- Pin it
- SubscribeUnsubscribe
- Embed
Stephanie Mahoney hasn't added a story.
My name is Stephanie Mahoney. I am a mom who needs you to partner with me, so together we can expose not only one of the biggest public education scandals but also one of the most significant cases of institutional child abuse in our nation's history.
My Story
In 2017 my daughter went to get help from two teachers after she started experiencing anxiety that was so debilitating that it was affecting her ability to function at school and home. My daughter's anxiety started after she had two concussions in one year. After her older sister came down with a mysterious illness that affected her physically as well as mentally, my daughter's anxiety became unbearable. My daughter didn't tell me she was having anxiety becasue she didn't want to add to my stress, so she went to two of her teachers for help. Both teachers took her to the office to get help, but no one did a thing, and no one notified my ex-husband or me.
When the vice principal learned that my daughter qualified under Section 504 of the ADA for an assessment, he decided that it was in the best interest of the school to transfer my daughter to a continuation school for free rather than pay for a section 504 assessment. He tried three times in six weeks to force her out, and each time he violated numerous state and federal education laws, and our constitutional rights. He told my daughter she didn't belong in regular school with regular children, and he threatened to send her to the county community for juvenile delinquents. ( My daughter has never been in trouble for anything either in or out of school. she played basketball on three teams, volunteered her time teaching basketball to little kids, and she was an A/B student.)The day before she was to return to school after Christmas vacation, he called me at home and told me my daughter failed all her classes. He refused to allow her to take her two final exams becasue he said, "she will fail them anyway," and then told me that my daughter was no longer enrolled in school and hung up on me. I phoned the district, and a few days later, they confirmed what I already knew; my daughter did not fail her classes, and the vice-principal did enroll her in the continuation school.
When I filed my complaint, I was confident that once the investigator's inquiry was complete, the school would terminate the vice-principal. During the mandatory sixty-day investigation period, the school tried desperately to get us to drop the complaint by offering my daughter the services that they were required by law to provide her in the beginning. My daughter could have chosen to accept the services and dropped her complaint, and then she could have returned to school, to her dreams, her friends. My daughter would have been able to play basketball, gone to prom, walked across the stage to receive her diploma. My daughter knew that the vice-principal emotionally abused her, and she knew if she dropped the complaint that he would harm other children, so my daughter did what many of us wouldn't have the courage to do; she refused to drop the complaint.
Sixty school days later, the investigator cleared the vice-principal of all wrongdoing. When I read the report, I found numerous misrepresentations of material facts and law. I had copies of the school's documents that proved without any doubt that the vice-principal lied innumerable times to the investigator, and I also knew by this time which laws the vice-principal violated. I was so naive becasue I thought the investigator made mistakes, but when to the school board to appeal her decision, I learned that the so-called "neutral investigator" was, in fact, the district's in-house attorney. And during the appeal, the school's attorney acted as the prosecutor, and advisor to the board. Thirty days later, the president of the board sent me a letter that said the vice-principal acted with integrity and honesty, and he denied my appeal.
I then wrote a letter to the county superintendent, a person who earns 350,000 a year, to ask if the vice-principal is certified for his position as attendance supervisor as required by law. Six days later, the school unenrolled my daughter becasue they said she failed to meet residency requirements. The school board hired a private investigator after they rejected my appeal becasue they knew I had copies of documents that would prove that they conspired to deprive my daughter and me of our constitutional rights. When they hired the investigator, they violated another California education law. This investigator determined that my daughter did not meet residency requirements becasue no one opened the door the two times he dropped by my ex-husband's house. My ex-husband has owned lived in and paid taxes for his home for more than thirty years, and both of my daughters went to elementary and middle school in his district after our divorce.
The school knew that without an attorney, they could do whatever they wanted to do to my daughter, and I could do nothing about it.
I started researching continuation high schools becasue I wanted to understand why the vice-principal tried to involuntarily transfer my daughter to continuation school three times in 6 weeks after I asked for a 504 assessment. I wanted to know why so many elected and appointed school officials( vice-principal, academic counselor, head of student services, deputy superintendent, superintendent, county superintendent, the entire school board, assistant, human resource director and the districts in house attorney) had un-regulated power and authority to destroy my child's life. I didn't know it at the time, but I had all the pieces of the puzzle; I just needed to figure out how they fit together. It took me more than a year sleeping no more than four hours a night to figure it out, and what I learned is just unbelievable.
Separate and Unequal
The California Departement of Education intentionally segregated millions of children, harming them emotionally and academically and depriving them of their constitutional rights as part of an accounting scheme similar to the one that led to Enron's demise.
- Continuation high schools are the CDE's dirty little secret; they are separate educational facilities, with different accountability systems, well actually that isn't true becasue continuation high schools haven't had an accountability system for 20 years.
- They consist of a few portables either located behind the regular highschool or off-campus somewhere.
- Continuation high schools have no academic standards ( violation of Title I of the ESSA)
- Most continuation high schools are not accredited.
- Continuation High Schools have no accountability system, so there is no way to measure if they are meeting the constitutional requirement.
- There are no physical education facilities, team sports, clubs, school dances, science labs, libraries, and students receive very little instruction from a teacher.
- Most dropouts in Calfornia come from continuation schools.
Continuation high schools are not just separate educational facilities; they are unequal educational facilities.
Could it be that our elected and appointed officials in the state and federal government do not know what the word segregation means? Could it be that they think the word segregation means race? The word segregation means to separate from, and in 1954 the Supreme Court ruled that unconstitutional .
In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled in Brown v Board of Education segregation or separating children not only violates their right to the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, but they also ruled that segregating children harms children emotionally and academically.
"in the field of education, the doctrine of separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal..."To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications...generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to be undone. A sense of inferiority affects a child motivated to learn."
It is apparent that our lawmakers thought that they could send children to separate educational facilities as long as schools "strive to ensure that no specific group based on race and ethnicity, language, special needs disproportionately enrolled in a continuation school."
Who is making sure
FRAUD
The CDE is using continuation high schools as off-balance-sheet special purpose entities to hide students with academic debt not only to manipulate the data but also as a way for regular high school to limit what they spend on special education assessments and services.
Do you remember Enron? Enron used something called off-balance-sheet special purpose entities to hide their debt and toxic assets from investors and creditors.
- An off-balance sheet item is a term for assets and liabilities ( disabled, credit deficient, low performing, chronically absent, truant, children with suspensions) listed on a separate balance sheet. Although listed on a separate balance sheet the assets and liabilities still belong to the company or in this case the regular high school
- The CDE turned continuation high schools into off-balance-sheet special purpose entities in 1999 when under the Public Schools Accountability Act, the CDE was allowed to create a separate accountability system or balance sheet for continuation schools. Continuation schools have not had an accountability system for 20 years.
- Every school in California that enrolls one hundred twelfth graders is required by law to have a continuation high school.
Title I of the Elementary Secondary Education Act, Every Student Succeeds Act, requires every school and every state to report to provide information to the community to allow public comparison of schools for student achievement, environment, and demographics. This report is known as the School Accountability Report Card, and the Local Accountability Report Card acts like a companies balance sheet.
When a regular high school refers or transfers a child to a continuation high school, the regular high school's data will show an increase in graduation rates and or test scores and a decrease in chronic absenteeism, truancy, and or suspensions.
Section 504. Free and Appropriate Education
The CDE is using referrals to continuation schools as a way for regular high schools to limit what they have to spend on special education assessments and services.
- The Child Find Mandate of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requires schools to find, identify, and assess for free children with disabilities yearly. The criterion used to find and identify students with disabilities are; failure to progress, credit deficient, low p[erfroming, chronically absent, truant, and children who have discipline issues.
The CDE uses the same criteria required to use to make a referral for a section 504 assessment under federal law as they do to make a referral to a continuation school: chronic absenteeism, failure to progress, credit deficient, low performing, truant, and children with discipline issues.
I thought that the fiduciary duty I owe my child to make decisions that in her best interest transfers to school administrators when my child was at school, I was wrong. School administrators do owe a fiduciary duty, but they don't owe it to parents or their children. School administrators owe a fiduciary duty to the school; this duty requires loyalty, which means the school administrator must make decisions in the best interest of the school, not the child. Administrators' number one concern is the budget. Section 504 assessments are expensive; schools must pay for section 504 assessments out of the general fund. Referrals to continuation schools are free.
Emotional Abuse
According to Prevent Child Abuse America," the emotional child abuse of children may be the most damaging form of maltreatment, affecting their emotional and physical health as well as their social and cognitive development. Despite the growing awareness and acknowledgment of child emotional abuse as a societal problem, many Americans still do not grasp its nature and seriousness."
The following behaviors are what many agree constitutes emotional child abuse: corruption, ignoring, rejection, isolation, humiliation, verbal abuse, unrealistic expectations.
The CDE intentionally harmed millions of children emotionally and academically by forcing and inducing children to attend separate educational facilities that fail to meet the constitutional requirements. The CDE implemented a system that allows school administrators to abuse children emotionally:
Corruption- parents are not informed as early in the year as possible that their child is at risk of retention, as they are required to do by law in elementary and middle schools. This system allows children to fail and fall behind for two and a half years.
Ignoring- school administrators ignored the academic and emotional needs of children by referring and transferring students to continuation school without ever identifying the reason the child was failing to progress.
Rejection- school administrators then told these children that they could not graduate unless they leave the school.
Isolation- school administrators isolated children from their friends, and from any opportunity to connect with the school by sending them to separate educational facilities that fail to meet basic educational standards.
Humiliation- the CDE labeled these children miss-fits, lazy, drug and alcohol users, children from troubled homes, and "at-risk youth."
We would call it child abuse if this were happing to children in elementary school and middle school; last time I checked children in high school are children who look like adults, so let's call it what it is, emotional child abuse.
Currently, there are no laws that protect children from being "bullied by school personnel." The bullying laws that states passed recently only address bullying between peers. School personnel can humiliate, isolate, reject, ignore, corrupt, lie, threaten, and verbally abuse our children with impunity.
Complaint System
The CDE created a complaint system where a parent needs an attorney to file a complaint. This system deprives people like me, people who cannot afford an attorney, their right to procedural due process, and the equal of the laws guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments in the United States Constitution.
We know from the Child abuse scandals in the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America that when institutions are allowed to conduct their investigations and determine the outcome of the investigation without any outside oversight that child abuse will occur.
- Procedural due process requires a prompt and thorough investigation by a neutral party, an impartial decision-maker, and a decision based on material fact and law.
- In California, the school investigates itself and determines the outcome of the investigation with no outside oversight.
- The law allows the school to choose the investigator. The only requirement for selecting the investigator is that they must choose someone knowledgeable of the law; this language enables schools to use their own in house attorney, and that means that the school controls the investigation and the outcome of the inquiry becasue of the attorney-client relationship.
- This investigator is required to determine which laws have been violated after interviewing the parent. The school knows that most parents do not know state or federal education laws, or when their constitutional rights have been violated.
- Parents cannot file an appeal with the board without legal representation. The board has an attorney to represent them. The board also has a fiduciary duty to the school, and that means that they must decide on the best interest of the school, including protecting the school's reputation. The board knows that most parents cannot afford an attorney, so it is unlikely that the parent will take legal action if the board rejects the appeal.
- If the board rejects the appeal, parents have fifteen days to file a complaint with the CDE.
- Schools have sixty days to complete the investigation, so the school has time to find a way to appease the parent, so they drop the complaint.
Please Help
My daughter was the victim of a crime, but I can't call the police becasue it isn't a crime to rob a child of her hopes and dreams or to murder her spirit, and they arrest school officials when they conspire to deprive a child of their constitutional rights. The only way that I can get justice for my child is to file a civil lawsuit against all the individuals involved, the school, the district, and the California Department of Education, but I cannot do that without an attorney.
Fifteen school officials conspired to destroy my child's life. At first, my daughter and I had support from all her friends and their parents, but after the school cleared the vice-principal of all wrongdoing, and the board denied our appeal, she lost all her friends and her support. These officials made it appear that my daughter and I were the problems when we did nothing wrong, and they knew it. My daughter was robbed of everything. The vice-principal danced at the prom with what used to be my daughter's friends while my daughter sat home alone.
Children who are abused by adults blame themselves for the abuse. My daughter says she is a loser, a failure, and everyone hates her when she did nothing wrong. My daughter says life is pointless, and that no one would care if she dies. I cannot begin to tell you what it feels like to hear your daughter sob becasue she is so lonely or to watch her suffer and to be powerless to do anything to stop it. My daughter will never know that she was a victim unless the people who harmed her are held accountable for what they did to her.
I am trying to raise fifteen thousand dollars by Jan 30, 2020, to pay the rest of the money I owe my attorney so that we can move forward with a lawsuit. This lawsuit is not about money; no amount of money will ever make up for what they took from my daughter, and no amount of money can ever make up for the pain they caused my daughter and my family. The purpose of our lawsuit is to protect our constitutional rights as parents and citizens and to protect our children from emotional abuse.
If you cannot afford to donate, you can help us by sharing our story with everyone, you know.
Please help me. How we treat our children matters.
Delete media item?
Delete this item from the media gallery? It will also be deleted from any related story update.
Set as ?
The campaign video will appear in social media and email.
The campaign cover picture will appear in social media and email.
The will appear at the top of your campaign page and in social media and email.
Reset ?
It will be removed from the top of your campaign and won't be used as default in social media and email. The will remain in the media gallery.
Embed
Share a link
Delete update
Delete this story update?
Any pictures or videos will remain in the campaign's media gallery.
Report campaign
Report submitted
Thank you. We take reports like yours very seriously. Our goal is to keep the community safe.
Please know that we may contact you for more information, but that we won't notify you personally of our decision. If the campaign remains available within a few days, it's likely that we determined it not to be in violation of our policies.
Thank you. We've already received your previous report. If the campaign remains available within a few days, it's likely that we determined it not to be in violation of our policies.
Tell us about the problem. Please fill in both fields below.
Record a video
Upload a video
Nothing grabs attention for your cause like a personal video. Take a minute or two to record one now. Record a short video message of support. Or upload one from your device. You can preview or redo your video before you post it.
Nothing grabs attention for your cause like a personal video. Upload a short video message of support. Upload a short video message of support. Or record one right now.
- Most effective video length: about a minute.
- Maximum length: 5 min.
- You can preview or redo your video before you post it.
Heads up! The existing video will be replaced.
Email your friends
Join our team
Tell people why our cause matters to you. Your personal message will encourage others to help. Easy, effective, optional.
Say it in video
Short personal videos by supporters like you are incredibly powerful. Record one right now and you'll help us raise more money. Easy, optional, effective.
Add a personal goal
Set a personal fundraising goal. You'll encourage more contributions if you do. And rest easy. There's no obligation to achieve your goal or bad consequences if you don't. Easy, optional, effective.
We have a video!
Video thumbnail
We'd love to show you our campaign video. Want to take a look?
, you're already on the team.