Tag Archives: Cherry Creek School District

Cherry Creek Parents- It is time to make a stand

It seems logical that if Scott Siegfried assumes his new role as Superintendent of the Cherry Creek School District, business as usual, as it was under the appalling leadership of Harry Bull, will continue.

Our children will continue to be at risk.

Secrecy, a lack of transparency, and a lack of accountability will continue to be the norm.

Is this really what we want?

If it is, then be preapred.

If this is not what we want, there is something you can do. Go to Say No To Scott Siegfried and sign the petition to have Siegfried removed as Superintendent.

Why Is No One Interested in the Whereabouts of John Kennedy?

Last August, the Cherry Creek School District was rocked by allegations that 2 District employees had been arrested and charged with the sexual assault of a minor. Following this, three Middle School Administrators were indicted for failing to report the abuse.

In one of the cases, the perpetrator, a man by the name of Brodderick Lundie, managed to have his name withheld from the District community for 4 months, presumably because of Superintendent Bull’s personal relationship with Lundie’s father.

Bad as that was, the 2nd episode of assault involved a Middle School teacher at Prairie Middle School who was charge with 31 counts of assault on a minor!

Following that, three Prairie School Administrators were indicted with failing to report the abuse of a minor.

Whether he will admit it or not, Harry Bull’s “retirement” announcement seems a direct result of these incidents and his failure to protect the children of this district. He will be gone and good riddance to him.

However, there is another high-level District administrator that has disappeared very quietly, like a puff of smoke in a breeze; John Kennedy.

Where is John Kennedy? There was no announcement regarding his separation from his job as the Executive Director of Middle Schools (remember, Prairie is a Middle school). There was no announcement of his retirement. There was no announcement of any reassignment. There was nothing but a unremarked and little noticed change of leadership in the Middle Schools from John Kennedy to Tracy Grant.

More curious yet is the glaring lack of interest anyone has in finding out what happened to Kennedy.

When you call the District to find out what has happened to Kennedy, you are told, variously, that he is “on leave”, that he “is on administrative leave”, that they don’t know where he is.

Communications to the district Communications Director, Abbe Smith, finally confirm that he is on leave due to “a personnel matter”.

Pressed, by a request under the Colorado Open Records Act, to clarify the nature and circumstances surrounding this “Administrative Leave”, Ms. Smith responds with spurious assertions of “attorney-client privilege”. Since John Kennedy is not represented, legally, by the district, there is no privilege to be claimed.

Further communications to Abbe Smith elicit the response that she misspoke and that John Kennedy is now being represented by his own attorney. Why? What does Mr. Kennedy need an attorney for?

A clue might be in a memo received by the District in response to a CORA request. This memo, dated last August, discusses the need for a replacement for John Kennedy at a regular meeting. The implication is, of course, that John Kennedy has been gone from the District since last August.

Let’s see? What happened last August that might have resulted in the placing of John Kennedy on Administrative leave?

Well, could it be the assault committed by the degenerate Brian Vasquez on the children of Prairie Middle School?

Could it be that these assaults triggered a series of events culminating in the indictments of Prairie Middle School administrators Dave Gonzales, Adrienne McIntosh, and Cheryl Somers?

It’s speculation, of course, as Kennedy’s removal might have nothing to with the sexual assaults on our children, or the failure to protect them, or the cover-up of the initial incident 5 years earlier.

This information has been supplied to metro news agencies. No apparent interest.

The District is stonewalling any further requests for the specifics around why John Kennedy is on Administrative Leave. They are required to provide this information but are blocking, delaying, and, frankly, bull-shitting around having to provide the basic information as to why John Kennedy is on Administrative Leave.

Why are local news organizations not pursuing this? Why is a shroud of secrecy being allowed to descend over this issue.

Harry Bull’s convenient announcement of his retirement, just hours before the Prairie Middle School indictments were announced, screams “cut and run”.

John Kennedy’s magical disappearance is worse. It is as if the man is a ghost; never worked for the District, don’t know who he is, or where he has gone.

Time to get the full story on why John Kennedy and the Cherry Creek School District have parted company. There has been enough secrecy in this District and, with Harry Bull gone, it is time to lift the shades and shine a light on what is happening. The community has a right to know.

 

Where Is John Kennedy?

In the wake of the Cherry Creek Sex Assault scandals, there have been some interesting developments.

In the hours before the indictments handed out to Prairie Middle School administrators David Gonzales (Principal of Prairie Middle School), Adrienne McIntosh (Vice Principal), and Chery Somers (Counsellor) for failing to report child abuse, the Cherry Creek Superintendent, Harry Bull, issued a letter to the district, announcing his retirement.

Obviously, any thinking person would be extremely skeptical regarding the timing of Mr. Bull’s announcement, as well they should be. What connection can Mr. Bull have to these events that might have pushed him into retirement? I mean, you just have to wonder, don’t you?

All I can say about this is, good riddance. The man is a disgrace. He has placed his own personal ambitions and agenda over the well-being of children.

Quietly, however, another senior administrator has slipped from the scene.

What has become of Executive Director of Middle School Education, John Kennedy?

John Kennedy (should I call him “Doctor” Kennedy?) was the point person when parents complained about explicit and violent pornography being made available in the Middle School (and other levels) EBSCO data bases.

John Kennedy (really, should I call him “Doctor” Kennedy?) not liking what he heard, threatened the parents and told them not to talk about the issue, or “something will happen that neither you, or I will like”.

John Kennedy is no longer in his position of Executive Director and, depending on who you ask, he has either been “terminated”, “let go”, “is on administrative leave”, or simply, “we don’t know where he is”.

John Kennedy was the point man during a substantial period of time when Brian Vasquez was assaulting the children in Prairie Middle School and during the ongoing cover-up of the initial assault on the 14 year old female student at Prairie Middle School 5 years ago, when the girl was forced to recant her accusation against her molester, Brian Vasquez.

John Kennedy is now gone and we do not lament his disappearance. We are, however, very interested in the circumstances of his disappearance. Why is John Kennedy gone? Where has John Kennedy gone? What are the circumstances around his going?

We have sent CORA requests to Abbe Smith, the Communications Director for the District and have been stonewalled. Why would this be?

Our Schools and EBSCO: The Sexual Grooming of Our Children

Recently, our Cherry Creek School District has been rocked by the sexual assaults by teachers on children and the cover-up of these assaults.

Just a few days ago, the Killip Elementary School in Flagstaff Arizona has experienced the same community trauma; A teacher accused of molesting 2 elementary school children.

Now, there are similarities between these 2 cases and the 2 school districts:

  1. The obvious, they both have experienced the sexual assault of a teacher on a child.
  2. Both provide teachers and children access to the EBSCO databases rife with pornography.
  3. The schools helpfully provide children with the warning and disclaimer that they are leaving the schools web site and. therefore, the school bears no responsibility for anything that might happen.

If you are new to this issue, just do a search on “EBSCO porn” and you will see that the EBSCO research databases provided to children in our schools is full of pornography and ads for sex toys.

It certainly seems that the Killip Elementary School and the Flagstaff School District are aware of this, otherwise why is there a need for the disclaimer?

Disclaimer: Some of the links on this site will require that you leave our FUSD School website and the FUSD server. The Flagstaff Unified School District has no responsibility for the content beyond this point. The Internet is a dynamic volatile place where pages can change suddenly and rapidly. It is not unusual to find information or images that are objectionable. Proceed at your own risk, it is always best to review sites with your child.

First, the concept of a minor child waving any of their rights, or understanding the implications of this “disclaimer” is laughable. Clearly, the district hopes that this will protect them if things go wrong but this hope is delusional.

Obviously, since these links are provided by the school, and no doubt promoted by the school as a place to get homework or other help, children will access these resources from their homes, by-passing any school filters.

Second, EBSCO (and other database resources provided to schools) is a proprietary database, and cannot be filtered by the school’s or library’s filters; it is just not possible.

Third, these databases are not “the internet”. They are closed, subscription only resources which are separate from “the internet” and only EBSCO can filter them.

Finally, while many pages will change, some will come and others go, the existence of pornography within these EBSCO resources has always existed. The point is, it is not any one page, either its existence, or non-existence, that is the issue; it is that pornography is fully and readily available to children within these EBSCO databases.

To illustrate, here is a sampling of the material available in the NoveListPlus product, supplied by EBSCO. Remember, this is being made available to Elementary School children!

  • From the Streets to the Sheets: Urban Erotic Quickies

  • Nasty Boys: Rough Trade Erotica

  • The Bad Seed

  • Unzipped

  • The Love Slave

Why in God’s name would anyone ever think this was appropriate material for an elementary school aged child; or any minor child, for that matter?

Whether intended or not, the availability of pornography to children has the effect of desensitizing children, as well as adults, to themes and images of sexual assault, violent assault, sad-masochism, bondage, sexual humiliation and other deviant forms of sexual relations. There is no credible pediatric therapist, psychiatrist, or physician that would think this is OK. Apparently, the Flagstaff Unified School District and Michele Reagan (Secretary of State and responsible for the AZ State Library) think it is just fine.

Does Michele Reagan really want her name and face, or the Arizona State Library, associated to purveyors of pornography?

Is it any surprise, then, having created a sexualized and distorted atmosphere around the adult/child relationship, that adults act on impulses that, for most people, would be abhorrent? The schools, with their partners at EBSCO, have created this environment and are responsible for the results we are all seeing with increasing frequency.

It is time for the schools and the state to take a stand and protect our children from the assaults of EBSCO and the vendors of the pornography and sex toys that fill its databases.

For more information, visit:

National Council on Sexual Exploitation

Mass Resistance

The Legacy Of Harry Bull and the Cherry Creek School Board- A Cancer in the District

For months, people have been trying to get the attention of the CCSD School Board and that of Harry Bull regarding their lack of concern regarding the availability of pornography in the school EBSCO and other database resources.

Repeated and continuous attempts have been made to sound the alarm that there is something wrong with adults that do not see a problem with presenting graphic and dehumanizing images, sex toy advertisements, and videos to our school children. With good intent, our failure has been that we have focused on a symptom of the problem and missed the problem itself. It is clear from the recent arrests, of the perpetrators and of their administrative enablers, that the true nature and extent of the problem is beginning to emerge.

All of the so called “Doctors” in the district, who we have given the privilege of educating our children, have failed them. They have created, through some twisted ideology, a system that sexualizes our children and grooms them for the advances and predations of their peers. They have fostered a disease that has spread throughout our community like a cancer and they all bear responsibility for what has occurred.

In many, many school board meetings they were warned that their failure to protect our children would have consequences. Reference was made to the news stories out of the Los Angeles School District and its club of pedophiles. They were told that the rising incidence of sexual assaults against children was a natural consequence of sexualizing these children and of objectifying them in the perverted minds of some twisted adults. They were warned and now, here we are.

The recent arrests of district employees are no doubt the tip of the iceberg and they beg the question, what kind club are they running in this district? Why do teachers and even school board members, such as Dave Willman, have private Instagram and Twitter accounts that they share with children? Why is one Overland School Club being followed by a porn site? These things are completely unacceptable and the district’s failure to see and address these issues indicates something fundamentally corrupt.

No teacher, no district employee, no school board member should EVER have a private account of any kind that they share with children. No school or district club should ever allow a porn site to follow them or be following a porn site. What are you people thinking? Again, what kind of club are you running here?

I am convinced that in the weeks to come, there will be further allegations, perhaps additional charges. There are others that knew what was going on in this district.

In the off-chance that all of you “Doctors” in the district missed it, it is no coincidence that Harry Bull announced his retirement mere hours before the scandal at Prairie Middle School broke in the news. Do you really believe that Principal David Gonzalez, Assistant Principal Adrienne MacIntosh, and counselor Cheryl Somers all knew about Brian Vasquez but, somehow, Mr. Bull did not? If you do believe this, you possess a level of simple mindedness that precludes you being employed as any sort of an Educator.

It seems painfully obvious that simple common sense is not conferred with a Doctorate in Education.

Mr. Bull, you are a coward. You have attempted to avoid any of the blow-back that is sure to develop over the next several weeks by “skipping town”, so to speak. A better man would have accepted responsibility for his failures and made the determination to stamp out the problem and protect our children. You, unfortunately, are just a rank opportunist. I, certainly, do not thank you for your service to this community.

You have presided over a corruption of our children and their teachers that borders on the criminal.

You have placed the safety of our children as a distant second to your personal ambitions and self-interest.

You have covered up and hidden the most grievous of assaults on our kids.

You have abetted the disgraceful treatment of one of the victims by punishing her for the evil actions of her pedophile tormentor.

You have engaged in a program of disinformation designed to keep the parents of this community in the dark regarding the corruption in this district.

You should be ashamed of yourself but I fear you are not. Why would you be, at every board meeting you have a room full of sycophants all telling you how great you are.

Can any one of you “educators” imagine what you have done to the 14 year-old child that came to you for help regarding the assaults on her by Brain Vasquez, only to find that she was being made responsible and Vasquez made the victim? What kind of a twisted world do you all live in? In my opinion, this child’s civil rights have been violated in a grievous manner and the FBI should be investigating this district for a pattern of such abuses.

Given what I have seen at school board meetings over the past months, you will all no doubt take comfort in knowing that these Prairie Middle School administrators have only been charged with a misdemeanor and not a felony. I am not a lawyer but I cannot understand why they have not been charged as accessories after the fact as well as accessories before the fact, and with obstruction of justice. All 3 of these people knew about the actions of Brian Vasquez 4 years ago and engaged in an active campaign to force the 14 year old victim to recant her story and then they suspended her.

THEY FORCED HER TO HUG THIS MONSTER!

If this isn’t abetting Vasquez’s subsequent assaults and obstructing the course of justice, I don’t know what is.

In her letter to the parents of the Prairie Middle School community, Director of Middle Schools, Tracy Grant, closed by saying, “As always, the safety and security of our students is our highest priority”. What a sad, sad joke.

Ms. Grant will remember that approximately 10 years ago, she was informed that teachers at the Fox Ridge Middle School were displaying pornography to children in the class. This is on record. The safety of our children seems to be far from any priority with this school district.

Finally, it is instructive to remember that Mr. Bull, following the revelations of the Lundy and Vasquez sexual assaults, issued a memorandum on Sept 17, 2017 to all schools that any police investigations or any disciplinary actions against an employee, which are documented in writing, would now be required to be reported to the district HR department.

Obviously, then, prior to the sexual assault cases of Lundy and Vasquez, schools we NOT required to report misconduct issues. Why is this? Could it be, that not having these allegations on record with the district would allow the district plausible deniability, should the offense come to light? Do you need a Phd in Education to figure this one out?

And why does Mr. Bull so carefully couch his words that, in order to report an incident to the district, there must be a police investigation and/or a written reprimand. I would submit that ANY allegation against an employee must be reported to the district, recorded as an incident, investigated at the district level and resolved as substantiated or unsubstantiated. To do anything else provides just another opportunity for the district to deny knowledge and accountability……. and accountability is exactly what has been lacking under the mis-stewardship of Harry Bull.

Mr. Bull also goes to pains to specify that, in regard to a sexual misconduct allegation, they are to be reported only when it involves children outside the workplace. Children within the workplace are, apparently, fair game and these assaults need not be reported. It is all perfectly clear how the district values our children.

Harry Bull and the Cherry Creek Board of Education have been grossly derelict in their duty to our children. It is clear that they consider the district and its schools a personal playground to pursue their own agendas.

Look No Further Than Your Schools to Find Pennywise the Clown

Last month, in the days approaching Thanksgiving, the parents of Ashawnty Davis had little to be thankful for. Instead, an absolute tragedy engulfed their lives and their family would never be the same; not ever again.

Ashawnty, 10 years old,  TEN YEARS OLD, killed herself; committed suicide; ended her life.

I look at the pictures of this beautiful little girl and her joyous smile and it breaks my heart. It should break the heart of any parent.

How did this happen?

The suicide rate among school children has sky rocketed in Colorado and we have to ask ourselves why, before we can ever hope to implement any effective policy.

In medicine, all physicians are taught, “First, do no harm”. This concept needs to be embraced by our schools and by education companies selling new products and gimmicks into our schools, with little regard for the effect it might have on students.

Our schools are bloated with every form of Health and Wellness programming  being given to our kids; the so-called Signs of Suicide training for children (SOS); Depression screens and surveys; access to the odious Trevor Project, with it’s enticements into private chat rooms and suicide discussions; schools that provide access to the revolting book 13 Reasons Why. This book, with it discussions of why suicide might be an option and why, through suicide, a child’s status might even be elevated in the community, should never be on a school library bookshelf.

This cheer squad for suicide is listed as being in the library catalog of this little girl’s school (Sunrise Elementary School). I’m not a big fan of censorship but placing this book into an elementary school, where this child attended, might be one of the worst librarian decisions ever encountered. What is wrong with the librarian at this school? This isn’t a book for elementary school children and all of your ALA mindless drivel about the 1st Amendment and censorship doesn’t change that fact. I certainly see that where there is any criticism posted regarding  how a library is being run, it disappears after a day.  So stop being such hypocrites! You’re all for censorship, as long as you are the censors.

Librarians have been given far too much authority in the present climate. High level administrators bow down to the so called Library Leadership Teams… these are librarians… who are making dangerous decisions without any questioning or oversight.

Suicide in children was, at one time, very rare. Why would a child of 10 even think of suicide? Where did the idea come from? This is a concept that used to live almost exclusively in the tormented minds of adults. How did it ever become a consideration and an option for children?

Over the past 20 years, as our children have progressed through the Cherry Creek School District, we have seen an increasing focus (read spending), generated by school districts and education charlatans selling emotional poison, on programs to address bullying, on gauging the Health and Wellness of our children, on preventing suicide. At what point does the cure pose more risk than the disease, if ever a cure was really needed?

The school district has poured buckets of money at this problem and wasted thousands of hours of instructional time with, as is obvious, little effect on the problem. The Colorado Department of Education now proposes squandering even more taxpayer dollars on programs that are just not producing any results. If you’re not aiming at the target, you can’t hit it.  What is it Einstein is quoted as saying? “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result”.

Somebody is benefiting from all of this and it is not our children.

My guess, anecdotally, is that the rise of child and teen suicide directly tracks the increasing introduction of these topics and programs into our schools. My further guess is that as these programs reached further down, into lower-aged school children, the incidence of self-harm and suicide increased in these populations, as well.

Will anyone do a study on this? I’m thinking no; it’d be bad for business.

Parents, you can take action; it will take a thick skin and a demanding demeanor to get to it but it will be worth the effort, for the safety of your children.

  1. Health and Wellness surveys- They are full of questions on whether your child has ever been “sad”. Well, who hasn’t? But these questions are closely followed by questions on:

a) Have you been sad more than 2 times a week?

b) Have you ever harmed yourself?

c) How have you harmed yourself?

d) Have you ever engaged in cutting?

e) Have you ever played the choking game?

f) Have you ever considered suicide?

Is it just me, or do these questions look more like suggestions, balloons leading directly to Pennywise and a children’s house of horrors?

Parents- in writing, tell your school and district that these surveys are NOT to be given to your children. EVER!

2. The Trevor Project- This repugnant site is touted by many schools as a “safe” place for children, especially if they are anxious or depressed. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Here, children are enticed into private chat rooms with unqualified  “counselors”, who appear to be nothing more than other tormented souls, where these “counselors” engage your child in discussions of suicide, gender dysphoria, self harm and other issues they are not competent to discuss.

Adults are able to engage with your child, in private chat rooms, to “counsel” them. It has all the earmarks of a pedophile’s playground but, since parents cannot enter, no one knows for certain what, exactly, is occurring with the minor children that engage with the adults.

Parents- Ask your Principal if children in the school are being referred to the Trevor Project as a “resource” available to them. In writing, demand that this stop and that the Trevor Project be removed from all school and district material.

3. Signs of Suicide training- This is directed at your child, teaching them all the nuances of suicide contemplation. If your child had never contemplated having a choice in the matter before, he or she will certainly understand that choice after this training.

Importantly, this type of program is a blanket, one-size-fits-all, program, it does not focus on truly “at risk” children, it treats all children as being at risk and this is surely not the case.

Parents- In writing, tell your Principal and District that your child is not to participate in these types of programs. EVER! You are far better of engaging your own therapist for this. At least you can get references and see them for yourselves.

4. So-called Anti-bullying programs- Steer clear of these. You would be forgiven for thinking that, with the term “anti-bullying” in it, the program was focused on the bully. It is not.  Entire student bodies are made to sit through hundreds of hours of “training” and social indoctrination. It isn’t about bullying at all, and that’s why it doesn’t work. It’s about social re-engineering for the special interest groups that fund it.

As far as bullying policies, our schools are only focused on the victim, not the bully. If your child is bullied, they will be made to feel responsible for coping, and taught “strategies” for dealing with ongoing bullying. These programs more or less ignore the bully, leaving the bully to walk free. They are seldom disciplined.

Again, millions spent on the wrong target.

We fall all over ourselves crying, “don’t blame the victim”, then put our kids in a position where they feel the responsibility for ending the bullying themselves. Some schools even insist that the victims receive counseling while the bully walks free, or force the victim into “mediation” sessions with the bully, even though experts recognize such techniques as disastrous, in terms of further empowering bullies.  Victims are told not to defend themselves, told to walk away, or run away and “ask for help” – ask for help from incompetent bureaucrats that refuse to discipline bullies because it would require state and federal paperwork to be filed.

We are the adults, and we need to take the action, not the children. The school culture abandons them to the bully and hides behind all the empowering words and rhetoric, such as “bully proofing” them with platitudes. The kids, however, know that the minute they leave the counselor’s office, they are gonna get the shit kicked out of them….again.

Want to generate a a cloud of despondency over a child? Make them feel helpless, make them feel there is no end to the torment, make them feel that they have been abandoned by the very people they look to for help. This is the way to do it. Does this sound familiar? Does this sound like the burden young Ashawnty might have been laboring under?

We need to show the victims and the bullies that a properly functioning anti-bullying program, rather than empowering the bully, deals swiftly and harshly with the bully and gives the bully a quick hall-pass out the door, never to return. You really don’t need an anti-bullying program to line a salesman’s pockets, or increase corporate profits if you’ve rid yourselves of the bullies. Let their parents deal with them. We’re tired of it.

Parents- Demand that these programs stop and that your children be protected from the predators among them in the schools. Demand that the school deal with the bullies and leave the victims alone. File lawsuits if your children are harmed; against the parent’s of the bully, as well as the school district. It is time to take a stand and demand an end to this.

School anti-bullying programs don’t work because they focus on the victim. The bullies walk free. We don’t have a bullying problem – we have enforcement problem.

We know of girls in our kids classes who have been verbally abused and threatened by boys, backing them up against walls and making crude suggestions to them, all year long. We know of other kids who have been hit and had their property destroyed on a regular basis, while their complaints to the school were ignored, other than to be offered ” victim counseling”. They didn’t need counselling, the little thugs tormenting them needed to be gone!

The net result of all of this misguided, feel good, accomplish little programming is:

  1. We create kids that view the world as a place of danger; where they have been abandoned by adults and are victims to whatever evil little turd wants to molest them.
  2. We place them in programs and give them surveys with a heavy emphasis on self-harm and suicide, inoculating them with the idea that there is a way out.
  3. We then wring our hands and weep to the heavens, asking why the incidence of suicide is rocketing upward?

Oh why, we ask ?

Now, while all of the foregoing is bad, it gets worse.

Having created an atmosphere of hopelessness in our kids, a feeling that they have been abandoned by those tasked to protect them, it’s seems the damage is not enough. We have to legislate official and legal abandonment.

In the past Colorado legislative session, a number of bills (in one form or another) were introduced to separate your children from you and place them in confidential “chat rooms” with “counselors” who can, and will, discuss all sorts of topics with your child, all under the screen of confidentiality.

An attempt last session, by Democratic lawmakers, would have resulted in your child meeting with a stranger, discussing topics you might not want your child discussing with a stranger, and you would have no control over it, would not know about it, could not vet the qualifications or the ideology of the counselor; you would have absolutely no knowledge of it unless your child chose to tell you about it. And you thought Big Brother existed only only a book.

And how might these counselors be housed? Where might their offices be? Who might be providing these counselling services? Well, it might be in the conveniently located, new “School Based Health Clinics (SBHC)” springing up in our schools, owned and operated by none other than Larry Wolk, Head of the Colorado Department of Public Health. And, pray tell, what is Dr. Wolk’s position in the Colorado Dept of Health? Why he is the Director. And who will dish out the money for the funding of these School Based Clinics? Surprise, it is none other than the very same Department of Health where Larry Wolk is the Director.  Is it me? Does anyone else see a conflict of interest here?

In addition, as if this isn’t bad enough as it is, these clinics are entitled to go into classrooms and provide “depression screening” for all children who will then be sent to the school clinic for counseling, behind parents’ backs if Dem lawmakers have their way in this upcoming legislative session.

Again, I’m sure it is just me, but my guess is that 90% of all the kids will need some form of “counselling” in the helpful and convenient Larry Wolk provided clinics. If you have medical insurance, your insurance will pay for it. If not, then it will be billed, with gleeful abandon, to Medicaid.

And in case you’re not sure: the Colorado Department of Public Health links to materials from its website aimed at teaching staff how to deal with resistance from the public.  Look it up, it’s all there.

However, I would not be so completely cynical as to suggest that there is a conspiracy in all of this. That all of it, the programs, the suicide training, the anti-bullying programs, the proposed legislation, the clinics, Larry Wolk, the Department of Health….all of it… is just a  scheme for vendors and special interests to profit from the misery of our children. Pennywise, after all, is a fictional character in a movie. Right?

Tell that to the parents of Ashawnty Davis. They just thought they were sending their little girl  to school.

 

Colorado leads the fight to get “EBSCO Porn” out of schools across America

EBSCO: Exploiting our children for profit

EBSCO is a 3 billion dollar corporation that boasts of providing K-12 research databases to over 50,000 schools nationwide. These databases contain some journal articles and newspaper stories but, in general, have been widely criticized as disjointed and random in their search results. The journal articles appear to be a loss leader for the true product: magazines and advertisements. Yes, schools all over the country are streaming advertising at K-12 kids. And a good deal of this advertisement is adult in content, very adult. There are hundreds of sexually graphic ads for “sex toy” shops, complete with links to the online shop venues. There are sexually graphic articles, images and even links to hard core pornography sites. This obscene material is streamed into K-12 school databases by EBSCO’s publishing clients and include adult “pop culture” magazines such as Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Lesbian News, Glamour, Chatelaine, Ebony, Esquire and other magazines and articles that have absolutely no business in a homework database, and believe me, these are not your supermarket, news rack versions.

What child, ever, used Cosmo as a homework resource?

Our group is networked across the country to expose this horrific problem, and we have thus far identified obscene EBSCO content in school linked databases from 15/15 states that we have been able to investigate, including Colorado, Florida, Connecticut, Nebraska, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Nevada, Georgia, Ohio, New Jersey, Minnesota, Kansas, West Virginia, and New Hampshire.

Marketed as a Scholarly Datbase But Links to Hard Core Porn Sites From “Academic Journals”

Members of our groups have recently taken a closer look at some of the academic journals contained in EBSCO’s Explora school databases. We have found live links to a myriad of hard core porn, and violent “BDSM” porn sites embedded into the “academic journals” streaming into EBSCO’s K-12 Explora Secondary School databases.

If that’s not bad enough,  EBSCO search results are disjointed, repetitive and random.  The Emperor truly has no clothes when it comes to EBSCO’s “school products”.

THE OBSCENE FACES OF ESBSCO SCHOOL DATABASES ACROSS THE NATION

 

 What are we teaching our children?

 Pornography has been shown to contain heavy themes of misogyny as well as the glamorization of sexual violence. Children exposed to pornography can be harmed – for more details, see the National Center on Sexual Exploitation which has named EBSCO to its 2017 Dirty Dozen list as a major contributor to the sexual exploitation of women and children (http://endsexualexploitation.org/ebsco/ ). As might be predicted in a country where 50,000 schools are streaming EBSCO porn at their students, the rate of student on student violence has reached alarming proportions  (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sexual-assault-fellow-students-17-000-reports-4-years-ap-n753106 ). Teacher/student sexual assaults have sky-rocketed. Do these predators use EBSCO as a classroom grooming tool? Do they send students to EBSCO, where they are bound to locate sexually graphic content because it is pushed to the top of the search results, perhaps in the hopes that children will become desensitized and accepting of sexual advances?  How else to explain these alarming trends? Every day there is another breaking news story about a teacher who has sexually assaulted a child in their care.

Colorado leads the fight against EBSCO

The prestigious Cherry Creek School District of Colorado recently contacted EBSCO and asked for the ground breaking, “Adams 12 Exclusion Package”. This removes a number of adult, graphic, pop culture magazines which are known to stream obscene content into children’s homework and research databases.

What a fight! It took more than a year. But every school district in the state of Colorado that we have looked at has been identified as infected with EBSCO porn. EBSCO is distributed across the state by the Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC). EBSCO was introduced to Colorado through a collaborative venture between the CLiC and the CDE/State Library, although recent attempts to ask the CDE for help led to a scrambling restructure to remove CLiC from the state education umbrella. What are they hiding?

Coloradans can “thank” Gene Hainer of the CDE State Library, and Jim Duncan, Manager of the CLiC, for introducing the EBSCO atrocity to our state.

 The CLiC has advertised EBSCO databases to our K-12 institutions as a valuable and appropriate school resource while nothing could be further from the truth. When confronted with the reality, the CLiC denied any responsibility, callously claiming they “just sell” the products and ridiculously claim they bear no responsibility should their school customers misuse the products by allowing students to have access.

Every school district in Colorado was notified almost a year ago, and so was the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE), the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB), and the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), but it appears that, with the exception of Adams 12 and the Cherry Creek School District (CCSD), our leaders have just buried their heads in the sand.

Only two districts that we are aware of have responded and that would be Adams12 and the CCSD. Although they have not solved the problem, they have made a transitional gesture of removing many of the adult magazines that are the worst offenders for streaming obscene content. This is a valuable first step but the problem will not be solved until EBSCO subscriptions are canceled. EBSCO has shown itself to be a thoroughly corrupt corporation that appears to be knowingly, and with full deliberation, exploiting millions of school children nationwide for profit. They can never be trusted and they will always find new and creative means of pushing lucrative advertising for the 95 billion dollar sex industry into our schools, targeting a captive audience of children and minor youth as potential new consumers. We have even located articles that encourage young girls to enter the escort and sex work industry. No, EBSCO can never be trusted again.

There truly is no depth too low for EBSCO to sink in its gluttonous pursuit of profit. The EBSCO name has been sullied beyond repair.

Bryson Stephens, grandson of Founder, Elton Stephens and, apparently, a respected member of his community in Birmingham, the headquarters of EBSCO Industries.

Every concerned parent and taxpayer should contact EBSCO 1 (800) 653-2726 to express their outrage and should also contact their local School District to demand that EBSCO subscriptions be canceled. Don’t let them tell you that they “filter” EBSCO – this is a lie. The Cherry Creek School District tried it with us, and they are on record issuing this misinformation to concerned parents, teachers and reporters who called with concerns. But the truth is out: EBSCO database products are proprietary and cannot be touched by external or top site filters.

If they could have filtered the obscene material, Adams 12 and the Cherry Creek School District would not have created an Exclusion Package. The fact that EBSCO cannot be filtered has been confirmed by A12, the CCSD, the Arapahoe Library District, and EBSCO upper management in private communications. EBSCO even publicly admitted to having “problems” with its school databases in an interview with WBRC Birmingham (http://www.wbrc.com/story/35775174/could-your-kids-find-pornographic-articles-on-school-computers ) and they promised to be working on internal filtering, which we have yet to see. In fact, our most recent information is that EBSCO is planning to dump even more responsibility onto their school customers by asking them to manually, “cherry pick” objectionable articles from K-12 products. Does EBSCO think that more taxpayer money should be squandered to hire a full time cherry-picker to stay on top of the porn streaming into its K-12 databases?

When we spoke with EBSCO management, we were told that the content of the K-12 databases was protected by contractual arrangement with their publishing clients. EBSCO values its publishing clients far more than they value their school customers. These “non-censorship” contracts, that permit streaming of porn and sex toy ads, must be very lucrative to EBSCO. After more than a year of nationwide pressure, and even being named to the Dirty Dozen list, EBSCO adamantly refuses to filter its K-12 products. EBSCO is dedicated to the protection of its publishers and advertisers and appears firmly committed to granting them free ranging, unfettered access to a captive audience that ranges into the hundreds of millions of school children across the U.S., Canada, and other countries.

What’s in it for the schools? 

Maybe the million dollar question is this: Why would our schools want to be complicit in EBSCO’s advertising of porn to kids? In Colorado, schools were notified a year ago, and only 2 that we know of have responded, even partially. Are they ashamed to admit there’s a problem? Afraid of legal liability if children have been harmed by exposure to porn through school databases? Are they getting kickbacks? All of the above?

Surely, EBSCO is generous with compensation to its school and library customers. EBSCO hands out grants, incentives, money for trips and awards. Some libraries even receive the $100,000 “solar grant” award each year. EBSCO is linked with the ALA and this country is now waking up to the fact that our “library community” has morphed into something that most adults wouldn’t recognize anymore. In fact, the Director of Intellectual Freedom, Jamie LaRue, was quoted as stating he would be “happy to go pick up [the Dirty Dozen] award” from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2017/07/EBSCO_online_databases_filter_inappropriate_material.html ). He likes EBSCO. 

The pressure is mounting

With Colorado beginning to backpedal, now is the time for other states around the country to take a stand. We have confirmed EBSCO porn in 15/ 15 states that we have investigated and we have good reason to believe that it is present in every state across the country. Parents need to understand that the problem is not limited to public schools. We have found EBSCO Porn in private and parochial schools, and homeschooled children do not avoid the assault if they are using public libraries, which peddle EBSCO as “homework” databases, often driving traffic to them with promotions and ads that target minors.

The Arapahoe Library District of Colorado was featured by Mass Resistance (http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen3/17a/CO-middle-school-x-rated/ebsco-database.html  and http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen3/17d/MR-CO-confronting-porn-agenda/index.html ) twice during this past year. In Colorado, we are beginning to also turn our attention to several other public libraries in the hopes that we can convince them to clean up or, better yet, cancel their EBSCO sponsorships.

There can be no justification for the egregious assault on the health and safety of our children by EBSCO. Schools and libraries should take the high ground and get rid of EBSCO lest they become morally and legally complicit.

It’s been a struggle but the momentum is building. We will not back down and we encourage others across the country to get involved.

Schools, the New Catholic Church

Do an internet search on “Teacher Sex Scandals” and see what you get. Thousands of results.

Filter by News and “Last 30 Days” and the results will alarm you.

Schools have become the new Catholic Church, with all of its child abuse scandals, “passing the trash”, secrecy, and cover-ups.

It is so bad that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has passed a law that will punish school administrators that pass along pedophile teachers to other, unknowing, schools and districts. The, so-called, “pass the trash” law.

I just have to ask, why do we even need such a law? Why would any school administrator knowingly place children at risk by transferring a pedophile teacher to an unsuspecting school?

The reason might be, as in the Catholic Church, that it is almost a club. It is so endemic that they cannot possibly out any of these teachers for fear that the extent of the problem and their own complicity will be revealed.

Schools, as the Catholic Church, act like a kind of concentrator. Like all pedophiles, these people strategically gravitate to areas and careers where they can get closest to children. This is their playground; their hunting grounds.

There are many good teachers in any school system but if they wish to avoid being splashed by the stain that will dye their pedophile colleagues, they need to be proactive in raising concerns when they see something wrong. They cannot continue to operate in a fashion similar to the Catholic Church and protect pedophile teachers because they are all in the same club.

Parents of children that have been molested by teachers should immediately file a law suit against the teacher, the school , and the district. It is only through financial pain that districts will begin to force change on their school administrators and demand that pedophile teachers be removed and never, ever, moved on to another unknowing school.

There must be zero tolerance for pedophiles in any organization that serves the children in our communities.

 

Complacency is a Disease

 

Recently, the Cherry Creek School District has been rocked by 2 sexual assault stories. One of these occurred last May and was kept from the community until the second one was reported in late-August.

The fist incident involved a security guard (Brodderick Jerrod Lundie) at Grandview High School and the second involved a Social Studies teacher (Brian Vasquez) at Prairie Middle School.

Superintendent Harry Bull stated that the reason for his failure to report the first incident to the community was the protection of the victim and the fact that there was only the one incident. I have no idea how he divined no other incidents, maybe he relied on the good word of the perpetrator, Jerrod Lundie.

The second incident, involving Social Studies teacher Brian Vasquez of Prairie Middle School, appears to have been reported in  a timely manner. But, this pervert lured and molested children over a 4 1/2 year period, with the first incident being, apparently, in January of 2013. He has been charged with 31 different counts involving some form of sexual assault.

Now, first of all, Vasquez was a teacher for a long time, he came from other schools before he began his 7-year stretch with Prairie. Vasquez did not awake on some morning in January 2013 and decide this was the fine day that he was going to become a pervert. What was his background at these other schools? What was his prior history with Prairie? Is that another secret?

Second, for 4 1/2 years, Vasquez molested children. It is inconceivable that he did this for such an extended period and no one, not one person, ever raised any concerns about his interactions with children. Not one child said anything to a teacher or counselor?  No parent came forward to report things they heard from their child? No teacher observed and reported anything that looked odd? No anonymous voice on the district’s Care Line? Nothing? Hard to believe. More secrecy?

Now, this is egregious behavior. I don’t think Harry Bull was hired to make a secret of things that should have been reported to the community. He deprived parents of the right, and the opportunity, to discuss this matter with their kids and put it into some sort of a framework and context. This creep, the perpetrator in the first incident, was well-liked, the “cool” security guard and kids need to know that these types of people always find their way to where there is a concentration of kids and they are very adept at worming their way into the kid’s circle.

In addition, speaking with their kids might well have revealed whether any other instances involving this guard were known about by the kids. Maybe that was the problem Bull was trying to avoid.

But Bull, putting politics before safety, chose secrecy over transparency; the dark over the light. This is the usual modus operandi of the Cherry Creek School district, as they have consistently refused to let parents know of the vast display of pornography awaiting their children in the district provided data base resources.

Now, this is all very bad stuff but most disturbing, most disturbing of all, is the incomprehensible complacency of the school community; where were the parents that should have been out in force at the school board meeting last night, screaming their outrage? Where were the villagers with their torches and pitchforks, demanding the head of Harry Bull? No where! Not one at the meeting. No public comment about the incidents, no public comment about the secrecy, not one peep.

We were there. We made very pointed comments and we don’t even have a child in these schools. The fact that Harry Bull would hide the information that parents are entitled to is a community outrage that requires public comment. It erodes trust between Bull and the community he was hired to serve. It is in secrecy that dark things develop. A light needs to shine in these dark corners, preventing rot from developing. There was no light last night.

Where were the parents? Where was the community outrage, not only for the actions themselves, but for the secrecy engaged in by Bull and the Board of Education? A deafening and resounding silence. How very disappointing.

When the issue was a 15 minute change to the school start times, there was a packed house of parents, distraught at the effect this would have on their families. There were hours devoted to the studies, the science of sleep, the concerns of parents. Standing room only.

Sex assault on our children, secrecy about the reporting? Nothing!

Even the Aurora Sentinel, generally an ideologue of the left, evidenced more indignation than the parents of the affected schools. Were they too engaged in another bilious episode of Bachelor in Paradise? Unable to tear themselves away from Survivor Season 150? Or the riveting spectacle of the Voice or America’s Got Talent? Where were you people? What is wrong with you? These are your children and you can’t summon the energy and 2 hours of your time to speak out on their behalf? Is it too much to ask that you protect them? It is disgraceful.

It is heartbreaking.

There is an old adage that people get the government they deserve. That was clearly on display last night at the Cherry Creek BOE meeting, as was the reason.

Complacency is a disease, like cancer. It slowly rots a community and leaves it vulnerable to self-serving elected officials. If you do not demand they serve you, the community, then they will most certainly serve themselves.

Hypocrisy of the Anti-Censor Censors

Recently, an article was published in the Huffington Post regarding school and library databases and the issue with pornography being embedded throughout them. You can read the story here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/are-school-libraries-unintentionally-providing-middle_us_597f2541e4b0c69ef705298d

The HuffPost does not seem to allow readers to post comments to this article but it was picked up and reprinted by the NewsProject here:

http://www.newsproject.net/education/are-school-libraries-unintentionally-providing-middle-schoolers-access-to-porn/#comment-20764

NewsProject does allow commants and since the author of the article, Christopher J. Ferguson,  was incorrect in his analysis, it required clarification and correct. As a result, we posted our response in NewsProject.

Unfortunately, it seems that the champions of the anti-censor movement have absolutely no problem with censorship that they deem appropriate and, like so much of the progressive liberal intelligentsia these days, it is just another case of do what I say, not what I do. Our post was deleted. Hypocrisy reigns in the halls of the anti-censorship drones.

So, to correct the record, here is what we posted.

As one of the parents that discovered this material in the Cherry Creek School district library catalog, I would like to respond to some of your comments.

First, it is important to understand that EBSCO advertises, markets, and sells these databases as being differentiated and customized for different grade levels. Nothing could be further from the truth.

We discovered this material in our daughter’s middle school library catalogue last September (2016) and, early on, we had discussions with executives from EBSCO, including CEO Tim Collins. We were told that the only differentiator between any of the “school products”, including the college level offering, is lexile level.

Lexile level is a measure of vocabulary complexity and, as facetiously stated by an EBSCO account executive, there just ain’t many big words in porn. He admitted that because of the simple lexile filtering, some of this material might well be in elementary school products. Consequently, and as we discovered, filtering the middle school databases on a lexile of 8th grade, and a category of human biology, yields results like “Orgasms for All”.

Once a child selects this, as you term it, “click-bait” and opens the article, they can then expand their search into other areas of sexuality and sexual behavior, by clicking on the convenient links the publisher provides; bondage, sadomasochism, rape, sex-toys (with very graphic illustrations), and, as you have mentioned, the joys of “fisting”. Fisting, as the term might suggest, is the insertion of a person’s fist and forearm into the anus or vagina of their tormented partner. Is this really appropriate for middle school children?

Importantly, as I have described above, a child does not have to search around for this information. It is presented with giddy abandon through innocuous search terms such as “stories about boys”, or “animal stories”. I leave to your imagination what is found in the search results for “animal stories”.

Rather than being “maddeningly short” on details, the stories in both massresistance.org and endsexualexploitation.org (NCOSE) are very long on the details, providing explicit screen shots of the material readily available within EBSCO. Again, why is this material being made available to minor children, in a product that EBSCO markets and sells as being age and grade level appropriate? Clearly, there is some severe misrepresentation in EBSCO’s promotional material.

As you have pointed out, there are links to material such as “Spicy Videos to Share with your Partner” and there are other videos. One video we found displayed 2 men having anal sex. Hey, kids, have a look at this!

This is categorically pornography and should not be made available to minor children. Links within some of the EBSCO articles also lead to the Adult Video Network, where, again, extremely graphic, sometimes violent, always exploitative, videos are being presented to children. Samples are available, so, no, they are not being hidden behind any paywall. I am just not certain why this seems OK to some people. It is not!

The fact that the American Library Association (ALA) says that few parents have complained is disingenuous. We have heard the same thing from our school district (Cherry Creek School District) and from our local public library (Arapahoe Library District). Yes, both admit that they have done nothing, and will do nothing, to actually inform parents of the potential danger. If they truly feel that this is not an issue, let them inform their constituent stakeholders of what is available, then we will see if parents lack concern about this. I know where I would place my money.

But they won’t inform parents. They know what would happen.

As to filtering, both EBSCO and our school district have admitted that the material, including the videos and other graphic depictions cannot be filtered out of a database. You are clearly misinformed as to how school filters work. They are top-site filters and cannot filter out the material resident in the EBSCO databases.

There is no distinction between accessing this material from home, from the child’s school, or from your local public library. You can access this from anywhere and most disturbing (as if all of the above is not disturbing enough), is that now, the schools and EBSCO are collaborating on providing children with phone apps so that this material can be accessed in the school yard. Talk about customer service!

Parents may well have filtering at home but that protection ends the minute their child leaves the home and directly accesses the school or library EBSCO databases. Parents also assume that if the school provides the resource, it has been vetted and that it is safe. It is a reasonable, albeit false, assumption.

As you have suggested, we, as parents, have approached both the school district and EBSCO about removing this material and have fought a 10 month battle trying to gain any meaningful action. EBSCO, as we have been told by executives, maintains non-censorship contracts with its publishing clients. That means that they cannot and will not filter out any of a publisher’s material.

In fact, it is contrary to EBSCO’s financial interests to do so, since they are likely paid according to the volume of distribution; similar to a newspaper being able to structure its advertising rates according to distribution.

To be fair, EBSCO has made some changes to its product, now allowing customers to “cherry pick” articles and content that they do not want displayed. However, this is only after 10 months of battling with the Cherry Creek School District and EBSCO, and only in baby-step increments along the way. EBSCO also is not advising their customers of this option, so the schools are unaware that this functionality is even available. So, it is for appearances only. Of any real substance, little has been done.

It is curious that you raise the issue of the LGBT community and I wonder where you received your talking points? Our school executives raised the same issue months ago. At no time, no time, during our 10 month battle to have this material removed, have we, the parents, ever mentioned the LGBT community. However, in a written response from 6 school executives, we were told that the material we encountered was vital to the district’s “commitment to inclusive excellence”. What, exactly, does this mean?

Have you, and our school district, identified an LGBT segment of the middle school community that are avid consumers of pornography and claim their consumption of it is some basic human right, or that it is in pursuit of some educational goal? What has pornography being made available to children got to do with LGBT issues? You either feel that porn should be made available to children, or you do not. Are there other segments of school children that are being under-served in this regard? Please, spare me this ludicrous misdirection!

We are not in favor of banning books. We are not in favor of censorship. We are in favor of making only age-appropriate material available to children. That is a parent’s duty; to protect their children from harmful and damaging material and behaviors until they are of an age where they can properly, and in a healthy way, process the information they are receiving.

Scientific research shows that the human brain is not fully developed until about 28 years of age. Consequently, decision making, processing, is not fully developed until at least that age. It is just not appropriate to make this type of material available to children before they can fully understand and process the information. Before this age, it can be confusing and damaging to a developing child. This is also clear from research. Yet you, the Cherry Creek School District, the ALA, and our Arapahoe County Library seem to know better. You place some misguided ideology regarding censorship ahead of the safety and health of our children and you should all be ashamed of yourselves.

The Supreme Court of the United States has made it clear that filtering material harmful to children is not an unreasonable infringement on 1st Amendment rights but you all clearly know better. Clearly, the rights of publishers of pornographic material trump the rights of children, in your mind.

Within some of these databases, we have found that children can be lured down paths to material that promotes a rape culture, promotes violence against women, glamorizes the sex-trade industry and, allows access to “sign-up” sheets for those interested in a career in the wonder-world of being an escort. Are you kidding me? This is a clear abetting of sex trafficking, yet you want to protect it.

Finally, our position is not that some material “slips through”. Our position is that EBSCO, and its publishers, are in the business of promoting and fostering an active consumerism in children, aimed at increasing the profits of the pornography and related products industries into the future. It is clearly a very calculated and callous maneuver, designed to foster early childhood acceptance of all of the joys that can be made available to children if they just click on the link. It is disgusting and indefensible.

Again, our reply to the article was deleted. What a bunch of hypocrites!

We have encountered this same type of hypocrisy in dealing with Superintendent Harry Bull and Asst Superintendent Scott Seigfried. While accusing us of being mere censors, they refuse to notify the parent community of the material in the EBSCO databases that pose a danger to their children. This is censorship, pure and simple.

Our local Smoky Hill Library, through the Arapahoe Library District has taken the same position; we are censors but they will take no steps to warn parents that pornographic material can be accessed by children.

Clearly, they are all fine with censorship, as long as it is their form of censorship. The irony is stupefying, as is their position.