EducationNews.org

Pride and Prejudice: Chesterfield County Public School’s Real Core Values

Kandise Lucas, Ph.D.

            Jane Austen’s epic novel, “Pride and Prejudice”, documents the conflicts regarding morality, equality, class, and educational opportunity as it relates to society and the underserved.

            After reading the novel, it is clear that Austen’s effort to expose the “pride and prejudice” that exists within various components of our society is a timeless message.  Unfortunately,  for many students and families with special needs within Chesterfield County Public Schools, “pride and prejudice” is not just an epic fictional depiction, but it seems to be the core values by which administrators, educators, central office officials, school board members, and the superintendent operate under religiously, even if it means sacrificing the welfare of children and families that they have vowed to nurture and protect.

            Similar to the Steventon, Hampshire society of the 19^th century that Austen referenced in her novel, many Chesterfield County Public School officials have cultivated an environment in which their own pride and personal agendas take priority over the progress and needs of students with special needs. 

            In addition, these same officials have established an atmosphere of blatant and relentless prejudice that not only rapes children with special needs of their civil right to educational opportunities afforded to them by the federal government, but this deep seeded and thoroughly rooted vice of prejudice also promotes and condones an extremely hostile, secretive, abusive, and unethical system which permits school officials to engage in systematic child abuse and neglect with little or no consequence by law enforcement, state and federal regulators, or the media at large.

            While the district professes that “we value respect, responsibility, honesty, ad accountability,” within Chesterfield County Public Schools, there is a cloak of secrecy and deception whose sole purpose is to preserve the status quo of disrespect, irresponsibility, dishonesty, and no accountability at all costs.  The status quo ensures that equality, justice, and civil rights are non-existent within the district as it relates to students with disabilities and their families.  In fact, there have been several blatant demonstrations of “pride and prejudice” by school officials. 

            In one instance, Principal Thomas Ferrell, of Meadowbrook High School, denied the parent and child advocate of a special needs student access to the school in order to permit them to observe the quality and safety of the classroom settings for the student.  In an effort to justify his dictator-like and unethical actions that contradict the core values of the district, Ferrell repeatedly falsified documentation and offered the parent, who had emailed him in advance and waited an hour in the main office in order to conduct the observation of their student, no explanation for denying access to the school outside of yet another falsified statement in which he indicated that he does not permit parents to observe their students. 

            Ferrell, a recently appointed administrator, provided no school or district policy to support his stance, nor was he held accountable for his actions by the school board or superintendent when the issue was escalated to them, despite the public outcry by the community.  Less than two days after Ferrell refused access to the school, Meadowbrook was plastered across the local news due to a student allegedly bringing a gun to the school and brandishing it within a classroom full of students. 

            Reports indicate that Ferrell’s own staff view him as a leader that does not value human beings, whether they are adults or students, and is only interested in forwarding his own professional agenda at all costs.  Ferrell is further described as one that is more interested in spending time pursuing his doctorate than pursuing excellence in leadership for students, staff, and parents.   He is characterized as not possessing any human relation skills, nor does he demonstrate the ability to communicate respectfully with others, which has resulted in the poor leadership team that rules Meadowbrook.  The resounding question that is being posed to Ferrell by many throughout the district as a result of his Hitler-like unfair and unjustified actions, is what is he trying to hide from parents, advocates, and the community at large by denying them access to the very school that their children attend and their tax dollars pay for?   Furthermore, how are Ferrell’s actions promoting a partnership between parents and school officials?

            The question that many parents, students, media sources, government officials, and civil rights groups are asking is how Ferrell can exclude parents and advocates from the public school setting when the welfare of a student with special needs is at stake.  When this issue and several other issues of unethical behavior were shared with Superintendent Newsome, he refused to meet with the parent, praised Mr. Ferrell during a school board meeting, and continued to turn a blind eye and deaf ear to the atrocities that exist under his leadership. So much for transparent leadership that promotes integrity and trust.

            Unfortunately for Chesterfield’s children and parents, the school board members also suffer from deafness and blindness when it comes to equality, justice, and the humane treatment of all children and families regardless of race, creed, religion, disability, or economic status. 

            In a recent monthly school board meeting, Chairman Marshall Trammell, Jr. of the Bermuda District, demonstrated his own version of “pride and prejudice” when he attempted to discredit and dismiss the concerns expressed regarding students with special needs, as opposed to acknowledging that he, as well as the other school board members, are elected officials whose role is to speak for all citizens of Chesterfield, specifically those that cannot speak for themselves, Trammell made a misguided and misinformed statement regarding the status of special education services within the district.  As one parent stated, “the school board and superintendent are more concerned about their image and damage control than they are about suffering and neglected students with special needs.”  

            Neither Trammell, Superintendent Newsome, nor the other school board members cared to comment or even acknowledge the fact that Chesterfield County Public Schools was cited by the Virginia Department of Education, VADOE, less than a month ago, regarding their mistreatment of students with special needs, specifically student of color, as it relates to discipline.  Why would they fail to take a stance on such an important issue regarding students?  More importantly, why would Trammell make a misleading statement that disregards and dismisses the VADOE’s findings just as he has done to so many parents and advocates?

            The extent of the “pride and prejudice” that exists within Chesterfield County Public Schools is, at times, shocking to those of us that have served as advocates for decades.  In another instance, Assistant Principal, Shawn Abel and Department Chair, Deb Jones, both of Meadowbrook High, held a secret meeting between the two of them in order to change the case manager of a student whose parent has made every attempt to hold them accountable.  While Abel and his superiors, Mike Asip and Thomas Ferrell claimed that the new case manager, Judith Moxley, was just as qualified as the previous case manager of three years, the Virginia Department of Education’s records and the experience of the past nine weeks speak otherwise.  For them, the goal of retaliating against the parent and student by removing a case manager that had been an effective advocate for them for over three years, took priority over providing the student with a competent case manager. 

            Ms. Moxley is only endorsed in one area of special education services, while the previous case manager was endorsed in all three major federal areas by the state.  Ms. Moxley has reportedly expressed concern over not knowing how to provide services to the student, while the other case manager took the lead and served as an advocate for the student, even if it meant going against the administration. 

            Ms. Moxley’s commitment to the needs of the student recently came into question when she reportedly told the student that she would not be able to remain after school in order to provide support for her due to the fact that she had “sneezing puppies” at home that needed her attention.  Sneezing puppies seemed to be more of a priority than the needs of a student with special needs.  With case managers that hold puppies in a higher regard than humans, appointed by administrators like Abel, Jones, Ferrell, and Asip that have no problem replacing highly competent, caring, and creative professionals with uncaring, unprofessional, “go along to get along,” and incompetent individuals, then students with special needs within Chesterfield County, specifically Meadowbrook High, do not have a chance of success; only failure.

            In Jane Austen’s novel, the horrific impact of  “pride and prejudice” within the society that degraded various individuals within society and deprived them of their right to equality, justice, and fairness, was eliminated when two individuals no longer dismissed the reality of the injustice that existed.   They were willing to face the societal evil and improve the quality of life for everyone within the society.  The question still remains to be answered as to whether the officials within Chesterfield County Public Schools will continue to operate under the cloak of “pride and prejudice” or will they, too, obtain courage and a conscience in order to ensure that every student and parent within the district is respected, valued, and treated with integrity.  If not, then it is time for the citizens of Chesterfield County Public Schools to remove them and replace them with leaders that not only believe in the district’s core values, but are willing to fight for them to be realized for every student and family.

Kandise will begin a new series of reports entitled, “If This Chalk Could Talk,” which will continue her efforts to give voices to those that are voiceless and continue to be abused and neglected by school administrators as they engage in “institutionalized child abuse.”