During a community meeting this morning, Ms. Lucas and several other community leaders educated parents regarding the fact that gangs within Henrico County Public Schools are taking full advantage of the lazy administrators, central office staff, and school board members that refuse to enforce the county’s student code of conduct, specifically as it relates to the dress code.
A gang specialist from Chicago, Illinois that was brought in by Lucas Educational Consulting to educate the over one hundred parents, grandparents, community leaders, and students that came out; talked about how dangerous failing to enforce the student’s dress code is within schools.
“Gang members are taking full advantage of the irresponsibility and violations of school officials when they refuse to confront students that are violating the dress code. In many cases, these are inexperienced, naive, and uncaring adults that are ignorant to the rampant gang presence and activity that is going on right under their noses inside of their school buildings. The gangs count on the adults not taking them seriously so that they can continue to recruit, intimidate, and even commit serious crimes within the schools.”
Ms. Lucas shared an account of how, as an educator, she warned Andy Armstrong, Rolfe’s principal, about the gang activity that was going on at John Rolfe Middle School. She shared an email that she sent to Armstrong, Morton, Royal, and all of the school board members. In the email, she advised them of the fact that gang members were taking pictures of themselves with cell phones in the classrooms. They would then down load the pictures to their school-issued computers, print the pictures out on school-issued printers, then distribute the pictures throughout the school as intimidation and recruiting tools. The students were pictured throwing up gang signs in various classrooms where teachers were visibly present.
Lucas shared that when she presented the information to Armstrong, Morton, and the school board members, no action was taken against the students that engaged in the gang-related activity or the teacher that left them unsupervised to commit the code of conduct violations. Instead, Lucas was given a written reprimand for emailing the incident with supporting documentation to Armstrong.
After seeing the email and hearing Lucas’ account, the audience was enraged by the continued carelessness of Armstrong, Morton, and the board members. Some parents even recognized the students in the photographs as students that they had filed complaints against with Armstrong, but no action was taken. One parent asked, “what is it going to take for this idiot to get the message that there are gangs at Rolfe Middle School that are recruiting our children? Why isn’t he or any one of those board members doing anything to stop them? Why is it that Ms. Lucas was removed from the school for exposing them but these gangs were allowed to stay and keep breaking the law by harassing my child and the others? When I spoke to Armstrong about this, he said that he would get back to me and that the gang students were no longer at the school. Ms. Lucas showed us that they were still there. Why did he lie to me? Why is he and the others protecting the gangs and not our children from the gangs?”
The parent then agreed to join the class action suit, adding yet another charge against Armstrong, Morton, and the school board for gross negligence regarding the welfare of children. He went on to say, “now, thanks to Ms. Lucas, we have the proof that they knew that the gangs were there and did nothing to protect my child or anyone else’s. Now we know why they went after Lucas so, because she exposed them for not protecting our kids when they were lying to us saying that they did.”
The Community Council for Integrity In Education, CCIE, has recruited over thirty families for the class action suit that is developing against Henrico County Public Schools and each school official personally. The spokesperson for the community advocacy group, Ms. Lucas, has shared that the organization has received over one hundred requests from parents throughout the district, from elementary to high school, from parents, students, educators, and administrators; to have their cases reviewed.
“We are a centralized method of communication for so many that have been abused and neglected by Fred Morton and the school board for years. Never in a million years would we have expected to have so many inquiries for the class action against the district. There are even parents, students, and educators that have contacted us that have left the district, but have heard about the class action and want to join in order to hold Morton, the board, and many others accountable. The accounts are a disgrace to Henrico County and the district, but now, it is time for us all to come together and fight these bullies on behalf of justice for our children and their futures. The support and assertiveness of all those involved is awesome! So many people have shared their appreciation to us for giving them a voice and giving them their pride back after Henrico schools had taken away their humanity for just speaking out and wanting better. It is a blessing to be part of this revolution that they cannot stop no matter how they try! The goal is to have all of the cases reviewed by the fall, but we continue to have so many more coming in from the East and West Ends, especially from families of students with special needs. We plan to help all of them and be the voice that they never had. The sad part about it is that if Morton had not been such an idiot, then the needs of these families would have been met, but neither he, nor his cronies, nor the school board cared enough to hear these people or value them as stakeholders. So now, they pay in court.”
Email CCIE with your case at ccie_henrico@yahoo.com.
KEEP UP THE NERVE FOR OUR CHILDREN!
