Dear JCPS is publishing this piece as part of a series dedicated to identifying patterns or practices of discrimination in JCPS. To sign our petition to encourage the US Department of Justice to investigate JCPS and its outside entities, please click here.

At this moment, JCTA PR’s (Professional Representatives, also known as “building representatives”) are expected to be voting to approve proposed bylaws changes that will make it possible for a handful of their officers to discriminate against members who advocate for minority populations, and even remove them from their elected roles on the organizations’ board.

Think it can’t happen here? It already has.

Recent controversy, including betrayals from endorsed elected officials, a botched political action committee (PAC) election and a challenge to JCTA’s General Election, and other things they’re not telling you, the incumbent JCTA officers have been feeling the heat more than usual. Having personally experienced a similar series of events when I was serving as a Vice President for the 15th District PTA in 2017, I recognized this latest maneuver to modify the bylaws as a means to force out anyone who the establishment leadership disagrees with as something similar that happened to me and several other JCPS moms who stood up for schools in West Louisville. In fact, in March of 2017, the 15th District PTA Board voted to remove me for speaking up for parents and students at Maupin Elementary, a high-poverty, high-minority population school in the district’s highly segregated “West End.” And in 2019, they conducted a closed-door emergency bylaws meeting in order to prevent me from serving, had I been elected when I and five other parents “ran from the floor” to serve on the 15th District PTA Board.

As you can hear from the short audiotape I made from that Emergency Board meeting that night, “duty of obedience” was cited as grounds for the motion for my removal. It will be interesting to watch as JCTA looks for ways to target anyone who is disloyal to their organization. The entire recording of the 2017 meeting, as well as follow-up meetings, can be found on our website under the Audio Archives tab. More will continue to be added.

https://twitter.com/GayAdelmann/status/1394442545753727059?s=20

A new section of our website has been created to archive evidence and provide real-life examples of systemic or institutionalized racism within JCPS that have been documented by our group’s organizers.

Some of these patterns include:

• Abuse of power. Such as blacklisting, or bullying, to maintain power and “send a message”/terrorize.
• Retaliation. Such as causing harm to or making threats against those who report harmful behavior.
• Setups. Such as assigning impossible/competing tasks so every possible outcome results in .
• Fraud. Manufacturing or tampering with evidence.
• Election Tampering. Rigged or heavily influenced elections, whether it be JCTA, PTAs or SBDM’s and other outside groups’ own internal elections, or them putting their thumbs on the scales of justice and politics by influencing everything from school board races and General Assembly elections, to the passage of a tax increase on the 2020 ballot.
• Cover ups. Hiding “bad news” or honest mistakes, turning the inconvenient truth into fraud.
• Waste of taxpayer dollars. High-priced attorneys and even higher-priced secret settlements are costing taxpayers unknown millions of wasted dollars. Dirty administrators, protected by poorly written laws, continue committing the same offenses. Internal investigations, of course, finds no wrongdoing, so nothing changes. The avoidable pattern repeats. The system’s downward spiral intensifies with each uncorrected punch.
• Doubling down. Denied or delayed responses to claims of discrimination, even when we show them they are doing it, they refuse to see or acknowledge the disparities and the role they continue to play.

Where does it end? Many who see it or are victims of it themselves burn out or move out to keep themselves and their families safe and sane. Others clock out in unhealthy or self-destructive ways. Many succumb to it, by way of death, dysfunction, homelessness, bankruptcy, shame, job loss, physical or mental health, incarceration, the legal system, addiction or suicide. But the lucky ones simply get numb to it. They have tried and failed enough times to know that any continued efforts of speaking up against an injustice bring unwanted attention and negative outcomes to them and theirs. They are watching the clock and hoping they can keep their heads down and try to go about their lives and work unnoticed until retirement, even if it is less than what they were promised. This describes every teacher I know who has been doing this job more than 10 years. The rest of us, who refuse to participate in the nonsense, what’s left for us? We have reached the end of the road and the only solutions left seem to be a jury of their peers or pitchforks. And I’m not seeing any indication that the court of law is ready for this conversation. We are seeing how the repeated failure of leadership to address the needs and rights of the people eventually plays out in other countries’ wars right now.

We talk about how our problems are because the kids misbehave with no consequences, well, the worst offenders in JCPS think they are untouchable and they treat the deep Jefferson County taxpayer pockets as their personal legal slush fund.

Some of the specific events where discrimination took place that we’ve documented thus far, include:

• Investigation into allegations against Manual Principal Jerry Mayes.
• PTA, SBDM and JCTA elections, bylaws and practices favoring JCPS administration, not members/stakeholders.
  
  • (2023) Jacob Elementary (White principal finally giving in to requests from Black mother to start the PTA. When it’s time for elections, teachers are recruited to run against Black parents, Black mothers are forced to run against one another)
  • (2019) Crums Lane Elementary (White principal favored White teachers and forced out engaged Black parents, 15th District PTA participated in fraudulent election, employees violated Redbook policy)
  • (2019) 15th District PTA Board Elections – (White parent and non-parent leaders pitted Black parents against one another, gave favored candidates preferential treatment, violated their own policies, held controlled and illegal membership meeting to change policies to prevent “from the floor candidates” from being eligible to serve if elected, and so much more, even admitted to committing fraud in future meeting)
  • (2020) Better Schools Kentucky Botched Election – pitted Black teachers against one another for rare at-large openings instead of nominating them for one of a dozen standing seats controlled by the president, tried to explain away numerous anomalies for their botched election results before finally admitting error, manipulating their bylaws in the favor of their preferred candidate, ruling the previous election invalid so they could hold a new one in a scenario where they could have more control and influence over results, in order to ensure their preferred candidate was the ultimate winner.
  • (2016) Maupin Elementary (SBDM manipulated by district leaders into voting to approve the superintendent’s recommendation AFTER she had already notified the state the decision had been made)
  • And several other examples of a handful of white leaders misstating facts, changing rules, policies and bylaws to suit the agenda of those in power and favor continued power of their preferred candidates (or no one at all) over BIPOC and their allies.
• Fraudulent discontinuation of board-approved programs in West Louisville schools
  • Academy @ Shawnee Grades K-12 (discontinued before it started) 
  • Academy @ Shawnee middle school magnet (corrupted within two years)
  • Waldorf-styled program at Maupin Elementary (SBDM told how to vote after state had been notified).
  • Challenger Center at Shawnee (out-of-date data used to justify outsourcing operations)
• Wrongful retaliation against Maupin educators, parents/guardians, students, and their advocates.
  • Removal of racial justice advocate from PTA Board.
  • Demotion of Maupin educator for whistleblowing against racist practices in school.
  • Fabricated “weapons charge” against a Maupin student.
  • Union complicity in targeting whistleblowers and advocates.

Some of the discriminatory practices we’ve documented include:

• Failure to oversee and curtail outside organizations’ role in perpetuating systemic racism, despite repeated requests.
• Biased and dead-ended internal investigations process.
• Shutting out, silencing or derailing voices of grassroots organizations demanding racial equity.
• Retaliation against those who blow the whistle on civil rights violations as well as waste, fraud and abuse.
• Fraudulent elections including giving an unfair advantage to white or white-favored candidates, declaring fair elections “invalid” so they can run them again more carefully controlled, changing rules if necessary, and declaring winners using secretive, proprietary tools that only they have full access to.
• Flat out denial that they are doing anything wrong! Refusal to fix or acknowledge even the most glaring examples. Keep repeating the same harmful behaviors. No wonder things have gotten this bad.

Toxic, bully, racist administrators

• Admins who back their direct reports, no matter what, including helping them avoid consequences for behaviors unbecoming of a JCPS employee.
• Biased internal investigations, fraud, changing the rules, gaming the system.
• Rigged internal elections of support organizations (PTA, SBDM, JCTA, AROS) and undemocratic decision-making.
• Shutting down and out engaged parents and employees who bring solutions, good ideas, and raise concerns when necessary.
• How can we blame parents when the district refuses to let them in?
• Willful incompetence or obliviousness, refusing to acknowledge classic behaviors of organized crime, coverups and racism, therefore nothing ever improves.
• Shit rolls downhill, so lowest ranking employees end up taking the brunt of leaders’ poor decision-making, decreasing recruitment and retention of new employees.
• How can we expect our children exhibit behaviors when adults in charge refuse to model them?

Other reports of criminal behavior

• Denial of due process, refusal to accept grievances
• Altering transcripts
• Disciplining/suspending students from bus or school without due process or proper record keeping
• Election tampering, including changing school district boundaries to affect candidates’ eligibility and plotting and scheming to influence the outcome of the tax increase ballot measure on technicalities, without accountability.
• Failing to provide students with disabilities their mandated instructional hours and support services, covering it up, retaliating.
• Covering up sex, drugs and human trafficking rings involving minors.
•  

We are working on a list of demands, which includes an outside audit of internal investigations, lawsuits and settlements, as well as an oversight committee that is similar to the one that was created by the legislature for oversight of LMPD. We need an equivalent of an Inspector General and Civilian Oversight Committee for JCPS. We, the people, demand an avenue for checks and balances to protect against abuses like these within our government. Dear JCPS welcomes the opportunity to continue to build and share our understanding of what the community’s vision of that looks like.

This post will be updated. If you have examples of these events occurring in JCPS that you wish to have us consider adding to this list, please email moderator@dearjcps.com or text 502-565-8397.