On again, off again, Bullying Prevention Forum, on again

On May 15, 2012, education report Hailey Heinz, reported, link, APS was planning two public meetings on bullying.

Albuquerque Public Schools is planning two community meetings in June so people can comment about how best to confront bullying.

By the middle of June, it was apparent that the meetings had been cancelled without explanation or apology. I don't know by whom, for certain, but it seems reasonable that it was APS' COO Brad Winter who decided to not have the meetings. I asked Heinz to identify the source of the promise of June meetings, she did not respond.

At the time Winter was promising June meetings, I was writing about the impossibility of a meaningful discussion of bullying without first having a candid, forthright and honest discussion about student discipline in general. This based on my belief that, there is a strong correlation between bullying and a general lack of discipline at a school. I pointed out the reason Winter el al cannot discuss student discipline in general, is because their records are inadequate if not non-existent, link, consistent with their efforts manipulate public perception of the APS.

A recent audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found that the administration routinely falsified crime statistics to protect the images of their schools. I will never forget a meeting including then AHS Principal Tom Savage, in which Savage said, if he told the truth about what was going on at AHS, realtors would have his neck.

Winter has again promised meetings, link. Though he faces the prospect of having to present meaningfully on the subject of bullying, without having to admit he is keeping incomplete records on the scope of student discipline and chronically disruptive students (like bullies), or no records at all.

I can't wait to see how he worms his way out of these meetings.

By the way, Winter is still to surrender a candid, forthright and honest accounting of his spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd. link, even in the face of an upcoming school bond issue election where his stewardship of our resources is a fundamental issue.

Either he cannot surrender the record, because his bookkeeping is so abysmal they have to hide it, or because the truth is unjustifiable. They have yet to deny rumors that they spent more than $800 a piece for the chairs board members sit in for about four hours a month during board meetings.




photo Mark Bralley