The following email was sent to Dear JCPS. We are publishing it with permission from the author, amid what appears to be emerging as a systemic and pervasive pattern of discrimination that has been allowed to fester in a number of our schools under the previous administration. By sharing this former Manual student’s testimony with our followers, our hope is that this type of behavior can be eliminated from our schools once and for all, so no other students or staff will be subjected to similar treatment. Dear JCPS encourages JCPS to take swift action and send a clear message that discrimination, in any form, will not be tolerated.

Dear JCPS,

If I might offer another opinion in the discussion over Principal Mayes, I would like to say that he and I are the same age and we grew up in a Louisville that was just emerging from a drunken
Bacchanalia of segregation and homophobia. I was indoctrinated, programmed, hard-wired in a culture that everyone now finds appalling, offensive, racist, insensitive: barely beyond the primitive first step of Brown v. Board, and LONG before LGBTQ could even dream of being open about the truth they were living in secret – and I attended Louisville public schools in which my generation began to adjust to a new day. I attended Atherton in the day when the Rebel mascot was a confederate soldier: only in my senior year, did we realize those days were over, and belonged in the past. We changed the confederate Rebel to a Minuteman. Can you believe that? It wasn’t so long ago. I believe Principal Mayes is working from a place of good intentions, but perhaps is, like I, still struggling under the weight of the recent, and pretty gruesome past. I can’t speak for his experiences, but I have had the experiences of living for a few years in Africa, Harlem (Sugar Hill), and Hollywood – and I believe a few of the scales have fallen from my eyes. These racial/lgbtq bootcamps (for me) have helped me grow, but that has taken time and effort on my part. I believe my prejudices and biases – which I received in Louisville in my mother’s milk, so to speak – are not cured, but I like to think they are in remission.

My experience with Principal Mayes is that there has never been malice in his mistakes – or what I perceive as his missteps. I would tend to err on the side of charity, as I remember clearly the times in which I grew up – but my experiences have not been those of the other letter writers.

Sincerely,
Dr. Randolph Wieck
teacher, duPont Manual

The views expressed here are those of the author. We share it with our followers because transparency and accountability within our district remain our primary focus. If you or someone you know has had a similar experience with leadership in a JCPS school, you are encouraged to submit a letter using our open letter form.

Below is the statement that was shared by @JCPSKY Board Member Chris Kolb at the 11/7/17 school board meeting. We are posting it here with his permission. Dear JCPS is collecting opinion letters regarding the JTown incident and SROs in schools, and we will be posting a compilation of them over the coming days. Click here to submit your open letter.

We encourage an open and respectful dialogue on this topic so that the district will be in a position to make the best decisions possible regarding the safety and well-being of our students, ALL students, including those who are most susceptible to the pipeline to prison.

From Chris Kolb
JCPS Board of Education
Member, District 2

Unlike almost everyone else in the city, I have had the ability to watch the video of the entire series of incidents at J-Town High School in their entirety. There are five different video cameras that captured different pieces of the event.

In this case, there was a completely routine altercation between two students in the cafeteria. No punches were ever thrown. The sum total of the physical contact between the two students is one push. The altercation between the two students is something that happens every single day in high schools all over the country. Should kids push each other and argue in an aggressive way? No. Are kids inevitably going to push each other and argue with each other? Yes.

Shortly after this push between the students, one of the J-Town (non-SRO) police officers rapidly escalated the situation, thereby creating a huge disturbance that put several hundred children at risk. Had that officer not inserted himself into the situation, I am completely confident that school staff would have kept the situation under control and de-escalated the tension, as they are very experienced in doing.

Law enforcement is only supposed to intervene when there are laws being broken, not in routine disciplinary matters. This officer clearly violated JCPS regulations by involving himself in a disciplinary matter. The officer’s actions were completely uncalled for and he put kids and JTown staff at risk. The Board of Education approves all contracts with law enforcement, and I will be advocating that the Board cancel our contract with the J-Town police because they violated the contract and, in so doing, put kids and staff at risk.

Definitive research into school discipline tells us that law enforcement in schools is like a security blanket. They make some people feel safer but they don’t actually make the school safer. For instance, one of the speakers at the Board meeting on Nov 7 who works at J-Town related that there are multiple doors open to the school that allow unauthorized people into the building. This is at a school with an SRO. I’m afraid I have to ask, if the SRO can’t even make sure the doors are locked, how effective are SROs? When law enforcement is in a school, we tend to neglect other more important aspects of security, thinking, “The cop is here so if anything happens they’ll take care of it.”

Our agreement with the J-Town Police Department emphasizes that law enforcement in our schools are there to create positive relationships between students and law enforcement. It’s difficult for me to imagine how having police in schools will create a more positive experience for many of the students who had a taser aimed at them or witnessed their friend being slammed to the floor without provocation, pushed, and shoved by J-Town PD officers.

Many people have asked, don’t we have to hold kids accountable for disruptive behavior? Absolutely. But we also have to recognize that kids are going to be disruptive. Some more than others. They’re kids. And there are proven ways to hold kids accountable for disruptive or violent behavior that do not rely on overly harsh and violent mechanisms that rely on excluding kids from school through classroom removals or out-of-school suspensions. Thankfully, Dr. Pollio sees the value in these mechanisms and is fully supportive of them. More importantly, however, what message are we sending about accountability if we completely fail to hold adults accountable for extremely poor and reckless decisions. Incomprehensibly, the J-Town Chief of Police concluded in a matter of a few hours that an investigation into the incident at J-Town was not even necessary, eliminating even the possibility of accountability. This is an inexcusable act of negligence and JCPS simply cannot do business with an organization that does not value accountability. If we did, what message would we be sending kids about accountability?

The sad and predictable irony of having law enforcement in schools is that they often cause the very problems they are ostensibly there to prevent. In this case, extra J-Town officers had been assigned to the school (by whom is unclear) due to a horrific instance of violence that occurred in a neighborhood home to many J-Town students. Watching the video of the incident at J-Town, it is abundantly clear that had those extra officers not been there, that nothing but a routine argument between students with no punches thrown is all that would have happened.

Given the excessive length of this post, I’ll have to leave that for later. However, I have been advocating for alternative and more effective means to make schools safer for over five years, dating to before I was on the Board. Thankfully, JCPS is finally in the process of implementing these strategies in several schools. Unfortunately, they have not yet been implemented in J-Town. I will advocate that J-Town be put on a fast track to implementation. I will not apologize for making decisions based on hard facts, evidence, and research about what is best for kids.

To conclude, I’d like to share an email I received from an expert on these issues. This expert asked that I not share their name for now since they don’t know all the facts about J-Town and they didn’t want to take any chances on their comments being misinterpreted. With their permission, I fused together two of their emails below, adding the second one to make his support for law enforcement clear. (Blanks below represented redacted text.)

Dr. Kolb,

I applaud your efforts in support of a “review” of the current system of local police officers assigned to our public schools. From what I have read, you raise legitimate concerns.

My name is __________. Most importantly, I have close ties to JCPS, with family members working in the District and a grandchild attending an elementary school.

Second, I am a retired lieutenant from the Louisville Police Department (now LMPD), former teacher with JCPS _________.

Due to my wife’s work transfer, we moved to __________ where I served as Director of Security Services for 7/12 years with __________ Public Schools, the largest in __________, at that time serving approximately 72,000 students. While in __________, I earned my doctorate in Educational Administration from __________. I then served as a college professor for 13 years before returning “home” to Louisville, __________.

I just share this bit of background with you because I dealt with some of the issues that arise when contracting with local police agencies to provide security to the schools. So many times, often with the best of intentions, conflicts between law enforcement and public schools create more problems than are solved, including the “loss of control” by the school district over the officers who work for a different agency, often with a very different mission.

I am more in the camp of schools providing their own security, along with establishing a close relationship with law enforcement through reporting of incidents and demanding professional response when called upon.

I urge caution. When a horrific incident occurs in a school or as we have seen this weekend, a church, many will call for an increased presence of armed officers in schools. But, is this what we want for our society?

I want to point out that as a former police lieutenant, I am very supportive of law enforcement. I want to encourage a positive relationship between the various police agencies in our community and the schools within their jurisdictions. My past experiences were “just that” at __________ and __________ High Schools. But, I admit that was several years ago (__________).

Certainly, anywhere in our communities, we would like to have a police officer present when a tragic event occurs (the church this past weekend), but police can’t be everywhere. Even with an officer present (Columbine High) these horrific acts occur.

Best to you in review of the current policy and system.

The following email was sent to Dear JCPS. We are publishing it with permission from the author, amid what appears to be emerging as a systemic and pervasive pattern of discrimination that has been allowed to fester in a number of our schools under the previous administration. By sharing this former Manual student’s testimony with our followers, our hope is that this type of behavior can be eliminated from our schools once and for all, so no other students or staff will be subjected to similar treatment. Dear JCPS encourages JCPS to take swift action and send a clear message that discrimination, in any form, will not be tolerated.

Dear JCPS,

I’m one of the many students coming forward about the issues being caused by Jerry Mayes, principal of the magnet school duPont Manual High School.

I tried to file a complaint with the HRC in May of 2016, with many allegations against Jerry Mayes. You see, I was president of the school’s Gay Straight Transgender Alliance and it was very clear that he had issues with us. I’ll list the following things I feel he did wrong in order:

• Repeatedly pushed Christian ideology in a public school environment
• Kept certain clubs from handing out flyers/meeting information at student registration
• Let Christian clubs reserve larger meeting spaces at the expense of other, more ‘liberal’ clubs
• Tried to keep the Black Student Union from forming in 2014-15, using the slur ‘wigger’ to defend himself
• Censored the yearbook as to not include ‘too much’ intersectionality; wouldn’t let the cover of the 2016 yearbook be a gay couple holding hands
• Pulled me out of class REGULARLY to discuss things with me that were either a distraction or not time sensitive
• Asked me to keep a domestic abuse/student being outed and abused at home situation quiet from EVERYONE, including other teachers/my club sponsor/my parents after asking me for advice on the matter
• Regularly dropped hints that he would ‘out’ me as trans and queer to my father, who he saw in public
• Monitored the meetings of the GSTA regularly, outed and undermined students during meetings, and threatened to shut us down
• Asked transgender students in private without any other faculty support in the room about their genitalia and medical history

Seeing as most of these things happened within my senior year at duPont, I would not be surprised if they continued to happen. I think it’s of the utmost importance that Jerry Mayes be reviewed in his position at duPont Manual High School before more accounts like this happen. If more dates and specifics to events are needed, I’ll be more than happy to provide those along with any eyewitness accounts of what I witnessed during my time at duPont.

Thank you so much for your time,

Oberon Waters

The views expressed here are those of the author. Because a copy of this email was also sent to district leaders, its contents are a matter of public record, subject to discovery under the Kentucky open records act. We share it with our followers because transparency and accountability within our district remain our primary focus. If you or someone you know has had a similar experience with leadership in a JCPS school, you are encouraged to submit a letter using our open letter form.

The following email was sent to @JCPSKY Board Members and Superintendent, with a copy to Dear JCPS. We are publishing it with permission from the author, amid what appears to be emerging as a systemic and pervasive pattern of discrimination that has been allowed to fester in a number of our schools under the previous administration. By sharing this parent’s testimony with our followers, our hope is that this type of behavior can be eliminated from our schools once and for all, so no other students or staff will be subjected to similar treatment. Dear JCPS encourages JCPS to take swift action and send a clear message that discrimination, in any form, will not be tolerated.

Dear JCPS,

I’m Keni Brown, a parent of a DuPont Manual High School graduate. I am writing to express my concerns regarding Mr. Jerry Mayes, principal at Manual High School.

I’m writing because I have heard through the Manual community that Mr. Mayes is intimidating and threatening students, and being insensitive to the diversity of the student population. I experienced this first hand as a parent at Manual with Mr. Mayes. It was so terrible that I escalated my concerns to the public relations officer for JCPS at the time. Because it was not long ago, several parents and students know of the issues that occurred; and have shared with me the stories that are occurring now at Manual.

My daughter, Jahne Brown, was a student at Manual High School and graduated in May 2016. In Mr. Mayes’ first year as principal at Manual, Jahne asked to start the school’s first Black Student Union (BSU). We had no idea at the time that encouraging her to pursue this idea would cause years of intimidation by Mr. Mayes.

Before starting the BSU, Jahne had to get a teacher to sponsor the organization. Her sponsor was a Manual Jornalism & Communications teacher. The teacher signed the appropriate paperwork required to start the student organization. When the paperwork went to Mayes for approval, Jahne was called into his office by him. This is when the trouble began. Mr. Mayes told my daughter, who was 14-15 years old at the time, that starting a BSU is equivalent to introducing weeds into good crops and would kill everything. He told her there was no reason for black students at Manual to have representation or need a club of their own. He told her that she was part of the problem with black students at the school.

When Jahne shared this information with me, I contacted Mr. Mayes by phone. Mr. Mayes insulted me and my child during the conversation. Some of the things he told me included:

• He asked me if Jahne’s father was in the home and his profession. Because she was misguided. I told Mr. Mayes that Jahne’s father is an Electrical Engineer who encourages his child to pursue her dreams.
• To that he responded, he adopted minority children. He can’t be racist. Black parents like me are a problem because we don’t give back to our communities and adopt black children.
• Jahne should be taught to accept the status quo. We are raising her to be a woman that won’t be liked and people would perceive as angry.
• He told me that if she started the BSU he may have influence over whether she could participate in other extracurricular activities.

After talking to Mr. Mayes, I advised him that he could no longer speak with Jahne without the presence of an adult. He continued to do so multiple times and pulled her out of class to give her his personal opinions of the Black Student Union. The issue became so bad, that I advised Jahne that whenever Mr. Mayes contacted her or tried to talk to her, that she should ask the BSU sponsor to go alone or go along with her.

The BSU sponsor attended multiple meetings with Jahne and took copious notes where Mr. Mayes insulted or demeaned her, the club, and abused his authority. The issues did not stop with the BSU.

Jahne was also a staff member and later editor in chief of the Manual yearbook. The students wanted to profile a transgender student. Mr. Mayes came to the yearbook class and told them they could not publish the article because they were profiling a misfit who was going through a phase. He said that the lifestyle was wrong and that the students would be punished if they pursued the article. He threatened the two Journalism and Communications teachers who taught the yearbook classes and sponsored them in the afternoon at the time.

I am writing all of this to say that Mr. Mayes is not a first time offender. He has a history of using his authority to demean students of color. He has abused his power to threaten kids who have no recourse. He has a history of pulling students out of the learning environment to impose his personal beliefs.

I have been told that Mr. Mayes is telling students that he started the Black Student Union. I am shocked and appalled to hear this after I know first hand how Mr. Mayes took time and energy to personally harass my child for years. He should not be allowed to remain in place at Manual, or any school.

I am sure that my daughter Jahne would be happy to share her experience with you. She is currently a student at the University of Chicago. We are so happy that with our support and the support of caring teachers that Jahne was able to persevere. Unfortunately, every child doesn’t have the support system our child has; and Mr. Mayes is influencing their view of the world, themselves, their value, their place in this world and their ability to impact positive change.

Thank you for taking time to read my very lengthy email and to hear my concerns.

Best, Keni

The views expressed here are those of the author. Because a copy of this email was also sent to district leaders, its contents are a matter of public record, subject to discovery under the Kentucky open records act. We share it with our followers because transparency and accountability within our district remain our primary focus. If you or someone you know has had a similar experience with leadership in a JCPS school, you are encouraged to submit a letter using our open letter form.