| In a better world, inadequate school administrators and teachers would be educated in how to perform their duties. They would be taught to understand their obligations under the law. Unfortunately, many public office holders, school administrators and union leaders in California value their personal careers over the future careers of children. |
| Why I Created this Site: |
| Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD) in San Diego County, California, is one of many districts where this has happened. Problems at CVESD were caused by the Big Three on the school board (Patrick Judd, Pamela Smith, and Larry Cunningham), and by former administrators Libia Gil and Richard Werlin, who worked closely with corrupt teachers' union (CVE) Presidents Gina Boyd and Jim Groth and their personal friends and allies. These individuals harmed students and teachers at Castle Park Elementary School, in violation of the law, and with callous disregard for students, parents and teachers. |
| Let's Fix Our Schools! |
by Maura Larkins
| mauralarkins.com |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
SAN DIEGO EDUCATION REPORT
| Some people in these positions have worked together to permit each other to violate the law and to keep the status quo because it protects their power. Unfortunately, keeping the status quo prevents improvements in education. |
| Lawyers are paid this money to prevent documents from being produced in court cases, to prevent depositions of individuals with knowledge of wrongdoing, and to perpetrate frauds on the court. "Don't prepare a paper trail, and if you do, don't release it even if the court demands it," seems to be the advice to districts of SDCOE Joint Powers Authority lawyers. While there are many excellent teachers and administrators in Chula Vista Elementary School District, the fact remains that individuals who have violated the collective bargaining agreement, the Labor Code, the Education Code, and other California Codes, for the purpose of maintaining their personal power, are still calling the shots in the district. When will this change? When we replace corrupt school board members & corrupt teachers union leaders with citizens who are not in anybody's pocket. Maura Larkins Former student (in the 1950's) and teacher at Castle Park Elementary School, Chula Vista |
With the help of the now-infamous
San Diego Municipal Employees
Association ("MEA") lawyer Ann
Smith, who advised Tim O'Neill on
how to violate labor law and get
away with it, they covered up their
wrongdoing.
Those in power continue to this
day to practice rigid top-down
control, and are determined
to preserve the current balance of
power at any cost to the
taxpayers, students, teachers and
themselves.
Speaking of cost, in several court
cases each year, hundreds of
thousands of taxpayer dollars
which should have gone to
educating children have been
misused by San Diego County
Office of Education's lawyers to
protect the guilty.
San Diego Municipal Employees
Association ("MEA") lawyer Ann
Smith, who advised Tim O'Neill on
how to violate labor law and get
away with it, they covered up their
wrongdoing.
Those in power continue to this
day to practice rigid top-down
control, and are determined
to preserve the current balance of
power at any cost to the
taxpayers, students, teachers and
themselves.
Speaking of cost, in several court
cases each year, hundreds of
thousands of taxpayer dollars
which should have gone to
educating children have been
misused by San Diego County
Office of Education's lawyers to
protect the guilty.
| I saw the harmful aspects of school culture two decades before I got targeted. Teacher culture is part of the reason that schools are failing. |
| My case was the result of an odd confluence of circumstances, and at the same time it was a typical event in the system that prevails at many schools across the United States. This system values politics and personal loyalty among adults over the duty to educate and protect children. Teacher culture is surprisingly similar to high school girl culture. Adults in the school hierarchy value each other above taxpayers and students. Administrators, of course, are usually former teachers, and masters of school politics. My problem at school started with a family problem: I was co-administrator of my father's estate, and one of my brothers, unbeknownst to me, was not happy about it. He and his ex-wife decided to use the police to remove me from my position. A false report to the police by my mentally-ill and substance-abusing ex-sister-in-law (see "A false police report" on this page) is the reason I was fired after 27 years of teaching at Chula Vista Elementary School District. But the district didn't want to admit this, since using the illegally-obtained police report (no charges were filed against me) was a misdemeanor. It was a silly little misdemeanor (Labor Code section 432.7), and there's no chance it would have resulted in problems for the district, but apparently the district would rather suborn perjury and spend $100,000s of tax dollars to cover it up than to simply admit it made a mistake. I was removed from my classroom on February 12, 2001. The reason given was that two teachers had called assistant superintendent Richard Werlin at home on a Saturday evening and said they believed I might be planning to kill them. I was told to stay at home. Oddly, the district created NO DOCUMENT at this time to explain the reason I was removed from my classroom. Later, the district said that only one teacher had called Richard Werlin that night; the other teacher testified that she had simply called Werlin at his invitation to discuss a planned meeting. A month and a half later, I sent a fax to the district. The next day I was abruptly asked to return, and the district then prepared a document to explain why I had been removed from my classroom. The document relied on a new, completely false accusation by the human resources director that had nothing to do with my having been removed earlier. I went back to teach because it seemed clear that my accusers had been deemed unreliable (either crazy or dishonest), and I assumed that the fabricated excuse in the document was merely an effort by an embarrassed human resources director, Richard Werlin, to cover up his mistake. |
| But I was wrong. It was more than a cover-up; it was, in fact, a set-up. A week after returning, one of the teachers who had accused me earlier, and a new accuser, came forward with bizarre allegations. |
| I did not know it at the time, but the teachers union, Chula Vista Educators, was supporting my accusers. CVE President Gina Boyd did not share the motivations of the teachers at Castle Park Elementary, but she was an old friend of Robin Donlan, the secret instigator of the entire brouhaha. More importantly, Boyd did not want to risk the wrath of a powerful clique of teachers just two months before the union election she was planning to win. |
| A hysterical frenzy had been triggered at my school, fomented by Richard Werlin with the approval of the cabinet (including Libia Gil and Lowell Billings). A staff member at my school told me that many teachers were afraid that I was "going to come to school and shoot everybody. Without making any effort to establish that a Columbine-type event was not in the offing, the district demanded that I come back to work in September of 2001. This time I refused. This time my lawyer demanded an investigation to clear my name and cool down the crucible that Castle Park Elementary had become, but the district refused. I pointed out that anyone could make any accusation against me, and it would be believed and acted on: I was not safe at work. Attorney Mark Bresee of Parham & Rajcic had been working with Richard Werlin up to this point. When I filed a tort claim on October 4, 2001, Diane Crosier and Rodger Hartnett of San Diego County Office of Education Joint Powers Authority and attorney Daniel Shinoff of Stutz, Artiano Shinoff & Holtz became involved. I filed 3 grievances on November 13, 2001. The very next day the district threatened me with dismissal. This was a violation of several laws. The district took no action on its threats, however, until I filed a lawsuit on March 12, 2002. On May 7, 2002 Patrick Judd, Cheryl Cox, Pamela Smith, Bertha Lopez and Larry Cunningham voted to dismiss me, thus violating California Labor Code section 1102.5 which prohibits retaliation against employees for reporting wrongdoing. This was also a violation of the constitutional right to petition for redress of grievances. My dismissal was upheld by an Office of Administrative Hearings judge (H. James Ahler) who conducted a hearing that was almost as comical as it was illegal. At one point Judge Ahler jumped up and ordered the panelists to join him in a side room, where he told them to disregard my testimony. I heard this because I was sitting a few feet away on the witness stand. The court reporter and all the rest of us sat at attention during the ten minutes the panel was in the little room, but the judge's words were not included in the transcript because the reporter couldn't hear them. |
| The school district spent many tax dollars, and the California Teachers Association spent plenty of teachers' dues, to get my lawsuit thrown out. Quite a bit of perjury was required and was committed, and finally the effort was successful. My lawsuit was dismissed in 2005. But Stutz, Artiano, Shinoff & Holtz, the district lawyers, were kind enough to bring this case back to San Diego Superior Court in 2008 by filing a defamation suit against me for publishing this website. It's possible that justice and sanity may yet find their way to Castle Park Elementary School. |
| Education Reform Talking to Kids Homework Book Boondoggle? Phonics Spanking Nat'l Board Certif Ordinary People Writing Sample Toss Democracy School Violence |
| P. S. If my case had been a fluke, I wouldn't have pursued it in court. In fact, my case is the direct result of an unhealthy power structure in schools that devotes huge amounts of tax dollars to preserving its power. The system that CVESD and similar districts relies on mediocre (or worse) teachers who use politics to keep their positions. They are loyal to administrators and board members with shockingly little understanding of education, finance, or the American legal system. The only thing they seem to understand is that their lawyers will help them get away with just about anything--if they paid enough. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| Distrito escolar de Chula Vista insistió que la profesora Maura Larkins regresara a trabajar aún siendo peligroso para ella . . . Reporte de Maura Larkins de Castle Park Elementary: Yo fui despedida porque falté a trabajar. Mi razón era que mi escuela era peligrosa para mí por acoso en mi contra. Yo dije al distrito escolar de Chula Vista en 2001 que era necesario que hicieran una investigación sobre el reporte de las dos maestras en mi escuela que me acusaban de que yo las iba a matar. Claro que el distrito debía de haber investigado algo tan serio. ¿Dos profesoras reportando que temían por su vida? Pero el distrito nunca investigó. Ahora, después de siete años, todavía hay problemas enormes en Castle Park Elementary. El problema NO es que alguien va a matar a alguien. Eso fue mentira. La realidad del problema es que profesores sin honestidad y sin respeto están arruinando la escuela. Han tenido 11 directores en 11 años (septiembre 1997-septiembre 2008). Los profesores están fuera de control. Ahora el distrito CVESD debe de hacer la investigación para que Castle Park Elementary pueda funcionar normalmente. En 2001, sin investigar nada, el distrito me invitó a regresar a trabajar. Obviamente, eso es una prueba de que no creyó a los maestros. Yo regresé y una de las mismas profesoras que mintió la primera vez, hizo otra queja falsa, y me mandaron a mi casa. El acoso continuaba. Luego el distrito quería que yo regresara otra vez sin ninguna investigación y ninguna garantía para mí. Pero yo tuve miedo de que los maestros hicieran más mentiras contra mí, por eso no regresé. Luego yo hice una demanda en contra del distrito. Entonces el distrito me despidió en contra de la ley, Labor Code section 1105.2. También fue en contra de la constitución de nuestro país, que dice que todos tenemos el derecho de pedir ayuda del gobierno cuando alguíen nos hace daño en contra de la ley. Ahora ya es tiempo de no seguir ocultanco la verdad. Es hora de resolver los problemas, y de que la verdad salga a flote. ¡Nuestros niños de Castle Park Elementary lo agradeceran! ¿Si los maestros tratan así a adultos, cómo tratan a los niños? Urge una solución. |
| Case summary for Maura Larkins v. Richard Werlin and Chula Vista Elementary School District, et al |