Saturday, January 10, 2009

School protects dairy posters while harming children

The following is an excerpt from my book, Peep Show For Children Only

MR. DAVID WARWAK: I would like to make a formal request on the record.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Yeah.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: There's a lot of discussion about milk posters and what they say and how big they are. I would like them in as evidence.
MR. RILEY: I want to make sure Josh is with his mom.
MS. ROGERS: I missed the beginning. I apologize.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Let's wait until Mr. Riley gets back.
MR. RILEY: I want to put on the record, whenever I walk the people out, I always tell the kids, whatever they say, you did a great job, and thank the parents, and that's what I'm doing.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Okay.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: There's a lot of discussion about what the milk posters say and no one really has a firm idea, including the man who hung them up had no idea what they actually said. I think that we need to see them especially in regards to dimensions. That was brought up also. I think we need to see the actual concrete things that we're talking about so we know what they are. And I would like to see them in this room as evidence.
MR. RILEY: We're not putting them into evidence. It's our case. We don't see it as even relevant to the case. And it's not been raised by us. We're not talking about the posters.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: Every time the milk posters have been raised there hasn't been any objection to the relevance, and we have already made it part of the
record. That makes it relevant. Mr. Cappellania hung the posters up and he couldn't even tell us what they said. I think it's an important issue in this case and we need to see them.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Well, in your case in chief -- I presume you're going to testify, Mr. Warwak.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: Yes.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: You can give me a description of the poster. You can describe it for me.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: I --
ARBITRATOR SIMON: I have a general idea of what the posters look like. I have seen posters of that nature.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: They all say different things and we need to see what they say for this case.
MS. ROGERS: One thing just to mention, as Mr. Cappellania testified, the posters change from time to time. Even the ones that are there now aren't the ones that are there in the fall so as to what they say, they rotate.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: We know that. He did not offer that testimony. He never talked about how they rotate. I would like to see the posters that are up.
MS. ROGERS: Yes, he did. Go look at them.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Are you suggesting a site visit?
MR. DAVID WARWAK: If they don't want to bring them here, I would love to go to the school with everyone, write down what they say and measure them so we have dimensions and then return here. I think that it would be a wonderful thing.
MR. RILEY: It's not -- the only thing I'm going to say is it's not relevant to our case,Mr. Simon, at this point we're not putting it in. It's our case and --
ARBITRATOR SIMON: But the posters are in your possession and Mr. Warwak is requesting them. I suppose make a subpoena duces tecum to request them.
MR. RILEY: I guess we'd object on the grounds of relevance. I'm not sure what the milk posters have to do with the case. It doesn't have to do with the
district's case. Mr. Warwak is alluding to these things but I can't -- it still doesn't have any relevance to the nature of the charges. Mr. Warwak doesn't like the milk posters but the milk posters aren't our case.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: Just saying that there's no relevance doesn't prove your point when we have been talking about the milk posters and we had Mr. Cappellania on the stand, I'm -- part of the reason I'm being fired is because of these milk posters. It has every relevance in the world.
MS. ROGERS: The milk posters have come up in the context of the information that he gave children in class or at which he discussed with our staff
members. Our questioning has simply been about that. What he discussed has not been about whether milk posters are right, wrong or indifferent. So the actual milk poster itself is not relevant. What Mr. Warwak told the students about them is. That's been our line of questioning.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Well, I think the posters are relevant because there has been discussion in the classroom about the posters. And that, in itself, makes it relevant aside from the fact that they have been discussed by both parties here at this hearing. The question is the vehicle for bringing them into the record. Like I say, I have seen a number of posters of this nature. I don't think I need to see every individual one of them.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: They are all different. They say different things.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: I know that. And I don't think we can put together a compilation of all of the posters that have ever been displayed at the school.
I think that for me, my purposes as the hearing officer, if you can describe to the best of your recollection what those posters say.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: That is one reason I need to see them is because I want to speak the truth, not my recollection. I want to see the actual thing.
MR. RILEY: Could we make a suggestion about this?
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Sure.
MR. RILEY: We don't want to take the milk posters off the wall. I mean, we have got Mr. Warwak driving up and down on his Harley.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: This is irrelevant and that's already been addressed.
MR. RILEY: I'm going to make it relevant. Now we're going to take the milk
posters down that Mr. Warwak --
MR. DAVID WARWAK: No relevance.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Mr. Warwak.
MR. RILEY: Now he wants the milk posters taken down so the kids can see that.
What we would suggest is that the hearing officer, after hours, can take a trip over there, take a look at the posters in their – in context in the cafeteria.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: I think -- what time does the school close.
MS. JACQUELINE KRAUSE: Students are dismissed at 2:40 -- band kids and all that are there until 3:10.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: Okay. We're scheduled to go until 5:00 today. Do you anticipate going until 5:00?
MR. RILEY: I think probably. Dr. Krause is next and then we have one student, but Mr. Warwak is probably going to have some cross-examination of
Dr. Krause. Probably take us to 5:00.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: I'm all for going there and personally seeing them after the students are gone with everyone. I'm fine with that.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: I think that's probably the best solution and, you know, whatever time we finish, as long as it's after all the students are out of the
school, we'll do a visit. I presume you have a key to the school.
MS. JACQUELINE KRAUSE: I do.
ARBITRATOR SIMON: One of the responsibilities of the superintendent is to carry the key to the school.
MR. DAVID WARWAK: Excellent. Thank you.

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1 comment:

  1. Pitiful... so glad you survived - yet even more committed and passionate than before. :)

    ReplyDelete