Privileged: UTD President Karla Mats allowed to break public speaker rules at Miami-Dade School Boar
Watch the Double Standards for Yourself
United Teachers of Dade President Karla Mats's Speech
NOTE: School Board Member Regaldo winks at UTD President!
Watch at 9:50
Teacher, Attorney and Activist Thais Alvarez's Speech
Miami-Dade County Public School Board (MDCPSB) should be synonymous with the Miami-Double Standards Public School Board.
Humor keeps me from crying. Seriously.
The MDCPSB sports banners and signs, claps incessantly, mentions names in praise, has unfettered speaking time, engages in discussions with anyone in the audience - and well makes the rules as-they-go-along to their convenience.
Teachers, on the other hand, are prohibited from carrying banners or posters, silenced when stating the names of corrupt public officials, capped at 3 minutes - even if someone is willing to donate them their time, and precluded from entering into discussions or asking questions to the almighties sitting high on the dais - and well the MDCPSB makes rules as-they-go-along to the teachers' detriment.
True to the rule that all rules have an exception, exceptions are granted to a 6-digit salary earning "teacher on assignment" who gets the red carpet treatment at the MDCPSB meetings. No surprise a MDCPS teacher made this meme:
Watch the video below for yourself. President Mats said School Board member Holloway's name 2 times, School Board member Lubby Narravo's name 4 times, and School Board District 6 Candidate Modesto Abety's name, who President Mats endorses, 2 times before attorney Walter Harvey or Chairwoman Hantman stopped her to tell her she could not say names.
More troubling is the fact that President Mats was a promotional mouthpiece for School Board candidate Modesto Abety. Arguably, one could say that this is in violation of "equal time" rules prohibiting electioneering and campaigning on public airways, unless opponents are not afforded the same opportunity.
Should we conclude that the MDCPSB let this "slide" because they want Candidate Abety to get elected? If my opinion counts, I say that the MDCPSB wants Candidate Abety to win - and this should tell teachers exactly who they should not vote for. But, I do not endorse candidates either way.
Before you consider voting for Mr. Abety know this:
Mr. Abety is the former, after "he retired after some internal upheavals," President/CEO of the Children's Trust. Recently. when former MDCPSB Chief Negotiator James Haj publicly admitted that the MDCPSB violated Florida Statute 1012.22, Mr. Haj magically stopped working for MDCPSS and became the CEO of the Children's Trust. Now, Mr. Abety is attempting to come to the MDCPSB in the capacity of a school board member.
Does this even pass the small test? Incestuous is the word that comes to my mind.
Consider crashing this party.
When you watch President Mats's video notice how attorney Walter Harvey provides that he rule for saying names is "under consideration." Yet, when the speaker, Teacher Thais Alvarez, in the second video speaks, Chairwoman Hantman rudely interrupts her for stating names over-and-over in an attempt to frustrate her message. Yes, the two speeches featured below took place the same day, July 13, 2016, before the same board.
Further, after President Mats speaks, listen to brownnosing exchange that takes place where the Board members overtly state - over and over - that they do not have a problem with names being stated by public speakers - yeah if her name is President Mats and she is "elevating their great work."
The more I interact with the MDCPSB the more disgusted I grow. Yes, disgusted. Things need to be called out for what they are. As an American citizen who is an attorney, educator and taxpayer, it pains me to the depths of my soul to know that these are the people who have been elected to represent us. It is an abomination which should be repudiated in order to preserve the republic.
Seriously, this has to stop. There is a case, Leventhal v. Vista Unified School District, which provides public speakers have the right to say names. I wrote an open letter to the MDCPSB where I informed them of this case, but they continue to violate speakers First Amendment rights to chill speech.
When will the media do something to rein in Chairwoman Hantman, Attorney Harvey and rest of Board members who, in fact. let Chairwoman Hantman violate speakers' First Amendment rights?
Maybe it is also time to file a Florida Bar complaint against Attorney Walter Harvey for allowing the Board he "advises" to trample on public speakers civil liberties when he has been placed on notice, a peer who is also a Bar member, that a violation of free speech is taking place?
These meetings are publicly broadcast and people are listening to this in outrage.
