Who Will Care For the Children?

Another horrific case of child abuse has hit the papers, bringing with it a little girl lying in what doctors believe could be an irreversible coma, questions of accountability, fingerpointing and blame-placing on the part of a government agency, and the question of "the right to die."

It also brings with it a larger question -- when families, government agencies, medical professionals and society fail, who will care for the children?

Ironically, the substantive debate and attention to child abuse started here in Everett over 20 years ago when the beating death of 3 year old Brandy Mallett by her live in babysitter Elizabeth Hutchison threw the spotlight on the Department of Social Services and their ability (or lack of it) to track and oversee cases of child abuse and neglect. We've heard of many cases over the years since Brandy's tragic death of children beaten and abused or neglected by their own parents or by foster parents while DSS seemingly appears unable or unwilling to take substantive action to protect them. Now 11 year old Haleigh Poutre lies in a coma at Baystate Medical Center as a result of repeated abuse by her aunt/adoptive mother and her husband.

All the signs were there to indicate there was abuse taking place, but authories, from DSS to medical professionals charged with caring for Haleigh's many injuries, took the word of her monster-of-a-"mother" that the child was injuring herself. They accepted this woman's contention that Haleigh was a young girl with severe emotional problems who often hurt herself. They chose this woman's word above overwhelming evidence that Haleigh was being horribly abused.

It's the headline grabbing cases like Haleigh's that make us fear the worst -- that Haleigh Poutre or Brandy Mallett or Lisa Steinberg (who was beaten to death at the age of six by her adoptive father Joel Steinberg in New York) are not anamolies, but a growing symptom of a society that can neither control nor police itself. What does it say about us that these types of tragedies can happen?

That the Department of Social Services is overworked and understaffed has long been the battle cry . . . and it may well be true. What does it say about about us as a society that we do not demand of our elected officials that they provide the services needed to protect the most vulnerable among us?

When Brandy Mallett was murdered, there was testimony from neighbors, from police and from medical professionals about reported incidents of abuse that went uninvestigated. Brandy's father also abused Brandy and her older brother and had actually held a knife to the boy's throat. Yet there was no one there to save these children -- attention didn't come to them until it was too late for one of them.

Social Services had been to the filthy apartment Lisa Steinberg shared with her younger brother and the people who dared to call themselves her parents, and yet she was kept in that "home" until the day she was beaten so badly and left on a cold bathroom floor unconscious for hours before her "mother" called for help. She died three days later from "blunt force trauma to the head" inflicted by her "father."

And so our greatest fear is becoming our tragic reality -- Haleigh Poutre, Brandy Mallett and Lisa Steinberg are not anamolies. Yet where is the sustained outrage?

Some people will say that it is up to the parents to take care of their own children . . . and in a perfect world, they would. Have you looked around lately? We don't live in a perfect world. And the outrage we hear now over Haleigh is not that she was allowed to stay in a situation with horror beyond description. The outrage we hear now surrounds whether she should be allowed to live or die. It seems that now that DSS has custody of her, they're not quite sure what to do about her. Her "stepfather" wants to continue life support -- because if it's removed and she dies, he could be charged with manslaughter or murder, not just the assault with which he is currently charged. Her biological mother, who gave up her parental rights several years ago and has no legal standing, wants her to be allowed to die. Her biological father has not been in her life since she was three years old.

The right to life people want her to live; the right to die people want her to be allowed to die with dignity.

If only we had all cared so much about Haleigh before her "parents" smashed her skull with a baseball bat.

If only we could all pay a little bit more attention, speak up a little more, be a little more insistent when we suspect that something "isn't quite right." Is that a lot to ask of our society? Is it a lot to ask that we all care for the children?

Cultural Quagmire

Let there be no mistake about it; there is a cultural quagmire that is threatening to swamp the country, and it's taken up residence right here in our own backyard.

Ethically challenged doesn't even begin to describe what's going on, because to use the word "challenged" would be to imply that there was at least a fight between good and evil. What we have going on right now is the complete triumph of greed, dishonesty, lawlessness and apathy over morality, values and common sense.

On the national level, we have witnessed the Abramoff lobbying/payoff scandal, which is threatening to bring down some very big names, as elected officials from Congress to the President have been divesting themselves of tainted money, given to insure access, acquiescence and in some cases, legislative action.

At the state level, there have been a number of scandals involving payoffs and fraud, from the clerk at the DMV creating fake licenses, to the administrator at the Dept. of Education providing fake teacher certifications for people who couldn't pass the test. The Boston Herald also reported that a state representive (now former) is under indictment, along with a number of his family members, for "extortion, bribery, conspiracy, government theft and mail fraud." State Auditor, Joseph DiNucci, recently announced a full-scale investigation into $63 million dollars spent on computerizing the state's judicial system, in which only 2 - that's right, 2 of the state's 117 courts have had the updates implemented.

Locally, we're well acquainted with scandal. There have been a few thefts at city hall in the last few years, and in each case, the employee was let go. Yet, what began small in 1990, with Superintendent Foresteire's directive of a school employee to paint a school committeeman's apartment, http://www.mass.gov/ethics/ENFORCEMENTACTIONS.htm#Foresteire is now scandal mountain. We've witnessed multiple indictments for the superintendent, his now convicted of procurement fraud business manager and the "pled out but not yet sentenced" vendors who participated in the scheme. A state audit of Everett's "pride" revealed uncertified teachers, hundreds of thousands of dollars of misspent state and federal grant money, a special education slush fund, more than a million dollars in overspending and a lawyer who received thousands and thousands of dollars on cases in which he "lost" all the files.

Yesterday, we had a newspaper questioning where the outrage was regarding the continuing employment of Lona DeFeo, the convicted felon still running the maintenance department for Everett Public Schools. Along that same vein, the paper also questioned where the candidates were for school committee, and pointed out that it (the newspaper) had "accepted the decision of the school superintendent to leave her there, the School Committee to agree, the city government also..." while stipulating that charter change, something that "city government has shown no stomach for," would prevent the school department from allowing a convicted felon to continue working.

While the newspaper is partly right - it's also part of the problem. We do need charter change; we also need a culture change. There's a reason for the "don't stick your neck out" culture here. Maybe it started with old Joe Curnane, the late editor of the Everett Leader Herald, who went after political foes with a vengeance. Who can forget the "Gang of Five" headlines when Ron Vacca was on the school committee? Ron, who could be a guided missle in his attempts to get answers, was arrested during one contentious meeting. And while you might not agree with his approach, you could not fault the man for his passion and his caring. Yet, the headlines blared...and people stopped trying so hard to make a difference. It was into this culture the Fred Foresteire superintendency was born.

Is it any different today? The same newspaper that questioned "where the outrage was" is also one of the newspapers that has questioned and in some cases, ridiculed the critics of the superintendent. (Remember the special education slush fund?) This paper took the word of the superintendent as gospel - until the results of the state audit came out. The fact is, our three local papers do very little drilling down on what the superintendent says and does (journalism)....and more than enough on his critics, questioning motives and ideas with suggestive, quirky little innuendo-laden editorials. It's ridiculous to question where the outrage is....when you're one of the ones who have helped kill passion and caring in this city, the twin fuels of outrage.

The call by the Independent for charter change to deal with the DeFeo issue is a red-herring. Common sense and a decent moral core should dictate that Ms. DeFeo should be fired for her conviction in the line of her employment, and the school committee and city government should not need a charter change to figure it out, and the Independent should not need a march on Vine Street to print the truth of the matter.

"I Have a Dream" -- Honoring Martin Luther King

Today our country honors the life and contributions of civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated in 1968. Dr. King's contribution to the civil rights movement cannot be measured in words, and his call for non-violent protest was antithetical to the brutal confrontations prevalent at that time as this country sought to come to grips with its painful history of discrimination against people of color.

One of Dr. King's most famous -- if not the most famous -- speech was delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. Known as the "I Have a Dream" speech, it is a stirring call to action on the part of all Americans to honor the promises of our forefathers and to stand together in peace and equality as Americans. We at the Mirror thought it appropriate to reprint the speech, in its entirety, for our readers, in tribute to Dr. King's memory and to his wish for equality and peace among all people. We hope that you will take the time to read it.

"I Have A Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

ARE THEY KIDDING???!!!

The Independent, proving once again that they are anything but, has done a 180 degree turn and is now defending Lona DeFeo's continued employment status in the Everett School Department, despite her guilty plea to multiple counts of a felony in the performance of her job duties.

In today's "Independent", referring to DeFeo as having plead guilty to "minor charges", accuses those who believe she should be removed from her post as trying "to keep Mrs. DeFeo's wound sore and open, with salt being poured into it at every opportunity." They claim that this plea should absolve her of any other punishment -- "Where we come from, " they say, "this would be the end of the matter -- but not in Everett."

No, thankfully, in Everett there are people who know that in any other city -- this woman would've been out of a job when her indictments were handed down. In any other city, this woman would've been removed of her duties once the guilty plea was entered. In any other city . . . there would be a School Committee who would act on behalf of the citizens they represent rather than protecting their own self interests; there would be a Board of Aldermen who had a collective spine among them who, while unable to direct the School Committee to dismiss DeFeo, would certainly be willing to stand up and represent the wishes of their constituents that this woman should no longer be an employee of the Everett School Department; in any other city, there would be a mayor who would want to live up to his reputation as "Mr. Honesty, Integrity and Compassion" and send a strong communication to the appropriate parties that, as difficult as Mrs. DeFeo's situation must be for her, the right thing for the City is that she be dismissed. There are people in Everett who know that once you get caught shoplifting from the local grocery store, whether or not you benefitted from your actions is irrelevant. You don't get back into the store.

Evidently there's a big punch bowl of Kool Aid somewhere, and the Independent, the School Committee, the Board of Aldermen and our new mayor continue to drink from it.

Guiliano Stifled and the Guillotine on Vine Street

Well, it's all over. Joe Guliano, who won two seats on the school committee, lost one of them last night without the Board of Aldermen even allowing him the opportunity to speak. It would have been nice if the Board had given him the courtesy, but with Nuzzo's wife working for the school department, Marcus' girlfriend working for the school department, Chuck DiPerri's daughter working for the school department....well, you get the picture. Joe Guliano and Stat Smith nominated John Tumblin for the school committee-at-large seat, while all the superintendent's men nominated, seconded and voted for Richard Baniewicz. No surprises - it was a done deal. But you have to wonder how Roberta Ruiz, who actually ran for that seat feels about it.

We also watched with great interest the piece of business sponsored by Steve Smith on tonight's Board of Aldermen calendar. Mr. Smith tried his best to get a status update from our city solicitor, John Kryzovic, but despite the fact that the piece had been on the calendar since last week, he only knew "what was printed in the papers." Smith also tried to get across his point that the school committee needed to terminate Mrs. DeFeo, the recently convicted maintenance manager in the in the school department. While Mr. Smith doesn't believe that Mrs. DeFeo acted without the knowledge of the superintendent (in reality, no person of reasonable thinking believes that she acted without the superintendent's knowledge), given her guilty plea, action needed to be taken. His motion for the Board of Alderman to request that the school committee terminate Ms. DeFeo did not even receive a second.

Mr. Kryzovic made it all too clear that he would not get involved in the issue, stressing that the power vested by charter for the school department rested in the school committee. We fully expected this response from Mr. Kryzovic. The administration doesn't want to go near this, hence, no phone call to Fred to get a status update; and our new mayor has continued to remain silent on the subject.

What was particularly telling was the eloquence of Mr. Van Campen, who responded to the motion put forth by Mr. Smith by saying, "I don't want to put heads in a guillotine," while putting forth his own motion to request more information. Guillotine? Great imagery. While it may seem overly dramatic, the man is actually being honest. It had to be something keeping six grown men from doing the right thing. Actually, the support of the superintendent should probably be likened to be a double edged sword, as opposed to a guillotine.

Asking the Board of Alderman to take a stand on whether a convicted felon should still be working at the school department should not be akin to putting their heads in a guillotine. This should be an easy vote...and in any other community, it would be.

Pass the Potato

The Hot Potato, that is.

The Hot Potato will be back on the table at tonight's Board of Aldermen's meeting, with newly sworn in Ward 3 Alderman Stephen Stat Smith calling for a legal opinion as to the employment status of Lona DeFeo, the School Department Maintenance Director who recently plead guilty to several counts of procurement fraud.

That this exercise is even necessary gives us an idea of how out of touch the School Committee is. There should be no question that Mrs. DeFeo should have been relieved of her duties immediately upon her pleading guilty to these charges. She plead guilty to committing a felony while performing her duties as maintenance director. If the Superintendent did not immediately dismiss her, the School Committee should have ordered him to do so. Again -- what the School Committee refuses to accept is that the Superintendent reports to them. Yet they continue to let him rule the roost, so to speak. And now that they continue to refuse to accept their responsibility in the matter, another member of City Government must step forward to try to see that the right thing is done.

How will this play out? Our new mayor has yet to make any statement concerning the indictments of the superintendent and Mrs. DeFeo, he has yet to make a statement about Mrs. DeFeo's guilty plea, he seems loathe to involve himself in school department matters -- except to say, in his inaugural address, that "whatever communication problems have existed in the past [between city hall and the school department administration], I hereby proclaim are over and I do mean over." Perhaps the Mayor's first communication should be to the School Committee recommending that they immediately dismiss Mrs. DeFeo as the maintenance director. But that's probably not going to happen.

This is what we predict. Alderman Smith will ask the newly appointed "part-time" City Solicitor John Kryzovic for his opinion. Mr. Kryzovic will defer to the School Committee, claiming (as members of the Board of Aldermen have in the past) that the City has no jurisdiction over school department matters. The School Committee will claim that Mrs. DeFeo's employment status is at the discretion of the Superintendent because, under school ed reform, the Superintendent has jurisdiction over the hiring and firing of school department employees, and the Superintendent will simply say "she's staying."

It's interesting that in an article that appeared in Saturday's Boston Herald, it was reported that both Mayor Hanlon and Superintendent Foresteire did not return phone calls to comment on the piece being presented by Alderman Smith. Or maybe it's not so interesting . . . maybe it's just . . . predictable.

Here's an idea for those of us looking for justice. See how things play out on Monday. We're sticking to our predictions outlined above. If our predictions should play out . . . calls to the District Attorney's office and the Attorney General's office could be in order. After all . . . Martha Coakley is running for AG; Tom Reilly is running for Governor; we're the people who'll be voting. Can they afford to ignore our calls for justice?

The Boston Herald Gets It Right

On page 15 of the Boston Herald, it was reported that Lona DeFeo, the maintenance manager of the Everett School Department, has been allowed to keep her job, despite her conviction three weeks ago in the school corruption scandal on charges of procurement fraud and conspiracy.

It is also reported that Alderman Stephen Smith has asked for an update on DeFeo's status at Monday night's meeting. We hope he gets it. We also hope that Joe Guliano has a field day with this one.

What is also interesting is the silence from Mr. Hanlon's office. The Boston Herald reported that Mr. Hanlon failed to return several phone calls from the reporter. Neither did Superintendent Foresteire, and School Committee member David Ela. It is also in this same week that Mr. Hanlon proclaimed during his inaugural address that "there has been a distinct lack of communication and cooperation between City Hall and the School Department administration. Whatever communication problems have existed in the past, I hereby proclaim are over - and I do mean over." Oh, they're cooperating all right. Perhaps in the "interests" of cooperation and good communication, Mr. Hanlon, Mr. Foresteire and Mr. Ela are all in the "Cone of Silence" together? (Apologies to Get Smart)

This has been a disturbing chapter in Everett's history, and it's clear that there will be no real closure until the Superintendent goes to trial. We fully expect that there will be another round of "editorials" condemning the Boston Herald for daring to tell the truth about the things that are happening in Everett. One paper has consistently blamed David Ragucci for the Boston press involvement - but he's not the mayor any longer. There was a move afoot at an Everett Bulletin Board to get its members to contact the Boston media outlets. It looks like they were successful.

It's going to be enlightening at the Alderman's meeting on Monday night. Let's hope the reporter from the Herald is in the audience.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=120242

Everything Old Is "New" Again

That could be the theme song of the "new" Hanlon administration. Or how about "out with the old, in with the older"?

Last week, the axe fell in a big way, with the majority of department heads moving into the new year unemployed. The warm hearted notice, which arrived on December 28, indicated that the last day of employment would be January 3. Six days notice. So much for a "kinder, more compassionate" administration, as the Independent tried to portray it a couple of weeks ago.

Now don't get us wrong; we're not naive. We understand the game and how it's played. Of course Hanlon is going to want "his own people" in key spots. So . . . we have Domenic D'Angelo returning as City Treasurer. This actually isn't a bad choice, all things considered. Other key spots are not yet filled, but there is one that should raise a red flag -- that is the return of Don Andrew as the City Auditor. This is the same Don Andrew who has been an "advisor" on the Hanlon transition team, the same Don Andrew who has been "consulting" for the last few years for the School Department -- the same Don Andrew who hid the overspending of the School Department by applying it to the tax levy, and the same Don Andrew who put together a bogus Medicaid revolving fund to try to cover additional overspending by the School Department, ignoring Department of Revenue advisories that such a fund was illegal.

Only time will tell how many more "political paybacks" Hanlon needs to fulfill, but here's the issue -- the Hanlon administration was supposed to be "the start of something better." And yet, it seems to be the start of "the same old thing" -- political patronage and cronyism. The Hanlon campaign had claimed that this administration would be different . . . and yet, so far it seems that the few jobs Hanlon has filled have all been "rewards" to his political supporters. So much for different.

At the end of the day, we want Hanlon to do well. The health of our city depends on it. However, it's been a slow and disappointing start. So far, Hanlon has pressured his friends on the Board of Aldermen to put off a vote on the Police Chief, even though members of the Board stood and said they believed Mazzie to be the right choice; he's convinced members of the Board that the $2 million that could have been applied to reduce the impact of the recent real estate tax bills should be split between "free cash" and the stabilization fund "in case we need it" -- yet he provided no financial plan to the Finance Committee that would indicate what those needs might be. In spite of having spent six years campaigning to be the Mayor of this City, he seems to have no clue as to what the real needs of the city are.

We hope we're wrong. We hope that there's some grand plan that has yet to be revealed. Hopefully, at least part of that plan will be revealed in tomorrow night's inaugural address.