My friends call it “spilling the tea.” My family used to call it “spilling the beans.” Although I think the expressions came from two completely different origins, they mean roughly the same thing in this situation.
Not sure where the expression came from, but I can picture some well-dressed Southern ladies sitting together at their bridge table, and when one of them starts to tell a juicy story about one of their “friends,” it causes another to knock over her cup of tea, causing a commotion for all.
Welcome to my tea party. I’m about to spill some tea.
Let’s begin in the present, so I can show you what to look for while it’s still happening. Right now, JCPS teachers are in the midst of a silent coup by the current regime. The fewer teachers who even know this election is happening, the greater the chances they can keep their current dear leader in power.
Up for grabs is the At-large BSK position. The election was held during a 3-day window: Nov. 30 – Dec. 2. What happened during that time could fill an entire season on Netflix, but we’ll sum it up here.
At first, Natalie Rashad was declared the winner. But when the election committee couldn’t explain the irregularities on their infallible software’s tabulation sheet, they went back to their programmer. He magically discovered an error and running tabulations a second time resulted in Kenyata Dean-Bacon becoming the winner. (Maybe they thought it would just be easier to give in than to explain the myriad of errors.)
However, when not a single one of them noticed there had not been a majority winner until Kenyata asked about it, the election committee held a séance, I mean special meeting, and decided that a run-,off would be necessary, putting Kenyata’s narrow victory at risk, and pitting both worthy candidates against one another at a future date.
Third time’s a charm, right?!
But why the mystery? Why wouldn’t the timeline they are organizing just follow the bylaws? Is it really that “unprecedented?” Or is it “going according to plan?”
Does this botched election remind anyone of the recent Bar Exam debacle? When several would-be lawyers had their joy stolen from them because after they had celebrated passing the BAR exam, they later learned they had failed? Many were saying “just give it to them.” After all, these tests are barriers; ways to discriminate. And judging by the makeup of the organization, it’s working just as it’s intended!
Tell JCTA to give BOTH of their BSK winners a seat at the table. Lord knows they’ve earned it! Take a look at the barriers and hurdles they’ve had to face to get to this moment to even be considered for the ONLY position on the BSK this election cycle that is put before the members. Could JCTA make it any less equitable and democratic? I don’t think so!
Kumar Rashad for President!
Come on, JCTA. Especially you, JCTA President Brent McKim. All eyes are on you. Do the right thing. Give up your seat that’s been controlled by mediocre white blood for decades. It’s time for new blood. Be the hero. Endorse Kumar Rashad for president. Allow members to bring back the term limits you removed, so this type of stagnation doesn’t continue to happen. It’s his time. If not now, when?
Let’s all get behind #KumarForJCTAPresident, and follow a path that will allow JCTA to award BOTH of these two fierce advocates for black, brown and poor JCPS students a seat at the BSK table. Let’s quit manipulating results and moving goal posts and get back to supporting our students and teachers. (Sorry for the shade toward McKim, but he’s been given every opportunity and we’ve reached this point where the members have some decisions to make. They deserve to finally see what’s been going on behind the curtain all these years.)
Teachers, get organized! They still plan to move forward with a run-off BSK election. So, unless they are planning to violate their own bylaws, it would happen this Wednesday (Dec. 16). Also, start preparing for the general election starting on January 27, where several key positions are up for grabs.
Moments before Nagdy was shot twice — once in the head and once in the abdomen — and left for dead in the middle of a busy Louisville street, an LMPD officer shot and killed another innocent-until-proven-guilty Louisville resident whose offense appears to be nothing more than driving with his headlights off on the “wrong side of town.” I am quite certain if this officer was working the beat in another part of town, like mine, the officer’s first response after pulling a car over to alert them their headlights were off, would not be with gun drawn in a “kill-shot” position. But in looking at the officer’s body cam footage, the only video released so far, that’s how it looks.
Anyway, I will share a link to the video in a moment. I need to provide you with more context, first. The video KSP released contains an explainer that runs almost as long as the less than three minutes of footage they shared with us so far. It provides some assumptions that the public is expected to take their word for, I guess. I have some questions about the video, and so far, no one has been able to answer them.
So, let’s set the stage:
At 12:30 am, Travis Nagdy was gunned down, shortly after making what would become Travis’ final post on his Facebook page (please read this editorial from the amazing Hannah Drake). You see, Travis had been a vocal critic of LMPD, once calling them an organized gang during a metro council meeting.
He was intent on catching them in the act. And they knew it.
He started listening in on their police scanners. It’s clear he heard the radio call about the police shooting of Brian Thurman, and that’s what prompted the cryptic post. “All hands on deck 22nd & Gilligan”.
But Travis never made it to the scene with his bullhorn. Can you imagine how different things might be if he had? In the city that lost Breonna Taylor to dirty LMPD cops earlier this year? (More on that later.)
Some reports say that Travis told friends he thought he was being followed.
Is it possible that officer Harry Seeder (don’t watch the video yet) shot an innocent man, not the driver of a vehicle that was “reported stolen?” Is it possible that manipulative, corrupt, dirty cops came up with the idea to tell the media and their chief that the car was reported stolen to cover up the fact that one of their partners just shot and killed an innocent man who was merely dropping off a friend in her driveway and didn’t realize his headlights were off?
Can you imagine if a charismatic and outspoken leader had shown up with his bullhorn in hand, and followers arrived at the scene as commanded, just a couple dozen blocks away from the square where protests have continued non-stop for 200 days now, how different might things have turned out? When you look at the map, you can see Travis was on his way to that location just South of the gas stations at the 22nd Street exit in Louisville’s Portland neighborhood. A location that, had things been allowed to play out, might have sparked the largest protest in the history of protests. At least here in Louisville. Can you imagine if people found out that night, while cops were trying to clean up that mess, that the person who had been killed at the hands of police that night was an innocent man and that the cops were covering it up? With that much attention and people watching, would they have even been able to?
Hang onto that possibility while I continue setting up the story.
Perhaps Mr. Thurman lost his life due to fear. Perhaps the cop was afraid. Perhaps he was not properly trained to secure the location and de-escalate the situation, and his failure to do so that night on any one of a half a dozen things, could have prevented an innocent man from being shot at least five times. Perhaps he didn’t follow proper protocol. Or perhaps he DID and protocol is what needs to change. We don’t know because they still have not released any additional footage, such as the dash cam, or the radio calls. Or if they are public, people like you and me don’t know how to find them.
Perhaps the officer, in hindsight, knows this man’s death could and should have been avoided, but doesn’t know where to turn because the brotherhood is strong!
The misleading information presented and possible cover-up that follows the night Thurman was killed by LMPD is the part that I need you to see.
Here is a video of the footage from the group Police Overwatch. As of this writing, there are only 176 views. I just made 177. I hope to see that number grow. Be sure to subscribe to their channel while you’re there.
Here’s is another video I recorded with my iphone the night the video was released. I wanted something that started when the actual body cam starts, and not the misleading brotherhood-spun intro. Because bias influences your ability to see the truth. And everyone paying enough attention to form an opinion was hearing misleading information from two “reliable” sources. First, they told us that the car had been reported stolen and second, they told us that the officer was doing his job because the car backed into him. So of course, people are going to say, “the shooting was justified. Of course, it was self defense. The guy was driving a stolen car, for god’s sakes. He had it coming!” You know the drill.
The video begins with bodycam footage but no sound. When the sound finally cuts in, you hear the officer Seeder say, “I’m going to have Kentucky 1-3-2-Zulu-Victor-Bravo.”
If you watch my video, or know what to look for in the video from Police Overwatch, you can see it. Plain as day. In my video, I explain that the video is silent for the first bit. I point out that the car the officer is following appears to have forgotten to turn on their headlights. You can hear my voice a couple of times pointing out the license plate number he calls out over the radio.
“We’re turning onto 22nd and Gilligan right now.”
Throwing the police car door open and immediately pointing the gun at the driver, the officer yells, “HANDS! HANDS! HANDS! HANDS! Let me see your hands.”
He spits on the ground, indicating at a minimum uneasiness, but possibly nervousness, fear or anger. I can’t help but wonder if this is how I would be treated if I forgot to turn on my headlights? Would results vary depending on how close I was to downtown vs. my East End neighborhood? Is there more to this story as to why the driver of a yet to be identified vehicle was approached as a threat instead of someone he was supposed to protect and serve?
The officer yells to the driver, whose car door is still closed, to “Turn off the vehicle now!” Just as the car door opens and the driver complies and shows his hands, the officer simultaneously hears his name called over the radio and answers her call, “2 Adam.”
“Is it a white Mercedes?”
“Negative, this is going to be a Honda CRV.” He spits again.
The driver is still seen showing his hands, but the delay is uncomfortable for everyone, including those watching the video. It’s clear no one knows why this man has been pulled over, including the officer, at this point.
The operator calls back to him the numbers he gave her prior to pulling the car over, “1-3-2-Zulu-Victor-Bravo?”
Wait, it’s not the right number? What car has this officer pulled over? Who is the driver?
As of the moment the officer shoots Brian Thurman, he was still waiting for the dispatcher to run the corrected tags. At no time during the 3-minute video is his car “reported stolen.”
Someone apparently decided it was okay to tell the media and their boss that the car was reported stolen, so she could tell the entire world a version of the story that would take the heat off — of the heat — who was packing heat. You get it.
OK, here’s where I am going to take you on a detour. Once you spot this you’ll know what I’m talking about. But in the psychology of cult leaders, this is not that uncommon. In fact, Scientologists have a name for it. It’s called “Shore Flap.” It’s the practice of allowing a team of people to control the narrative. It may not be the police themselves. It may be their union leadership. How do I know? Because I see the same dynamics in JCPS and the influence a handful of teachers’ union leaders can have over what the public thinks about its own public school district. Again, another detour. We will get to that story later.
Back to the very unfortunate and very unnecessary death of Brian Thurman.
While the uncomfortable delay continues, and while awaiting additional information about the vehicle in question, it looks like Thurman is trying to get out of the vehicle with his hands in view. The officer barks at the man to “Stay in the car. Don’t move,” which he does. Perhaps also panicking, he also closes the door, isolating himself and the passenger from what’s going on outside.
Dispatch asks his location. “2100 Block of Gilligan.”
“He pulled off on me. I got him stopped.”
“Stay in the car! Do not get out of the car.”
“Stop! Stop! Stop!”
At first you think the officer is barking at the driver again, but after you watch the video a few times you realize that the officer appears to have spotted a passenger, female, getting out on the far side of the vehicle. We also learn she had been instructed by the driver to do so. Probably because they were scared to death and didn’t know what else to do. No one had told them anything, and as far as we know, they had reached their destination and he was dropping her off in that driveway, unaware he was driving a car that had been reported stolen. Remember, that pesky “innocent until proven guilty” thing? That means giving them every benefit of the doubt until there can be a trial. If this had gone to trial. But of course, it can’t. Or can it?
As the lady walks toward the officer, who has been standing in the driver’s blind spot this entire time, gun still drawn, (still nervously awaiting information about who owns that car!), the car begins to back up into the path of the officer. Or should I say the officer begins to cross behind the car to yell to the woman to stay inside. She comes into view and we hear her talking back to the officer just as the car begins to move in reverse.
“Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!” I counted four more times.
Not being able to control the passenger, the driver, the car or his own body, and not being able to decide which of many correct tactical decisions to make first, he appears to panic and make none. Instead he waits until the car is upon him, knocking his body camera go the ground, and the only decision left is to shoot the driver of the car (which if you have watched enough Mission Impossible movies, you know killing the driver isn’t the smartest way to stop a moving car).
You hear him say “fuck.”
You hear five gunshots.
He calls it in. You hear him breathing heavily. Sirens start immediately.
Assistance arrives quickly. He directs them to the victim. He defends his actions by responding to his brother, “He ran over me with the car.”
The video stops.
Two hours later, Travis Nagdy, who put out the “all call” for his own force to oversee the crime scene, is dead, and Yvette Gentry is holding a press conference to inform everyone what happened during the shore flap. Someone either lied to her and she shared it, or she knew it was a lie when she said it. Does she know it’s a lie now?
Notice which story she leads with. The officer is hit by the car and the officer fires. She calls it a traffic stop.
Notice anything else?
She uses inflammatory and biasing words like “the officer is run over by the car.” Someone probably fed that to her with intention, as well. Repeating what is fed to you make a reporter’s job easier.
Right. Anything else?
She says the officer said he noticed the car driving without tail lights. She then went on to repeat the lie that apparently came from the officer’s mouth.
“And when he ran the info on the car, he realized the vehicle was stolen.” ~ Natalia Martinez, WAVE3 News
When? In the two in a half minutes from when he noticed the lights were out, to the moment Brian Thurman lay dead or dying in his vehicle, does the officer “realize the vehicle was reported stolen?”
Does Yvette Gentry know about this? Does Natalia Martinez know about this? Does the lady on the radio who was running the tags for a white Mercedes know about this? I don’t know how to find out without giving the corrupt brotherhood and the dirty cops more opportunities to spin their web. One thing I do know? The cop who pulled the trigger knows. And he knows who fed it to the media. Someone had better come forward with the truth before it gets out to the public. Fix this shit.
Meanwhile, we continue to allow ancestors and protectors of colonizers and white supremacists, who maintain control over their own records, to pick and choose which files to release, which evidence to make public, and which version of the story to tell. I would bet you a million dollars they are working behind the scenes right now to manufacture a plausible story so that by the time someone figures this out and starts to demand #JusticeForBrian, it will have been covered up, or explained away, or forgotten. Or will it?
Watch the evidence. Tell your friends. Help this story go viral.
Demand the police demonstrate when and how the car Brian Thurman was driving the night he was shot by killed by LMPD officer Harry Seeder was reported stolen. I’d do an open records request, but then they would know who was asking and I would become their next target (I probably already just did). Force them to own up to their mistakes, their shortcomings, their biases. Make them show us what’s in their hands and in their pockets without tampering with evidence, without delaying the release of records, come forward.
This message was sent via email to Board Member James Craig on Dec. 1, 2020, ahead of the Work Session on the Student Assignment Plan proposal discussion.
Good evening, James,
I wanted to reach out as your constituent, first to congratulate you on the tremendous strides toward equity and racial justice that the district is making under the collective leadership of you, Dr. Pollio and the rest of the board. I also wanted to express my support for the proposed changes to the student assignment plan, as well as some additional requests for consideration.
From the reconfiguring of the map and the addition of a close-to-home “no-application required” school choice for West Louisville students, to putting an end to push outs from our traditional schools and to resetting diversity targets, these changes are to be heralded and will no doubt improve situations and outcomes for many of our district’s most underserved students. We must continue to pursue them as urgently as possible.
My overarching concern with the proposal is that these changes still don’t go far enough, still lack “the notches in a new belt,” if you will, and as a result, still have potential to backslide and/or cause unintended harm. I know neither of us want that, which is why I wanted to continue bringing feedback and concerns from the community.
First, the district was very responsive to the earlier demands that were brought forward by the Coalition for the People’s Agenda, which is why we were pleased to extend our support for the tax increase (congratulations, again!). These demands still resonate as we move forward with the implementation of the student assignment plan. As a reminder they were “EARN”, or:
Evaluation and presentation of inequities in current plan, in its entirety. We have seen great efforts being made here and I was moved by the public forum that was held. However, this needs to be ongoing, intentional and more community driven. We would like to talk with you in the future about what that looks like going forward.
Anti-racist budget (divest from policing, testing, harmful curriculum; invest in counselors, smaller classes, recruitment/retention).
Resolution in support of the Coalition for the People’s Agenda and the movement for Black Lives. (Board Member Shull has offered to take the lead on this and the Kentucky Alliance Education Committee will consult. I hope you will support or even consider co-sponsoring it with him.)
No wholesale return to in-person schooling until it’s safe (safe from policing, racist teachers, and COVID). Would like to update you on some examples of how the internal investigations process broke down, and suggest a form of intervention/restorative practices with teachers who exhibit harmful behaviors.
As my board member, I would like to ask you to see if you can determine if there is any feasibility to implementing the following “emergency provisions” with the proposed changes expected to be voted on at the next board meeting. You see, these are barriers that have prevented, and continue to prevent, some of the proposed changes from happening organically, and the coalition believes that removing them prior to the start of the 2021-2022 school year would allow the district to ease into some of the proposed changes, and also right some of these identified wrongs even sooner :
“Dual resides for everyone!” Not just West Louisville students, but all students could automatically have Shawnee as one of their two choices. Simply providing dual resides for West Louisville students risks further resegregation, but offering that option to families outside of West Louisville might set the stage for “flipping the script” for further voluntary integration in the future. “More carrot, less stick.”
“Ban the box!” Remove the application barrier for families that do not have a resides school that is close to home while we wait for the dual resides plan to be fully implemented across all grade levels (and even now while learning is virtual). This is a barrier that disproportionately impacts black, brown and poor families and now that it has been identified, it should be removed without any additional study necessary. It, in effect, allows the district to baby-step into the dual resides plan, accomplishing the same end result, but during this interim could still leave the decision-making ability up to the school’s principal. It would simply allow impacted students to apply, when in the past, they needed a 2.0 GPA and no behavior or discipline issues. For our West Louisville families, these are hurdles that were likely exacerbated by the discriminatory system in the first place.
“Guaranteed curriculum.” Please research Marzano’s guaranteed viable curriculum to explore if this concept can be incorporated into the above implementation of dual resides, hubs or any other emergency situations as we try to mitigate the remainder of this school year without gaps widening any more than they already are.
I do hope there will be a way for the public to submit 3 minute videos or join the zoom meeting on the evening the board intends to vote on such a historic decision. During this extraordinary time we are living in, in the midst of a pandemic and as ground zero participants in the movement for Black Lives (with Breonna Taylor and many other victims of police brutality and corruption being JCPS graduates), and on this day our mayor declared racism a public health crisis, I am proud to bear witness to one of the nation’s leading urban school districts also leading the way. Let’s continue to be a shining example of how to deconstruct and dismantle structural racism in public education.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Gay
Gay Adelmann
Co-founder, Dear JCPS Co-founder, Save Our Schools KY Charter Member, Network for Public Education 2014 Governor’s Commonwealth Institute for Parental Leadership (GCIPL) Fellow Board Member, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression Chair, Coalition for the People’s Agenda Education Committee Decision-Making Council
Imagine a world where ALL children feel safe in their schools and not fearful of becoming the next victim of racial profiling or police brutality. Help us get the message to those who have the power to correct the injustices that our BIPOC students across this nation face every day.
Philadelphia Student Union Representatives write:
We are writing with a request to support our family at the Philadelphia Student Union. As you may have heard, Philadelphia police murdered Walter Wallace Jr, a young Black man in the middle of a mental health crisis, in West Philly, not too far from PSU’s office and the site of the MOVE bombing. Since then, folks have been mobilizing and protesting, including young people. The police, like they always do, have been violent against protestors. PSU youth have drafted a statement and continue to demand police free schools and the end of racist policing in their schools and communities. School policing is a violent system. Street policing is a violent system. PSU has known this first hand.
Over the past several months, Chris Kolb failed to return calls or meet with key Coalition for the People’s Agenda Education Committee representatives. In a Sept. 2, 2020 email addressed to 12 Black and Black-allied leaders who had expressed objections to not being able to be heard at board meetings since March in order to voice concerns about the proposed student assignment plan changes not going far enough (https://dearjcps.com/we-the-people-object/), he responded with:
“It is very difficult for me to imagine how investing over $50 million in West Louisville and giving families in West Louisville more choice will have anything but a positive impact on students and families that live in West Louisville.”
To which Tyra Walker, co-chair of the Kentucky Alliance replied,
“What is also concerning is for someone to think that putting $50 million for new schools and school choice is all the Black community wants. The Black community is woke and they see clearer than they have ever seen before. They understand that it is going to take more than money and new buildings to create equity and a quality education for their children/students. They want more and that is what [we have] been working towards.
Jody Hurt, on the other hand, has not only attended Coalition meetings, he has listened and expressed explicit support for the demands coming from these grassroots groups and would vote in favor of the Resolution in support of the People’s Agenda. For this reason, Dear JCPS endorses Jody Hurt, instead of Chris Kolb. If you live in the Highlands/Crescent Hill area and haven’t already voted, please consider a vote for Jody Hurt.
And if you’ve already voted, (or still insist on voting for Kolb), at least give him a call and ask him “WTH?” If you would like to read the email exchange in its entirety, you may request a copy by email at moderator@dearjcps.com.
Dear JCPS endorsed Chris Kolb in 2016, as evidenced by this opinion piece written by our co-founder, Gay Adelmann. JCTA and the Courier Journal did not. How ironic.
All eyes are on Kentucky! And on Louisville, in particular.
Not only is there national interest in unseating the Country’s Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who hails from our state, there’s also a badly needed tax measure on the ballot that will support racial equity in our public schools.
Just like the Kentucky Derby, once it starts, you won’t want to take your eyes off of us! Well, Kentucky began early voting across the state on Oct. 13, and mail-in ballots are also available. We have every indication Kentucky voter turnout will be high among all of our impacted communities. Jefferson County is home for half of the state’s Black population. And Black voters in Louisville are credited with the Governor’s narrow win in 2019. If positioned properly, this tax measure has the potential to drive a lot of Black and Black-allied voters to the polls, which could have significant impact on races up the ballot. Not to mention, there is a tea-party candidate running for our school board in District 7, who has been documented making anti-immigrant and anti-teacher comments, who thinks “privilege” is “politically correct bullkrap.”
We need all eyes on Kentucky! They may try to pull a fast one. You’ve seen our corrupt Attorney General and former Governor. These are folks with close ties to Mitch McConnell. With Breonna Taylor, a graduate from Jefferson County Public Schools, at the forefront of the movement for Black lives, and in particular Black female lives, Jefferson County is ground zero. This election creates a never-before seen window of opportunity to drive energized voters to the polls to bring meaningful change up and down the ballot.
In 2016, our organization successfully backed underdog school board candidates who vowed to hold the superintendent accountable. In 2017, we spearheaded a rally calling for her to step down, which she did. Since that time, Dear JCPS has been involved in successfully fending off many other predatory attacks, including a state takeover of our district, charter schools and vouchers, and removing ineffective and predatory public servants up and down the ballot. The 2020 election is no exception.
Please see the attached information regarding our grassroots organization’s position on the issues and candidates for the 2020 election.
The release goes on to explain that the decision-making council for the People’s Agenda has not yet held a vote regarding their position on the tax increase. One could come as early as tomorrow.
Have you ever questioned the JCPS school system? I’m going to share my story with you. Last year we decided to take our youngest son out of JCPS traditional school and put him into a private school. As the school began for this year I started receiving notifications that they had placed him as a student at Moore middle. I didn’t respond curious of how long it would take them to notice that he was not doing his school work. Long story short, yesterday I finally received a text saying that may son had not completed any work for this school year. I notified the school letting them know that it was very disappointing that it took them 7 weeks to notify me that my son had not did any work. Then I informed them my son was not even a student at their school and we have placed him in a private school. I thought that was the end of the story until today. Let me remind you my child does not go to Moore Middle and never has, today he received grades from Moore Middle!! They gave him a 60% for each week for four weeks. He does not even go to this school! The moral of this story is to be involved in your child’s education, no one cares about their education as much as you do. Ryan Bancroft
At another JCPS school, educators are instructed to give a 50% score, “even if a student has not attended a single class or submitted a single assignment.”
Could this be another harmful example of how in a system of “choice,” already punishing students and schools that don’t score well on high-stakes test scores, where disparities are exacerbated by a structurally racist student assignment plan, schools are forced to “compete” with each other? Could it be that administrators don’t want their low participation scores to show up on anyone’s radar? Is this a possible “work around” to prevent anyone from noticing that some of their students are falling behind?
Instead of a system that rewards players for their ability to pass the buck or sweep things under the rug, we need a system that empowers adults to stand up and advocate for our children. If not, why not?
Send your personal experiences to moderator@dearjcps.com. All responses are kept confidential unless we are instructed otherwise.
If you live in District 7 (see map), or know folks who do, we need your urgent attention! Chris Brady has decided not to seek reelection to Jefferson County’s 7-person school board and there is a dangerous candidate hoping to fill his seat. We need your help in making sure this does not happen.
Not only are Tammy Stewart’s attitudes dangerous to our non-white students and their families, her views about improving educational outcomes are misguided and proven ineffective.
As evidenced in this screenshot from a recent post where she is seen confusing privilege with hard work and life choices, stating privilege is “politically correct bullkrap,” she’s also been documented making anti-immigrant and anti-teacher comments.
“DEMOCRATS WANT TO GIVE ILLEGAL ALIENS EVERYTHING INCLUDING FLYING THEM BACK INTO THIS COUNTRY AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN DEPORTED! MURDERERS RAPISTS AGGRAVATED ASSAULT AND PEDOPHILES AND MORE. WHILE THE WHOLE TIME WE THE AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE PAYING FOR THIS! DAAAMMNNN!”
Additional red flags have been raised, from her late entry into the race, to frequent sharing of false news on social media, to the cavalier comments she made about reopening schools stating, “we’re all going to die from something.”
These types of statements are common from candidates who have often been recruited by the tea party and ALEC operatives, with close ties to Mitch McConnell and Matt Bevin, and have a history of predatory ambitions with funds intended for our public schools. We have successfully removed a number of these elected and appointed leaders over the past few years, but must remain vigilant if we hope to keep them at bay.
Wait, there’s good news!
Fortunately, there is an excellent alternative running in this race. Dear JCPS is honored to endorse Sarah Cole McIntosh for District 7. She is an educator and a JCPS parent. She cares about all of our students, knowing that solutions to our current public education crisis come from investing in and supporting our children, especially the most marginalized and vulnerable among us; not by labeling them, denying them resources and defunding our schools.
The public has been denied the opportunity to speak at JCPS board meetings since COVID forced all public meetings to be held virtually in March.
On July 16, Gay Adelmann and Tyra Walker met with Dr. Pollio over Zoom, to make him aware that a handful of powerful players were continuing to derail grassroots groups’ efforts to support the tax increase. Gay sent a follow-up text message to Dr. Pollio demonstrating these concerns. To date, there has been no reply to these text messages.
On Aug. 6, leaders from four Black-led and Black-allied organizations requested an “URGENT” meeting with Dr. Pollio to let him know we had concerns that the consulting firm’s strategy for the tax increase was out of touch with many in the Black and West End communities and could backfire. With major changes to the Student Assignment Plan anticipated to be voted on at the August 17 board meeting, it was imperative these voices be heard before that meeting.
A group of teachers and community members that has been calling petition signees to verify signatures are finding several petitioners who say they didn’t sign the petition and want their names removed.
Emilie McKiernan Blanton, a JCPS teacher and leader in the local teachers union, estimated that about one-fifth of people who have been reached by phone have asked for their signatures to be withdrawn.
The effort is not officially tied to the union, she said. Murphy said the district did not organize the coalition, either, but was aware of the effort.
On Aug. 11, the co-chairs of the Kentucky Alliance sent a request to district leadership to allow public comment.
On Aug. 17, we continued to express our concerns about not being heard, and invited allies to join us in next steps, which included reaching out to Board Members to demand Justice for Black JCPS Students. We learned that the Student Assignment Plan decisions would not be made at that time.
The findings come after a group of teachers and community members, not tied to an official union effort, found several people who said they didn’t sign the petition and wanted their names removed, The Courier Journal previously reported.
Multiple school board members said the analysis’s findings concerned them.
“It’s not clear to me that Jefferson County voters received a fair review of this petition,” board member James Craig said in a message. “This petition process seems to be completely devoid of any integrity. I am alarmed at what I’ve seen unfold during this debate.”
On Sept. 1, members of the Coalition for the People’s Agenda sent the following email to the JCPS Board, asking that it be included in the minutes: We, the People, Object!
Later that night, during the Sept. 1 board meeting, Dr. Pollio told the board and the public that a REAP had been done on the current student assignment plan, when in fact, it hadn’t. We published a summary here: Where’s the REAP?
I encourage folks to read the below article. Kolb’s response to the Coalition was insulting and paternalistic- you should be grateful for what we are giving you, be quiet and know your place-the tenor of his entire email was extremely disrespectful. I expected better of him. https://t.co/0xuLT7CIZApic.twitter.com/3ta2l4Gwdv
On Friday, Sept. 25, Dr. Pollio sent a text message explaining the misunderstanding and has agreed to conduct a REAP on the current, entire plan at the next Student Assignment task force meeting, but we still don’t know when that is. We are running out of time!
During the Board meeting, @JCPSSuper appeared to be responding to some of the Coalition’s demands for an “anti-racist budget” during the budget discussion, further defining the resolution that was passed on Sept. .
“New and innovative learning spaces in schools throughout the district, especially in West Louisville. We will be breaking ground on two schools this coming month.”
“New investments in our athletic facilities all over the district.”
“All of our AIS schools with more teachers, smaller class sizes, multiple mental health professionals in the school and social workers.”
“This is the work to provide those mental health professionals. I’d like to see three [mental health professionals] in each of our AIS schools, more time for professional development, and extended learning in our AIS schools.
Fund the racial equity initiatives, like bridging the digital divide, expansion of restorative practices across all of our schools,providing quality choice for every student in the district and expansion of our teacher residency program, so that our teacher demographics directly reflect our student demographics.“
“Finally, we’ll see 10,000 targeted students in summer learning programs to increase outcomes for students, especially in reading and math.”
On Thursday, Oct.1, we received an email from Dena Dossett letting us know they were planning to conduct the REAP at the Oct. 7 task force meeting.
On October 14, we met with the district’s communication chair and asked for introductions to the tax increase strategy team so that we could collaborate the last two weeks of the campaign. This effort has been hit or miss. Mostly miss.
On Oct. 21, this bombshell was dropped. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/education/2020/10/21/jcps-tax-petition-leader-theresa-camoriano-says-nemes-gave-her-access-to-republican-voter-database/5998019002/
JCTA decided not to rescind Jason Nemes’ endorsement.
In January, 2021, several rank and file teachers who have been less than complicit with the continued abuses listed above decided to challenge status quo and run for JCTA Board of Directors. When the election results were reported, some of those teachers filed a legal challenge to the election results, based on a number of factors.
A true story about microaggressions, racism and feeding the pipeline to prison.
“Dear JCPS,
Before I start to disclose the contents of the topic of this letter, I want to state that everything in this letter is a FACT! Not some hypothetical situation. Not some situation that happened somewhere else in America (although it could have). But this is a true story that happened in the not-so-distant past right here in Louisville, KY. While all of these facts can be proven (the very definition of a fact) as they are documented in various emailed documents to the district (making them subject to open records) and I have seen them with my own eyes, the name of the minor will be protected including adult names and locations. Furthermore, so that we are clear on the facts, I will provide other evidence such as photographs and policies from inside and outside of the district to substantiate the facts in this case.
A fifth grade black male student brought a disposable razor to school. The disposable razor was not out and the only reason anyone knew he had brought it to school was because he needed to get a pencil or piece of paper out of his locker. “
But why the mystery? Why wouldn’t the timeline they are organizing just follow the bylaws? Is it really that “unprecedented?” Or is it “going according to plan?” 
As evidenced in this screenshot from a recent post where she is seen confusing privilege with hard work and life choices, stating privilege is “politically correct bullkrap,” she’s also been documented making anti-immigrant and anti-teacher comments. 
