EducationNews.org

Within the past eight weeks, six African-American educators within John Rolfe Middle School in Henrico County, Virginia have been either forced out or terminated by the administrators that are in opposition to their advocacy efforts on behalf of the students within Rolfe, which is a school student body that is 70% African-American and 40% low income. The actions began shortly after several African-American educators began to speak out publicly regarding the severe safety violations that were present regarding students and educators. All three educators were veterans that maintained years of documented impeccable educational service to students with disabilities, and all have served as staunch advocates for children with special needs, specifically children of color with disabilities.

Three of these individuals were African-American women that provided much needed instruction within the special education department, which is presently experiencing significant noncompliance issues due to the alleged incompetent leadership of the department head, Courtney Ellis; special education administrator, John Rokenbrod, and building principal, Andrew Armstrong, all of whom are white leaders that have received numerous complaints against them from parents and educators, but continue to remain in their positions.

Unfortunately, Mr. Morton, Henrico Public Schools Superintendent, and Ms. Royal, Director of Middle Schools, continue to support the incompetent parties despite the horrific impact to the welfare of students within Rolfe.It is alleged that Mr. Morton refuses to remove Mr. Armstrong, despite a growing number of parent complaints and grossly negligent incidents due to the fact that this would be his second failed principal appointment by him within a year.Parents and teachers are questioning the superintendent's integrity in consistently placing the needs of adults over the needs of children, especially students with disabilities.

There are allegations that Mr. Armstrong refuses to reprimand and hold Ms. Ellis accountable for her refusal to support students and staff due to his personal relationship with her outside of work, which is said to be compromising his administrative judgment.One witness indicated that they had overheard Mr. Armstrong inviting Ms. Ellis out one afternoon via phone while they were near his office, which, as they stated, would explain his ignoring of the numerous emails and phone calls from parents and teachers regarding the continued violations of their students' with special needs educational plans.

The most recent educator that was forcefully transferred by Fred Morton, Superintendent of Henrico County Public Schools, is Kandise Lucas.

Ms. Lucas authored what many have termed as the "whistleblowing" articles that exposed the safety issues that exists within John Rolfe Middle School due to the gross negligence of the newly "appointed" principal, Andrew Armstrong and others under him.

Ms. Lucas' articles not only exposed the horrific safety hazards that were and continue to be present at Rolfe, but she also gave parents, educators, community leaders, and our children a voice when their voices had been ignored by Mr. Morton, Ms. Royal, Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Jordan, and Mr. Rokenbrod repeatedly.(See December 28, 2007 and January 6, 2008 ednews.org articles).

In his February 22, 2008 correspondence, Mr. Armstrong authors a falsified statement in which he states, "…Your performance as a Special Educator teacher at John Rolfe Middle School has shown marked deficits primarily in factors associated with "Professional Qualities", particularly in areas such as Responsiveness to Supervision, Judgment, Cooperation with Total staff, and Communication Skills."One of the main issues in which Ms. Lucas and many other Rolfe educators were concerned was the fact that there is no supervision for educators, parents, or students.

In addition, while in this correspondence he reprimands Ms. Lucas for failing to communicate her concerns to the administrative staff, in a December 13, 2007 communication, he reprimanded Ms. Lucas for communicating her concerns regarding safety hazards within the school during contract hours.He went as far as to instruct her to refrain from communicating these concerns, which is a direct contradiction to his most recent fabrication.

To date, Ms. Lucas has over 300 communications documenting the hazards and noncompliance issues related to students and educators within Rolfe. Very few communications were either opened or responded to by Mr. Armstrong or any other building administrator.

Ms. Lucas repeatedly requested meetings for the entire special education department in order to address the mass noncompliance issues.She even went as far as to develop a plan of action to bring the department back into compliance due to the extreme negative impact that it is having on students.Both the request for the meeting and the plan of action were unacknowledged by administrators.So, it stands to reason that one cannot be "responsive" to "supervision" that is nonexistent.

Mr. Armstrong's poorly comprised document failed to list any specific dates, times, or details regarding his claims.He also erroneously assumed that Ms. Lucas was not an educator with tenured status, and as a result, has the right to a public hearing before the school board regarding this issue.

It is interesting to note that Mr. Armstrong was "appointed" as a first-time principal of Rolfe Middle School in October 2007 after the abrupt removal of the previously selected principal, Ms. Robin Dalton.Throughout his tenure, he never observed Ms. Lucas, nor did he have in place any remediation in place during the four months that he has been present, to address the "perceived" Professional Qualities violations that he claims.

Mr. Armstrong's claims were clearly intended as a retaliatory act against Ms. Lucas' advocacy efforts on behalf of the students at Rolfe with special needs that were being subjected to unsafe and substandard conditions. As a result of Ms. Lucas' December and January articles, Rolfe Middle School received security cameras and an additional principal in order to address the severe safety and discipline issues.In addition, the school board is proposing upgrading safety measures in all of its schools across the county.As one teacher stated, "Ms. Lucas, we have you to thank for that because they would have never done it if you hadn't exposed the fact that they were neglected our students and us."

A majority of the individuals responsible for the gross neglect of the largely African-American student population are white teachers and administrators.Neither Mr. Armstrong or Ms. Royal took no actions against them for their negligence and failure to perform job duties despite numerous complaints by parents and educators, in writing and during school board meetings.

As one John Rolfe special educator stated upon learning of Ms. Lucas' forced reassignment, "…they came after her because she made sure that things were right for our children, the black and disabled children that no one cares about, she made sure that those people did their job for our students, they did not like an African-American woman telling white people what to do, so they removed her.This is devastating to our department, parents, and most importantly, our students, but they do not care because they want our children to fail."

In recent weeks, there has been an alleged incident of an African-American male student being restrained and pepper sprayed by an administrator and police officer.This past week, there were riot-like conditions in the cafeteria during lunch due to a fight which resulted in several Henrico County police being called as back-up to the school due to the fact that, the administrators on lunch duty lost control of the students.

Eye witnesses noted that Mr. Armstrong and Mr Rockenbrod, the administrators on duty, were congregated near the office eating and talking when the calamity broke out and were not aware of the incident until the students advised them of it, after it had escalated to a crisis situation where students were running, pushing, and shoving other students in order to see the confrontation.Once the police arrived and restored order to the cafeteria, they lined up along the cafeteria wall and remained until the lunch periods ended.

One Rolfe educator stated how blatant the racism is within Henrico County, but emphasized how this extreme racism is clearly evident within Henrico County Public Schools when highly qualified, dedicated, and vocal African-American educators can be forced out illegally by building administrators and central office personnel with no regard for the impact on the welfare of students.

One parent shared that she received a call from Mr. Armstrong on the day that Ms. Lucas was forcefully reassigned, stating that Ms. Lucas would no longer be her student's case manager.The parent was naturally devastated and asked who would replace her but advised that Mr. Armstrong hung up abruptly without permitting her to ask any questions or providing any answers.

She has also advised that she and several other parents will meet in order to file a group complaint with the Virginia Department of Education, The Office of Civil Rights, and the NAACP regarding this reassignment and its direct impact on Rolfe's students; in addition to the fact that the school and central office administrators had no regard for the well being of their students.

After reading the letter from Mr. Armstrong regarding the forced reassignment, the parent also questioned the first-year principal's claims of professional issues when she and many others had worked with Ms. Lucas for years and had never witnessed any form of unprofessionalism from her.She did point out that when one is vocal and a "whistle-blower", professionalism is the excuse used by administrators to avoid addressing the issues that negatively impact students, especially African-American students.

Her concerns are further complicated by the fact that many of these students are scheduled to take standardized tests within two weeks and will now be left with a teacher that is not highly qualified, which is a direct violation of No Child Left behind.

Ms. Lucas has indicated that she is willing to be fired in order to ensure the safety of children within Rolfe Middle School, andis committed to continuing her crusade to expose the gross negligence, central-office endorsed incompetence, and questionable ethics of the administrators that are compromising the quality of education for Rolfe's students and failing to support Rolfe's parents and educators.

It should also be noted that in November 2007, Ms. Lucas received a threatening communication within her school mailbox.It was a handwritten note that was placed in a sealed John Rolfe Middle School envelope.The communication threatened Ms. Lucas with termination.When the document was shared with building and central office staff, they refused to take action regarding the document, despite the fact that their non-action was a clear violation of federal and state employment law and created a hostile work environment.

It has been recently discovered that the threat was allegedly written and forwarded to Ms. Lucas by two building administrators that indicated that they were instructed by central office personnel to give Ms. Lucas the threat in order to silence her and scare her into leaving.This would support the reason for central office's failure to investigate the matter. The issue has escalated and the Office of Civil Rights is now investigating the matter.

Both, parents and educators alike, have determined that Mr. Morton is attempting to make an example out of Ms. Lucas in order to intimidate others from coming forward and exposing the horrific injustice and gross negligence that is taking place on nearly a weekly basis at John Rolfe Middle School at the hands of incompetent leadership that he has appointed.During an meeting to organize a protest regarding Ms. Lucas' forced reassignment, one parent stated that, "…Mr. Morton cowardly and unethical acts are to Henrico County Public Schools what Bull Connor was to the state of Alabama during the Civil Rights movement, but eventually, just like Bull Connor, people grow tired of "bull".

In addition to her five-year service as a special educator, Ms. Lucas has also served as a child and family advocate for underserved families throughout the country for over twenty years.Upon her arrival to Henrico County Public Schools, her exceptional instructional abilities and excellence, not only in professionalism, but in communication, were recognized when she was recommended and accepted into the leadership cohort for aspiring leaders within the county.Ms. Lucas has also been the recipient of countless community service awards as a result of her advocacy and ability to be a catalyst for change in spite of the personal sacrifices that she is subjected to.She plans to continue her efforts until John Rolfe Middle School is the safe and nurturing place that it should be for our students.

Parents, Teachers, Government Leaders, and Community Advocates Speak Out In Henrico County For Students

Administrators in Henrico County Fail to Provide Safe Schools For Students and Educators

Published February 24, 2008