CWC teacher found in Students ONLY bathroom while students inside

     On Monday, February 24, 2014, a CWC teacher was seen using the STUDENTS" ONLY bathroom while students were in the bathroom.
      This is just unbelievable! Stoner parents have been worried and complaining for months about CWC parents entering the students' only bathroom. I didn't realize we also had to be worried about CWC teachers entering the student's bathroom.

      Why do these "citizens of the world" behave so un-citizen-like? There are large signs in English and Spanish stating that the bathroom is for students only and adults are not allowed in. Yet, CWC parents and teachers choose to ignore these signs and place our students in danger for their own convenience. Stoner parents have complained many times, and CWC administration has told us many times that they have communicated our concerns and the importance of following the campus rules to their community, but obviously, the CWC community is not listening and does not care about our concerns.

      How can we feel safe about our children being on campus when CWC continues to recklessly create unsafe situations?

      This latest and most ergregious incident again exemplifies CWC'S lack of respect for our community, failure to provide a secure environment for our children and a continuing pattern of worsening behavior.
      How long do our children need to suffer through unsafe conditions on campus created by CWC? Do we have to suffer this indignity for the rest of the school year and expect this to continue next year?

Another week, another threat from the CWC community

   Last week it was an email threat from some representing themselves as part of the CWC community and part of the Culver City street gang, this week it came from a "neighbor" with a hushmail.com account.

    The menacing emails began at 4:38 pm Monday, Feb 17 and continued until 4:20 am the following day. The emails talked about my family, listed our assets, listed my parents and brothers addresses, and even said they were going to tell my parents on me. (...no, really they were going to tell on me...) They were basically trying to intimidate me so that I would not speak at the Del Rey Neighborhood Council Education Committee meeting on Feb 18.

   
 
    In the second to last email, the writer even threatens to air my "dirty laundry" at the meeting  as a way to scare me in to silence.
    On the morning of Feb 18, a letter was thrown into my parents yard containing a print out of the emails. (So, they did tell on me!) Maybe they would humiliate me me at the meeting with some dark, long forgotten secret. Or, this was just another attempt to scare and silence me.


    This is just sad.  Is this how citizens of the world behave themselves? Anonymous menacing email threats? As "citizens" wouldn't they want to engage in our democratic process and encourage discussion, such as at a neighborhood council meeting, not silence opposing voices with threats of public humiliation?

Round up of last week, Feb 7 to Feb 14

    It was quite an eventful week, the past week. Let’s see if I can sum up what happened: protests, meeting with LAUSD, gang threat, and a meeting with CWC.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Morning: CWC parents were handing out fliers in front ofStoner placing all the blame of the Stoner parents' concerns on one parent.

     Afternoon: Over 100 community members and Stoner parents and students rallied outside CWC's front entrance asking for a better, safer school for Stoner. La Opinion ran a story on the rally: http://www.laopinion.com/denuncia-culver-racismo-stoner

Monday, February 10.
    LAUSD held a meeting for Stoner parents to give them more information.  This was basically an informational session on prop 39. This was a repeat of a meeting held last year. Stoner parents asked to meet with CWC officials to discuss their concerns.  A meeting was scheduled for Thursday Feb 13.

Tuesday, Feb 11.
    Gang threats are issued against Stoner parents and Lindblade residents who are organizing against the co-location.

Wednesday, Feb 12. 

     LAUSD, CWC, Stoner parents and LAUSD Police met to discuss the gang threats and safety on campus.

Thursday, Feb 13. 

     CWC met with Stoner parents in the Stoner auditorium. Three police cars were stationed around campus. CWC said they were glad to be finally be meeting with us (after only 6 months, 3 protests and 188 letters from Stoner parents). They assured us that they were taking our concerns seriously. The gate security was fixed. The CWC parents no longer entered the student only restroom. Everything was fixed and the problems were all solved.

After 20 minutes, the meeting broke down when CWC administration would not answer a straight-forward, pointed question. "Who authorized giving the combination to all the [CWC] parents?" The question was repeated and then repeated again by another audience member and still no answer.  The Stoner parents began demanding an answer and chanted “Answer, answer, answer.” No answer ever came from CWC. On later questions, CWC avoided answering and even refused to acknowledge Stoner parent’s concerns. Yet, CWC officials said the meeting was a good start. I don't think a good start includes not answering, avoiding questions and denying parents concerns.

Friday, Feb 14. Stoner teacher sees a CWC parent coming out of the student bathroom with a child.

This seems to be the a pattern. We hear that the problem is solved and then the exact behavior we are complaining about is repeated. CWC has broken our trust and it's hard to say if things can move forward when there is no foundation of ttrust. 

       The adventures in co-location will continue tomorrow night at the Del Rey Neighborhood Council meeting, where the only agenda item is "community impact of co-location of Stoner Elementary School and Citizens of the World Charter School." 7 PM at Del Rey Square on Culver in between Inglewood and Stoner.

Stoner Elementary community to protest CWC co-location; cite segregation and safety issues

The Stoner Elementary community is mad and is fighting back against a planned expansion by the co-locating charter, Citizens’ of the World Charter Mar Vista (CWC), on the Stoner Elementary Campus. CWC has requested more classrooms and it is possible that they will take the Stoner computer lab, the speech & occupational therapist room, the book room and parent’s room. Taking anyone of these resources would devastate Stoner, a Title I school.

The parents are also concerned that the co-location creates segregation on campus bring about many safety issues for their children. This week 168 signed letters from Stoner Parents were submitted to LAUSD this week pointing out their concerns regarding segregation and safety on campus. LAUSD has not responded. 

This will be the 3^rd protest held against the CWC co-location at Stoner Elementary.

WHAT: Stoner Elementary Community is holding a: 

      RALLY FOR STONER ELEMENTARY: better, safer school for our children
WHEN: Friday, February 7, 2013 at 2:30 – 4 pm
WHERE: on the corner of Stoner Avenue and Lindblade Street, 90230. [map]

Anit-CWC signs stolen from lawns...again

    The local resident around Stoner Elementary created and posted signs on their lawns protesting the CWC co-location.
   Over the past few weeks, some of the signs have been stolen. Last night CWc had another large evening event on campus, this morning more signs around the neighborhood have disappeared.
     "Someone" is trying to silence our voice and opposition.  I wonder who these theiving citizens could be?

Stoner community conducts letter writing campaign to complain about Cwc co-location

     The Stoner Elementary community is mad about the conditions that the co-location of Citizens of the world Mar Vista is bringing to the Stoner campus.
   Last week, the Stoner Parents Academy organized a letter writing campaign to make sure all involved were aware of the issues concerning parents and the community. In two days, the group gathered 155 signed letters.  About one third of the letter contained handwritten,  heartfelt notes that described people's concerns about segregation and safety on campus. This refrain was repeated over and over again. Is LAUSD listening?

     Stoner parents are asking for a better, safer school for their children. Is anyone listening?

Letters

CWC Mar Vista values coffee over student safety

CWC values coffee more than students?

       Last week, I saw something unbelievably distributing. Something so unbelievable and so disturbing that I was jarred into action. I saw CWC place our students lives at risk for coffee.

       On the morning of Monday, January 27, 2014, minutes after having just met with the Stoner Principal and being assured once again the problem with the CWC gate had been solved, I walked around to the back side of the school and saw the Citizens of the World Charter (CWC) Mar Vista gate open, unlocked and unattended so that the Office Assistant could make a coffee run for office staff. It sounds almost crazy. If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it.
   

This isolated incident might not sound that bad, until you put it into context and see that CWC’s behavior has become increasingly reckless in regards to their entrance and safety on campus. 

At the begining of the school year, when CWC began to use the entrance, they would keep the gate unlocked and/or opened.  In the first few weeks of school, a specialneeds CWC student escaped from campus, and was found wandering the neighborhoodbabbling incoherently. Residents called the police and the child was picked and reunited with their family.

After that, CWC put a combination lock on the gate. Presumably, so that they would not have to leave the gate open like before, but would still have easy access. However, CWC decided that it was a good idea to give all their parents the combination to the lock.  This meant that over 200 people had unfettered access to our students and campus. The CWC parents would take advantage of this privileged access and would be on campus evenings and weekends without any supervision from CWC Mar Vista school officials.

                On November 5, 2013, at the Del Rey Residents Association meeting, I confronted CWC Principle Kerr and told her that giving all the CWC parents the combination to the entrance was a huge safety issue and needed to be stopped right way. Her response was that she had seen the Braddock gate open and unattended, as if pointing out a concern about Stoner absolved CWC’s pattern of continued reckless behavior.

                Needless to say, nothing was done. On Friday afternoon, December 6, I notified LAUSD's Prop 39 department about the combination lock. The following Monday, the combination lock was removed.

                However, that has not ended CWC’s reckless behavior. Stoner ES parents and local residents have reported seeing the gate left open and unlocked on many different days and at many different times since the combination lock has been removed. 

           On Friday,  January 24, the Stoner Parents Academy (SPA) was having its weekly meeting. The issue of safety came up. A parent noticed people entering the CWC gate without anyone unlocking the chain. When the Stoner parents went to investigate, they found the gate locked in the open position. SPA was so concerned, they postponed their meeting to stand guard until the issue was resolved.

     Once the meeting resumed, I volunteered to draft a letter to the Stoner principal regarding our concerns. I sent the email Monday morning, and met with the Stoner principal a few hours later.

     This takes us back to the beginning of the story. So after all that, how does an open gate coffee run even make sense?  What is CWC thinking?