Superintendent Jerry Weast put "restrictions" on a teacher in 2000. That fact came out in a lawsuit last year and was highlighted by The Washington Post in their September 29, 2012, editorial:
Read the letter then-Superintendent Jerry D. Weast gave to Mr. Picca in February 2000 and consider whether you would entrust your child to such a teacher. The letter instructed Mr. Picca not to engage in any “bodybuilding”-type of activities with students or have contact with them outside the classroom.Superintendent Joshua Starr was in charge when "restrictions" were put on another teacher in 2011. We now know that it took Homeland Security and Baltimore County investigators to uncover what was going on in that MCPS classroom.
So the question for parents to ask today is this:
How many MCPS teachers are in classrooms today with "restrictions" on their ability to interact with their students?
We know about the two above, how many more are there?
Umm...... do you think they would honestly tell us?
ReplyDeleteIt is a standard practice in handling these types of incidents. There is a known, reportable number of teachers that are currently in classrooms with restrictions.
ReplyDeleteThe question is, are parents going to demand the answer? It's your choice.
Continue voting in the Apple Ballot Board of Education members and you will continue to be denied basic information about your child's public school education. Do want change or are you happy just not knowing and waiting for Homeland Security to step in?
I am constantly amazed that parents hide their heads in the sand on a range of issues and this will no doubt be another. I will post on my page and website, but I predict no action as always.
DeleteThank you. This is the second teacher that we know has been allowed to stay in the classroom with restrictions on contact with students. What kind of administrator allows a teacher to stay in a classroom even after multiple read flags have been raised? Does the union require this? Odd, our law requires that Child Protective Services be called and sexual abuse be reported. Does the teachers union trump the law?
DeleteWhat about principals? Why isn't Floyd Starnes on "restriction" - or something to keep him away from the children?
ReplyDeleteWho said principals weren't on "restriction?" Have you asked Superintendent Joshua Starr for this information? How many MCPS teachers, principals and school based staff have letters listing their "restrictions" with regard to contact with students?
DeleteI understand that Starnes has in his files a directive regarding sexually inappropriate language toward staff and hr raised the issue with him of taking children into closets. I do not know any additional detail about this e.g., when it was added to his file and so forth.
DeleteI wish Ms.Santucci & her watchdog group would do their homework before attacking an innocent man.
ReplyDeletehttp://savekmes.org/SchaubToBresler.shtml
The MCPS head of personnel writing to the MCPS lead attorney in Feb '00. "Set him up to nail him on later." Then Picca is reprimanded by Weast months later. The 2000 restriction letter admits in the opening paragraph Picca did nothing wrong.
Picca was an outspoken union critic of deviant administrators, including Floyd Starnes. He was fired for being a whistleblower. Starnes and MCPS were sued by six of his Kemp Mill ES cohorts for nine figures. After failing to get the case tossed out of Judge Rubin's courtroom, MCPS settled confidentially with the teachers in May. The Parents Coalition has chosen not to obtain the readily-available discovery document which highlights Starnes' admission of falsifying records to get critics like Picca wrongfully terminated, sexually harassing staff members, groping male staff members and taking young boys into classroom closets with him alone, including on the weekend.
http://savekmes.org/civilsuit/OsburnLetter.pdf
We've done our homework. This post is not about individuals. This post is about a MCPS practice of putting teachers on RESTRICTION from contacting students. It is now clear that at least 2 teachers have been put on RESTRICTION from contact with students in their own classrooms. How many more teachers have these types of RESTRICTIONS.
DeleteIn addition, what kind of a "union" would permit their members to have these restrictive requirements put on them? It's like telling a baker they can't be around flour or they will get fired. Really?
What teacher would accept one of these letters in their file without a legal challenge when the letter is put in their file? Why doesn't the union challenge these restrictions? These letters have been put in at least 2 teacher's files and the UNION AND THE TEACHERS have remained silent! It is only because of these two high profile cases that parents have been notified that MCPS permits teachers to STAY in classrooms, but RESTRICTS their ability to interact with students!
What parent wants their child in a classroom with a teacher under these RESTRICTIONS?
Let's make this perfectly clear for readers: Superintendent Jerry Weast wrote a letter restricting the teacher in the above comment (Picca) BEFORE that teacher was assigned to Kemp Mill Elementary School. (page 15 of ALJ Opinion)
Deletehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/107081534/Picca-OpinNo-12-34
The subject of this post is of the MCPS practice of putting restrictions on a teacher's ability to touch students, be alone with students etc...
Having taught in MCPS the past 23 years, memos to the record, reprimands and restrictions are commonplace. There are so many egomaniac, rogue administrators who get off on power trips. Sartucci wants those teachers eliminated. Those educators are the leaders of the school system. The brave educators who speak out against the likes of Kemp Mill's Principal Starnes.
DeleteI am stunned that the 2000 email from Schaub to Bresler was not allowed into evidence in the Picca case last year. Clearly, it was the smoking gun. Clearly, he was "set up to be nailed on later without having to rely on reluctant witnesses"
Sartucci must not have read the final paragraph of that document. The parties wanted to shield Superintendent Weast so he could play dumb of his victimization of an innocent master teacher.
@Math. Well you claim to be a teacher, but you aren't reading. Nowhere has anyone on this blog said they wanted a teacher "eliminated". The message above is CLEAR. MCPS has been putting RESTRICTIONS on a teachers ability to interact with students WITHOUT INFORMING PARENTS!
DeleteAgain, WITHOUT INFORMING PARENTS! Got it?
This is about CHILDREN! Parents send their children to public school. It is REQUIRED by law, and then MCPS puts teachers in classrooms that are BANNED from interacting with the children.
This is an untenable situation.
If MCPS does not trust a teacher to be alone with a student then the teacher should be promoted to work as Chief of Staff for the Superintendent. Give the teacher a raise and GET THEM OUT OF THE CLASSROOM.
The second message from this post is that if MCPS is putting RESTRICTIONS on teachers then WHERE IS THE TEACHERS' UNION!!!!!!!!!
Is the Teachers' Union just a FARCE?????? The whole POINT of a UNION is to PROTECT AND DEFEND THE WORKERS. Please explain why anyone would be foolish enough to pay dues to a union that does not protect its workers?
ALL of the letters putting RESTRICTIONS on teachers ability to interact with students are SETTING UP teacher for future firings without further action. DUH! Why on earth would a teachers' union ever permit such an action to be taken?
Why should parents EVER send their child into a classroom under those conditions? Conditions that REQUIRE a teacher to NOT interact with their child?
@Math - Ms Teague? Reeks/Eppes/Osborn weren't all that brave if they waited for over a year to report the child being taken into the closet.
DeleteThe child is nothing but a tool - for the "Kemp Mill Six" or Ten or Twelve or whatever. If they really cared about him/her they would have reported Starnes WHEN IT HAPPENED so that there could be a fair investigation. But no - they didn't care about that child until their buddy Picca was suspended.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E35aJsQnV4Y
ReplyDeleteTeachers are under the false impression that if a false claim is made against them, they are protected by the union. Think again. I was at Mr. Picca's 1st hearing. Check out the quality lawyering he received from Mr. Gupta, his union attorney. Not only did he fail to submit the 2000 email mentioned by others above, he left his brief case in the car. Inexcusable and grounds for disbarment. The old man suffering from dementia is Myles Alban, the lead investigator for MCPS. Frightening that his word helped end a brilliant teacher's career.
Through discovery from the Starns' trial in May, evidence was produced that everything the teachers were telling the union about his heinous acts with staff and children were being relayed right back to him. Kim Shawn-Gary, the Uniserv Director, was fired in June 2010 for her betrayal. If teachers knew this about their union, they would abandon MCEA in mass.
I wish the Parents Coalition would be outraged that a principal like Floyd Starnes is allowed to continue at Kemp Mill ES. If that school was located in Chevy Chase, Bethesda or Potomac, 60 Minutes would have been involved by now.
Again, you are wrong. Zip Code has nothing to do with this issue. You are very unaware of what has gone on at other schools and been covered up by MCPS.
DeleteThere could be instances like these at different schools. However, I don't think that a staff member with these kinds of "restrictions" would remain at Burning Tree ES (or now at Pyle MS).
DeleteJust 2 examples-
DeleteWootton High School
http://ww2.gazette.net/gazette_archive/1999/199930/olney/news/a20155-1.html
Churchill High School
http://ww2.gazette.net/gazette_archive/1999/199911/potomac/news/a44117-1.html