{"id":186460,"date":"2014-01-15T21:19:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T02:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/01\/15\/so-when-she-was-a-teacher-michelle-rhee-abused-her-students\/"},"modified":"2014-01-15T21:19:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T02:19:00","slug":"so-when-she-was-a-teacher-michelle-rhee-abused-her-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2014\/01\/15\/so-when-she-was-a-teacher-michelle-rhee-abused-her-students\/","title":{"rendered":"So, When She Was a Teacher, Michelle Rhee Abused Her Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not only did she do this, she bragged about this when she was DC Schools Chancellor<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Rhee had poor class management skills, she said, recalling that her class “was very well known in the school because you could hear them traveling anywhere because they were so out of control.” On one particularly rowdy day, she said she decided to place little pieces of masking tape on their lips for the trip to the school cafeteria for lunch.<\/span>

<\/span>“OK kids, we’re going to do something special today!” she said she told them.<\/span>

<\/span>Rhee said it worked well until they actually arrived at the cafeteria. “I was like, ‘OK, take the tape off. I realized I had not told the kids to lick their lips beforehand…The skin is coming off their lips and they’re bleeding. Thirty-five kids were crying.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now Ms. Rhee claimed later that she said this to “encourage” the first year teachers that she was talking to.<\/p>\n

Yeah sure. You were “encouraging” them by admitting to child abuse.<\/p>\n

She also fired a principal on camera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I am so not surprised that she is married to Kevin Johnson, whose record on education, and his behavior towards students, is the subject of significant dispute<\/a>: <\/p>\n

\n

Sexual assault and harassment allegations<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/span>During the summer of 1995, a sixteen-year-old girl living in his home alleged that Johnson had molested<\/a> her. Johnson apologized to the girl when he was confronted by her with the accusation during a phone conversation recorded by Phoenix police. However, he also stated that “what you’re saying happened, I’m not entirely agreeing happened.”[62]<\/a><\/sup> The Sacramento Bee<\/i> stated that they had received a copy of a proposed settlement agreement, under which Johnson would have paid the girl’s family $230,000.[63]<\/a><\/sup> After conducting an investigation, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, on the grounds that there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction.[64]<\/a><\/sup><\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n

High School investigation<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/span>On April 16, 2008, rival mayoral candidate Leonard Padilla distributed a 2007 report of similar allegations made against Johnson at St. HOPE Sacramento High School<\/a>. The allegations were investigated by local police, but no charges were filed. On April 29, 2008, a group of female civic leaders including former Sacramento Mayor Ann Rudin<\/a>, Sacramento Municipal Utility District board member Genevieve Shiroma, and former State Senator Deborah Ortiz<\/a> demanded the release of the police report on the matter.[65]<\/a><\/sup> The teacher to whom the student initially brought the complaint subsequently resigned over the incident, claiming, “St. HOPE sought to intimidate the student through an illegal interrogation and even had the audacity to ask me to change my story.”[66]<\/a><\/sup> Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel responded, saying, “I think the allegations at the school were handled in the way that you would want them handled. Immediately they followed all the normal protocols that they were supposed to follow. I think it was pretty clear there was nothing there… We did ask the young lady whether anyone had influenced her \u2013 her answer was no.”[67]<\/a><\/sup> The Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said on May 30, 2008, that Johnson\u2019s actions, though ill-advised, were not illegal.[68]<\/a><\/sup><\/span>
<\/span><\/p>\n

St. HOPE Academy’s alleged misuse of AmeriCorps funds<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

<\/span>On April 9, 2009, Acting U.S. Attorney<\/a> Lawrence G. Brown<\/a> announced that St. HOPE Academy had agreed to pay $423,836.50 over ten years in settlement<\/a> of allegations that it did not appropriately spend AmeriCorps<\/a> grants and education awards and did not adequately document spending of grants.[69]<\/a><\/sup> The settlement amount represented one-half of the $847,673 in AmeriCorps funds received by St. HOPE Academy over three years from 2004 to 2007.[69]<\/a><\/sup> Johnson, St. HOPE Academy\u2019s founder and former CEO, agreed to pay $72,836.50 of St. HOPE Academy\u2019s $73,836.50 initial payment.[69]<\/a><\/sup> In settlement, St. HOPE Academy acknowledged not adequately documenting a portion of its AmeriCorps grant expenditures, and the Corporation for National and Community Service<\/a> terminated its September 24, 2008 suspension of St. HOPE Academy and Johnson from receiving federal funds, ending questions about Sacramento\u2019s eligibility to receive federal stimulus<\/a> funds.[69]<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BTW, at the time of these allegations, Rhee was on the board of the St. HOPE school, and was informed of the allegations. <\/p>\n

Her response?  **crickets**<\/p>\n

Why we would allow either of these people to get anywhere<\/b> near children is beyond me.<\/p>\n

Then again, anyone whose livelihood involves figuring out a way to allow for the Banksters to make money off of our children has pretty much offered a formal resignation from the society of “Mindful Human Beings.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not only did she do this, she bragged about this when she was DC Schools Chancellor: Rhee had poor class management skills, she said, recalling that her class “was very well known in the school because you could hear them traveling anywhere because they were so out of control.” On one particularly rowdy day, she …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}