Part 2: THEY COULD HAVE HAD REAL CHANGE BUT ALL THEY GOT WAS MONEY !

This is the second in a series of articles covering the people and events that led to the death of Hillsborough County Public Schools’ student Jenny Caballero in October of 2012. To readPart 1 click here.

Stephen Diaco of Adams and Diaco PA, known for their representation of shock jock Bubba ‘the Love Sponge’ Clem and  their creative use of municipal services, including the Tampa Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department, added the School Board to their lineup yesterday after the school district agreed to pay $600,000 for the October 2012 drowning death of Jenny Caballero at Rodgers Middle School. In a press conference following the Board’s approval of the large financial settlement Diaco insisted that the Caballero’s were never in it for the money and only wanted to make sure that this never happens again!

This was followed by Diaco opening the floor for questions from the local media. The local media present could only manage to come up with about 5 questions and none of them could articulate a follow-up question. But every one of them have run almost identical articles mindlessly trumpeting the press conference comments and never bothering to note that there is nothing in the settlement agreement to support those comments.

Now if the Caballero’s were genuinely interested in making sure this never happens as Mr. Diaco claims then a simple check of the settlement agreement online should show this, but in fact there is not a single word to that effect.

You can easily see for yourself. Despite all the claims, the settlement agreement only talks about those payments of money, when it could have demanded real change. For example, the settlement agreement could have easily required the school district provide updates on ESE changes and progress to accompany those convenient monthly payments. Or they could have required an independent annual audit be provided and that audit then be used to set the Superintendent’s compensation. It appears the law firm must have failed to accomplish this for the Caballero’s if that was their intention.

That is a shame and Mr. Diaco must feel terrible about this oversight which was ostensibly their primary concern. He must have been distracted by the financial settlement.

When you look at this agenda item 9.03 you will see that it is presented to the board as a “RECOMMENDATION” from MaryEllen Elia, Superintendent. See the cover page and the supplemental materials at the right hand margin of this link to the school board agenda.

In reality, this OUT OF COURT Settlement Agreement virtually guarantees that the real Exceptional Student Education (ESE) problems are still in place and will never be dealt with, and that the taxpayers will never know the truth. Production of documents, interrogatories, depositions; had the lawsuit gone forward the superintendent and her staff would have had a lot of explaining to do in finding out the truth about what happened so it could be fixed. The PURSUIT of the truth requires sincere and honest dedication.

As a taxpayer, you might wonder how it is that the Superintendent can use your school tax dollars to both pay their own attorney and then pay someone else to drop their lawsuit, their pursuit of the truth.

The logical equivalent would have been for Rodgers Assistant Principal Shawn Livingston to have used your school tax dollars to hire his own attorney and then pay the professional standards department to stop their pursuit of him. But he does not get that luxury. In his case the Superintendent sends Professional Standards after Shawn Livingston and then recommends his firing, but in her own case she recommends paying the Caballero’s $600,000 to stop their pursuit of her and the school district. And, not unlike the TPD and the Sheriff’s department, the Superintendent and her staff have had questionable motives in their selection of who they pursue, typically only pursuing lower school based staff for problems caused by systemic management level failures and then protecting themselves when they are pursued. No wonder opposing counsel sings their praises followed by the clueless media that’s too busy to actually investigate a story.

Later, Shawn Livingston, through great personal effort, gets himself exonerated; signifying that he was not the problem and suggesting that none of the other school staff were the problem either and none of them should have ever been disciplined and/or fired. And that is why this OUT OF COURT settlement Agreement instead virtually guarantees that the real ESE problems are still in place and will never be dealt with, and that your tax dollars were used against you to make sure that you never know the truth.

For example, you might have noticed that Candy Olson was conspicuously NOT present at this board meeting. Candy Olson was the chair of the board and knew about the earlier Herrera tragedy when it occurred and, along with Superintendent Elia, did not disclose it to her own board so that they might update antiquated ESE policies and training, which arguably could have been in place and prevented the second death of Jenny Caballero, 9 months later.

Perhaps Candy Olson did not want to be present at the settlement of a tragedy that she conceivably caused for her failure to act. But she is still sitting there on the dais with MaryEllen Elia. Two problems protected with your tax dollars.