Gap Lion Lover ---( So named for the Cranfills Gap Texas ISD mascot)--- left two more comments under my blog entry, "Rethunk and Tyrants." I appreciate his or her comments and it's nice to know that someone is reading my blog. I don't ask anyone to agree with me or disagree--that is your choice.
Gap Lion Lover's comments pretty much said that I should be going after former Cranfills Gap Texas Superintendent Carla Sigler and leave the town alone and let it heal, that with former Superintendent Carla Sigler gone back to Alaska (but coming back visiting friends), things were better and the community was healing.
Well, I have not seen or heard much healing, and I am paying close attention. It has been five months now since intentional harm with great malice was done by Superintendent Carla Sigler and the Cranfills Gap school board to my niece, Kaitlan Head, a child and the 2007 Cranfills Gap valedictorian, in order to retaliate against an adult. It has been over a year since Carla Sigler first came to town and willfully ignored school policy, played favorites, and did all those under-handed, harmful things to a lot of people, not just my niece, Kaitlan, to whom it is possible irreparable harm has been done.
Cranfills Gap is still a town divided just about in half by Carla Sigler and friends, and her friends are still there. I haven't heard a single one of them say or heard of a single one of them who has said , "Hey, I'm sorry. Maybe I was wrong. I could maybe have done some things differently. It's possible that my actions may have hurt someone, and for that I did not mean to and I am sorry."
As for the school board members who are still there in Cranfills Gap.... Carla Sigler did not force them to do things---- they chose to do things, many of which were very harmful. Most were done with extreme malice, as in the cases of Kaitlan Head, Sandy McMahan, Carol Nelson, and Michelle Dubay, just to name a few. And Carla Sigler did not do it by herself all the time. In some instances, she had a lot of help.
And the malice is still there: Take for instance Shelly Stuart, the childless board member-- who is still--- to my knowledge--doing as she has done all along--- basically rewriting everything that happens in the school board meetings to reflect her own biased viewpoint which is usually nothing like the facts--some would say she is lying or twisting the truth to her, the school board's, and Carla Sigler's advantage. The school board---all but one---heartily approves it and has approved it for a very long time without question. That alone tell you things have not really changed and are not likely to change. Indefensible!
And Kenny Wiese-- upstanding man you say-- is the school board president who TWICE--in spite of VEHEMENT objections by experts and even when told it was illegal to go into closed session by his own Cranfills Gap ISD attorney----ordered the school board into illegal closed sessions and used illegal evidence to make an illegal decison, also with malice, this time with malice toward a child. Indefensible!
And what about Kathie Witte, the board member who just happens to be big buddies with Carla Sigler--whose son, Justin Witte, though he had the FOURTH highest grades, just happened to be given the Highest Academic Achievement Award and there was no mention--NOT A MENTION---- of the valedictorian or the salutatorian by Sigler at the Academic Awards banquet. An academic banquet and awards are to recognize those who had the greatest academic achievements, so why would you never even mention the highest and second highest academic achievers, Valedictorian Kaitlan Head and Salutatorian Sarah Sellers? Indefensible!
Kathie Witte, in her official capacity as a board member and trustee of the Cranfills Gap Independent School District, was given a statement of support for Kaitlan Head, written by teacher Sarah Doty, who asked that the statement of support for Kaitlan be read at the school board meeting in May, but Kathie Witte intentionally withheld that statement of support. How unethical is that? And does that harm a child, one of the school district's own students? And Kathie Witte says it is all about the best interests of the students. What a hypocrite! Indefensible!
And Virgil Tindall....who stammered and stuttered and ignorantly asked other board member, Jeff Rose, what are we voting on and please tell me how to vote on whether to allow Kaitlan to graduate or not. It could be argued that Virgil Tindall and Jackie Ray Sorrels were led, but maybe they HAD to be led, as they had no clue what they were doing, and why in heck are you even on the school board if you don't know what you're doing???? Oh, wait a minute----that was the plan--fill the board with folks you can tell how to vote, and --Guess what?!---you will get your way every time! Indefensible!
As for Jeff Rose, I find it hard to not call him a real hypocrite for standing up all those many times in the school board meetings and reading all those many statements chastizing and critcizing other board members for what he considered UNETHICAL actions, when he knew or should have known that his wife, Laura Rose, was illegally teaching and had been for years, not to mention taking huge amounts of state money for that white collar crime of fraud --whether prosecutable or not--it was a white collar crime! And these two are supposed to be the church-goers, the pillars of the community, the Christians. Indefensible!
So, these folks are the ones Gap Lion Lover thinks are ok and not all that bad.. Were all these things they did done unintentionally? Did they do anything with malice? Why not, just one time, exercise caution when making a decision that someone thinks might possibly be illegal? Why not take a little time and listen to the experts who are saying this might not be the right thing to do for the reason that it is not what the law calls for? Why not check it out first, expecially when making possibly life-changing decisions, especially involving children? That is what people interested in doing the right thing would do.
Oh, I forgot! I don't think these school board members were really into worrying about doing the right thing. As long as good old Carla said it was Okay, they could do whatever they wanted, whether within the law or not. I think Kenny Wiese, Jeff Rose, Kathie Witte, Shelly Stuart, Virgil Tindall, and Jackie Ray Sorrels all--every single one--- should be held accountable. They were incompetent and derelict in their duty as school board trustees.
I don't think it is fair to blame it all on Carla Sigler, to make her the long-gone scapegoat. Carla was the catalyst and the driving force, but she did not use pysical force on them----they were willing accomplices to about whatever Carla wanted to do--right or wrong. Somehow Carla was fulfilling their personal agendas and kept them all in line with whatever she wanted to happen. All the facts about the district under Carla's tenure are not in yet, and I believe, in time, more is to come out. So folks may not be off the hook yet on those matters.
Also, what about Carla Sigler and the Cranfills Gap school board currently being investigated by the Bosque County District Attorney? Everything is on tape, so it should not be too hard to ascertain the truth of whether or not the law was broken at Kaitlan's hearing in May. Will there be consequences as a result of illegal actions by theGap school board at that meeting?
I don't believe it is possible to separate what Carla Sigler did from the actions of the school board members who backed her. And as for forgetting about it, it reminds me of the White House, when adminstration officials "outed" CIA agent Valerie Plame, saying, "Well, it's done, there's nothing you can do to change it, even though we committed a crime of high treason against the government and it was a national security breach of the highest order, let's just move on, without any consequences for us at all."
And that is not holding people accountable for their actions. They should have thought of how it would affect the community and the people in it when they were dreaming up all their despicable actions.
As for the students currently in Cranfills Gap school now, what about all the kids forced by Carla Sigler's actions to go to school someplace else? Was it fair to them? Gap Lion Lover, are they any different from your own two kids? Not really, I'd bet-----they were just the kids forced out by Sigler, while yours kids got to stay.
I guess we'll all just have to live with the consequences of our actions, and let the chips fall where they may!
4 comments:
Hmmmm- You seem to have missed the point. It isn't about people saying they are sorry for things they didn't feel they did wrong. It is about moving on! Letting bygones be bygones and realizing that we are mere humans and that judgement is up to God not us. You don't even live here. I don't see how you truly know what is now happening at our school. Like I said before, it doesn't matter what I say because your mind is made up, but many (in fact most) of the items you just stated as fact are twisted beyond recognition. The biggest one is claiming that new evidence was brought in during closed session. HELLO- the district has to protect the rights of the students who gave statements. They can not be read in open session. THAT my friend is against the law. You don't ever mention that they were introducing evidence from minor students. You are only focused on Kaitlan's rights, which I understand being that you are her aunt. However, there are many other students who live in the Gap, who also must be considered. This is my last post. I thought that you might have come to a point where you could be reasoned with on allowing us to heal. I have begun my own journal where I and whoever else wants to join in can discuss positive occurences. I will leave you with this:
You are wrong about what is happening here in the GAP. Ask your sister Sue Lee what wonderful things are happening at the school? I have personally heard her praise what is happening here. Carla ran off the students who left the district, but we are getting new students. Hopefully some of the ones who left will see what is happening here now and want to come back. At any rate, as long as venom is being spit, there won't be healing. Those who are able to "turn the other cheek" have moved on and we are doing great! I am glad that you are glad to hear that!
Gaplionlover: I will discuss and answer your comment in the next blog entry. Again, thanks for your comment.
Hmmm...Sandy McMahan who quit after she refused to be trained to help a handicapped student and made her statement that she quit in front of four teachers who all attested to this in written statements; Carol Nelson who the board had already refused to put on more than half time (under the leadership of Supt. Kevin Dyes) which would have allowed her to qualify for insurance; Michelle DuBay who has been employed by 10 schools in 10 years. (That speaks volumes right there.) I find it hard to understand where you get any information since you do not live in the town. I can't find anyone who even knows what you look like, so you obviously don't spend much time there. Ever think that the information your sister is passing on (some it from closed sessions--should we talk about illegal actions here?) may be biased?
Anothernorwegian: If you want to know what I look like, you could have asked Harry Blue when he was alive and he would have told you, "Damn Good Looking!" and still not bad, or so they tell me. Especially for my age--Sixty-one! Let's see, I bought a winter's worth of alfalfa hay from Shelly Stuart for my horses a few years ago, so you could ask Shelly what I look like. Or ask Marvin Payne who has known me many years. Or ask Poodle. Or James and Linda, who run the Shell sattion. Or my niece, Amy Warren, and her husband, Chad. Marc Johnson and his wife Betty? met me at the Toad, along with many others thru the years. Sounds like you are just not asking the right folks what I look like. You can ask Jeff Rose.. or any of the Gap school board members except Kenny--he was absent when I spoke to the board in August. I have a lot of Gap friends. You must know more of the newcomers and the younger set, and not the old timers. I don't get over there as often as I used to, but I do stay informed from many sources... my ties to the Gap go back many, many years....a few you would not believe! My sister Sue is no more biased than is Kathie Witte, Laura Rose, Cindy Weise, etc. I believe Sue was quite careful to speak with TEA and the District Attorney about what she could legally say about school board matters, so I don't think that is a valid concern. There are all kinds of misconceptions, misinformation, and half-truths floating around about did this really happen or not. I try to deal in the facts as I know them. If you have facts for me and can document those facts, I am always willing to check it out. Just like Beauty, Truth is in the eye of the beholder.
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