Accounts questioned after chief leaves: Schools' top cop gave work to an associate, then quits and takes a job with him
By Emily Richmond

Las Vegas Sun

Three months before his departure as chief of the Clark County School District Police, Hector Garcia sent $11,750 in business to a longtime associate to evaluate the feasibility of metal detectors at a North Las Vegas High School.

Within weeks of his Aug. 10 resignation Garcia had new employment - as vice president of his associate's company, the School Safety Advocacy Council, which offers training and security assessments for school police and resource officers.

Now, an internal audit of the Clark County School District Police is being hampered by shoddy record-keeping and missing files.

Audits are common after department head s leave. But the examination of School Police operations is raising a number of concerns.

School Police Capt. Phil Arroyo, one of two veteran officers sharing interim chief duties, said he was surprised that all files were not readily available. Auditors are accessing the hard drives of the department's computers, but "the actual paper documents are not there," Arroyo said. "There's really very little to work with."

Arroyo declined to specify which files are missing.

Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said it would be inappropriate to comment on the audit until the report is complete.

Garcia told the Sun on Tuesday that no one from the district had contacted him for help in locating files.

"I would certainly help if I were asked," Garcia said.

Garcia said the only materials he took with him were personal copies of files and memorandums, all of which he said he thinks are duplicated on district servers and hard drives.
As the audit proceeds, Arroyo said , he is focused on straightening out the department's finances, including unpaid bills.

Among them: costs for attending a July conference in Las Vegas con-ducted by the School Safety Advocacy Council.

For the past two years the Florida-based company has held a conference in Las Vegas, drawing attendees from across the nation. In 2006 Garcia spent nearly $10,000 on registration fees to send 50 employees. A bill for the conference from July 2007, totaling about $15,000, remains unpaid while district officials resolve discrepancies over how many employees attended.

The company's executive director, Curtis Lavarello, worked in the Palm Beach County School Police Department in the 1990 s, at the same time as Garcia. And while Garcia was chief of Clark County School Police, he served on Lavarello's advisory board.

Garcia said sending department staff to the conference was a worthwhile expense, given the caliber of the guest speakers and workshops.

The district was charged for 81 attendees at the July conference. But Arroyo said department records show only about 45 people - including clerical and support staff - attended . He has asked the company to provide a sign-in sheet from the conference to clear up the discrepancy.
"We're still waiting for a reply," Arroyo said.

In May, at Garcia's recommendation, the district paid Lavarello $11,750 to study whether metal detectors were feasible at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas. They money came from the region office responsible for Canyon Springs High , not School Police funds.

Because the consulting job was less than $25,000, the district was not required to put the job up for bid or get approval from either the superintendent or the School Board.
Still, Phil Gervasi, president of the Clark County School Police Officers Association, said he was bothered by Garcia hiring his associate as a consultant.

Lavarello did not return phone calls or e-mails from the Sun seeking comment.

Garcia said his decision to hire Lavarello to study metal detectors posed no conflict of interest. Lavarello was the most qualified and affordable consultant for the job, Garcia said. And Garcia emphasized that he did not become Lavarello's vice president until after he decided to quit as chief.

Rulffes said Garcia's decision to hire Lavarello for the consulting job "does rise to a level deserving some scrutiny."

Ronan Mathew, principal of Canyon Springs, said he requested the feasibility study after two incidents last year in which students brought loaded handguns to campus.

Lavarello spent about two hours touring the campus during a visit in May. In a 14-page report submitted to the district in June, Lavarello concluded that metal detectors were not feasible at the school. He made a number of suggestions for improved campus security, including better signs directing visitors to the appropriate entrances and increased staff visibility when students arrive in the morning and leave in the afternoon.

Garcia had spoken out against metal detectors at the district's high schools. Mathew said the former police chief chose a consultant he knew would share his point of view.

"It's my feeling that our concerns were not taken seriously," Mathew said.

The final months of Garcia's tenure were marred by complaints that he was rude during a negotiation session with the School Police union, making a derogatory remark about a federal mediator that was overheard by other participants in the contract talks. Rulffes said he considered that matter closed after Garcia apologized to the mediator and was removed from the bargaining table.

Garcia told the Sun that he is moving to Florida with his family and that serving as vice president of his associate's company is "one of my jobs . " He would not say how much he would be paid for the part-time job. Garcia said he will soon begin classes for his doctorate.

This is the second time in as many years that the School District has lost a police chief. Elliot Phelps, who became the district's first police chief when the department was created seven years ago, was fired in 2005 after it was discovered that he had not completed a state-mandated certification program.

Teachers who get police training could get extra pay, carry guns

By Emily Richmond

Las Vegas Sun

A proposal that Nevada teachers be allowed to carry concealed weapons garnered a lot of notoriety but little traction among state lawmakers this year. Now comes this idea: Give bonus pay to teachers - from kindergarten to college - who would be trained and armed as reserve school police officers.

Faculty-turned-campus cops would supplement the thin ranks of campus police and be in position to respond quickly to campus emergencies, the two champions of the idea say.
Others worry about allowing teachers to be put in that kind of position.

The idea will be taken up at separate meetings this month by Nevada System of Higher Education regents and the State Board of Education.

The proposal was initiated in June ago by Regent Stavros Anthony, a Metro Police captain, who was thinking in terms of college campuses. State Board of Education member Anthony Ruggiero, an investigator with the state attorney general's office, wants to extend the concept to the state's K-12 teachers as well.

It expands the idea, proposed during the 2007 legislative session by Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, that teachers be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus, provided they had undergone 40 hours of training. The bill died in committee.

To become reserve campus police officers, teachers would have to pass a physical and psychological evaluation, as well as a comprehensive background check. Those who make it through the selection process would have to pay about $1,190 for classes at the community college's Law Enforcement Training Academy, including "Firearms I & II" "Defensive Tactics/Physical Training" and "Introduction to Juvenile Justice." An additional $1,000 would be required for the academy uniforms and equipment.

After completing the training, teachers would be responsible for $1,500 in uniform and equipment costs, although their guns would be provided by the school police department. School districts would then have to pay the auxiliary officers $3,000 annually.

Ruggiero said he met with School Police officials in Washoe and Clark counties, and he assured them that the reserve officers would be expected to follow the directives, rules and regulations of each individual school district police department.

The idea is a win-win, Ruggiero said: Teachers would have an opportunity for more training and pay, and schools would solve the perpetual shortage of campus cops.

"Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, why not use the resources you have in place?" said Ruggiero, who is himself a reserve officer for UNLV's campus police. "I'm sure there are teachers out there that have thought about becoming officers. We shouldn't restrict them . We should train them."

Education officials say so far there are more questions than answers about the proposal.
If a child becomes violent during class, would the teacher-officer be allowed to use more aggressive means of restraint than a regular teacher? In a campus emergency, would the teacher-officer leave his classroom unattended to respond?

"I'm a common-sense guy, but it's hard to wade through this," said John Jasonek, executive director of the Clark County Education Association, which represents most of the district's 18,000 teachers. "Right now this isn't passing the initial sniff test."

Clark County Schools Superintendent Walt Rulffes said he would like to see how the proposal plays out at the university level.

"There may be some value in having teachers who want increased security training to receive that training," Rulffes said. "But it's too soon to say whether they should actually be able to carry firearms."

Rulffes said he's not even wholly comfortable with regular school police officers carrying guns, even though he realizes it's a necessary response to the level of violence and criminal activity in the community at large, which often spills onto campuses.

He also wonders whether the program would encourage teachers to leave the classroom in pursuit of better-paying jobs in law enforcement.

Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services based in Cleveland, said the proposal to turn teachers into reserve officers is misguided.

"Teachers get into education to teach, not to be cops," Trump said. "Teachers are already overwhelmed with all of the academic, behavioral and administrative tasks they have to perform. To say you're going to add a whole other role and mind-set is unrealistic."

Debate about arming teachers surfaces periodically in other states, usually in the wake of a high-profile campus shooting, Trump said.

"Rather than off-the-wall proposals, how about our legislators focus on stopping the cuts to funding for school safety and emergency preparedness, mental health services and support programs," Trump said. "That might actually provide an improved learning environment, instead of trying to make teachers into cops."

Teachers Attacked

Reports of assaults against teachers seem to growing, particularly in big city schools. Sometimes they are verbal. Sometimes they are violent physical attacks. NPR’s Fresh Air host Terry Gross speaks with two veteran teachers, Ed Klein and Frank Burd, who were physically assaulted last year in their Philadelphia classrooms. Both Burd and Klein are white and taught at predominantly African American schools; however, neither perceived the incidents to be entirely racially motivated.

Music teacher Klein was relocated to a school one month into the school year when his former school dropped their music program. Entering a new school, with a class that was busy testing the limits and a staff that was overwhelmed, Klein struggled to get control of his classroom. Klein called parents frequently and, for the most part, they were responsive. He even saw changes in student behavior in a few cases. One day, however, a student told him he’d better stop calling home or he’d be sorry. Following that exchange, Klein was sprayed with a fire extinguisher on two consecutive days. On the third day, four students forced him to the floor where he suffered a broken jaw and a concussion.

For his part, after he approached a student to turn down his iPod during class, veteran math teacher Burd remembers little of his attack. Five broken bones and a brain injury later, Burd says, “I don’t feel betrayed by the students, I feel betrayed by the kid who did it.’

Will either teacher return to the classroom? Klein admits to good days and bad days, but is not sure if he will ever teach again. “I’m in a difficult position,” he told Gross. Said Burd, “I need to work. I like to work and I like teaching. I don’t know right now about the classroom. ...”

Posted by Elizabeth Rich

Criminalizing Student Threats

By The Associated Press
Nashua, New Hampshire

Dorothy Morin, a teacher at Nashua High School North, says that when students threaten her or other teachers, they don't face much in the way of consequences.

"I think it's gotten worse over the years. It's escalated because nothing has been done. There's no deterrent," Morin said. "Our lives are in danger every day as teachers."

Testimony by Morin and others persuaded members of a state Senate committee to recommend a bill that would add criminal threatening to the list of offenses covered by the state's Safe School Zones law, which increases penalties for certain crimes committed on school grounds, including the sale or possession of illegal drugs.

Rep. Maureen Mooney, R-Merrimack, is the prime sponsor of the bill, which would let school districts take more action against students who threaten violence against other students or staff. She said she was motivated by recent incidents of school violence.

"I just think it's of the utmost importance to do everything within our power to ensure that safe school zones are exactly that: safe school zones," she said. The House has already passed the bill.

Claire Ebel, director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, objected to the inclusion of threatening, however. She said that while the other offenses covered by the Safe School Zones law involve actual violence or wrongdoing, a threat could be simply an act of stupidity.

"This seems like a very broad sweep for the state to take," she said.

The bill, which originally would have required expulsion for criminal threatening, was amended to give school districts more leeway. Sarah Browning, of the state Education Department, said schools already have broad authority to suspend or expel students who threaten others.

"I don't think passing this bill changes that, except that it's now more explicit," she said. "I think it makes clear what authority school districts have."

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Associated Press

BOULDER, Colo. — Writing teachers are being tested themselves these days in trying to discern whether a student is another Stephen King, a Seung-Hui Cho, Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold.

"It's a subjective phenomenon, being able to identify the difference between art and pathology," Sidney Goldfarb, a University of Colorado professor told the Camera.

Goldfarb, who has taught creative writing for four decades, once assigned 21 students to write short stories. Two wrote of suicide; the other 19 murder.

Last month an Illinois high school student was arrested after writing an essay describing his dreams of shooting people and having sex with dead bodies.

Columbine gunmen Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris portrayed hit men in a video they made for a high school government and economics class. The English Department at Virginia Tech referred Cho to the school's counseling service because of his violent writing.

Jeffrey DeShell, chairman of the CU English department, said he couldn't recall a student in the creative-writing program ever being referred to counseling for homicidal writing or odd classroom behavior. Some students have been referred to mental-health professionals when their writing reveals that they could be suicidal.

"We live in a violent society," said Matt Burriesci, associate director of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs of Fairfax, Va., which represents creative programs at 400 colleges and universities.

"There is a very thin line between monitoring someone with psychological problems and someone who is just writing about violence. Pick up a Stephen King novel or a John Grisham novel."

King, in an essay posted on EW.com, said after all the school violence his own college writing would have raised red flags, "For most creative people, the imagination serves as an excretory channel for violence. We visualize what we never actually do."

He added, "On the whole, I don't think you can pick these guys out based on their work, unless you look for violence unenlivened by any real talent."

DeShell said murder is a common way for novice writers to kill off their fictional characters. In one of Shakespeare's earlier plays, Titus Andronicus, nearly everyone dies. Students also may be trying to shock professors.

"A lot of students are trying their imaginations out," he said. "We should be a place that is somewhat safe for that."

Lorna Dee Cervantes, a faculty member who teaches poetry workshops, said teachers should not encourage students to write about violence.

Posted: 4/20/2007
Classes resumed on Friday at the University of Nevada, Reno, after being canceled while officials looked for a former student who made what his family felt were threatening remarks referencing the Virginia Tech shootings.

Michael James Sheriff, 27, was arrested without incident around 10:15 p.m. in Carson City on a probation violation related to a conviction for carrying a concealed weapon.

The search for Sheriff had intensified after he allegedly sent a text message to a relative saying “the Korean is my hero,” apparently referring to the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, Reno police said. He also allegedly told another relative Wednesday that he would be unavailable for the next few days because he would be on a “mission,” police said.

You can the rest of the article here.

By ANTONIO PLANAS and DAVID KIHARA
REVIEW-JOURNAL

With images of the massacre at Virginia Tech fresh in their minds, students and parents at Desert Pines High School were sent into a panic on Tuesday after an 18-year-old man flashed a handgun on campus.

Even though no one was hurt, many assumed the worst when the school, at 3800 Harris Ave., near Pecos Road and Washington Avenue, was placed on lockdown.

"You watch TV and see what happened in Virginia and think, 'That's over there.' Well, it's here too," said Carrie Luna, who was waiting at the school to pick up her ninth-grade son, Obie.

How has it affected you and your school? Are you discussing the killings with your students? Are you concerned about the emotional lives of young people today? Are you worried about your own safety? What more, if anything, could be done to stop school shootings?

A recent wave of violence in Philadelphia public schools has left several teachers injured, led to dozens of student arrests and expulsions, and prompted a crackdown on student offenders.
Paul G. Vallas, the chief executive officer of the district, has announced that students 10 years or older who assault teachers or other school employees will receive automatic 10-day suspensions, pending expulsion to an alternative school. Offenders, he said, will be charged with aggravated assault, a felony.
And, amid growing complaints that some principals do not report every violent incident, the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s safe schools advocate this month set up a hotline for teachers to independently report assaults.

You can read the entire article here.

How I joined Teach for America
— and got sued for $20 million

Well, when push came to shove, I didn’t want to devote my life to helping the rich get richer or crunching numbers to see what views were most popular for the vice president to adopt. This wasn’t what my 17 years of education were for.

My doctor parents had drummed into me that education was the key to every door, the one thing they couldn’t take away from my ancestors during pogroms and persecutions. They had also filled me with a strong sense of social justice. I couldn’t help feeling guilty dismay when I thought of the millions of kids who’d never even tasted the great teaching—not to mention the supportive family—I’d enjoyed for my entire life.

I told the Al Gore guy, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Weird as he might have thought it, I had decided to teach in an inner-city school.