On the character of the leadership of the APS

I offer the following;

1. from my complaint, #45.

   When Mr. MacQuigg's turn to speak came, he began his comments by discussing what he called the "Pillars of Trustworthiness."  His speech reflected the tenets of Character Counts, a program APS had once followed.  Seconds into Mr. MacQuigg's speech, a member of the Board, Robert Lucero, admonished Mr. MacQuigg for directing his comments to individual board members rather than to the board as a whole.  Shortly thereafter, the Board President Defendant Esquivel, intervened, directed Mr. MacQuigg to stop speaking, and required him to leave the public meeting.  The order came well before Mr. MacQuigg's two minute time limit had expired.

2. from Certain Defendant's Answers to my complaint, #45

   These Defendants deny the allegation contained in Paragraph 45 of Plaintiff's Complaint.

3. from APS' award winning website, link, the videotape of the entire incident; it begins 42 minutes into the meeting.

I expect that you, and the jury the defendants have demanded, will see a legitimate exercise of my Constitutionally protected human rights to free speech and to petition of my government, being abrogated by a publicly funded private police force following unlawful orders from a school board member.

Trust me that all of the evidence we bring to this proceeding, is every bit as compelling.


Never the less, a huge of number of operational dollars are going to be spent in an effort to insulate a few board members and administrators from the consequences of their corruption and incompetence.

A great deal of money will be spent on lawyers who must argue that the defendants, despite their expressed declaration to the contrary, are not actually accountable to any standard of conduct higher than the law, if for no other reason than that they successfully removed the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct.  Their code of conduct once read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult,
be lower than than the standards of conduct for students.

There was a time when board members and students were expected to hold themselves accountable to the same nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics.

Students are still expected to model and promote the Pillars, Board members and administrators no longer are.  There are two standards of conduct in the APS; one for students, one for adults.  Board members and administrators hold students accountable to a higher standard than they will hold themselves.

It is morally unconscionable; as indefensible as it is outrageous.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like.  If we want students to hold themselves honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct. someone has to show them what it looks like.



Were they still accountable as role models of the student standards of conduct, were they still required to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!, link, they would be expected to present facts to the best of their knowledge; to be candid, forthright and honest.

Instead, dollars that could be spend in schools will be spent in courtrooms instead, arguing that these certain defendants are not accountable to any higher standard of conduct than the law; the lowest of all commonly accepted standards of conduct.

Students are told;

Character counts.  And character often means doing more than the law requires and less than the law allows.

Money that could be spend in classrooms teaching students that their character counts, will be spent instead, proving that according to the law, character has nothing to do with it.  There are no higher standards of conduct than the law, that actually apply to board members and administrators.

Their abdication from their obligations as role models is only the most disappointing facet of the ethics and accountability scandal that grips leadership of the APS.

You would think the ethics and accountability scandal would be fodder in upcoming school board, mill levy and bond issue elections.

You would think people would be reading about the scandal in the Journal.

You would be wrong on both counts.
The one, the proximate result of the other.

Shame on "the Journal".