Guest Editorial by The Composer: "Earned distrust" a call for change

Welcome to RedEye's front page The Composer!  I look forward to your continued informed, intelligent, involvement in the debate/discussion.  This post is submitted as a guest commentary, with links and graphics inserted for emphasis and clarity.  Future post will be under The Composer's byline.~RedEye

 

Amidst a completed prelude of rolling thunder and pouring showers, a scene of calmness covered the atmosphere of 200 White Street, as the central office for Huntsville City Schools served as host for a press conference organized and administered by the North Huntsville Community United for Action (NHCUA).

This group consists of local ministers, elected officials, community leaders and concerned citizens of the Huntsville community. The press conference was called to bring awareness to the  issues that continue to plague the local school system, particularly in north Huntsville where the population is majority African-American.

About 30 individuals, not including representatives of HCS: Rena Anderson (Director of Community Engagement) , David Driscoll (Director of Community Spying?), and local media were in attendance.

The initial gathering was typical as people reconnected with one another and discussed the various issues relative to the community, including newly elected school board members, the SAFe initiative, the untimely and tragic death of Julian Jones, and the fact the group was not allowed to assemble on the steps of the central office.  What happened to the right to assemble on public property?  Our tax dollars fund the Annie Merts Building, right? Help me out here if I am wrong! If we were standing in any of the front yards of private residences near central office, then maybe I would entertain the request, but I digress.

The demeanor was serious as a focused listened to a prepared statement delivered by Rev. Montgomery, pastor of Union Hill PB Church after opening remarks by Rev. T.C. Johnson, pastor of St.Luke Christian Center.  Rev. Montgomery highlighted factual data showing African American students are 41% of the student population, slightly over 70% of out of school suspensions, and more than 60% of school expulsions.  This indeed is alarming, and leads to the conclusion that racial profiling is at an all-time high in Huntsville, AL. This gave notion to the most recent scandal which Rev. Montgomery referred to as a "scheme".

It’s sad that we have to resort to the Internet and to the press to air our issues instead of sitting down at the table of fellowship and work out our problems/grievances like civilized adults. District 1 school board member Laurie McCaulley was not present, as she probably saw no purpose in dealing with her former allies of NHCUA,  or maybe she was enjoying fall break.  The question then becomes, what incident will garnish the magnitude of revelation that will force all parties to compromise and embrace one another as children of God?

Overall, the press conference called for the resignation of Superintendent Wardynski. If not obliged, his termination at the hands of the BOE was also requested. It is my personal opinion Casey Wardynski is regarded as he is, simply because he is of his military background. Think about it, the military is designed by ranks; therefore you have a certain rank to be addressed by those in command. The Superintendent probably believes that his board members will serve with the best interest of their respective communities in mind. This means that he would be able to trust those that represent the various districts to provide the necessary information that will lead to his ongoing decision making. He probably would pose the notion that if the board member says the district wants it like that then I can move forward with my proposal. But when the board member is not transparent and is working behind the backs of the constituency you can expect inaccuracy will be at the forefront of all parliamentary procedure. Inaccuracy in curriculum implementation, funding, and general planning has been the Achilles heel of HCS. We now face probably the biggest divide since the Hereford prime days!

Some of the following questions were asked by members of the media: What is your next move? Do you believe that the situation is unfair for Black kids? What specific actions have you done to improve the community?  What do black students in north Huntsville want.   Al.com reporter Mark McCarter asked “Have you met with Wardysnski face to face?” to which the audience responded by laughing  hysterically.

Transparency and communication are not now, nor have they ever been, one of this Superintendents strong suits. When asked if all board members had been contacted. Rev. Scruggs, pastor of First Missionary Baptist church, and immediate past President of the National Baptist Convention, reminded them of the Prayer Vigil held earlier this year, at which Mayor Battle, Superintendent Wardynski, and all school board members were in attendance.

If you missed the press conference, you missed a special moment! Surely some people will attempt to label this as a race card movement, but facts don’t lie. We live in a dual society, and we have a dual school system. I challenge members of the community to visit all schools and learn the educational arena that trains our students for the real world.  I also encourage all citizens to participate in the political system, as your eyes will be opened up to new discoveries and certainly new ideas.

To the brave men and women who continue to fight for justice, thank you for your persistence and perseverance. Keep fighting. I encourage you to go even further beyond your consistent efforts as the urgency of now is like never before.

-          The Composer

#SpyGate "Casey Wardynski totally believes NSA contacted HCS" ... because Al Langford

HCS Security Chief Al Langford (L) HCS Superintendent Casey Wardynski R)

Question:  Why would an "unidentified person from the National Security Agency" call Al Langford to warn of the "potential of a violent threat"?  Did he fall for a prank?   I'm just asking....

Imagine this scenario: Cue in music from Get Smart


Al Langford , Huntsville's longtime security officer, sitting at his desk doing long time security and the phone rings:

Ring! Ring!

AL Picks up the phone and says:  Hello, this is Al Langford, longtime security officer for Huntsville City Schools.

Mr. AL Langford, this is agent 00something from the NSA in Washington D.C. Look at your caller ID for verification. (snicker)

AL:  Hey, how are things at NASA?

Agent 00something:  Not N-A-S=A.....N-S-A as in the National Security Agency.

Al sits up straighter in his seat and says  Oh!  Yes Sir!  How... what can I do for you?

Agent 00something:  *Ahem*, well we've been *ahem* monitoring the Facebook accounts in your area and I'm calling to warn you of the potential of a violent threat against a teacher by a  student with a *ahem* foreign connection.  Your mission, if you decide to accept, is to notify your Superiors and commence rounding up the potential threats ASAP.

Al stands up, salutes and says:   Yes Sir, I will get on this right away!  Good bye Um ... Your excellencies or  sirs, or brothers, people ... um ... !

Langford hangs up the phone, sprints down the hall of the Merts Center, notifies his superiors of the phone call and Viola'!.....  Operation #SpyGate is born! 

 The schools started tapping into students’ Facebook and social media postings to check for photos of guns and gang signs, threats of violence and anything else that could give clues of looming acts of violence, the Daily Mail reported. They conducted the surveillance as part of a program called Students Against Fear, or SAFe,Mr. Wardynski insists the NSA got involved because there was a “foreign connection” — that a student in Huntsville who was found to have made threats had previously engaged in an online chat with an individual in Yemen.

Um...about that student in Huntsville who was found to have made potential threats...

 Auseel Yousefi says he did it. He sent the tweets that school officials say led to a warning from the NSA which led Huntsville to begin monitoring student Facebook pages.
But he says it was all a joke, a bad one -- a stand-up routine that would cost him the first semester of his senior year at Lee High School.
On the day he got in trouble, Yousefi says, he was taken into a room full of administrators and shown emailed photos of a series of jokes on his Twitter feed. He says the administrators alternately referred to reports of threats forwarded by "the NSA" or an "NSA affiliate."  
"It meant absolutely nothing to me at the time," he said of the  National Security Agency, the U.S. government's global spy network. Instead, Yousefi was focused on defending the humor in those tweets. Then school security searched his car. They found a jeweled dagger from a Renaissance fair in the glove box. Yousefi would be expelled for one semester.
Superintendent Casey Wardynski has said the NSA contacted the system because of the foreign connection. Yousefi, now a student at Birmingham-Southern, said he was born and raised in Alabama, but his parents were from Yemen.

So Operation #SpyGate was created because of some tweeting gone bad by a student whose parents are from (not to be confused with IN) Yemen?

It was his last day of junior year at Lee High School. Yousefi said he woke up early and decided: "How funny would it be if I tweeted last day of school jokes?"
He announced a list of what he would do that day. He sent four or five tweets.
"In retrospect, it was a very dumb thing to do."
The first was the most problematic. Yousefi said he wrote" "I'm going to chop (his biology teacher) in the throat." To his mind, it was harmless. It was an inside joke, he said, as the female teacher had used similar language to get the class to be quiet. The students thought it was funny.
Yousefi was her student aide. He called her "adorable."
The second was the one he regrets most. But it contained nothing that could be misconstrued as a violent threat. He tweeted something about a female administrator's "balls of steel." He said that tweet made him feel the most awkward when confronted later.
Third, he tweeted he would sweet talk an attractive young teacher and get a kiss. "Total joke. She's 24. It's never going to happen," he said.
Next, he tweeted: "I'm going to get in a fight today." This joke, he said, was funny if you knew him. Later he would try use his own tweets espousing pacifism to explain the irony. It didn't work.
"This is 6 in the morning in my bed. I didn't think about it afterwards."

Remember that time Huntsville High Students posted pictures of their Senior Prank and their reaction on the Web?  

The Huntsville High School students have had their punishment handed down. As we dig deeper into this story, WAFF 48 News wanted to tell you about some of the things we found on the web about the prank.
Many of the messages on message boards, including the one on WAFF.com , seem to be in support of what these teens did.
We found comment after comment in support of these Huntsville High teens. And we found pictures of the man in the halls of Huntsville High.
Photos were posted on the www.facebook.com by 19-year-old Huntsville High student, Charles Bendall.
It shows a man in a hallway partially dressed. The title reads: Huntsville Hobo Fans with a description that says: "This is for all who thought our senior prank was hilarious, and that think it's bull**** that they are making such a big deal over it."
Other pictures show a homeless man, with Charles Bendall and Travis Bridges.

And what punishment was handed down for these students you ask?

According to school officials, the students were apprehended soon after the event. They have been prohibited from Senior Activities and may, yes may, face community service hours.

WHAT?! They dehumanized a homeless man. They shred his dignity. They took advantage of his situation. They put him in harm as an intruder in the school that could be dealt with by force by the police. Why are there no criminal charges? Surely, the D.A. could charge them with abuse or criminal negligence or criminal mischief. Was it because the students are trying to be naive in the fact that it was a "harmless" prank? I don't know, but if there was ever a need for a "trading places" experiment- it's with these young adults.

Big difference from the punishment some students faced for allegedly posting pictures of themselves on social media with sub machine guns and fists full of $100.00 bills.

Wardynski said the city used the SAFe program to break up a gang called the Wolfpack, with six or seven members -- all related to each other through family -- in various schools. The students were expelled and placed in alternative school and boot camp programs.
Wardynski said Huntsville schools have seen sporadic gang recruitment and what he called "wannabe" gangs. "We don't want them to get into the major league," he said.
Acting on tips from students or teachers or others, schools security staff scour numerous social media sites, including Facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, and more. They look for evidence of imminent threats to the schools or of gang activity. Wardysnki said the program has led to about a dozen expulsions each year so far and that security is actively monitoring social media at all times.

So let me see if I have this right (pun intended), post the potential of an imminent threat on Facebook you get expulsion.  Post a picture of a naked homeless man, you get banned from Senior activities, community service, and you get to go on with your life.  Oh, OK.

Don't get me wrong,  I am glad this little "youthful indiscretion" didn't ruin the Huntsville High School students lives, or destroy their future. I think the punishment they received was appropriate, compassionate, and fair.  Hopefully they learned a valuable life lesson and went on to become productive citizens. The victims of #SpyGate, not so much.

 But consider those kids who weren't so "lucky" and because they posted pictures of themselves as wannabe toughs with guns ended up at the Pinnacle Boot Camp (aka the teepees aka therapeutic wilderness camp aka private prison) with no contact with the outside world, no lawyer, and no release date, or at Pinnacle's Huntsville campus where one of the guards was indicted (and I presume is still awaiting trial) for torturing students.

The motto of Huntsville City Schools  used to be Education is the Hope of the Republic, with the dismantling of the Fletcher Seldon Center and other radical changes, this motto is no longer true for black/brown/poor/special education students because this superintendent,  enabled by this school board, is systematically destroying any hope for the future of our republic, choosing to fuel the cradle to prison pipeline instead.

Operation #SpyGate recap:
 HCS school superintendent Casey Wardynski decided it was within his power to set up a super secret  surveillance program of some students' social media accounts , based on an alleged call from an unidentified caller who said they were from the NSA, placed to longtime Huntsville City Schools  security officer Al Langford.

Oh, OK.

RedEye Roll

RedEye's Weekly Rundown: What we know about #hsvboe SpyGate so far

Fist Dap Crowblog

What we know.

We know Huntsville City Schools, under the control and command of military colonel, turned superintendent, Casey WARdynski, has been secretly spying on students, and probably yours truly and who knows who else, since at least January 2014 and possibly since as early as May 2013

We know Wardynski said a call from the NSA, via a call to Al Lankford, tipped the school district to a student making violent threats on Facebook.

We know Wardynski said, "There was a foreign connection,"  explaining why the NSA would take time out of their busy day to warn HCS, Wardysnki said the student in Huntsville had made the online threats while chatting online with a group that included an individual in Yemen.

We know as a result of this "call" a student was expelled after HCS security searched their car and found a large knife, not a gun and a knife as originally reported, and it was not the student who was making violent threats while chatting online with a group that included an individual in Yeman.

We know  the student wasn't chatting on Facebook with a group that included an individual in Yemen, it was a student from Yemen,  and said student sent tweets (not to be confused with Facebook)  HCS say led to the warning from the NSA, which led Huntsville to begin monitoring student Facebook pages.

We know the Al.com editorial board tends to believe Wardynki over the NSA, and wants Congressman Mo Brooks to get to the bottom of this. 

We know some school board members said they didn't know about the spying program before they said they did know about the spying program.

We know this issue didn't come to light until after the school board election, and the District 3 board candidates facing each other in a runoff  have somewhat different takes on the Huntsville school district's secret surveillance of students' social media accounts.

We know candidate Elise Ferrell said the information she gathered indicated that a second call came to the district about that threat, from a company called GEOCOP, a cyber security software company, among other things.

We know this covert spying program, that may have cost taxpayers as much as $1,050,768.67, has not been overseen by anyone.

We know Casey Wardynski is doing the job he was hired which is to stand up to the aclu (sic) types, and, the ACLU  submitted an open records request to Huntsville City Schools in June seeking information about how the system monitors its students on social media, concerned blacks were being disproportionately punished. We also know Huntsville City Schools spokesman Keith Ward (not to be confused with the Director of Community Engagement) is "working on a response.

We know in a presentation about the monitoring system obtained by AL.com, photos show three black males and one black female. We also know all of the students that have been nabbed by the program are black and brown.

We know all of these dangerous gang members were either expelled or sent to the Pinnacle program.

We know taxpayers have been censored and silenced.

We know Big Brother isn't coming, he's already here.

Are we safe yet?

I was asked an important question yesterday by a good friend: “Do you ever worry that your activism will result in retribution against your kids?”
The short answer to that question is, simply, yes.

Next:   What we don't know about #hsvboe Spygate

#TBT Blocking the School House Door Today, Blocking the School House Door Tomorrow, Blocking the School House Door Forever? #hsvboe

57 Years Ago Today - Arkansas Governor calls National Guard to block 9 Black students from attending Little Rock H.S. pic.twitter.com/7kb3BEVsQU
— Khaled Bey (@KhaledBeydoun) September 4, 2014

"Whose side are they on?"  On this day in 1957, the Governor of Arkansas used tax dollars to block African American taxpayers from entering Central High School in Little Rock. Fast forward 57 years later, Huntsville City Schools is still using tax dollars to prevent African American Students from having access to a quality public education, enabled by the United States Department Justice.

In a letter sent to parents with students enrolled in grades 3-12 HCS claims they have invited the Department Justice to meet with students in order to gain information related to the long standing desegregation order, which they are bound and determined to be released from, by hook or by crook.


A couple of points of interest:

1. If you do not return the form by September 4, 2014, your child will be entered into a potential pool of students to be interviewed by the Department of Justice SEEMINGLY WITHOUT PARENTS PRESENT FOR THE INTERVIEW. The interviews will take place after school at Boys and Girls Club locations across the city. Not every child will be chosen. This is an “opt-out” procedure. If you don’t opt-out, and your child is at a Boys and Girls Club location during the week of September 8th through the 12th, your child will be interviewed without a parent being present.

2. If parents wish to participate in similar Parents Meetings being held on Saturday, September 14, and Sunday, September 15, there is a separate form to sign and return to Barbara Cobbs of Huntsville City Schools. They will then chose which parents they wish to interview with the stipulation that parents agree to the following: "I understand that participation in the parent focus groups is confidential. I shall not disclose the fact of my participation or any information or discussion from the focus group meeting."

There is just one thing wrong with their little plan, it is unconstitutional for HCS to conduct an investigation or interview a child on private property without the parent present.  I can understand HCS ignoring the constitution because they've been doing it for years, but you would think the United States Department of Justice would know better by now.

The U.S. Department of Justice, a party to the case, objected to the assignment plan and in February the dispute landed before Haikala, who'd been appointed to the bench by President Obama in 2012.
In the judge's 107-page ruling, she blasted school officials for failing to provide required reports on the district's integration progress for two decades. She also criticized the Justice Department for failing to be "proactive" and to "keep an eye on" the marked disparities in schools serving mostly white children and those serving mostly black ones.

Opt in or to Opt Out? That is the question.  At the June 17, 2014 BOE meeting HCS approved policy 6.28- Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

EXCERPT:

Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. Schools must notify parents and eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA. The actual means of notification (special letter, inclusion in a PTA bulletin, student handbook, or newspaper article) is left to the discretion of each school.

Translation: if parents don't notify the school district they don't want their students information printed in the hand book, or  their image/ names to be used,  and they don't Opt OUT, their child is automatically IN. This change requires parents to take action when they otherwise would not have been required to. Under the old policy, they had to give written consent for their student to be INCLUDED in the directory. The difference is not subtle.  It's the old silence gives consent Idiom. 

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.  I'm beginning to think neither side wants a solution, which plays right into the segregationist strategy of segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever?

Time will tell the truth.  Sigh

The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy Huntsville City Schools Style ~Friday Edition #hsvboe

Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski answers questions from the press following Thursday night's Huntsville school board meeting. (The Huntsville Times/Michael Mercier)

Why is it when a longtime HCS teacher  is accused of violating district policy, everyone immediately calls for her (or his) head, but when a private company does the same thing, or usually something far worse, everyone rushes to defend it? This is indeed The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy.

Pinnacle is a privately run alternative campus that often takes in children who’ve been expelled from Huntsville City Schools.
Huntsville city has no direct authority or oversight of pinnacle

Why is it when student's, alumni, and any number of councilmen and officials call to inform the Superintendent he is making a gargantuan mistake changing the name of Lee High School, he acknowledges his mistake and backtracks on his proposal, but when J.O.Johnson High School alumni and students protest, and any number of councilmen and officials call to inform him he is making a gargantuan mistake changing the name of Johnson High School,  he violates district policy and changes the name of not just Johnson but Davis Hills Middle School too?  This is indeed the Pinnacle of Hypocrisy.

 Last night the Huntsville City School Board of Education violated their own policy on the Selection of School, Facility, and/or Property Name (Policy 2.9, presented September 5, 2013) by concluding the process and voting on the new names approximately three weeks before they were allowed to do so.

Why is it public officials, and citizens expressed environmental concerns about unsafe traffic patterns, heavy trucks sharing roads with school buses, and  air quality at two schools located two miles from an active rock quarry in New Hope, but those same officials say the air quality is safe at two schools located less than half a mile from an active rock quarry?  This is indeed the Pinnacle of Hypocrisy.

 Other elected officials speaking against the quarry were Mark Russell, president of Huntsville City Council, Madison County District 3 Commissioner Eddie Sisk, state Sen. Paul Sanford, state Sen. Shadrack McGill, state Rep. Wayne Johnson, Gurley Mayor Rob Sentell, Gurley Councilman Robert Wren.

So much hypocrisy, so little time.

#hsvboe

What if Huntsville City Schools looked like Downtown Huntsville on a Thursday Evening?

al.com

On my way to the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education work session last night I encountered droves of people headed towards downtown Huntsville.   

This evening, the sidewalks and streets of downtown Huntsville were filled with thousands upon thousands of people out and about enjoying one of the biggest, most entertaining evenings the yet.

Several events including the Street Food Gathering, Greene Street Market, Thursday Night Bikes, Downtown Jam Session, Weeden House Museum Tour, the Downtown Arts Stroll and so much more came together to create "one of the most exciting Thursdays ever," according to Downtown Huntsville Inc. CEO Chad Emerson.

Yep, young, old, rich, poor, men,women, black/white/brown/red/yellow people of all religions, sexual orientation, and class, had equal access to spend their money at one of the most exciting Thursdays ever in downtown Huntsville.

It looked like One City, One Vision.   

Then I attended the school board work session, which was originally touted as an opportunity for citizens to comment on the desegregation case, and I thought, what if Huntsville City Schools looked like downtown Huntsville on a Thursday evening?  What if all children, regardless of their race, sex, or address, had equal access to the best public education their parents tax dollars could buy?

What a wonderful city it would be......

#hsvboe