Special Miseducation
High Time As Folio Weekly reported in last week’s Bite By Bite issue (http://bit.ly/GHfAs8), navigating the seas of flavored vodkas is a daunting, and sometimes disgusting, task. (To wit: flavors like cake, bubble and “fluffed marshmallow.”) Tragically, that story included no mention of the flavored vodkas being produced by Jacksonville’s own Bella Coley, COO of the Wasilla-based Alaska Distillery, which previously made headlines for marketing Salmon Vodka and is now preparing to unveil a vodka produced by distilling hemp seeds and glacier water. Sadly for the potheads among us, the drink, marketed under the name “Purgatory,” produces no contact high. A company press release notes, “The hemp seed used in Purgatory goes through a highly scrutinized (and regulated) process to ensure that no THC is contained in the product.” Still, the drink is slated to come to market on 4/20, dude!
Giant Slurping Sound “Happy to be getting a downtown convenience store, but golly, are we that hard up for wins?” — Tweet from political blogger and former mayoral aide Abel Harding, following a flood of local media coverage about the opening of a 7-11 store at The Jacksonville Landing last week. The opening of the cigarette and Slurpee emporium was attended by Gov. Rick Scott, whose staunch supporter and campaign donor, Toney Sleiman, owns The Jacksonville Landing.
Flood of Irresponsibility “If it contributes to an annual water bill of upwards of 10 grand, I say this example of landscape architecture gone wild is more of a sales trap.” — Jacksonville resident and kayaker Gary Klopfer, who may have solved the mystery of Folio Weekly’s Water Hog No. 2. As FW reported in our annual Water Hogs issue (http://bit.ly/GEuscb), the house’s use of 1.6 million gallons of water last year seemed inexplicable, since the place had been empty since sometime in 2010 and was bank-owned. Even a Prudential Realtor who manages the property’s utilities phoned Folio Weekly and said the company couldn’t figure it out. Klopfer’s paddle uncovered a possible reason: a 30-foot-long wall about three feet high along the back of the house that encases a pool. When Klopfer paddled past the Ortega property on March 18, water was pouring over the top of the wall in a perpetual waterfall. Says Klopfer, “I guess it continues to run as a sales feature.” What a waste: Water Hog No. 2.
A former principal sued for proselytizing is now accused of inappropriate punishment of disabled students
L
inda Turner was a “nontraditional” public school principal — to put it mildly. As head of Bannerman Learning Center, an alternativeeducation school in Clay County, Turner routinely forwarded her subordinates hyperreligious and ultra-conservative emails, urging them to pray in the name of Jesus, sign petitions to keep Christian broadcasting on TV and exhorting recipients to accept the “wonders of the lord.” She also forwarded political emails that compared Barack Obama to a member of the Taliban, called him a “jackass” and referred to the Democratic Party as the “Demonic Party.” Some of the emails struck assistant principal Patrick Capriola as funny. In September, Turner sent one in support of creating an Internet “prayer circle” to pray for rain in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, that read, “Pray and believe! Let’s pray and carry our rain gear with us … Please forward if you believe in the power of prayer.” Capriola copied that message to a couple of friends with the note: “From my boss … Figure it would make you laugh.” But a month later, Capriola filed suit against Turner and the Clay County School District in U.S. District Court, claiming that both had violated his constitutional right to “be free of state-sponsored religion” and “state prescribed political orthodoxy.” That suit prompted Clay County School Superintendent Ben Wortham to remove Turner as principal on Jan. 3 and reassign her to Clay High School, where she remains today, as an assistant to the administration. But according to an amended complaint filed by Capriola’s attorney William Sheppard on Feb. 23, Turner’s questionable emails were only part of the story. According to the complaint, Turner disciplined students in ways that are disturbing, contrary to school district policy and just plain weird. The complaint contends that Turner’s actions and subsequent retaliation against Capriola violated the whistleblower protections in both the Americans With Disabilities Act and the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973. A so-called “alternative school,” Bannerman educates emotionally and behaviorally disturbed students, as well as pregnant girls and students who have committed serious violations of the law or the student code of conduct. In his amended complaint, Capriola stated that if regular education students got in trouble, they would be “punished” by being placed in classrooms with disabled students. The complaint further says that Turner would punish students given in-school suspension by blasting the air conditioning, taking away their jackets and playing opera at maximum volume.
Linda Turner’s attorney describes complaints against her as “private work-place gripes.”
(Capriola’s lawsuit doesn’t raise the issue, but both the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights have banned the use of loud music during interrogations as a form of torture.) Capriola charges that Turner also meted out a strange and humiliating punishment for intellectually disabled students at the school. According to the amended complaint, she would require them to carry buckets filled with sand up and down the hallways of Bannerman 10 times “to demonstrate their willingness to comply with the rules.” Superintendent Wortham, who removed Turner during the holiday break, has since made the removal permanent on the advice of the district’s attorney in the lawsuit, according to Darlene Mahla, district public relations officer. “It’s in the best interest of her as an employee and in the best interest of the district,” Mahla said. Asked about the new allegations in the amended complaint, Mahla replied, “No comment.” Reached at Clay High School, Turner also declined to discuss the lawsuit. “I can’t make a comment on that, sorry,” she said. Neither Capriola nor his attorney William Sheppard could be reached for comment. In the amended lawsuit, Capriola claims that when he voiced his concerns about the treatment of students to Turner, beginning in May 2010, she suggested, “If you don’t like the way it is here, you can go somewhere else.” When Capriola asked an employee of the
Capriola claims he was not included in ESE meetings after he voiced his concerns, and that he has been retaliated against for filing the lawsuit. He says after he filed the suit, Turner moved his office to a remote location filled with excess office furniture. He says his trashcan wasn’t emptied, and that once, while he and Turner waited in the bus turnaround with students, she flipped him off. Though Capriola remains an assistant principal at Bannerman, he says he has been overlooked for other district jobs for which he is qualified. In a March 8 response to the amended complaint, Turner’s attorney Michael Grogan characterized Capriola’s claims of retaliation as mostly “private work-place gripes.” He said Turner’s emails were private communications and not public pronouncements. And he stated that Capriola didn’t follow the proper procedures for filing a complaint if he was concerned about ADA or IDEA violations. As for Capriola’s claims that Turner retaliated against him, Grogan said, they are “trivial and merit no discussion.” In the school district’s March 8 response to the amended complaint, attorney Timothy B. Strong admitted that Turner played opera music during in-school suspensions and took away jackets from suspended students if they violated the school dress code, but he denied Capriola witnessed Turner violating students’ rights. Strong also asserted that Capriola can’t claim an action under the ADA and the Rehabilitation
According to the amended complaint, Turner would require them to carry buckets filled with sand up and down the hallways of Bannerman 10 times “to demonstrate their willingness to comply with the rules.” school district’s Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program in April 2011 to help Turner “achieve her goals without violating the law,” the complaint says, Turner reacted by saying that she “had been doing things her way for 11 years and was going to keep doing it her way.” According to the amended complaint, Capriola complained about Turner’s conduct in a school administrator survey that he submitted to Superintendent Wortham on Nov. 30 — after he filed the lawsuit — saying that Turner used racial slurs in reference to students and that her conduct violated the school system’s special education regulations under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Act of 1973 because he “failed to exhaust his administrative remedies.” And he said that since the district had voluntarily stopped the actions Capriola claimed violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights (the emails), his complaint is now “moot.” Judge Marcia Morales Howard, citing the failure of a mediation to settle the matter, has ordered all parties into a case management conference, in which a judge and the parties discuss the issues in a case and possible resolutions. A report on that conference is due no later than April 9. Susan Cooper Eastman sceastman@folioweekly.com Twitter @susaneastman March 27- april 2, 2012 | folio weekly | 7