We have receipts. I reached out to Gilbert Corsey and several attorneys today. I am blown away what I just discovered. Let me see if I can calm down long enough to make a note about what stands out to me in this video.
But first, I need to ask for the public’s help. I have been collecting names and stories of victims of the JCPS structurally racist machine since 2012. JCPS continues to deny that these problems ever happened, much less, that they are STILL happening. JCPS Employees, Parents and Students who have experienced any of these things, please complete the survey at the bottom of this page.
It “Issues of discrimination, harassment, retaliation and racism in Metro Parks. Our WDRB Investigates team uncovered three years of complaints.”
As part of their Silent Settlement series, the city’s “chief of community building” agreed to do a sit-down interview with Gilbert Corsey.
Keith Talley took over in October of 2021. The complaints go back to 2019.
One employee was promoted after they outed a co-workers’ HIV status.
Marty Pollio took over as JCPS Superintendent in February of 2018. Many of the cases that I’ve been advocating about began after that time. We met with Dr. Pollio and made him aware these things were happening. We can document it. He disregarded our warnings.
“Penitentiary” was nickname for one parks facility, because of the high number of people of color who work there.
When Corsey asked Talley what an employee should do when they experience discrimination and find the escalation process to be inadequate, Talley says they should just keep pushing, keep advocating for themselves.
“Respectfully, that didn’t work though. That didn’t work,” Corsey says. The silence that follows is palatable.
Audit said their policies lacked internal control.
“The gap allowed managers to investigate themselves.”
Uh, whut?
Boy, that also sounds familiar. We have receipt after receipt where the district’s internal investigations team gave favorable treatment to white teachers accused of racist behaviors. Meanwhile, they were providing cover for those who sought to destroy the careers of Black educators who DARED stand up for Black children who were being physically and emotionally abused, not to mention, denied their free, quality public educations and the services that go along with that. We have screenshots of threats directed toward teachers who stood with Black educators from protected and emboldened racist white teachers, which equate to confessions of their transgressions. We have testimonials from these victims revealing how they felt when they realized their eyewitness accounts had been altered and misconstrued in the final reports.
In tonight’s Facebook livestream, I talked about how I met with Black maintenance employees and agreed to do an open records request to try to visualize their claims so their concerns and allegations of racial discrimination could be addressed, but my efforts to gather race-related data through the open records process were not only unsuccessful, they were followed by attacks by my own JCPS Board member, James Craig.
No one is ever held responsible. Just like how the city spokesperson would not acknowledge there was a problem with racism, and still won’t, the district conducts their own investigations and, of course, sides with the mostly white, racist teachers. Just like Dr. Pollio, Mr. Talley is masterful at maintaining “plausible deniability” by claiming he doesn’t know about the abuses or if anything’s been done, because he hasn’t seen the email or the results of the investigation.
WATCH OUR FIRST EPISODE OF OUR NEW PODCAST: PLAUSIBLY UNDENIABLE
If you or someone you know has experienced discrimination, retaliation or racism from Jefferson County Public Schools, and found the grievance and protection process to be inadequate, please let us know. You may be invited to join a class action lawsuit. Attorneys who may be interested in representing us, please contact Gay Perry Adelmann at moderator@dearjcps.com. Thank you.
Complete the SURVEY here.