HYATTSVILLE, MD — Police are actively searching and obtained arrest warrants for two men wanted in a fatal shooting that killed a 16-year-old student from Silver Spring Monday evening.
The victim, Kevin Wilson Jr., was shot and killed in a parking lot in Hyattsville, police said. He was a star football player and was about to start his junior year at Montgomery Blair High School.
Officers responded to the 6700 block of New Hampshire Ave. at about 7:05 p.m. Wilson was found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, police said. He was taken to the hospital and died there a few hours later...
Terms of probation include no unsupervised contact with children, including online
...As part of a plea agreement, Kelley agreed to serve five years of supervised probation, with the condition that he may apply for a sentence modification after three years...
...But during the hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Andrew Han said the volume of images recovered from Kelley’s computer didn’t reflect someone who stumbled into a dark corner, but rather a person who stayed a while...
These pictures were taken on July 29, 2018, and document that tons of plastic grass and crumb rubber were still on site at Richard Montgomery High School 8 days after the MCPS Chief Operating Officer wrote that the field had been removed. Each dumpster holds approximately 4 tons of material, so here is another 4 tons of plastic grass and crumb rubber that were not loaded on a "flatbed trailer for transport" as Superintendent Jack R. Smith wrote in his August 8th memorandum to the Board of Education. This is the 3rd dumpster full of plastic grass and crumb rubber that we photographed on site. These pictures also show that on July 29th loose crumb rubber was still on the ground at RMHS and was not being contained or prevented from entering the Cabin John Watershed. Crumb rubber was leaking from the dumpster and entering the storm drain. The filters that MCPS attempted to use were not effective.
See Parade of Pollution posts documenting the pollution to our stormwater and environment from the removal of this one artificial turf football field at this link.
Young Boys Allegedly Abused By Air Force Colonel Now In His Sole Custody
Tomorrow morning, two six-year old brothers will leave the sole custody of the mother they have lived with for the past five years to live in the sole custody of their father, an Air Force colonel alleged to have physically and sexually abused the boys for years.
The Air Force had deemed the abuse allegations against Colonel Eric Holt as lacking evidence, but as this reporter previously covered, an extraordinary amount of evidence from photographs, video, medical records and witnesses supports the allegations. This evidence includes five disclosures by the boys themselves to non-parental caregivers, medical authorities and child welfare authorities.
Yet in an August 15 Maryland Montgomery County family court decision, Judge Joan Ryon awarded sole custody of the boys to Col. Holt and ordered the boys’ mother, a Harvard-trained anesthesiologist, only to supervised visitation once every two weeks. Ryon did not require Col. Holt to pay any of the more than $100,000 he owed in back child support—despite a previous court order that he do so—but she ordered the boys’ mother, Dr. Holt*, to pay $5700 a month in child support to their father going forward...
...“How does a family court judge make a decision like this? Pulling the boys away from their mother and giving them to a man with a hair trigger temper who wouldn't even pay child support?” Arrant said. “Eric has admitted he cannot control his anger and sexual impulses. It’s sad he is like this because of the IED explosion, but that won't help the boys if he physically or sexually abuses them.”..
...Col. Holt himself has acknowledged those same impulse, anger and sexual problems in previous court proceedings, but he has not responded to multiple requests for comment for this and the previous story.
“Congressman Kennedy is disappointed by this decision and troubled by this process,” said Dan Black, a spokesperson for the office of US Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-Mass.). “He is extremely concerned for the safety and well being of the children, who are now at risk of sexual, physical and emotional abuse. He will continue to call on the various jurisdictions involved in this case to meet their obligation to protect these children.”..
...“One of the standards in Maryland law is how friendly the parent will be in providing access to the children,” said Laurie Duker, co-founder and executive director of Court Watch Montgomery. But she believes the laws governing divorce and custody cases need an overhaul because judges do not receive training on the impact of trauma.
“They’re punishing women for withholding access to the kids when she’s doing the right thing in protecting them,” Duker said, adding that judges do not receive training on the impact of trauma. “When a woman doesn’t cry, a lot of judges interpret that as not being afraid.”
Eileen King, executive director and program director of Child Justice Inc., and Paul Griffin, legal director of Child Justice Inc., said this judge appeared to disregard Dr. Holt’s concerns about her boys.
“When the mother was accused of alienation, and when the abuse she had been subjected to and the abuse we believe the children were subjected to were minimized, we saw the judge had no deep understanding of the plight of the children or of the mother trying to protect the children,” King said. “The fact that she is upset and distressed is being held against her,” King said. “When Dr. Holt testified that a number of times he [Col. Holt] threatened to shoot her in the face, that’s very serious. The fact that the judge didn’t seem to take that into consideration is very problematic.”
Griffin believes the Air Force’s handling of Col. Holt’s case played a role in Judge Ryon’s decision.
“I’m also disappointed the judge didn’t recuse herself after engaging in ex parte communication and refused to disclose the communications when asked,” Griffin said. Before the trial, Judge Ryon had received an email from the office of Maj. Gen. Jacobson, stating his decision to close the case. The email contained additional information about that decision that the judge refused to share with the mother’s counsel.
“Because the judge did not disperse the report to the parties, this left Dr. Holt with no ability to challenge the report’s findings,” Drew said. “The family court's reliance on the military to assess whether the father abused the children is unusual and questionable since in doing so the court deferred to Air Force generals who are colleagues of the accused.”..
The Maryland Board of Regents has scheduled a special meeting by phone today at 10:00 am to discuss the death of UMD football player Jordan McNair from heatstroke suffered at a workout on May 29. Many think the meeting was called to discuss the future of football coach DJ Durkin and even College Park President Wallace Loh himself.
The Regents decided to close the meeting to the public. However, by law, the Regents are required to invite to all their meetings 3 VIP members of the public: Governor Larry Hogan, Comptroller Peter Franchot, and Treasurer Nancy Kopp. (See below)
Larry, please show up. The Regents are dysfunctional in their supervision of intercollegiate athletics and major changes are needed to keep student athletes throughout the University System safe.
The Regents have delegated (abdicated?) matters related to intercollegiate athletics to its opaque Working Group on Intercollegiate Athletics (ICA). The ICA Working Group appears to function like one of the Regents' Standing Committees except that it has no charter in the Regents' Bylaws and, unlike the full Board and its standing committees, posts no agendas or minutes at the Regents' website.
Once a year in September, the ICA Working Group provides a report to the Regents' Standing Committee on Education Policy and Student Life, but that report is mainly about monitoring and measuring academic achievement among student athletes. The annual report does not appear to monitor or measure deaths or injuries of student athletes.
Odd that the Regents are so incurious about a program that: (1) brought in $94 million in NCAA and other revenue last year; (2) poses the greatest of serious injury and death to students whose well being they are charged with; and (3) is most remote from the University System's primary mission of academic education and preparing its students to thrive in the rapidly changing 21st Century they will spend their adult years living in. It's almost like certain members of the Regents prefer to run athletics themselves and the other Regents think its okay.
Larry, Pete, Nancy: Jordan McNair's death was a public one, as was the death of Marquese Meadow, a FB player who died of heatstroke at Morgan State U in 2014, and Derek Sheely, who died of head trauma sustained at football practice at Frostburg State U in 2011. Gavin Class nearly died of heatstroke at football practice at Towson State U in 2013.
The Regents give no indication that "they got this." So please Larry, Pete, and Nancy, dial in today at 10:00 am and lead.
Md Code Education Article Section 12-103 § 12-103. Officers; time and place of meetings
**** Time, place, and notice of meetings
(b)(1) The Board [of Regents] shall determine the time and place of its meetings and may adopt rules for the conduct of its meetings.
(2)
The Governor, the State Treasurer, and the State Comptroller shall be
notified of all meetings of the Board and may sit with the Board at any
meeting.
Part 6: These pictures were also taken on July 26, 2018, and document the removal of the football field of plastic grass and 120 tons of crumb rubber from Richard Montgomery High School. These pictures show the rolls of artificial turf and crumb rubber that wereleft behindat RMHS after the tractor trailer load was taken away. These pictures also show INSIDE one of the dumpsters at Richard Montgomery High School. Inside the dumpster is loose crumb rubber, hay, plastic bottles, and wads of plastic grass. Contrast this picture with what Superintendent Jack R. Smith told the Board of Education about the removal of the artificial turf field in his August 8th memo.
The picture below clearly shows hay, plastic bottles, loose crumb rubber and plastic grass randomly tossed in a dumpster. The contents of this dumpster were not rolled up and were not going to be reused or repurposed. This dumpster was on its way to a landfill in Brunswick, Virginia.
On July 26th, rolls of artificial turf with crumb rubber spillling out are still at Richard Montgomery High School.
See Parade of Pollution posts documenting the pollution to our stormwater and environment from the removal of this one artificial turf football field at this link.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Did Nashville school officials protect men who engaged in horrendous sexual harassment against district employees?
That's the allegation contained in a new lawsuit. It accuses Metro Nashville Public Schools of running "sham investigations" in response to harassment complaints filed by employees.
The lawsuit -- which follows an exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation -- was filed by three employees at Antioch's John F. Kennedy Middle School against the district, as well as the executive principal there, Dr. Sam Braden.
"As an entity, MNPS had a policy and practice of ignoring complaints of sexual harassment, as well as interfering with investigations of harassment," the lawsuit says...
...Right before that complaint was filed, another Metro Schools administrator, Mo Carrasco, had become the subject of a sexual harassment investigation. Carrasco was a longtime friend of Shawn Joseph and came with him to Nashville in 2016.[Both former Montgomery County Public Schools administrators]
In Carrasco's case, the lawsuit makes a stunning accusation.
"Ms. Pertiller came to the man in charge of this investigation and told him that he better 'get this right' in terms of outcome or Dr. Joseph would fire him," Blackburn said.
The lawsuit says that - even though Joseph knew there were allegations against his friend - Pertiller told the HR employee he would not be allowed to interview the director of schools about what he knew.
In the end, the investigation still concluded Carrasco was guilty, and he resigned.
But the lawsuit says that wasn't the end of it.
"The outcome was contrary to Mr. Carrasco, and all sorts of retaliation ensued for this employee afterwards," Blackburn explained....
...In 2017, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill requiring periodic testing for the presence of lead in each drinking water outlet located in all schools.
The law required all initial testing to be done by July 1.
Montgomery County Public Schools tested 13,248 outlets at 208 school sites. About 1.8 percent of the outlets showed lead levels over 20 parts per billion, a guideline for lead levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and specified in the state law. About 1.1 percent of the water stations with high-lead levels were accessible to students.
A Bethesda Beat analysis of the test reports posted by the school system found that at least 59 drinking fountains, identified in the reports as bubblers, showed high lead levels.
At Flower Hill Elementary School in Gaithersburg, seven of nine high-lead level readings were at drinking fountains. Initial tests captured levels of lead between 31.5 parts per billion and 151 parts per billion. Cold Spring Elementary School in Potomac had five drinking fountains with high-lead levels in initial tests, with readings between 24.2 parts per billion and 79.1 parts per billion.
The highest lead level captured during the testing was 700 parts per billion in water from a kitchen faucet at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington; that reading decreased to 1.3 parts per billion during a follow-up test...
"It's a glimmer of hope for the rest of the survivors,” she said. “And I think because Maryland is geographically so close to Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, that we really are hoping that our turn will be soon and. I implore our Attorney General, Brian Frosh to start taking the steps necessary to do the same thing here."
Below you can find the entire interview with Gemma Hoskins:
Part 5: Then the rain came. On July 21, 2018, Rockville received 5.39 inches of rain in one day. That same day, MCPS Chief Operating Officer Andrew Zuckerman sent out a letter to the public.
July 21, 2018Dear MCPS Community,This week, contractors began work to replace the artificial turf field at Richard Montgomery High School. The existing artificial turf material has been removed and sent for recycling. The entire system, including turf fibers and infill, will be repurposed as a continuation of the overall lifecycle of the materials.In addition, any remaining debris left over from the removal of the turf field will be cleared. We have taken steps to mitigate the impact of the field removal process on the surrounding environment. In addition to sweeping up debris, the storm water management system under the surface at Richard Montgomery High School is designed to contain debris within the system to allow for thorough, periodic cleaning. Other preventative measures, such as the use of mesh screening over turf materials waiting to be hauled away, are also in place. Contractors and MCPS staff are working diligently to remove the artificial turf in a safe and efficient manner and look forward to installing the new organic infill field shortly. Andrew ZuckermanChief Operating OfficerMontgomery County Public Schools
The pictures below were taken onJuly 24, 2018at Richard Montgomery High School and contradict the statements made by the MCPS COO.
The existing artificial turf and crumb rubber had not all been removed by July 21st.
Mesh screening is not in use over the artificial turf left on site.
Crumb rubber can be seen clogging up a storm drain, leaking out of a dumpster and spilling out of rolls of used artificial turf.
Crumb rubber can be seen floating in puddles of water on the grass.
The removal of the used artificial turf and 120 tons of crumb rubber was far from over 3 days after the letter from the MCPS COO on July 21st.
See Parade of Pollution posts documenting the pollution to our stormwater and environment from the removal of this one artificial turf football field at this link.
July 18th RMHS: Unprotected storm drain clogged with crumb rubber and water.
Superintendent Jack R. Smith wrote a memorandum to the Board of Education on August 8, 2018, disputing what is clearly shown in photographs from Richard Montgomery High School in our series of photographs over multiple days. See Parade of Pollution posts.
As our pictures show, some of the rolls of plastic grass and crumb rubber left the RMHS site on the back of an uncovered tractor trailer on a bright sunny day. Superintendent Jack Smith's excuse for why the tractor trailer left RMHS uncovered with crumb rubber spilling out into the road does not correspond with reality.
Superintendent Smith refers to a company by the name of TurfCycle, but does not address the fact that such a company is not licensed to do business in Maryland and does not exist anywhere on the Internet. Superintendent Smith contracted with this company and that begs the question, on what basis does MCPS evaluate the existence and licensing of its contractors?
Superintendent Smith does not explain what happened to the 35+ rolls of plastic grass and crumb rubber that were not removed from RMHS by TurfCycle. Where did those 12+ tons of plastic and ground up tires go?
Finally, Superintendent Smith cites a funding source for the replacement of the RMHS artificial turf football field that does not exist. The Artificial Turf Program Fund was appropriated by the Montgomery County Council to pay for the installation of new artificial turf fields at high schools that did not have an artificial turf field. The Fund was not created to pay for the replacement of artificial turf fields.
NEW: Folks near Highland View Elementary School in Silver Spring want flood lights + security cameras added to the upper playground. The reason? Crime.
In the last 12 months alone, vandalism, suspicious vehicles, people loitering + three reports of gunfire in the immediate area. pic.twitter.com/QFwZ8ZZJ4h
...Schuler concluded Camelot first won “behind-the-scenes access” to Byrd-Bennett and top staff plus “confidential inside information” with help from Gary Solomon and Thomas Vranas — two consultants who served as Camelot’s “undisclosed lobbyists” before they were indicted and convicted in federal court alongside Byrd-Bennett for organizing a kickback scheme that upended the district.
Schuler’s report does not allege any criminal behavior occurred as part of the Camelot case.
“We’re alleging ethical violations and procurement violations,” Schuler told the Tribune.
But the IG’s investigation illustrates how Byrd-Bennett’s disgraced administration continues to reverberate in a school system that’s sought to clean up its reputation for crisis and scandal. It also shows how a murky array of lobbyists, attorneys and consultants can influence the awarding of public contracts with minimal oversight. CPS pledged Monday to strengthen vendors’ requirements to report lobbying activity, and also to launch a process that, following the inspector general’s recommendations, may sanction Camelot or disqualify the company from future business with the district...
In The New York Times, full story here. Reporter E.K. Moore. August 2, 2018.
The home page of Pinellas County Schools in Florida is brimming with information for families, students, staff members and the public: an easy-to-use dashboard of news, shortcuts and links to the district’s Facebook page, Twitter feed and YouTube channel.
But Pinellas’s home page has been supplying information to another audience, an unseen one, as well this year. An array of tracking scripts were embedded in the site, designed to install snippets of computer code into the browsers of anyone clicking on it, to report their visits or track their movements as they traveled around the web.
The trackers were detected last winter during a study by Douglas Levin, a Washington-based expert on educational technology. Asked about them in April, the district expressed surprise and said it would have them removed. But Mr. Levin found 22 trackers when he checked back last month.
And:
But some trackers are also designed to recognize visitors by the I.P. address of their device and to embed cookies in their browsers for the advertising practice known as behavioral targeting. And knowingly or otherwise, many school sites are hosting software from third-party companies whose primary business is buying and selling data for the detailed dossiers of personal information on finances, lifestyle and buying habits that advertisers prize. Those third parties may invite still other trackers onto the site, without the school’s knowledge or control.
WASHINGTON — Montgomery County Public Schools officials have released an updated list of bus routes driven by the man charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old special needs student.
Part 4:
These pictures were also taken on July 19, 2018, and document the removal of the football field of plastic grass and 120 tons of crumb rubber from Richard Montgomery High School.
These pictures show the rolls of articicial turf carpet and crumb rubber that wereleft behindat RMHS after the tractor trailer load was taken away.
These pictures document at least 34 rolls of artificial turf filled with crumb rubber that were not taken to the White Marsh, MD "storage facility."
See Parade of Pollution posts documenting the pollution to our stormwater and environment from the removal of this one artificial turf football field at this link.
16 rolls of artificial turf at far end of field
18+ rolls of artificial turf a near end (concession)
