Jailbait Advocate Part 3

If you read this survival story, you will understand why I tagged myself as a Jailbait Advocate. Jailbait Advocate Part 3 shows how some bureaucrats discriminate against children and families and get away with it. I call this injustice THE BUREAUCRATIC NO ACCOUNTABILITY SOLUTION.

The United States Constitution

The United States Constitution has been in effect since 1789. It is the supreme law of the United States and the foundation for democracy.

Women did not directly write the Constitution, only men. I often wonder if women had been included in the writing of it, would equality for all have legally been protected from the first day the Constitution was finalized?

The Bill of Rights also does not mention children’s rights. I think women would have made sure their rights were included since children are our most precious and at-risk citizens.

The spirit of democracy is based on personal freedom, equality, and basic human rights. Yet, it took hundreds of years for children and adults with disabilities to have laws written to protect the most vulnerable in our society.

The Bureaucratic No Accountability Solution

Laws In Effect When Hayes Started School

New Mexico Human Rights Act of 1969

• This law makes it illegal to discriminate against someone based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy), age (40 or older), ancestry, disability, serious medical condition, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or spousal affiliation.
• Schools can be held accountable if they fail to uphold these rights.

The Education of Handicapped Children Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1975 and reauthorized in 1990 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

• Before the Education of Handicapped Children Act (EHA), many children with disabilities were denied access to education. So, from 1789 to 1975 is 186 years of not having the same rights as the men who wrote the Constitution!
• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) allows children with disabilities to attend their neighborhood schools in the least restrictive environment rather than being bussed to and educated in separate institutions.
• The legislation protects children’s rights to be educated in the general education classroom with the appropriate special education services, as determined by the IEP team members.
• Teachers or principals found guilty of discriminatory behavior may face disciplinary actions, including termination or loss of teaching credentials.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990

• This law makes it illegal to discriminate against a qualified person with a disability, because they are regarded as having a disability, or because of their relationship with a person with a disability.

Albuquerque Journal Articles

I did not have the information detailed and published in these four Albuquerque Journal newspaper articles while Charles Kaplan was principal at Eubank Elementary School.

All four articles can be found in the Albuquerque Journal Archive but you have to pay to access the archive. The original articles did not appear with any bolded text. I bolded the text to highlight certain facts.

1. May 07, 1993 Call For Principal To Leave

“Parent Mildred Brown said about 300 East San Jose parents have signed a petition asking Superintendent Jack Bobroff to remove Kaplan, who’s in his first full year as principal of the mostly Hispanic South Valley school.

Kaplan, who wasn’t invited to the meeting, denied all complaints against him in a phone interview Thursday night.

About 30 parents attended a community meeting Thursday organized by Brown, and many shared tales of dissatisfaction. Eight parents said they tried to speak with Kaplan about their children, only to be told to make an appointment, which Kaplan later didn’t keep.

Margaret Garcia said she called to speak to Kaplan after her child found a knife in the boy’s bathroom.

Kaplan told her to make an appointment, then didn’t show, she said. “I still have the knife,” she said.

“They’re liars,” said Kaplan. You can come to my office and look at my appointment book. If they made appointments, their names would be there, and they’re not.”

“He is rude and condescending to people who are not white,” said Brown.

“What were they thinking when they put a person in that school who could not listen to you?” asked Maria Bautista, a former teacher at the school who was fired Monday. No quieres hablar. (He doesn’t want to speak).”

Hepatitis Outbreak

Most adults know how crucial it is to have a healthy liver. Principals, especially at elementary schools, should know how important a hepatitis outbreak would be to the parents and immediately inform them!

2. May 13, 1993 Parents Rip E. San Jose Principal

“The embattled principal of the East San Jose Elementary School on Wednesday night listened to the angry voices of parents who said they’re frustrated with his leadership.

Principal Charles Kaplan heard complaints that he waited too long to notify parents of a hepatitis outbreak, that he was inaccessible to parents, and that he treated the predominantly Hispanic school population unfairly.

One parent drew applause from the 200-some people gathered in the school’s cafeteria when she said she could sum up the problem in one word: insensitivity.

THE BEAURACRATIC NO ACCOUNTABILITY SOLUTION FOR THE HOLIDAYS KAPLAN STYLE

“The issue that drew the most ire Wednesday occurred during the December holiday season when teachers weren’t allowed to put up Christmas trees, but a menorah, a candleholder symbolizing the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, was on display in the school library and in the cafeteria.

Kaplan explained that the librarian had received special permission to display the menorah after demonstrating it was part of an education program.“

I found an informative article in The Washington Post “Can public schools have Christmas trees? What’s true-and not true-about religious expression in public schools.” Here are sections of that article:

“Confusion began after the Supreme Court, in a landmark 1962 decision, banned school-sponsored prayer in public schools. Some parents, teachers and school officials read that as barring any type of religious expression in a public school-but that is not what federal courts have said. Schools can do plenty when it comes to religious expression:

• While schools cannot initiate or sponsor religious activities-including prayer-nobody can stop students from praying to whatever or whomever they want, whenever they want as long as they do it privately and don’t try to force others to follow.
• Religious groups can meet at public schools.
• Religious music can be played in public schools when the overall focus of the activity is not religious.
• Anybody who wants to say “Merry Christmas” is legally permitted to do so.
• Christmas trees can be brought into a school and decorated because a court has ruled the Christmas tree is a secular object, much like the Jewish menorah. Lighting the candles in a menorah, however, would have religious significance and therefore wouldn’t be allowed.
• Religion can be taught as an academic subject, not as an effort to proselytize. (Proselytize means to convert, save, redeem, win over, preach, recruit, act as a missionary).”

“To the complaint that he didn’t tell parents soon enough about a hepatitis outbreak in late January, he said doctors from the state Department of Health told him not to worry because 70 percent of all people living in the United States will contract hepatitis-A at some point in their lives.

When a woman asked why he waited 10 days to send letters about the outbreak home with school children, he said after the first and second cases were diagnosed, the health department advised him to do nothing. But after the third case he said he insisted but the “board of health said no.”

No one from the health department could be reached for comment Wednesday night.” THE BUREAUCRATIC NO ACCOUNTABILITY SOLUTION.

“I requested repeatedly that they (the health department) come in and inoculate the entire school population and they would not do it. After three cases in one classroom, the Department of Health reluctantly agreed to inoculate all the children from that classroom, Kaplan said.

Not all parents took advantage of the inoculations, he said.

Since late January, six children at the school have contracted the disease, which is highly contagious and affects the liver.

Kaplan said that after four cases were diagnosed he requested the district pay to have the bathrooms and the cafeteria tables steam cleaned. All classrooms with reported cases of the disease were scrubbed down with special solution and the carpet was shampooed. Special soaps were put in all the bathrooms, he said.”

The photo above was generated using Microsoft Copilot and Designer because the Albuquerque Journal photograph was not usable.

3. May 28, 1993 School Protest

“About 30 parents and children picketed East San Jose Elementary School on Thursday to protest Albuquerque Public Schools’ decision not to remove Principal Charles Kaplan from the school. THE BUREAUCRATIC NO ACCOUNTABILITY SOLUTION.

Some parents have claimed recently that Kaplan is inappropriate for the mostly Hispanic school because he does not speak Spanish and is not open to meeting with them. They’ve also accused him of allowing unsafe health conditions and downplaying a hepatitis outbreak at the school.

Kaplan, who has denied all allegations, declined to comment.”

4. October 9, 1993 Principal Moved to Eubank Elementary

“Former East San Jose Elementary principal Charles Kaplan has been named acting principal at Eubank Elementary, an Albuquerque Public School spokeswoman said Friday. THE BUREAUCRATIC NO ACCOUNTABILITY SOLUTION.

The parents accused Kaplan of ignoring health problems at the school and being insensitive to the school’s largely Hispanic population.

Kaplan, who denied all allegations made against him, was placed at Eubank this week after principal Ruben Mares requested an emergency medical leave, said APS spokeswoman Crystal McClernon.”

At this point in my story, I decided to end it here because of the length. If you read Jailbait Advocate Part 1, Jailbait Advocate Part 2, and this one, you won’t want to miss Jailbait Advocate Part 4!

Tough Cookie Tip: On my About My Life page, I wrote about my work with Parents Reaching Out (PRO), New Mexico’s Parent Training and Information Center.

Over the years, I spoke with hundreds of angry and frustrated parents about problems for their children in the Albuquerque Public Schools. Most of the time it was blatant discrimination, violations of the child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP), and unwillingness to treat parents as equal partners in their child’s education goals.

The truth is that the great experiment known as America has never lived up to the vision of the Constitution, which, simply put, is liberty and justice for all its citizens.

Unless the anti-discrimination laws are enforced to hold every citizen to the same accountability, the dehumanizing of American children, adults, and families will continue on. It is not justice nor is it Christian or kind to treat others as less than.

Copyright © 2022-2025 Marilyn K Fuller. All Rights Reserved.

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