The Montgomery County Board of Education has attorneys that are paid upwards of $6,000 a day to represent them in litigation against parents and guardians. The attorneys are paid from the MCPS Operating Budget, thus diverting funds that could be used to educate children to fighting parents and guardians. We know that these special education hearings and trials can drag on for days and weeks.
What goes on at one of these hearings? We thought our readers might like to take a peek at a transcript from a hearing to get an idea. You might imagine that such a hearing would be packed with the discussion of education issues, the child's strengths and weaknesses, school facilities, resources etc...
You might be surprised to find out how much time the Board of Education spends in these hearings trying to paint the parents and guardians as "bad" parents and guardians.
As you can see from the transcript below, in this hearing the Board of Education spent time having their attorney grill the parents about a vacation that they took.
At one point, the Board's attorney is questioning the parents about the cleanliness of their vacation rental. The Board of Education apparently thinks that it is appropriate, and required, that parents ask rental agencies about the health of previous tenants of vacation rentals. Including, asking if previous renters had AIDS.
We don't understand this question on any level, and we certainly don't understand why precious education dollars are being spent to grill parents about who previously rented their vacation rental.
If anyone can explain the relevance of this question to a hearing on public educational services for a child, please help us out and post in the comments. Thanks.
In this transcript the people are:
Mr. Krew = Montgomery County Board of Education outside attorney.
Mr. Eig = child's attorney
C = child
S = siblings
M = mother
X = nurse
Transcript 1
Does MCPS certify which teachers are AIDS free?
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that this family has to face such appalling lapses in services by MCPS. It looks likes their attorney Krew is trying to humiliate, overpower and ultimately blame the mother, who is fighting for services for her son. His reference of AIDS is totally unacceptable, inappropriate, insensitive and ill-used. This is an example of a system, which is supposed to be sensitive to the disabled, running amok and at a significant cost to the taxpayers and this family.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 10:03, it is not really 'their' attorney. If you pay taxes and live in Montgomery County, it is your attorney. You are responsible for this behavior. To the voters, citizens and taxpayers in this county: please step up and take some responsibility for what is going on here. These are your employees. You are responsible for this situation.
ReplyDeleteInstead of working to meet the needs of a child, it appears that Montgomery County is more interested in talking about something that has little if any relationship to the child. Should I be concerned about staying in a hotel room previously occupied by someone who was ill or had AIDS. Do I need to bring along my own bedsheets and towelsÇ What about the needs of the child. Perhaps the BOE should spend its money in a more positive manner and be more concerned about the child.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, this attorney appears to also be trying to turn back the clock to the days of fearing contact with gay people. Is this that message the Montgomery County wants to get outÇ
Without knowing the details of the case, how can anyone say that these questions are valid or not?
ReplyDeleteAnything taken out of context and prefaced by an article saying that it was unjustified, can make the reader(s) believe that this is malicious, and wrong.
Personally, I need more information and details to be swayed in one direction or another.
Really? Please give one example of when a renter has the right or ability to ask a rental agent if the previous renter had AIDS. Just one example of when this could be done, and, more important, when this would ever be legal.
DeleteOne example.
Thanks.
Follow up question: Why?
DeleteUnless the MCPS Board of Education believes that AIDS can be transmitted via rentals, then what is the purpose of this question?
Ever?
Indeed, the questions regarding AIDS are unjustified, illegal and morally wrong. How can one justify such behavior???
DeleteMontgomery County Government is run by people who the residents elected. They have themselves to blame. No, in fact, most county residents are sp apathetic, that they aren't even registered to vote. That's why the communists run our county..
ReplyDeleteI am sure that the AIDS Alliance would just love to hear this LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL implying that anyone who has AIDS and rents lodging is causing a health risk to the general public. I'm sure that this lawyer would sing a different song if he was defending an AIDS sufferer against a hotels discrimination by insisting that he only cannot use certain bedding due to the public health risk of the following renters.
ReplyDeleteSo how do we alert the AIDS discrimination people to look into this silly lawyer.
ReplyDeleteThe BOE outside attorney is quite a bully and using discriminative accusations to win his case. This is not the style that I would like MCPS to represent we, the citizens of Montgomery County. Shame on them for blaming the mother with inappropriate and probably illegal assumptions. We should not maintain the contract of Mr. Krew and put the money for this bully into services for the children.
ReplyDeleteHow can anyone make a judgement on this posting w/o knowing what this court case concerns? Once again, the uniformed and most likely misguided public makes judgements about a situation that the blog creator has provided very little substantial information and who also appears to be painting just a minute part of a much larger picture that is conveniently not shown here. Apparently, the judge and the parents' attorney thought this line of questioning was relevant or they would have objected and ruled the questioning to stop. Just as other uninformed responders have commented before me on this blog, I too have no opinion based on the fact that there is a huge lack of information to form an intelligent opinion. Reader BEWARE!
ReplyDeleteHmmm...misguided public...little substantial information...
DeleteOK. Here you go.
1. AIDS can not be transmitted via a rental property. Now, if you think it can, then there is the huge problem with your understanding of the inappropriateness of this question.
2. The "judges" in these cases are Administrative Law Judges. Know who trains them? We will be happy to educate you if you don't know.
Was this case before the judge who is married to an mcps employee? Or perhaps one of the judges who attended a privately sponsored cocktail party thrown at a national convention by mcps' lawyer? Or waas it perhaps one of the judges who has received free "training" by a firm that exclusively represents school districts (not parents)?
DeleteShirley Brandman must love these questions, she is the BOE president who never asks a single question about the legal fees.
The recent political uproar regarding House Republican (Missouri) Todd Akin’s ill-informed and insensitive rape remarks made me think of a similar style used by the BOE attorney, Jeffrey Krew. Please refer to Blog Posting on 7/16/2012. In an effort to disparage a mother advocating for placement of her medically fragile child, Krew asks her if she called a rental condo agent prior to using the unit to find out if the previous renter had AIDS. This type of argument is offensive, misrepresenting and unacceptable. A person cannot get AIDS from a rented condo!
ReplyDelete