Lawsuit against school system for promoting Dems

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Cincinnati principal, teacher face discipline in vote outing

By Jessica Brown • jlbrown@enquirer.com • October 25, 2010

Cincinnati Public Schools will hold a disciplinary conference this week with the principal and social studies teacher who were involved in an Oct. 13 voting outing for Hughes High School students that spurred a lawsuit and public outrage.

The extent of potential disciplinary action for Principal Virginia Rhodes and teacher Dennis McFadden is unclear, but it is unlikely that they would be fired, Superintendent Mary Ronan said Monday.

The conferences will likely take place Friday.

Meanwhile, the district maintains that there was no intent to engage in partisan politics.

“The idea that there was some kind of conspiracy here was just absolutely not grounded in the fact,” said spokeswoman Janet Walsh. “

The lawsuit alleges three vans carrying 31 students were transported to the elections board and given only Democratic sample ballots. A 2002 agreement between CPS and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) prohibits the use school property or employees to support candidates.

The district says the person who handed out the ballots was Gwen Robinson, a former CPS principal who retired from the district in 1999 and is not a district employee. (She is not the same Gwen Robinson who heads the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency.)

McFadden was the only school employee to accompany students on the trip, according to CPS.

The rest of the adults were volunteers. It remains unclear what group they are affiliated with, if any. The lawsuit alleges they appeared to be campaign workers for or supporters of U. S. Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-West Price Hill.

However, Driehaus campaign spokesman Tim Mulvey said Monday the campaign had nothing to do with the trip and no Driehaus representatives were present.

In a letter to the editor which Rhodes submitted to the Enquirer on Friday but retracted Monday before it ran, Rhodes accepted responsibility for not ensuring the trip had enough oversight, but said the school will “continue to embrace the teachable moments that occur daily in our community.”

McFadden did not return a call from the Enquirer.

Rhodes, when reached by phone, referred questions to the district office.

Superintendent Mary Ronan said Monday that the internal investigation “determined there was no intent to sway votes on the part of the teacher.” She said the district is holding a disciplinary conference because of the “lack of supervision for the youngsters.”

From a policy standpoint, the vans used to transport the students were not the proper size. Policy allows nine or fewer seats in each van. These vans had 15 seats.

It remains unclear whether the volunteers had undergone background checks, as required by CPS policy, or whether the drivers of the vans had taken legally required school bus driver training.

The group of volunteers has obtained a lawyer and has refused to give any information to the district, Ronan said, hindering the district’s ability to complete its investigation.

The fact that the district does not have those answers though, speaks to the lack of oversight, Ronan said.

“You have to make sure they’re properly supervised and in the right size van and properly trained. None of those happened.”

The lawsuit was filed by Thomas Brinkman Jr., a Republican candidate for Hamilton County auditor, and COAST. It is pending in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

Ronan said Hughes was the only school to hold a voting outing and that no other schools are planning such trips before the Nov. 2. election.

The Cincinnati Public Schools, while maintaining it did nothing wrong, agreed last week to not allow students in the future to be subjected to partisan politics during school hours.
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Cincinnati principal, teacher face discipline in vote outing | cincinnati.com | nky.com
 
Banjo said:
and it was a Republican who made the complaint... hmm.
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Go figure! Aren't the repubs the ones that said that Obama was attempting to indocrinate students when he made a speech at a school?
 
Banjo said:
and it was a Republican who made the complaint... hmm.
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I suppose if the sample ballots had been all Republicans that no Democrats would have complained.
 
Reba said:
I suppose if the sample ballots had been all Republicans that no Democrats would have complained.
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Which is what I'm saying. I think it's a petty issue.
 
jillio said:
Well, they weren't actually. They were given sample ballots. It was more of an intro to the procedure.
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Mm... I've looked back and reread the article. I think I missed the key word sample Democratic ballots. I can't help but wonder if wonder if they'd be facing this suit if they had gotten Republican ballots?

I stand corrected. :P
 
deafskeptic said:
Mm... I've looked back and reread the article. I think I missed the key word sample Democratic ballots. I can't help but wonder if wonder if they'd be facing this suit if they had gotten Republican ballots?

I stand corrected. :P
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Not a problem. I just can't see all the fuss over a sample ballot.
 
jillio said:
Not a problem. I just can't see all the fuss over a sample ballot.
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Really???? Your background is in Psychology and you can't see a problem with handing students a sample ballot with only half the candidates listed right before they go in to vote. :lol:

I am pretty sure that's covered in 101
 
TXgolfer said:
Really???? Your background is in Psychology and you can't see a problem with handing students a sample ballot with only half the candidates listed right before they go in to vote. :lol:

I am pretty sure that's covered in 101
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Yeah, and the fact that U.S Rep. Steve Driehaus is an Obama/Biden supporter.....so go figure!
 
Reba said:
I suppose if the sample ballots had been all Republicans that no Democrats would have complained.
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If this happens, Reba, will you be the one to start the thread?:giggle:
 
TXgolfer said:
Really???? Your background is in Psychology and you can't see a problem with handing students a sample ballot with only half the candidates listed right before they go in to vote. :lol:

I am pretty sure that's covered in 101
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Well, since they weren't actually voting for the candidates, I think it's moot.

I'm sure the students are capable of making up their minds who to vote for in the election. I still think they shouldn't have been taken out of school unless they were taking a civics course.
 
deafskeptic said:
Well, since they weren't actually voting for the candidates, I think it's moot.

I'm sure the students are capable of making up their minds who to vote for in the election. I still think they shouldn't have been taken out of school unless they were taking a civics course.
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What???
 
TXgolfer said:
Really???? Your background is in Psychology and you can't see a problem with handing students a sample ballot with only half the candidates listed right before they go in to vote. :lol:

I am pretty sure that's covered in 101
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The Repubs could have done the same thing. It's called campaigning. And psychology also teaches that these little tactics do not have a large influence on decisions at all. Social Psychology 478. It appears that you don't give people the credit they deserve for thinking for themselves.
 
deafskeptic said:
Well, since they weren't actually voting for the candidates, I think it's moot.

I'm sure the students are capable of making up their minds who to vote for in the election. I still think they shouldn't have been taken out of school unless they were taking a civics course.
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Exactly. I guess the Repubs want the Dems to stop campaigning all together.:lol:
 
jillio said:
Exactly. I guess the Repubs want the Dems to stop campaigning all together.:lol:
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No, they just want it done within the confines of the law.
 
jillio said:
How was this illegal?
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Simply replying to this:

"I guess the Repubs want the Dems to stop campaigning all together."

I thought the defense was that the students' trip was NOT campaigning, so obviously I couldn't be referring to that.
 
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