Remember this dramatic video from the 2011 OWS protests?
Robert L. Stephens at OWS in DC in 2011
Heart-wrenching, isn't it? So, so sad, even though when one digs into Robert L. Stephens' story a little more deeply as The Blaze did, one would discover that Robert Stephens graduated from Carleton College (average cost: $42,942/year) in 2010 and now studies law at The George Washington University Law School (average cost: $70,449/year).
And who could forget Glenn Beck's follow-up on this man's "story"?
Glenn Beck outs Robert L. Stephens' lies
The Blaze was the first major news organization to dig into Robert L Stephen's dramatic fabrications:
There’s just one problem: Robert Stephens’ story is (surprise!) completely bogus. His father has a Ph.D. and two master’s degrees; his mother also has a master’s degree.
Phone inquiries into the county property records & taxpayer services office reveal that the Stephens family home is not and never has been in foreclosure, that property taxes had been paid in full this year and the remaining balance on their mortgage for the half-million dollar home is less than one year’s worth of tuition+fees at their son’s law school.
The nail in this empty protest’s coffin is a delightful phone conversation I just had with Robert’s mother, Marquita, where she admitted Chase Bank indeed was not “taking” their home from them. Instead, due to a recent “reduction in income,” they’ve decided to hold a “short sale.” ~ Meredith Jessup
After that story broke and Robert L. Stephens was exposed for the big-time street actor that he is, one would think that he would go back to George Washington University and finish his education. But, that apparently wasn't his plan. A few weeks ago Robert L. Stephens decided to delve into the issues happening back in his hometown: good ol' Woodbury, Minnesota, where Robert had graduated from Woodbury High School back in 2006. The Black Panther Announcement at East Ridge High School in Woodbury proved to big for Robert to not comment on: in a letter to theWoodbury Bulletin: I appreciate the students and teacher that decided to share the poem and explain the Panthers’ complex historical significance over East Ridge’s intercom.
Later that week, Roberts' mother, Marquita also joined in her support of the Black Panther announcement at the March 21, 2013 school board meeting, where she read Robert's letter to the editor and then discussed how she supports the ERHS administration encouraging the reading, but also how the school district could do better with integrating all Americans' history into the curriculum (a point on which we may agree):
It strikes me as somewhat ironic that Robert L. Stephens denigrates Woodbury High School with a few of his remarks in his letter to the editor, for example:In a high school climate where I experienced racial antagonism from both students and teachers... This rings hollow when one considers that the high school where he seems to have experienced terrible hardships is the same high school that prepared him well enough scholastically to be accepted into Carleton College - not exactly the easiest school in Minnesota to get into. Robert also mentions being one of thefew Black males in Woodbury High School’s class of 2006; as reported by The Minnesota Department of Education, in 2006, 20% of WHS's student population were minority students, and this year that number has increased to 25% (with WHS also ranking 16th in U.S. News & World Reports Top High Schools in Minnesota list, well ahead of the 36th ranked East Ridge High School). At the last school board meeting on April 25, 2013, five community members stood up and spoke to the board about the Black Panther Announcement at East Ridge High School. Three people were, once again, asking the board to investigate the matter, while two people, who happened to show up late and just "decide" to speak - with nothing prepared, (hmmmm Barb Brown, did you maybe make a couple of phone calls when you saw the topic on which Linda Stanton, Gary and Susan Richardson were addressing the school board that evening?) but who just wanted to show their support for the district's handling of the matter. One of the two supporters was again Marquita Stephens, who again voiced her support of the school district's handling of the East Ridge High School issue. As Meredith Jessup said so eloquently, Only in America could a kid have been blessed with so much… and only in America could he still claim to be a victim. America’s capitalist society has apparently leveled a grave injustice against his family and Robert will not stand for it... Apparently, instead of moving away from thetoo conservative Woodbury, Ms. Stephens has set about opposing all those crazy conservatives instead. (Watch for a future blog post on how, if she and others critical of the concerned parents would actually LISTEN to those parents, she and the others would actually find that they agree on more within this issue than they disagree...) UPDATE: This story has been picked up by Meredith Jessup and The Blaze! Check out:INFAMOUS OWS ACTIVIST TAKES HIS PROTEST HOME
The Superintendent and Board were quiet and attentive during the reading of the presentation, but did not comment upon it (per meeting rules). It is expected that they will issue a statement at the next Board Meeting on May 9, 2013.
One of the comments made by Superintendent Jacobus at the
March School Board meeting regarding the Black Panther announcement at East
Ridge High School was that “our children are watching.” I certainly hope they are watching because
they need to understand that the world and the school district are governed by
rules. Each year, the students in the
district are asked to comply with the rules found in the “Student Rights and
Responsibilities” handbook. Parents are
asked to review this document with their children because children are most
successful in school when they understand what is expected of them.
Rules, regulations and laws are important to establish a
just society. Just as students are asked
to comply with rules, our Administrators and School Board members are asked to
comply with policies and procedures as well as abide by a code of conduct.
To ensure that we are all, “on the same page,” it is
important that we begin with all the information necessary to make a decision
as to who should be held accountable for the announcement and the resulting
consequences.
Let us begin with the announcement itself:
"Good Morning, East Ridge! I'm _____________. 'Power to
the People' and 'Black is Beautiful' are two of the slogans associated with
todays "Black History Month" person, or should I say,
"People" of the day. Today we commemorate Huey P. Newton and
Bobby Seale, co-Founders of The Black Panther Party for Self Defense.I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO MY BLACK PEOPLE.I PLEDGE TO DEVELOP MY MIND AND BODY TO THE GREATEST EXTENT
POSSIBLE.I WILL LEARN ALL THAT I CAN IN ORDER TO GIVE MY BEST TO MY
PEOPLE IN THEIR STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION.I WILL KEEP MYSELF PHYSICALLY FIT, BUILDING A STRONG BODY
FREE FROM DRUGS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES WHICH WEAKEN ME AND MAKE ME LESS CAPABLE
OF PROTECTING MYSELF, MY FAMILY AND MY BLACK BROTHERS AND SISTERS.I WILL UNSELFISHLY SHARE MY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING WITH
THEM IN ORDER TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE MORE QUICKLY.I WILL DISCIPLINE MYSELF TO DIRECT MY ENERGIES THOUGHTFULLY
AND CONSTRUCTIVELY RATHER THAN WASTING THEM IN IDLE HATRED.I WILL TRAIN MYSELF NEVER TO HURT OR ALLOW OTHERS TO HARM MY
BLACK BROTHERS AND SISTERS FOR I RECOGNIZE THAT WE NEED EVERY BLACK MAN, WOMAN,
AND CHILD TO BE PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY STRONG.THESE PRINCIPLES I PLEDGE TO PRACTICE DAILY AND TO TEACH
THEM TO OTHERS IN ORDER TO UNITE MY PEOPLE. (Shirley Williams, The Black
Panther Newsletter, October 28, 1968)
To understand the magnitude of concern for the inappropriate
nature of that announcement and the two people honored on the morning of Feb.
14, 2013, it is important to realize that both Seale and Newton were convicted
of violent crimes which include the following:
As a teenager and into his 20’s, Huey Newton worked as a
pimp, strong-armed the weak, committed armed robberies and ran short-change
scams
On October 23, 1967, Newton shot and killed Officer John
Frey and wounded his partner during a traffic stop
In July of 1974, Newton shot and killed a 17 year old
prostitute named Kathleen Smith
Newton’s violent offenses continued into 1978 with the rape
of a 30 year old woman and mother of three and the murder of Betty Van Patter.
These are but a fraction of the heinous offences committed
by these two members of the Black Panther Party. This one way announcement failed to point out
the violent and criminal behavior of these two individuals. From what we understand, no honest balanced
discussion regarding the Black Panther Party took place in any classrooms after
the announcement was read. It is the
districts job to protect our children from bullies whether physical or verbal. This one way announcement constituted
institutional indoctrination.
After the March School Board meeting, Board members and the
Superintendent stated that the Principal had been receiving “threats.” We also heard the Superintendent shame
parents with his statement, “our children are watching.” These remarks may have been an attempt to
point a finger at concerned parents as the source of these “threats”. In an attempt to find the truth and protect
concerned parents from further slander, a Freedom of Information Act request
was presented to the district for all emails received or sent by the
Superintendent and the Principal as a result of the Black Panther
Announcement. According to the letter
received from the Superintendent, the District redacted all private educational
data, including parents’ names and private information. Under Minnesota Statutes Section 13.43,
subdivision 1, the District stated that data on individual staff members,
including allegations and threats against individual staff members had been
redacted. Redactions of threats are not
covered by the Statute sited; therefore, the request has not been fulfilled.
It appears as if the District used a process of selective
redaction not covered by the Statute leaving private data of parents along with
some email addresses, including my own, unprotected. Statements redacted from emails included
benign words and remarks, such as:
“is acceptable and appreciated”
“Real nice work by the staff at East Ridge”
“What you’ve allowed to happen is a disgrace and reflects
poorly on your leadership in this District”
My
question to the District is: Why were
these statements removed?
The Principal asked directly in one email, if the parent had
a concern about “celebrating Black History Month.” Let’s be clear, no one has ever stated they
had a problem with Black History Month. Additional emails between the Principal and
the District Communication’s Director indicate concerns over parents’ blogging
or writing about the announcement. They seem to be attempting to guess the
identity of whoever was responsible for the dissemination of this story, in an
attempt to redirect blame and minimize their own lack of oversight. Is it possible that the District wants only
their voice to be heard in our community?
In a previous school board meeting, the Superintendent
stated that the announcement was “student led.” This was a misrepresentation as emails
received contain specific information as to who was responsible for the
content. It was, in fact, a supervising
faculty member, who is now openly boasting on her public Facebook page that she
is “the teacher” responsible for honoring this violent, Marxist
organization. The fault belongs to the
teacher and the students are innocent pawns.
It was up to the school board to investigate and come to
their own conclusions without the interference of administrators. Emails collected seem to indicate collusion
between the administration and the school board. It is the job of our elected school board
members to represent all the citizens of District 833. It is, according to General Statement of
Policy, section 301, School District Administration Policy, Part II, Section D,
the direct responsibility of the school board to provide oversight and
effective leadership.
The people who elected you are requesting that you abide by
this policy.
In the days following the East Ridge announcement
commemorating Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, the district received numerous calls
and e-mails from the community questioning how and why a subject of this nature
was communicated in such an inappropriate manner.
The summary response by the school district to the public was
that this was a student led event without proper oversight. We are being led to believe that the students
were solely responsible for the content of the announcement. Where was the supervising faculty member?
The administration has attempted to change the narrative by
questioning the motives of the concerned parents either by insinuation or by
directly asking if those parents have an “issue” with Black History month. This
seems to be a method to deflect the issue and marginalize those concerned
parents that raised the objection.
In addition, some district representatives have tried to
minimize the content of the message by discounting and re-defining the meaning
of the word “commemorate”. One official
stated that commemorating can mean different things. No it can’t.
To commemorate something or someone means – to honor, to celebrate,
immortalize, pay tribute to – attempting to define it any other way, would be a
deliberate falsehood.
Let’s be perfectly clear.
From the very beginning, the objections raised to the school district were
in regards to the inappropriate use of the morning announcements to commemorate
two of the founding members of the Black Panther Party. This was not only poor judgment but a
complete lack of oversight and guidance on the part of those in charge. A topic of this nature needs to be taught
through an open, honest and balanced discussion in the classroom and not over
the one-way public address system.
There was never any issue regarding teaching students about
the history of the Black Panther Party.
It’s only through exposing these and other groups like them to the light
of truth that we are able to have a complete understanding of what they represent.
After the Feb 14th announcement, the principal took full
responsibility for the lack of oversight – a step in the right direction. However, taking responsibility without
following through with action is not effective.
During a subsequent school board meeting the superintendent stated that
the incident had been reviewed and the district considers the matter closed. To the surprise of many, there was no obvious
closure and no follow-up to the parents or citizens that raised the objection,
which left many feeling as if they had just been scolded and told to sit down
and be quiet. Well, that’s not an
acceptable response.
The teacher overseeing the preparation and reading of the
announcement was responsible for the incident and accountable to the principal. The principal was responsible for the teacher
and accountable to the Superintendent who is in-turn accountable to the School
Board. The School Board is accountable
to the taxpaying citizens of the district - and many are not satisfied with the
outcome.
The students are required to adhere to the rules and
guidelines established and enforced by the district. My question to the Board is: “on the day of
the announcement and in the subsequent time since then, did those in charge
follow the policies and code of conduct established by District 833?
What transpired on Feb 14th warrants more than a cursory
review by the administration and a quick dismissal of the issue. It is the responsibility of the School Board,
and an expectation by the taxpayer, that the Board conduct its own
investigation through an independent review process, without administrative
influence.
At a previous Board meeting where the superintendent said he
considered the issue closed, he also comment that “the children are watching”. That’s good.
They should witness how citizens of The Constitutional Republic in which
we live, have the right to question and petition their elected officials in an
open and honest dialog. The children
should also see that those elected officials have the responsibility to properly
redress the grievances brought by their constituents. One other additional thing they will notice –
that the taxpaying community is watching too.
More information on this issue: http://amnhockeymama.blogspot.com/2013/02/east-ridge-high-school-black-panthers.html
Black Panther Honoring School District Administration is Up To New Tricks! What would possess a school district superintendent to "request" that the district's school board not respond to their constituent's inquiries about an issue?
As has been previously reported on this blog, Crosswinds is a 6th-10th grade Arts and Sciences middle school run by the East Metro Integration District, which is comprised of about ten different metro school districts. Late last year, EMID opted to let go of Crosswinds, and to give Perpich Center for the Arts the opportunity to acquire the school, but Perpich has to go through the State Legislature to do so. If the Perpich bills fail in the State Legislature, then Crosswinds would go to South Washington County School District 833, since it is located within 833's boundaries. Unlike Perpich, which plans to continue Crosswinds' current programming, District 833 has released only one plan: to move neighborhood children out of Woodbury Elementary into the Crosswinds building and move the Nuevas Fronteras Spanish Immersion school into Woodbury Elementary. This plan obviously has the non-Spanish-Immersion community parents (comprising 98% of the district's population) quite upset, most especially the parents with children attending Woodbury Elementary. Parents have responded to this plan by emailing, calling and attending school board meetings to question the Board and Superintendent about the Crosswinds and budget issues. Many of these questions have gone unanswered. Which brings us to the latest tricks this district's administration has pulled. The following is an excerpt from an email that Mr. Gelbmann has sent to his constituents over the last week, explaining his position on the Crosswinds issue and the silence of the other board members:
Thanks for sharing your well-articulated concerns regarding the ill-conceived proposal to relocate WE to the Crosswinds building. As noted in the Woodbury Bulletin yesterday, I do not support the proposal to relocate WE to the Crosswinds building. Dr. Jacobus had requested that Board members not respond to parents on this issue. I agreed, noting that at some point I reserved my right to inform my constituents where I stand on this issue. Since my position was made public in the Bulletin yesterday, I decided I should feel comfortable responding to parents and citizens on this issue...
I believe the District has repeatedly erred in dealing with this Crosswinds opportunity...
I hope this helps provide some insight into my thinking on this situation.
My best regards.
Sincerely,
Jim
What was Dr. Jacobus attempting to hide by "requesting" that the elected officials whohired him, the School Board, not respond to parents/taxpayers on the Crosswinds issue? Does he not understand that it is the Board's duty to respond to community inquiries regarding anything that the district is engaging in? According to theDistrict 833 School Board Code of EthicsSchool Board members must:
Listen to the opinions and views of others (including, but not limited to, other School Board members, administration, staff, students and community members).
Vote my conscience after informed discussion, unless I abstain because a conflict of interest exists.
Consider myself a trustee of public education and do my best to protect, conserve, and advance its progress.
Insist that business transactions of the school district be ethical and open.
Strive to uphold my responsibilities and accountability to the taxpayers in my school district.
Makes the well-being of students the fundamental value of all decision making and actions.
Fulfills professional responsibilities with honesty and integrity.
Adheres to the code of ethics for administrators in Minnesota law. Legal References: Minn. Stat. § 122A.14, Subd. 4 (Code of Ethics); Minn. Rules Part 3512.5200 (Code of Ethics for School Administrators)
A few weeks ago, Dr. Jacobus submitted a "Viewpoint" op-ed to the local newspaper titled, "Transparency and the Art of Decision-Making" in which he claimed, "While the work was being done (on the possible Crosswinds acquisition), it was not secretive. It was simply what we needed to do to be prepared to answer questions; to conduct research and prepare properly prior to entering into the discussion..." "Not Secretive"? Many contradictions to that statement have come to light in recent months, including representatives from Woodbury Elementary not being invited to the initial meetings with "the parent and staff groups who would be most affected by the proposed changes." The excuse for those Woodbury Elementary parents/staff not being invited? The administration wanted to keep "emotions" down, so they didn't run into the same troubles they had a few years ago when Spanish Immersion attempted a neighborhood school grab at that time. Gee, how did they expect parents to react when their kids are being shuffled into a school that is not properly designed for elementary students in order to benefit an elitist choice program that serves 2% of the district population? Did they expect them to pack Woodbury Elementary up themselves and give Nuevas Fronteras a "Welcome to Your New School" Party on their way out?
Ironically, District 833 recently eliminated 22 FTE teaching positions and cut back middle/high school busing services to save $2M. Their proposed Crosswinds plan will cost minimally $1million/year; they're estimating the modifications to Crosswinds at $375K, but have yet to seek bids from contractors to find the true costs to modifying a 6th-10th grade school into a school suitable for elementary students. The District is expecting an increase in State funding over the next two years (totaling an approximate increase of $300/student) as well as proposing an increased levy referendum to the community this fall. In my opinion, it doesn't take a math wizard to figure out that the amount the district is "cutting" is about the same amount they're estimating they'll need to fulfill their Crosswinds/Spanish Immersion/Woodbury Elementary plans. So, while over 800 middle/high school students freeze walking up to two miles (one way) to school every day, the elite Spanish Immersion students, who receive free busing from all over the district, will be warm and snug in their very own (stolen) neighborhood school.
