[Please note that this report was written from memory. None of the few notes I took before leaving the auditorium were used in this report. That is in case the unusual order of the School Superintendent, Dr. Jeffery Young was a valid constitutional order.]
Graham and Parks School
For those who enjoy spread sheets and statistics, here is a link to the Massachusetts Department of Education report card for the Graham and Parks School for 2013.
http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/reportcard/rc.aspx?linkid=37&orgcode=00490080&fycode=2013&orgtypecode=6&
In Massachusetts the state government is dominated by Harvard University which boasts a $32 billion endowment. Cambridge City officials ignore city ordinances and state laws in order to better serve the wealthiest university in the nation. Enter into this milieu a young middle school teacher who enjoys viewing child pornography. He's arrested with no help from local police or state police, whose mission lately is providing protection to marathon runners.
Each day hundreds of illegal immigrants from Mexico and China swarm across open borders in violation of U.S. laws, which are intentionally not enforced. Drug laws are sporadically enforced. But in Cambridge, MA two days after the Boston marathon with saturation police troops protecting runners from terrorism, the Cambridge middle school held a meeting to sooth the anxieties of the parents and staff of the school.
Dr. Jeffrey Young,
Cambridge School Superintendent
What was on the minds of city officials, voters and taxpayers? I arrived early and sat in front so I could see the faces of the speakers and hear what they said. It was Wednesday April 23, 2014 at the Graham and Parks Alternative School at 44 Linnaean Street. The meeting was chaired by the Cambridge School Superintendent. It is not known who ordered the meeting. Six school committee members, two city councilors, the Police Commissioner, the Assistant City Manager for Health and Human Services, and some employees of the U.S. Attorney's office were present. The City Manager arrived later. The meeting began at 6:02 PM. Before Dr. Jeffrey Young, Superintendent, went to the podium, a parent came to me and said, "I don't recognize you. Are you a parent?" I said "No." She said "This is not a public meeting. It is only for parents and staff."
The conformity of Cambridge residents is appalling. It is very apparent at MIT, Harvard University, and among city officials and voters. The desire to conform and obedience to authority is extremely strong among youth, students, faculty and administrators, at the universities and among public officials.
This was evident at the public/not a public meeting at the Graham and Parks School to discuss the arrest of the teacher for possession of child pornography. There I was under attack by the superintendent of schools, the principal of the school (who has a PhD. from Harvard University), and a parent trying to get me to leave the meeting. And there was silence from the 100 or so people in the auditorium. Not one person said "We want to have this issue discussed by as many people as we can. It is a shameful fact and it needs the attention of everyone whether they are parents, staff, residents of the city or not." But not one person, none of the highly taxpayer funded, who take a sworn oath to uphold the constitution and laws of the state and the United States, spoke out. Job security kicked in to over ride their oaths. Even for parents who took no oath.
The concerned censor parent was making it up. The police commissioner is not school staff. Nor are City Councilors, School Committee members, the City Manager, Assistant City Managers, or the U.S. Attorney's employees. I said "I think it is a public meeting." She urged me to leave. I declined. Then Dr. Young came over to me and repeated her request to leave saying "This is not a public meeting." He promoted his standard for a public meeting saying, "There is no notice posted at city hall that makes it a public meeting."
I told him, "I disagree with you. That is not the definition of an open meeting." I again declined his invitation to leave. I told Dr. Young, "If the Police commissioner asks me to leave I will leave. Otherwise you will have to carry me out." I was not going to fight with the police, even if he was wrong. But especially if I was wrong.
Citizen's Guide To Public Comment
[From the Cambridge School Committee web site on public comment]
The School Committee meetings operate under rules which were adopted to improve information to the public, make it easier for parents, guardians and the public to both follow and comment on issues before the Committee, and make meetings more accessible to the public.
[source]
http://www3.cpsd.us/SchoolCommittee/Guide_Public_Comment/
No one questions why it took the U.S. Attorney to bring charges of pornography possession, or illegal videotaping. Police arrest citizens who exercise First Amendment rights to videotape the police acting in their official capacity. That is an abuse of power contrary to law. Why wasn't Massachusetts state police and local police watching this teacher? Are public school teachers immune from surveillance? If the teacher was being watched he would have been caught earlier, maybe before he was hired by the Cambridge schools.
The FBI blames the Russians for not telling them everything the Russians knew about the terrorist brothers from Dagestan and Cambridge, who placed two bombs at the Boston marathon. A government task force determined it was the Russian's fault for not telling the FBI everything they knew. Hello? After Russian security forces told the FBI of their concern about the brothers, the FBI found they were no threat. But the FBI and police keep me under surveillance, harassing me, ridiculing, humiliating, threatening and insulting me. They tamper with my home computer, disturb my sleep and my communications. Public safety priorities in Massachusetts.
Sarah Fiarman, Principal
Ad for Graham and Parks School Principal
Salary: $105,339 - $115,736
Work Year: 210 Days
Benefits:
Health Insurance (82% employer paid)
Dental Insurance (100% employer paid)
Life Insurance
Sick Leave
Personal leave
403(B) Annuity Plan Option
Dependent Care and Medical Care Flexible
Spending Accounts (FSA) MTRS Retirement Plan
The school principal, Sarah Fiarman, PhD. Harvard University Graduate School of Education, came over to me and asked me to leave. I just sat there. I was beginning to think maybe they are going to reveal where the missing Malaysian plane was hiding. I suggested to Sarah Fiarman that she speak with the police commissioner, repeating that "If he asks me to leave I will. Otherwise I am staying." There were four members of the Cambridge School Committee sitting next to one another. Pat Nolan, Alfred Fantini, Mervan Osborne, and Kathleen Kelly. The Mayor is the chairman of the School Committee. Mayor David Maher was in the auditorium. Also nearby was Richard Harding another school committee member. There were six members of the school committee that I could see. How could I know if they were or were not deliberating? If the meeting was only for staff and parents, why were the politicians there?
Pre-meeting negotiations ended and the actual meeting began. Dr. Young gave his summary of the previous meeting held on Saturday April 19, 2014. He said there are parents here today who were not present on Saturday. He added there are representatives from the U.S. Attorney's office present. He did not say if they were attorneys. More likely they were PR flacks. He gave out the web site for the U.S. Attorney for anyone who wanted more information. He said that the U.S. Attorney's office will not answer any questions. Usually they say, "It is an ongoing investigation."
So here was a meeting allegedly for the parents and staff of a public school attended by school committee members, city councilors, the police commissioner, assistant city manager, the City Manager, the U.S. Attorney's office and they are trying to keep it a secret private meeting. Was this part of the cover-up of the tragedy of Benghazi? Dr. Young said, "We are not trying to keep this a secret meeting." No? The underlying cause of the meeting was an arrest of a teacher at the school who is charged with possessing child pornography. He taught previously at a Somerville, MA school. Is this an issue of public importance? One parent excused the school because he had no CORI record. CORI records are accurate? One more misguided blind belief in computer files.
It is curious that Cambridge parents reportedly (in an article in the Cambridge Chronicle) excuse the schools for hiring this young man who allegedly loves child pornography. They say that he had no CORI record. This is problematic on two counts. One is that government computer data files are notoriously flawed. One estimate was that the NCIS federal data base has 40 percent wrong warrant entries. CORI is a state file.
The second problem is that CORI files are being relied on for making hiring decisions for teachers in a middle school. Hello? Anyone home? Do they no longer do formal face to face interviews? Are there no background checks besides looking for CORI records? Is that why so many high ranking academics have no degrees because the hiring institutions seldom check to see if they have a degree, or worked where they said they did at the job they claimed?
CORI should be a part of it, but with some skepticism. It is all too easy to alter files and to use them for purposes other than for what they were created. I've seen police enter a name that they made up in order to ensure that there was no record of an event. Hackers can enter Defense Department computers. They've been doing it for many years, even when the Cold War was still on. It is a simple matter to alter CORI files, without employing a person who maintains the files. I cannot believe that so many parents who live in Cambridge MA remain clueless about the security gaps in computer systems. It is the same group which believes what politicians say.
Too many people who live in Cambridge believe that if something does not appear in The New York Times it did not happen. It leads to situations like this event, where the government controls what information gets out to the public.
The Superintendent told me "The Cambridge Chronicle is not present." I said "I don't know that." I did not ask "Why not?" Then while speaking to the assembly he announced that a Boston Globe reporter agreed to leave on Saturday while the U.S. Attorney's office representatives discussed their investigation in private with the parents. He asked if there are any members of the media present. I did not raise my hand. U.S. Courts ruled that all citizens have the same First Amendment Rights as professional journalists. But I did not tell the Superintendent. Then he said, "We have an unofficial member of the media here, a blogger."
He called me a "blogger." How dare he? He showed no respect for me as a person. "A blogger?" What does that mean? That is when he told the audience about the spineless Boston Globe reporter at the Saturday meeting, who left when asked. It was getting more ridiculous by the second. He was joined by the school principal, Sarah Fiarman, talking about my presence, wasting time, trying to shame me into leaving. He repeated his personal opinion of what makes a meeting answerable to the open meetings law. I again said, "I disagree with you. That is not what state law says."
One way to end the standoff was to get elected officials out of the room. Then I had a weakened case. So, on behalf of the Superintendent, I said, "I'll make you a deal. If all of the elected officials leave the room I will leave."
School Committee Member Richard Harding yelled out ,"OK, Roy, lets go." They all got up and walked out of the auditorium. I joined them for some conversation at the auditorium entrance. One school committee member said "We were not deliberating."
I said, "That doesn't matter."
James Maloney,
Cambridge Public Schools’ Chief Operating Officer
When Mr. James Maloney, Chief Operating Officer of the Cambridge Schools, gave out copies of the agenda, he did not give me one. I did not want to beg, and did not ask for one. While the elected officials and I waited for the U.S. Attorney's office to finish its presentation, Mr. Maloney took the elected officials aside to speak with them in private.The Open Meetings Law describes that as an illegal means to thwart the Open Meetings Law. Speaking to one elected official at a time is no different from talking to them all at once. What did Mr. Maloney reveal to the elected officials that he did not share with me? Was he deliberating with them one at a time?
Here is a pattern of the U.S. government imitated in Cambridge. Governments are run for the benefit of government employees, no longer for taxpayers and voters. The staff and political appointees wanted to explain to parents, who experienced trauma, what was happening and why government was not to blame. Barring independent minds with no interest in the proceeding makes it possible to control the dialogue, to ensure that discussion was limited to areas which showed the bona fides of the government and allowed the bureaucrats to escape accountability for negligence or misguided policies. I waited to hear Dr. Young blame George Bush for the trauma of the parents and staff.
Waiting for the end of the U.S. Attorney's private briefing, I discussed the issue of bullying noting it was only of concern when it was students doing the bullying. I asked one elected official, "What's the difference if it is a policeman, a teacher, or a psychiatrist, doing the bullying?" He added "Or a school committee member doing the bullying." He agreed with me. I do not know if he was patronizing me. Wait a minute. Wasn't what Dr. Young did to me an example of bullying? The Superintendent of schools demanded that a citizen, who he called a "blogger," leave a meeting in a public school, about the arrest of a teacher for possession of child pornography. And the school principal too. Wasn't that the kind of bullying which they say they abhor in their schools? And what about the parent who demanded I leave. Is she a bully too? Shame.
A school committee member asked me "Where are you from?" Barnyism alive and well in Cambridge. If you are not a native you have no right to attend public meetings or to tell us how to run our meetings. I mean who do you think you are? Do you think your constitutional rights travel with you wherever you go? You need to ask permission from us. We do not know you. Why should we trust you to enjoy constitutional rights and freedom. You might do or think or say something that we or our highly paid psychiatrists do not like. If you were born in Cambridge even if you do not live in Cambridge, you get benefits from city taxpayers because you are from Cambridge.
School Committee Member salary is $32,000 per year, according to Pat Nolan.
After a short while someone announced the U.S. Attorney's office, whoever it was, finished their presentation. They said it was OK to return to the meeting. I said "This is a better story."
In constitutional terms, the doctrine of prior restraint holds that the First Amendment forbids the Federal Government to impose any system of prior restraint, with certain limited exceptions, in any area of expression that is within the boundaries of that Amendment. By incorporating the First Amendment in the Fourteenth Amendment, the same limitations are applicable to the states.
[. . .]
Blackstone summarized the law in a famous passage:
The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter when published. Every free man has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this, is to destroy the freedom of the press;
[. . .]
But the doctrine that no previous restraint of publication could stand against the First Amendment was never challenged. Thus, the concept was elevated to the status of constitutional principle.
[Source]
1-1-1955
The Doctrine of Prior Restraint
Thomas I. Emerson
Yale Law School
In 2014, two days after a massive police presence was stationed along the Boston marathon route to protect free expression and association of marathon runners, the Cambridge public schools superintendent tried to eject me from a meeting about a matter of great public importance, the arrest of a middle school teacher for possession of child pornography. The superintendent, the principal, and a parent, tried to force me to leave. But Dr. Young also said that I must agree not to share my notes with anyone else. That is called prior restraint in the law courts. How delicious. Not even The New York Times respected the U.S. government demand not to publish the Pentagon Papers when Richard Nixon was President. But Dr. Superintendent wanted me to agree not to share my notes before even taking them, about a meeting about the arrest of a public school teacher charged with possession of child pornography.
More evidence of how abusive public officials are and how they express their contempt for the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the state. Selective enforcement of local, state and U.S. laws is accepted by these control freaks. This was an attempt to thwart gathering and distribution of information to citizens based on a misguided interpretation of the Open Meetings Law. Under the Obama-Holder doctrine laws may be ignored if they do not have a beneficial effect on friends of Holder-Obama. In Cambridge laws are optional. Harvard University and public officials have exemptions from all state, local and U.S. laws. I decided to make a stand. The police commissioner did not direct me to leave, indicating I was right. I was not going to argue with the police commissioner, even if he was wrong. One school committee member said "They will give you a standing ovation when you go back in." I said "This is a better story."
Here's what attracted my attention to this meeting. I wondered what the standards are for public safety priorities. At the pre-meeting negotiations, the school principal, Sarah Fiarman, and the Superintendent, Dr. Young, pleaded with me to respect the feelings of the parents and their trauma. Trauma? A teacher was arrested for possession of child porn. He took time from his busy schedule to place a camera in a school in Somerville, where he taught before coming to Cambridge. On his own initiative he made time to collect pornographic images from the internet. No child in Cambridge is alleged to have been impacted by the images he collected, or the video taping. If they were, the child would maybe have experienced a traumatic event. But the parents? The staff? Trauma? More like outrage.
Does the Open Meetings Law say anything about feelings, respect or trauma? Those are terms of the human services industrial complex (MA State Rep. Marie Parente's term). This is how the psychiatric industry tries to implement the therapeutic state. Everything becomes a mental illness in need of treatment by, alas, psychiatrists who are omniscient, and morally superior to ordinary humans. Always thinking about increasing the client base. Are these psychiatrists also MBAs from business schools? Unlike Nazi doctors, and Stalin's psychiatrists, American psychiatrists (are believed to) have had their genes cleansed of mendacity, greed and sadism. They are 100 percent altruistic. Except they do get paid with taxpayer funds in this case. Many of them work for non profit corporations or the government. They are paid good taxpayer funded salaries.
The fact that city officials repeatedly showed disrespect to me over the past 20 years remained out of the discussion. I did not explain that police keep me under 24/7 surveillance and harassment for 43 years. Why wasn't anyone watching this teacher while he was collecting child pornography on his computer? He admitted placing a camera in the Somerville public schools capturing images of the children. Why wasn't anyone watching him? Why am I being watched and harassed for 43 years?
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