MLK Birthday Celebration dampened by poverty, economic inequality, involuntary servitude and incarceration

Scene from Ebenezer Baptist Church, WAGA TV, Fox 5

When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in the midst of planning a Poor People’s March and Campaign in 1968, he was doing so as a reaction to huge economic inequalities in the U.S.

As I prepared to watch his commemorative celebration today (he would have been 90 years old if he had lived), I felt a deep sadness while celebrating his life and am disappointed about our progress as a nation towards freedom since his assassination 50 years ago.

“Hope you enjoy the service,” was the invitation given by the Fox 5 Atlanta newswoman before the live telecast, which was an intro to a production I knew would be a lot of "entertainment" more than a call for new rules for constructive action. 

And here we sit for the 51st time in worst conditions with no end for institutional racism in sight. What’s even more disturbing is the way we are treating each other while standing on the shoulders of civil rights activists who have paid an unforgivable price.

“I wish he was here to help us,” said his only surviving daughter, Dr. Bernice King, recently while the King Home was closed due to a government shutdown. Noticeably absent again were her two brothers, MLK, III and Dexter.

We have to keep trying to keep hope alive, but here is why I’m pessimistic in 2019 while celebrating the life of MLK.

According to the Economic Poverty Institute, “Today, the black poverty rate remains more than twice as high as the white poverty rate. Children today face the highest rates of poverty of any age group, with 18.0 percent of all children living below the poverty line.”

In America, people are judged by their assets, not the content of their character. —-Tomi Johnson

Why do we do this every year? To keep hope alive while problems get worse? Maybe it's because we've taken on the oppressor's culture instead of returning out minds back to Africa.

Attorney Brian Stevenson, the guest speaker who Bernice King called a prophet, said we must do these things after we celebrate King's life:

Stevenson of Montgomery, Ala. heads the Equal Justice Initiative

1. Be in proximity to the poor and help them.
2. Change the narrative concerning race and racism.
3. Stay hopeful.
4. Commit to perform actions that are uncomfortable and inconvenient.

PayPal offering “shutdown” government workers loans at 0% interest

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If you are a U.S. federal government employee impacted by the shutdown and would like to access this assistance, please call us at 1-877-689-1975. We’re available Monday to Friday from 8AM-11PM Eastern Time and Saturday to Sunday from 9AM-9PM Eastern Time.

Cobb County School District could face court actions over bullying

Madayag and Skandalakis (seated at table) before Santa, Thompson and Busse with Williams (standing).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTUm7r5-iW0

A press conference convened January 11 at the law offices of Attorney Demetrios John "Mitch" Skandalakis in East Cobb to discuss bullying in Cobb County Schools and a potential lawsuit which could turn into a class action suit.

Skandalakis alleges that the Cobb County School District (CCSD) has not followed state law governing bullying in its practices or reporting of incidents, and it's all about money and daily attendance rates. He was accompanied by parents of CCSD students: Jorge Santa, Sr.; Carol Thompson, and Catherine Busse.

Skandalakis is representing Jorge Santa, Jr., a student at Harrison High School. Jorge Santa, Sr., a Atlanta police detective, said he loves his two sons and since they are small in stature has advised them to defend themselves if attacked. 

According to Skandalakis' investigation and eye witness accounts, Jorge, Jr. was bullied last May by two students who called him racial slurs, stole his property from his backpack, and sprayed him with silly string. When Jorge defended himself, he was charged with two felonies which were later dropped after Skandalakis represented Santa.

Santa, Sr. is the father of two sons.

Santa, Sr. takes discipline seriously and before the press conference said his son, who was 14 years old and 100 lbs. when attacked at Harrison High School, is presently on punishment at home for not taking out the garbage and is temporarily not allowed to play video games which is a common disciplinary tactic used by parents to correct childhood behavior.

Santa said students have the right to defend themselves and should not face retaliation by bullies, whether they be students or school administrators.

"We have responsibilities as parents. I love my kids and always tell them that if you do the right thing, I will have your back," Santa, Sr. said. He advises parents to become familiar with case law and the legalities of punitive actions when it involves their children's rights and seek out corrective resources. He said his son should not have been criminalized. "Fight for your kids, tooth and nail." Santa, Sr. said parents in a similar circumstance should not fight by themselves, however.

"When you see that your kids who are really good kids go through something like this, and to deal with other kids around the same age group that are constantly in and out of the judicial system, it's heartbreaking. This particular situation was a wake-up call for my son - that you can do the right thing and still get in trouble." Santa, Sr. said he had considered homeschooling his son, but his son said no, he wanted to return to school.

Santa, Sr. said that if other kids witness bullying in school, "Don't be part of the little crowd that just laughs about it, but report it. Take the opportunity to help."

Carol Thompson’s younger son also attends Harrison High School and said the same student who bullied Santa also bullied her son and others. She said the only reason her son is still in school is because he has excellent teachers. 

Thompson and Busse represented bullied sons at press conference.

Thompson said two weeks after the Santa incident, one of the bullies shot another student in the face, which could have been avoided if Harrison High's administrators had reacted differently to previously documented incidents.

Catherine Busse's son attended Walton but said since her son was bullied, he has not returned to school because he is afraid. He waited outside the press conference and was accompanied by his father and a service dog. Busse said data on bullying is not reported because the school system thinks it will harm property values.

Madayag's photo from Lee and Hayes website

Attorney Robert Madayag of Lee & Hayes got involved in the Santa case after his own daughter, Catherine, was bullied at Simpson Middle School, but the school took appropriate steps to rectify the situation. Her experience led Madayag to take a closer look at bullying in Cobb County schools. 

Madayag identified himself as an intellectual property attorney, and his firm's website states that he received his law degree from Villanova University, a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and he attended the US Navy Nuclear Power School.

When asked if it's wise or financially viable to try to fight the government in court, Madayag responded, "These are kids lives. Kids will commit suicide because of bullying, and bullies can end up going into more criminal actions." 

Madayag says these incidents in CCSD are worse than the Atlanta School District's cheating scandal. "A life is more important than anything, so I rank this as a higher issue."

At stake are sovereign immunity, Miranda Rights, Writ of Mandamus, the RICO Act, school codes being at odds with state law, and school safety. The attorneys said that individual school administrators retaliate against students and parents instead of attacking the issue of bullying. 

CCSD bullying pamphlet: http://www.cobbk12.org/bully/

Georgia law: http://www.bullypolice.org/ga_law.html

"The district is not protected when they are intentionally falsifying information and declaring a bullying incident 'horseplay,' " Madayag stated. 

"The principal simply didn't know what the hell he was talking about or intentionally tried to buffalo Jorge Santa, Sr. into thinking that school code trumped state criminal law," Skandalakis said. He continued that Santa, Sr. knew all about interviewing techniques and tape recorded the conversation he had with the school administrator after the incident. 

"The issue has been decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia that you absolutely have the right to stand your ground and defend yourself when you are set upon in a school setting," Skandalakis said. "The principal was jumping to conclusions and not performing an investigation but determining on his own that he was going to be judge, jury and executioner." 

"Keep in mind that this is a spearhead case backed up by patterns and practices - a gateway to getting the school district to do the right thing," said President of the Cobb SCLC Dr. Ben Williams. "Please do not think that this is an isolated case... the Board, the school site, the Superintendent are not immune to violations and abuses of their primary responsibilities - to ensure the health and safety of every kid that attends school in that district."

Dr. Williams urged reporters to investigate the matter further and to inform the public of what is happening.

To learn more, go to: https://wingcomwatchdog.blogspot.com/2019/01/bullying-becomes-expanding-problem-for.html

Bullying becomes expanding problem for Cobb County School District

The following information was forwarded to me via email concerning developments on the bullying case of Jorge Santa.

Marietta, Ga. -  In May of last year, a Harrison High School 9th grader, Jorge Santa, was bullied and attacked during class by two seniors. He chose to stand his ground and fight off the violence. No charges were filed against the bully, but two felony counts of aggravated assault and battery were filed against the bullied student for defending himself.

During his investigation of the bullying incident, Harrison High School Asst. Principal Art O’Neill told the boy’s father, Atlanta PD Detective Jorge Santa, Sr., that “criminal law,” which includes self-defense, “does not supersede school rules.” While admitting to Santa, Sr. that the child was being “picked on,” O’Neill intentionally failed to investigate the matter as a bullying incident and chose to base the event on the school district’s “zero tolerance” for fighting.

The family’s attorney, Mitch Skandalakis, was successfully able to secure a dismissal of the charges after he obtained critical evidence from the state which showed the following:
• Many student witnesses interviewed by the Cobb County District Attorney’s office stated that the student who bullied and assaulted Jorge was a well-known bully.
• Many student witnesses interviewed by the Cobb County District Attorney’s office stated that Jorge was bullied.
• Many student witnesses interviewed by the Cobb County District Attorney’s office stated that Jorge asked the bullies to stop.
• The teacher present in Jorge’s class at the time of the incident sent O’Neill an email stating he had interviewed three students immediately following the altercation, who verified that the bullies were “picking on Jorge (stole his lunch, was verbally bullying him, sprayed silly string on him).”
• The school resource officer, who did not participate in O’Neill’s “investigation,” wrote his incident report and intentionally used verbiage to conceal the bullying by stating that the students were “joking around,” and that the bullies “demonstrated a lack of common courtesy and school policy.”

During Skandalakis’ own investigation, the mother of another student who had been bullied by the same individual who assaulted Jorge informed him that she not only reported the bullying to Harrison High School Officials, she also testified about the bullying in front of the Cobb County School District Board of Education. She had to do so out of desperation because the bullying escalated into threats of violence with a gun against her son and nothing was being done by the school. Complaints and testimony were completely ignored by Cobb County School Board officials.

“Cobb County School District administrators are not investigating or reporting bullying numbers as required by law,” says Skandalakis. “We know this because we have parents who have provided us with concrete evidence that their child’s reports of bullying were ignored. We also know this because some Cobb schools are reporting zero bullying incidents, which is statistically improbable, and really doesn’t pass the smell test.” Skandalakis went on to say, “Cobb’s failure to address bullying penalizes the victims and empowers the bullies to escalate their behavior.”

Rob Madayag, a partner at the law firm of Lee & Hayes, has joined together with Skandalakis on addressing bullying at Cobb County Schools. Madayag’s daughter was threatened by another student on her bus and repeatedly during school, including receiving a threatening note to her written on the back of a bathroom stall. “From what we have seen, when an incident of bullying occurs, Cobb County Schools make every effort to avoid having to record the incident as bullying,” says Madayag. 

“School administrators and school police use their power to coerce and suggest specific testimony from those that are bullied or witnesses to the bullying, or just as often, erase the bullying incident altogether and redefine it as ‘horseplay’ if the bullied kid responds in any way, including a verbal response.”

Madayag continues, “No matter what excuse the Cobb County School District tries to come up with, the fact of the matter is that the incident data they reported to the State shows Cobb County is completely out of line with every other county in the region, and, is definitive proof that they underreport bullying incidents.” As for what happened with his daughter, Madayag says his daughter’s school is proof that if Cobb County stops underreporting, good things can happen.  “The bullying was stopped and all parties have moved on with their lives. My daughter’s school is one of a very few schools in Cobb County whose incident reporting data is in line with what is expected.”

Skandalakis and Madayag have been poring over documents and meeting with parents as they begin to move forward with legal remedies that will be the first of many challenges to address Cobb County School District’s failures. Skandalakis has also set up an online contact form for anyone who has additional information or would like to tell their story. The form can be found at http://bit.ly/CobbSchoolSurvey, or contact: Lynn Ross, Skandalakis Law Group, 770-693-8715.

Angela Davis award snub example of org. powerplay

View of Angela Davis from Downtown Miami. Enough said! (Photo by Kurk D. Johnson)

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2019/01/angela-davis-birmingham-shuttlesworth-award-civil-rights/579703/

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/alabama/articles/2019-01-08/angela-davis-says-snub-harms-indivisibility-of-human-rights

Why did Trump’s Oval Office speech call out African Americans and Hispanic victims?

It’s very interesting that President Trump said that not funding his $5.7billion Wall was negatively affecting African Americans and Hispanics in his speech to the nation last night. “Among those hardest hit are African Americans and Hispanic Americans,” Trump said about alledged border security crises. Why did he go there? He wants us to be afraid.

Divide and conquer. Maybe he thought that making black and brown people consider that folks coming across the border would hurt them would play into his security argument. Very Hitlerest. Why not put a border wall around KKK members, known racists, and skinheads instead?

In my opinion, President Trump, in league with Russian operatives, is trying to destroy America. His government shutdown, which he claimed but now blames on the Democrats, is hurting a lot of federal employees and government contractors. His actions will likely have a negative effect on the economy.  All of the gains made during the Obama Administration will be erased.

Poor people will get poorer and rich investors will swoop in and buy up mortgaged properties of government slaves being made to work without pay.

Lord, have mercy on us.