“Willful Neglect” Decision” Shawn Livingston vs Not-so-Superintendent Elia

The School Board will meet regarding Shawn Livingston’s case this Tuesday at 1pm downtown. In one corner will be Not-So-Superintendent MaryEllen Elia. In the other corner Shawn Livingston. Shawn Livingston was the principal at Rodger’s Middle School when student Jenny Caballero walked out of the gymnasium and drowned in a retention pond on campus. Livingston maintains that he had no idea there were problems with the aides watching special needs students.

The School district headed by MaryEllen Elia offered Livingston a demotion in January to a teaching position that would have also required him to agree to be charged by district leaders with willful neglect in the death case.

The event will be judged by the Hillsborough County School Board. You know- the one where the three senior entrenched board ladies- Doretha Edgecomb, Candy Olson, Carol Kurdell, all rated Elia above satisfactory in complete contrast to Susan Valdes and Aprill Griffin who gave Elia straight ones and Griffin lamented that she was not allowed to give zeros.

When you consider what constitutes “willful neglect” remember this simple 5 item sequence of events:

1. On December 15, 2011: a special needs student is forgotten on a school bus for most of the school day. The student is unharmed but the Aide is charged with child neglect.

2. January 1, 2012: the 2012 campaign season begins with 4 incumbent school board members running for re-election.

3. January 26, 2012: Isabella Herrera dies after suffering respiratory distress on a bus. Neither the aide nor the bus driver call 911 while parked in front of a pediatric Office but no one is charged with neglect, Superintendent Elia, Chair Candy Olson and the Sheriff’s Office are all together at a “Battle of the Belts” event when Isaballa passes away but none of them inform the school board or the public about the death (see Patch Exclusive “You’ve just crossed over into the Twilight Zone”).

4. August 14, 2012: Primaries are held and incumbent school board members Doretha Edgecomb and Susan Valdes are re-elected.

5. November 1, 2012: 9 months after it occurred the public and school board learn of the death of Isabella Herrera death when a lawsuit is filed after the death of a second student Jenny Caballero.

When you consider what constitutes “willful neglect” consider that one of the responsibilities of the Superintendent and her staff is to recommend policy and training updates for the school board to adopt. But the Not-so-superintendent Elia will later claim that her excuse for not informing the school board for 9 months about Isabella Herrera’s death was that no “criminal wrongdoing” was found. But criminal wrongdoing was found in the previous December 15, 2011 incident but no policy & training updates were recommended by the not-so-Superintendent and her staff like Cathy Valdes, Chief of Facilities (bus transportation). Instead they sat in front of the board for 9 months and said nothing. Had they recommended policy & training updates then both Isabella Herrera and Jenny caballero might still be with us. And conceivably had policies and training been updated after the December 15, 2011 incident then Shawn Livingston and all the staff at Rodgers Middle school would have received those updated policies and training and Jenny Caballero would not have drowned. Or, in other words, Superintendent Elia and the school board’s failure after the December 15, 2011 incident is directly responsible for any perceived failure on the part of Shawn Livingston.   

When it comes to “willful neglect” it is hard to imagine anything more absurd than Superintendent Elia and the School Board sitting in judgment of Shawn Livingston next week. They should all recuse themselves from participating. If any one should be getting reviewed it should be Not-so-Superintendent Elia. But, of course she received 3 glowing reviews last week from none other than Candy Olson, Doretha Edgecomb, Carol Kurdell and Stacy White which makes the Livingston decision seems like a foregone conclusion and more like a show trial to keep the staff intimidated by the blatant double standard that exists at Hillsborough County Public Schools.