CT's statement regarding the OCR investigation released today is pure "Trump B...SH.."
Jessica Sacco, former Free Press shrill for Dolan/SC now works for a PR firm...her trumpeting the MPS line on this subject today is disappointing at best and suspect for many reasons.....thank God my kids are too old to attend MPS....the coverup is disgraceful!
http://jgpr.net/2015/12/29/statement-of-melrose-superintendent-cyndy-taymore-regarding-ocr-resolution-agreement/
Dec 29, 2015
Statement of Melrose Superintendent Cyndy Taymore Regarding OCR Resolution Agreement
This is outrageous and disgusting. Why is this on a PR Firm's site? Who authorized paying a PR Firm and how ridiculous is it that instead of being in the local media, this important issue is being managed by spinmasters?! So instead of dealing with the problems, the administration thinks it's justifiable to use taxpayer dollars to spin them! Just great! And they were mystified that their tax override failed miserably!
This announcement is on a PR site only? What a sham! Let's see if it is the Free Press on Thursday or the Weekly News on Friday. If it isn't she has some explaining to do. It actually should be on the school website. It isn't even on sycophant Margaret Driscoll's Taking Notes in Melrose blog!
Will someone please explain why the resulting action of the OCR finding was for students to attend a ridiculous workshop on racism when it has actually been the teachers and adminstrators who committed the offending act and subsequent cover-up/sweeping the incident under the rug? Shouldn't it have been the teachers and admin going through the training, an not the students? It is a fair question at a school committee meeting.
And some people wonder why "neutral reporters" ...so called "journalists" are respected and trusted almost as little as elected political "leaders".....
http://www.boston.com/news/2015/12/29/melrose-public-schools-appoints-harassment-officer-after-allegations-racial-discrimination-teacher/rr6SUAwcgPjbeTFPlGUG6I/story.html#comments
Okay, so this appears on Boston.com and on a PR site, but not on the schools site. The administration bombards the parent community with information that is stupid and meaningless (all the feel-good stuff) but can't manage to send an email blast or post such a matter on its own website. Gee, do ya think it's because they are counting on the idiocy of the Melrose community not to care? Yup. Pure cynicism. Send this out via a PR firm just before New Year's and continue keeping it mum (since April 2014) as much as possible locally. Sadly, I'm afraid the administration is probably correct in its presumption that few in Melrose will care, let alone take appropriate action in demanding change, starting with demanding the resignation of all the top brass--super, attorneys, SC--of any and all who have worked to hide this and who failed to take appropriate action starting in April of 2014.
After John Connor was convicted of molesting children at the Melrose YMCA, and the state's ECC came out with their findings that children in the Melrose YMCA were not deemed safe due to flawed hiring practices (among a host of other documented findings)and AFTER the story was repeatedly spoken about here on Melrose Messages and AFTER the local realtors and business owners came out to defend Dick Whitworth (former President of the Melrose YMCA) and AFTER it made headline news in the papers and on TV but BEFORE the Saugus YMCA had to take over the Melrose Y and force Whitworth to resign....the Melrose YMCA did the same thing! Hired a PR firm to spin the damage. Sound familiar???
Per the Globe, Taymore remarked about the teacher, “She made a reference to African-American history” that was inappropriate and could be considered discriminatory, though her remarks were not “overtly derogatory.” Wait CT..You don't think these remarks were not overtly derogatory?? Really?
So a teacher questioning an African American child: "Where did you go? All the way back to the plantation?" You do not think this is an overtly racist statement?
[:-?]
Well, no. CT didn't think this was an issue, nor did the school committee or the city solicitor ..until the FEDS got involved. In fact when the press interviewed them(after seeing the story here on Melrose Messages of course)they both downplayed the issue, while the City Solicitor actually took the time to discredit the victim and witnesses while pumping up the teacher like she was some angel with a spotless record. FYI, discrediting the victim and witnesses in the press is considered retaliation, but of course this is Melrose where Civil Rights laws are ignored by educators and administrators alike.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2015/12/school_district_responds_to_2014_discrimination_incident
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/12/29/melrose-schools-enter-agreement-with-government-over-civil-rights-violation/bHaApiADXVC0IiMszudalI/story.html
"Taymore declined to identify the teacher. But in an interview, Taymore said the teacher was placed on administrative leave after the incident and then transferred to Melrose High School before “we all came to a mutual decision” that she should retire. The teacher no longer works in the district.
Asked what the instructor said to the student, Taymore said, “She made a reference to African-American history” that was inappropriate and could be considered discriminatory, though her remarks were not “overtly derogatory.”
Taymore said she could not directly quote the teacher’s statements because officials could not determine precisely what she said from witness interviews.
In her statement, Taymore said a harassment officer was appointed in October to ensure complaints are properly investigated and to help staff with training “to better maintain a respectful learning environment for all students.”
In a separate matter, another former Melrose teacher filed a complaint with the civil rights office last summer alleging that she was fired for refusing to separate a group of black students who regularly sat together in her class. That investigation is pending."
TannerPride12/29/15 11:05 PM
Of course the administrators know exactly what was said, that is why this individual is no longer employed in Melrose; paid administrative leave? transferred to Melrose High? Far too lenient, she should have been immediately terminated,
Baline was not put on administrative leave. She actually filed a disability claim stating that the stress of the accusation made it impossible for her to work. Then she took a transfer to the High School that couldn't be denied because of het tenure and union status, and retired when the heat was too much. Taymore only protected her, along with the union. The article is complete spin.
Next SC mtgs are 1/12 & 1/26, first one being just after 1/11 Inaugural when a most pathetic line-up of elected officials parades (charades) up to the Mem Hall stage to take oaths of office. There should be a giant mirror behind them so that all viewing this from audience and tv should have to see their own pathetic images as the ones who allow such a miserable bunch of self-serving (RD boot-licking) weaklings and bullies (with a few notable exceptions) to run (can't say "lead") this community. Welcome to Melrose, Open [Only] to Those who Look the Other Way, Hear No Evil See No Evil. Rah rah Go Raiders! Have another drink and bob your heads in Robbie's Tent, praise be! May as well enjoy it while you can because the whole house o' cards will be toppling very soon as the long-brewing scandals and legal consequences inevitably bubble to the surface.
There was an article in the print edition (Metro) published in Wednesday's Globe. The article was a shameful depicton of our school system and its failed leadership.
Shameful indictment indeed!
"In a separate matter, another former Melrose teacher filed a complaint with the civil rights office last summer alleging that she was fired for refusing to separate a group of black students who regularly sat together in her class. That investigation is pending."
You forgot about the case of retaliation filed with the OCR by the coworker who first reported to the OCR on the photography teacher 's refusal to separate the "students of color" as directed by The Art Chair.
You also forgot the many cases that will be filed when it is safe to do so. Many complainants and victims of teacher and administrator misconduct and other civil rights violations had to suspend pursuing their formal and informal complaints (filed in accordance with the Melrose School's administrative process ,ie., in writing) after vicious as well as illegal acts of intimidation and retaliation carried out by principals, superintendent's office, city solicitor and school resource officer many times working in collusion with each other. These victims' complaints were sometimes never acknowledged, never investigated, and witnesses and victims never interviewed before they became victims yet again, of retaliation. Since these complaints were never investigated, closed, nor action taken they are still considered open according to the district's own procedures as well as State and Federal Civil Rights laws.
Once a truly independent "harassment officer" is designated and someone in charge actually publishes who this currently mythical person is, you may see a flood of inquiries from former and current MPS retaliation victims who request that their complaints be followed up with in accordance with the law.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/12/29/melrose-schools-enter-agreement-with-government-over-civil-rights-violation/bHaApiADXVC0IiMszudalI/story.html#comments
Melrose schools agree to work to prevent discrimination
By Travis Andersen Globe Staff December 29, 2015
excerpt:
"Taymore said she could not directly quote the teacher’s statements because officials could not determine precisely what she said from witness interviews.
In her statement, Taymore said a harassment officer was appointed in October to ensure complaints are properly investigated and to help staff with training “to better maintain a respectful learning environment for all students.”
In a separate matter, another former Melrose teacher filed a complaint with the civil rights office last summer alleging that she was fired for refusing to separate a group of black students who regularly sat together in her class. That investigation is pending."
CT caught lying again:
"Taymore declined to identify the teacher. But in an interview, Taymore said the teacher was placed on administrative leave after the incident and then transferred to Melrose High School before “we all came to a mutual decision” that she should retire. The teacher no longer works in the district. "
She stated (in a number of public and semi-public venues) that NB was on a medical leave, not an "administrative leave" and claimed that NB was suffering from high blood pressure. So basically taxpayers were duped into paying the salary on a fraud in order to transfer a bad priest to another parish....
Meanwhile Melrose slumbers at the wheel, as per usual. Disgusting!
Mighty Mouse has moved up to big boy pants in middle school. Too bad he has'nt grown up enough to be out of pull ups. Still $hi+ing on his staff.
Same thing happened at the Horace Mann. Months of parent complaints about a teacher demeaning and humiliating kids who simply asked questions, replying to children with comments such as "I'll tape your mouth shut and put your head in a blender" (I'm not kidding) finally lead to the teacher leaving on paid leave in the Spring for "medical reasons" and then retiring at the end of the school year. However, the principal initially found it much more effective to retaliate against kids and parents who filed complaints about the teacher using the usual tactics: False police reports filed against complainants, calling in bogus requests for "well-being checks" on children of complaining parents to Melrose PD", prohibiting parents from volunteering for the school or school events, requiring parents to have administrative escorts while in the school....you know, just the typical intimidation and retaliation tactics from the MPS Administration's offensive playbook . [:|]