He Spies, etc. Pt. 5. Why is Deterrence Not an Option?

I wish that I had access to a sampling of HCS middle and senior high school students to ask two questions: What happens to students who are expelled? Does it matter how old they are?

For most of my life I have believed that being expelled was the same as dropping out, but with more drama. At least the outcome was the same: prospect of not getting a decent job unless the school-leaver got a GED. Family fireworks. Nothing worse, though.

I’m thinking now I was wrong. Consider this statement from the article alerting us to the HCS surveillance program, or whatever you want to call this latest outrage:

“The students were expelled and placed in alternative school and boot camp programs.”

If expelled means kicked out of school, how can a superintendent place an expelled student in an alternative school or boot camp?

What is the procedure? Pages A14 to A19 of the 2014-2015 HCS Student/Parent Handbook outline the procedure for expulsion, but there is no mention of alternative schools or boot camps. So how do students land in boot camps?

And more importantly, why are students not told that being expelled doesn’t mean they are through with school?

Why are they not told in graphic detail what they can expect their lives to be like if they land in Wardynski’s “boot camp” which I assume is the Pinnacle School’s Elk River Wilderness camp (the “teepees”) but can’t say for sure, since nowhere on the HCS website or in the handbook is there a single mention of an alternative school or boot camp.

This is what Wardynski said way back when he and the Board shut the Seldon Center and got in bed with Pinnacle:

“Those who do not comport themselves according to the regulations and rules of Pinnacle Schools will find themselves living in a teepee. And they won’t be coming back until they can behave. And if they can’t behave, they won’t be coming back to our schools.”

The contract included this:

“. . . HCS may refer students who are being removed from the program to Pinnacle School’s Elk River Treatment Program for intensive therapeutic treatment, upon such terms as may be agreed to by TPS and HCS and at the sole discretion of the Superintendent.” [emphasis added] — Pinnacle and Huntsville City Schools Contract

The prospect of being sent to the sticks far from friends and family with no phone, no internet, no privacy, and no freedom, for an indeterminate stretch could be a good deterrent to those contemplating an expulsion worthy offense. But not wanting to go through such a program would serve as a deterrent only if would-be offenders had a clue what awaited them on the other side of expulsion.

Why don’t they know? Why does the HCS keep this secret to surprise kids with after they have done wrong? 

I find it sinister and sociopathic to operate thusly.

Wardynski has his fantasies of calls from the NSA alerting him to Yemenis plotting to cut off teachers’ heads.

I’ll offer a fantasy of my own.

Imagine you have had enough of high school but you are only 15. You long for your 16th birthday when you will be able to drop out. You turn 16, go to get your license, and discover that the school leaving age has been bumped up to 17 (did you know this, Reader? Meanwhile, the UK has extended voting privileges to 16-year-olds). Despair follows. You cannot take another year of standardizing testing — why bother with all that when you could be preparing and taking the GED, a test that if you perform well will mean something to you, and not the suits? But you also have heard of truant officers and you don’t want to land at the juvenile detention center. So what are your options?

Maybe, you think, if you can’t leave voluntarily, you can get them to throw you out. So you devise a full-proof scheme. You buy a stiletto at the flea market, print out a picture of your principal, pin it to your wall by jabbing the stiletto through the eye, and take out your phone. You post it with the caption, after today I will never have to look Mr. Principal in the eye ever again, on your FB wall and a bunch of your friends’, toss the stiletto in the glove compartment, and off you go, happily thinking this is the last time you will be making this trip.

You are cheerful when confronted by all the assistant principals, etc. and show no remorse because all is going according to plan.

You are expelled the next day,

And then you are informed you will be spending as long as it takes to break you or until your 17th birthday in a teepee. Now it’s W who is flying high.

And there is nothing at all you can do.

No one ever told you that expelled doesn’t mean you are free of the school system’s authority. You didn’t factor in that if you aren’t 17 you have to be educated somewhere, and Mom and Dad don’t have the resources to send you to a private school, even if one would take you, and they have been threatened with arrest and jail if they don’t sign you over, and are too shocked to figure out a workable plan — if there is such a thing.

You would never have done the stupid little charade to get kicked out if you had known that kicked out really meant losing all your freedom.

Nobody is going to believe you that all you wanted was to be free and get on with your life.

You are screwed, in other words, facing weeks, months, years (do they have to release you at 17?) in a private prison with no legal representation, wondering why no one warned you.

Too bad.

 

 

He Spies With His Beady Black Eyes: Wardynski Has His Tail in a Crack. Pt 1

And I am hoping it is so tightly wedged that he won’t slither out of this one.

If you are here, I expect you already know about the latest crock of lies, evasions, deceits, illegalities, and violations of civil rights on the part of Wardynski and his henchmen: the May 2012 NSA tip-off (which the NSA denies) about a so-called immediate threat of danger (aka juvenile last day of school humor) with a foreign connection: one of the 100s of people following then junior Auseel Yousefi’s Twitter feed was a Yemeni (and thus, it seems, presumed to be a Muslim Jihadist terrorist) and how this tip-off led to the never-spent-a-day-on-the-battlefield retired colonel forming a surveillance project that the Board of Education maybe did or maybe didn’t know about (damn! who was responsible for delivering the scripts last week?) two months before the Yemeni non-event occurred.

There! I packed a whole lot of it into one sentence. But I am sure there is much, much more to come.

First, praise for al.com’s Challen Stephens who is doing investigative journalism! I could dance with glee. Starting with the September 24, 2014 story, “Huntsville schools say call from NSA led to monitoring students online,” and following up with an interview with Auseel Yousefi, who outed himself in the comments responding to Stephens’ first article, the subject has grown and other reporters are on board.

There are tons of issues. There’s the matter of funding, well addressed by geekpalaver:
“Off The Books Spying Program $1 Million,” “All Kids Are Our Kids” and “Wardynski Violates Board Policy.”

Oh dear, post interrupted by consideration of the beady eyed one’s proclamation, Monitoring social media part of Huntsville schools’ responsibility to keep students safe: guest opinion.

My responses follow: So Colonel, now bullying is a problem? I remember a time when it wasn’t. In October 2012 you told WAAY 31’s Shea Allen: “Bullying has been going on for a long time. There was bullying when I was a kid. But I can tell you when we look at the statistics, while its [sic] about 80 percent of what you guys talk about its [sic] only about one percent of what we see.”

Remember way back then? Same season when one girl at Butler was beat up by three other girls in a bathroom and you referred to the event as”horseplay” and suggested the victim was at fault since she was “in a bathroom 20 minutes after class“ had begun and then gave her mother all kinds of hassle before granting the child a “temporary transfer”?

Funny what you can find on the internet.

and

Oh yes, then there’s the outsourcing of alternative schooling to Pinnacle Schools. It’s so outsourced that the only mention of it on the HCS website is one sentence about athletics (“A student [sic] that is attending the Seldon Center or Pinnacle is only eligible to represent the Seldon Center or Pinnacle. A student attending the Seldon Center or Pinnacle cannot participate at any other school.” [Students are people; “that” should be “who.”]) although millions of taxpayer dollars have been funneled to Pinnacle. 

Where was the concern for student safety when Julian Lorenzo Boykin, one of the guards at Pinnacle’s Huntsville campus, was charged with “torture and willful abuse of a child”?

Or when Karen Lee, owner of Pinnacle, hired her son Eric as a counselor (!) at the remote private prison (which these days you are calling a “boot camp”) AFTER young Eric was charged with felony drug trafficking AND firearms charges (confiscated weapons included “shotguns and rifles.”). Was it revealed that Eric was “outfitted to hunt ducks or deer” and so couldn’t possibly be a threat? I missed that update.

Your response: renew the contract!

If you don’t know what I am on about just hit the tag word Pinnacle.

And I’ll be back with much more.

It Gets Worse. The Pinnacle Schools’ Teaching Techniques — and Torture.

From the website of the private corporation that is being paid 1.5 million of tax monies this year alone to educate at-risk students:

“The academic programs of The Pinnacle Schools are designed to support students therapeutically by providing a safe learning environment in which their self-esteem is positively impacted by success in school.”

From al.com, Nov. 2, 2012:

“Police on Wednesday arrested a security guard for Pinnacle Schools, the Huntsville school district’s alternative school, in connection with the alleged beating of at least one Huntsville student at the school last month.

“Julian Lorenzo Boykin, 31, of Huntsville is charged with torture and willful abuse of a child, according to Harry Hobbs, a Huntsville Police Department spokesman. . . .

“Will he receive more charges?” Hobbs said. “My best answer would be (that) he might be charged with some more misdemeanor level charges if the evidence supports the allegations.”

Pictured: Julian Lorenzo Boykin (Madison County jail)

Pinnacle Schools stands behind him. Innocent until proven guilty — fine. But you know what? Huntsville police spent 21 days investigating before pressing charges. I was starting to give up hope that this would not just disappear into the ether. I’m glad to see that this hasn’t happened.

In her report, Crystal Bonvillian quotes another boy whose allegations aren’t the subject of the current arrest but of the others possible as investigations occur:

“Boykin is accused of pulling several students out of class on Oct. 10 for talking.The boys were allegedly locked in a room with Boykin, who students know as “Mr. B,” and another security guard and forced to assume the plank exercise position.

“‘Mr. B teamed us all up and made us do planks on the ground, if one student fell the other team mate got punched in there (sic) sides and we were being hit so hard it was knocking the air out of us,’ one 13-year-old boy wrote in an account provided to The Times by his mother, Nacole Seldon.”

Note the offense for which the kids were punished: talking. Note how they were (allegedly) punished: by being forced to do exercises. Note the sadism: the boys were put into teams, and if the one doing the exercise fell, the other kid got punched.

These are 13-year-olds. What’s the most one of them likely weighs? Average weight for a 13-year-old boy is 102 pounds.

Take a look at Boykin. Weighs a bit more than 102 pounds —  likely more than 204.

What kind of lesson is being taught when you (allegedly) team kids up, force them to do exercises in the planking position (already outlawed as dangerous in a number of states), and then, when the one exercising falls — falls, mind you — you punch the other team mate black and blue.

I know Superintendent Wardynski doesn’t know squat about pedagogy — that is, teaching techniques — but would this be tolerated at any military boot camp?

Of course not. It teaches nothing but helplessness. It teaches that those who are bigger and stronger can behave as sadistically as they please to those at their mercy.

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Now, what I want to know is, if this is going on among the day kids at Pinnacle, what in hell is happening out at Elk River? Well, Supe? Board? You are responsible for this despicable situation. You should be ashamed.

Cancel the contract with Pinnacle. I’d say if these charges stick, it should lose its license, but I can’t find anything to suggest the day school is licensed. I’d say it should lose its accreditation — but it isn’t accredited. Great choice, W and Board

Let’s return before closing to the Pinnacle Schools website, where we discover that:

“The staff at The Pinnacle Schools has been carefully screened and selected for their leadership skills, maturity and compassion.”

Compassion? Compassion? Compassion?

The Lees are hopeless. So let’s invite comments from some of these other compassionate professionals.

Wayne Wilson, Ed.D, Licensed Psychologist.  Dr. Wilson: please explain to me how the “beat the team member when his partner falls down” approach to discipline for talking in class contributes to a safe learning environment and academic success.

Albert L. Sprinkle, MD, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist.  Dr. Sprinkle: Is the “beat the team member when his partner falls down” approach to discipline one you encourage at Decatur General West? Did Boykin train with your night staff over there? Listened to any concerns of your patients (yes, patients: or so they are regarded when it is time to file for insurance) regarding their after-hours’ experiences? How about your private patients? Do you suggest the the “beat the team member when his partner falls down” technique to their parents? Great way to build healthy sibling relationships.

Kimberly Cox, RN, BSN, Director.  Nurse Cox: I notice you are proud of your training “to facilitate others in interpreting the Bible for themselves.” Is the “beat the team member when his partner falls down” approach to discipline based on biblical principles?

You didn’t know what was going on? Sorry. That won’t cut it. Why didn’t you know?

Wardynski, McCaulley, Blair, Robinson, Birney: Enough is enough. Resign or start taking responsibility for your actions.

Good luck, new Board member Mike Culbreath. You’ll need it. I wouldn’t want to be associated with this crew. Don’t drop to their level of incompetence and indifference. Please — please — be a voice for integrity, decency, responsibility, and, yes, compassion.

 

Pinnacle [and HCS] Employees and the Law

So far the parents of two students at the Pinnacle Schools have filed police reports stating that their child was beaten at the school. There is good reason to believe more are forthcoming.

If I were an employee of Pinnacle Schools, I’d be very nervous. Of course they have a moral and ethical responsibility to report when a child is beaten, but times are hard and jobs scarce, etc., and there is retaliation to fear.

The thing is, if you are an employee of the Pinnacle Schools and you suspect a student has been abused, you can stop debating with yourself about what to do. You have no choice. You must inform the police. If it is discovered later that you were aware that a child was being abused and did nothing, then  you may find yourself in trouble:

Section 26-14-13 – Penalty for failure to make required report.

Any person who shall knowingly fail to make the report required by this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a sentence of not more than six months’ imprisonment or a fine of not more than $500.00.

You should have been told about this when you were hired, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if you weren’t. As a school employee, you are a mandatory reporter in the State of Alabama:

Code of Alabama – Title 26: Infants and Incompetents – Section 26-14-3 – Mandatory reporting

(a) All hospitals, clinics, sanitariums, doctors, physicians, surgeons, medical examiners, coroners, dentists, osteopaths, optometrists, chiropractors, podiatrists, nurses, school teachers and officials, peace officers, law enforcement officials, pharmacists, social workers, day care workers or employees, mental health professionals, members of the clergy as defined in Rule 505 of the Alabama Rules of Evidence, or any other person called upon to render aid or medical assistance to any child, when the child is known or suspected to be a victim of child abuse or neglect, shall be required to report, or cause a report to be made of the same, orally, either by telephone or direct communication immediately, followed by a written report, to a duly constituted authority.

If I were an employee of Pinnacle Schools, I would assume that this law applies to me, not just Karen Lee, but me.

Who is a “duly constituted authority”? Based on this, I think it would be the Huntsville Police Department:

Section 26-14-6.1 – Duties and responsibilities for investigation of reports.

The duty and responsibility for the investigation of reports of suspected child abuse or neglect shall be as follows:

(1) Reports of suspected child abuse or neglect involving disciplinary or corporal punishment committed in a public or private school or kindergarten shall be investigated by law enforcement agencies.

(2) Reports of suspected child abuse or neglect committed in a state-operated child residential facility shall be investigated by law enforcement agencies.

(3) All other reports of suspected child abuse and neglect shall be investigated by the Department of Human Resources.

Now then, for reasons best known to herself, in regard to the first report of abuse, Karen Lee apparently reported to DHR rather than to the Huntsville Police Department:

“This incident arose when one of our staff discovered marks on a student.  Per our policy, we informed the parents, contacted DHR, and put a staff member on leave.  The Pinnacle Schools is presently investigating this matter.”

Perhaps as a Pinnacle employee you don’t want to get involved because you fear retaliation by Lee or a civil suit if the guard isn’t arrested. I would hope that there are whistle-blower laws to help you with the first, for what they are worth, but liability for making a report that is dismissed is not something you need to worry about:

Section 26-14-9 – Immunity from liability for actions under chapter.

Any person, firm, corporation, or official, including members of a multidisciplinary child protection team, quality assurance team, child death review team, or other authorized case review team or panel, by whatever designation, participating in the making of a good faith report in an investigation or case review authorized under this chapter or other law or department practice or in the removal of a child pursuant to this chapter, or participating in a judicial proceeding resulting therefrom, shall, in so doing, be immune from any liability, civil or criminal, that might otherwise be incurred or imposed.

These laws were enacted to counter the it’s not my problem, I don’t want to get involved, people won’t like me if I speak up mentality. A child’s welfare matters more than an adult’s desire not to rock the boat. It’s as simple as that.

Of course, you can still stay silent and risk paying the $500 or sitting in jail for six months and then having a misdemeanor on your record when next you seek employment (how much longer do you think Pinnacle will be open?).

Your choice.

The Pinnacle Schools: What Are We Waiting For?

Last year, the Huntsville City Schools outsourced its alternative schooling to The Pinnacle Schools at a cost of $1,596,000, entering a 19-month contract.

You want to find out more?

Don’t bother looking in the Student-Parent Handbook. No mention of the Pinnacle Schools.

Don’t bother looking in the HCS Policy Manual. No mention of the Pinnacle Schools.

Don’t bother searching the HCS website.

(There is one mention of the Pinnacle Schools on the website. Here it is, in its entirety: “A student that is attending the Seldon Center or Pinnacle is only eligible to represent the Seldon Center or Pinnacle. A student attending the Seldon Center or Pinnacle cannot participate at any other school.”)

I have been writing about this since last December. See categories: Pinnacle.

My biggest fear has been the potential for abuse at the Elk River Treatment wilderness camp where Col. Casey Wardynski, superintendent, sends kids that Pinnacle can’t handle. There they are held incommunicado for an indefinite stay — as long as it suits Wardynski [one censored letter home a week. No calls. No visits. No legal representation].

Frankly, even I didn’t expect this at the Huntsville City Pinnacle Schools campus:

Read about it here and here.

If what we see above is what is being done to kids who go home at night, just imagine what is going on at W’s private prison.

I’ll say it again:

If what we see above is what is being done to kids who go home at night, just imagine what is going on at W’s private prison.

I looked to see who licensed the Pinnacle Schools, but on its website no mention of a licensing agency is provided. I wonder if the Board knows. (Elk River is licensed as a detention facility by the State of Alabama, for what’s that’s worth.)

I wonder if anyone down at Merts, like the play-dead Board maybe, knows what standards are used to employ personnel for this cash cow. The CEO’s (Ms. Karen Lee’s) only qualification for running the place is that she has two sons who have run afoul of the law. She has no credentials in education or mental health services. Well, hell, we have an unqualified superintendent, so what? We do know that she saw fit to employ one of her sons who is awaiting trial for drug trafficking as a counselor at the Elk River detention camp, but when this was publicized, she moved him to Pinnacle instead.

What are the qualifications of the thug who beat this kid?

How many other kids have been beaten at Pinnacle Schools Huntsville campus and have been afraid to speak out because doing so could well mean that they risk being disappeared to the teepees until the Colonel decides they have been neutralized.

Even without the smacking in the ribs, planking or face-down restraint — and yes, I realize no mechanical restraints were employed to keep the kid in this position, unless you count risk of a beating about the ribs as a mechanical restraint (I would) — has been outlawed in more progressive states and has been at the core of a number of suits related to deaths in treatment facilities.

You can read about it here, here, here, here, and here.

Guess that’s what the citizens of Huntsville are waiting on for their wake-up call: a death.

Then there can be tears and hand-wringing, candlelight vigils, messages from pulpits, all the usual useless brouhaha to assuage a community’s guilt at just not giving a damn.

I never wanted to be in the I Told You So position because it would come only when someone’s child had suffered.

Haven’t you had enough? If not, what would be enough?

 

 

Best Board Money Can Buy

We’ve all learned quite a lot about the ethics and values of the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education and Superintendent Col. Casey Wardynski in the past couple of days, namely, that it was so important to contract with Pinnacle Schools and have access to its own private detention facility, aka the teepees at Elk River, that they were all willing to overlook that the only argument for the effectiveness of programs like Elk River, its CEO Karen Lee’s assurance that such had done wonders for her kid, was just a little questionable, since when they approved the contract, not one but two of her kids were out on bond facing charges of drug trafficking and possession of a small arsenal.

Today I want to talk about the campaign finances of Superintendent Wardynski’s most fawning cheerleader and the Board member usually credited for bringing him to Huntsville, Dr. Jennie Robinson, and the Pinnacle Schools’ apologist, Board member David Blair.

When Robinson ran for re-election in 2010, she raised over $60,000, far more than her opponent, and the record amount ever raised by a Huntsville School Board candidate. She had “three main backers”: “the Committee of 100, the Alabama Builders and John A. Nolan III.”

Reporter Challen Stephens calls The Committee of 100 “a group of local lawyers and business leaders.” There are also a number of doctors in the 100. Working through this list might prove interesting. They supported Robinson to the tune of $17,500. Half of David Blair’s total contributions came from this group. What return did they expect on their $20,000 investment in Blair and their total $37,500 in the District 2 and 3 races in 2010?

In the 2012 election, The Committee of 100 endorsed Laurie McCaulley for Huntsville Board of Education, District 1 and Mike Culbreath for District 5. Both won.

The Alabama Builders PAC gave Robinson $10,000 and Blair, $7,000.

What really jumped out at me, though, was the third of Robinson’s supporters, John A. Nolan III. He and his wife gave her $13,600 directly. Stephens reported that she “also received $5,500 during the runoff from North Alabama Christian Conservatives PAC, a new group. Nolan said he gave to that PAC, but does not run it.”

Why would an individual donate $13,600 (or maybe the better part of $19,100) to Robinson. What horse does Nolan have in this race?

I don’t care who Robinson’s pals are; that’s none of my business. But I am interested in her campaign backers because money is a big factor in the sucess of a campaign. While individuals donate to the Humane Society or UNICEF out of the goodness of their hearts, I simply don’t believe they make large personal donations to candidates for purely unselfish, altruistic reasons.

So I googled, and this is what I learned. In my value system, Nolan would qualify as a unsavory character, not one I’d like to owe any favors. But I think it is fairly obvious that my values are not those held by the Board and Supe.

When Nolan owned Phoenix Consulting, he could fairly have been called a corporate spy for hire. One of his own clients — Proctor and Gamble —  says his company was “out of control.” Proctor and Gamble was involved in a corporate spying scandal in 2001. Fortune magazine reported that P&G:

engaged in a corporate espionage program against competitors in its hair care business – Unilever, in particular – that even the company itself admits spun out of control. . .  After . . . senior managers discovered what the company is calling a “rogue operation,” P&G executives wrote a letter to Unilever outlining the situation.. . .

Sources say that P&G hired corporate spies through a contractor, and at least some of them worked out of a private “safe house,” nicknamed “The Ranch.” Sources say one of the companies that was employed by P&G was The Phoenix Consulting Group of Huntsville, Alabama. Phoenix was founded and is staffed by former government intelligence officers, including its president, John A. Nolan III, who served in the Phoenix Program, a covert operation in Vietnam. Nolan declined comment.

Oh, my. Next I goggled the Phoenix Program. Nauseating.

The CIA-backed Phoenix Program assassinated and jailed large numbers of Vietnamese civilians without evidence of judicial procedure. This fact was confirmed by [former CIA Dir William] Colby in an admission to Representative Reid in his July 1971 testimony before Congress. According to Colby, the Phoenix Program had resulted in the deaths of 20,587 persons as of May 1971. That number, proportionate to population, would have totaled over 200,000 Americans deliberately assassinated over a three-year period had Phoenix been conducted in the United States.

Want more? Wikipedia quotes SGM Herbert A. Friedman (Ret.):

The Vietnam War Phoenix Program is controversial to this day. Supporters say that it was a legal and closely controlled US-Vietnamese intelligence program aimed at destroying the Viet Cong infrastructure, while the critics say that it was an illegal system of arresting, torturing and murdering innocent Vietnamese civilians.

Let’s conclude by reviewing recent local history:

• June 2009: Superintendent Ann Roy Moore receives perfect evaluation from Board.
• Fall 2010: Robinson re-elected to School Board.
• January 2011. Superintendent Ann Roy Moore agrees to Board’s contract buy-out.
• Spring 2011: Colonel Casey Wardynski recruited for Superintendent position.

Thank you, Crystal Bonvillian. Innocent Until Proven Guilty. Nepotism.

Crystal Bonvillian, education reporter for The Huntsville Times, is a brave woman worthy of respect. In today’s Times, she has a lead story, “Huntsville school officials defend alternative school after owners’ sons face drug charges.” Well done, Ms. Bonvillian. She is also seeking to discover what is going on in the HCS classrooms following the 1:1 Learning Initiative I-pad / laptop / Pearson curriculum thrust: “How is the Huntsville schools district’s digital transition working for you?”.

Bonvillian reports that Karen Lee, CEO of Pinnacle, said “‘My sons are innocent until proven guilty.'” That’s true. But the question I raised in yesterday’s post, did Lee tell Wardynski and the Board about the arrest before the lucrative contract with her company was signed, remains. [Update 9/14 evening: “When my sons were arrested I let them know and that was before the board vote took place,” said Karen Lee in an interview with WAFF. I didn’t think anything could surprise me. I was wrong.] Whether she did or not apparently doesn’t matter when it comes to Board member David Blair’s opinion: “‘If everybody got judged by their kids, a lot of people would be in big trouble.'”

As a commenter on al.com noted, “Compare this to Wardynski’s ‘off with his head’ response when Grissom’s football coach was charged with a DUI while mowing Grissom’s field.” Point well taken.

Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Charles Lee, Jr. and Eric Lee aren’t convicted of trafficking. Maybe they were just at that house to deliver a fruitcake to Stephanie Porter, it being the holiday season and all, and had nothing to do with the “24 pounds of marijuana and about $37,600 in cash during the bust” or the “weapons, including shotguns and rifles.” I find it very odd that a reasonably intelligent woman like Porter (see comments here) was stupid enough to get caught again this summer with four pounds of pot. Make of that what you will.

When you look at mugshots over at the Madison County Jail site, smiles are few, and people who look like they are about to burst out laughing rarer still. Here’s the trio of interest here: Charles Lee, Jr., Eric Lee, and Stephanie Porter. Doesn’t Eric look like he is thinking, what in the hell have these two gotten me into this time?

It’s just weird. So Eric is too old for being one of the bad kids in the teepee, but Ma Lee needs to keep an eye on him, and so installs him at Elk River. Or maybe he was already working there as a counselor (does the Board ask for resumes of their contractors’ employees? Isn’t that kinda standard? What’s his degree in? Any relevant training?).

Bold as brass, but here’s another consideration: doesn’t the HCS have a rather extreme nepotism policy in place? See Redeye’s blog and geekpalaver. An owner’s son as employee? No prob, according to Wardynski, since Lee will be  “removing him from the Elk River program and he will be working other duties.”

Board member David Blair, who lives just down the hill from the Lees, is still a big fan of Pinacle’s. He claims,

. . . he and fellow board members looked carefully at the issue of whether to close the Seldon Center and go forward with Pinnacle before their January vote.

“We looked at Pinnacle, their past performance, their methods and the whole-child offerings for our kids that are struggling and are having some discipline problems,” Blair said. “Pinnacle has a proven track record.”

Problems, problems, problems, Mr. Blair.

Pinnacle’s past performance, which he alludes to, was as a very costly, private school.

Pinnacle’s curriculum, as I understand it, is delivered digitally. As we all know, presumably much of all the HCS’s curriculum is delivered digitally these days — when it is delivered at all. So why did the alternative education program need to be contracted out to a private school-of-sorts? Why couldn’t the Seldon crew have used the same technology and software that Pinnacle’s staff gets up and running?

But most important, to me, are Pinnacle’s Elk River programs, the private prison that Huntsville taxpayers are supporting to the tune of $750 a day, every day (now at $193,500).

What’s its track record? What is the track record of any of these wilderness camps? Again, if you can stomach it, watch “Congressional Hearings Regarding Deceptive Marketing Practices, Torture, and Death at Behavior Modification Programs for Teens.” Visit the HEAL website, where “you will find links to lawsuits, news articles, and survivor websites detailing the abuses experienced at these facilities.” Elk River isn’t one of the horror stories yet, but aside from any moral or ethical arguments, how about running some cost-benefit analysis for this boondoggle, Mr. Blair? Or paying an unannounced visit? Talking to ex-staffers and inmates?

You want to know why I keep banging my keyboard about this? It’s simple. I’m appalled that children, even badly behaved children, have so few civil rights, including a right to legal representation, privileged communication with a legal representative, and protection from abuse and false imprisonment. And for people to make money, a lot of money, taking advantage of this, is despicable. Got it?

The Pinnacle Debacle: Who Knew What When

Update 9/14 evening: “When my sons were arrested I let them know and that was before the board vote took place,” said Karen Lee in an interview with WAFF. I didn’t think anything could surprise me. I was wrong. It seems that it was the Huntsville City Schools Superintendent and Board that

1. Thought this unimportant,  and/or
2. Banked on the public not finding out or not caring.

Update: If you go here, you can search current and released inmates at the Madison County Jail. While the municpal news wire reported that bond for the four suspects was set at $1 million each, the bond listed for the Lee brothers is $25,000 each. Stephanie Porter’s was $1 million, but has been revoked because of her second drug trafficking arrest while out on bond. The fourth suspect as reported by the news wire, Corey McDonald, does not show up as a current or released inmate.

Speculation: Considering the paucity of media attention, I doubt that Superintendent Wardynski or the Board learned that the two sons of Pinnacle Schools CEO Karen Lee had been arrested for drug trafficking the morning after she presented the proposal for contracting with the Huntsville City Schools to provide alternative education formerly administered by the HCS via the Seldon Center. (If you’re just joining us, read the previous two posts.)

Question: Is it plausible that Pinnacle CEO Karen Lee did not know before the contract was signed with HCS that her sons had been charged with drug trafficking?

Answer: Doubtful. The boys likely did not each have $25,000 readily available or the resources to keep the story out of The Huntsville Times.

Reasonable Conclusions: Before the contract was signed, Karen Lee had two choices:

1. Tell the Supe or any of the Board about the arrests.
2. Don’t tell the Supe or the Board.

Option 1. Considering the value she places on “character,” one would think that she would tell the Supe or the Board. It may not have a direct impact on the work Pinnacle does, but sooner or later, the truth will out, and it would prove (is proving?) mighty embarrassing to the HCS.

Let’s suppose she did tell the Supe or at least three Board members. That would mean they entered into this contract knowing that Lee’s claims for programs like hers, based on her own kids’ experiences, were dubious at best. Likely? I doubt it. That, if you trust Lee, is exactly what they did.

Option 2: Lee is a businesswoman with a lot of financial resources and clout in the community. Not telling would mean a good chance of getting a lucrative contract. I think this is the more likely scenario.

She was running a risk, but having kept the story out of the Times, she and the Board and the Supe probably thought she they could get away with it.

She made two miscalculations:

1. Anything that ever was online will surface, sooner or later.
2. She didn’t factor in how many of her staff would return to civilization, disgusted and disillusioned.

Now what? I haven’t a clue. But while we are thinking about what the Board really knew about Pinnacle when they signed the contract, I have another speculation and question.

Speculation: Did the Supe arrive in Huntsville thinking, what I need are some teepees where I can a handful of bad kids since that would surely establish order in the HCS? Could be, but I think it more likely that someone who stood to profit by an HCS – Pinnacle agreement brought Pinnacle to him. I haven’t found the connection to the Supe or to any of the Board — yet — but see number 1, above.

Questions:  Since January 1, 2012, when the HCS started paying $750 a day ($192,750 as of today, the 257th day of 2012). to reserve five teepees at Elk River:

1. Has the Supe or any of the Board paid a surprise visit to the camp? Oh, wait. How do you pay a surprise visit to a place without an address in a remote location? And if the visit is scheduled, you might as well stay home.
2. Have any of them talked to one of those released from the teepees with provisions in place to preserve anonymity or at least lessen the risk of reprisal for telling their stories?

I doubt it.

Why Didn’t The Huntsville Times Report That 24 Pounds of Marijuana Were Confiscated December 9, 2011?

If you think you are getting a fair view of crime news in Huntsville by reading The Huntsville Times or al.com, consider this:

Press Release: Drug arrest on Maplewood Dr. in Madison

**** FOR IMMEDIATE MEDIA RELEASE ****

Date: December 9th, 2011

Contact Person: Lt. John Stringer
Phone # 256-772-5658
Secondary Contact Person: Lt. Terrell Cook
Phone # 256-772-6252

Earlier today the Madison/Morgan County HIDTA Drug Task Force (STAC Team) executed a search warrant at 310 Maplewood Dr. in Madison. The search warrant culminated in the arrests of the following individuals:

25 year old Stephanie Porter of Madison
24 year old Charles Lee Jr. of Madison
23 year old Eric Lee of Madison
27 year old Corey McDonald of Madison

All of the individuals were charged with trafficking in marijuana.
They were booked into the Madison County Jail with a bond of one million dollars each.
Agents confiscated approximately 24 pounds of marijuana and approximately $37,600 in cash.
Several weapons including shotguns and rifles were confiscated as well.

Now try searching for any of the four suspects’ names on al.com. What surfaces? Nothing.

I painstakingly went through the al.com archives for December 9 to 16, 2011. Did I find anything about this bust? No.

Maybe it was just a really busy news period. I did find these stories:

Burglary reported at vacuum cleaner dealer this morning. By Keith Clines, The Huntsville Times. December 09, 2011, 1:25PM.

Various items stolen in burglary of a Chinese restaurant. By Keith Clines, The Huntsville Times. December 11, 2011, 2:02PM

Armed robber takes Sudafed from South Memorial Parkway drug store. By Keith Clines, The Huntsville Times. December 11, 2011, 9:44PM

Athens man charged with fraudulent leasing. By Kim Albright, The Huntsville Times. December 14, 2011, 8:41PM

Cash taken from register in burglary of China House Buffet. By Keith Clines, The Huntsville Times. December 14, 2011, 1:50PM

Person spotted in Ridgecrest Elementary School Tuesday night gets away. By Keith Clines, The Huntsville Times. December 14, 2011, 7:35AM

Woman charged in illegal use of boyfriend’s debit card. By Kim Albright, The Huntsville Times. December 13, 2011, 5:53PM

Armed robber takes Sudafed from South Memorial Parkway drug store. By Keith Clines, The Huntsville Times. December 11, 2011, 9:44PM

How can a story about a bust involving 24 pounds of pot and a small arsenal of weapons possibly compete with “Various items stolen in burglary of a Chinese restaurant”? Maybe 24 pounds isn’t all that much. But even divided among the 4 suspects, it seems 6 pounds would last quite a while — if they’re claiming personal use.

This is why I am for the legalization of marijuana. As it stands, a few are making big bucks and many are suffering. Way too many are doing, have done, or will do time (or end up in places like the teepees at Elk River) for a few grams of pot because, unlike these four village idiots, they can’t afford million dollar bonds or thousands-an-hour lawyers, let alone buy off most of the local media (and really, how else could this have happened?).

You think this is a one-off exception to the Tennessee Valley’s news profiteers’ relentless effort to bring you breaking news?

Try again.

Just Google “Stephanie Porter.”

You’ll find WAFF was paying attention to the municipal news wires, just as it was in December 2011. One of the four charged in December was busted again in July: Head of drug ring charged with drug trafficking.

Posted: Jul 20, 2012 12:41 PM EDT Updated: Aug 17, 2012 12:41 PM EDT

By Mary Howard

HUNSTVILLE, AL (WAFF) -The Huntsville STAC arrested a woman for alleged drug trafficking. Stephanie Porter, the head of a Huntsville drug trafficking organization, was arrested after police said she trafficked four pounds of marijuana. Porter has had multiple drug arrests including a previous drug trafficking arrest. In previous charges, Porter was charged with trafficking between $30,000 and $40,000 in drugs a month. Porter is in Madison County Jail on $1 million bond.

Well, folks? Any insights? Any explanations?

As Bob Dylan said,

While money doesn’t talk, it swears . . .
Say okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?
And if my thought-dreams could be seen
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine
But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only

The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy

Karen Lee, the CEO of the Pinnacle Schools and its wilderness camps, Elk River Treatment Program and Academy, has one hell of a lot of gall. Within days of shopping her programs for turning around the lives of troubled teens to the Huntsville CIty Schools on the evening of December 1, 2011, her two sons were arrested December 9, 2011, in a major drug trafficking bust:

Four people face charges after a huge drug bust in the Valley. . . Agents said they found 24 pounds of marijuana and more than $37,000 in cash. They also confiscated several weapons. Agents charged Stephanie Porter and Charles Lee, Jr. of trafficking marijuana. Also charged are Eric Lee and Corey McDonald. Their bond is set at a million dollars.

The weapons confiscated included “shotguns and rifles.”

Having two sons busted as major drug traffickers hasn’t changed Karen Lee’s spiel. These are excerpts from the message from the CEO herself, accessed today on the Pinnacle website: 

. . . I placed my son in a program at the age of 16. I remember being desperate and scared. It is a leap of faith to place your trust, much more so your child, in the hands of perfect strangers. I wanted more than anything, to know my son would be safe and cared for. It was the most difficult decision I have ever made. It was also the best. It saved my son’s life and created in me a passion to advocate, wherever possible, for troubled teens and their families. The number one priority of the programs of The Pinnacle Schools is the safety and care of all. . .

The programs of The Pinnacle Schools are just that; a challenge. It is a contest; not necessarily of skill or strength, but of character; the deepest part of who we are as human beings. . .

I invite you to talk with me at any time and look forward to working with you and your teen.

Character. Trust. Would you entrust your child’s well-being to a program modeled on the one that the Lee boy, now accused of drug trafficking, attended? Can his mother do a better job with your child than you can?

How about alleged drug trafficker Eric Lee? Would you choose him as your child’s counselor, his role model? While Charles, Jr., may for all I know be cooling his heels in the Madison County jail, Eric isn’t. He’s out at Elk River — not as a patient or inmate or redskin or whatever the teepee detainees are called, but as a counselor. Could be this breaks no law or industry regulation, but it sure does show an abysmal deficit of common sense.

Now, ordinarily I would say that what their adult kids do isn’t their parents’ problem. But this situation is far from ordinary.

The Huntsville City Schools is entangled with Pinnacle Schools in a $778,000 to deliver services once provided by the Seldon Center. Moreover, at the cost of $750 a day, every day since January 1, 2012, Huntsville taxpayers have reserved 5 beds in the teepees at Elk River treatment program ($191,250 as of today, the 255th day of 2012). Charles Lee, Sr. and Karen Lee founded the Pinnacle Schools in 2005. From 2007 to 2010, their profits increased by $147%. Their 2010 revenue was $3.6 million. It was named to the Inc.5000 list of fastest growing companies in 2011. Remember, all this was before the Huntsville City Schools’ contract.

I can’t summon sympathy for the Lees, who must be heartbroken at the prospect of their sons facing long prison terms. I can’t because they are profiteers of the so-called therapeutic wilderness camp industry. Kids are detained in these remote private prisons with no outside contact other than censored mail, no legal representation, no trial, no sentence, and no release date. Many — maybe most — haven’t even been charged with a crime; their “crime” is being troubled, or, more likely, being troublesome to authority figures — maybe their own parents, maybe Colonel Wardynski. The most heinous serial killer in a real US prison has more rights than any kid at Elk River.

If you want to find out more about these places, start here. Hope you have a strong stomach.

Let’s be clear: these places don’t operate to save troubled kids. It isn’t about character. It isn’t about advocacy. It is about money. Just like drug trafficking is about money.

Since December 14, 2011, I’ve been telling Huntsville City Schools and Huntsville taxpayers that the contract with the Pinnacle Schools stinks.

So how about it, Col. Wardynski and the Board?