UPDATE: 9/2006
I had been assigned to Carol City High School pending the outcome of the O.P.S. decision on my "attendance issue." If I am disciplined in any way the district knows that I will view this as retaliation and this will give me cause to file a whistleblower complaint. During the 2004-2005 school year while being assigned to Carol City High School, I was not given classes as a Physical Education teacher until march of 2005. For six weeks I was used as a substitute and then I was a teacher who assisted with classes in the P.E. department. I was not issued a faculty bathroom key or an I.D. card for six weeks. I did not get a mail box until March of 2005 and I had to report to the Principal, Albert Payne, instead of signing in like all the other teachers. I had refused to take an assignment out of field and Mr. Payne said I won't win and I won't get anywhere if I am always negative. Mr. Payne said he is trying to be nice to me as he told me to take an out of field assignment which it had already been decided that I was only to teach in field. I was also told to cover a driver education class on February 15, 2005. Why this district is trying to create additional trauma to me by sending me to a driver education class is a mystery. There is no set time limit for O.P.S. to make a decision in any case that comes before them. I am told that cases have lasted for as long as a year.
On January 11, 2005, the Office of Professional Standards sent me a summary of the conference for the record. It was now over four months since I had met with OPS. The rules state that the summary for the conference for the record must be reduced to writing within 45 days or disciplinary action cannot be taken by OPS. It took OPS about 130 days to reduce the conference for the record to writing. Do you think that OPS forgot about a case that had this much impact and potential for embarrassment? OPS made a conscience decision to let me win by default. If they disciplined me in any way they opened themselves up to a strong lawsuit that would include intentional infliction of emotional distress and that is where the big money is. Additionally, by not rendering a decision Miami-Dade Schools didn't have to take a position. This is an important point as the district wants the flexibility to develop a story that works best for them. To accomplish this Miami-Dade Schools say as little as possible. They are feeling their way around in the dark until they have enough information to develop a story that will not implicate them. Miami-Dade Schools did not respond to my letters in October of 2003 informing them of what occurred at American High School and they conducted no investigation until after the state attorney became involved and the Grand Jury report was issued in July of 2005.
The principal of American High School has committed fraud, entrapment, extortion, criminal negligence and endangered the welfare of the children. The authorities have been made aware of these crimes and I am hopeful that criminal charges are handed down for all of those involved in participating in and remained silent about Mr. Algaze.
There are labor issues that have existed from the time that this problem began. I had refused to participate in fraud and report to American High School so I didn't get paid. A whistleblower lawsuit is possible because I am continually the recipient of retaliation and violations of my first amendment rights have taken place. It should be noted that a person has 180 days to file a whistleblower lawsuit in Florida but because the union has been representing me my time might be tolled. As a result, my 180 days might not start until after arbitration is completed. A judge would probably kick this case back to a grievance or arbitration because you must exhaust all steps before going to State or Federal court.
Initially, the United Teachers of Dade said in a letter to me that my case had no merit. The U.T.D. only felt my case had merit when the story became public. In other words, the union will only do what it is forced to do and by going public the union felt their hands were tied. Were they not going to represent the teacher who stood up for the safety of the children? Were they not going to represent the teacher who refused to participate in fraud?
On May 18, 2005, I spoke to the Miami-Dade County School Board at the monthly school board meeting and I communicated my story to them within the three minutes allotted to each speaker. I informed the board of the April 21, 2005, memorandum from Superintendent Rudy Crew regarding the reassignment of driver education teachers and I spoke about the specific names of Dade County school employees that were protecting the principal at American High School. At that time, I was only aware of 3 colleges that were involved with MOTET and that only one had been investigated. I asked the board to create a whistleblower protection policy and start an internal investigation. When school board member Dr. Martha Perez tried to ask me a question she was reminded that there is an on going criminal investigation by Johnny Brown, school board attorney. I was not asked any more questions from any board members.
On April 19, 2005, a memorandum was sent to 10 principals and the Dade County School Board members by Rudy Crew, Superintendent of Dade County Schools, stating that twelve driver education teachers are not to teach driver education pending the outcome of a criminal investigation into the validity of their driver education teaching certification. This was done to ensure the safety of the students and the integrity of the classes that are offered.
On July 18, 2005, Katherine Fernandez-Rundle, Miami- Dade State Attorney, called a press conference and announced the indictment of William McCoggle, M.O.T.E.T. owner and former Palmetto High School physical education teacher, for Grand Theft-1st Degree and Organized Fraud-Scheme to Defraud. James Majors, a former Miami-Dade schoolteacher, was also indicted on Grand Theft-2nd Degree. Mr. Majors had been teaching with bogus degrees including a masters and doctorate that he received within 3 months of each other. At this press conference, all of the local media was present and they all covered the story.
Another discovery of the Miami-Dade Inspector General during his investigation of the certification scandal was the teacher education centers poor attendance and record keeping which led to the F.B.I. seizing the computers of the T.E.C. This district operated "school for teachers" had major attendance records problems and the grand jury report stated that attendance records were so poor there was no way to accurately determine who reported to class and how often teachers reported to class. The integrity of the T.E.C. center has been severely damaged and this discovery created the link to Miami-Dade schools participation in a teacher certification scandal. The teacher education center awards master plan points that can be used in lieu of college credits. Teachers then apply for certification with master plan points obtained from a system that has no integrity.
In August of 2005, I received my teaching schedule from Carol City High School. This was the first time in two years that I had the opportunity to teach classes that were issued to me from the opening day of school. My returning to work with classes assigned to me ironically coincided with the non-renewal of the Miami-Dade Inspector Generals contract. Miami-Dade Schools not only did not want Herb Cousins to continue as inspector general but also did everything possible to make sure that autonomy did not exist with the future inspector general. Miami-Dade Schools did not want another scandal of this magnitude.
On August 17, 2005, Dr. Martha Perez, School Board Member, proposed that the school board direct Dr. Rudolph Crew, Superintendent of School, to adopt the recommendations issued in the July 18, 2005, Miami-Dade Grand Jury report. Specifically, Dr. Perez proposed that administrative action should be taken on teachers who submitted false academic credit for the purpose of certification or re-certification. On a 5-4 vote the school board voted to take administrative action on teachers who cheated. The four board members who voted against taking administrative action on teachers are Dr. Solomon Stinson, Dr. Robert Ingram, Ms. Perla Tabaras-Hantman and Ms. Ann Rivas-Logan. What kind of school board member would vote against taking administrative action on teachers that cheated? This 5-4 vote speaks volumes on the depth of the corruption within the Miami-Dade school system. It is the board's job to set policy and these four board members by their vote not to take administrative action on the teachers that cheated are condoning the actions of these teachers within their official elected and paid positions of Miami-Dade school board members.
In September of 2005 Otterbein University officially revoked close to 10,000 credits issued through William McCoggle.
In October of 2005, I spoke at the Miami-Dade School Board meeting and stated that public documents have been destroyed in connection with this case. Dr. Crew responded immediately after I spoke and stated: "with respect to shredded of documents, I can assure you that under no circumstances have we shredded documents. Sir, you are 100% wrong. I don't know where you get your information from but with all due respect, you are wrong. "The denial of the fact that the master schedule was shredded by Rudy Crew is totally inconsistent with Joseph Garcia, Chief Communication Officer for Miami-Dade Public Schools. In Joe Garcia's letter of February 14, 2005, he states that "no record of the original master schedules could be found"... "The original master schedules were not kept"... The denial that these documents were shredded by Superintendent Rudy Crew is simply a semantical game of words. The point is that documents were unlawfully disposed of by the Miami-Dade Schools under Superintendent Rudy Crew's watch.
In a letter dated February 14, 2005, addressed to me, Joseph Garcia, Chief Communication Officer, states that "the staff at curriculum and instruction advised my office that no record of the original master schedule could be found. The original master schedules were not kept because the updated schedules superseded the originals." The original master schedules can be updated but it must be an addition to the originals because otherwise there is no pubic record of the time period from when school started in August of 2003 through October 27, 2003. October 27, 2003, is the date of the updated master schedule. Joseph Garcia further states in the February 14, 2005, letter: " the original master schedules were not kept." Not kept and no record of the originals are the same as thrown out, trashed, eliminated or shredded. Public record retention laws were created to prevent this very situation from happening. Public education is supposed to stand for everything that is "right and correct" but Miami-Dade Schools has shown through this simple example that it will go to great lengths to protect itself.
In October of 2005 it was reported that Senator Larcenia Bullard and her husband Representative Edward Bullard along with Representative Raphael Arza, who heads the pre K-12 committee on education, have received college credit from William McCoggle. Additionally, retired Associate Superintendent, George Koonce, also took courses with William McCoggle.
On November 18, 2005, William McCoggle pled guilty to committing organized scheme to fraud and agreed to a two-year prison sentence and to pay up to 100,000 in restitution. He must help prosecutor track down others involved or his sentence is raised to 10 years prison time. This is supposed to be the beginning of what prosecutors are saying involves many other people. There will be many more indictments. Herb Cousins, Miami-Dade Public Schools former inspector general, has stated that this is only phase one.
Currently there are five colleges involved in this college credit scam. Eastern Oklahoma State College, Otterbein College, Phillips College, St. Gregory's University and Bethel College. We know of 846 people who took courses with William McCoggle at this point and only two colleges have been accounted for. There are at least 3 more college that must be investigated. The Miami-Dade inspector general only concentrated on the last 6 years and this has been going on for at least 18 years. MOTET and its predecessor A.A.D.E.T. (American Academy of Distance Education and Training) have been run by William McCoggle, as a for-profit business and Mr. McCoggle has had free use of the Miami-Dade Public Schools. Are we to believe that Miami-Dade Public Schools had no knowledge of McCoggle's business while he had free use of the school? We will await the State Attorney's next set of indictments and see what the Miami-Dade Schools will do with the teachers who cheated.
After I spoke at the Miami-Dade School board meeting in October of 2005, accusing the Miami-Dade Schools of destroying public documents, they began serious negotiations and in February of 2006 the case was settled.
At the March 2006 school board meeting three-dozen teachers lost their jobs either by resigning or being fired as a result of having taken these sham courses. Only the original 106 teachers who received credit through Eastern Oklahoma State College were being addressed at this board meeting and many of them were still under investigation. Remember that there are four more schools that have not been addressed yet over an 18 year period with Otterbein College having 657 teachers and almost 10,000 credits issued fraudulently.
On March 28, 2006, I received a Cease and Desist letter on behalf of Mr. Louis Algaze, principal at American High School. The Law office of Selsnick and Casey in Coral gables, Florida sent a letter to me demanding that I cease and desist from publishing defamatory statements regarding Mr. Algaze. The letter states that "Our client is understandably disappointed and troubled with your harming of his reputation.... Accordingly, we demand that you immediately cease posting statements about our client on the above or any websites or blog pages and cease making references to our client whatsoever.
In May 2006, I met with a detective from Miami-Dade Schools and spent almost 5 hours discussing my allegations with the main focus on the principal at American High School. I am hopeful that this investigation will find its way to the State Attorney's office.
In the August 25, 2006, Miami Herald the headline reads: "Crew says he offered to wear wire in probe". This article was generated, in part, because Herb Cousins, former Miami-Dade School Inspector General, has taken the first step toward suing the district for defamation of character and Mr. Cousins states in this article that "These people are vicious. They'll destroy anyone who gets in their way."
Stay Tuned. There is much more to come.
Bennett Packman
8-30-06
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