I have heard from multiple sources that C. J. has told them that he knew that he would have to live with firing me because it was so important that I never be allowed to be in a Joplin R-8 classroom again. He knew I would come after him, but he had to do what was right.
Raise your hand if you actually think C. J. Huff knew what was headed his way.
It reminds me of what his Chief Operations Officer Tina Smith, who at the time was the human resources director for the district said, testifying under oath that she knew I was recording her "interrogation' of me- the one that lasted four minutes and never gave me a chance to explain anything. A person of intelligence, knowing she is being recorded, would certainly try to appear to be conducting an actual fair investigation rather than a witch hunt.
During a recent closed session at a board meeting, Huff asked what he could do to shut Randy Turner up. He was not so gently reminded that he never had any problem with me until he decided to smear my character in such a way that it was spread all across the media.
It was hard for C. J. Huff to understand that the Turner Report is not the Joplin Globe. I am not a house organ for whatever new multi-million dollar "absolutely vital" program that he wants to inflict on the taxpayers.
The problem with C. J. Huff, Tina Smith, and the rest of the Hessians who congregate daily at 32nd and Duquesne, is once you start trying to create your own reality (what the rest of us call lying) you have to keep your lies straight.
It has gotten back to me that C. J. has told people that I have called him at home at night and that I will not leave him alone.
He may be sitting by his phone waiting desperately for my call, but I have never called him. I, unlike the members of the traditional media, have not been given his cell number and quite frankly, I heard enough of his voice during his tearful testimony of May 23, 2013.
It was one year ago today I received the official notification that I had been fired. That was something I expected. I had been told over and over that teachers almost never win these battles I was also told that it was rare for a teacher to have parents, students, and his fellow teachers testify for him. What was so hard to believe was that seven sensible people could buy something that only C. J. Huff's confidant, frequent Joplin Globe guest columnist Anson Burlingame, believed from those who were there at the hearing that day.
I have since learned that board members were fully aware that some of the witnesses against me perjured themselves and all of them, especially Huff, Smith, and Klista Rader, tried to push the idea that I was some kind of pervert, when I was never even charged with anything of that nature.
That same idea was pushed by Burlingame, who has noted on his blog that C. J. Huff has attempted to find dirt on me.
You would have thought C. J. would have made sure he found some before he fired me, but then that is not the way things are done in the Joplin R-8 School District.
Since I have been fired, I have learned that the order had been given to find something on me months before No Child Left Alive and Scars from the Tornado were even published.
It is looking more and more like the superintendent may not have wanted me fired for something I did, but instead because of things I wrote about that he did, whether it be as a real superintendent who has hopscotched his way across the nation to tell his story of Joplin Tornado heroism, pocketing a considerable amount of money, according to a spokeswoman for the Washington Speakers Bureau, or as a fictitious superintendent who has some shady ways of bringing up his high school's graduation rates and who is totally fixated on his own image, while claiming that everything he does is "for the kids."
Over the past 12 months, I have been shocked to discover how little I actually knew about the school district I was working in. One thing I have been surprised to learn is how much C. J. Huff and his team have hidden from the board and from the public. I have written about much of it on this blog.
Of course, if you listen to Huff, it is only because some things are just too difficult for us to understand. After all, Joplin is a poor town and nothing was ever accomplished here until he arrived on his tear-stained white steed. That is the message he has delivered during some of those speeches, which have been posted on the Turner Report.
That is not too difficult for us to understand.
That is not too difficult for us to understand.
The word "goodbye," is simple enough for all of us to understand.
Either the Board of Education or C. J. Huff needs to say that word now. This district cannot afford one more year of C. J. Huff's leadership.
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12 comments:
If CJ or the Board, either one, has half a brain between them, I expect they wish they'd just left you alone. But, we know they aren't that smart because they continue to drive away staff, which leave said staff free to say what they need to say.
It's way past time for CJ and his greed monger administrative team to go.
And it's really time for the Board to apologize to you, Mr. Turner, as well as all of those other employees who were wrongfully fired or harassed into leaving. But, they won't do that. They won't own up to their misdeeds, even though they would expect that of children on the playground.
Keep up the good fight, Mr. Turner! You've done this district a tremendous service.
Thank you for the kind words. So many people have been damaged. I am just the one who was lucky enough to have an audience and hopefully, enough of an audience and enough solid information to make a difference.
I have no doubt that this is making a difference.
Some of the stuff recounted in this post needs reminding now and then. That thing about Tina Smith saying that she knew all along about the recording, yet the charges were amended to include that fact only after Mr. Turner posted the recording on his website.
This gets down to the basic character of who these people are: they are liars. If you have the truth on your side, you don't have to lie, you know? If you have to lie to get your way, your way is not the right way. If you have a group of people who are mutually reinforcing each other's lies, then you have a culture of lies. In such an environment, it is nearly impossible to get back on the right track, because they all are complicit in some way - corrupt leaders make sure everyone has their hands dirty so that no one can point fingers without also implicating his/her self.
I'm afraid the only way to fix this problem will be to get rid of the whole lot, although some in middle positions will likely try and kiss up to the new leaders when it becomes more clear which way the wind is blowing. They save administration positions at the expense of the working guy because that is where they require loyalty. Make no mistake, this is a shark tank - when it starts to fall these individuals will turn on each other in an attempt to save their own behind. People who would lie in order to get a man fired for political reasons are only capable of being part of a team so long as it serves their own interests. When the stakes are raised, they will be the first to fold.
You give yourself wayyyyy too much credit. Doubt Huff or anyone else loses much sleep over you. You are where you belong. Best thing the district ever did to protect the children.
I still can't figure out why you did not file a lawsuit against the district for wrongful termination. If all these things are true, then you could get a huge payday and I would think organizations like the NEA, ACLU, and such would be lining up at your door to take your case. How come?
8:01 I had wondered the same thing, but then it occured to me that there is no lawyer that is going to let Turner continue to write about CJ and the school district. After reading the stories about CJ's speaking fees and the Ethics Commission documents, it is looking like CJ and his staff were lying and defaming Turner in an effort cover up his own crimes. If it turns out that way, the school district had better be prepared to pay.
In response to the idiot who said no one is losing any sleep over Turner. You have no idea what you are talking about. Huff is obsessed with Turner. He can quote word for word from the Turner Report and he is still wasting taxpayer money to try to find Turner's sources. If you want to know what impact Turner's writing has, let me mention just a few things.
1. No Jeff Flowers
2. No Angie Besendorfer
3. No applause for Huff at graduation
4. No one buying any of Huff's pie-in-the-sky, budget busting new ideas.
5. And soon- No Huff.
Turner may not be totally responsible for these things, but anyone who doesn't think he put all of this in motion hasn't been paying attention.
Some of the people who come on here to contradict are doing just that - they have no insight into the situation, just doing what it is they do, which is hate Turner. Considering that the people who dislike Turner include Huff, neo-Nazis, the former Mr. Besendorfer, Stark underlings, and that weird Amanda Lea girl, I don't expect many of them to respond to reason.
But I think it's important for the audience at home to see the arguments, and so I think every comment is worthwhile. There are many many more readers than there are commenters. Over time, those readers see the anti-Turner side respond emotionally and irrationally - and they see the pro-Turner side make arguments and present evidence.
There is a reason Turner has made gains and Huff has not, because even if people don't fully agree with Turner they still see that certain things are true, like how Huff asks for money, spends it, then asks for more. They see the discrepancies between statements, how Huff and his staff's rationale changes over time so that he can preserve his beliefs - rather than publicly owning mistakes, learning from them, and earning greater respect in the process.
A person who can't admit personal mistakes is a person who isn't going to change. If you had an employee who didn't demonstrate willingness to learn, wouldn't you eventually let them go? Why does he get greater benefit of the doubt simply because he presents himself as an authority figure? Sometimes authority is undeserved. You have to prove yourself a capable leader. You have to be likable.
The divisiveness regarding the school district, which is real, suggests Huff is a poor leader regardless of what the causes of the distress may be. A good politician can at the very least get people to work together. Huff creates conflict, like in his handling of Turner, and then blames Turner for it. He presented Fort as an enemy and now he can't bring himself to handle that like an adult, either. Or anyone else he thinks is his enemy and therefore blames for his problems.
The common denominator in all of these conflicts is Huff.
My way or the highway works in movies like Road House, less so in real life. Ask Jeff Flowers. Even if Huff wasn't good at budgeting, if he could inspire people and bring them together he might still be useful as a leader. He can't even do that. The tornado brought people together because that's what humans do, we help each other when we see each other suffering. We don't generally see that as an opportunity to smite our enemies. Combine that with a weird juggling of facts, lies by omission (board, you know what I'm talking about), paranoia, and an impulse to control, a picture forms. It should have been the easiest thing in the world to keep the goodwill momentum going from the tornado. He can't even do that.
This is not a skilled leader, nor a skilled politician. Sometimes a small-town person performs well in their high school, then they go to college and realize they aren't as smart as they thought they were. The truly smart ones take their comeuppance and grow from the experience, learning some humility along the way. Huff hasn't gotten there yet.
Time for a comeuppance.
Yeah. Him and his 25 loyal readers. Bull.
For a long time, everyone thought it was Besendorfer who was creating the mess. Now we know that Huff was truly a part of the problem.
It is going to take an awful lot of work to clean up the mess.
For the record, my child had Randy Turner as a teacher. We met him. He seemed like a hard working teacher who just wanted to do his job and make sure the students did their best. That's all. Nothing sleazy or weird. We also met some of those other people who were arrested and they were creepy. Just our impression but you get it.
Huff and his minions aren't creepy but they certainly strike us as being untrustworthy and mean.
Just keep printing the truth. That's WAY easier than R8-landers keeping track of their lies.
You can bet Besendorfer had her hands in the mess for sure--but you can also bet she was smart enough to see the writing on the wall and has left Huff stuck to take the fall. He's mean and greedy, but not smart enough to cover his tracks. He'll take the fall one of these days. Hopefully very soon. I wanted more for my children than they received, and unlike Sticklen, Flowers, Landis, Willcoxon, and now Banwart, I'm not in a position to serve on the board and push my own agenda. I have to hope the new board will look after ALL the children, and not just their own.
The only way a person could continue to think Turner had 25 readers or less is if they had no friends in the community plus no eyes and ears. I would say nose, because such a person appears immune to the stench of their own BS, but a person can get used to smells over time. 8:34 covered it for anyone who isn't just out to hate.
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