Here ye, here ye, April 29th @ 7:00 p.m., on the MSC Agenda under 8. EXECUTIVE SESSION 9:45 P.M., 3., To discuss a complaint brought against an educator. HYMMM, now I wonder what that could possibly be about. Do we dare hope the school system actually did an invesitagation into the charges brought forth on behalf of an African-American MVMMS student against an 'adult' teacher for making alleged racist remarks. Ya, don't think so. Most-likely scenario is how can we pin this outrageous hate crime on the student. After all the MTA is never gonna let their MEA union teacher president take this fall. Never mind the fact she has been the super-dee-duper supers bff. Has anyone put together, and MAYBE this is just coincidental, that the teacher NB, super CT, and MPS atty MJH are all, and not to be disrespectful on this, but all 3 are Jewish. Wasn't it the same day, later in the day of course that the racial graffiti and penises aka dicks were drawn throughout the MVMMS. Now this allegedly was done by a us student. But just maybe friends of or relatives or former victims said, enough is enough. Not that I condone any of these actions because I do not. But sometimes kids don't know how to deal with these matters. Maybe they are angry because nothing is EVER, and I repeat, EVER done about it. I know in the great US of A a person is innocent until proven guilty; however, if you work for any branch of government: Federal, State, County or Municipal you can be placed on leave for any alleged crime. If found guilty, terminated if found innocent, full monetary reimbursement and job returned. Not only will Melrose try it's best to sweep it under the carpet because things like this do not happen in our fair city, but the do not wish to pay any duly owed restitution. This is to any non-WONDER bread citizens. Anyone who has been subjected to any form of hate crime, BULLYING, gay-bashing and to those of us who support these valid complaints, the need to is now. United we stand.
You are a moron. Get some help.
WARNING:
As a courtesy to the readers of this board, please be advised that the poster going by the name 'para' has been found to be a proven habitual Liar who craves attention.
Just ignore her filth.
Moron and Editor, I too follow this board. Don't know any of you but would you please point out the lie in his-her post. It is on the agenda and everything else I see written is known by most if not all who work here.
While looking back at certain negative posts towards Para, I've noticed the term habitual liar repeatedly used and certain other exact phrasing of words and consistancies. I've also observed the same writing style used but again under various poster names. This leads me to conclude the same person is posting in a vain attempt to disparage what Para is saying. In doing so only gives Para's posts more credibility. Posting under multiple names speaks for itself. It's a tell-all and questionable attempt to repeatedly smear this person's posts. Tell me, are you the teacher or administrator trying to spin this story because I too checked the school committee's upcoming agenda and the teacher in question is being discussed in Executive Session. There are some very big liars on this board but as far as I can see, Para is not one of them.
Since you asked, here's some proof...
You just encountered the spin machine. Glad you recognized it for what it was. While para's posts are somewhat lacking in grammatical sophistication and are, frankly, difficult to wade through, the content is more often than not absolutely correct, as it seems to be in this instance.
- WARNING -
As a courtesy to the readers of this board, please be advised that poster going by the name 'para' has been found to be a proven habitual Liar who craves attention.
Just ignore her filth. It will drive her Nuts!
My name is PARA as well. Tomorrow it might be ??? Or JKS. If you want to steer clear of the carpet sweepers perhaps you should play their game. Change your name for each post. I'd like to hear what you have to say. As a City of Melrose employee I am privy to much of what you have posted and agree. It might not be the ethical choice but when you are up against unethical people sometimes it's the only way to get your voice heard. Good luck. Hoping to hear from you again.
And there you have it people. Give para the credibility she deserves. Zero, Zip, Nada!
What a Freak!
YO EDITOR. THE ONLY PERSON REPEATEDLY POSTING AND CRAVING ATTENTION HERE IS YOU. PARA CANT BE BAITED. IN MELROSE, THE FISH ROTS FROM THE HEAD DOWN. I THINK YOU'RE THE SCAVENGER THAT LEACHES ON. GO SWIM WITH THE FISHES.
Editor, you sure like to name call. Tisk, tisk! What's next, sticks and stones? and if the above is your "proof", thanks for the laugh. Love those endorphins. Actually, I know JKS and find her to be an excellent teacher. I do not believe her actions incorrect. I am sorry she took what I meant to be a pat on the back as an insult or stab in the back. Editor, are you sure you're not an attorney/teacher/MEA prez, NB?
No "Editor" could not be NB who is too computer illiterate to be accessing this site. But some of Doughboy's minions are on here all the time slathering and frothing like the ugly pitbulls they are, with nothing sacred.
If this teacher is found guilty of racist remarks and the district does not terminate her, then Melrose will be facing a HUGE civil rights suit the likes of which will make the police civil service law suit look like a small claims case.
I wonder why the kids don't protest this on behalf of their fellow student? Seems like this would be something that they could get behind and support. Makes up for the kid that keeps issuing the bomb threats. They should show up enmasse to the school committee hearing tomorrow night.
Agreed!
Yes.
Very true. But the City can limit its liability by taking the appropriate measures by terminating her promptly. The argument would be that she wasn't acting within the scope of her employment by making those remarks. The city would only pay for its own defense and not her legal bills.
How many people showing up tonight for this supposedly very serious matter?
"supposedly"?
Decent point about the fact that probably no one will show up. But really, "supposedly"? Do you actually care about anything?
I am. We need to show that as a city, this is not acceptable. Even if you come for a short while or have to arrive late. Melrose will not be synonymous with any form of hate.
So what happened at the meeting last night. I know the discussion of the incident was going to be in Executive Session, but what happened during public comment?
Crickets is what we heard! There was only one person who spoke during the public comment session, Gerry Mroz, and he spoke about the annual end of the year report for 3013 that our school dept. sends to the state DOE, and how the numbers reported don't jive with school dept. numbers available to the public.
As one would expect, no one spoke about the incident you are referring to....by the way...where were you?
The committee took this issue up in executive session and we will never know what they talked about. The meeting minutes that they will eventually publish will be sanitized to the point that they will be useless. What do you expect from a bureaucracy unwilling to face the truth and be transparent in its dealings?
Myron you idiot, we know that no public announcement would be forthcoming. What I want to know is the scuttlebutt on the street on what the school committee did about the racist comments.
For a guy who thinks he is so smart you sure do say many stupid things.
Hey Abe,
There's nothing "honest" about you except your obvious nasty agenda. MFD was only speaking the truth, the honest truth. He didn't deserve that jab, but you just couldn't resist, could you.
It has been said that life is the most patient teacher. You will be presented with the same experience over and over until you learn the best way to deal with the situation.. This is not because life is cruel. Rather, it is because things have a way of coming back to haunt us when we don't deal with them. One form of intelligence is the ability to learn from mistakes. When you are presented with a painful experience, take the time to think about how you can avoid it in the future.
to MFD. Thanks for the update. I was not there, and will probably never be at a meeting. I tend to read these boards as entertainment, believe it or not. I like to read all the rantings. I am now no longer surprised that none of these rantings ever seem to result in action by the people ranting. I also don't believe most of the things posted on these boards. I think a lot of the topics may have a grain of truth, but the posters tend to read their own issues into the situations. So that is why I was not there.
Memo to tool bag central - these are serious allegations. The SC has handled this perfectly. All employment matters such as this should be handled in executive session. As much as all of the tool bags on this site think thye have a right to know, they don't.
If these allegations prove to be false the teacher has every rignt to expect his or her privacy to be protected.
I agree with "Wants To Know", reader beware when reading this message board but this doesn't mean that one should automatically dismiss anything written on this board! This is an opinion board so you will get people from different points of view and with different agenda presenting information. Many times you have the same individuals presenting their opinions or information on this board so you can usually determine the honesty or truthfulness of information presented by them over time. Also, I firmly believe that if you present yourself as a "real" person, this should lend more credibility to their information than those who hide behind anonymity but this is just my opinion.
Hey tool bag: How do you know that the SC handled this serious situation "perfectly"? Perhaps you were in that Exec Session, no? Or you are close, as it were, to one who was.... Regardless, it is virtually guaranteed that this SC could not order a baloney sandwich and get it right, let alone deal with an alleged serious civil rights violation (or plethora of them, as a matter of fact).
Where is the follow-up on this awful situation? There was an article in the Free Press, so clearly some in the media are aware. Have they been silenced for good? This cannot be. This is a very, very serious matter. There were many students and some staff who witnessed the alleged crime, and yes, if it happened as stated, it was a crime. What are the official consequences? The school committee had it on its agenda this past Tuesday. Of course they won't disclose what happened, but obviously something did. Is everyone tired of the topic already? No, that is not acceptable.
At a minimum, the local media should have printed some sort of follow-up. The allegations are serious enough they warrant front-page Boston Globe coverage, among other things. This topic has been the front headliner not only nationally but even internationally with comments by a rich bigot. The Melrose situation is in some ways much, much worse because it was a public school teacher allegedly making an overt racist remark (and not the only one, reportedly) to a student, and there was an entire class that has witnessed the hateful bullying that by any other civilized societal measure would have been called out immediately and publicly with a demand for immediate and appropriately harsh consequences.
Why isn't the media all over this? This teacher is absolutely wrong but there are more than a few who have perpetrated hate crimes based on race, religion, bullying and sexual orientation. Over the years these heinous acts against humanity have been reported to present and former levels of administration, the SC including our mayor verbally and in writing. Those employees are still working for our fair city. A city I was proud to say I was born and raised in. Raised my kids. I have grandkids in the system. The place I call home. It was never as bad as it has been in this past decade and it's escalating. Hate permeates our district and is destroying our way of life here in Melrose.
Whether anyone wants to admit it, Melrose is a community that does not promote tolerance (just the opposite, in fact). It wants to portray itself in only a positive way instead of an honest way. It is comprised of many who are kind-hearted and generous, and simultaneously many who have grown comfortable behaving in a shallow, intolerant way and are more comfortable with a superficial representation rather than the truth. There is a need for the community to look at itself and decide consciously to change this. It won't just happen by itself.
Melrose has devolved significantly in the last 12 years. It once had a mayor who, for all his faults, was absolutely kind-hearted. That just cannot be said now. Year by year the nastiness and intolerance have increased, in some ways directly proportional to the bad conduct emanating from the top, with a troubled culture that has trickled down to the children. When those in positions of authority are allowed by a community to talk and act in intolerant ways, it says something about the community itself.
The conduct in that classroom by that teacher had been going on for long enough that there should have been outcry long since. This was not an isolated incident, by that teacher alone. Beyond the overt racist behavior, there is a preponderance of bystanding here. It won't matter how many walks or banners the community embraces as long as the underlying acceptance of intolerant conduct continues.
This article has some positive ideas about how to bring about necessary change:
http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-45-fall-2013/is-my-school-racist
“Don’t start by saying someone or something is racist; that’s too loaded, a powder keg waiting to explode,” he says. “Start by saying, ‘Maybe there’s a problem here. Let’s look into it.’”
"All of this didn’t just happen. We, as a society, created it, Marcus says.
“Whiteness and blackness aren’t important unless someone has said they are,” he says. “Race isn’t any more real than blond hair or red hair. The meaning comes out of history, out of what we have done with race.”
Marcus acknowledges that such a view can be daunting and can make the task of responding to school-based systemic or structural racism seem impossible. The power, he says, is when more and more people work to dismantle the system of oppression."
True and profound words. Thank you.
Unfortunately it takes no time for the underlying message here to bring to the surface obvious examples.
When a superintendent gets away with lashing out and swearing at a member of the public who stated some unpleasant truths, you have a perfect example of institutionalized acceptance of bullying conduct.
When a mayor gets away with bullying an alderman, screaming for 35 minutes over the phone because he wants a 26% raise, you have another perfect example of institutionalized bullying.
When you have a former head of the community's Human Rights Commission sniping at anyone who dares to question that lockstep movement for that same 26% raise by insinuating a lack of "patriotism," you have yet another perfect example of a system engineered for intolerance.
When you have a school committee that chronically treats dissenting voices with total contempt, it's no wonder that the system finds itself in its current dire predicament.
This site has now become pathetic. The only thing that gets more posts on this site than a controversial matter in our schools is a controversial matter that is handled swiftly, professionally and correctly. The bashers out there just hate that. You know it is over for the bashers when they resort to their old faithful line of the 26%. Haha! Do these basher/morons realize that Melrose was overwhelmingly behind the 26%? Face the facts, you are on the wrong side of things in Melrose and all your nonsensical whining out here won't change that. I know how much it irks you to see our system handled a difficult issue so well but you will just have to deal with it...or sling some more mud out here.
Oh, it was "handled" all right. And will have to be "handling" it for a long time to come. There isn't a rug big enough to bury this one.
Thanks Observer, Dillon, & others. We're listening and we agree. These nasty Vuvu-types who keep jumping in to stomp out anything that reflects poorly on the district are just the typical minions, the administration's vigilante militia, as it were, who'll say or do anything to protect their incompetent and vicious "leaders" and/or themselves.
The silence from the administration regarding this huge and profoundly damaging scandal is deafening.
Word on the street is that teachers are horrified and don't want to return to the district themselves, let alone teach on the same faculty, if this kind of overt racism will be excused and swept under any rug. Some are actively seeking other employment as a direct result of this one thing, not even including all the other reasons to leave, starting with an administrative machine that is disgraceful in its ignorance, arrogance, and lack of professionalism, and that has created an environment that is perhaps the most toxic in any recent memory (which is saying quite a lot given the incredibly low morale that existed two years ago). Heavy-handed bullying would be far too kind a description for what is being reported to those not in the favored crew, while the favored bunch are getting carte blance (and big bucks) to mow over their teaching staff with one ignorant edict after another. If anyone wonders why their kids' teachers are wretchedly unhappy, they don't need to look far for the answers.
NB is out on sick leave for high blood pressure and IS being paid. Strategic move from MJH and CT to save their BFF and perpertrate an illusion her absence was related to some form of reprimand. They're pulling a fast one on us people. Now administration is pulling the wool (rug) over our eyes not just sweeping it under. Is Dolan once again involved in compensating a teacher as he did Ted M the math teacher, out for a year collecting sick time sans a doctor's note then retire with full benes. I guess you can bully, make racial remarks, teach or not, be a bystander, openly make gay slurs etc. As long as you're CONNECTED, you can get away with a CRIME (allegedly).
If this claim is correct, it is despicable and deceitful! Is there anyway that this could be verified? Of course any inquiry to the school department would result in "sorry, this is a private", personal business", even though we are paying for her salary and only encourages others who may commit that same offense and realize that penalties will be minimal and "pushed under the rug". I guess we can forget the union doing anything since they support their members, whether they are good or bad teachers.
This situation occurs when there is a lack of transparency and accountability in the leadership of our school department.
This site does have a purpose. It serves as a very useful barometer for the city. The city can easily judge how well a situation was handled by the level of outrage on this site. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best; I would give this issue an 7.5 on the "melrosemessages misery barometer."
For comparison purposes the issue of the raise for the position of Mayor would have been a "10" had the "MM Misery Barometer" been discovered at that time. From this point forward all issues will be scored accordingly.
NB is out on sick leave for high blood pressure and IS being paid. Strategic move from MJH and CT to save their BFF and perpertrate an illusion her absence was related to some form of reprimand. They're pulling a fast one on us people. Now administration is pulling the wool (rug) over our eyes not just sweeping it under. Is Dolan once again involved in compensating a teacher as he did Ted M the math teacher, out for a year collecting sick time sans a doctor's note then retire with full benes. I guess you can bully, make racial remarks, teach or not, be a bystander, openly make gay slurs etc. As long as you're CONNECTED, you can get away with a CRIME (allegedly).
The Fellowship of the Miserable’s is alive and kicking here in lovely Melrose.[:))][:))]
Welcome back Kent. Good to see ya again.
Hey Superman and Lois. Why don't you take a flying leap like linkletter. You're no Walter Wincell. More like Glass. You couldn't get a story straight or comprehend it's content. Idiot!!
So, is the MSC, the mayor or super even going to address all the discrimination going on in Melrose and the schools or that teacher? What do they do but lord over us, speak condesendingly and collect fat checks?
You're right! The MSC members are getting filthy rich serving on the MSC!
What is a crime is the hateful way CT conspired to retaliate against Joanne Kimball-Sherman for sticking up for the students at the Roosey by speaking out. Isn't that what good, competent adults are supposed to do? Not under dicktator Taymore. CT and KT are two rude peas in a pod. I hope they both rot for their spiteful, vengeful acts.
You kinda lost me. What does this have to do with alleged "hate crimes" at the middle school? Those of us not at the Roosevelt don't know the players there. Can someone give a synopsis of it all?