Shake up at Jimmy Carter Middle School

The facts, as per usual, are hard to find. APS has gotten quite expert at hiding the truth from stakeholders. Never the less, it appears;

The police officer stationed at Jimmy Carter Middle School by the Albuquerque Police Department has been pulled from the assignment. He was replaced by an officer from the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department.

The difference; the one was accountable to the community, the other answers to the leadership of the APS. The one, "wouldn't keep secrets" about the criminal and near criminal activity at the school. The latter, will.

Problem solving in the leadership of the APS, begins with hiding any inconvenient truths from stakeholders. More important than addressing any one of the host of problems at JCMS, is making sure that no administrator is held personally accountable for the part they play in the problem. It is all about covering asses.

A recent Climate Survey conducted at JCMS revealed substantial problems at the school. The results were then effectively hidden from stakeholders; administrators were protected from the consequences of incompetence and/or corruption.

How exactly, does one solve a problem while at the same time denying that the problem exists? Solving problems, under those circumstances, becomes exponentially more difficult.

APS' Police Department is not accredited, certified, or certificated, by anyone. It is a publicly funded private police force that reports directly to, and only to, the leadership of the APS. A primary function of a private police force, a Praetorian Guard, is to keep evidence of criminal activity involving APS administrators, in house.

When it was revealed that APS senior administrators were involved in felony criminal misconduct, link, the matter should have been investigated by outside law enforcement; it was not. The APS Police Department was called in to investigate (itself), and more than three years later, long after statutes of limitation on felony criminal misconduct have expired, they are still "investigating", and the facts are still secret from the public.

Then Supt Beth Everitt promised that results of the various investigations would be turned over to law enforcement for criminal prosecution. That promise has not been kept.

Three years later, evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, still has not been surrendered to the District Attorney for prosecution.

The Journal, which broke the story three years ago, steadfastly refuses to report upon the fact that nothing ever happened, no heads ever rolled.

Though the Journal "promised" to tell its readers the truth about what is going on in their public schools, that promise has not been kept either, even through election cycles that saw board members re-elected and hundreds of millions of tax dollars entrusted to people who are hiding the truth about felony criminal misconduct involving their own.

There is a need for an independent investigation at Jimmy Carter Middle School.

If you ask Supt Winston Brooks why that investigation is not underway, he will give you the same answer he gives to any question about administrative standards and accountability in the APS; he will stonewall.

He will look the other way
and pretend he has not heard the question.




photo Mark Bralley