to be as cruel as possible to teachers to run them off so few have tenure. Chris is making me hold off sending the request I want…It’s attached…I made a spreadsheet that they have to fill out which will show exactly how the Title I schools are different than the non-title I schools in regards to faculty composition.

Wash, rinse, repeat…

I am convinced that the people making the most money are all in on it.

J.R. Brooks (kingpin of LanierFord) represents the Huntsville Police Department. Every time someone suggests getting private counsel (for a lot less money), it doesn’t happen, because according to The Architect, who has worked for the office for 30 plus years, “no one goes against JR Brooks.”

Finley approved using a company called RippleWorx to collect ‘anonymous survey data’ from the teachers in the district. RippleWorx is a local company (Go figure) and their two biggest clients? Huntsville City Schools and the Huntsville Police Department. Did I mention that LanierFord’s two biggest clients in Huntsville are……….Huntsville City School and Huntsville Police Department. What a coincidence.

The District is like a big pinata. LanierFord is raking in cash, Finley is coasting, Pape is the de facto leader, meanwhile Scott inflicts cruel and bullshit data meetings and data collection, which take time away from instruction and make the teachers feel like children. I would honestly say that if you polled every teacher in HCS, more than half want to go…that may be a low number.

They are doing everything EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF THE CONSENT DECREE. They are having no discipline for the kids of color and no expectations for work, while simultaneously blaming teachers for the poor achievement and classroom management that THEY created. Instead of thinking of ways to get teachers more time teaching (and thus improving reading and math scores), teachers are asked to spend time documenting “student progress” using meaningless data and redundant forms that have data which the district could glean from iReady, DIBELS, STAR, or any of the other instruments which the teachers ARE REQUIRED to use.

If I could call a number and get the DoJ to bring down investigators to start talking to teachers in the McNair pattern, there would be mass resignations. BLOOM’S has a sandbox feature so you can see any alterations to write ups. Are there tickets from other teachers whose BLOOM’S mysteriously didn’t work? Administrators are intentionally gaming the system and hiding serious violations (including kids bringing weapons to school and sexual assaults on students and faculty members).

Laura Worshim (providence) told her teachers that any negative comments about the district can result in being terminated. They are terrified to talk to anyone.

The District won’t even answer my question about what they were going to do with the PM sheets. They won’t tell me how to get the Ripple Worx data, in which the teachers eviscerated the District. The District paid 25K for it and when I asked to see the unredacted responses, Tim Scott said, “That data doesn’t come to me.” WTF? You’re the f’ing second in charge. Who gets the data? Who owns the company? Honestly, it’s only 25K but how much do you want to bet that there is some sort of nepotism there? The CEO is Angie Sandritter and her husband is Timo Sandritter. When I start researching them, what do you think I’m going to find? Connections to LanierFord, or the Committee of 100, I’m sure.

END REPORT 11/13/22

Narrative

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Wed, Nov 16, 2022, 9:15 PM

to Brigid

Brigid,

Hopefully this will help explain my email from last week. Just knowing that you know makes me feel better. I am using Hovet Dixon as a test case to see if the District will protect teachers from retribution. Please have her back on this. She was going to leave the classroom if the girl isn't removed (she has her resignation letter typed up). She hates going to school because she spends all day worrying about her safety. I want to see how he reacts.

I have a feeling that if I scare him enough, he might be willing to be a witness for the DoJ. All it's going to take is one of the principals doing something so bad that the district has to do something, and then the administrator will threaten to spill the beans. I have to get around Chris by going public with really bad behavior, and then when the public outcry is too great, the person being persecuted will burn it all down with their testimony. I just need to get one of them to turn by convincing them that if they wait too long, they won't get to claim that they were 'just following district orders.'

Talk tomorrow,

Jas

Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor of Education

University of Alabama in Huntsville

301 Sparkman Drive

The Architecterts Hall 315

Huntsville, AL 35899

256.824.6181

Good teachers make their students feel seen.

-Jason O'Brien

One attachment • Titled: Narrative of events in November for Brigid (on next page)

Narrative of events in November for Brigid

Brigid,

He told me a story that I want you to hear, because it pertains to me:

He said "the district is like a pinata that Lanier Ford keeps hitting so public money falls out."(See the attachment: Lanier Ford payments)

Architect: “I have said for years that we should hire in-house attorneys. But every time it starts to gain steam, J.R. Brooks puts a stop to it. He represents the Huntsville Police Department so they are his enforcement arm. When Michelle Watkins tried to stop Carlita Collins, they had her arrested. They dropped the charges, but it sent the message to Michelle that she needs to keep her mouth shut or there will be consequences. Almost 20 years ago, we had a CSFO who was spending district dollars on parties and entertainment, and I told them it was illegal. J.R. cornered me and said, 'you have to give him some latitude, he needs to spend that money to get donors for the district.' I told J.R. 'if he wants to do that stuff, have him bring it before the board and have them approve it, and he can have a budget and then it'll all be legal.' J.R. Brooks said to me, 'drop it or I'll ruin your career.'

SEE HIS EMAIL RESPONSE TO MY QUESTION BELOW

From this point forward, I would like to submit The Architect as a confidential witness for the DAC investigation into possible financial crimes committed by the District. I don't know what protection you can offer, but I am being watched, my emails are being monitored to District employees, and I had a typed note on my van which said "The District is watching you." Stewart Thorson (principal at Chapman Elementary) sent me an email (he never signed his name, but he told me that if I get an email from a weird email, it's him. Below is his email:

Thadd D <XIIpilae@protonmail.com>

Tue, Nov 1, 8:56 AM

to doctor.ob1970@gmail.com

Tap the brakes on your school visits. They are on to you.

Sent from Proton Mail for iOS

After having a 15 minute conversation with Thorson, the next day I went back to give him a list of potential teachers to watch the DAC box for me, I was made to wait outside for four minute (I have never had to do that before) and when I approached him, he put his hands up and said, "Dr. O'Brien, I have been instructed not to talk to you, I'm sorry."

I went to HIghlands elementary (Hovet Dixon from today's email) and the AP followed me out and said, "I have to tell you something." But Dixon saw her and ran out to us and she stopped talking. I sent her an email to her district email and said, "here is my cell, call me 256.694.5129"

I never heard from her. Today, she was there and Dixon wasn't. I was going in to talk to him as an advocate for a parent in Michelle's class. Michelle gave her my number and I was going in loaded for bear. But Dixon wasn't there and Thomas (the AP) wouldn't conduct a meeting without him. Parent left, and I said, "You wanted to talk to me, why didn't you reach out?" She said, "I texted you twice, here look." She showed me her DISTRICT CELL and she showed me my name with DAC written next to it. I checked the number and it was correct.

I called Monte Linebarger, head of middle schools, and asked to have lunch with him to talk about some made up innocuous thing. I saw him at a restaurant, by chance, a few weeks ago, and I stopped him and asked if he would talk. He did. He told me that he’s an ‘outsider’ (code for ‘not willing to sell his soul and black and brown kids out for money’). And he told me how f’ed Tim Scott is. I found out from a different informant that Monte accused Scott of being racist toward him at work, and Scott immediately hired an attorney. We agreed to meet at 11:30 when he was done with his observation at a local high school. I texted him three times, and he never answered.

The district is blocking any calls to or from my personal cell phone.

They got so pissed at me sending emails to 123 teachers, that they literally took down the alphabetical listings which existed a couple of weeks ago on all the schools’ pages. They didn’t touch Jemison or Grissom or a couple of the non-title I schools, because they don’t care if I talk to the teachers there. The title I schools have the lists taken down since my email.

The district still won’t respond to my questions about the progress monitoring sheets, and they won’t answer my emails even giving me a time frame on when they will. Chris Gregory, DAC chair is working 12 hour days and won’t respond to emails, but he chided me on ‘doing too much’ and he’s good friends with Hovet Dixon, which is why I left him off that email chain. He wants to talk about consortia and getting local black churches in the schools, but he has no idea what he’s talking about. I asked if he understood about background checks, and he said, “These people are from church, and they are volunteering, do they still need to get a background check?” *sigh I’m not too sure that he isn’t getting a bit of pressure from outside, because he told me if I kept emailing, then none of the people in the community ‘would work with us.’ I’m pretty much doing this on my own…Jesus, this is long, sorry. It’s 8:10 and I’m still working…

Pressure I’m getting at work

My dean (Dr. Beth Quick) was very supportive of my PM report, because I wrote very clearly that the views were my own. Then…last week, a former student called Chantaye The Architectinson-Jones (one of our advisors) and told her “Dr. O’Brien’s work for the DAC is a pThe Architectlem for the District. It would be a shame if his work hurt the District’s relationship with UAH.” The student’s name is Tasheria Price, and with a Master’s Degree and six years of experience, she’s making $88,900/year. I sent her a facebook message and said, “Hey I see you’re directing the mentor program, I’d love to hear about it.” She ignored my message. We have been FB friends since she graduated. I waited three days and typed the message, “I am so disappointed that you sold out. I hope it was worth 90K to sell out black kids.” She unfriended me.

The next day, Monica Dillihunt, my chair, got calls from two of her sorority sisters, who are both principals in the District asking if she knew what I was doing (she’s my chair, but she has little real authority over me, but they don’t know that).

My dean approached me and said, “hey, you’re getting a lot of attention with your DAC work.” I asked what she meant, and she told me about Chantaye and Monica receiving calls. I asked both if they had mentioned my name in a conversation with anyone from the district and BOTH of them lied to me and said ‘no.’

My dean the instructed me to be VERY careful, because we need HCS for our student teachers. I said, “They can’t take away a decades-long partnership because I told the truth about what they’re doing.” She said, “They wouldn’t say it was about that.”

I have stopped talking about my work on the DAC at UAH and am closing my door and staying to myself.

Brigid, every time I talk to a new teacher, it’s either “I am on the verge of quitting because I don’t get any support from my administration” or “The District is doing something illegal.” I don’t want to give you specific details on what I know, because I’m still gathering data, but…Carlita Collins was stealing Title I money and not giving it to teachers. How do I know? Because two of them told me…the bookkeeper at McNair with Collins (Tamara Williams) was besties with Collins and they apparently skimmed money off the title I funds.

Mallory Ethridge: (Teacher at McNair) Collins guilted us into tutoring for three hours on Saturday. She said she had title I money to pay for subs. Mallory tutored for six weeks (I think the pay was 30.00/hr) and when it was time to get paid, Collins said “The other teacher that’s tutoring is only getting substitute pay for teaching, so it’s only fair that she get your money.” Mallory was afraid of her and she didn’t want to lose her job. Joseph Ilg, a former student and teacher under Collins had to pay $300 out of his own pocket to pay for a bus for academic bowl. Collins assured him that they would have Title I funds, but at the end of the year, she said he owed her $300.00. He paid it to the bookkeeper.

Remember Collins? She’s the principal who called kids the N-word and hit one in the face with a water bottle? She’s still employed and doing the same shit at her new school. Why is she being allowed to stay employed?

BECAUSE THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS TO THE DISTRICT IS AVOIDING BAD PRESS.

Board Member Alvarez said that. Pam Hill, former board member said that. Michelle Watkins said that. I called Megan Plotka at WAFF (Local news) because I was going to ask if she would do a story on the PM report I wrote, because I was going to include testimony from teachers about the working conditions. She replied, “I’d love to talk about it. Looks good. I’ll call tomorrow.” I’ve sent two emails and she doesn’t respond. She took the story to her editor, and he called someone downtown and now she isn’t responding.

I don’t know if I told you this or not, but…Andy Craig will be the next superintendent. Finley is retiring by August, when her son goes to Auburn. She announced an appointment to the Athens State Visiting Board (appointed by the governor, I read the paragraph and I still don’t know what the fuck it does). But the following Friday, after her announcement, the dean of the college of education at Athens announced his retirement (the day after giving an interview to a reporter friend in which he gave her his ‘five year plan’).

The Architect is the one who clued me in on it: This is what will happen…After they hire the new CSFO, and Craig has had time to ‘train’ him (that means get him on board with the debauchery)—Check the salary attachment, Craig is making 184, conveniently he was a superintendent in Hoover for 20 years, so, he’ll fit right in. After Finley resigns, the Board will meet and McClarty, Renauld, and Matthews (all bought and paid for by the Committee of 100) will vote in favor, and Alvarez and Watkins will either vote for or against. But Finley will NOT give the board enough time to conduct a thorough national search. Why? Because they cannot have anyone who’s not “on board” in the hierarchy.

After a year of doing the job, they will say, “He’s doing a great job, let’s just keep him around.” He’ll get a big raise, nothing changes…wash, rinse, repeat.

The committee of 100 tried at every turn to stop Andrea Alvarez from being elected, but she uses social media like a pro, and they can’t throw enough money at races like that to get people out.

Chris Pape…my boy Chris. Chris is the Michael Cohen of HCS. He’s the fixer. The only job he has is to do damage control. Brigid, the consent decree ONLY works, if legal counsel for the district isn’t working to hide and obfuscate. I found out from The Architect, that when a principal files a complaint against a teacher with the state, the state calls…………..you guessed it, the legal counsel for the District and then take their word for whatever the complaint is. I sat in front of Chris Pape showing him examples of how Collins had filed fake complaints with the state, and he knew the entire time that he is the one that sees them. HE KNEW SHE WAS FILING FALSE COMPLAINTS, AND HE STILL DID NOTHING. (see teacher 7 false complaint attached). Lee Simmons is the head of Talent Management, and she is the one who makes sure any teacher who stands up for themselves, gets black balled. I told Chris Pape, “There’s something rotten with talent management, I need to talk to Lee Simmons.” That fucker knew the entire time what they’re doing. The Architect said that when applied for a senior management position, Simmons sat in on the interview. He’s been with HCS for 35 years, and that was the first time anyone outside finance sat in on an interview.

Our friend Hovet Dixon was demoted from principal to teacher for misconduct. I don’t know what yet, but all I have to do is find someone who worked there when he was there. He got demoted but not fired. Then he got a lawyer and threatened to tell what he knew. No shit, he got the new principalship at Heritage, where he keeps the teachers until 5:00 for faculty meetings while spending 30 minutes telling them that he’s ‘not a micromanager.’ He tells on himself. He starts speaking and talks over people, but he’s not very intelligent. If you read the email that I sent today, you’ll see that Michelle couldn’t access her behavior software. It kept saying “Incorrect username/password.” She sent 12 emails asking him to help. He ignored all of them. This was the time when Teagan (the girl with the knife) was doing all sorts of stuff that he did not want her to report, like bringing a knife to school. That’s why they are paying these principals at Title I schools so much…they hide dangerous behavior, give away grades, make everyone afraid of getting fired, and make teachers complicit in their crimes. Having teachers spend time gathering data and writing grades in three different places almost seems intentional, to drive away teachers so they keep rotating and no one gets tenure and EVRYONE is traumatized.

I got a SPED complaint that if I tell you what it is, you’ll HAVE to do something about it, and I’m not ready. I just told the teacher to hold on and document everything. It made me cry when she told me. I’m trying to get at least two teachers at every school that I can trust. When I start getting SPED teachers to talk, I’ll get enough so that when I give it to you, the DoJ will have to do an investigation. If you read this and you think I have enough to have DoJ investigators come down and start interviewing teachers, then I’ll give you everything I have. Until then, I’m going to keep gathering data. I had to do something about today, because that is a safety issue with Michelle and the other kids. AND I want to see how Dixon reacts. He’s a narcissist and I want to see if he retaliates against her.

I got the name of the bookkeeper who resigned when she realized that Collins was taking money, and I need to talk to her tomorrow. I’m trying to get the athletic . booster who had money taken (supposedly thousands of dollars) to talk, because she’ll have dates and amounts and receipts. Oh, one more thing about financial fraud from Collins and Williams. Kyle Curtis said that Collins liked to hire fraternity brothers from A&M (the local HBCU) who were associated with her sorority. One such dude was Willie Burks. He stands about 5’2” and Collins hired him with Title I money to be a ‘behavior specialist.” No degree in education. No certification. PThe Architectably not even a background check. Curtis saw three kids beating the shit out of another in the corner and Burks just stood there watching. I asked what they did do, and he said, “Collins gave them an office and they would pull kids in there and shoot the shit. They never did anything for behavior.”

How much do you want to bet that Collins was skimming money off the top with Williams? In the email below, I asked if The Architect could do an audit, and he said “no way they’d let me audit federal funds.” EVERYONE who has the levers of control is ‘on the payroll.’ The head of the CTE program, Zach McWhorter is a good old country boy, who’s not the brightest, and he’s making 124K…He was nervous as hell when we talked on Zoom and let slip some stuff he shouldn’t.

I’m sorry, but I’m the only one in the world who can connect all this, and I want at least one other person to know. If something happens to me, it will definitely be J.R. Brooks…not that I’m worried about getting killed, but I am worried about a fake arrest or someone hurting my family (which is my weakness, we lost my son Connor at 27 to covid in 2019). If shit starts to hit the fan, I want someone in D.C. to know.

Also…I have created a new email for use with the DAC. It is DAC.teacher.hotline@gmail.com

If I ever need to do a dump of everything I have to you, I will send you an email with the password to that account. Log on and go to the drafts folder and look for all the stuff I have. I don’t want to use a google drive because of access issues.

I’m trying to do the right thing here, and it’s kicking my ass. I’ve lost 4 lbs this week and I keep getting teacher messages saying “It’s really bad…my friend xxx wants to talk too.”

Thanks for listening. Don’t ever trust Chris Pape.

Two emails and then you’re done, promise: see the next page.

Email from me to The Architect

This is the email I sent to him first:

On Tuesday, November 15, 2022, Jason O'Brien <doctor.ob.1970@gmail.com> wrote:

Did you know that when I call your direct number, it says that the phone system is down? Does that mean I have to call someone and ask to talk to you? If so, will they ask my name? This is fishy, dude.

Okay, I really need the receipt for the $5,600 they spent on the condo.

Also, I have news and I need your help.

Carlita Collins at Chapman (formerly at McNair)...

Teachers were asked to tutor on the weekends and they would be paid with Title I funds. They taught for three weeks and they were never paid. Collins said "there is no money, but you should keep tutoring because your kids need you." They stopped tutoring.

The bookkeeper is dirty. She and Collins are both in on it. I have zero doubt that they kept the Title I money and split it. That HAS to leave a paper trail, The Architect.

Next story: I'm going to get testimony from

Alexandra Danielle Salomonsky-Corbin...she raised a bunch of money for athletics at McNair. At the end of the year, a bunch of the money "disappeared." I'm goign to get details from her.

Joe Ilg, teacher who taught the Academic Team. Collins said that Title I funds would pay for busses. At the end of the year, she told Joe he had to pay $300 out of his own pocket for travel. He did.

Collins would hire "behavior specialists" who were fraternity brothers from A&M. Willie Burks was one. Teacher watched three kids corner a kid and beat the shit out of him. Burks did nothing. Teacher intervened. HOw much do you want to bet the Bookkeper (Williams) and Collins were skimming off the top.

If I blow the whistle and get someone downtown to do an audit, if Pape finds out, he will stop it, won't he?

I want you to consider allowing me to file a whistleblower complaint against Collins and the District...if they come to interview you, how much can you give them? ALL of it. You know about all the mismanagement during wardinsky, you know about the requests for extra pay for Scott and McNeal that she wanted without board approval, etc. Think about it.

Also, can I have Lee Simmons salary? How much do you want to bet it's 124K???? THAT'S why she is in the room on every interview. She is in Pape's pocket.

This entire fucking district is dirty...all you have to do is look at the top salaries (all of whom are making more than they should) to know who is 'in the know.'

I'm not giving up on this, The Architect. I don't care if JR Brooks comes after me. I've got SPED teachers telling me that the kids aren't allowed out of their self-contained classroom, and that they don't have wheelchairs for the kids to go outside and play. The playground isn't accessible to the kids and they don't have locks on the gate and two kids keep getting out...the teacher uses bungee cords, but the kids still get out.

If you received credible evidence that a bookkeeper was stealing Title I funds, would you be able to investigate it?

EMAIL RESPONSE FROM THE ARCHITECT TO ME

The Architectert XXXXX

Tue, Nov 15, 8:01 PM (13 hours ago)

to Jason

It has been a den of jackals for the last 10+ years. Lawyers, the business council, and the Committee of 100 have been orchestrating the activities of the district thru their people (Lanier Ford, Lean Frog, spur/Appleton, Pinnacle, David Driscoll etc).

The carpetbaggers that have come in and manipulated the numbers to misrepresent the true financial picture. Without the stimulus money, state advancement & technology appropriations, and all the money saved during Covid that we did not have to incur (bus transportation, contracted personnel) we would still have issues maintaining a minimum one month reserve.

I digress. Lee Simmons is up to $117,318. Dixon is at $122,895. I will get you this year’s Condo expenses.

My phone and others have been screwed up since we moved from Merts. The VoIP phones don’t work half the time. We were given new numbers but then they told us we get back our old numbers. It has been a mess.

Let me look at the budget vs actual funds forTitle I program at Chapman Middle.

When I was asking for documentation from Wardynski to support disbursements, he had my job description changed to limit my audits of anything except local school books unless requested by management. Unlikely they want me investigating federal funds.

Stay vigilant. I suspect you are monitored and they will have obstacles put in place to discourage you.

People are getting rich on the gravy train and they will not let you slow or stop it.

Will be in touch.

message from informant

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 9:43 AM

to Brigid

Stewart Thorson, principal HCS, sent me this:

Thadd D

9:34 AM (7 minutes ago)

to me

15 teachers resigned or retired at the last Board meeting (bi-weekly).

Jason L. O'Brien, Ph.D. (he/him)

Associate Professor of Education

MICHELLE REED

Update

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Tue, Nov 29, 2022, 9:12 AM

to Brigid

Brigid,

Michelle Reed is the teacher who had the student who was making threats to kill her and kill others in the class...

She met with her principal Hovet Dixon yesterday and gave him her resignation letter. The student will not be removed from the class and represents a clear and immediate danger to the other students. The principal basically told Michelle that the student is not a threat and that now that Michelle has resigned, if the student hurts herself or someone else in the class, it will be Michelle's fault.

My dean is avoiding me, and apparently Hovet Dixon and Chris Gregory are friends, so...Chris Gregory is not responding to texts or emails from me regarding DAC business. I still haven't received a response to my inquiry regarding the Progress Monitoring data sheets, and they are still being used in many of the Title I schools.

Andrea Alvarez, School board member met with Dr. Scott (Assistant Superintendent, creator of Project BOOST) and asked him to explain the data reporting requirements and he lost his temper and yelled at her. He said, "You are in cahoots with Jason O'Brien. I'm not going to be blamed for this!"

She did it in front of the Superintendent, and it was bad enough that apparently Chris Pape recommended writing up Dr. Scott for his abusive behavior.

Every day another teacher talks to me and it's all bad.

I have only talked to one special education teacher, and her story is horrible. The entire district is so far out of compliance with IEPs that I'm afraid if I start contacting SPED teachers, I will find out so many federal law violations that either JR Brooks, David Driscoll, or someone else from the litany of villains in this story is going to come after me. They all KNOW how bad it is. They privatized SPED aides under the previous superintendent to save millions, and apparently they are using that money to pay exorbitant salaries to keep people from talking. Chris Pape has been sitting on the Carlita Collins information for two months, and nothing has been done. My guess is that when they confronted her, she said, "If I go down, I'm taking everyone down with me."

I know you can't do or say anything because of the constraints of your position as a lawyer, but I just want you to know what's going on.

If I thought writing to the judge would help, I would consider it, but I'm worried that LanierFord has some sort of sway over him/her also.

Thanks for listening, again. It helps. I feel like I'm on an island and I'm the only one who is doing the right thing.

Jas

put these somewhere safe

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Tue, Nov 22, 2022, 11:19 AM

to Brigid

Context:

Elisa Ferrell was a school board member who didn't run for re-election.

Finley is the current superintendent.

Watkins is a current school board member. I am trying to find the regulations regarding the amount that board members are allowed to take as compensation or as a gift. There is no way that it's legal for them to spend $4,000+ on luxury accommodations ON THE BEACH while they are at a conference for work.

Ripple Worx is owned by two people who are heavily involved in the Committee of 100. They have two main clients, Huntsville City SChools and Huntsville Police Department, which coincidentally, are the two biggest clients of LanierFord (and J.R. Brooks). They have not shared the survey data that they gathered from teachers to the tune of $25K.

David Driscoll is the "kingmaker" of Huntsville City. He runs political campaigns and guarantees votes for anyone who lets him run their campaign. He runs campaigns of two of the current school board members. If you look at the payments to him, it appears that he is the conduit...he gets big checks and then pays vendors significantly less than he was paid for the services or deliverables.

These records are a few years old, but I'm absolutely certain that someone who is gorging himself at the 'public trough' is still getting paid. I'm working on getting some more financials from my person on the inside. You can add David's name to the list of people who want me to shut up...and who you should investigate if something happens to me.

Here is an ethics complaint (that went nowhere) against him at the time.

https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2015/04/former_school_board_candidate.html

Have a good thanksgiving, Brigid. Thanks for reading.

Jas

ATTACHMENT: Board illegal payments IN DAC FOLDER

Confidential

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Fri, Dec 2, 2022, 12:18 PM

Brigid,

Attached are a couple documents that I would like you to put with the other stuff that I've sent you. They relate to misconduct committed by the principal who assaulted a student and nothing was done. I have attached the relevant Alabama statute which pertains to mandatory reporting requirements when an assault occurs against a student or school employee. The others are documents I have received from Ms. Calandra Williams, who is now one of my confidential witnesses. Ms. Williams was an assistant principal at McNair when the student was assaulted. The documents contain FERPA protected information, including the name of the victim and other witnesses (all minors) who were seen on the video and identified by Ms. Williams as people that could have been interviewed to verify the assault. To my knowledge, no investigation occurred.

I am feeling a bit more secure because according to an informant, Dr. Scott contacted Chris Pape and told him that I needed to be removed from the DAC because I was asking too many questions. I did not hear this conversation, but I have little reason to doubt its veracity.

When it was suggested to remove me from the DAC, one of the school board members with whom I have been in contact, said, 'I'm pretty sure that Jason has enough information to destroy the district.' Chris Pape agreed because I'm pretty sure he knows how meticulous I am at gathering documentation.

Apparently a student took a video of the incident in which the student was assaulted, but I haven't been able to get ahold of it. I was also told that Mr. Fletcher (the security guard who was asked by the principal to delete the security video of the assault) made a copy of the video. I'm trying to get a copy of it, but so far, I'm not having any luck.

Chris Gregory, DAC Chair, sent an email in which he told me that me sending you information without including him is "not helping" but he rarely answers texts or emails and I'm pretty certain that he had an issue with me sending the email to Mr. Dixon, whom he identified as a 'close friend.'

Hopefully, this is the last update I send you for a while, because I am confident that Chris Pape knows that I have enough information now that if I am attacked, I can release it, which will cause a lot of negative press.

Knowing that you are listening has helped me sleep, more than once, and for that, I am eternally in your debt.

Jas

Attachments:

Attachment 2 (Compliance Information)

Ms. Wellington,

Per our phone conversation on yesterday, I have reviewed the video footage and identified the following students who were in the hallway

Name

Grade 3rd Pd B-Day Class

Berry, Alissa

7 Science-Hollaway

Claybrook-Woods, John

7 Math-Daly

Logan, Zaevion

7 Math-Daly

Moore, Shamari

7 Science-Hollaway

Patrick, Chamariya

7 Choir-Butler

Slaughter, Sean

7 Math-Daly

Ward, Marquez-(Victim)

7 Art-McKay

Williams, Prince 7 Science-Hollaway

As far as the students who were in the class, I will provide you with a class roster. The best time to come over is around 11:45 a.m.

Attachment: Email to Wellington from C.W.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Calandra Williams <calandrawilliams70@yahoo.com>

Subject: Fw: Incident at McNair

Date: April 19, 2019 at 7:47:15 AM CDT

To: "Keller Adam [AL]" <akeller@alaedu.org>

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Williams, Calandra S <Calandra.Williams@hsv-k12.org>

To: Wellington, Shirley <Shirley.Wellington@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Williams, Calandra S <Calandra.Williams@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Friday, April 19, 2019, 7:45:42 AM CDT

Subject: Incident at McNair

Good Morning,

I have attached some information that you may need concerning the incident. Please let me

know if you have any questions.

Thanks for all you do

Calandra Williams, Assistant Principal

McNair Junior High School

5000 Pulaski Pike NW

Huntsville, Alabama 35810

256-428-7660 ext 3684

Education is our passport to the future. For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it

today. – Malcolm X

2 Attachments • Scanned by Gmail

ATTACHMENT 3: ALABAMA SAFE SCHOOLS LAW

ALA CODE § 16-1-24 : Alabama Code - Section 16-1-24: REPORTING OF

PROPERTY DAMAGE AND PHYSICAL ASSAULTS ON STUDENTS AND

SCHOOL PERSONNEL; LEGISLATIVE INTENT; PENALTIES –

(a) For purposes of this section, the following words and phrases shall have the following

respective meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) INCIDENT. Any act of physical violence, with or without a weapon, trespass,

vandalism, or property damage which occurs.

a. On school property; or

b. During school activities, on or off school property; or

c. At any other times when such incident can be reasonably related to school

functions.

Provided, however, that incidents involving only students from the same school wherein

no dangerous weapon was involved and no bodily injury requiring medical attention

occurs shall not be required to be reported as provided herein. All attacks or incidents

involving teachers or other school personnel shall be promptly reported.

(2) PRINCIPAL. The principal or top administrator of any public elementary, junior or

senior high school at which the incident occurred.

(3) SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION. The superintendent of the county or city

board of education in the county in which the school is located.

(4) REPORT. A written narrative report of an incident, the number and names and

addresses of persons involved in the incident, the type of any weapon involved and a

description of any injury or damage resulting from the incident. Said report shall contain

the names and addresses of all known persons present at the time of said incident.

(5) TEACHER AND OTHER SCHOOL EMPLOYEE. An employee of any public

elementary, junior or senior high school at which the incident occurred.

(6) SCHOOL BOARD. The board of education.

(7) COUNTY SHERIFF. The sheriff of the county in which the public school is located.

(b) It is the intention of the Legislature by passage of the section to require principals,

teachers and other school employees of public elementary, junior and senior high

schools to make reports of violent disruptive incidents occurring on school property

during school hours or during school activities conducted on or off school property

after school hours or at any other time when such incident can be reasonably related

to school or school functions and to provide for penalties for failure to report such

incidents.

education of any incident of which they have knowledge. A copy of the report shall

also be furnished to members of the school board and the county sheriff by the

superintendent of education.

(d) Teachers and other school employees shall immediately report to the principal

any incident of which they have knowledge. Said teacher and employee shall assist

the principal in the preparation of the report required under subsection (c) of this

section.

(e) Any superintendent of education, principal, teacher, or employee who violates

the provisions of this section by failure to file a required report shall be guilty of a

Class C misdemeanor.

(Acts 1982, No. 82-515, p. 849, §§1-5.)

ALA CODE § 16-1-24.1 : Alabama Code - Section 16-1-24.1: SAFE SCHOOL AND

DRUG-FREE SCHOOL POLICY; TREATMENT OF POLICY VIOLATORS;

PROMULGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF DISCIPLINE POLICY; LIABILITY

LIMITED FOR DISCIPLINE ACTIONS; LOCAL BOARDS MAY ADOPT MORE

STRINGENT GUIDELINES –

(a) The Legislature finds a compelling public interest in ensuring that schools are made

safe and drug-free for all students and school employees. The Legislature finds the need

for a comprehensive safe school and drug-free school policy to be adopted by the State

Board of Education. This policy should establish minimum standards for classes of

offenses and prescribe uniform minimum procedures and penalties for those who violate

the policies. It is the intent of the Legislature that our schools remain safe and drug-free

for all students and school employees. The State Board of Education shall adopt and all

local boards of education shall uniformly enforce policies that protect all students and

school employees. The State Board of Education shall require local school systems to

modify their policies, practices or procedures so as to ensure a safe school environment

free of illegal drugs, alcohol, or weapons. Any rules and regulations adopted by the State

Board of Education pursuant to this section shall be exempt from Section 41-22-3(3).

These modifications shall include the formulation of a discipline plan setting forth

policies, practices, and procedures dealing with students or other persons who bring

illegal drugs, alcohol, or weapons on a school campus. The discipline plan shall also

include uniform drug-free school policies with uniform penalties.

(b) The principal shall notify appropriate law enforcement officials when any person

violates local board of education policies concerning drugs, alcohol, weapons, physical

harm to a person, or threatened physical harm to a person. If any criminal charge is

warranted arising from the conduct, the principal is authorized to sign the appropriate

warrant. If that person is a student enrolled in any public school in the State of Alabama,

the local school system shall immediately suspend that person from attending regular

classes and schedule a hearing at the earliest possible date, which shall not be later than

five school days. The decision to suspend or initiate criminal charges against a student, or

both, shall include a review and consideration of the student's exceptional status, if

applicable, under Chapter 39, or appropriate federal statutory or case law.

drugs, alcohol, weapons, physical harm to a person, or threatened physical harm to

a person, the person may not be readmitted to the public schools of this state until

(1) criminal charges or offenses arising from the conduct, if any, have been disposed

of by appropriate authorities and (2) the person has satisfied all other requirements

imposed by the local board of education as a condition for readmission.

(d) Any person determined to be guilty of an offense involving drugs, alcohol,

weapons, physical harm to a person, or threatened physical harm to a person, may

be readmitted to the public schools of this state upon such conditions as the local

board of education shall prescribe for preservation of the safety or security of

students and employees of the local school board, which may include, but are not

limited to, psychiatric or psychological evaluation and counseling.

(e)(1) A copy of the school system's discipline plan shall be distributed to all students

enrolled in the system and their parents, guardians, or custodians shall read the plan and

sign a statement verifying that they have been given notice of the discipline policies of

their respective school system. The school board shall have its official discipline plan

reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that its policies and procedures are currently in

compliance with applicable statutes, case law, and state and federal constitutional

provisions.

(2) All discipline plans of school systems shall include, but not be limited to, all of the

following:

a. A parent, guardian, custodian, or person, excluding a foster parent, responsible for the

care or control of a minor child enrolled in a public school system shall be responsible

financially for such child's destructive acts against school property or persons.

b. A parent, guardian, custodian, or person, excluding a foster parent, responsible for the

care or control of a minor child enrolled in a public school system may be requested to

appear at school by an appropriate school official for a conference regarding acts of the

child specified in paragraph a.

c. A parent, guardian, custodian, or person, excluding a foster parent, responsible for the

care or control of a minor child enrolled in a school system who has been summoned by

proper notification by an appropriate school official shall be required under this provision

to attend such discipline conference specified in paragraph b.

(3) Any public school system shall be entitled to recover actual damages, plus necessary

court costs, from the parent or guardian, or both, of any minor who maliciously and

willfully damages or destroys property belonging to the school system. However, this

section shall not apply to parents whose parental control of any child has been removed

by court order or decree or to parents of exceptional children with specific mental and

physical impairments if the damage is determined to result from the impairments. The

action authorized in this section shall be in addition to all other actions which the school

system is entitled to maintain and nothing in this section shall preclude recovery in a

greater amount from the minor or from a person, including the parents or guardian, or

both, for damages to which such minor other person would otherwise be liable.

(4) This section shall apply only to acts committed on or after August 1, 1992.

(f) The local school board shall adopt and make available to all teachers, school

personnel, students, and parents or guardians, at the beginning of the 1992-93 school year

and each school year thereafter, a code of student conduct developed in consultation with

teachers, school personnel, students, and parents or guardians. The code shall be based on

the rules governing student conduct and discipline adopted by the school board and may

be made available at the school level in the student handbook or similar publication. The

code shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(1) Specific grounds for disciplinary action.

(2) Procedures to be followed for acts requiring discipline.

(3) An explanation of the responsibilities and rights of students with regard to attendance,

respect for persons and property, knowledge and observation of rules of conduct, the

right to learn, free speech and student publications, assembly, privacy, and participation

in school programs and activities.

(g) Except in the case of excessive force or cruel and unusual punishment, no certified or

noncertified employee of the State Board of Education or any local board of education

shall be civilly liable for any action carried out in conformity with state law and system

or school rules regarding the control, discipline, suspension, and expulsion of students.

(h) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a local board of education from

promulgating more stringent rules and regulations than those adopted on the state level,

in order to foster and maintain a safe and drug-free environment in the public schools.

(Acts 1991, No. 91-323, p. 602, §22; Acts 1994, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 94-784, p. 72, §1.)

Alabama Code Title 13A. Criminal Code § 13A-6-21

(5) With intent to cause physical injury to a teacher or to an employee of a public

educational institution during or as a result of the performance of his or her duty, he or

she causes physical injury to any person.

Alabama Code Title 16. Education § 16-28A-1

It is the finding of the Alabama Legislature that the people of Alabama have two basic

expectations of their public schools: (1) that students be allowed to learn in a safe

classroom setting where order and discipline are maintained; and (2) that students learn

at the level of their capabilities and achieve accordingly. The Legislature finds further

that every child in Alabama is entitled to have access to a program of instruction which

gives him or her the right to learn in a non-disruptive environment. No student has a

right to be unruly in his or her classroom to the extent that such disruption denies fellow

students of their right to learn. The teacher in each classroom is expected to maintain

order and discipline. Teachers are hereby given the authority and responsibility to use

appropriate means of discipline up to and including corporal punishment as may be

prescribed by the local board of education. So long as teachers follow approved policy

in the exercise of their responsibility to maintain discipline in their classroom, such

teacher shall be immune from civil or criminal liability. It shall be the responsibility of

the local boards of education and the administrators employed by them to provide legal

support to each teacher exercising his or her authority and responsibility to maintain

order and discipline in his or her classroom as long as the teacher follows the local board

of education's policy. Such support for the teacher shall include, but not be limited to,

providing appropriate legal representation to defend the teacher against charges,

filing of a written report pursuant to Section 16-1-24 , seeking the issuance of a

warrant or warrants for any person or persons threatening or assaulting a teacher,

and the timely assistance and cooperation with the appropriate authorities in the

prosecution of any person or persons threatening or assaulting a teacher. Local

school board authorities and school administrators providing such support shall be

absolutely immune from civil and criminal liability for actions authorized or required by

this section.

Alabama Code Title 13A. Criminal Code § 13A-3-24

The use of force upon another person is justified under any of the following

circumstances:

(1) A parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the care and supervision of a

minor or an incompetent person, and a teacher or other person responsible for the care

and supervision of a minor for a special purpose, may use reasonable and appropriate

physical force upon the minor or incompetent person when and to the extent that he

reasonably believes it necessary and appropriate to maintain discipline or to promote the

welfare of the minor or incompetent person.

___________________________________

New Investigation

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Thu, Jan 12, 2:24 PM (12 days ago)

to Brigid

Brigid,

As always, please consider this confidential and not to be shared with HCS, so as not to tip them off that I'm doing an investigation. Although, because it's serious, you might be compelled to report it.

This one is bad...and it hurts my heart. I have been up most of the night thinking about it.

See the attached PDF. I wish I had good things to report to you, I really do. And I'm not sure if Chris Gregory and you have had private conversations about me and potentially kicking me off the DAC, but I want you to know that even if I get kicked off the DAC, I am still going to talk to teachers and even if I'm gone, I'm still going to send things to you, because I feel like you're the only one who can actually force HCS to do something.

As always, I appreciate you.

Jas

ATTACHMENT: JANUARY SEXUAL ASSAULT AT JEMISON FOR BRIGID

To: Brigid Benincasa

From: Jason O’Brien

Date: 1/12/23

Re: Unreported rape at Jemison High School

Brigid,

Yesterday, I ran into a student who is attending classes at UAH. I have taught her before and we have a good relationship. Her name is Sierra Jones, and I want you to consider her as a confidential informant for the DAC. Last night (1/11/23), I conducted and recorded an hour-long interview with her regarding her experiences at Jemison High School. Below is a narrative of the information she relayed to me. You told me that you are able to keep anything I tell you confidential unless a crime was committed, and this is a grey area, because while a crime was committed, I don’t know the rapist’s name yet and I am relaying this information second hand. However, if contacted by law enforcement or someone from the DoJ, she will gladly testify under oath as to the events which I am going to describe below.

Field Notes, 1/11/23

Interviewee: Sierra Jones, Girls’ basketball coach, Jemison High School

Sierra contacted me because she is ready to quit her job because of all the ‘unethical and illegal stuff that HCS is doing.” Before I relay the information regarding the sexual assault, I want you to know that she speaks very highly of Dr. Sutton, who she said “Spends a lot of time at Jemison cleaning up the principal’s messes.” The principal’s name is Dr. Demetris Harris-Leverrett (annual salary $136,077.88) and the Assistant Principal (AP) who I will Mr. Maynard James. Mr. James was transferred after the incident and is now the AP at Chapman Middle School.

On November 8, 2023, a ninth grade female student named Naomi Lisa Bonds got in trouble at a basketball game that took place at Jemison High School. Ms. Bonds was told that she had to leave the game by security personnel. It was night and she walked home alone. On the way home, another student who attends Jemison followed her outside the gym and raped her. I don’t have details on where it happened or any other details, yet, but I will pass along the report that Sierra wrote for her principal when she shares it with me.

On November 9, 2023 (the day after the alleged sexual assault) Ms. Bonds returned to school. On that day, Ms. Bonds reported to Mr. James that she had been raped by another student at Jemison (and shared his name). Mr. James told Ms. Bonds that she could spend the day in “In School Suspension” (ISS), not as a punishment, but to decompress after the attack.

According to Sierra, Mr. James contacted the parents, but to her knowledge, neither DHR nor HPD were contacted. On November 9, 2023, unbeknownst to Mr. James, the alleged assailant got in trouble at school and security took him to…………ISS. The rape victim had to spend the entire day in ISS with the student, about whom she reported a sexual assault. According to Sierra, Mr. James did not know that the alleged assailant was in ISS and only found out at the end of the day.

Sierra saw that Ms. Bonds was in ISS and went to ISS to talk to her. Ms. Bonds confided in Sierra and told her about the sexual assault. I’m not sure on the timing, but later Sierra also found out that the rapist was in ISS with Ms. Bonds. I know that Sierra was not told the boy’s name, and I also know that if Ms. Bonds had said “My rapist is in ISS with me” she would have immediately done something to remove the victim from coming in contact with the alleged assailant.

Because principal Leverrette is trying to fire Sierra (Sierra was asked to do something unethical and Dr. L got in trouble for making Sierra do it), Leverrette has a security guard named The Architectert Patton (everyone calls him “Rock”) watch Sierra on camera. After Sierra spoke with the victim, Dr. Leverrette called her in her office and said, “We saw you on camera talking to Noami, what did you talk about?” Sierra was asked to write a report for Leverrette and then has stayed out of it.

The following document was provided to me by Sierra. At the time that she sent the document, she did not know the name of the student who raped the girl, but this is a list of all the students who were in ISS on November 9, 2023. The student who reportedly raped the girl is one of the boys listed on the email sent to Ms. Jones in Figure 1.

Figure 1: ISS sign-in sheet, November 9, 2023, Jemison High School

The victim’s name is highlighted in yellow. **Over the course of writing this document, I received a text from Sierra. I asked her this morning to try find out the identity of the boy who allegedly assaulted her. She texted back at 10:33 a.m. and said “Cortavious Moore but let me confirm. I’m pretty sure it’s him.” The only way to absolutely confirm would be to talk to Mr. James, the victim, or her mother. If I get confirmation, I will notify you via email.

Mandatory Reporting Guidelines in Alabama

These are the latest guidelines for educators regarding their responsibilities as ‘mandatory reporters’ of suspected abuse or neglect.

https://ctf.alabama.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Mandatory-Reporting-and-Erins-Law-2022.pdf

According to slide 10 of this presentation “Any person whose profession brings them in contact with children on a daily basis is legally obligated to report signs of suspected child abuse or neglect.” The slide then lists people who are considered to be ‘mandatory reporters.’ In the first column, the fifth occupation is listed as “School Teachers/Officials.” At the time that the sexual assault was reported to Mr. James (November 9, 2023), he was working as an administrator at Jemison High School.

According to Alabama Alabama Code § 26-14-1(1), “Sexual abuse includes the rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children.”

Additionally, “Any person who shall knowingly fail to make the report required by this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a sentence of not more than 6 months’ imprisonment or a fine not more than $500.00.” Citation: Ala. Code § 26-14-13

To summarize:

Ms. Fields was forced to leave campus at night, and on her way home she was sexually assaulted by another student from the school. She then was forced to spend the next day in ISS with the person who sexually assaulted her. Mr. James told Sierra that he reported it to the victim’s mother, but he was legally REQUIRED to report the sexual assault to the Alabama DHR and he did not. The girl is now enrolled at Jemison in the Virtual School, so she doesn’t have to go to campus. I doubt that Nancy’s mother reported the assault to the police, because the accused assailant is still at Jemison and Sierra said there is no documentation in Bloom about his assault.

NEXT STEPS

Sierra gave my name to Mr. Okeke (who is employed at Jemison according to Sierra, but I can’t find his name listed on the faculty pages). I reached out to him this morning and he texted immediately and indicated that he’s willing to share information with me on Saturday (time and place TBD).

Also, Sierra has cultivated a relationship with the bookkeeper at the school. Her name is Susan Christian. Sierra said “She’s tired of all the shady stuff the principal is doing. I’m pretty sure she’ll talk to you, but she is very careful, we only whisper when we talk.” I’m certain that Dr. Collins misappropriated Title I funds at McNair (see previous reports) and I’m interested in knowing what Ms. Christian will share with me. I am going to (very carefully) see if she’ll talk to me. If so, you’ll receive all the information that I have.

Last Point

I know that you are bound by the constraints of your position as a lawyer so that you are not really allowed to tell me anything. I understand that. In an earlier email (or conversation) you assured me that you will not share anything I ask you to not share with Mr. Pape or the District, unless it is serious enough that you have an obligation to share it with him and at that point, you would have to tell him the source of the information. Because the information I have just shared implicates Mr. James (and Dr. Leverrette, who also knows the sexual assault occurred) in a misdemeanor for not reporting the alleged crime to DHR, you may very well have to act on this information and share it with the District. If you share this with Mr. Pape, he will share it with the Principal, and they will know that Sierra was the source. If you are compelled by law to share it, I would ask, as a courtesy, and assuming you are able to, that you contact me and tell me that because of the seriousness of the incident, you have reported it to HCS. If you report it and Sierra is fired or retaliated against, I will encourage her (with my help) to seek legal counsel and share information regarding why she was fired. If you forward this to the judge on the case, please help him understand that the first time that one of my witnesses gets fired for talking to me, it will potentially stop teachers from sharing truthful information with me.

As always, thank you for making me feel heard.

Re: [EXTERNAL] New Investigation

Jason O'Brien <jlo0005@uah.edu>

Fri, Jan 13, 2:38 PM (11 days ago)

to Brigid

Brigid,

I can't stop thinking about the victim...I have a daughter.

On Fri, Jan 13, 2023 at 1:03 PM Benincasa, Brigid (CRT) <Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov> wrote:

Hi Jason,

Thank you for providing this information, which we are reviewing. We will let you know if there’s anything else we need from you.

Thank you,

Brigid

Brigid Benincasa | Trial Attorney

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

Educational Opportunities Section

Direct: (202) 616-2540 | Main: (202) 514-4092 | Fax: (202) 514-8337

Email: Brigid.Benincasa@usdoj.gov

TWO ATTACHMENTS ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES:

ATTACHMENT 1: 11.17 EMAIL TO PRINCIPAL REGARDING ASSAULT

From: Jones, Sierra

Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2022 9:14 AM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: 9th Grade - Naomi Bonds

Good Morning Dr. Leverette,

Here is the report:

On Nov 1st, I got a few text, from Jaila Gambrell (one of my basketball players) as Naomi and her friends were trying to fight her. Jaila's Mom calls me as well concerned about her daughter, as Jaila isn't the type to get into fights and has never been in one. I call Mr. James to notify him of what is going on. She has PE first block with her. Mr. James pulls her out of class and tries to figure out the situation. During 2nd block, I ask Ms. Brenda can we sit down with Naomi as I heard that this is common with her trying to get into fights with females over a boy. Ms. Brenda calls Mr. James, and Coach Barnes and I meet in their office upstairs. Sitting with Naomi, she had a strong wall, anger, and an attitude as a cover up. I could tell she's hurt. We have a restorative conversation with Naomi, and I tell her she has a root to her anger. I challenged her to write down what her root is. I told her I would find her Wednesday to get the paper.

On Wednesday, I find her during 2nd block and she wrote the following:

"It started because I had to come to Alabama so I been mad about it fighting makes me feel better because I don't have no one to let everything out to I rather keep it that way."

Days passed, and she was on my heart to find, to follow up with but every time I tried, something came up and I had to go.

On November 9th , I am in the hallway and I see her walking by with sunglasses on and she was on her way to ISS. It was during 2nd block. I stop her and tell her that I wanted to walk with her to talk.

We get into the gym and sit on the bleachers.. I first talked to her about her response to my challenge, and her root. Then I looked at her, and told her I can tell something is wrong. She was quiet... then I told her you have someone you can talk to.. view me as your big sister.

She then told me what happened to her after the game (Nov 8th ). She got kicked out of the game.. and she was with a boy (she didn't say his name nor did I ask what his name was)... she said he asked her to go for a walk.. they were outside near some house.. and he started kissing on her.. she said she had never had sex before and didn't want to... he grabbed her hand and made her fill on his private part. She kept saying she didn't want to but he kept going, kissing her, and then preceded and took her pants down. The boy was older than her.

I can't remember exactly what she said about how she got away. She told me the whole story in a whisper. I could tell she was numb. I asked her how does she feel now? and she said disappointed and sad. She said that was her first time and she didn't want to have sex.

I told her thank you for sharing, and then I told her my story as I can relate to what happened to her. We exchanged phone numbers, and I told her we would do check-ins with each other. I told her she needs me as I need her! I told her to text me a day/time that she would like to check-in with each other in the morning.

When we finished talking, she went to ISS, and I went to Mr. James to report what she all she just told me.

On Nov 9th around 11:03pm, she told me she would like to do Mondays but she would let me know for sure.

On Nov 14th , I didn't see her at school...

Yesterday, Nov 16th at 8:21am I texted her and said, "Hey! Checking on you.. you good? Haven't seen you"

She responded and said, "Yeah I'm good my mom didn't want me to go to school while he goin ta school but I'm going back to Texas on December 1st."

I told her after Thanksgiving break, I would like to talk before she leaves.

Her cell is her icloud: naebonds@icloud.com

ATTACHMENT 2: CHAIN OF EMAILS, VARIOUS SUBJECTS

BOOSTER CLUB

From: Watkins, Michelle <Michelle.Watkins@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2023 9:31 AM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>; Pride, Howard <Howard.Pride@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Booster Club

Good morning,

I am requesting Booster Club meeting dates and the cost for joining.

Is the Booster Club a 501c3?

V/R,

Michelle

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure.

Get Outlook for iOS

BLACK HISTORY MONTH COMMITTEE

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2022 1:03 AM

To: James, Maynard <Maynard.James@hsv-k12.org>; Okeke, Obasi <Obasi.Okeke@hsv-k12.org>; Oliver, Sabrina C <Sabrina.Oliver@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>; kelly, lance <lance.kelly@hsv-k12.org>; Bush, Vanessea <vanessea.bush@hsv-k12.org>; Cole, Chancellor <Chancellor.Cole@hsv-k12.org>; Butler, Elizabeth <Elizabeth.Butler@hsv-k12.org>; Buzhardt, Rose <Rose.Buzhardt@hsv-k12.org>; Crews, Aliyah <aliyah.crews@hsv-k12.org>; Erickson, Todd <Todd.Erickson@hsv-k12.org>; Brown, April <april.brown@hsv-k12.org>; evans, rodney <rodney.evans@hsv-k12.org>; Donnell, Larinda <Larinda.Donnell@hsv-k12.org>; Morris, Delinda <Delinda.Morris@hsv-k12.org>; Hughes, Brittany <Brittany.Hughes@hsv-k12.org>; ballard, jazzalyn <jazzalyn.ballard@hsv-k12.org>; Moseley, Jawonki <Jawonki.Moseley@hsv-k12.org>; Kersey, Timothy <Timothy.Kersey@hsv-k12.org>; jones, tyrone <tyrone.jones@hsv-k12.org>; Sutton, Jameka <Jameka.Sutton@hsv-k12.org>; Pearson, Reginald D. <Reginald.Pearson@hsv-k12.org>; Young, Terrance D <Terrance.Young@hsv-k12.org>; green, mark <mark.green@hsv-k12.org>; Johnson, Sheila K. <Sheila.Johnson@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Butler, Elizabeth <Elizabeth.Butler@hsv-k12.org>; Morris, Delinda <Delinda.Morris@hsv-k12.org>; Johnson, Sheila K. <Sheila.Johnson@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: BHM Committee

Mr. James,

To clarify; there is/was not any confusion regarding the Black History theme.

As you did not attend the initial meeting whereas the theme and the vision was finalized, I will share the notes from the December 17 meeting. Perhaps some of the committee members did not recall the theme that I approved. Fortunately, I retained the notes from the meeting.

We will move forward with the original theme that I approved during that meeting.

Please also share with the entire committee the play that you plan to include into the program.

As you stated during a meeting with me on Jan 6, you did not have the final version. The committee will need to have that information to assist in preparing the students, incorporating their talents, services, partnerships, connections, and offering assistance.

It will be helpful for me have the suggestions shared in todays meeting from the teachers/committee. Can you send those suggestions to me?

You mentioned to me (previously) that the play with me incorporated at the end of the program. What will be the layout for the program? Please share what was suggested/discussed during today’s meeting.

What activities will be conducted leading up to the Black History Program? Please share the suggestions from the committee for my approval.

I have added the committee members who attended the initial meeting to this correspondence.

The program date is scheduled for February 25.

Let’s discuss next steps this morning.

Thanks

Get Outlook for iOS

From: James, Maynard <Maynard.James@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2022 10:23:42 PM

To: Okeke, Obasi <Obasi.Okeke@hsv-k12.org>; Oliver, Sabrina C <Sabrina.Oliver@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>; kelly, lance <lance.kelly@hsv-k12.org>; Bush, Vanessea <vanessea.bush@hsv-k12.org>; Cole, Chancellor <Chancellor.Cole@hsv-k12.org>; Butler, Elizabeth <Elizabeth.Butler@hsv-k12.org>; Buzhardt, Rose <Rose.Buzhardt@hsv-k12.org>; Crews, Aliyah <aliyah.crews@hsv-k12.org>; Erickson, Todd <Todd.Erickson@hsv-k12.org>; Brown, April <april.brown@hsv-k12.org>; evans, rodney <rodney.evans@hsv-k12.org>; Donnell, Larinda <Larinda.Donnell@hsv-k12.org>; Morris, Delinda <Delinda.Morris@hsv-k12.org>; Hughes, Brittany <Brittany.Hughes@hsv-k12.org>; ballard, jazzalyn <jazzalyn.ballard@hsv-k12.org>; Moseley, Jawonki <Jawonki.Moseley@hsv-k12.org>; Kersey, Timothy <Timothy.Kersey@hsv-k12.org>; jones, tyrone <tyrone.jones@hsv-k12.org>; Sutton, Jameka <Jameka.Sutton@hsv-k12.org>; Pearson, Reginald D. <Reginald.Pearson@hsv-k12.org>; Young, Terrance D <Terrance.Young@hsv-k12.org>; green, mark <mark.green@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: BHM Committee

Black History Committee,

Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to attend today's meeting.

After receiving feedback, I wanted to clarify a few things.

The intended purpose of the committee is to collaborate and implement a shared vision for the Black History Program.

Due to time constraints and some confusion surrounding the Black History Month Theme, the shared vision of the school will be the overarching theme for Black History Month 2022.

The theme for Black History Month 2022 is-

Achieving Excellence: Invest Fully...Persevere Always...Achieve Excellence.

One of the goals for this year's Black History program is student-centered creativity. To facilitate creativity among our scholars, committee members may choose a specific Team(s) to collaborate and create.

The specific Teams are the following:

⦁ Social Media Team

⦁ Community Connections Team

⦁ Organizational/Systems Team

⦁ Black History Month Activities Team

⦁ School Communication Team

⦁ Fine Arts Team

**Please email me the specific Team(s) that you would like to be a part of and during the next committee meeting, the roles/responsibilities will be discussed.

Each Team will have autonomy to collaborate and then come together as a committee to create a Black History Month that embodies the theme of Achieving Excellence: Invest Fully...Persevere Always...Achieve Excellence.

Upcoming Dates:

Thursday, 1/13/- Black History Month Meeting

Friday, 1/14/- School Communication & Fine Arts Team Meeting

I have attached the list of the Jemison High 2022 Black History Month Committee members.

Maynard James

Assistant Principal

Mae C. Jemison High School

maynard.james@hsv-k12.org

School Phone: (256) 428-8100

(256) 698-7544 cell

MOLD IN THE GYM

From: Howard, Mac J <Mac.Howard@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, September 26, 2022 12:18 PM

To: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Assistance/ Advice Needed

Spoke to Mr. Priest this morning. He notified me that the Gym was good to practice in. I told Dr. Leverette and Coach Jones what he said this morning.

Mac A Howard, Jr

Mac A Howard Jr.

Athletic & Extracurricular Activities Coordinator

Huntsville City Schools

Office:(256)428-6867 Cell:(256)503-5564

"Individual commitment to a group effort--that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." --Vince Lombardi

From: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, September 26, 2022 6:58 AM

To: Howard, Mac J <Mac.Howard@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Assistance/ Advice Needed

Good morning!

Thank you so much and please do let me know.

Hope you had a restful weekend,

Sierra

From: Howard, Mac J <Mac.Howard@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Friday, September 23, 2022 3:19 PM

To: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Assistance/ Advice Needed

Hey Coach,

I am going to check on Monday with facilities about the progress on the mold cleanup and also about practicing in the gym. I will let you know on Monday afternoon.

Mac A Howard, Jr

Mac A Howard Jr.

Athletic & Extracurricular Activities Coordinator

Huntsville City Schools

Office:(256)428-6867 Cell:(256)503-5564

"Individual commitment to a group effort--that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work." --Vince Lombardi

From: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Friday, September 23, 2022 8:24 AM

To: Howard, Mac J <Mac.Howard@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Assistance/ Advice Needed

Good morning Coach!

Happy Friday to you!! I wanted to get your thoughts/assistance on a situation. You know our locker room has been getting worked on since August due to the mold. I wasn't going to say anything and just make the best out of the situation but since we are getting closer to November....

Coach Pride and I were told that we aren't allowed to practice in the main gym, yet we've been having pep rally's in the gym (we have another today), ROTC has used the gym to practice and it's quite obvious what is happening. I was wondering if there's any help, we can get to use the gym or if Pride and I just need to stick it out.

Thanks,

ADDITIONAL EMAIL: MOLD GYM

From: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, September 26, 2022 1:44 PM

To: Howard, Mac J <Mac.Howard@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Fw: Competition Gym Availability

Thanks for trying!

I guess whenever she sees fit but hopefully she'll call today.

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, September 26, 2022 1:42 PM

To: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>; Pride, Howard <Howard.Pride@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Competition Gym Availability

Once I speak directly to the Contractor, I will follow all coaches.

Demetris Harris-Leverette, Ed.D

Principal, Huntsville City Schools

Mae C. Jemison High School

5000 Pulaski Pike

Huntsville Al. 35810

School Phone Number: 256-428-8100

Cell Phone # 256-652-0204

Email Address: Demetris.Harris@HSV-K12.ORG

The Mae Jemison HS PTSA FaceBook page:

Dr. Mae C. Jemison High School Jaguars PTA

"Don't let anyone The Architect you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's our place in the world; It's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live".... Dr. Mae C. Jemison

From: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, September 26, 2022 1:41 PM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>; Pride, Howard <Howard.Pride@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Competition Gym Availability

Good Afternoon Dr. Leverette,

Hope your day is going well. I just wanted to touch back base with you and see if we are allowed to use the gym? I know the locker rooms are off limits, but just wanted to follow back up with you about the competition gym. With the season approaching/conditioning it would be very beneficial to be able to get back on the floor for game like situations.

Thanks for all you do,

Coach SJ

Tutoring

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, October 24, 2022 1:10 PM

To: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Daniel, Army I <Army.Daniel@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: JHS Tutoring UPDATE

Coach S. Jones,

I have spoken to Mr. Daniel: tutoring will be conducted in his room for the girls basketball team.

Please let me know if you have any questions or additional assistance.

Thanks

Demetris Harris-Leverette, Ed.D

Principal, Huntsville City Schools

Mae C. Jemison High School

5000 Pulaski Pike

Huntsville Al. 35810

School Phone Number: 256-428-8100

Cell Phone # 256-652-0204

Email Address: Demetris.Harris@HSV-K12.ORG

The Mae Jemison HS PTSA FaceBook page:

Dr. Mae C. Jemison High School Jaguars PTA

From: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2022 2:32 PM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Daniel, Army I <Army.Daniel@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: JHS Tutoring UPDATE

Okay, sounds good.. I will confirm with Mr. Daniel for the tutoring to be conducted in his room.

Thank you,

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2022 2:19 PM

To: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Daniel, Army I <Army.Daniel@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: JHS Tutoring UPDATE

Great idea.

Yes. Is this Mr. Daniel classroom? If not, he may want to conducted in his room.

Get Outlook for iOS

From: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2022 10:15:30 AM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Daniel, Army I <Army.Daniel@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: JHS Tutoring UPDATE

Good Morning!

I was talking to Mr. Daniels today, my girls started going to NACEE tutoring this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.. since there are a lot of them and NACEE has specific guidelines... is there a way when JHS After School- Tutoring begins that I can get one math tutor to be with my girls in 1273 on those two days.. Tuesday and Wednesday from 4-515pm?

Let me know your thoughts,

Coach SJ

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2022 9:02 AM

To: Mae C Jemison HS Jaguars Faculty & Staff <maejemisonhsjaguars@HuntsvilleCitySchools.onmicrosoft.com>

Subject: Re: JHS Tutoring UPDATE

Good Morning,

Update:

JHS after school tutoring will begin on October 26.

A flyer with additional information/locations is forthcoming.

Thanks

Get Outlook for iOS

ReplyReply allForward

PBIS AWARDS

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 9:24 AM

To: Erickson, Todd <Todd.Erickson@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Concession Stand: PBIS awards

Mr. Erickson,

I attended the booster club meeting on yesterday afternoon after I spoke to you regarding the recommendation made by Coach S. Jones regarding the PBIS incentive relative to students receiving "free items" from the concession stand during our home basketball game.

You indicated Coach S. Jones stated the booster club voted on the PBIS award for the concession stand.

There must be some confusion as the booster club members were not aware of the suggestion to align with the PBIS for incentives. They were unaware of what the PBIS is. Coach Pride graciously shared the of what PBIS stands for.

I shared the process of the booster club must vote on the recommendation to allow snacks to be provided as an incentive during our home games and the specifics must be outlined in their meeting notes.

Please do not hand out any of the "tickets" until the booster club has voted and approved their partnership. Once approved, we will surely being advertising the requirements.

Thank you for being diligent in promoting POSITIVITY throughout the building.

Demetris Harris-Leverette, Ed.D

Principal, Huntsville City Schools

Mae C. Jemison High School

5000 Pulaski Pike

Huntsville Al. 35810

School Phone Number: 256-428-8100

Cell Phone # 256-652-0204

Email Address: Demetris.Harris@HSV-K12.ORG

The Mae Jemison HS PTSA FaceBook page:

Dr. Mae C. Jemison High School Jaguars PTA

ReplyReply allForward

Athlete with Dual addresses

From: jhs.girlscoach <jhs.girlscoach@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 7:23 PM

To: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Fw: D. Thompson

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, October 31, 2022 9:12 AM

To: Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>; Mckellery, Patricia <Patricia.Mckellery@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: jhs.girlscoach <jhs.girlscoach@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>; Harden, Nicole <Nicole.Harden@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: D

Thank you.

It’s imperative that we communicate with a parent and share the requirements/policy outlined by HCS.

Coach S. Jones;

K. Twill not be allowed to continue to participate in basketball until we have meet with the parent. We must be in compliance with the AHSAA regulations.

Get Outlook for iOS

From: Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, October 31, 2022 7:35:05 AM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>; Mckellery, Patricia <Patricia.Mckellery@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: jhs.girlscoach <jhs.girlscoach@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>; Harden, Nicole <Nicole.Harden@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: D. T

Dr. Leverette,

I have not been able to reach the mother, so I spoke with the daughter about letting the mother know she needs to provide proof of residency. The daughter told me she applied for M about 2 weeks ago. I have copied Mrs. H on this email to verify. This is the 1st I have heard about M

Thanks,

Jean Matthews

Registrar

Jemison High School

5000 Pulaski Pike NW

Huntsville, AL 35810

256-428-8100 phone

256-428-8101 fax

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, October 31, 2022 7:25 AM

To: Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>; Mckellery, Patricia <Patricia.Mckellery@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: jhs.girlscoach <jhs.girlscoach@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: D.

Good Morning

Hás the parent provided the required paperwork relative to proof of residence?

Has a home visit been conducted?

Get Outlook for iOS

From: Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, October 31, 2022 7:22:58 AM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>; Mckellery, Patricia <Patricia.Mckellery@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: jhs.girlscoach <jhs.girlscoach@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: D. T

Dr. Leverette,

I will let you know by emailing the proof of residence she provides.

Thanks,

Jean Matthews

Registrar

Jemison High School

5000 Pulaski Pike NW

Huntsville, AL 35810

256-428-8100 phone

256-428-8101 fax

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2022 2:54 PM

To: Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>; Mckellery, Patricia <Patricia.Mckellery@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: jhs.girlscoach <jhs.girlscoach@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: D. T

Mrs. Matthews,

Hás the parent provided the required paperwork relative to proof of residence? Lease/deed or mortgage.

I am very concerned about the student absences/attendance.

We will also need a home visit as she is a athlete and it has been reported that is out of zone.

Get Outlook for iOS

From: Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Friday, January 7, 2022 3:33 PM

To: Harris, Demetris

Cc: jhs.girlscoach; Jones, Jennifer

Subject: Re: D. Thompson

Dr. Leverette,

I spoke with the mother of D. today. She stated that she lives at the Bonnell address with her daughter D. She told me that her daughter D. is at both addresses, as she has a brother at the address in GHS zone. The mother is completing a Shared Residence Affidavit on Monday and will bring all documentation that day showing that her mail is coming to the address on Bonnell Dr. I verified with the mom the address in SIS and the actual address to verify it was correct in our system and noted that the Apt C was not on our system. I have corrected. The mother forgot to put in the registration so when added to SIS it was not there.

Please let me know if I need to do anything else regarding this.

Sincerely,

Jean Matthews

Registrar

Jemison High School

5000 Pulaski Pike NW

Huntsville, AL 35810

256-428-8100 phone

256-428-8101 fax

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Friday, December 17, 2021 11:59 AM

To: Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: jhs.girlscoach <jhs.girlscoach@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Fw: D. Thompson

Mrs. Matthews,

Please verify the proof of residency for the student listed. She appears to live in the Grissom zone. We need verification of residency.

Thanks

Demetris Harris-Leverette, Ed.D

Principal, Huntsville City Schools

Mae C. Jemison High School

5000 Pulaski Pike

Huntsville Al. 35810

School Phone Number: 256-428-8100

Cell Phone # 256-652-0204

Email Address: Demetris.Harris@HSV-K12.ORG

The Mae Jemison HS PTSA FaceBook page:

Dr. Mae C. Jemison High School Jaguars PTA

From: Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Friday, December 17, 2021 7:37 AM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: D. Thompson

Shes in the 10th, she was our student last year

...

[Message clipped] View entire message

ReplyReply allForward

STUDENT ZONE FOR ELIGIBILITY

From: Harden, Nicole <Nicole.Harden@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Thursday, November 3, 2022 4:09 PM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>; Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>; Donnell, Larinda <Larinda.Donnell@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Smith, Towana <Towana.Smith@hsv-k12.org>; Sutton, Clarence <Clarence.Sutton@hsv-k12.org>; Craig, Andy <Andy.Craig@hsv-k12.org>; Howard, Mac J <Mac.Howard@hsv-k12.org>; Green, Jasmine <Jasmine.Green@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: RE: Concerns regarding MV Student Athlete

Thank you for this information Dr. Leverette. This is all very helpful. Ms. Thompson’s MV application was reviewed and approved yesterday, Wednesday, November 3rd. I’ve shared with mom that if Kourtney continues to miss class(es), she can be transferred to her currently zoned school. I’m hoping she discusses this with her child and put an end to her truancy pThe Architectlems. Please let me know when the new meeting time/date is confirmed. I would like to attend just in case she’s in need of anymore of our services. As always, let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

Have a great evening,

Nicole Harden

Special Populations Liaison

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Thursday, November 3, 2022 3:38 PM

To: Harden, Nicole <Nicole.Harden@hsv-k12.org>; Matthews, Jean E <Jean.Matthews@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>; Donnell, Larinda <Larinda.Donnell@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Smith, Towana <Towana.Smith@hsv-k12.org>; Sutton, Clarence <Clarence.Sutton@hsv-k12.org>; Craig, Andy <Andy.Craig@hsv-k12.org>; Howard, Mac J <Mac.Howard@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Concerns regarding MV Student Athlete

Thank you.

On September 1, a teacher notified me that she was concerned that the student was excessively late or missed classes on a consistent basis. Another teacher indicated that the student was "possibly" living out of zone, as the basketball coach had previously picked the student up for practice on the south parkway school zone (as shared by the student) in the presence of the entire class. The student indicated she was "living with her brother".

I, then, solicited the assistance of the HCS Social Worker after a student referral card was submitted by the 1st block teacher. After contacting the parent multiple times, she refused to attend any scheduled meetings that had been requested by me and/or the Attendance Team. Mom did share she was evicted to the Social Worker, but two weeks ago, she indicated to a teacher that her apartment caught on fire after being contacted regarding the chronic absences.

It wasn't until last Friday that the parent agreed to meet regarding with us on Monday regarding our repeated calls to address the attendance issues, then she submitted the McKinney-Vento application prior to our scheduled meeting.

I did share with the parent (and this year's Coach who shared my emails with the parent ahd the District) that the students would not be allowed to participate in any sports team as she previously missed a total of 82 days of school.

During my phone conference on yesterday to discuss her child's chronic absences, the mom indicated she was not concerned about her child playing basketball, she needed her to focus on improving her grades and getting to school on time (from whomever was bringing her every day).

You only shared with me yesterday that she was approved for the MV after I notified you of mom's request for a meeting.

Moving forward, she and all other students have full access to all school activities, useless academic/behavior/attendance is an issue/concern.

As the established practice at JHS, any student with academic/behavior/attendance issues will not participate in any sports team. Our focal point is to continue to promote academic excellence/daily attendance with all of our students.

Thanks for your continued SUPPORT of the JAGS!

Demetris Harris-Leverette, Ed.D

Principal, Huntsville City Schools

Mae C. Jemison High School

5000 Pulaski Pike

Huntsville Al. 35810

School Phone Number: 256-428-8100

Cell Phone # 256-652-0204

Email Address: Demetris.Harris@HSV-K12.ORG

The Mae Jemison HS PTSA FaceBook page:

Dr. Mae C. Jemison High School Jaguars PTA

From: Harden, Nicole <Nicole.Harden@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Thursday, November 3, 2022 2:34 PM

Cc: Smith, Towana <Towana.Smith@hsv-k12.org>; Sutton, Clarence <Clarence.Sutton@hsv-k12.org>; Craig, Andy <Andy.Craig@hsv-k12.org>; Howard, Mac J <Mac.Howard@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Concerns regarding MV Student Athlete

Dr. Leverette,

Please see the email below from the State’s Homeless Liaison, Ladonna Rudolph. If Courtney’s address and/or truancy pThe Architectlems are the only things keeping her from practicing and playing with the basketball team, she should now be allowed to participate being that we have approved her for McKinney-Vento and the barriers causing the truancy have been addressed. We can also go back and mark some of the absences that she accumulated as approved. I can work with Ms. Thompson and Mrs. Matthews on that at a later date.

Thanks,

Nicole Harden

Special Populations Liaison

From: Rudolph LaDonna <ladonna.rudolph@ALSDE.edu>

Sent: Thursday, November 3, 2022 12:49 PM

To: Harden, Nicole <Nicole.Harden@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Scogin Annette <annette.scogin@ALSDE.edu>

Subject: [External] Re: Concerns regarding MV Student Athlete

Good morning, what does the district policy say about excessive tardies/ absences and athletics? Has the student been referred for early warning? Seemingly, if the student has been absent her grades should be impacted therefore, if she has passing grades and is not absent due to suspension, she should be allowed to continue to play. Furthermore, it seems that transportation may have been a barrier for her and now that you have resolved that issue, she should have full access to all school activities under MV.

Kind regards,

Ladonna Rudolph, Ed.S., J.D.,

Education Specialist and

Homeless Coordinator ALSDE

From: Harden, Nicole <Nicole.Harden@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Thursday, November 3, 2022 11:42 AM

To: Rudolph LaDonna <ladonna.rudolph@ALSDE.edu>

Cc: Smith Towana <Towana.Smith@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Concerns regarding MV Student Athlete

LaDonna,

We have an MV student that was recently identified as MV. She was told that she could not practice with the team or participate in any of the school’s basketball games due to her excessive tardies/absences. Once we identified her as MV, I was able to assign her to a bus to help eliminate that barrier. Today was her first day riding the bus and she made it to school on time. Can the school continue to keep her off the team due to her history of excessive tardies/absences. Please advise.

Thanks,

Nicole Harden

Special Populations Liaison

...

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Removing announcer from games

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Saturday, November 5, 2022 6:44 AM

To: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Announcer: Inconsistent Practices

Based on you sharing with us that you did not want him to be the announcer for this years games in a previous meeting, I have already selected someone else. I shared the conversation with him previously and again at last nights game.

I am consistently reiterating the importance of why all your decisions need to be clear, concise, and approved by me and AD J. Jones.. This would eliminate all confusion with the girls basketball program.

Please notify him of that previous conversation.

Moving forward, this years announcer has already been contacted and confirmed.

Also: per the janitorial staff, please do not allow any of the pre Game meals to be served in the competition gym. I, specially, shared this request with you in an email last week. All meals will be served in the cafeteria to our amazing student-athletes, as this will eliminate and decrease the possibly of rodents in the area (as last year meals were left in the area and not discarded).

Please let me know if you have any questions or need support.

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Go JAGS

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From: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Saturday, November 5, 2022 12:49:45 AM

To: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Announcer: Inconsistent Practices

Good evening,

Just wanted to let you know, Al Holden talked to me tonight after the game as he was still not clear about announcing for the upcoming season and I wanted to let you know, I told him I was excited about him announcing and I’ll see him at Tuesday’s game.

Thanks for all you do,

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, September 19, 2022 4:35 PM

To: Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>

Cc: Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Announcer: Inconsistent Practices

Meeting? We did not have a meeting today.

There was not any confusion, you shared you would be replacing Mr. Holden as the basketball announcer. And I shared your decision with him.

This is the continued concern I have shared with you repeatedly. Your inconsistent practices/expectations when making decisions causes issues/concerns with the girls basketball program.

I will contact Mr. Holden to share next steps.

Thanks

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ReplyReply allForward

Concessions at games dispute

From: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, November 14, 2022 8:02 AM

To: Shankles, Michael <michael.shankles@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Sierra <sierra.jones@hsv-k12.org>; Jones, Jennifer <Jennifer.Jones@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Wrestling Dual: 11/14

Coach Shankles,

As we planned this schoolwide, we did not discussed the concessions being sold by the Girls Basketball Team. I have already approved concession to be sold by SGA and Track.

As this was not discussed, the girls basketball team will not be needed.

All request must be approved by me to avoid conflicts and confusion.

Thanks

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From: Shankles, Michael <michael.shankles@hsv-k12.org>

Sent: Monday, November 14, 2022 7:28:54 AM

To: Mae C Jemison HS Jaguars Faculty & Staff <maejemisonhsjaguars@HuntsvilleCitySchools.onmicrosoft.com>

Cc: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Re: Wrestling Dual: 11/14

Addition: Please dismiss Girls Basketball Managers to the gym at 1:30pm to set up concessions.

Thank you,

Arick Shankles

Driver's Education Teacher

Head Wrestling Coach

Jemison High School

2566471660

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

From: Shankles, Michael

Sent: Monday, November 14, 2022 7:20 AM

To: Mae C Jemison HS Jaguars Faculty & Staff <maejemisonhsjaguars@HuntsvilleCitySchools.onmicrosoft.com>

Cc: Harris, Demetris <Demetris.Harris@hsv-k12.org>

Subject: Wrestling Dual: 11/14

Good morning staff,

Today is our wrestling home opener vs. Columbia and Huntsville. As many staff and students are unfamiliar with wrestling, this is a great day to learn about the sport and see some of our athletes compete! Please encourage your students to go on GoFan and purchase tickets prior to dismissal so that dismissal runs smoothly.

12:00pm: Wrestlers Dismiss from Class (both McNair and Jemison wrestlers)

12:30pm: Wrestlers Warm-Up

1:30pm: Gates open for outside fans

1:30pm: Wrestlers Weigh-In

1:30pm: Cheerleaders Dismiss to the Big Gym

1:50pm: McNair Students Dismiss to Jemison Gym

2:00pm: Jemison Students Dismiss to the Big Gym

2:25pm: Jemison Wrestling "Walk Out" (With Music and Fog Machine)

2:30pm: Wrestling Starts (Jemison vs. Columbia)

3:30pm: 2nd Dual Starts (Jemison Girls vs. Huntsville Girls)

3:40pm: End of School

I am attaching rosters for dismissal. If you have any issues with any of my wrestlers in class, please let me know. Additionally, they are responsible for missed class time and assignments.

Thank you,

Arick Shankles

Driver's Education Teacher

Head Wrestling Coach

Jemison High School

2566471660

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.