February 8 - February 14, 2016
Page 9
THE LOUISIANA WEEKLY -
YOUR MULTICULTURAL MEDIUM
Carver High broke special-education law for excessive suspension of student
Sentence reduce for cop who burned remains
eNEW Sci Tech used special-ed
esignation for cash, state report finds
for torching the remains of Glover
in a car. But last week, U.S. Judge
Lance Africk reduced his sentence
by more than five years.
McRae was one of four officers
charged with covering up the death
of Henry Glover.
Officer Warren and several
other NOPD officers had their
convictions from 2010 thrown out
by a federal judge after it was
made public that several key fed-
eral prosecutors from the U.S.
Attorney’s Office had posted
comments about several active
DOJ cases on Nola.com.
Judge Africk said Thursday that
he didn’t believe that McRae’s
mental state prompted him to burn
the car or McRae’s claim that he
didn’t know the car he burned con-
tained the victim of a police
killing, the sentence reduction was
the result of an obstruction of jus-
tice charge being thrown out by the
appeals court,
Nola.com
reported.
Warren, who admitted to shoot-
ing Glover but said he did so in
self-defense, was acquitted in fed-
eral appeals court in 2013.
After Glover was shot in the mall
parking lot on Sept. 2, 2005, a
good Samaritan gave him a ride to
an elementary school in Algiers that
cops were using as a makeshift sta-
tion after Katrina. William Tanner,
the good Samaritan, said he, Glover
and others who showed up at the
station were beaten and roughed up
by cops who separated them from
Glover. Tanner testified during the
trial that that was the last time he
saw Henry Glover alive.
Glover’s remains were placed in
Tanner’s car, which was abandoned
on the Mississippi River levee and
burned by McRae. Someone later
returned to the grisly crime scene
and removed Glover’s skull from
the charred vehicle. The skull has
still not been returned to the family
for proper burial.
Defense attorney Mike Fawer
argued in court Thursday that
McRae burned the car because he
was suffering from post-traumatic
stress and that he did not know that
the homicide victim in the car was
killed by a police officer.
Rebecca Glover addressed that
assertion after the hearing, telling
reporters, “(McRae) knew that my
nephew was shot” by police.
“Everybody knew.”
“Henry is still dead and nobody
has been convicted for murdering
him,” Rebecca Glover, the vic-
tim’s aunt, said after Thursday’s
hearing in federal court.
She also told reporters that the
family plans to speak with D.A.
Cannizzaro soon to talk about the
Orleans Parish District Attorney’s
Office pursuing state homicide
charges against former NOPD
Officer David Warren.
The Glover family, community
activists and supporters stood out-
side the federal courthouse and
held a large sign that asked “Where
is justice for Henry Glover?”
“Ten years after Hurricane
Katrina there is still no justice in
this city and state,” the Rev.
Raymond Brown, a community
activist and president of National
Action Now, told
The Louisiana
Weekly
. “This a sad day for justice
and a sad day for Black people in
New Orleans seeking equal protec-
tion under the law.
“This decision is also a great injus-
tice for the family of Henry Glover,”:
Brown added. “We will continue to
stand with the family and demand
justice for Henry Glover and all vic-
tims of excessive force and unconsti-
tutional policing.”
Brown said he was not surprised
by Judge Lance Africk’s decision
to reduce McRae’s sentence, say-
ing that many community activists
believe Africk is “pro-police.”
“It looked like (Africk) had
already made up his mind before
hearing both sides’ arguments,”
Brown explained. “While we are
not at all pleased with the judge’s
decision, we hope that he doesn’t
further reduce the sentence when
lawyers for McRae come back a
year or so from now seeking anoth-
er sentence reduction.”
“It’s clear that neither the police
department, D.A.’s Office, U.S.
Attorney’s Office or the courts are
functioning properly or in accor-
dance with the United States
Constitution,” Ramessu Merria
men Aha, a New Orleans busi
nessman and former congression
al candidate, told
The Louisiana
Weekly
. “Since the mishandling of
the NOPD consent decree, it’s
been obvious that we can’t depend
on the U.S. Department of Justice
to protect our constitutional rights
or guarantee us equal protection
under the law.
“As W.C. Johnson, a longtime
freedom fighter on the front lines
in New Orleans, has been saying
for years, we need a Constitutional
Convention to make the changes
that are necessary to protect our
rights,” Aha added. “We also need
to make our case to the United
Nations and make the global com-
munity acutely aware of the human
rights violations routinely taking
place in New Orleans and other
parts of the country. We need
everyone on deck with this cam-
paign, from the elders who have
been organizing for 50- or 60-plus
years to the young warriors who
are just getting started in the ongo-
ing struggle for liberation, justice,
equity and self-determination.”
Nola.com
reported that when
asked how she felt about the
reduced sentence for the cop who
burned her son’s remains, Edna
Glover said, “It isn’t going to bring
back my son.”
Additional reporting by Louisiana
Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.
◊
Continued from Page 1
education student and its recom-
mendation to expel, according to
the notice from the state.
By district policy, the adminis-
tration had five days to get the
necessary paperwork to the city’s
centralized Student Hearing
Office. But it took them nearly a
month. The school’s expulsion
recommendation of Sept. 24 did-
n’t arrive at the hearing office
until Oct. 22. The hearing office
denied the expulsion request.
In that time, the school didn’t let
the student attend classes, and feder-
al law limits students receiving spe-
cial-education services to 10 days of
suspension per academic year.
In total, the student missed 24
days before the first half of the
academic year was over.
The student was not allowed to
return to school until Oct. 29,
according to the notice. The stu-
dent missed 21 instructional days
in this incident. Tack on a prior
one-day suspension and a two-
day suspension in December and
the student missed 24 days as of
the Jan. 6 notice.
It’s not the first time Collegiate
has received unwanted attention
for its discipline practices, draw-
ing parent protests in the fall of
2013. In 2012-13, the network’s
three schools had the highest sus-
pension rates in the city.
The school serves about 425
high school students on its Read
Boulevard campus in eastern
New Orleans, and it earned a C on
the state accountability report
card issued in November.
The department issues notices of
breach when charter schools violate
the state’s charter school perform-
ance compact. In order to avoid
harsher penalties, which could
include charter revocation, schools
must complete a series of corrective
actions specific to their problems to
return to good standing.
In this case, Collegiate had to
develop a plan to make up special
education minutes owed to the stu-
dent and outline a plan to educate
staff about the Student Hearing
Office’s policies and timelines.
According to a Jan. 29 letter from
the
department,
Collegiate
returned to good standing after
meeting its Jan. 15 deadline.
“We are thankful to our partner-
ship with LDOE and for them flag-
ging a situation that needed imme-
diate attention,” school spokes-
woman Zoey Reed said via email
Tuesday. “We have put proactive
measures in place to ensure this
doesn’t happen again.”
Reed said she could not put
The
Lens
in contact with the student’s
family due to privacy laws.
The Lens
received the notice
after submitting a state public
records request for all notices o
breach and notices of concern
issued to charters schools
between Nov. 1 and Jan. 14.
It took the Department o
Education three weeks to
respond to
The Lens
’ Jan. 14
request, well beyond what stat
public records law allows.
In that time, the state was in
touch with the ReNEW Schools
charter network about what
would become a notice of breach
just issued on Friday. That, too,
was because of problems with
special education.
This article was originally pub
lished
by
The
Lens
(thelensnola.org), an independ
ent, non-profit newsroom serving
New Orleans, The Louisiana
Weekly enjoys a partnership with
The Lens
.◊
By Marta Jewson
The Lens
George Washington Carver
Collegiate Academy charter high
school got in serious trouble earli-
er this year for suspending a stu-
dent with disabilities for nearly
five weeks, more than double the
time allowed by law.
The Louisiana Department of
Education told the Collegiate
Academies board it was in breach
of it charter contract for violating
federal law. The school returned to
good standing last week after com-
pleting corrective action pre-
scribed by the department.
The sanction was in the middle of
the three available to the state
Education Department if a charter
school has significant financial,
academic or organizational issues.
It can also issue a notice of con-
cern, which is essentially a written
warning, or it can begin a review
process aimed at revoking the
school’s charter.
The school’s problem stems
from its suspension of a special-
By Marta Jewson
The Lens
ReNEWSciTechAcademy violat-
ed special education law, robbing
some students of special education
services, and also committed state
testing violations last school year,
according to a state-issued report
released Friday afternoon.
The improprieties have put the
organization at risk of losing its
six schools if it doesn’t meet the
state’s specific reform goals by
mid summer.
In short, the leaders of the school
said some students needed extra
help, which comes with extra
money in the state formula. But
they then didn’t provide those stu-
dents with the benefits, using the
money instead to shore up a
$300,000 budgeting problem.
The Lens
first reported trouble at
the 750-student elementary school
on June 1, days after two SciTech
leaders abruptly resigned amid
questions over testing procedures.
The Louisiana Department of
Education began an investigation
into the school shortly thereafter,
and over the course of six months,
made four primary findings. The
department
found
ReNEW
SciTech fraudulently obtained
funds, failed to comply with many
aspects of federal IDEA law, and
violated testing procedure in the
2014-15 school year. The depart-
ment also found ReNEW’s internal
processes failed to identify and
address the violations.
The school received its charter
through the Recovery School
District. Patrick Dobard, the super-
intendent who leads that district,
said the department did not find
that the violations were systemic
across the ReNEW network.
The network is now under a cor-
rective action plan that includes
providing make-up special educa-
tion services to dozens of students
who did not receive appropriate
instruction last year.
The report states SciTech school
leaders inflated the amount and type
of services those students needed, in
an effort to bring in additional fund-
ing. The funds were used across the
school and not dedicated to the stu-
dents with disabilities.
“The school also attempted to
fill its budget gap by newly identi-
fying students as having special
needs,” the report states.
While reviewing 76 student files,
the Department found “that 55% of
the students received only partial
services and 25 percent received
none of the services.”
The school also violated state
testing policy. School leaders
encouraged a few staff members
to inappropriately view state test
materials after the tests were
taken, Dobard said.
The report states one teacher
was asked to “look through a
completed math booklet exam for
the purpose of knowing what to
focus on for next year.”
In an interview days after the
May resignations, then-CEO Gary
Robichaux told
The Lens
that
school leaders allowed students to
take internal exams multiple times
and in some cases at home. At that
time Robichaux said he did not
believe the included state testing.
The department does not think that
cheating extended to state testing.
“So it did not affect student per-
formance as we are aware that year,”
Dobard said. “but they did look at
the materials inappropriately.”
The investigation ultimately
resulted in a notice of breach, a
warning the department issues to
charters that don’t comply with
their agreement.
The network has a deadline of
June 30 to meet specific corrective
actions the Department has outlined.
This includes making up special
education minutes owed to students.
ReNEW must hire a monitor and
state department liaison. The depart-
ment named James Meza, the for-
mer superintendent of Jefferson
Parish. A contract must be finalized
by the end of the month.
If the network fails to meet the
terms of the corrective action plan
it risks losing its charter.
There will not be financial penal-
ties from the RSD as a result of the
misuse of money. However, the
report will be turned over to the
U.S. Department of Education and
state Inspector General.
Last fall, the ReNEW board met
behind closed doors to discuss alle-
gations of misconduct. It’s unclear if
the discussion was about SciTech,
but executive sessions to discuss
such topics are extremely rare.
This article was originally pub-
lished
by
The
Lens
(thelensnola.org), an independ-
ent, non-profit newsroom serving
New Orleans, The Louisiana
Weekly enjoys a partnership with
The Lens
.◊
