Oma on Board: August 2013

APS Conspiracy Theory - near final rev.

About two decades ago, the APS School Board unanimously adopted a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct as the student standards of conduct.

To this day, through their Student Behavior Handbook,
the school board expects students to "model and promote
the Pillars of Character Counts!".

About a decade ago, the APS School Board voted, again unanimously, to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct. It used to read;

"In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult,
be lower than the standards of conduct for students ..."

They had to remove it, because at about that time, I was trying to hold them actually, honestly accountable as role models of student standards of conduct.

I would suppose, their abdication in policy offers them some protection from representations that they are in fact, "legally" accountable as role models of the Pillars of Character Counts!.

Morally of course, they are as bound as they ever were, by the obligations and responsibilities of the mantelet they put on when they stepped into the role of (senior) role model.

What to do? Here was a guy coming to public forums and demanding that they explain why students are expected to hold themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct than adults, and they have no answer.

No answer except that they, personally and collectively, lack the character and the courage to hold themselves honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!, link, even for the few hours a day they hold students accountable to those standards.

If there is another reason they will not step up to honest accountability to higher standards than the law, I have not been able to imagine it and they have never articulated it. Ever.

They could conceivably, lower students standards to a point that is finally low enough that the leadership will accept honest accountability, but not without drawing even more attention to their problem.

The truth is, they won't hold themselves honestly accountable even to the law.

The leadership had two options and two options only;

keep me from speaking at public forums, and
make sure no one listens to me if I do; in particular, the media.

Evidence, unless they have destroyed it, is in the form of recordings made of board meetings. Any meeting except the ones they hold in secret, is recorded. There is at least an audio record; regular board meetings have video records.

The record is that they did everything they could to keep me from being seen at public forums. At one point, they even moved the public forum out of the public meeting, in order that no recording was made, and the broadcast version didn't show the public forum at all.

Their record, what part of it they have not deleted, is one of relentless slander and libel. According to Monica Armenta, her friends in the media think I'm a "creep".

At this point it is worth pointing out that reporters have witnessed most of the "incidents" in question and have never see anything "newsworthy". Even the elephant mask Esquivel wants people to believe was "disruptive", warranted no notice from them at all. The only photographs of it are mine.

I have been accused of intimidating them, invading their personal space, assuming a fighting stances, stalking, and harassing them. Nearly all of the incidents they "remember" but cannot recall the specifics of, happened in full view. Not one photograph, not one scrap of videotape, not one audio recording backs up their sworn testimony.

Any recording they haven't destroyed, of any board meeting I ever attended, will show me standing up at public forum and demanding a candid, forthright and honest response to my legitimate questions about standards, accountability and role modeling in the Albuquerque Public Schools. The record will show me standing my ground against politicians and public servants who were abusing the power entrusted to them.

There is no physical record of intimidation, invasion of personal spaces, stalking or harassment. There is no record because the allegations are groundless; the "incidents" never took place.

The leadership of the APS is about it still;

I am not allowed to speak at public forum,
I am still on the establishment media's blacklist, and
Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks don't have to answer any questions about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

The establishment media is part of the cover up of an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

I submit as "proof"; the abject absence of any coverage at all of ethics, standards or accountability in the leadership of the APS since the Journal last reported on the lack of ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS more than six years ago, link.

No reporter has ever asked anyone of them to explain why there are two standards of conduct in the APS; among the highest of standards for students, and the absolute lowest standards for board members and senior administrators.

No reporter ever asked them to explain the removal of the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct. No reporter ever asked them to explain why they won't put it back.

Journal editor Kent Walz

No reporter ever will.
Their editors and news directors
will see to that.

I will bow as always,
to any real evidence
to the contrary.

photos Mark Bralley

In defense of a headline

APS School Board President Marty Esquivel, by and through his team of lawyers, have offered up his Response in Opposition to my Motion for a Preliminary Injunction.

In it, he argues that I wrote a headline;

First, we need to kill all the PIOs, link

in "... wilful blindness and contempt for decorum ... (in)... "that after sitting through seven hours of powerful testimony in which Ms Armenta recounted the terror Mr. MacQuigg inspires in her through his intimidating actions... " he defiantly posted a blog entry titled; First, we need to kill all the PIOs.

On my honor, when I read Trip Jennings post, link, commented on it, and wrote a post of my own on the problem with the loyalties of Public Information Officers, it never occurred to me that APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta would consider it a personal threat.

Any more than when I wrote; game on!, School Board Member Kathy Korte would consider that a threat, link.

I thought and I still think, no reasonable person would believe, honestly believe, either the headline or the statement was a threat. No reasonable, normal person.

Ms. Armenta testified that she never reads my blog and therefore would know nothing about the headline. The only reason she would have found out is if one of her "friends" told her about it. What for, to whip up her already unreasonable hysteria?

Ms. Armenta, during her sworn testimony, expressed her concern that she could not "control my thoughts". Wouldn't the first step in her plan to control my thoughts be, to insist upon editorial rights over my headlines?

I consider myself a political pamphleteer albeit in a digital age. I have a right to write the words I want to write. I cannot be reasonably expected to filter the most important sentence in every post, past the feelings of every politician and public servant I annoy.

Any connection to Monica Armenta was tangential and inadvertent. Ms Armenta was not personally identified in the post, and easily could have been, as an example of a highly paid Public Information Officer whose job it is to make the leadership of APS look good, and not to keep the people candidly, forthrightly and honestly informed about the wielding of their power and the spending of their considerable resources.

This is all a diversion; None of them want to explain to students, in words students can understand, why they are expected to model and promote personal accountability to higher standards of conduct than the law, and adult role models, even the senior-most role models of the Pillars of Character Counts! in the entire APS, are not.

That's why they don't want me at school board meetings.

It has nothing to do with the fear that Esquivel, APS Police Chief Steve Tellez, Winston Brooks and the guys, have stirred up in Ms. Armenta's head.

Where is their evidence? After years of hardening their castle keep at enormous public expense, after installing more video cameras than you can shake a stick at, after assigning as many as two APS Police officers to "stalk" me whenever I set foot on APS property, after specifically assigning APS personnel to take photographs of me misbehavin' even out of town, and after six years of surveillance and investigation they don't have a single photograph, audiotape, or videotape of me actually doing the things they swear I have done.

Either I was very good at stalking people when nobody was looking, striking fighting stances invisibly, and plastering myself against walls when the video cameras swept by, or

I really didn't do the things they swear I did.

Not one of the people who insist that my banning is not based on the question I keep asking, have ever actually answered the question.

I doubt they even know what it is.
To them, and by Esquivel's own admission,
I'm just "... like so much background noise".

What is the point in protecting the right to petition one's government if the petition can be "legally" dismissed as "background noise" by someone like Marty Esquivel?

Marty Esquivel doesn't want to come clean on his abdication from the obligations of the senior-most role model of APS' student standards of conduct.

Nowhere in his response, did Esquivel mention the Pillars of Character Counts! are actually the APS student standards of conduct.

Nowhere did he mention, that except for his willful abdication, he would be, the senior-most role model in the entire APS of the Pillars of Character Counts!

Nor did he indicate any intention to hold himself accountable to them and as a role model, any time soon.

And he complains over and over and over again; Mr. MacQuigg ... will engage in conduct regardless of a rule prohibiting it, as long as, in his mind, it is honorable and legal.

Esquivel has lower standards than mine. Forget about honorable; he will freely ignore the rules and his obligations as the senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts! as long as it's "legal".

"Legal" is the lowest standard of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

"Legal" is the standard of conduct that every
higher standard of conduct,
is higher than.

photos Mark Bralley

APS ignoring MOU with the BCSO

APS and the Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston are signatories on a Memorandum of Understanding. Their understanding, link, includes an understanding about the reporting of criminal misconduct.

There is evidence that the "understanding" the Sheriff thought they shared, is not shared at all.

There is a philosophical difference of opinion between the Sheriff and APS' Chief of Police Steve Tellez, around the handling of students who commit crimes.

The kids arrested by APD and the Sheriff's Deputies face the criminal justice system and create statistics. Catch and release is the SOP for the APS Police Force.

Students who have broken the law see an "administrative solution"; a solution that co-incidentally creates no record of criminal misconduct. A solution that co-incidentally makes the administrator who makes that decision look like s/he's running a crime free school.

Tellez solution is to do it his way; which is to say APS COO Brad Winter's way; which is to say APS Supt Winston Brooks' way; which is to say the Board's way.

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez testified about what happens to students depending on who arrests them; (spelling corrections in parentheses)

3 A. Well, this is where the sheriffs
4 department and our department differ. In their SOP
5 it states, if there is a crime, then the person
6 committing the (crime) will be arrested. And we don't
7 always arrest the people that commit (crimes). We deal
8 with students, and the students, a lot of (time) we
9 don't need to make a physical arrest. In our
10 department, a physical arrest is a last resort.
11 So we -- a lot of (times) we do a book and
12 release, where the student isn't physically (arrested).
13 The student is -- paperwork is done, and the student
14 is released to their parents.
15 There is a lot of these sections that are
16 in the MOU, but the sheriffs department doesn't
17 comply with them.

County Sheriff sez, say what?

photos Mark Bralley

Brooks clueless about Character Counts!

Again, this is neither the time nor the venue to discuss the propriety of the Pillars of Character Counts! as student standards of conduct. The simple fact is; the Pillars are the student standards of conduct of record, and have been since 1994. They will continue to be until the board rescinds or amends the resolution by which they adopted the Pillars of Character Counts! as APS student standards of conduct.

As far as school board policy is concerned, the Pillars were the adult standards as well, until they struck the language that read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

Since, students have been expected to hold themselves accountable to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics, and adults have been accountable, in their estimation not mine, only to the law. The law is the standard that every "higher standard" is higher than.

Current School Board Policy is expressed in the APS Student Behavior Handbook, link. The board approves the language in the handbook every year.

Students are expected to;

model and promote the pillars of CHARACTER COUNTS! (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship

The administration is charged with administering school board policy. APS Supt Winston Brooks is the senior-most administrative role model of the standards they establish and enforce upon students.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship; someone has to show them what they look like. The Superintendent has to show them what it looks like; it is his job more than it is the job of anyone else in his entire administration.

Winston Brooks doesn't even know the Pillars are called "Pillars". He thinks they are points, or something, of character.

Brooks as senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!, should at least know what they are called. Most students, who don't know nearly enough, know more about Character Counts! than Winston Brooks.

If he ever gets around to reading them, link, he will find such as;

Ethical people show Responsibility by being accountable, and
responsible leaders, lead by example.

By personal example.

How does the senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts! "model and promote" them?

Forget for the moment, "promoting" the Pillars.
How does one "model" the Pillars?

One models the Pillars by holding them self honestly accountable to them.

Brooks is not modeling accountability to the Pillars.
He will not model accountability.
He will not hold himself accountable, honestly accountable,
to the Pillars of Character Counts! He can't even name them!

If there is any other way at all, that he can satisfy his obligations as a role model of accountability, than to actually model accountability, I cannot imagine it. And he is yet to articulate it.

Honest accountability means due process for every complaint.
If you really want to end misconduct, all you have to do is provide due process for every complaint, including real protection for whistle blowers.

Honest accountability means a process free of the appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety. It means a process beyond the undue influence of even the most powerful respondent. It means a process powerful enough to hold even the most powerful accountable, even against their will.

It is possible. A man earning a quarter of a million dollars a year, ought to be able to figure out a way to protect the people's power and resources from incompetence and corruption.

Even if it is only to provide an independent determination of the facts, a truth telling that becomes the property of the complainant and of the people.

T

he ethics and accountability
scandal in the leadership of the APS
continues to be kept secret from
stakeholders, by people like
Albuquerque Journal Managing
Editor Kent Walz.

photos Mark Bralley

NM FOG VP sends odd message

NM Foundation for Open Government Vice President Marty Esquivel has begrudgingly produced email records in response to discovery requests. I can see why.

In the middle of an email in which the School Board President and Defendant Esquivel was indicating his desire to share and collect information by "direct contact" (as opposed to creating a public record - my words not his), he urges Director of Board Services Brenda Yager to;

Remind all to be careful in email communications because the knucklehead will turn around and make IPRA requests.

That seems like an odd message for FOG leadership to be sending; urging politicians and public servants to conduct public business but to be careful about creating public records of their public service.

Does their record warrant the hiding?

It would appear it does.

photo Mark Bralley

Brooks testifies to APS School Board Open Meetings Act violation

During his sworn testimony today, APS Supt Winston Brooks testified that school board members held a discussion and took a vote in violation of the Open Meetings Act which reads in significant part;

The formation of public policy or the conduct of business by vote shall not be conducted in closed meetings.

When then School Board Member Robert Lucero first suggested that Mark Bralley and I should be ejected and then be expelled from the August 25, 2010 Audit Committee Meeting, Mark created an incontrovertible record in the form of a digital record.

There was no tape of any kind rolling when Lucero suggested it again later, during (or right after (Brooks' was uncertain) the executive session while the board was still meeting in secret from the people.

When they say off the record, they mean off the record.

It is the deliberate policy of the leadership of the APS to not create a record during their meetings in secret, even though only an order from a court could force them to produce any recording they made. It is prophylactic tampering with evidence.

There is no reason to not create an incontrovertible record of their deliberations and decisions on our behalf, except that they could be used as evidence in litigation over public corruption and incompetence.

They intend to not create a record of their upcoming in secret meeting; an executive session for the purpose of discussing current litigation against the district, link.

These particular meetings are important because the entire board is convened to provide the people's oversight over the spending of operational funds on litigation. They are supposed to prevent unnecessary and/or unjustifiable expenditures. An all hands meeting ensures that no one can later on say, "I didn't know what they were doing."

The downside of course, is that we have to "trust" a whole bunch of people we don't really know, in the face of enormous temptation. We give them control over our power and resources and trust them to spend them in our interest in secret from our own oversight.

For whatever reasons school boards meet in whole and in secret to discuss any case analyses, school boards in whole should be discussing all case analyses. The APS School Board has not yet reviewed and approved of the spending of School Board President Marty Esquivel and APS Supt Winston Brooks on their own defenses.

The board has an absolute obligation to oversee for us, the spending of power and resources that belong fundamentally to the people. They are negligent if they do not.

If they discussed and decided on an analysis of my case, at this meeting, it would be in violation of the law.

It is a serious thing to violate the provisions of the Open Meetings Act.

Brooks admitted today, that he witnessed the board discuss and decide to toss Bralley and me out of the Audit Committee meeting. Former Audit Committee Chair David Robbins admitted that they had discussed the decision to expel us.

That discussion and that vote were not on their agenda.

Forget for a moment whether they had any legitimate reason to bounce us. The way they did it, that they did it, violated the law.

If they thought the discussion they had, the decision they made, and the action they took, were in any way justified under the law, why did they hide what they did? Why didn't they describe with "reasonable specificity" the deviation they undertook?

Not telling the truth is a way of lying.

If there is nothing to hide,
why hide the ethically redacted truth?
... except to escape the consequences of having it told?

Just in case anyone might think, maybe they didn't know they were breaking the law;

there to advise them and answering by name in support of the statement regarding closed discussions,

open government expert, School Board President and Defendant Marty Esquivel.

photos Mark Bralley

On "higher standards"

"Higher standards" means higher standards than the law.
Every higher standard, is a higher standard than the law.

That's what higher standard means.

Imagine then, trying to use,
by means of the "justice" system;
the lowest standards of conduct
acceptable to civilized human
beings, to enforce the "highest"
standards of conduct.

Imagine using them against the most powerful politicians and public servants, against their will.

They spend nearly unlimited resources,
against the public interests, and
without oversight.

Welcome to my world.

APS Supt Winston Brooks will be deposed in one hour.

photo Mark Bralley

Parents happy with APS

APS has published survey results, link, to illustrate the bang up job the board and senior administration are doing educating children.

The survey results are skewed by the manner in which APS conducts the survey. Surveys are given, apparently, to every parent and about 40% are returned. Nowhere in the results is the standard qualifier that accompanies most surveys, indicating the reliability of the results.

Take as an example; item 11;

My school has an adequate response to bullying.

I aver, the parents who completed the survey have no idea whether their school has a adequate response to bullying. They have no idea what the bullying situation is at their school because APS hides, or does not compile at all, discipline statistics. They deliberately conflate bullying statistics with vandalism statistics; the resulting number being a reliable measure of neither bullying nor vandalism.

Take as another example, item 1;

My child is safe at school

Because APS hides discipline statistics from interest holders, parents have no idea whether their child is safe at school. Parents have no idea how many fist fights there are at their child's school, no idea how many weapons have been seized, and no idea how many students have been caught with drugs. There is no aspect of school safety upon which anyone can claim to be fully informed, and therefore able to express a learned opinion.

APS spends nearly a million dollars a year creating a false public perception of the district. What amounts to an informal survey of only parents who choose to participate, and then presented without qualification or explanation, does not reliably indicate anything at all.

The only Journal report on the survey I could find, showed up on Journal education reporter Hailey Heinz' blog, link. She pointed to none of the flaws in the process.

Bralley's testimony rock solid

Photo journalist Mark Bralley testified during his deposition Friday.

His testimony was solid.

There are board members, Kathy Korte in particular, who are challenging Bralley's "credentials" as a photo journalist.

Bralley has been a professional photographer since Junior High School. He has been personally vetted more than two dozen times by no less than the Secret Service, and found qualified to be in the presences of some of the most powerful people in the United States, and to take their photographs as many times as he thought necessary.

Bralley announced during his deposition, that he has filed complaints in federal court naming Korte and fourteen other current and former board members and senior APS administrators.

The complaint was filed August 19. It is yet to be reported in the Journal.

When the Journal's investigation of the Bralley complaint is done, and they report to readers, readers can expect the same biased and misleading report the Journal produced when they reported on my complaints, link. APS board members and senior administrators will get to take pot shots at Bralley, without any opportunity for Bralley to respond. He won't receive even a phone call to tell him the story is being published.

And so it goes.

photo Mary Ellen Broderick

Special Board meeting to discuss litigation

The APS School Board will meet in secret Wednesday to discuss pending litigation, link.

They will not discuss, and have not yet discussed, the litigation I have brought against the district.

The board remaining willingly ignorant of the details including the liability that defendants School Board President Marty Esquivel and Supt Winston Brooks have created for the district.

Same old, same old.

APS strokes retirees while cash reserves double; will sextuple.

APS has announced, through the Journal, link, that they have doubled their cash reserves from about $17M to about $36M since 2010.

APS CFO Don Moya is recommending, in the next few years, increasing the cash reserves to 10% of the budget; sextupling the 2010 reserves.

There is an advantage to having large cash reserves; for one thing it improves bond ratings which lowers the interest rate APS pays on money it borrows for capital improvements.

Growing the cash balance while telling retired teachers they are not going to receive a promised retirement benefit because the district "can't afford" to keep its word, is likely to not sit well with the 1800 retired teachers who got shafted in the process, link.

photo Mark Bralley

More on Tellez' testimony

The leadership of the APS holds many meetings of many kinds. Regular, special, and school board committee meetings take place in the castle keep, wikilink.

"Community involvement meetings" take place in various places. There were public meetings in particular, on bullying and goal setting.

It is APS Police Chief Steve Tellez' sworn testimony that at these meetings, I would follow senior members of the leadership of the APS and repeatedly invade their personal space.

I beg to differ.

It is interesting to note that the Chief of Police Steve Tellez, who was following me around and arguably under the circumstances, invading my personal space, never thought in all of these many invasions, to take a picture of the invasion. You know; gather evidence.

At all times when I am on APS property, I am put under immediate surveillance by as many as two or more police officers. In six years, they have not witnessed me doing anything worthy of a photograph, much less criminal charges.

Tellez did not mention what I actually do at meetings.

He did not mention that I sit or stand in the back of the meeting. I don't crowd anybody unnecessarily. If I did, there would be evidence; there would testimony that isn't conflicted.

He failed to mention that often, I asked questions of the senior leadership of the APS. The questions, though imminently legitimate, made them feel uncomfortable. They don't like it when I ask questions; they don't like it a lot.

I once asked Winston Brooks,

Why do we never talk about student discipline?

If I could ask him another question, I would ask him,

Why do we never talk about student discipline?

Brooks thinks, if he can dodge a question a certain number of times, it can't be asked again.

Tellez testified that most of the "in their face" encounters took place "after school board meetings".

The record, if the record has not gone missing, will show; I almost never stayed until the end of any school board meeting. I went for the public forum, watched the audience leave, listened to Matters of Information, and then left.

Tellez did not mention that I had made them genuinely uncomfortable on a number of occasions, simply by asking them to respond legitimate questions about subjects like character education, standards, and accountability.

It is upon Tellez' utterly unjustified recommendation, that an entire administrative complex has been hardened in anticipation of my inevitable armed assault (in support of role modeling of the Pillars of Character Counts!). Yeah, right.

Look at Winston Brooks' face. Tellez is telling him something about the fact that I had entered the keep, and had brought with me; a poster. Glaring at the photographer, APS Coo Brad Winter. Tellez reports directly to him, unless of course Brooks is standing there and wants a piece.

On the subject of posters, it is Tellez' sworn testimony that I/we held up posters in a manner that blocked the view of other members of the audience.

Getting the APS thumb from Steve Tellez

Contemporaneous photographs suggest Tellez' testimony simply isn't true. There are no audience members behind us, no view being blocked.

A compliance inducing pinch is delivered.

If ever a view was being blocked by a poster, Tellez or someone else would have taken a photograph; as evidence.

There are photographs in evidence, of peaceful, silent, and entirely civil protest in the back of the room. A Constitutionally protected activity; the petition of our government, over redress of our grievances.

He has perjured himself. He cannot produce any physical evidence to support his sometimes laughable testimony. He said he watched a videotape of me sneaking in a side door. He can't show us the video or explain why he cannot show us the video. Physical evidence was within his grasp, and now it has gone missing.

Why? How? By whom?

It is Tellez apparently, who is the fountain of the pernicious gossip that is whipping up the hysteria in the leadership of the APS.

Gossip hell, let's call it what it is; slander and libel.

Tellez has testified that the record of weapons charges against students bringing weapons to school is being manipulated by "administrative solutions" depending on whether the arrest is made by and APS cop or a city cop.

The Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV all know about it.

photo Mark Bralley

Steve Tellez; gunfighter

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez walked into his deposition yesterday with a big iron on his hip. The semi-automatic pistol is almost comically large for a man of his stature. He told us later, it was a Kimber 45, link. His gun is far bigger than the weapons he issues to even the most qualified and experienced gunfighters under his command.

Kimber tactical weapons are a favorite of professional gunfighters and wannabe gunfighters alike.

He wears on his belt what appear to be two high capacity magazines. If he carries in them, what is commonly known as police positive ammunition, the gun is easily powerful enough to blow a student's head off.

Since APS is fond of lining children up in rows, an errant round from Tellez' hand cannon could potentially kill or maim a number of students with a single shot.

What is not so obvious is whether Tellez can shoot his big gun safely and effectively. Has he qualified with such a big gun? Can he hit the broad side of a barn?

Steve Tellez, shootist or menace?

I would ask to see the public records of his firearms qualification, but I can't.

A search of APS award winning website for his firearms qualification results produced zero hits.

Belly to belly with Brooks

APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez testified that I have walked upto APS Supt Winston Brooks and gotten in his face. He said I closed to 3-6 inches.

My lawyer and I were standing up facing each other with a Sharpie between our noses. We were illustrating how completely preposterous his testimony was. It made me laugh.

After some time to think about it, and after being reminded that he was testifying under oath, he changed his testimony. I wasn't getting in Brooks' face, I was getting in his belly.

Winston Brooks and I have big bellies according to Tellez, and he was talking about the distance between our bellies.

Let's say three inches for my belly and six for Brooks. That means our noses would have been 12 to 15 inches apart; and Tellez is busy estimating the distance between our belly buttons? Does Brooks have an outie?

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta testified that APS Communications Department Staff were ordered to take photos of me and Mark Bralley. None have been produced as evidence. Not one.

The place has more closed circuit cameras than a casino. 56 certified police officers are supposed to be wearing lapel cams, and using them.

There are no pictures of me getting in Brooks' belly
because it never, ever happened, ever.

photo Mark Bralley

Tellez models Trustworthiness, but not very well

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez swore to tell the truth during his deposition today, and did not.

He made stuff up entirely and misrepresented even more.

It's beginning to sound like a broken record; them claiming I've done all this awful stuff, and then admitting that they have nothing but conflicted testimony to corroborate it. There isn't any videotape, there isn't any audio, and there aren't any photographs of me doing anything, ever, that even remotely justifies a lifetime ban from exercising at board meetings, my several constitutionally protected human rights to participate.

A clear case in point; Tellez testified that he "watched a videotape" of me sneaking into a side door of the castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd. I absolutely deny the allegation. He cannot produce the video tape he swore he watched. He offered no explanation why he did not preserve evidence of what I suppose would have been criminal trespass.

UPDATE: the transcript has been produced; his actual words from page 206 lines 9-14

9 On at least two occasions he had somebody
10 go through one of the side doors, and open the door
11 for him so he could come in through one of the side
12 doors. And one of my officers saw him on the cameras
13 doing that, and so he went to the side door and
14 denied him access to the building in that instance.

Tellez testified, if memory and poor note taking skill serve,
there are 14 pan, swivel and tilt video cameras on the first floor of their castle keep, being watched twenty-four, seven. There are six certified, badge wearing gun toting APS Police officers in City Centre and they routinely pay cops to do nothing but watch me. They have investigated me, they have had surveillance on me. In nearly a ten years, they haven't managed to create and maintain any evidence that justifies banning me from board meetings; no video, no audio, no still camera footage.

I claim existing video, audio and stills show me trying to hold the leadership of the APS accountable for their conduct and competence. I claim the evidence is of their resistance to honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct even for the few hours a day they hold students accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law.

I have they allege, "taken thousands of photographs of APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta." All of their evidence altogether shows I taken only a few; all entirely justifiable.

Tellez alleged that I have on many occasions, taken a fighting stance; fists clenched, about to attack; that I have repeatedly invaded personal spaces; repeatedly leaned over people to intimidate them and, God knows what else; and no real evidence to show. Only conflicted testimony.

Tellez swore; I sobbed, head in hands, in the lobby of his police force, whining about how unfairly the APS Police force was treating me. Bullshit. And again, no video, no audio, no nothing.

Tellez could have, if he had ever wanted to, donned a lapel camera like any decent cop does.. He could have turned it on every time I misbehaved - like any decent cop would. He could have but he didn't; they never do. Why not?

Tellez mad dogged me twice during his deposition.
I called him on it by interrupting inappropriately.
It will cost me points - it is what it is.

Tellez testified he is the Chief of a police "department". If I understand the situation correctly, they really are not a police "department" at all. For as long as they are not, they are prohibited from ever again self-investigating felony criminal misconduct and hiding the findings from the District Attorney and public knowledge.

Tellez testified that a kid who gets caught with a knife at school faces two possible fates. If they get caught by a city cop, the kid goes to jail. If APS police are called, an " administrative solution" will be applied to "technically criminal" offenses. Administrators decide whether to create "records of criminal misconduct" that count against them in their claim to be reducing criminal misconduct in their schools. It's called an appearance of a conflict of interests.

The records of weapons possession by APS students is being
skewed. It all depends on who gets to the offender first;

a city cop or deputy sheriff, or
a member of APS' publicly funded, private police force.

Click to enlarge

Tellez admitted that an emblem adorns his police cars and his left shoulder. The emblem includes the Pillars of Character Counts!.

He never actually said;

I am the senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts! in the entire APS police force.

And he sure as hell never said;

and I am willingly to hold myself honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct as students, staff, administration and school board members; the Pillars of Character Counts!, a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

I was told in teacher training that no student's project is worthless;
it can always serve as a bad example.
I never found that as funny as did the people who said that kind of thing.

We have no use for bad examples in education. Of all of the endeavors of mankind, none needs to be more free of bad examples than education.

If we really want children to grow to embrace character and courage and honor; someone has to show them what it looks like.

Bad examples cannot do that. Nor can a time worn fable
about a little boy, a shiny new ax and a cherry tree.

Character is taught by example.
Character is taught only by example.
Leadership is by personal example.

photos Mark Bralley

Two lawyers watch over Esquivel's interests

I was deposed yesterday. The deposition was interrupted by previous obligation of mine, and so, will be continued. After a nearly full day of deposition, I remain confident that the truth exonerates me.

Three lawyers sit opposite me and my lawyer.

One of them represents the board and the individual defendants, two represent APS School Board President Marty Esquivel.

I have been told that I am not allowed to ask them any questions about

their contracts with the district,
about the oversight over spending of public power and resources, and,
about whether they are both billing taxpayers during depositions.

I believe they are legitimate questions.
I believe I have a right to ask them.

I am informed that I must ask all questions through my lawyer.

Frankly, I'd rather he asking more important questions.

Which is not to say, those legitimate questions
are in any way, unimportant.

Brouhaha over APS retiree life insurance

The Journal reports this morning, link,

About 100 retirees packed the Albuquerque Public Schools board room Tuesday morning, intermittently jeering at board members and at one point breaking into a chorus of the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome."

At one point, she (Kathy Korte) was interrupted by jeers from the crowd.

"... the retirees noisily cleared the room, shouting, “We need a new school board!” as well as clapping and singing.

By any reasonable measure, the attendees as a whole, disrupted the meeting.

The Journal gave no indication that any of the disruptive attendees was arrested by the APS Police force or banned from future participation in school board meetings.

President John Kennedy wrote;

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible,
make violent revolution inevitable."

from which we can extrapolate;
those who make it impossibly difficult to discuss important issues openly, honestly and most importantly, civilly,
make less civil discussion inevitable.

APS Quality of Education Survey Results to be discussed

According to their agenda, link, the APS board intends on Wednesday night, to discuss;

B. Quality of Education Survey Results (Discussion)
Presenter: Rose Ann McKernan, Instruction and Accountability Executive Director, and Tom Genne, Research, Deployment &. Accountability Director

Missing from the agenda, a link to the actual results, should any interest-holder care to participate meaningfully in the discussion thereof.

Update; a link has been added to the agenda; too late to be in accord with the Open Meetings Act, but better late than never.

Are Armenta and Esquivel lying, or just really stupid?

Mahatma Gandhi, wikilink, once observed, in the struggle against power,

first they ignore you
then they laugh at you
then they fight you
then you win.

The Journal was already in the habit of ignoring me when I stood up at public forums and asked the board to explain why students are expected to hold themselves accountable to ethical standards of conduct and they are not.

So I upped the ante, daring them to not print a photograph of a guy standing in the back of a board meeting wearing an elephant mask.

They called my bluff. Not only did they not report on my standing in the back of the room wearing the mask, they didn't even report when APS Praetorian Guard arrested me and ejected me from the meeting for wearing it.

Now comes sworn testimony from Marty Esquivel and Monica Armenta.

Esquivel swore under oath, he didn't recognize the "elephant in the room", he actually thought I was supposed to be "a mouse".

Armenta swore under oath, she also didn't recognize the "elephant in the room", she thought and still does; I was "Chucky Cheese".

Armenta has forgotten apparently that she actually walked up to me to tell me that she had figured out that I was trying to be the "elephant in the room".

Update; I found the actual actual exchange;
"I know its not Halloween", Armena said, so what was I doing?
"Drawing attention to the elephant in the room", I responded.
I represent then, that it was Rigo Chavez who walked up to me and indicated he understood I was the elephant in the room.

I say Esquivel and Armenta are "laughing" at me,
and then lying about it under oath.

Armenta, Esquivel, and mask photos Mark Bralley

APS Director of Risk Management sez; "I'm not going to answer that"

The question I had asked APS Director of Risk Management Mike Wilson was; am I reporting correctly that you are the highest ranking person in the APS who is providing oversight over spending in the defenses School Board President Marty Esquivel and APS Supt Winston Brooks?

Lawyers on both his flanks explained to me the because we are in litigation; questions have to go through the lawyers. I asked if I was being told that there is not a single person in the APS that I can still ask questions of directly, and told that is correct.

Mike Wilson is an APS senior administrator. He is also a senior role model of standards of conduct that require a willingness to "do more than the law requires, and less than the law allows". He is a senior role model because there is no logical argument that excepts him from accountability to the same standards as his boss Winston Brooks.

An effort is being made to cover up the fact that Brooks and Esquivel are spending without oversight; subordinate oversight is oxymoronic.

"I'm not going to answer that." is not an acceptable response to a legitimate question about public servants and their public service.

It may be "legal",
it is not acceptable.

"First, we need to kill all the PIOs"

William Shakespeare; derived

Trip Jennings weighed in, link, on the people's search for the truth about the spending of their power and resources. The search is not going well.

There is a line of people standing between the people and the ethically redacted truth. We pay their salaries and give them control over our power to use in our interests. They should be facing in, not out. They should be our champions, not our adversaries. At the very least they are our mercenaries.

Instead, they stand in a line facing out, against us,
smiling, waving, and ducking our questions.

If it is ever to be government of, by and for the people,
the people will need to know the the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but
the ethically redacted truth.

Standing between us and the truth, the PIOs.

First, we have to make our way past them.

"Domenici's long past program Character Counts!"

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta was testifying under oath this morning about some of the many things that she considers evidence of my mental ill health.

She testified how I just never would stop talking about

United States Senator Pete "Domenici's long past program Character Counts!"

There is a document called the APS Student Behavior Handbook. In so far as the school board approves it ever year, the handbook is an extension of APS School Board Policy.

According to the student handbook and school board policy;

Students are expected to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts! Respect, Responsibility, Caring, Fairness, Citizenship and Trustworthiness.

Click to enlarge

When my lawyer asked her if she realized that APS Police cars wear an emblem including the six Pillars of Character Counts!, she said no, and still didn't get it.

It is clear from her testimony that she doesn't have the slightest idea what Character Counts! is about. None of them do. I would be surprised if any one of them could name the six pillars, much less hold themselves honestly accountable to them.

When the board voted to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct, they did it, if I remember correctly, by unanimous vote. It used to read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

Students are expected to hold themselves honestly accountable to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts! link.

The entire leadership of the APS simply abdicated as senior-most role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students.

They've been covering it up ever since.

The ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS is so well covered up that the Executive Director of Communications can look you right in the eye and having sworn a solemn oath and tell you, their obligations as role models of the Pillars of Character Counts! are "long past".

Journal Editor Kent Walz will tell you some day about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Before he does, make him tell you why he didn't tell you about it when it began, nearly a decade ago.

photos Mark Bralley

Brooks' in secret evaluation cancelled

According to their agenda, link, the APS Board of Education and Supt Winston Brooks had intended to adjourn into a meeting in secret from stakeholders, Friday morning, to discuss; "... the Superintendent’s Progress for the District, and take action".

The meeting has been cancelled, link, without explanation.

Good that it has been cancelled, of course, that it is cancelled without explanation.

The Open Meetings Act requires "reasonable specificity" when describing what it is that they intend to discuss in secret from the people whose power and resources are being discussed.

The Act requires "reasonable specificity" when describing what they actually discussed during the in secret meeting.

"Discussion of the Superintendent's Progress for the District" is not as specific as it might be; it is not as specific as it should be.

Brooks' "progress for the district" is either adequate or inadequate. The people will never know which, because the evaluations are done in secret. A recent audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found;

Administrative evaluations are subjective and unrelated to promotion or step placement.

If Brooks' "progress for district" was adequate;
there would be no reason to hide it.

Brooks drops 20% claim

APS Supt Winston Brooks announced on KKOB, that APS' graduation rate had increased 20% during his tenure as Superintendent. The claim is more than a little disingenuous, link.

I am pleased to report that by the time the Journal and APS, link, got around to publishing APS Ready For School Year, the claim of 20% and the false impression it created had been dropped.

The Journal gives Brooks a guest column, link, every month.
Brooks uses the column to polish the APS apple;
the Journal uses the column to polish Brooks.

I call your attention to the photograph that accompanies Brooks' column.

According to common wisdom; a picture is worth a thousand words. The Journal spent a thousand words painting a false picture of Brooks' vitality. It lacks candor, forthrightness and honesty. It is journalistic malpractice.

I don't care if everybody else is doing it too.

I am pleased to point out that in removing his 20% claim, Brooks modeled for students, the Pillar of Responsibility; specifically not taking full credit, where less credit is due.

Perhaps Brooks is capable of role modeling the Pillars of Character Counts! after all.

photo Mark Bralley

APS Police Chief misses 2nd deposition

For the second time now, six people with better things to do, sat around a table waiting for APS Police Chief Steve Tellez to show up for his deposition. Again, he didn't show up.

Last time it was a "family emergency"; this morning he was simply too ill to tell the truth about his part in the violation of my civil rights and the cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators and the leadership of APS' police department.

I am given to understand that Tellez has a history of not showing up at hearings and depositions.

Hopefully, his disease will not spread to APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta who is on tap for some truth telling of her own on Thursday.

photo Mark Bralley

District 0 for 3 in depositions

APS School Board President and Defendant Marty Esquivel banned me, effectively for life, from participating in APS school board meetings. The basis of the ban, he argued, was my out of control behavior at previous public forums and meetings.

He, by and through his lawyers, has produced a number of video tapes of my petitions and claims they are evidence of my out of control behavior.

Out of control? Out of whose control?

Esquivel will try to convince a federal court jury that I was personally "out of control". He will try to convince them that I was so out of control that there was a real possibility that I would "get a rifle and shoot up the place". The evidence, produced in the form of videotapes of the actual incidents, indicates otherwise.

I was not out of control; I was beyond Marty Esquivel's control. It is not against the law; it is not even unethical. I would be proud if any of the thousands of students to whom I preached Character Counts! witnessed me doing it again. He ordered my to stop doing things that I have every right to do; speaking freely, assembling freely and, petitioning my government for redress of my several grievances; all of which are Constitutionally protected human rights.

In any event, the third of at least six depositions took place today. APS' Director of Communications Rigo Chavez answered questions under oath.

When asked to point to any real evidence that I have threatened any of the leadership of the APS ever, he could not. He did claim that I had invaded Defendant Monica Armenta's "personal space" on at least two occasions. I have no recollection of either, and Chavez did not elaborate on what I did when I was allegedly there. He claimed as well that I have invaded School Board Manager Brenda Yager's personal space on two occasions. Again, I have no recollection of either, and Chavez did not elaborate on what I am supposed to have done once there.

When asked to back up their allegations with proof, they cannot.

Former School Board Member David Robbins could not

Marty Esquivel himself could not, and Rigo Chavez could not.
0 for 3 by my count.

Tuesday APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez will swear to tell the truth. The truth is, he has already been asked for any evidence he has that I have ever threatened any one of them ever. He has said he has none.

Thursday, APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, the fountainhead of the slander and libel against me, will testify that that I have never threatened her or her family. Or she will lie under oath.

On the 27th of this month, APS Supt Winston Brooks will swear to tell the truth. He will testify that he has no real evidence that I ever actually threatened anyone, ever. Or he will lie under oath.

At that point, the leadership of the APS will be 0 for 6 in an effort to conjure up some threat where no threat exists.

If ever I had behaved threateningly, it would be have been with the understanding that I had absolutely nothing to gain, and absolutely everything to lose.

Consider that damage they have done to the messenger's reputation with all their libel and slander, with no evidence at all. The proof is in fact, overwhelmingly against them.

Consider the damage that would be done to my "cause" if I had chosen to actually threaten any one of them. Nothing to gain; everything to lose, why would I even consider it?

This not about my conduct; it is about the content of my speech.

This is about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

photos Mark Bralley

Brooks shading the truth on 20% higher graduation rate

APS Supt Winston Brooks appeared on the Bob Clark Show Friday. KKOB is currently running a snippet as "news".

Brooks claimed the district's graduation rate when he arrived was around 50% and is now around 70%. He, by extension, claims credit for the districts success.

When most people hear, "the graduation rate" has gone up, they assume wrongly that the district is doing a better job of educating the nearly 90,000 of our sons and daughters in APS schools.

In fact, graduation rates are up significantly for two reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of education in the APS. The first, was the decision to calculate the rate on 5 years of high school rather than 4. Whether that is appropriate is a separate issue; it raised the graduation rate without delivering any more education. The second, a decision to take 9th graders who fail the 9th grade, out of the calculus.

Frankly, I can't imagine how you can get away with discounting those students at the highest risk, from the calculation of graduation rates, but they did, and it raised the graduation rate, link.

These and likely other reasons that have nothing to do with doing their job any better, have the effect of raising graduation rates.

I mention all of this because Winston Brooks is the senior-most administrative role model in the APS, of the Pillars of Character Counts!. I mention that because the Pillars are the standards Brooks enforces upon students.

According to the Pillar of Trustworthiness, Brooks was required to be more candid, more forthright, and more honest with stakeholders. His Responsibility was to make certain that stakeholders understood the truth in exactly the way he understands the truth.

Another case in point; Brooks' failure to produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

The castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd - at what cost?

Another case in point, Brooks failure to describe candidly, forthrightly and honestly, what became of the several investigations of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS and their publicly funded private police force.

I can understand why men like Brooks don't want to be held honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics. It requires inordinate character and courage. It requires truth telling.

What I can't understand is, how he can simply abdicate his duties and obligations as a role model and nobody seems to care.

If the Pillars of Character Counts! are too high a standard for men like Brooks and School Board President, and senior-most role model in the entire APS Marty Esquivel, then the standards are too high for students.

Do as I say, not as I do
never worked and never will.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like.

photos Mark Bralley

APS Board adopts Character Counts! by unanimous resolution!

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education passed a resolution adopting Character Counts! for the APS.

The Resolution reads;

Resolution

To endorse and Implement Character Counts! Program in the Albuquerque Public Schools

Whereas, Albuquerque Public Schools reaffirms the need to join with other community groups to actively engage in the development and demonstration of ethical behavior among youth, adults, and

Whereas, the mission of Albuquerque Public Schools is to provide learners of all ages the skills and knowledge needed to become successful and productive members of a dynamic society, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes that students in our schools are more likely now than in the past to experience family disintegration, homicide, drug use, teen age pregnancy, dishonesty, suicide, and strong messages from media and society that undermine home teaching of ethical values, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes that no single community institution can instill ethical behavior in youth and adults if it is acting without the support of other institutions and groups, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes the important role played by teachers and other adults in school settings in modeling good character for young people

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED;

1. That the Albuquerque Public Schools endorses the Aspen Declaration on Character Education as well as the Character Counts! Program as ways to develop character based on six core ethical values; trustworthiness, respect, responsibility , fairness, caring and citizenship;

2. That the Albuquerque Public Schools will enter into community-wide discussions with other institutions and groups to reach agreements about the role of each in promoting ethical behavior among young people, and adults in various aspects of life;

3. That the Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to creating models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools;

4. That the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing art of school instruction;

5. That materials, teaching methods, partnerships, and services to support school programs shall be selected, in part, for their capacity to support the development of character among youth and adults;

6. That all schools examine school curriculum and practices to identify and extend opportunities for developing character, especially through the utilization of violence-prevention programs, mediation training, community service programs. fair rules which are fairy enforced, democratic practices in classrooms and organizations, and extracurricular activities which help students learn and model caring and ethical behavior.

DATED this 2nd day of March, 1994

Because the Resolution does not include a sunset clause, and because it has never been rescinded or repealed, it is as binding today as it was the night it was passed almost 20 years ago.

In the intervening decades, the administration of the APS has failed to carry out resolution in a number of respects;

They have failed to enter into community-wide discussions with other institutions and groups to reach agreements about the role of each in promoting ethical behavior among young people, and adults in various aspects of life, and,
They have failed to create models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools, and,
They have failed to give explicit attention to character development in the core curriculum and, as an ongoing part of school instruction, and,
They have failed to select materials, teaching methods, partnerships, and services to support school programs, in part, for their capacity to support the development of character among youth and adults, and
They have failed to examine school curriculum and practices to identify and extend opportunities for developing character.

In the interim, they did take the time to abdicate their duties, obligations, and responsibilities as role models of student standards of conduct by repealing the role modeling clause in their own standards of conduct. It used to read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

It no longer does.

The board needs to live up to their resolution or repeal it.
They intend to do either.

The one would require more character and courage
than they can summon, and well, the other would too.

They will follow a third path; pretend there is no problem.

They are joined in that endeavor by Kent Walz' Journal, and by the news directors at KRQE, KOAT, KOB, and KKOB radio.

Submitted; Letters to the Editors, Albuquerque Journal, upon posting.

APS leadership inconspicuous on leadership

If you ask the senior most executive role model of APS' student standards of conduct, School Board President Marty Esquivel if he is a role model for students and staff, he will tell you no. He is not, he once said to me, because he is not an educator.

APS Supt Winston Brooks will not tell you why he is not a role model of honest accountability to the same standards of conduct he enforces upon students. He will stonewall the question.

The scandal hinges on the meaning of the word "accountable". To people like Esquivel and Brooks, that means you stand up some where, some time and tell people you are "accountable" to the "highest standards" of conduct and competence.

Those who go looking for the place where a complaint can be filed against them over failure to meet actual standards, and where that complaint will see due process; find a system crippled by the appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety.

"Honestly accountable" means accountable under a system over which you have no undue influence, and powerful enough to hold you accountable, even against your will. Accountability in the APS, their whistle blower program; Ethical Advocate for one, means subordinates and colleagues hold superior administrators and board members accountable for their conduct and competence.

Take for example the money that Brooks and Esquivel are spending on their legal defense against complaints over manifest civil rights violations.

They report on their spending to the Director of Risk Management and a Claim Analyst. Subordinates are signing off on the amount of money they're spending and on what. They are signing off on litigation against the public interests and on behalf of the personal interests of the defendants.

Subordinate oversight is oxymoronic.

So far, they have managed to avoid the standard "case analysis" presentation to the rest of the board. The rest of the board still enjoys plausible deniability with respect to knowing how operational dollars are being squandered. It is their responsibility to the people to insist upon a presentation of case analyses.

Take as another example, their refusal to model honest accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics, and more importantly, APS' student standards of conduct.

This is neither the time or place to argue about the suitability of the Pillars as standards for students and their adult role models. The time and place was a school board meeting nearly twenty years ago when the board unanimously adopted the Pillars as the student standards. They still, as a matter of school board policy, require students to "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!"

Upon the declaration of that expectation, they don the mantelets of role models of honest accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts! It doesn't make one whit of difference if they agree or not; they are the senior most role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students.

The board sees their choices as two;

establish accountability to standards of conduct to which they have no interest in being held actually, honestly accountable; even for those hours a day they hold students accountable, or
ignore the issue.

And by ignore, I mean spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and a great deal of influence on keeping the establishment media from reporting the truth about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS. Their choice; self evident.

The board has two honorable choices; the one considerably more honorable than the other;

hold themselves honestly accountable to student standards of conduct; "more than the law requires and less than the law allows", or
lower student standards to standards low enough that the "leadership" are finally comfortable being held accountable to them. Their current standards; if it's legal its alright; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings.

Your choices number two;

do something or
don't

Most people, when they say somebody should do something, they mean somebody-else should do something. Waiting for the perfect circumstances to stand up and fight, guarantees only that you will never stand up and fight.

Remember the words of Edmund Burke;

All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world,
is for good men to do nothing.

I'm not saying Brooks and Esquivel are evil (or not), but the leadership of the APS who will not hold themselves honestly accountable as role models of APS student standard of conduct are kind of people Burke was writing about, and you are the people he was writing to.

Required reading for this exercise; the Aspen Declaration, link, the basis for the Board's adoption of Character Counts!, and the resolution, link, they passed unanimously adopting the Pillars of Character Counts! as APS' student standards of conduct.