Defendent Esquivel, senior-most role model in the APS?

Everyone is a role model; 

a person whose behavior, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by young people.

The Josephson Institute offers access, link, to their library of aphorisms related to character education, including a section on role models.

A handful of them on point and on,

the need for role models;

• Example has more followers than reason. Bovee 


• Example is not the main thing in influencing others.  It is the only thing. Schweitzer


• You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.  Goldsmith


• Don't worry that children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you. Fulghum


• The question for the child is not Do I want to be good? but Whom do I want to be like? Bettelheim

the timing;

• The right time, to do the right thing, is always right now. unk


• The proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he’s born. — William R. Inge,

the importance;

• If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits.  Bennett


• The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult ethical controversies of the day.  Bennett

the qualifications of role models;

• If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.  Jung


• You must be the change you want to see in the world. Gandhi

Whatever else they thought they were doing when the APS School Board elected Marty Esquivel to be their President, they elected him to the position of senior-most role model of the standards of conduct that the school board establishes and then has the administration enforce upon students.

Enforcer/new President Marty Esquivel

Esquivel, by any reasonable moral and ethical argument, is a role model for students.  He has inescapable obligations as the senior-most role model of personal accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!, a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, link.

Anyone who would like to weigh in on the propriety of the Pillars as the standards for students missed the boat - it sailed nearly twenty years ago when the School Board voted unanimously to adopt the Pillars as the APS student standards of conduct.

Their resolution, as old as it is, is still binding.  They have to honor the promise they made, or formally rescind it. As much as they would like to pretend it has, it doesn't just fade away.

If one could get Esquivel to speak candidly, forthrightly and honestly about his impression of his obligation as a board member and role model, he will deny that he is a role model for students.  He once told me, he's a school board member, "not an educator".

There are two reasons that someone like Esquivel does not step up to accountability to ethical standards of conduct; corruption and cowardice.

If one makes a conscious decision to reject certain standards of conduct, one is corrupt with respect to those standards.  Commonly, people who reject the law as their standard of conduct are considered corrupt.  Those who reject ethical standards of conduct are ethically corrupt.

If one acknowledges that certain standards of conduct apply to them; such as the School Board adopting the Pillars of Character Counts!, and then cannot summon the courage to hold them self accountable to them, one is a coward.

It is the whole point in telling the fable about George Washington owning up to chopping down the cherry tree.  We have to rely on the telling of the tale because we don't have enough living role models to point to.

Reciting fables isn't enough.  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.  Character is taught by personal example; not by storytelling.

There is no other explanation for the failure of the leadership of the APS to step up as role models of accountability to  the Pillars of Character Counts! except cowardice and corruption.

Proof of these allegations lies in front of your eyes and in the absence of any evidence at all, to the contrary.

APS Board VP Korte

If either Esquivel or the new Board Vice President Kathy Korte. can be held honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law, the lowest standard of conduct, they would be able to point to place where that accountability can be found.

They can't.

There is no place where an allegation of their failure to live up to standards, will see due process.  There is no venue in the APS, beyond their undue influence, impartial, principled, and powerful enough to hold them accountable even against their will.  It doesn't exist.

Maybe the legislature could hold us accountable to our own code of ethics! former School Board Member Robert Lucero once offered.

So far they haven't.  Not that any APS lobbyists have actually asked them to.

All of this will go unnoticed by the community that entrusts nearly 90,000 of their sons and daughters to the care and guidance of the APS.  It will go unnoticed because the establishment media is the establishment's media, and the establishment does not want to talk about duel standards of conduct in the APS; one for students and a far lower one for them.

Duel standards were made "legal" when the board removed from their own code of conduct, the words;

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

Without so much as a by your leave, the leadership of the APS abdicated from their obligations and responsibilities as role models.

Journal Editor Kent Walz

An abomination that to this day, has gone unreported by Esquivel's crony Kent Walz and the Journal.




photos Mark Bralley
Walz - ched macquigg

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The problem; whiny parents, jerky kids, and the media.

APS School Board Members Kathy Korte is a role model.
Sometimes, a not so good one. 

Fortunately for APS students, they probably won't read
read about her in the Journal today, link.

Korte; role modeling the Pillar of Respect for the photojournalist she battered

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

Korte, instead, shows them what it looks like to be disrespectful; of the kid, the parents, of the standards of conduct she is supposed to be role modeling for administrators, of staff, of students and of the community.

APS School Board Policy requires, like it or not, that students model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!, link.   The Pillars of Character Counts, like them or not, are the students standards of conduct.  Adults, read administrators and board members, are accountable to the law; the lowest standards of conduct that civilized people will abide.

The Pillars of Character Counts! represent a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

As role models, adults have no choice but to show children what it looks like to hold yourself honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law.  It is one thing to tell children a popular fable about George Washington and the cherry tree; its quite another thing to actually provide accountability by means of a system that guarantees due process.

Kathy Korte has neither the character nor the courage to hold herself honestly accountable as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!  Or she would.


When the board removed the role modeling clause from their own code of conduct, they provided "legal" cover for their abdication as role models.  The clause read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for adults, be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

In no case shall a student be told to treat people with respect, by an adult who will not show them what that looks like.

As a Character Counts! trainer, I was party to handing out t-shirts to students who had attended  CC! training.  On its front and back it read;

Stand up for what
you believe in ...

... even if you're 
standing alone.

The point; a child standing up for what they believe in, should actually be standing alone.  There should be an adult behind them offering encouragement, an adult beside them sharing the load, and an adult in front of them, showing them what it looks like; leading by their own personal example.

Korte said,

“I’m going to call people out  when
I think I need to call them out,”

Interestingly, a citizen who feels the same way and does so at the podium of a public forum, is subject to arrest for being "disrespectful" of board members or senior administrators.

Korte insisted that she knew who the kid was, a "royal pain in the rear".  She did not say that she actually knew the kid.  It doesn't sound like she's ever even laid eyes on him; no personal experience upon which to base her evaluation.  She does the same with adults.

Korte offers;

Parents who complain to the media are never members
of the PTA who have gotten involved or used the proper channels.

Korte fails to grasp that the Constitution that protects citizens' rights to petition their government for redress of their grievances, even if they haven't "served on the PTA, gotten involved, or used the proper channels".

If people don't use proper channels, it is because "proper channels" don't exist.  There is no place in the entire APS, where a citizen can file a complaint against an administrator or board member and where that complaint will see due process; impartial, competent investigation and adjudication.

Korte takes umbrage at suggestions that her recent trip to Indianapolis was a waste of money.  She says the experience offered valuable training and perspectives.  She did not offer a single example of either.  They never do.

How can they say; hey I learned that ...,
without someone asking, why, as a board member
or senior administrator, did you not already know that ...?

Korte's email was sent to an extensive list of constituents and community members.  It should be posted on their award winning website; for stakeholders who aren't on her list.

Korte said she isn’t concerned about political fallout.  Anyone who might be concerned about the example she is setting probably wouldn’t vote for her anyway.

One would hope.

I agree with her on one point; the media is the problem;
the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB.




photo Korte's facebook

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Korte suggests Bralley is a threat to her children

 APS Board Member Kathy Korte said in the Journal;

“If I’m feeling threatened again, if I’m with my kids or at a school event, I need this documentation to show there is a pattern of behavior here,” she said.

The fact is, Bralley would throw himself between a threat and her kids, between a real threat and her, if the truth be known.

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta is spreading lies as well; telling people I threatened her family.


APS School Board President Paula Maes is telling people I'm a threat to all children.

Korte is worried about developing patterns of behavior.

As should all APS stakeholders.

Korte, Armenta, and Maes suggestions are reprehensible.

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Journal covers Korte blow up

In the Journal this morning, link, a report on the assault and battery committed by APS School Board Member Kathy Korte on blogger and photojournalist Mark Bralley.

Korte of course denies her misconduct claiming Bralley was pushing his camera in her face.  Security tapes from inside the boardroom would show her closing the distance between them, not Bralley.

Think about it, the "altercation" took place in the front of one of the most secure rooms on the face of the planet; armed guards, security cameras, and witnesses abound.  With all their power and resources, they cannot produce any proof that Bralley ever did anything wrong.

Everything Bralley has done has been recorded.
Everything I've done has been recorded.  Or deliberately not recorded.

We would be happy to have anyone see and hear those records.  We're not the ones hiding the records.  We're not the ones hiding for example; public records of findings of investigations of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators.

Bralley was a cop for 25 years and a journalist for as long.  He knows better than to meet someone in a hallway somewhere; there's a reason they were in public and in full view when Korte blew her cork.

If either of us have broken the law, we would be in jail or on bail, charges would have been filed, reports would have been written.

If Heinz did, as I have done, she would have asked Supt Winston Brooks and the Board to produce the public record of disruptions of school board meetings.  If she had, she would have received conclusive evidence that nothing I or we did, disrupted a meeting ever.

If I ask at a public forum, why board members and superintendents are not honestly accountable as role models of the standards they establish and enforce upon students, the question does not disrupt the meeting.

The employment of a publicly funded private police force to carry off the questioner, does.  We don't disrupt meetings, they do.


The records do not show disruptive behavior.  They show me asking questions the leadership of the APS would rather not answer, and in particular would rather not answer in public and on the record.  The show me pointing their incompetence, they show me pointing to their corruption.

I stand on the record.  I would have anyone examine it.

It's a shame Heinz and the Journal won't actually look at it.
They are comfortable instead, simply repeating unjustified allegations.

Heinz failed to report as well, the banning letter is totally unlawful.  Board members have no authority to write "banning letters" and have no authority to order APS police officers to arrest any one who persists in asking questions though the board prohibits asking them questions.

Kathy Korte doesn't want to explain why she and other board members;

1. have abdicated from their obligations as role models of the standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students, and why they
2. are denying due process to hundreds of whistleblower complaints, and why they are
3. hiding public records of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators.

Heinz writes;

APS has a standing ban against MacQuigg, who has been an outspoken critic of the district for years and has unsuccessfully run for the school board several times. 

She should have written, APS has a standing ban against MacQuigg because he has been an outspoken critic of the district for years.

Though I was never elected, I wouldn't say I was unsuccessful.
I brought issues to the table that nobody else wanted to talk about.

I have to say I'm not pleased with the overall impression, Journal Reporter Hailey Heinz creates. 

She writes;

MacQuigg was banned from board meetings in September 2010 after he repeatedly disrupted them and made APS staff feel unsafe, according to the letter the district sent to him.

"... according to the letter sent to him." doesn't quite get to gist of it. She wrote in effect; I disrupted meetings.

I'll bet she hasn't looked at a single videotape, or listened to a single audio tape of me "disrupting" a meeting.   APS has them, why hasn't she asked to see them; why aren't they falling all over themselves to offer them to her?

Heinz failed to point out that the banning letter, whether justified or not, is utterly unlawful.  Heinz knows that board policy specifically prohibits board members from individual action.  Marty Esquivel had no authority to write it.  The board never authorized it.

She never asked, if Marty Esquivel had just cause for a restraining order; why didn't he go to a judge for a signature?  Why is the only other signature on the letter, the Chief of his publicly funded, private police force; accountable to no one except the administration and school board; a Praetorian Guard if ever there was.

MacQuigg recently attended two community forums about bullying without incident, but those forums were held in school buildings, not at APS headquarters. 

Not true.  The meetings were not without incident; I made allegations that made them feel so uncomfortable that Brooks didn't even show up for the second meeting.  I pointed out, for instance, they weren't spending a dime district wide developing the character of children; before they become bullies.

Heinz acknowledges  

"... a community group that has been advocating for APS to establish a citizens advisory council to foster public involvement.

She does not acknowledge that they are called the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication, nor that we seek to foster public involvement by creating venues for open and honest two-way between politicians and public servants, and the community members they serve: a venue where someone like me can ask legitimate questions without being labeled disruptive and then be arrested.

''Korte told the officer that to the best of her knowledge, MacQuigg was not allowed into any meetings at City Centre.

Has Korte not even read the banning letter?  If it is as lawful as they would have us believe, she must have voted to authorize it.  Without reading it?

Does she not know anyway, she has no authority to order police to remove people for their completely legal exercise of Constitutionally protected human rights?  The police freely admit, they take orders from board members; if a board member wants to throw someone out for any reason, even if they have broken no law, the police will obey, using force if they must.

Bralley reports that Korte closed five feet of distance between them to grab his camera.  Korte defends sayss ".. all she had to do to grab the lens was hold up her hand". Like that would make it somehow alright to go ahead and grab the camera; criminal assault and criminal battery.


If not as a veteran police officer, then as a photographer, Bralley is acutely aware of all of the reasons he has no reason to stick a camera in someone's face.

Where is Korte's evidence and proof?  Why in the super secure John Milne boardroom, can no recorded evidence be found to support her allegations?

(Korte) also said she felt threatened by how close Bralley was to her.

Truth be told, Korte feels threatened by the truth being told.

Anyone can claim they feel threatened, and for any reason, justifiable or not.

Other APS staff intervened, ...

Truth be told, "other APS staff intervened" because they chose to, and in violation of Bralley's Constitutionally protected human rights to be where was, doing what he was doing.  The only person with any authority to arrest Bralley would be a police officer, which Bralley himself had requested.

... Bralley eventually left, although not before asking to talk to the most senior APS police officer on staff and questioning whether police had legal cause or authority to make him leave. 

Truth be told. the most senior APS police officer (on duty) freely admitted that he had no legal cause at all, and it made no difference.  He would remove photographers simply because a board member asked him to.  Knowing all the while board members have no authority to order police officers to do anything ever.

The APS Police may have authority, badges, guns, handcuffs;
they haven't legal cause.

A fact that doesn't give them a moments pause.

If ever there was a tip of the iceberg, this is it.

Game on.




photo Mark Bralley

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Walz gives Korte 46 inches, and a headline

In the Journal this morning, link, an op-ed by the Journal's darling on the APS School Board, Kathy Korte.

Korte would like to blame APS' failure to educate half its students on bad teachers.

For the sake of argument, let's say the failure really can be blamed on a relative few bad teachers and no way to hold them accountable.

Korte and Walz would have readers believe that the current version of the Negotiated Agreement between teachers and the APS, makes it hard to fire bad teachers.

I've been hearing that for a third of a century.  The contract does not protect bad teachers,except from corrupt administrators who might want to fire them out of spite instead of for cause.   A recent audit found a "culture of fear of retribution and retaliation" against whistle-blowers and complainants.

Were it not for the contract, some bad teachers might have been fired sooner, but a lot of good teachers would have fallen victim to retaliation and retribution by administrators.

Walz could investigate and report upon that culture of fear of retaliation; does it still exist?  But he won't.

Just like he won't investigate and report upon the cover up of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators.

Or upon the lack of due process for complaints filed against administrators and board members.

Walz could report that the leadership of the APS has rewritten school board policy to eliminate any accountability as role models of the student standards of conduct.  He could tell stakeholders that the entire leadership of the APS has abdicated as role models of standards of conduct that require actual and honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.  But he won't.

Walz could report that Korte and her kronies are going to vote tonight, to rewrite school board policy in order to eliminate citizen advisory councils, in particular the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication.

But he won't.

Korte is a hypocrite.  It's time for her to put up or shut up.

Accountability starts at the top of an oligarchy, not at the bottom.  Unless of course the top of the oligarchy is trying shift the blame, in which case, the accountability begins at the bottom.

Either she points to the place where a complaint filed against her will see due process, or she stops whining about subordinates' lack of accountability.

Good leaders accept personal accountability,
great leaders demand it.  Character is taught by example.
Character is taught only by personal example.

If we expect students to hold themselves honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, if we want them to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, somebody has to show them what it looks like.

Somebody like School Board President Paula Maes, who said she would "never agree to any audit that individually identifies" corrupt or incompetent administrators.

Somebody like School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel, who, along with their corrupt Chief of Police Steve Tellez, is enforcing an utterly unlawful restraining order to keep me from pointing to his corruption during public forums.



Somebody like Supt Winston Brooks, who along with his corrupt Chief of Police Steve Tellez, is hiding public records of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators.







Somebody like School Board Member Lorenzo Garcia who admitted to the need to have hard conversations, and then voted last night to do away with citizen advisory councils where those conversations might take place.







Somebody like School Board Secretary Kathy Korte.




photos Mark Bralley

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