C. J. Huff's no-fault discipline policy running off good teachers

Unless you watched last Tuesday night's Joplin R-8 Board of Education meeting on Jet 14 or on this blog, you missed the most important exchange that occurred.

It wasn't in the Joplin Globe. 

It wasn't on KZRG.

It wasn't featured on the local TV stations' newscasts.

It was included in the Turner Report coverage.

The R-8 School District's executive director of secondary education Jason Cravens trumpeted the fact that the high school had 100 less disciplinary referrals than last year.

The following passage was featured in my post:

Cravens credited the positive behavior plans being implemented at the schools, as well as working with teachers on what issues should be handled in the classroom and which should be dealt with by the office..

Superintendent C. J. Huff made it a point to say, "There has never been a directive from my office to fudge the numbers whether it be with graduation rates or school discipline."

Board member Jim Kimbrough has talked to enough teachers and parents to know that Cravens' statement did not jibe with reality. He asked Cravens if he had sought any anecdotal evidence to prove that there were less disciplinary problems.

Cravens hemmed and hawed a few moments and said he had.

Teachers at all three levels in the Joplin R-8 School District have told me that Cravens' remarks saddened and depressed them, but they had not really expected anything different.

The board meeting came only a few days after I received information about an event that occurred in a high school classroom. Sadly, it was not the first time I had heard this kind of story. It has happened, over and over, at Joplin High School, and I know it has also happened at East Middle School.

A male student was acting up. A veteran female teacher, well respected in the district, attempted to get the student into line and for her efforts, she was shouted at and called a string of vile, obscene names. The student was sent to the office. Before the hour was over, the student was back in the classroom, with a nice little note saying he was sorry.

That was the full extent of the punishment.

It happens over and over again.

The message is clear- Don't send students to the office. Handle it yourself.

That is how you get 100 less referrals. The teacher in question had already stopped sending students to the office for serious offenses that not too long ago might have resulted in out-of-school suspensions.

That is also how you lose approximately 300 teachers over a three-year period.

Meanwhile, C. J. Huff, with his two years of classroom teaching experience, can sit safely in his office, far away from the reality of the schools he has created, and beam approvingly as his executive director of secondary education reveals the good news that all is sunshine at the new Joplin High School.

Of course, C. J. Huff never told his principals to fudge the numbers. He did not have to. All he had to do was set the target number and tell them to do whatever they had to do to make it work. After all, the same approach has enabled the high school to record its remarkable graduation rates over the past few years.

I initially did not write about the Joplin High School classroom incident because my fear over the consequences of the things I have written has grown steadily over the past few months. If I write about something that happens in a particular classroom I am putting that teacher in danger of becoming the next target of C. J. Huff's wrath.

C. J. Huff has spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in an effort to find out who the sources are for my reports. He has wrongfully accused a number of teachers and other employees of being my sources.

In one instance, he called a teacher into his office, alternately shouted at her, cried, and threatened her. This teacher, who had been in the Joplin R-8 School District for two decades and had always received glowing evaluations, went through a nightmarish year as administrators not only failed to back her up on disciplinary issues, but also began writing her up for anything that crossed their minds.

This teacher resigned at the end of the 2013-2014 school year.

She was not the source for any of my posts.

That's how the message gets out- if you talk to Randy Turner, we will destroy you.

It is also how the horrors that C. J. Huff has condoned have continued to grow with no end in sight.

The worst part of all of this is that the local media knows what I have been writing about C. J. Huff and the Joplin R-8 School District is accurate. I have talked to reporters who know that what is going on has nothing to do with improving education for the children of Joplin. Reporters in the electronic media are fully aware of this and so are some of the veteran reporters at the Joplin Globe. Too much of what I have written about can be documented, and has been, on this blog, for anyone who keeps up with what is going on to ignore it.

Some have told me they are playing a waiting game. They are waiting for state auditors to come down hard on C. J. Huff and the school board that has enabled him and catered to his narcissistic cult of personality.

Some have started, little by little, pulling back the curtain, so that their viewers and listeners (sorry, not as much readers at this point) can see that it is not a wizard that is dazzling us with all kinds of wondrous sights and sounds, but simply a fraud from Kansas who arrived in this position thanks to a tornado.

Now it is time for the media who have allowed C. J. Huff to take us down this yellow brick road to 21st Century Learning, to get a brain, heart, and courage and put an end to this ongoing nightmare.