Lady Whistleblower Dearest Gentle Reader,
It has been said that, without publicity, no good is permanent; under the auspices of publicity, no evil can continue. And although this is an old take on government transparency, never has it been more apparently true. This author seeks to enlighten you, dear reader, as to how it seems government, and more particularly education, has allowed itself to fall so far from the ideals that it claims to hold dear. Our recently departed King will make a most suitable example – but make no mistake – this is not a problem plaguing our kingdom alone. In fact, our kingdom has been the inheritor of this problem – going way, way back…
Lest your imagination run wild, this author will speak right to the point – our kingdom, as well as nearly all others, suffers from the effects of this most serious problem. The problem? The fear of local boards of education (BoEs) to anything even remotely resembling “bad press.” This is not a new problem, but it seems an exacerbation of an ongoing one. This author thinks that it has been influenced, in part, by the rise of social media and how quickly information can get disseminated now as opposed to the past. The idea that bad news travels quickly has never been more true today than any time in history. Of course, governments, businesses and other organizations will ALWAYS seek to limit damage to themselves by suppressing any and all bad news concerning their own actions – but they will also conceal news and the reporting of bad actors under their own offices. This is not just true of education, but in other areas as well. Just to give one example, there have been numerous reports of bad cops who are fired in one jurisdiction to merely show up as a new hire in another. The same can be said for many professions, but it is particularly bad in education. And the reason that this cycle of bad actors continues is that their unprofessional, and sometimes even criminal actions, are basically covered up. This is not necessarily done to benefit the bad actor, but to protect the reputation of the greater entity of which they are a part.
Just think. How was it that someone like deposed King Spinster, given his professional history and personal temperament, managed to even become a candidate for king? Was he just a good educator gone bad at some point? Or were there warning signs along the way that were covered up, not just by the King, but by the very entities that employed him?
Let this author give you a hint – it wasn’t just Spinster. And worse, even given what we’ve been through, our own BoE acted just like all the others, as we shall see. And if our BoE would have gotten their way and was able to keep everything from the public eye (something at the top of the Queen’s agenda) then their ultimate final actions may have led to terrible consequences for other kingdoms by giving the king an “out.” And that “out” might be just the crack in the door for K-Spin to be hired by another kingdom in desperate need of a king – a king who in all likelihood, should not be in charge of or even around children.
But this author just doesn’t want you to take it on faith that what I’m saying is true. According to documents obtained through public records’ requests made to Florida, there is an even longer history to our story that no one, not even this author, could have ever imagined.
Dearest reader, let me take you back to the fall of 2001. An incident report is filed against a fairly young teacher accusing him of “ assault/battery/fighting directed against a student” in middle school. That young teacher was our very own Spinster. The report states that the findings in the incident were confirmed when the student alleged that they were grabbed by him.
On February 8, 2002, Spinster was given a letter from his supervisor directing the following:
- “Touching a student in a manner that serves no educational or lawful purpose may encourage the appearance of the use of force,” that “you must avoid touching students except as is absolutely necessary to effect a reasonable and lawful purpose,” and “exercise care and professional judgment to avoid the appearance of the inappropriate use of physical intimidation.”
- “…report all future incidents, in which there is a physical confrontation between you and a student…”
- “Under no circumstances do you readdress a reported incident with a student…”
So going back almost 25 years, we are starting to see some signs of issues with Spinster. But wait, there’s more…
On May 2, 2002, during the very same school year, another report was filed against Spinster. The story, in short, is that while another teacher was absent from school, Spinster went into her room and took some of her materials. When the teacher returned, she emailed Spinster, her colleague, that she needed them back because she was planning on using them. (From the report, it is implied that these were the personal property of the teacher.) He did not respond. (Does that sound familiar, FedHock fam?) After a second request to get her property back, Spinster returned an email “that was on the nasty side.” Thus a brief email war ensued. And so it was that after school Spinster stormed into the room, threw a ball of paper at the teacher and started shouting at her and calling her names. After some more arguing he called her an “f*cking b*tch” and “repeatedly shouted ‘F*ck you’ as he walked to the door.” He then turned and told her that he was mad enough to hit her. “If you were a man I would have f*cking punched you out b*tch,” he told her.
According to the documents, it appeared he was given a suspension and yet another reprimand. This one included such phrases as:
- “…to exercise discretion and judgment in personal matters…this includes, but is not limited to, avoiding accusations and personal disclosures of a sensational nature with your colleagues.”
- “You are to avoid even the appearance of verbal intimidation while dealing with colleagues. This includes, but is not limited to, yelling, comments of a disparaging nature, or actions that subject someone to embarrassment. You must also avoid the appearance of retaliation toward any person who may have been a part of this matter.”
- The reprimand ends with, “I trust that you understand the seriousness of this matter, and that it will not be necessary to address such concerns in the future.”
So maybe Spinster was just having a really bad year.
Or maybe not.
Because you see, Spinster decides that maybe three times is a charm, and so it is on October 1, 2002, that there is yet another classroom incident. This time Spinster loses both the control of his class and his temper which seemed to be primarily aimed at a specific student. There was an unconfirmed allegation of assault, but it was “confirmed for lack of judgement.” Since this was his third incident within a single calendar year, his case was escalated internally to district HR, as well being submitted to the Professional Practices Office.
From a letter by the Senior Manager of Employee Relations, “This is the third documented incident in which Mr. Spencer’s judgment is in question specifically, his temperament. He had been issued two directives on, 2/11/02, and 5/16/02, for intimidation and unreasonable touching of a student. Mr. Spencer was referred to the Employee Assistance Program and he voluntarily registered himself for anger management. Mr. Spencer’s Principal regrets the incident but acknowledges Mr. Spencer needs help.”
(If Spinster did indeed complete that anger management program, this author does not believe that those lessons stuck, but I digress…)
And then most remarkably, he was issued yet another directive that was nearly identical in content with his first two. It seems that Spencer hadn’t yet followed his previous directives, but let us send them for a third time and all will be fixed, right?
In the files given to me, Spinster received a letter from the Florida Department of Education dated July 27, 2004 finding probable cause to justify sanctions against his teaching certificate. The letter ends with, “Please govern yourself accordingly.”
It must have only been a reprimand, because good ol’ K-Spin just couldn’t seem to help himself. In a reported incident on September 20, 2005, K-Spin appears to have moved into a high school position where he served as a junior varsity football coach. From the records:
“During a football game Mr. Spencer became so angry with a student’s lack of performance that he lost control and used unreasonable physical force on the student. This is the fourth documented incident in which Mr. Spencer’s judgment is in question specifically, his temperament.”
So the story goes that basically the punt returner not only missed the initial catch but then fumbled the ball when hit during special teams football practice. From the student’s report:
“…Coach Spencer ran out on the feild (sic) and picked me up and threw me. I fell to the ground and he pushed me and hit me in my back and helmet. He started yelling at me and was attacking me with words and physically. During all of this, I never said anything to him before, during or after the attack.”
Again, he was issued a near word-for-word identical reprimand with an additional letter informing him that another incident could basically get him fired if it happened again within three years.
Now let this author say that this is unconscionable. The fourth incident involving this man happened on the field with plenty of corroborating witnesses – and he still kept his job. Who knows what else happened, because three years later, in 2008, the Florida Department of Education held a hearing in which K-Spin wanted to dispute administrative actions taken against him. (There is no other context for this in my records.)
It seems it is at this point he manages to move out of teaching and into administration, and eventually, a position at a Florida charter school.
This is beyond horrifying. This out of control man-baby figured out the solution to the problem of having bosses over him was for himself to become the boss. After his short admin stint in Florida, he moved back to Ohio. Ohio wasn’t any better for him, as it was well-documented by the Athens County Independent that he had five jobs in ten years and he left two of those jobs under a cloud. We now also know from records that he was non-renewed at his last job, but was given the option to resign, which he did. And even THAT checkered past did not prevent him from his ultimate goal of becoming a King, because, you see – if he could just become the King, with no one above him but an ineffective and weak BoE, he would be set until it was time for him to move on to bigger assignments, more money, and most importantly, more power.
How could someone with such a sordid history, going back nearly 25 years, not only STILL be in education, but be an educational LEADER?
Here is the dirty secret: he was always given the option to resign before he was fired.
This is how it works – not just in education, but in numerous workplaces.
It’s a hassle to fire someone. There is paperwork. There are questions about why the person was fired. There is potential bad press. Just so much hassle. So instead, the employee in question is privately told that they will not be renewed (aka fired) BUT, if they would rather resign, then it would make it easier for them to get employment elsewhere, because there would not be a firing on their record. THIS HAPPENS ALL OF THE TIME. This can even be true when an educator is let go for discipline or other nefarious issues. No one wants a hint of a scandal to touch their schools, and so everything surrounding bad behavior or whatever, is just dealt with in the quietest way possible in order to eliminate any potentially bad PR. And so incompetent teachers and bad administrators are given a way to save face and the school preserves their positive public optics, except that it passes problematic employees all unwittingly onto the next school, the next administrators, the next group of colleagues, and sadly, the next set of kids.
Now sometimes, the teacher in question realizes that education isn’t for them and they get out of the field. Some realize that they need to take their profession more seriously and work hard to remediate their issues. But more often than not, really bad teachers just move from place to place. Hopefully, they run out of places to go and end up leaving the profession, and many do, but some few will finally land a permanent gig if, 1) the administration is bad and doesn’t do a good job of evaluating/mentoring them, 2) the school is desperate for bodies and will take anyone, no matter how bad, 3) they manage to fake it or suck up to their boss until their position is secure, and then quit doing the work once tenured, and most alarmingly of all, 4) when they move out of the classroom to become administrators.
The chain of K-Spin’s unmitigated disasters isn’t hard to follow if one only has a discerning eye for such resume shenanigans. But still, one can’t help but feel some real anger at these other districts for passing the buck. In two of the cases (the situation where he challenged/was aggressive towards other staff and got banned from campus and the other where he was sued by the parents of a disabled student), SHOULD have generated some sort of paper trail – some sort of indication that all was not well within the realms ruled by K-Spin. But in every case there was nary a hint of the disaster lurking under the surface, little warning of what was to come should someone be convinced to hire him despite the red flags – as we found out. The warning signs were there from the beginning, but our BoE was gullible in hearing what they wanted to hear from him, as they were informed about some of his transgressions before he was hired. For the BoE it was just easier to be done. To get a king hired. To move on without having to put in even more time and effort. And that is the cautionary tale for our future, and it is heartening to know that the BoE plans on hiring an interim for the year, but start a search in January for a permanent replacement. Of course, this presupposes that the BoE will carry out a careful, diligent search with more than adequate background and reference checks. This kingdom cannot withstand attacks from within our own kingdom if we are to survive. And ultimately, we need strong schools for our children.
This might be the place to close this missive, talking about what positive changes need to be effected for the strength of our schools and the future of our children, but this author feels strongly the need to make a couple of final points.
Despite everything that K-Spin perpetrated within our kingdom, this author wishes to quote from a prepared joint statement released by both the BoE and the dethroned K-Spin.
“The Federal Hocking Local School District and Superintendent Jason Spencer have reached a mutual agreement to part ways. This decision reflects a shared understanding and respect for the evolving needs of the district and Superintendent Spencer’s desire to be closer to his family in pursuing other professional opportunities closer to home.”
This is where this author calls bullshit.
And yet again we end with another cover up. Another excuse for passing the bad buck to the next place unlucky enough to be saddled with him. Fortunately though, Athens County has press worthy of holding government agencies accountable, and with reporting from both the Athens County Independent and WOUB, more than enough press has been generated to warn off future employers – but only if they do the barest minimum of research into who they might potentially be hiring.
Unfortunately for us, we will embark on the journey into the unknown. If only we had more elected officials interested in protecting us from bad actors than from protecting their own political skin by burying bad press. And by this, I hope that we will avoid inheriting any more educational miscreants passed along from other kingdoms.
And so let us remember, without publicity, no good is permanent; under the auspices of publicity, no evil can continue.
Freedom of the press. It’s what allows democracy to continue and we owe them a debt of gratitude for what they do.They just might end up being the protector of children you never knew we had.
Sincerely,
The Lady Whistleblower
P.S. If you haven’t read the latest on Rake Shamblin’s ongoing fight to regain his job, please check out this article. This author hopes to address this in a future issue.
