From: jennifer alvaro
To: Jack Smith <jack_smith@mcpsmd.org>
Cc: of Education MCPS <boe@mcpsmd.org>; county.council@
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 8:18:54 AM EDT
Subject: Urgent Changes Needed regarding MCPS and Child Abuse
Good Morning Dr. Smith,
In a recent Washington Post article regarding the long standing sexual harassment of students by a math teacher at Blair high school, your spokesperson stated MCPS found the allegations credible.
He went on to state the following, "One of the things we’re trying to figure out is: How did we get here? Where could we have made a better decision or taken more action?” spokesman Derek Turner said. “We want to know how to prevent this from ever happening again.”
To those of us who have been bringing these issues to your attention and in fact, the attention of the school system for 6 years now, reading that statement was a sad confirmation. A confirmation the schools are still grossly mishandling this entire issue. A confirmation you are still leaving children in danger. This is not an accusation or speculation. One only has to read recent headlines to see what is occurring.
A couple weeks ago, Jill Ortman-Fouse informed me she spoke to you about my concerns and you had instructed staff to "analyse" what had gone on. I'm not quite clear on what that means so I took the opportunity to draft some recommendations for what the school system should be doing.
I've attached 10 recommendations for you, the BOE, the county council and Ike Leggett to review.
I would appreciate a timely response.
As always, please feel free to email or call me should you have any questions.
Thank you,
Jennifer Alvaro
Ms. Alvaro, thank you for bringing this bringing this to the attention of MCPS. However, as we all know, Jack Smith will do nothing. He is at MCPS for the paycheck. You saw him run (lol) away from parents where he claimed to be "ambushed" with concerns about student safety. He couldn't talk to parents then because he had a "family matter" to attend to. Can you believe that? I don't. Again, he is at MCPS for the paycheck and nothing else. Maybe he'll give another speech where he says something intelligent like, "All means All" or "Some not all of our students are safe at school." Maybe he'll stand in front of parents and tell another stupid story from when he was a teacher or when he went to Asia. Then ask adults to raise their hands if they ever... You get my point Jack is a waste. He needs to go!
ReplyDeleteWhat can be done?
We need to pressure the BOE to make Jack respond and make changes or resign. It's ridiculous, the same safety and security issues keep happening again and again and Jack does nothing except collect a paycheck. Start at the top Jack. Has Andy Zuckerman implemented any changes to ensure the safety of children? He oversees the department of safety and security. No, he hasn't. He needs to go!
Elect BOE members who will commit to getting rid of Jack Smith.
I can sense the zeal and the passion in this letter.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it exceeds their attention span by an order of magnitude. I would suggest adding an one page executive summary upfront, listing the ten recommendations.
If paying attention to students being sexually abused in classrooms, during the school day, by MCPS staff is not worth paying attention to, then an executive summary is not going to make one bit of difference. We have an emergency in Montgomery County Public Schools right now, our children are not safe. The Board of Education has never, ever spoken up about the dozens and dozens of victims of these horrific crimes.
DeleteIt's time to elect Board of Education members that can read and do not need their information sanitized and condensed, or it is time to admit that Montgomery County simply does not care about children and refuses to keep them safe in public schools. If as a community we decide to not keep children safe, then that warning needs to go out to incoming families.
I said their "attention span" meaning that they would have trouble digesting a nineteen page document. If would have an immediate impact is the TEN recommendations were listed on page one. Also, using blunt terms such as "Child Rape" and "Pedophilia" versus
Delete"Child Abuse" and "Sexual Harassment" would shock them into reality.
@5:19 Thanks for the funny comment. The Board of Education and Superintendent Jack Smith are well aware of Child Rape, Pedophilia etc... they are the ones that approve the confidential settlements in the civil cases. They are well aware of the details and blame the children. You haven't heard the Board of Education once speak of the victims, have you? Of course not. The Board of Education sees the perpetrators as the victims. That's why they do not even fire them when they are arrested and on trial. Heck, they don't even fire them when they are convicted of crimes!
DeleteNo doubt, the beyond a reasonable doubt route paves the way for the civil action crowd.
DeleteThank you Jennifer Alvaro. Every person running for Board of Education, County Council and County Executive needs to be asked in a public forum if they will support and make sure these suggestions are implemented.
ReplyDeleteI've commented on this topic many times. MCPS does not have an investigative team or even one investigator whose skill set is enough to handle a situation like this. They have no one. They leave it up to one of the assistant principals at the school affected or to one of the school security guards. About half have previous police experience but mostly in uniform and not in the detective section. The SRO does not get involved in cases like this.
ReplyDeleteThen, the detective section should step in. Aren't they all paid by our tax dollars?
DeleteTheir current comment on these cases is that MCPS is cooperating now. Isn't that helpful?
DeleteCooperating with whom? Themselves?
Delete