New Woodburn Community School

WHAT ELSE?

President Obama speaking today about the Penn State child sexual assault scandal and protecting children in general:

“And I think it’s a good time for the entire country to do some soul-searching—not just Penn State. …our No. 1 priority has to be protecting our kids. And every institution has to examine how they operate, and every individual has to take responsibility for making sure that our kids are protected.” … “you can’t just rely on bureaucracy and systems in these kinds of situations. People have to step forward, they have to be tapping into just their core decency.” … “all of us have to step up, we don’t leave it to somebody else to take responsibility.”

To bar the Eastwood Mileground site, the ball is now in the West Virginia Supreme Court. Read the rest of this entry »

THE FATE OF YOUNG CHILDREN HANGS IN THE BALANCE

It’s the job of the Supreme Court to be courageous to make proper decisions that go against the preferences of powerful agencies and officials.

While the local Monongalia County media and Morgantown media give constant coverage to the Penn State sexual assault scandal in their distant backyard they completely ignore the ongoing Eastwood Elementary new school siting scandal in their immediate front yard, the reckless and potentially lethal new school site impending at arterial highways banned by state Rule, a siting that could one day result in involuntary manslaughter charges against county and state education officials, given the death of a student in those safety hazards prohibited at new school sites by state Rule.

Post-calamity would be too late for child victims of the Eastwood school site, just like it is too late to prevent the damage done to the child victims in the Penn State sex assault scandal.

In both scandals, the officials have denied and tried to minimize the perception of the problem, they have rationalized and justified rule-breaking, wrongful behavior, and risk-taking with the lives of young children. In both cases, the legal position of the officials is dubious at best, and the moral positions are irresponsible, reckless, and wrong. And local and state media are silent, and therefore complicit.

Out of sight, out of mind, move along and isolate, pretend that it would be too disruptive to shift to a new, safe and lawful school site – that’s the implicit messages of the local and state media and certainly of the school officials – to deny and to minimize the stark danger of the hazardous and potentially lethal site that is the intended Eastwood Elementary school location at the intersection of two high traffic, congested, arterial highways, WV 705 and US 119.

“People think it’s crazy.” – WVU Professor of Law, Bob Bastress.

Mon Schools and WV School Building Authority officials think otherwise. Wrongfully and negligently.

And the vote by the WV School Building Authority in June to fund a new Kenna Elementary school in Jackson County in a prohibited industrial park goes equally ignored. Involuntary Manslaughter would be the charge upon calamity in these hazardous sites, and the price of the civil liability suits would reach into the tens of millions of dollars.

But the West Virginia media to its shame is deaf to this West Virginia scandal even as it trumpets the Penn State scandal in an ongoing spate of inexcusable hypocrisy. Read the rest of this entry »

THE SITE IS NOT WORTH A SINGLE DOLLAR NOR A SINGLE LIFE FOR A SCHOOL

Top sports writer Dan Wetzel and attorney Clay Travis discuss the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, including Penn State’s

“civil liability, and that of individuals such as [President] Spanier, [Head Coach] Paterno, athletic director Tim Curley and others.”

Attorney Travis

“estimates the total liability will be more than $100 million and that’s if Penn State can avoid any punitive measures, which could drive things higher. Paterno himself could pay out millions.”

Sports law professor Michael McCann analyzes the Penn State scandal liabilities further.

And United States Education Secretary Arne Duncan states the underlying imperative: “Schools and school officials have a legal and moral responsibility to protect children and young people from violence and abuse.”

Now compare to the Eastwood Mileground siting scandal and the West Virginia state Rule that mandates:

“For the safety of students, [any and every] new school site shall be located away from hazards and undesirable environments, such as: a. … arterial highways, heavily traveled streets, traffic and congestion b. Noise, toxic gas escapes from … odoriferous plants or industries … e. … bulk storage plants for flammable liquid, and property zoned as industrial f. Situations where a combination of factors such as those presented above could contribute to the possibility of human entrapment…”

The intended Eastwood Mileground site is an egregious mass violation of multiple site prohibiting provisions above. The site is a dangerous, potentially lethal, even predictably lethal mass of insoluble violations.

If the Eastwood Mileground school siting proceeds, and if a severe or deadly calamity to a student occurs in the prohibited features at and around the new school site, then punitive and civil liability damages should be imposed against the top Monongalia County School Officials and the top WV School Building Authority officials, along with multi-million dollar civil liability damages against the various educational agencies.

The unusually dangerous features at and around the Eastwood Mileground school site are prohibited by state Rule for a reason. One does not have to be a prophet to predict potential disaster or likely disaster on and around those deadly highways.

The officials and agencies involved do not have the right, moral or legal, to roll loaded dice with children’s lives.

A lot like in the Penn State child sex scandal there is a culture of looking the other way among the education officials and agencies in West Virginia, as regards new school siting. It’s dangerous. It’s potentially lethal. It’s wrong. And given an essentially predicatable calamity, it’s criminal.

The West Virginia Supreme Court must intervene decisively. Read the rest of this entry »

NEGLIGENT ADMINISTRATION MUST BE REPLACED

WVU and Penn State high administration officials share a scandalous inability to do the right thing when it comes to young children. Why is that? Why did WVU build a nursery school within scant feet of a polluted traffic intersection? Why did WVU sell land to Monongalia County Schools for forthcoming Eastwood Elementary at another polluted and traffic crash dangerous intersection? WVU Vice President of Administration and Finance Narvel Weese and WVU President Jim Clements should be called to account, along with the WVU Board of Governors, all of whom approved the sale, without public discussion.

Why did the director of the West Virginia School Building Authority (SBA) approve the Eastwood site in clear-cut violation of state Rule? Why did the Superintendent of Monongalia County Schools recommend the site? SBA Director Mark Manchin and Mon Schools Superintendent Frank Devono should be called to account, along with the county school board that unanimously voted for the site upon the Superintendent’s recommendation.

These individuals should be held up alongside the disgraced Penn State officials involved in the child sex abuse scandal currently being prosecuted by the Pennsylvania Attorney General.

They should be held to account like these Penn State officials who have been forced out of office – Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President of Administration and Finance Gary Schultz – and those who should be forced out of office, such as Penn State President Graham Spanier. Legendary Penn State Coach Joe Paterno should also step down.

Overstatement in comparison? Hardly. Maybe an understatement, because the West Virginia officials are the direct perpetrators in the reckless and irresponsible siting, whereas the top Penn State officials involved in the scandal acted indirectly in failing to report the child abusing actions of former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky.

What happens here in Morgantown if a student is killed or severely injured in a crash in the high traffic, congested, arterial highways should Eastwood Elementary be built and open in a year or so at that spot that is banned by state Rule? It could be any child riding to or from school with his or her mother through that accident-prone intersection and arterials. High traffic highways, congested highways, arterial highways are each banned from being located at any new school site in West Virginia. The Eastwood site violates all those specific, explicit safety provisions, and more. And all the officials involved know it, or have no excuse not to know.

A good personal injury lawyer could properly extract tens of millions of dollars in compensation from the negligent agencies, and hit the negligent administrators with criminal charges, upon a catastrophe with such predictable potential, very much like what we are currently seeing at Penn State.

What has been done thus far by any official to prevent and correct this situation “simply isn’t enough.” In fact, nothing of serious prohibitive consequence has been done thus far by any official.

In West Virginia “Involuntary Manslaughter involves the accidental causing of death of another person, although unintended, which death is the proximate result of negligence so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life.”

The difference between Pennsylvania and West Virginia? In the Penn State scandal, the Pennsylvania Attorney General is suing the Penn State officials. In the WVU/SBA/Mon Schools scandal, the West Virginia Attorney General is defending the SBA and Mon Schools against an ongoing lawsuit. The West Virginia Supreme Court is expected to rule on the lawsuit in the next couple of months. It should act like the Pennsylvania Attorney General. It should do the right thing. It should ban the negligent and potentially lethal Eastwood Elementary intersection site from ever being used as a public schoolgrounds.

The first-rate sports journalist Dan Wetzel says of the Penn State scandal that “The time for hiding behind statements and closed doors and parsed explanations from so-called leaders are over. This demands real investigation conducted by real adults…”

Just so for West Virginia school officials regarding the potentially lethal Eastwood Elementary school siting: It’s time for the real adults – hopefully those on the WV Supreme Court – to step forward and do the right thing, bar the Eastwood siting.

If not, one “accident” – traffic crash – in those school-site arterials puts this scandal directly “into the realm of criminal negligence.”

Read the rest of this entry »