Although they withdrew their children from Lillie C. Evans, several of the magnet parents have continued to press their case: Something should be done about the alleged incidents of abuse, they say, to prevent them from occurring again. They have written letters to school board members and met twice with Visiedo. In particular they have expressed concern about what they say has been a tepid response from the school district's police force, a 58-member unit of trained and sworn law enforcement officers. "We don't have a written policy that says, for instance, that you may or may not shake a kid for a particular offense," explains Red McCallister, executive director of the school police. "You can't write rules and regulations so fine that they would cover every circumstance that might come up."
It is also difficult, McCallister says, to second-guess the judgment of more than 500 security monitors who patrol the halls of the district's schools. The monitors usually come from the neighborhood near the school and are hired by the principal. They are trained by the school police, McCallister says, but he has no control over them and they answer only to the principal. "I think security monitors understand that they are not supposed to abuse children," he adds. "Then it really becomes a question as to what is abuse." And to that question McCallister has no answer. "That's up to the courts to decide," he says.
According to the school district's own regulations, child abuse is "defined to include harm or threatened harm to a child's health or welfare." Would it be abusive for a security monitor to physically threaten or grab a six-year-old child by the throat? "I think you have to look at each individual case," McCallister says, adding, "Now you're getting into the allegations in this case, so I'm not going to comment on that."
Magnet parent Nola Garcia doesn't understand the equivocation. "When you shake a child to get them to act properly, that is corporal punishment," she says. "And grabbing a child that hard by the throat is child abuse."
Corporal punishment is prohibited in the Dade County Public Schools. And all school staff are required to report any suspected acts of child abuse A whether confirmed or not A to school police and the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. That has magnet parents wondering why none of their complaints were forwarded to the school police when they were initially made to Mindingall.
McCallister repeatedly assured New Times that all the allegations of abuse had been first reported to his department by administrators at Lillie C. Evans, not by the parents. But in response to requests that he re-examine his department's records, McCallister admitted that in fact the parents had come forward first, on May 14. Furthermore, McCallister acknowledged, the school only reported the alleged incidents after being prodded to do so by one of McCallister's detectives. "We directed the school to call the cases in," he explains.
McCallister asserts that Mindingall did nothing wrong in failing to promptly notify his office of the allegations, and says it was a judgment call on her part. "She's not under any obligation to report this," he claims.
That would be news to McCallister's boss, Superintendent Octavio Visiedo. "The principal should have reported it to school police," Visiedo states flatly. The superintendent also notes that the school police's investigation into the entire controversy has thus far been inconclusive. "Some of the allegations made about child abuse just have not materialized," Visiedo says. "They are still investigating and no final report has been made.
"I believe they saw something," he adds, referring to the magnet parents, "but how they interpret it is such a subjective thing."
As for the upcoming school term, Visiedo and magnet coordinator Judith Stein are hoping for a smoother year. A lead teacher will soon be selected to replace Joan Kuperstein, and new students are now being recruited for the program. Stein says she expects between 75 and 100 students will be bused to Lillie C. Evans this fall. "Time will tell if we still have a problem," she muses. "We'll have to wait and see.
