Korte down on facilitation

School Board Secretary and darling of the Journal, Kathy Korte doesn't like the idea, link, of spending $4500 dollars on facilitation to break the impasse in the Student Health Advisory Council.

The need for facilitation is incontrovertible; a district task force on reproductive education has become so polarized, they have stopped making progress.

Korte, according to the Journal, said "the task force has become a drain on APS' scarce resources, and the money could be better spend elsewhere." She would like $4500 to be spent offering students more PE.

Nevertheless, here they are with a mandated advisory council that is dysfunctional; a council in need of facilitation. I can't speak to source of the $4,500, or where else it could be spent, but there doesn't seem to be many choices.

The leadership of the APS is generally averse to facilitation of meetings, and not because the money could be better spent elsewhere. If facilitation worked to their advantage, they would be pouring money into it.

The truth is, the leadership of the APS like to lead meetings; they like to control the agenda and the discussion. As long as they chair all their own meetings, they can steer the meetings in the direction that suits their interests.

The leadership of the APS has an agenda. Facilitation, if it is impartial and competent, represents a threat to any agenda that cannot stand on its own.

As to the efficacy of these particular facilitators; according to the Journal;

"Suzanne Gagnon, who chairs the health advisory council and is a member of the task force, said the outside advisers have helped keep meetings on track and narrow recommendations"

while,

"Marcie May, a parent member of the task force, said the facilitators are stifling free debate ... She said she feels parents have been left out of the conversation."

There is a question of impartiality; APS picked the facilitators, people with whom they have history. It would not be the first time the leadership of the APS has appointed a facilitator of their own to "facilitate" their agenda in lieu of open and honest two-way communication.




photo Mark Bralley

Santa Feans fight for access.

A reader provides us with a must read link to a story in the
Santa Fe New Mexican;

Officials block efforts to obtain public records

The story is about the newspaper's efforts to see public records
and the government's efforts to keep them hidden.

The remarkable thing about the story is, you could substitute
the players; Santa Fe government "officials", for counterparts
in every agency I have ever asked for records they don't want
to provide.

Pols, public servants, and lawyers whose salaries are paid by the very people they're stiffing for public records and access, using loopholes, technicalities and legal weaselry and hiding public records from the people to whom they belong.

It is a fight between those who want to see how their power and resources are being spent, and pols and public servants who would rather spend them in secret. There is only one reason to spend in secret; there is only one reason to hide the truth (beyond specific and explicit exceptions provided by law), and that is to avoid accountability in the spending.

They will succeed for as long as we continue to allow them.

They will succeed for as long as good men do nothing.

... in Santa Fe, in Torrance County, in APS, in ...

Brooks off on Virginia junket

According to APS' award winning website, link, APS Supt Winston Brooks is off to McLean Virginia, home of USA Today.

Winston Brooks will be among the dozen or so superintendents from across the nation who will join business leaders, members of the media and other education leaders in addressing successes and challenges that face America’s urban schools ...

... the day-long forum will bring these educators, corporate executives and media personnel to exchange ideas aimed at improving education in the United States.

... the main purpose of the forum is to raise awareness of education issues and shed light on the challenges that face our nation’s schools.”

This forum brings together USA Today and the country’s leading urban educators to discuss progress in our big-city schools and how to build on achievements..."

Does anyone really believe the problem is, superintendents have not junketed around the country enough discussing education?

Does anyone really believe that when Brooks gets back in town next week, APS students will be any more likely to graduate than they were before he left?




photo Mark Bralley

APS' Ethical Advocate is a fraud; at best, frank waste

Below please find, a complaint filed with APS' whistleblower hotline. It has to do with the fact that APS Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter is trying to hide the truth about the money he spent at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

In essence, a request was made for the public record of spending on their new board room. Four months later, Winters and the leadership of the APS still have not told the truth about the money they were spending on themselves at a time when fire safety inspections in schools were being curtailed to curb expenses.

In essence, they have no intention of telling the truth.

Kent Walz, the Journal, and Paula Maes' cronies at NM Broadcasters Assoc affiliate stations, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB have no intention of calling them on it.

Original complaint

APS' Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter made a commitment to surrender a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the John Milne Boardroom. He made the commitment in front of witnesses at the Goals Setting Meeting at Manzano High School on November 17th, 2011.

He promised to surrender the record in response to a request for public records.

I filed a bonafide and accepted request for the public records, and Winter (the APS) has failed to surrender the record in violation of the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

While he may argue that the surrender of public records is between me and their custodian of public records, it was his commitment to surrender the record. If he was in no position to ensure the surrender, he should not have made the commitment.

12/12/2011 administrative response;

Thank you for using Ethics Line. Please allow two weeks (12-26-2011) for possible update or esolution (sic).

12/14/2011 administrative response;

The response date will need to be changed to 1-3-2012 due to the district offices being closed the week of 12-23-2011 through 1-2-2012. A response will be made to you on 1-3-2012. Thank you again for using Ethics Line.

12/22/2011 administrative response;

We have checked to see if an update is available regarding your request for information on the Milne Board Room. The individual that would have the information was not available. We will check again upon return from Winter Break. An update will be made available by 1-6-11. I am sorry for the delay.

1/6/2012 administrative response;

After following up about your records request, Internal Audit was told that the items have been sent to you electronically as of this date. This complaint is now closed unless we hear from you again. Thank you.

1/7/2012 Complainant;

I have received public records requests responses totaling barely $150K; a small fraction of the total amount spent on the board room. The district and Brad Winter have yet to fulfill their commitment to surrender a candid, forthright and honest accounting of the total amount spent on the board room.

1/9/2012 administrative response;

After contacting Rigo Chavez, APS Communications, he indicated that he is still waiting for the rest of the documentation from the M & O Department. Internal Audit will continue to monitor this and respond back to you by 1-23-12. Thank you.

1/23/2012 administrative response;

I have contacted the Communications Dept. for an update on your records request regarding the John Milne Boardroom. Mr. Chavez has not received any more documentation as of today. Do you want us to continue getting updated information from APS Communications or would you like to contact them directly? I am extending the deadine (sic) for another two weeks (2-6-2012). If at the end of two weeks I have not heard from you, I will close this complaint.

1/28/2012 Complainant;

I am not sure how you can close the complaint against Brad Winter when he still has not honored the commitment he made to surrender a full, candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the John Milne.

2/3/2012 Complainant;

re; "... extending the deadine(sic) for another two weeks (2-6-2012). If at the end of two weeks I have not heard from you, I will close this complaint." Are we in agreement that you "have heard from me" and are therefore not intending to close the complaint?

2/6/2012 administrative response;

We are still waiting for the cost of the technology from APS Maintenance & Operation. As soon as this information is received, it will be forwarded on to you. A follow up letter dated February 2, 2012, was also sent to you from APS Communications regarding this inquiry. This complaint will remain open until you notify us that your request has been completed. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

3/4/2012 Complainant;

While I appreciate the fact that you are willing to keep the investigation open, it is clear that neither Winter nor anyone else in the leadership of the APS is willing to produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the board room. Nor are they willing to surrender public records in accordance with the NM IPRA. They well past the legal deadlines for surrender and are in violation of the law. At some point, your investigation should include the fact that Winter et al are breaking the law, rather than just staying endlessly open while they do.

On 3/6/2012 administrative response;

A letter dated 3-1-2012 was sent to you from Rigo Chavez with additional information on your request. I will continue to keep you informed.

3/9/2012 administrative response;

Another letter, dated 3-6-12, has been sent to you by R. Chavez with additional information regarding your John Milne Board Room request.

I will write to them;

Neither Rigo Chavez' letter of 3-1-12, nor of 3-6-12 constitute any real production. Interest holders still have no idea how much of their money was spent, and on what.

It is time to close this investigation. Either conclude that the leadership of the APS has produced a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the John Milne Boardroom, or that they have not and clearly have no honest intention to do so.

The Ethical Advocate whistleblower hotline is not unique among venues of accountability for administrators and board members. There is nowhere anywhere in the APS, where a legitimate complaint against an administrator or board member will see due process.

Complainants' only option is to take them to court. Administrators and board members will show up there with a bevy of unscrupulous lawyers and an unlimited litigation budget, a large bore pipeline fed with education dollars otherwise destined for classrooms.

That is the essence of the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, the culture of corruption and incompetence and how they perpetuate it.

The fact that you can only learn about it here and not in the
paper or on TV, is the essence of the corruption between the
leadership of the APS, Kent Walz and the Journal, and
Paula Maes' cronies in the broadcast media.




photo Mark Bralley

Torrance County Commission meeting extraordinarily polished.

I have to admit carrying preconceived notions into the meeting; I wasn't expecting fast moving, informative engaging business of county government. The meeting was chaired by Torrance County Commissioner Vanessa Chavez-Gutierrez, link.

The meeting lasted five hours, including an hours long "governance training session".

Photojournalist and blogger Mark Bralley, who has seen many more government meetings than most of the rest of us combined, stood up at public forum to tell the commission, it was one of the best run meetings he has seen.

Lest we get too gushy though, they still have it in their minds to discuss whether citizens who come to participate in county commission meetings with recording equipment of any kind, will be treated differently than those who don't. They're thinking of cordoning them off or maybe sticking them up on a platform.

Commissioner Lonnie Freyburger's motion to prohibit citizens from taping meetings was dropped on the advice of the Torrance County Attorney. The consensus of the lawyers advising the commission was, if counties taped their own meetings, citizens could "legally" be banned from creating their own recordings. Freyburger defended having made the motion in the first place, saying it was a "work in progress".

A couple of county workers spoke in favor of limiting the free exercise of the rights and responsibilities of citizens to hold their government accountable in the spending of public power and resources.

Michelle Jones, r, (who I incorrectly identified previously as Linda Kayser) seated as Torrance County Manager Joy Ansley passes by, was particularly perturbed, informing Commissioners that the cameras in the room this morning had made it "impossible for her to do her job" during the meeting.

Another, argued that camera tripods had made the safe evacuation of a room with four doors and perhaps five times that many people, so dangerous as to warrant banning tripods to some corner of the room. It was he that suggested that we might be compelled to stand on a platform.

The County Attorney suggested that others needed to weigh in; the Fire Marshall for example will be asked to balance First Amendment rights against real and imagined safety issues.

On the issue of "distraction"; County Clerk argued any citizen with a camera was distraction enough to warrant limiting legislation.

Consider a real distraction; some one in the audience yelling out or making a lot of noise. Clearly that behavior cannot be permitted.

Consider the relative distraction of someone standing quietly and peacefully with a camera, or a poster. A distraction? maybe, technically.

A distraction of the magnitude that the free exercise of constitutionally protected humans rights should be disallowed? hardly. Not even close.

Pols and public servants have an obligation to sit and take a certain amount of "abuse"; it's part of the job. How can they promise to defend the Constitution and citizen's right to petition the government, and then refuse to tolerate any petition not served to them politely and on a platter?

At issue; will the commission meet "legal" standards of transparency or ethical standards of transparency?

"Legal" standards come with fingers drawing quotation marks in the air. It means the lowest standards of acceptable conduct, further mitigated by all of the legal weaselry that "legal" loopholes and technicalities will allow. They require as little transparency as the law will allow. They are standards that allow pols and public servants to hide whatever it is they need to hide.

In stark contrast, ethical standards of conduct require as much transparency as the law will allow. Ethical standards don't require air quotes or any other qualifiers. Citizens are entitled to candor, forthrightness and honesty in response to their legitimate questions about the public interests; public power, resources, and public service.

The Torrance County Commission's mettle is being tested. When/if they vote for transparency in meetings and in public records, limited only by the law, they will have met the test.

When the question is;

does the Torrance County Commission intend to tell/show
the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the ethically
redacted truth to their constituents?

any answer except yes means, no.

No matter how polished their meetings.




photos Mark Bralley

Houston blows off resounding no-confidence vote

Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston chose to dismiss a recent vote of no confidence, despite it's overwhelming nature. Nearly seventy percent of "voters" showed up and more than 90% of them voted no-confidence. When the dust settles on the math, nearly two out of every three deputy sheriffs sees a problem.

Houston does not. Not enough of a problem anyway, to address any of the issues that have his subordinates so upset.

Votes of no confidence carry no weight, there is no provision in statutes to remove any politician or public servant based on vote outcomes, no matter how lop-sided. Houston would have to be recalled; a nearly impossible task.

He could just step up and deal with at least a few of the myriad of issues that prompted the vote.

Instead, he informs us that he is too busy serving us, even to take notice of the vote.

In all likelihood, he will not be recalled. The problems won't go away; they will continue to fester while morale in the Sheriff's department plummets.

Plummeting morale will affect performance, it always does.

How can it not?

Torrance County Commissioner backed down

It would appear Torrance County Commissioner Lonnie Freyburger's resolution to strictly prohibit the public from operating audit and/or visual recording devices is dead, at least for the time being.

The Independent, an East Mountains and Estancia Valley newspaper, link, reports that Freyburger's motion will come back without the controversial element in blatant violation of state law and the First Amendment.

There are two horns on Freyburger's bull; one was to gore Edwina "George" Hewitt who was by all accounts, videotaping him as he wielded Torrance County citizen's power and spent their resources.

He claims the tapes were then unethically altered before being posted on YouTube, though he is yet to point to actual evidence that would substantiate his allegation. Evidence that would be a cinch to produce, if it actually existed.

The other horn on Freyburger's bull; he doesn't want people to take snippets of the truth and use them out of context.

There are laws that deal with slanderers and libelers. If they were of use to the Commissioner, he would use them. It's not like he would have to pay for lawyers; he already has one. A lawyer who, by the way, had to "think for awhile" about whether Freyburger could ignore First Amendment rights and State law and then get away with it.

Freyburger's premise is fundamentally flawed. The idea that commission could put its own record on the internet, and that, that record would somehow be invulnerable to being chopped into snippets and used out of context, shows a bone numbing lack of awareness of video software applications.

The bigger problem is the lack of consequences he will pay.

It's not alright for pols and public servants to screw up and then say, never mind.

There is something wrong with commissioners and school board members who abuse their power to stifle legitimate petition of government for redress of grievances.

Like every pol and public who got called on their bullshit,he will just pretend it never happened.
The only mechanism the people have to deal with this kind of betrayal is recall. Recall is difficult, a deliberate decision made by the people whose recall we discuss.

I would suggest that there is another option; torches and pitchforks. If you think about it, when in the entire history of the planet, has a tyrant ever been overthrown except with torches and pitchforks?

Enough of the great unwashed gather together in one place to insist; It's time for you to go.Actual torches and pitchforks, in this case, are unnecessary.

All that is necessary, is more than a handful of peasants who have had more than enough of Lonnie Freyburger.

"All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world,

is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

Torrance County Commissioner not backing down

Torrance County Commissioner Lonnie Freyburger just doesn't get it. At the last county commission meeting he floated a resolution that would prohibit interest holders from recording county commission meetings. The resolution is such an affront to government by the people, of the people and for the people; it is such a blatant violation of the Open Meetings Act, link, which states quite clearly;

Reasonable efforts shall be made to accommodate the use of audio and video recording equipment,

one has wonder how Freyburger could have thought he could do such a thing in the first place.

Nearly as confounding, the County Attorney needs "time to think" about whether such a move would actually violate the Open Meetings Act.

Freyburger was written up in the Journal and his home town Mountain View Telegraph, link, which criticized him pretty roundly and concluded with a Harry Truman quote; if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

Rather than admit to his brain fart; arrogance and ignorance of the law, Freyburger went after the Telegraph and the citizen who raised the ruckus, in an op-ed piece of his own, link. It is apparent from reading his response; ad hominem attacks on a citizen exercising Constitutionally protected human rights, half truths and out of context statements, he has honesty issues on top of everything else.

Consider for example, Edwina "George" Hewitt's admission, link, that; "the only editing done is the use of a stabilization tool on the YouTube site, which makes videos "smoother for viewers. Freyburger wrote; "Ms Hewitt readily admits to editing ...", implying that she readily admits to editing for content, a claim he doesn't substantiate with any evidence.

He tries to re-frame the argument and recast the resistance as resistance against the county creating its own recording . As far as I have learned, no one, least of all those who would make records of their own, objects to the county doing something they should be doing anyway.

An opportunity presents itself; those who believe that the terms of public service, whether and how citizens can record meetings, are the prerogative of the people and not of pols and public servants, have a chance to stand up and defend that belief.

The next meeting of the Torrance County Commission is scheduled for Wednesday next, 9am. Estancia is about an hour away from Albuquerque.

Standing up pays off for Westsiders

The APS School Board has yielded to public pressure and created another west side school board district. The Journal reports, link, the board has recognized a great river running through the city and the differences of opinion it separates; the west side will have 2-1/2 seats on the board instead of 1 and a 1/2, and a 1/2.

It is important to School Board President Paula Maes and the rest (their silence gives consent) that we believe the changes they made have nothing to do with the pressure applied by community members and legislators.

Apparently the Journal agrees; no mention of any of the public outrage that led to the board revisiting the issue.

No mention either, in the Journal ever, of the Citizens Advisory Council on Communications petition, link, or of the more than one hundred good citizens who signed it, or of Maes' and board's efforts to make sure it never sees the light of day, link.

Budget meeting tonight

According to APS' award winning website, link,

The public is invited to a presentation on the Albuquerque Public Schools budget situation for 2012-13. The meeting will be held from 6-8 p.m. at the APS Building at 6400 Uptown Blvd. NE in the John Milne Community Board Room. Updated information will be presented by APS Chief Financial Officer Don Moya.

Why they waited until the day before the meeting to post it, and haven't done anything else to publicize a meeting this important, is anyone's guess.

Mine is; they really don't want a lot of people there asking pointed questions, while giving them the opportunity sometime later, to say they had a meeting and no one showed up.

APS redistricting on school board agenda tonight

An agenda for tonight's meeting has finally been posted. The school board intends to revisit it previous decision regarding school board member districts, link.

I suspect that they have known for some time what their agenda was. Why they waited until the last minute to post it can't be proven, but I suspect the usual motive; depressing public awareness and participation.

Also on the agenda, link; the election of Board Officers and Committee Chairs.

Matters of Information has been moved to the end of the agenda from its usual position, right after public forum. The immediate usefulness of of the move appears to be to separate the MoI from any inconvenient points or questions that might have broached during public forum, and board member's obligations to respond to them.

If there's another reason, I can't imagine it, and the board didn't articulate it.

There really is a fight going on,

and you pick a side when you don't pick a side.

On the one side, those who would have more transparency in
the spending of public power and resources, and on the other,
those who would have less.

The Torrance County Commission is considering a resolution
prohibiting people from recording their meetings, link.

It occurs to me that the best way to defend a right,
is to exercise it. Over and over and over.

What if enough people show up at the meeting where Torrance
County Commissioner Lonnie Freyburger defends his affront
to the free exercise of Constitutionally protected human rights,
and then each hold up their cameras and begin recording the
spending of their power and resources?

The terms of public service are the prerogative of the people;
not of County Commissioners. Anyone who doesn't like the
terms the people write, they need not serve.

If government is ever to be of the people, by the people and
for the people, clearly, the people are going to have to start
showing up.

Interestingly, Freyburger is the only commissioner who won't
take emails from constituents and other interest holders, link.

If going to this meeting to stand in defense of your rights is
within your capacity but not in your plans, if you could drive
over to Estancia but don't intend to, I would like you to
imagine having to explain to someone who looks to you for
personal example, why you will not.

Sacrifice is the currency of commitment. Commitments cannot
be defended except by sacrifice.

Those who wait for perfect circumstances to defend their
rights will find only a perfect excuse for never standing up
to defend them at all.

At which point their free exercise will be lost, likely forever.

High and low standards indistinguishable, if neither can be enforced.

Let's say you, like the leadership of the APS, have a police force.

If your interest is in having a good police force, you will identify standards of conduct and competence that are high enough to accomplish your mission.

Then you will enforce them.

You will provide due process for every legitimate complaint;
no matter no matter who lodges it, no matter why they lodge
it, and no matter who they lodge it against.

The APS Police force's mission, link, reads;

The Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department
exists for the purpose of providing police and security
services to the public schools.

In the first place, it is not a police "department". They would like very much for it to be a police department, but it is not. To call their publicly funded private police "department" is dishonest on its face. If they really were a police department, they wouldn't need the legislature to make them one.

By "providing police and security services to the public schools" they mean enforcing the law. And they do at some levels; just not administrative or executive ones.

At the leadership level, the APS police force has a more sinister mission; praetorian guard, protecting the leadership of the APS from being held honestly accountable for public corruption and incompetence. Their police force is there to make sure due process does not befall any of the leadership of the APS; to wit, the self-investigation of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS police force, by the APS police force.

More than a year ago, school board enforcer Marty Esquivel took it upon himself to write a restraining order banning me from participation in school board meetings.

The order is quite unlawful; Esquivel had no authority as an individual school board member, to write it without school board approval. That approval could not have been provided except in violation of the Open Meetings Act.

Also signing off on the unlawful order; Chief of Police Steve Tellez.

Ask him what he has done with credible testimony and evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

Together Esquivel and Tellez have ordered their police force to enforce the unlawful restraining order that they call a "banning letter".

Bottom line, folks wearing guns, mace, tazers I suppose, handcuffs and badges, and "just following orders", stand between me and the public forum at school board meetings.

Only now, they are enforcing the will of the leadership of the APS by drawing the line, not a the doors of school board meetings, but at the edge of APS property an action they took without provocation, without justification, and without hesitation.

Deputy Chief of Police Steve Gallegos arrested and ejected me from APS property for no reason at all except to harass me and to make it more difficult for me to expose administrative and executive corruption and incompetence.

So there it is; a standard;

thou shalt not use a publicly funded private police force
to suppress dissidence in public forums.

Are they accountable to it?

According to the State Auditor, no. According to the Attorney General, District Attorney, Bernalillo County Sheriff and Albuquerque Police Department, no.

Any complaint to be filed, can be filed only within APS itself.
They will self-adjudicate allegations made against them.

It would be silly to file a complaint against Gallegos with Tellez,
I mean, seriously?


I could file a complaint with Supt Winston Brooks, but he the one giving the orders. The administrative buck stops with him.

APS COO Brad Winter? He's in on it.

He would like it very much if I couldn't ask him again in public,
why won't he steadfastly refuses to tell the truth about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

There is no avenue to file a complaint against the school board except the public forum, and I am kept from it, by the very people against whom I wish to complain.

There is Ethical Advocate. Though the complaint filed there will be investigated and adjudicated by the respondents themselves, it will be difficult for them to do much without creating a public record, or avoiding creating one.

I have filed a complaint. By way of resolution, I am insisting upon a gathering and compiling of the truth about the incident.

I will have an incontrovertible record, as a result of the Ethical Advocate complaint, that they were asked to tell the truth, and chose to hide it instead.

There is only one reason to hide the truth, and that is
to escape the consequences that would follow if you don't.

It is about cowardice and corruption.




photos Mark Bralley
Gallegos, ched macquigg

Legacy Church Pastor takes the Journal to the woodshed over bias.

The Journal has posted an op-ed, link, by the Pastor of the Legacy Church, Steve Smothermon. The Journal, according to Smothermon, has presented "lop-sided" coverage.

I would suppose that any newspaper printing the whole and unvarnished truth about any political issue will be accused by both sides of being on the others side. Sometimes newspaper editors do take sides on an issue, and as long as they keep their support or opposition on the editorial page, it presents no problem.

Unfortunately, there is evidence that the Journal doesn't draw a crisp line between editorial opinion and biased coverage.

Since the headlines for op-ed pieces are written by editors and not by those whose submission is published, it is an editor who offered a "qualified" admission of the allegation made against them;

Pastor Smothermon Sets Record Straight on ‘Biased’ Coverage.

At least they didn't use the timeworn and hackneyed "allegedly" Still, one cannot set the record straight unless the record needs straightening to begin with.

The quotation marks around "biased" soften the sting of the Pastor's spot on appraisal of Journal coverage but don't deflect it.

Now if they would just do something to rectify the situation, if they would take steps to ensure honest and unbiased reporting, if they would make a diligent effort to contact principles in a story before running with it, perhaps they won't be compelled to publish any more letters attempting to unring a bell and set the record straight.

If APS senior administrators and school board members were actually accountable ...

APS might be successfully educating more than half of students.

Success or failure in any venture, take for example public education, rides on two factors and two factors only. There are other factors, but in as much as they are outside our sphere of influence, we are left with just the two;

1. standards and
2. accountability to those standards

If the standards of conduct and competence are clear, unequivocal and adequate to protect the public interests,
then they are just high enough.

If there is actual, honest accountability to those standards,
then there is just enough.

Honest accountability; to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for politicians and public servants, within their public service.

Accountability by means of a system that is beyond their undue influence and powerful enough to hold them accountable even against their will. Accountability means due process for complaints and complainants.

When those conditions are met, as much has been done as can be done. To the extent the standards are inadequate or the accountability insufficient, then not enough has been done.

If the leadership of the APS, or any other agency of government, had standards of conduct and competence high enough to protect the public interests, they could and would show them to you.

If the leadership of the APS, or any other agency of government, was actually and honestly accountable to those standards by a system that guarantees due process for legitimate complaints, they could and would show it to you.

If they cannot or will not show them both; it can only be because they are lacking by more than they're willing to admit.

The School Board has a code of ethics and by their own free admission, are utterly unaccountable to it.

APS Ethical Advocate Fraud Waste and Abuse hotline is itself, fraud, waste and abuse. Complaints filed against administrators and board members are denied due process by the self-adjudication of complaints by colleagues and subordinates and school board's abandonment of their commitment to review and approve every single complaint.

The APS Police Force is self-investigating felony criminal misconduct in their own leadership. Public records are being hidden in blatant violation of the law by win at any cost litigation against the public interests.

The leadership of the APS cannot point to adequate standards and accountability or they would; you could link to it on their award-winning website.

And all the while, the establishment's media; the Journal and NM Broadcasters Association affiliates, refuses to point to and ethics and accountability scandal in the the leadership of the APS.

Perhaps if a whole bunch of people followed links to the Journal,
KRQE, KOAT, and KOB, and expressed their interest in

An investigation and report on standards and accountability
in the leadership of the APS,

they might be persuaded to begin one.

It would only require enough interest holders to click a link and then stand up for what they believe in for a sentence or two.♠

the Journal, link,

and KRQE, link,

and KOAT, link,

and KOB, link.

All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world,
is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke

Sacrifice is the currency of commitment.

Skandera's "no comment" unacceptable

NM PED Secretary Designate Hanna Skandera ordered a raid on an elementary school and when asked for details offered, no comment.

Begging a a rather fundamental question; where is the line between the truth that interest holders have a right to share and the truth Skandera has a legal obligation to hide?

It's not about what makes her or anyone else look good; it's about what the law requires her to hide.

To the extent that the question cannot be completely answered in policy; it must be provided for in process; neither of which exists with respect to getting Skandara to be more forthcoming about the raid, or in defending her refusal.

Who writes the terms of public service, the people or their servants?

It's not that she drew a line, or even that she drew it in the wrong place. It's her insistence that the line is hers to draw in the first place.




photo Mark Bralley

APS "cooperating " with PED investigators.

No fewer than five investigators from the New Mexico Public Education Department swarmed an elementary school, immediately isolated the players so stories couldn't be cooked up, and began an investigation into allegations of cheating on standardized tests, link.

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta laid out APS' spin by pounding on the fact that the person, or persons, who made the allegation remain "anonymous". Reporting anonymously is far better than not reporting at all, which is the goal of leadership in cultures of corruption and incompetence.

There are is some justification for whistleblowers to feel they have to remain anonymous in the APS. A recent audit found a culture of fear of retribution and retaliation against whistleblowers. A culture of fear ...

The version that went out under her name, link, approaches real candor by admitting right up front

"APS and the PED have a history of working together to investigate all claims of testing irregularities, which have on occasion resulted in the invalidation of tests." emphasis added

There have been other investigations, likely following allegations made by whistleblowers also who felt the need for the protection anonymity provides, and those investigations substantiated their allegations.

Armenta pointed to cluelessness or cover up when she offered, "... we really don't have any details." Honestly, I find that pretty hard to believe that APS' Crisis Manager has "no" details.

I'll bet she knows, for example, how many occasions cheating allegations have been substantiated. If she doesn't, why not?

Real candor on her part would have prompted a more complete communication than "on occasion".

If I tried to dig up the numbers she won't; if I tried investigate and report upon the depth and breadth of cheating on standardized testing in the APS, I would be be resisted in that effort by the entire weight of government in the APS, from the school board down to the least powerful member of their publicly funded private police force.

They will pay their lawyers what ever they need, to litigate their self-exception to the law for administrators and board members. Their budget for litigation is as unlimited as their willingness to spend it on whatever legal weaselry the law will allow.

There are a few heavy hitters in the local press that might/could get most of the truth out of the leadership of the APS. Their odds are certainly better than mine, though their standing under the First Amendment is not one iota greater than mine.

The question of course is, will any of those heavy hitters investigate and report upon credible allegations of cheating on standardized testing, and upon the efforts the leadership of the APS are making to cover it all up?

It seems unlikely in light of their steadfast refusal to investigate and report upon the felony criminal misconduct in the APS police force and that no heads rolled. It was all covered up.

The establishment's media were and are complicit or complacent in a cover up of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators.

My money is on complicit.

Let's see how deep they dig.




photo Mark Bralley

APS' money pit?

When the purchase of the twins was first contemplated, there were those who argued it was an unjustifiable extravagance and would become a money pit. Promises to rent out one of the buildings to cover the expenses of the other weren't kept. The purchase prompted a stampede of administrators looking to get out of schools and into more comfortable digs.

Those arguments were heard and ignored long before the real spending began; long before the building was brought up to standards more befitting APS senior administrators and school board members. And long before the budget overruns began piling up.

The folks who paid the bills for the building and accoutrements will likely never know just how much they paid. They will never be told how much money they spent on an administrative complex with covered parking for bigwigs, instead of on the decrepit classrooms and portables their children were attending.

The simplest questions go unanswered; how much did we pay for the chairs board members sit in a few hours a month; did we really spend $800 a chair?

The clearest indicator that they have something to hide,
is that they are hiding something.

They are hiding a candid, forthright and honest accounting
of all of the public dollars invested in sprucing up the digs
at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

The proof that they are hiding the record is the absence of the record. If they're not hiding it, where is it?

And why else would there not be a record of the spending
except that the record wasn't ever made, or made and lost,
or destroyed, or is being hidden?

As unsettling as that prospect is, there is a bigger issue than
the amount of money they spent at 6400 Uptown Blvd, and that
is the amount of money they've spent and are willing to spend in
the future, continuing to cover up how much they spent.

That and the ongoing aid and abet provided for them by the
establishment media; Kent Walz and the Journal, and the
NM Broadcasters Association affiliates who refuse to investigate
and report upon unjustifiable extravagance in the spending of
scarce educational resources on administrative spaces instead
of in classrooms.




photo Mark Bralley

APS M&O Director weighs in on the real cost of the John Milne boardroom.

John Dufay, link, is the Director of APS' Maintenance and Operations Department, link. We pay him one hundred four thousand dollars a year and perks, link.

When asked (by means of a bonafide request for public records) for a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the new boardroom, and according to APS Director of Communications and Public Records Custodian Rigo Chavez, John Dufay responded;

"... the cost for construction of the John Milne Board Room,
including the lobby area, was in fact $384,450.00."

In apparent contrast, a Journal article, link, reporting budget overruns alone, nearing $500,000.

APS student standards of conduct. link, of which Dufay is one of APS' senior-most role models, read in significant part;

Honesty in communications is expressing the truth as best we know it and not conveying it in a way likely to mislead or deceive. There are three dimensions:

Truthfulness. Truthfulness is presenting the facts to the best of our knowledge. Intent is the crucial distinction between truthfulness and truth itself. Being wrong is not the same thing as lying, although honest mistakes can still damage trust insofar as they may show sloppy judgment.

Sincerity. Sincerity is genuineness, being without trickery or duplicity. It precludes all acts, including half-truths, out-of-context statements, and even silence, that are intended to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading.

Candor. In relationships involving legitimate expectations of trust, honesty may also require candor, forthrightness and frankness, imposing the obligation to volunteer information that another person needs to know. (emphasis added)

If you wanted to file a complaint against Dufay, with regard to his lack of candor, you would be hard pressed to find a place to file it; a place where the complaint would see due process.

If you ask the school board to write a policy to creating due process for complaints against administrators and board members they will not.

They have no more interest in due process of complaints filed against them, than they have in providing due process for the petition laid before them.

Bottom line, there is no place to file a complaint

• against Dufay with regard to his lack of candor, or
• against Supt Winston Brooks with regard to his suppression of evidence of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators, or
• against the School Board, individually and collectively, with regard to their denial of due process to hundreds of whistleblower complaints and complainants, or
• against the School Board individually and collectively, with regard to their use of a publicly funded private police force to cover up credible allegations and evidence of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators.

and where the allegation will see an independent and impartial adjudication by someone with the power, resources and authority to hold these honestly accountable, even against their will.

All this spending on the John Milne boardroom, occurred at a time when independent auditors of APS finances were finding APS leaders encumbering amounts in excess of $50,000 dollars "without involving purchasing".

The auditors were justifiably concerned at the lack of standards, lack of accountability and lack of record keeping in the spending of over a billion dollars a year, link.

A question or two is begged. The most important of which is
why the cost overruns on the boardroom were newsworthy
once and are not newsworthy now; now that it can be shown
how bad the overruns really were?

What ever happened with APS' new district goals?

APS Supt Winston Brooks and the School Board committed
an enormous amount of human resources for the specifically
expressed purpose of "gathering public input" on the district's
goals for the next few years.

The entire leadership team toured the district "gathering input".

The last meeting was held three months ago, link.

If you search their award winning website, link, you will find
no new goals have been created and no evidence that any real
progress is being made in getting it done.

We're spending more than two million dollars a year in salaries alone, on a leadership team that is supposed to be able to set their goals; figure out where they are going and how to get there.

We pay Winston Brooks
alone, more than a quarter
of a million dollars a year
to set goals and lead.

To what avail?

What are APS' new goals?

How will we get there?




photo Mark Bralley

Confidence vote in store for Houston

It is hardly a secret that Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston isn't popular with his troops. The union representing Deputy Sheriffs is considering a vote of no confidence.

So what?

It is hard to imagine more useful information than the results of a vote of confidence, or to imagine information that is less useful.

There is a glaring disparity between the respect paid to the experience, education, and expertise that subordinates bring to their jobs, and the disrespect paid to the opinions that rest on them; whether it be a full out confidence vote or any other subordinate evaluation.

There is a certain amount of simple arrogance in play when people like Houston, Winston Brooks and the School Board decide they have no obligation to pay any attention to subordinate opinion, expertise and experience.

In particular, when they decide to pay no attention to
the community members they serve.

It really is quite indefensible




photo Mark Bralley

Acting Chief acting derelict

I was not APS acting Chief of Police Steve Gallegos' only problem yesterday.

There was a crisis in progress, I was told, of such magnitude that there was no one on the entire APS police force, except the ladies at the reception desk, who could free themselves long enough to tell me why I was being denied access to legitimate business in their Employee Benefits Office.

Though Executive Director of Communications / Crisis Manager Monica Armenta was nowhere to be seen, during or since;
there was in fact a bonafide crisis. Five schools had been shut down because there was a kid (flashing?) a gun and hanging around one of them, link.

Five schools, more or less. It turns out that many classrooms don't have working all-calls, and aren't in the loop. They might never have discovered their lives were in danger, except for the number of resourceful students who spend their days non-stop texting pretty much everybody but the leadership of the APS.

Oddly, no one in APS' Communications Dept, showed up on TV.
Instead, they wheeled out COO Brad Winter to assure parents
and community members that everything is fine because
they practice active shooter drills in schools all the time.

In charge; Deputy Chief Steve Gallegos.

He was in charge, I was told,
because the actual Chief, Steve
Tellez, like Elvis, was no longer
in the building.

That subject came up when I
asked who I could talk to about
the unlawful order they were
enforcing, denying my access
to their castle keep.

I had legitimate business. I was behaving appropriately. I was in violation of no law, no regulation, no ethic, not even Marty Esquivel's unlawful restraining order. I did nothing wrong; I will stand on the public record; security cameras, recorders, and eyewitness testimony.

Though they were up to their eyeballs in a crisis, APS acting Chief Steve Gallegos found the time to walk clear across the building, personally, to harass and eject me.

Admittedly, I only had half his attention. He was holding a cell
phone to his ear most of the time.

Which means of course, whoever was on the other end of the
calls he was fielding, people dealing with a kid with a gun,
had half his attention as well.

I would argue the students, staff and community members in
those schools and whose lives were at stake, should have had
his full attention.

Both Tellez and Gallegos have been voted no confidence by the
people who in situations like these, hold their hands closer to
their guns than their cell phones.

Gallegos, a double dipper, probably pulls down north of $100K;

to protect children from gunmen and administrators from
whistleblowers, both at the same time.




Tellez photo Mark Bralley
Gallegos, Armenta photo ched macquigg

Arrested by APS Deputy Chief

This is Steve Gallegos; he's the Deputy Chief of APS' Police force. He arrested me this morning for no reason except to harass me.  By arrest I mean he used his authority as a police officer to deprive me of my liberty.  He did so with no justification whatsoever.

It isn't the first time Gallegos has been a party to my harassment. He was there for the unlawful arrest at the Gubernatorial Debate at Eldorado High School.

He's seen here standing behind APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta while she is ordering them to eject me from the building. She has no authority to order the APS police force to do anything; but that's a whole different story.

I was in the administrative digs at 6400 Uptown Blvd to drop off a check at the Employee Benefits Office. I was arrested, basically for being in the building. The public record; belt recorders, security cameras and witness testimony will substantiate the allegation.

I will ask for the public records; they will claim none exist.

Either Gallegos doesn't understand the banning letter he thinks he's enforcing, has never read it, or it wouldn't make any difference anyway.

Before he ordered me to leave the building, he asked if I had finished my business. I told him "no"; he threw me out anyway.

The APS Police Force is a publicly funded private police force functioning as a Praetorian Guard in every sense. They are accountable to no one, accredited by no one, and certificated by no one. The report directly to and only to, the leadership of the APS.

In theory, they should be accountable to Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston. But judging by his apparent lack of concern over APS cops sitting and watching high schools students drinking alcohol, link, and his lack of concern over the cover up of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators, Houston doesn't take his oversight role all that seriously.




Gallegos photos ched macquigg
Houston photo Mark Bralley

One community group gets school board attention, the other still being ignored.

The APS District and Community Relations Committee will finally provide some due process for a group of interest holders who have been waiting four months for the board to consider their petition for acceptance of a policy they wrote called; the Families United for Education Process for Proposed Family Engagement Policy.

Kudos to Committee Chair Lorenzo Garcia for putting their petition on his agenda and then allowing a public forum. Unclear still, why he will not extend the same courtesy to another group of interest holders whose petition has been before the board for two months longer than the Families for Education petition.

The Citizens Advisory Council on Communications submitted a petition, link, in August of last year, link, and is yet to see public discussion.

As usual, the agenda is posted with minimum notice required by the law as oppose to early as the law allows. I would encourage you to check their agenda, link, for any reason this agenda could not have been published days ago instead of at the very last minute.

The problem of course, the less notice, the less chance for interest holders to rearrange their schedules in order to participate in a meeting about their interests and that begins before their workday ends.

Still nothing from Brooks on student discipline

It has been more than three months now, since I asked APS Supt Winston Brooks why we never talk about student discipline, link.

So far, not a word.

Two possibilities; the first, student discipline, like the color their lockers are painted, has no effect on learning. It is of so little consequence that it doesn't warrant gathering data, examining it, and making plans to address the issues we find.

The other possibility; student discipline doesn't look good, so in the interests of positive public perception, it simply isn't brought up.

There is no data to examine. By their own deliberate choice, the leadership of the APS does not gather data that looks bad; that will stain their precious public perception.

Less than five years ago, a document was created by Council of the Great City Schools investigators; "Evaluation of District Security Operations". It holds the findings an investigation into APS' police force; a publicly funded private police force; a praetorian guard.

They wrote;

"The annual statistical crime report to the Board of Education (and the community) may be inaccurate and possibly misleading. "... there is a prevailing culture of under-reporting incidents in order to improve the image of the district and the individual schools."

"... a prevailing culture ..."

CoGCS auditors, in another administrative audit, found "... a culture of fear of retribution and retaliation" against whistleblowers.

"... a culture of fear ..."

I doubt CoGCS auditors used a word as powerful as "culture" casually. It seems unlikely in a report where the word "may" is used to describe the possibility that a culture of under-reporting manifests itself in inaccuracy and deception.

Cultures of anything don't disappear overnight.

They don't disappear over five years.

There is still a culture of under reporting in the APS; witness their unwillingness to produce data on student discipline.

There is still a culture of fear of retaliation against whistleblowers.

All anyone has to do to prove that, is ask.

Which gets us to the Journal, and why won't they ask a few APS employees if they are witness to any administrative corruption and incompetence, and if they feel comfortable exposing it?

This is Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz. He is seen here defending his nomination of Winston Brooks for a NM FOG Dixon Award.

Walz, and school board enforcer Marty Esquivel, bamboozled the NM FOG board into giving Brooks a Dixon Award as a hero of transparency while at the very same time, Brooks and Esquivel were, and are, suppressing public records of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, link; the Caswell Report, and every other public record of any investigation of public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS police force.

I have no idea whose fist pounds the table last at the Journal. But, as managing editor, one could reasonably suppose that Walz could instigate an investigation and report upon the suppression of evidence of felony criminal misconduct, by the APS police force, until statutes of limitation expired, and the collateral and ongoing cover up.

But Walz won't.

And neither will he have anyone investigate and report upon student discipline in the APS, the lack of record keeping, the deliberate falsification of records, and the culture of fear of retaliation on any whistleblower who tries to do anything about it.

And that's why Winston Brooks doesn't have to talk about student discipline.

Or about the lack of character and courage that keeps him from holding himself honestly accountable as a role model of the student standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!.




photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

Journal editors step up on pumpkin theft

You don't have to read deep or long on this blog to find criticism of the Journal editors, primarily over their relentless disinterest in the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

This morning, the Journal editors became the first of the establishment news outlets to take a stand on the right side of pumpkin thievery. All of the rest pandered to their audiences who think the thieves were the victims and the victim the villain. They wrote, link;

"At the risk of sounding really old and really square, there
was a time when people simply knew not to take something
that didn’t belong to them. Not from a neighbor’s yard, not
from a business, not if it wasn’t theirs. If they did, that
“taking” was labeled for what it really was: i.e., stealing."

How do editors suppose children grow into adults who don't
know any better, or care any more about honesty, than to take
something that doesn't belong to them? Where do editors
expect students to find guidance and role models if there are
none in their homes?

The leadership of the APS is doing a huge disservice to students
and the community by neglecting character development in the
curriculum.

The Journal, and the rest of the establishment media, are
doing a huge disservice to students and the community by
ignoring the lack of character development as part and parcel
of a sound education.

Theodore Roosevelt was absolutely right;

to educate in the mind and not in the morals is to create
a menace to society.

These young adults went through a school system somewhere (maybe APS) and were educated in the mind, acquiring a skill set that enabled them to steal pumpkins and then to mitigate or avoid consequences. That school system never helped them understand and internalize basic tenets of right and wrong.

Whatever school system it was, created two "menaces" to society.

Vega-Brown; "we're done! We're done!"

KRQE reporter Alex Tomlin was trying to find out if a BCSO recruit was given special treatment because of a connection to Sheriff Dan Houston's church. She was interviewing Lt David Knowles. Sitting in; the Sheriff's legal adviser/PIO Jennifer Vega-Brown.

This post isn't about the apparently preferential treatment given to this recruit or to another before him who happened to have political connections.

Rather, it is about whether a public information officer should help a reporter (or citizen) get to the truth, or to deflect them from it.

Tomlin was asking legitimate questions. Public servants have an obligation to respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly; answering as many questions as the law will allow, and refusing to answer only when the law requires.

At 3;20 into Tomlin's report, link, Vega-Brown announces;

We're done. We're done.

They weren't done; nowhere close. Tomlin had not dug as deep as she had a right to, though clearly she had already dug too deep to suit Vega-Brown.

Public Information Officers are first and foremost public servants.
Is Vega-Brown serving the public? hardly.

Watch her face, measure her irritation. She is not serving the
public interests; she is serving her own interest and those of
the man she works under, not the people she works for.

I have personal experience with Vega-Brown's misguided
loyalty.

I asked her for the truth about what Sheriff Houston is going to
do about APS Police Officers, carrying his commissions, who
watched high school students get drunk for a couple of hours
before putting and end to it, link.

She is yet to respond.

Out of respect for the people's interests, or Dan Houston's?

APS redistricting to be revisited.

Bowing to public pressure, the APS School Board has voted
to reopen the discussion on the boundary lines between APS
school board districts.

School Board President
Paula Maes, according
to the Journal, had a
different take on their
impetus; "... emphasizing
that the vote was not
prompted by public
pressure". (emphasis added)

She announced; “This board meeting has nothing to do with what happened at the Legislature, what’s happening in the community, nothing.”

For those having trouble reading between the lines, by her own
free admission, Maes cares little for public opinion.

The board intends to create new maps and post them online for
"public comment". Begging the question; why are they soliciting
community input if their decision making has

"nothing to do with community input, nothing"

photo Mark Bralley

Policy committee meeting to begin with violation of the Open Meetings Act

According to the Open Meetings Act, draft minutes of public meetings are supposed to be made available ten days after a meeting. The draft minutes are then required to be adopted at the next meeting of the group.

At the meeting this afternoon, the agenda, link, shows they will be approving

... minutes for the Minutes of the November 8, 2011, the December 14, 2011 and the January 10, 2012 Policy meetings (Discussion/Action)

Not a huge deal in the overall scheme of things, but you have to wonder at their ongoing and blatant disregard for the law.

Pumpkin stealing OK with far too many

If you listen, watch or read the media reports on the Great
Pumpkin Heist; two college students who "accidentally" stole
two pumpkins, you will not find a report that doesn't confuse
the victim and the villains. In not one of them, will you find
read or written, that stealing is wrong regardless of the value
of that which is stolen.

Each story portrays the shoplifters in varying degrees of
victim-hood, and the shop owner, the law and the court, in
varying degrees, as villains.

If you read the comments being left on these stories, you will
find a disturbing number of people making all manner of excuses
and justifications for just letting the whole thing slide.

It is apparently OK with them, and ultimately with their children,

• to steal small and to expect if caught, to set it all right by offering to pay for what they stole.
• It is ok to do wrong things if other people are doing worse things, in particular if they're getting away with it.
• It is ok to steal something if it costs more to prosecute the crime than the booty is worth.

You won't believe how many people argued that if drunk drivers
are getting off scot free, wikilink, these two shoplifters should get off scot free as well.

The problem stems from an unwillingness to recognize a line
that cannot be blurred as part of a defense for having crossed it.

Lines are useful in controlling (mis)behavior. As a middle school
teacher, it was at one point, my job to supervise the line at the
snack bar. I was charged with keeping kids away from the fence
that separated the line from everyone who wanted to cut into the line.

As it turned out, "stay away from the fence" wasn't practical
from an enforcement stand point. I decided to paint a line on
the asphalt about ten feet from the fence. I found "stay behind
the line" was eminently more enforceable. Lines work.

In stealing, there is only one line. A number of other lines have
been suggested, by those who have been caught stealing and
want to draw a line on stealing that doesn't include what they
stole, or minimizes their theft in some other way.

Children need to have their character developed. All day long
they are bombarded with messages from music, movies, TV,
and their peers. For the most, the messages they hear blur
the lines between right and wrong.

I would like to think that the students I shared my Character Counts! training with, did not grow up to be casual pumpkin thieves. Or at least that they would not try to justify their thievery as anything but their lack of moral courage in the face of temptation.

President Theodore Roosevelt argued;

To educate in the mind and not in the morals,
is to create a menace to society.

The need for character education as part of the core curriculum in public schools is self-evident.

The leadership of the APS has made a deliberate decision to abandon character education. They will not explain, defend, deny, or even acknowledge their decision. Just as they will not explain, defend, deny, or even acknowledge having removed from their own code of conduct, the words and commitment to serve as role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students;

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

Upon consideration of their investigation and reports on this incident, it is becoming clearer to me why the establishment media won't investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
It isn't just because they're in cahoots with them.

Judging by the slant they put on their reports on the pumpkin stealing; they really don't think the stealing small pumpkins is wrong. And therefore don't think APS leaders are doing anything wrong in renouncing their accountability to standards of conduct that prohibiting stealing even small pumpkins; ethical standards of conduct; APS student standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!

Disturbing thread on KOB story

KOB TV has run a number of pieces on a college student who stole a pumpkin. One of the latest has a profoundly disturbing comment thread. The folks that get it are outnumbered by the ones who don't; the one's whose kids probably shoplift. If they think all they have to do is pay for it if they get caught, why not shoplift? But only under two bucks.

I went to their site after watching one of the pieces that I thought portrayed the young adult as the victim and the victim as unnecessarily strident. Points were made in defense of that argument; after all

• she didn't mean to steal it, and
  
• it's only two bucks, and
  
• other people get away with far worse, and
  
• she offered to pay for it when she got caught.
  
• and, and, and.

There are only two kinds of stuff in the world; the
stuff that belongs to you and the stuff that doesn't.
If it doesn't belong to you, you can't just take it.

There is only one line on stealing; either you do or you don't.
Every other line is as indefensible as it is completely arbitrary.

If not at one cent, then when does stealing become stealing?
10 cents, ten dollars, ... Wherever the line is set, other than
at zero, it will creep. If its ok to steal a penny one day, it will
be ok to steal two pennies the next. There is no other place to
draw a line other than at zero and, "because I said so".

It is a pity that KOB took down all their previous coverage.
I was going to ask you to take a look at it and determine
whether you thought any children who had watched them
had been corrupted; convinced that there are a lot of good
excuses for taking something that isn't yours.

Eventually, they will take down this link as well. In the mean
time there is a bold record of why an awful lot of kids have
no idea where the line is between between right and wrong.

If we really want children to grow into adults who embrace
character and courage and honor, someone has to show them
what they look like.

Someone has to show them what it looks like to overcome two
dollars worth of temptation. The fact that she was willing to
sell her integrity for "only" two bucks is a far greater outrage
than that she was prosecuted for stealing "only" two bucks.

Someone has to show them what it looks like to step up and
admit having done something wrong and then accept the consequences; it's the whole point in the fable about George Washington and the cherry tree.

Apparently as long ago children first heard that story, they
were unable to point to people who children actually knew and
who could serve as examples of people willing to hold themselves honestly accountability for their conduct.

The best time to influence the character of a child
is 100 years before he is born. W.R. Long

Character counts.