LASD Masks Their Infighting

[XLFD]

Back on September 21, the article Masquerade at the School Board was released detailing a 'special' meeting of the Ludington Area School District (LASD) Board where I reproduced what happened, the public comment I made, and the following observation:

"The reason for the meeting was also masked, when the agenda finally came out this morning, it reflects what he said at the meeting.  It said that a closed session was going to be held to consider a Title IX appeal.  Title IX deals with sex/gender discrimination in schools in reference to activities or education... This does not appear at face value to justify a purpose for going into closed session legitimately."

When one looks at the agenda provided, one does not see who is the subject of the meeting that asked to have a closed session.  The Attorney General's Open Meetings Handbook and other resources point to the purpose in section 8(a) of the Open Meetings Act (OMA) referencing a 'named individual'.  The LASD Board's agenda and their ultimate vote did not mention anybody's name.  They have yet to publish minutes at their website, so it is unclear whether they came out of the meeting and finally named the individual.  I doubt whether they did, because they failed to state in their motion who additionally would be allowed to be in the closed session with the board, and subsequent records acquired through the FOIA indicate the participation of the accused. 

These records indicate Erik Bratschi (above) a contact for LASD's maintenance department lodged a complaint against Tyrone Collins, the LASD operations supervisor.  So as not to mischaracterize the complaint here's what it said, it's brief:

That and other records that will be put forth can be found here.  Superintendent Jason Kennedy wrote back the same day to Bratschi, sending it also to 'Title IX Director and Compliance Officer' Randy Fountain who would serve as the investigator for this complaint.  He included two sections of LASD policies that may apply to the case as he understood it.

By August 17, Kennedy had received and reviewed the results of that investigation and noted the interviews with Bratschi, Collins, and Chris Hagerman, another maintenance person.  

Hagerman's interview turned out to be more significant; he confirmed the 'boyfriend' comment and that Collins language was prone to be unprofessional and often profane.  He couldn't, however, recall Collins ever going against Bratschi's work restrictions or refusing help to him.  Kennedy would make the following decision:

Kennedy would suggest a three point remediation plan consisting of 1) sending school personnel e-mails explaining that discrimination and harassment is to be avoided at LASD, 2) More on-line training of discrimination and harassment awareness, 3) a resolution meeting between Bratschi and Collins if both were interested.  He also explained that his finding could be appealed to the LASD Board if either of three standards were met, one involving perceived bias by Kennedy or Fountain.

Erik Bratschi would use this in his appeal to the LASD Board president, Steve Carlson:

This letter was sent on August 20th, Board policy indicates that the Board will meet within 20 days of receiving such complaint (section 4362), this deadline wasn't met since the appeal was considered by the board only on September 20th, 31 days later.  His appeal was acknowledged and Collins was contacted on August 24th asking him whether he wanted this appeal discussed in open or closed session; he chose the latter.  All of this was what transpired before the September 20th special meeting, called specifically to address the appeal of Bratschi.

The agenda packet made for this meeting has none of this background on it, not even the name of the accused or the accuser, both established employees of the LASD.  Should the public know what is going on among the 'professionals' who are part of our public education infrastructure? 

Clearly, the public may be concerned over what has been disclosed here because it ultimately may affect their child's education, whether they think that Collins is a foul-mouthed harasser or that Bratschi's complaint is without merit or something else.  The public will never get an e-mail or training about discrimination or harassment awareness from anybody at the LASD, explaining what happened here.  But how did the LASD Board approach this?

They put a mask on the process in order to gain control over the release of information, just like they put a mask on your children in order to gain control over the release of their individuality. 

[Willy]

I hate to ask you because I know you are busy but is there any chance you can put this into a condensed version? Say one or two paragraphs. I've read this a couple of times but I just don't get it! I see there have been over 500 views so there seems to be some folks that must understand, but not me.