Mark Abramson — Journalist and Writer

Education Clips

Department of Defense schools exit from Model UN — http://www.stripes.com/news/dodds-schools-exit-from-hague-model-u-n-event-causes-stir-1.91376

Students name history’s most important person — http://www.stripes.com/news/students-oskar-schindler-is-history-s-most-significant-person-1.91330

Student gets medal from congressman — http://pleasanton.patch.com/articles/pleasanton-teen-earns-congressional-awards

School board votes to retain Washington teacher
Board reverses previous decision not to extend his contract

Redwood City Daily News

April 11, 2007

By Mark Abramson

Daily News Staff Writer

After weeks of discussion, the Burlingame School District Board of Education voted in closed session Tuesday to keep Washington Elementary fifth-grade teacher Evan Brock.

The decision reversed the School Board’s actions on March 15, when they voted behind closed doors not to retain the well-liked teacher for the 2007-08 school year. The board was initially supporting Superintendent Sonny Da Marto’s and Washington Principal Robert Clark’s recommendation not to keep him with the district.

Tuesday night’s announcement by Board President Dave Pine drew a loud applause and cheers as his co-workers and parents of his students congratulated him.

Brock said the only reason he was given for being released was that he was not a “good fit.” And union officials with the Burlingame Education Association have said Brock does not have any disciplinary action on his record.

“I’m so happy,” Brock said immediately after the board announced its decision.

“I was maybe expecting a call this evening or an e-mail tomorrow morning,” Brock said after the meeting. “It has been an emotional roller coaster.”

Brock said the ordeal devastated him because he thought he would have to look for another job and leave a community he has come to love, and the town he recently bought a condominium in. This is his second year teaching in the district and teachers are given tenure and its protections when they enter their third year.

When asked about what it will be like to return to Washington when the principal recommended against him being employed by the district next year, he said, “I can’t speak to that. I plan on being as professional as I always have been.”

Fellow teachers, parents and even students, who signed a petition urging the district to keep him, backed Brock. Parents circulated a petition as well and submitted it to the board via e-mail and in a hard copy. It is unclear how many people signed each petition.

“The parents are really looking to the board to do the right thing,” one parent who did not want to be identified said before the meeting.

Parents credited Brock for his abilities to make learning fun with his creative skits in which children reenacted history lessons.

“Their support never wavered and the situation has gone on for six weeks,” Brock said. “The parents continued to persist and get me back on with the district.”

E-mail Mark Abramson at mabramson@dailynewsgroup.com

 

 

Police Chief apologizes to protesters

Lompoc Record and Lee Central Coast Newspapers

August 9, 2006

By Mark Abramson

Flanked by a battery of TV news cameras, Lompoc Police Chief Bill Brown and other city officials Tuesday night admitted they mishandled a March 31 student immigration protest and apologized to students and their parents.

“As the head of this organization, I take full responsibility for what occurred on March 31 and I apologize to you,” Brown said as he sat next to City Administrator Gary Keefe and Deputy City Attorney Matthew Granger in a crowded City Council room at City Hall.

The public apology and discussion meeting was part of a legal settlement reached between the city, Lompoc Police Department and students, who were cited after they walked out of class to protest. It was brokered by the California Rural Legal Assistance Inc.

City code allows students to be out of school if they are exercising their free speech rights. Brown said police thought they could avoid violating the code by stopping the protest before it got started.

“These actions were not taken to suppress free speech or in any way minimize the rights of students of the immigration community,” Brown told the audience.  “In hindsight, however, we regret what happened.”

Apologies by Brown and Keefe met with a mixed reaction in the room.

Elizabeth Reyes Velazquez, a parent and unofficial spokeswoman for the Hispanic community, said she was satisfied with the apology.

“This was about an apology,” she said. “They made it clear it was a human error.”

Cabrillo High student Sofia Pent, 16, who was handcuffed by police, also said she was satisfied by the apology despite the physically painful ordeal.

Guadalupe Rivera, 16, also a Cabrillo student who was detained by police, was less forgiving.

“I’m not satisfied,” she said, saying that Brown tried to minimize the officers’ behavior. “We were treated like criminals.”

Guillermina Alejandra said through her daughter/s interpretation that she believed Brown was being untruthful when he told the audience that the decisions were made by one of his subordinates.

Brown said that the day before the protest, school district officials asked police to intervene and cite students for violating the city/s daylight loitering ordinance.

Police rounded up, cited and detained 63 students, videotaped and photographed them and took many of them to the police station in a school bus. Students were later released to their parents.

Keefe apologized for the city’s role in the incident.

The settlement calls for the citations to dismissed and all record of them to be erased. Brown said all evidence in the police department’s possession, including photos and video, have been or will be destroyed. And a letter was sent Tuesday to the home of every student cited explaining that.

Brown said he has issued a memorandum to officers to satisfy a requirement that officers be trained in First Amendment rights. He also said that exception 11 in the city code that allows students to exercise their First Amendment rights now will be interpreted to include student actions prior to any actual protest.

After the formal comments, Brown circulated throughout the room, speaking with media, parents and students.

He said he was struck by how hurt members of the Hispanic community were by how the situation was handled.

“In hindsight, I think we could have not cited the students,” he said.

The Lompoc Unified School District has declined to settle with the students. As of Tuesday afternoon, 16 students and their families had filed claims against the district, an action that could lead to a class saction lawsuit.

CRLA Attorney Jeannie Barrett, said she wished the meeting could have been more open and people would be allowed to ask questions during it, rather than afterward. Still, she credited Brown will fulfilling the terms of the settlement.

“I have a lot of respect for anyone willing to get up and say I made a mistake,” Barrett said.

Mark Abramson can be reached at 737-1057 or mabramson@lompocrecord.com.