Homeless in Arizona

Source

Former Gilbert High coach won’t be charged in assault investigation

By Luci Scott The Republic | azcentral.com Wed May 22, 2013 2:35 PM

No criminal charges will be brought against teacher and former Gilbert High School football coach Daniel Dunn, who was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into allegations he had assaulted a student.

“After careful review of the relevant statutes and case law as applied to the facts, we have decided we will not be bringing any criminal charges at this time,” Gilbert town prosecutor Lynn Arouh said Wednesday. She declined to elaborate.

Phone calls from The Republic to Dunn’s Mesa home went unanswered, and there was no immediate word from Gilbert Public Schools as to whether Dunn was reinstated from his administrative leave. The 2012-13 school year ends this week in GPS.

Police had said that Dunn, who resigned last year from his coaching job but still teaches math, slapped a 15-year-old boy in the face with the back of his hand during class on April 17.

At the time, Dunn was yelling at another student about bad behavior. He was standing next to a boy who began to laugh and allegedly slapped the amused boy in the face, the police report said. The investigating officer found no sign of injury on the boy’s face.

Dunn told police he had been correcting one boy’s behavior when he was standing near the alleged victim, who began to stand up, “hootin’ and hollerin.’ ” Dunn said he reached over to motion the alleged victim to sit down when his hand hit the boy’s hat.

Dunn, 67, has been at Gilbert High since 2009, but had worked there from 1971 to 1980.

In April, a flurry of e-mails praising Dunn arrived at district offices as students, parents and other adults rallied to his defense.

Machelle Granger-Couch said that in 1979 she was a freshman who hated math but with Dunn’s help she improved her grade. She said he never gave up on students, no matter how much they struggled.

“I was not a cheerleader or an athlete ... and yet he went out of his way to make sure I received the help I needed,” she said.

Lori Anderson, a 1980 graduate of Gilbert High, said Dunn, “has always shown the utmost professionalism in his work.”

Sandy Jauregui-Held described Dunn as a “great teacher and example.”

Lorna Reber Stock, whose family dates back decades in Gilbert and whose husband played football for Dunn in high school, said, “He is an honorable man.”

“Many of my teachers from GHS were my role models, Mr. Dunn being one of them. I am pleased to have known him, and I know that his character speaks volumes,” wrote Stock, who taught secondary education for 11 years.

The rise of the fourth branch of government

And at the same time these members of Congress who are doling out pork and cash can deny giving special treatment to the people who gave them campaign contributions by saying "I didn't write those laws. Those laws were created by some unnamed federal bureaucrat in some unnamed federal agency. I am shocked at how those unnamed, unaccountable bureaucrats are wasting out tax dollars [but of course they never will pass any laws to stop it, because they agree with those unnamed, unaccountable bureaucrats who are helping them rob us taxpayers blind]"

Government also frequently works like this at the state, county and city levels too. When elected officials can blame unelected bureaucrats for their decisions it makes it a lot easier for them to rob us blind and get reelected at the same time.

Source

The rise of the fourth branch of government

By Jonathan Turley, Published: May 24 E-mail the writer

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University.

There were times this past week when it seemed like the 19th-century Know-Nothing Party had returned to Washington. President Obama insisted he knew nothing about major decisions in the State Department, or the Justice Department, or the Internal Revenue Service. The heads of those agencies, in turn, insisted they knew nothing about major decisions by their subordinates. It was as if the government functioned by some hidden hand.

Clearly, there was a degree of willful blindness in these claims. However, the suggestion that someone, even the president, is in control of today’s government may be an illusion.

The growing dominance of the federal government over the states has obscured more fundamental changes within the federal government itself: It is not just bigger, it is dangerously off kilter. Our carefully constructed system of checks and balances is being negated by the rise of a fourth branch, an administrative state of sprawling departments and agencies that govern with increasing autonomy and decreasing transparency.

For much of our nation’s history, the federal government was quite small. In 1790, it had just 1,000 nonmilitary workers. In 1962, there were 2,515,000 federal employees. Today, we have 2,840,000 federal workers in 15 departments, 69 agencies and 383 nonmilitary sub-agencies.

This exponential growth has led to increasing power and independence for agencies. The shift of authority has been staggering. The fourth branch now has a larger practical impact on the lives of citizens than all the other branches combined.

The rise of the fourth branch has been at the expense of Congress’s lawmaking authority. In fact, the vast majority of “laws” governing the United States are not passed by Congress but are issued as regulations, crafted largely by thousands of unnamed, unreachable bureaucrats. One study found that in 2007, Congress enacted 138 public laws, while federal agencies finalized 2,926 rules, including 61 major regulations.

This rulemaking comes with little accountability. It’s often impossible to know, absent a major scandal, whom to blame for rules that are abusive or nonsensical. Of course, agencies owe their creation and underlying legal authority to Congress, and Congress holds the purse strings. But Capitol Hill’s relatively small staff is incapable of exerting oversight on more than a small percentage of agency actions. And the threat of cutting funds is a blunt instrument to control a massive administrative state — like running a locomotive with an on/off switch.

The autonomy was magnified when the Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that agencies are entitled to heavy deference in their interpretations of laws. The court went even further this past week, ruling that agencies should get the same heavy deference in determining their own jurisdictions — a power that was previously believed to rest with Congress. In his dissent in Arlington v. FCC, Chief Justice John Roberts warned: “It would be a bit much to describe the result as ‘the very definition of tyranny,’ but the danger posed by the growing power of the administrative state cannot be dismissed.”

The judiciary, too, has seen its authority diminished by the rise of the fourth branch. Under Article III of the Constitution, citizens facing charges and fines are entitled to due process in our court system. As the number of federal regulations increased, however, Congress decided to relieve the judiciary of most regulatory cases and create administrative courts tied to individual agencies. The result is that a citizen is 10 times more likely to be tried by an agency than by an actual court. In a given year, federal judges conduct roughly 95,000 adjudicatory proceedings, including trials, while federal agencies complete more than 939,000.

These agency proceedings are often mockeries of due process, with one-sided presumptions and procedural rules favoring the agency. And agencies increasingly seem to chafe at being denied their judicial authority. Just ask John E. Brennan. Brennan, a 50-year-old technology consultant, was charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure when he stripped at Portland International Airport last year in protest of invasive security measures by the Transportation Security Administration. He was cleared by a federal judge, who ruled that his stripping was a form of free speech. The TSA was undeterred. After the ruling, it pulled Brennan into its own agency courts under administrative charges.

The rise of the fourth branch has occurred alongside an unprecedented increase in presidential powers — from the power to determine when to go to war to the power to decide when it’s reasonable to vaporize a U.S. citizen in a drone strike. In this new order, information is jealously guarded and transparency has declined sharply. That trend, in turn, has given the fourth branch even greater insularity and independence. When Congress tries to respond to cases of agency abuse, it often finds officials walled off by claims of expanding executive privilege.

Of course, federal agencies officially report to the White House under the umbrella of the executive branch. But in practice, the agencies have evolved into largely independent entities over which the president has very limited control. Only 1 percent of federal positions are filled by political appointees, as opposed to career officials, and on average appointees serve only two years. At an individual level, career officials are insulated from political pressure by civil service rules. There are also entire agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — that are protected from White House interference.

Some agencies have gone so far as to refuse to comply with presidential orders. For example, in 1992 President George H.W. Bush ordered the U.S. Postal Service to withdraw a lawsuit against the Postal Rate Commission, and he threatened to sack members of the Postal Service’s Board of Governors who denied him. The courts ruled in favor of the independence of the agency.

It’s a small percentage of agency matters that rise to the level of presidential notice. The rest remain the sole concern of agency discretion.

As the power of the fourth branch has grown, conflicts between the other branches have become more acute. There is no better example than the fights over presidential appointments.

Wielding its power to confirm, block or deny nominees is one of the few remaining ways Congress can influence agency policy and get a window into agency activity. Nominations now commonly trigger congressional demands for explanations of agencies’ decisions and disclosures of their documents. And that commonly leads to standoffs with the White House.

Take the fight over Richard Cordray, nominated to serve as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Cordray is highly qualified, but Republican senators oppose the independence of the new bureau and have questions about its jurisdiction and funding. After those senators repeatedly blocked the nomination, Obama used a congressional break in January to make a recess appointment. Since then, two federal appeals courts have ruled that Obama’s recess appointments violated the Constitution and usurped congressional authority. While the fight continues in the Senate, the Obama administration has appealed to the Supreme Court.

It would be a mistake to dismiss such conflicts as products of our dysfunctional, partisan times. Today’s political divisions are mild compared with those in the early republic, as when President Thomas Jefferson described his predecessor’s tenure as “the reign of the witches.” Rather, today’s confrontations reflect the serious imbalance in the system.

The marginalization Congress feels is magnified for citizens, who are routinely pulled into the vortex of an administrative state that allows little challenge or appeal. The IRS scandal is the rare case in which internal agency priorities are forced into the public eye. Most of the time, such internal policies are hidden from public view and congressional oversight. While public participation in the promulgation of new regulations is allowed, and often required, the process is generally perfunctory and dismissive.

In the new regulatory age, presidents and Congress can still change the government’s priorities, but the agencies effectively run the show based on their interpretations and discretion. The rise of this fourth branch represents perhaps the single greatest change in our system of government since the founding.

We cannot long protect liberty if our leaders continue to act like mere bystanders to the work of government.

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PGP - Pretty Good Privacy - Use it to encrypt your data

Personally I suspect that if you can encrypt it the government can decrypt it. The only question is how long will it take for the government to decrypt it and how much will it cost the government to decrypt it.

When Phil Zimmermann first invented PGP the US government threatened to put him in jail if he gave people outside of the USA copies of the software. The government says PGP is a munition and therefor subject to the governments control.

Phil Zimmermann got around that problem and put the source code on the internet and the cat has been out of the bag since then. The government didn't carry out it's threat to put him in jail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. PGP is often used for signing, encrypting and decrypting texts, e-mails, files, directories and whole disk partitions to increase the security of e-mail communications. It was created by Phil Zimmermann in 1991.

http://www.gnupg.org/

The free version of PGP

http://www.pgpi.org/

More free PGP software

http://www.symantec.com/encryption

The commercial version of PGP

http://cryptography.org/getpgp.htm

Where to get PGP

http://www.openpgp.org/

http://philzimmermann.com/EN/findpgp/

14-year-old kid arrested for NRA shirt faces a year in jail

I wonder if 14-year-old Jared Marcum is one of the 50 or terrorists plots the NSA busted up as a result of spying on millions of Americans????

Lardieri has claimed that police in Logan City (pop. 1,779) threatened to charge Marcum with making terroristic threats during the incident that led to his arrest.

Source

The 14-year-old kid arrested over his pro-NRA shirt now faces a year in jail

The Daily CallerThe Daily Caller

The West Virginia eighth-grader who was suspended and arrested in late April after he refused to remove a t-shirt supporting the National Rifle Association appeared in court this week and was formally charged with obstructing an officer.

As CBS affiliate WTRF reports, 14-year-old Jared Marcum now faces a $500 fine and a maximum of one year in prison.

The boy’s father, Allen Lardieri, is not pleased.

“Me, I’m more of a fighter and so is Jared and eventually we’re going to get through this,” Lardieri told WTRF. “I don’t think it should have ever gotten this far.”

“Every aspect of this is just totally wrong,” Lardieri added. “He has no background of anything criminal up until now and it just seems like nobody wants to admit they’re wrong.”

Officials at Logan Middle School in Logan County, West Va. maintain that Marcum, who has since completed eighth grade, was suspended for one day because he caused a disruption after a teacher asked him to remove a shirt emblazoned with a hunting rifle and the statement “protect your right.”

“She said, ‘Are you supposed to wear that in school?’” Marcum had previously explained in an interview with local station, WOWK-TV. “I said, ‘I don’t see why I shouldn’t.’”

In a move The Daily Caller can only characterize as courageous, Marcum returned to school after his suspension wearing exactly the same shirt. Students across the rural county showed their support for Marcum by wearing similar shirts on that day as well.

There are no accounts of any additional arrests or suspensions when Marcum returned to school.

Lardieri has claimed that police in Logan City (pop. 1,779) threatened to charge Marcum with making terroristic threats during the incident that led to his arrest.

In legal documents obtained by the CBS station, the arresting officer, James Adkins, reportedly fails to inform the court about any terrorist threats or any violent action. Instead, Adkins asserts that the 14-year-old boy did not follow his orders to stop talking. This verbosity somehow prevented Adkins from performing his police duties.

“In my view of the facts, Jared didn’t do anything wrong,” Ben White, Marcum’s attorney, opined, according to WTRF. “I think Officer Adkins could have done something differently.”

White has previously asserted that his client was exercising his free speech rights by wearing the shirt.

The school district’s policy doesn’t prohibit shirts promoting Second Amendment rights.

Logan police and the prosecuting attorney, Michael White, declined to answer questions.

Follow Eric on Twitter and send education-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com. Join the conversation on The Daily Caller

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A cushy jobs program for cops in high schools????

The cop's don't like that word because it sounds like they are turning America into a police state, so they call them not cops, but resource officers".

Either way it's a jobs program for cops, that creates cushy jobs for cops in high schools were they are not needed.

Each cop costs the schools $96,200 a year!!!! You could get a rent-a-cop for a third of that.

Last if the schools are so unsafe that every high school needs several cops to make it safe, maybe it is time to get rid of the lousy government schools and replace them with private schools???

I have never heard of charter schools needing armed cops who are paid $96,200 a year to make them safe.

Source

Three Glendale high schools might get police officers

By Colleen Sikorski The Republic | azcentral.com Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:23 AM

Peoria Unified School District’s three high schools in Glendale may have school resource officers when classes open in August.

The school board unanimously approved an agreement with the city of Glendale to place resource officers in each of the schools for the 2013-14 school year, with the district paying $117,293. The district’s four high schools in Peoria already have resource officers.

“I have wanted this for a long, long time,” school board member Kathy Knecht said.

The agreement still needs approval by the Glendale City Council, which would contribute the same amount. It is expected to go to a vote Tuesday.

Steve Savoy, Peoria’s administrator of K-12 academic services, attributed the delay at the high schools in Glendale to the city’s budget issues.

Under the latest plan, the district would pay 75 percent of the cost for officers at Ironwood and Cactus high schools and Glendale would pay 25 percent.

The city would pick up the full cost for a resource officer at Raymond S. Kellis High School, to repay the district for allowing the city to use the Kellis parking lot during Arizona Cardinals football games.

The city of Peoria has paid the bulk of the costs, about $66,000 of the $96,200 cost for each school resource officer per year, in the district’s four high schools in Peoria. The school district and the city added the first resource officer in January 2009, Savoy said. The most recent was added at Liberty High School at the start of the 2012-13 school year.

Glendale police spokeswoman Tracey Breeden could not immediately say whether Glendale intends to work with other school districts to provide funding for school resource officers.

Deer Valley School District has never received city of Glendale funding for school resource officers. Since the 1990s, the district has had high-school resource officers, who were funded by a grant until 2006. Deer Valley then picked up the tab, hiring police officers at $30 to $35 an hour for all five of its high schools.

Glendale Union High School District got rid of school resource officers two years ago after losing a state grant that had paid for them.

Into the mind of ... Kyrsten Sinema

Kyrsten Sinema shovels the BS???

Remember Kyrsten Sinema is the Arizona Senator who introduced a 300 percent tax on medical marijuana. Kyrsten Sinema is now a US Congresswoman.

I guess the title of this article should have been "Vote for me and I will give you free stuff"

Source

Into the mind of ... Kyrsten Sinema

The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Jul 5, 2013 6:27 PM

The first-term congresswoman reflects on her first six months in Washington.

After six months in Congress, what’s the No. 1 thing you’ve learned about the place?

I’ve learned I can still get a lot done for Congressional District 9 even though leaders in Congress aren’t accomplishing much. [I suspect Kyrsten Sinema means that she has accomplished tons of stuff while her fellow slackers have accomplished nothing. Of course if you ask me I would have said none of them have accomplished anything - well other then robbing us blind and micro-managing our lives]

In our district office, social workers help constituents solve problems every day. In our D.C. office, we help businesses access federal agencies, support local groups seeking federal grant funding, and advocate for the issues important to CD9 residents and businesses. [Translation - vote for ME and I will give you free stuff - lots of free government pork!!!!!]

What’s the biggest difference between the Legislature and Congress?

I’ve always believed that relationships are key to solving problems.

In the Legislature, my relationships with Republicans and Democrats alike helped me serve my constituents well. In Congress, I’m working to build bipartisan relationships as well, though it’ll take a bit longer to make friends with all 537 of my colleagues! [Kyrsten, you didn't answer the question. It was "What’s the biggest difference between the Legislature and Congress?" - But I guess the main purpose of this article is to tell the voters that if they vote for you, you will give them free stuff, so who cares if you answer the question]

What’s the biggest frustration? The biggest satisfaction?

Unfortunately, issues that shouldn’t be partisan, like military sexual trauma and college affordability, have been stymied by political posturing in Congress. Leaders in Congress should stop playing games and get to work solving our country’s challenges.

However, our office has been able to make a tremendous difference in the lives of CD9 residents.

For example, we recently helped Glen in Phoenix, who has a brain tumor. Last month, Glen had to choose to either buy expensive medicine to treat his tumor or buy a replacement bed for his home.

We worked with local charities and the pharmaceutical company to help him get both a bed and his life-saving medication. [Again - vote for ME and I will give you free stuff - lots of free government pork!!!!!]

As a member of the minority party, it’s hard to get a bill passed. What have you been able to accomplish?

Congress is pretty divided right now and sadly, they’re not getting much done.

I’m proud to be one of the founding members of the United Solutions Caucus. We’re a group of 38 freshmen, Democrats and Republicans, working together to solve our fiscal crisis and reduce our debt and deficit. [Don't make me laugh Kyrsten, when it comes to taxing and spending in the Arizona legislator you were number #1. I am sure that in the US Congress you are also the #1 Congresswoman when it comes to taxing and spending. You reduce our debt??? Again don't make me laugh!!! Kyrsten, as the debt goes up you will probably cause it to increase more then any other Congressperson!!!!]

We’ve introduced the SAVE Act, which cuts $200 billion in wasteful spending. Earlier this year, I helped pass the Violence Against Women Act.

Are there any issues you’re working on with other Arizona members? [Well other then that "vote for ME and I will give you free stuff" nonsense]

I’m working with Reps. Matt Salmon and Raul Grijalva on a bill to prevent the NSA from gathering innocent civilians’ private data. [Give me a break Kyrsten, on every election sign of your you have the fact that you are supported by the police unions on the signs. I find it hard to believe that you are trying to reduce the police state, when the police unions helped you get elected!!!] Reps. Ron Barber, Ann Kirkpatrick and I are working on legislation to help veterans get quicker and better access to VA services. [More of the old "vote for ME and I will give you free stuff" nonsense]

You and Salmon, a Republican, have made several joint appearances. What’s the connection?

Our offices work closely together on constituent cases, and Matt and I share similar views on issues like global competitiveness, increasing foreign investment in Arizona companies, and increasing trade and exports. Plus, he’s a good guy and we get along.

What will immigration reform look like when the House is finished with it?

It’s too early to predict, but I’m committed to a bill that secures our border [so you do support the police state - 20,000 new Border Patrol cops???], creates a workable plan for a future flow of workers into the United States, and settles the status of “dreamers” and hard-working families living in the U.S. Compromise must be a part of any viable solution, and I hope the House is ready to get to “yes.” I certainly am! [Kyrsten, when a politician like you says "compromise" it means "if you vote for my pork, I will vote for your pork". Kyrsten with that in mind, I suspect you know how to compromise better then any other Congressman or Senator in Washington D.C.]

Paradise Valley high-school students will be required to wear ID badges

If you ask me I would say it is a violation of the 5th Amendments, forcing kids to wear badges that have their photos and names on them.

Well yea, in addition to a violation of the 13th Amendment, because basically the state of Arizona is forcing the kids into slavery by requiring them to go to high school until they are 16, which is a violation of the 13th Amendment.

Per the 13th Amendment you can only force people into slavery when they have been convicted of a crime, allowing the government to sent them to prison as a slave for punishment of the crime they were convicted of.

Source

Paradise Valley high-school students will be required to wear ID badges

By Amy B Wang The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:20 PM

Starting this school year, all high-school students in the Paradise Valley Unified School District must wear identification badges at all times while on campus.

The new policy is part of an increased “sight security” effort, said PVUSD student services Director Jim Lee. The district’s five high schools and one alternative school will require wearing the badges — affecting about 11,000 students total.

“It’s kind of a safety and accountability measure of who should be on campus,” Lee said. “If a staff member is having an interaction with a student on campus, they can verify who they’re talking to.”

The district already issues photo-identification cards to all of its high-school students at the beginning of each school year. This year will be no different, except the photography companies taking student photos will provide lanyards free of charge, Lee said.

In the past, school officials required students to carry these identification cards with them at all times and students had to produce them if asked. Now, if they don’t wear the badges, they will face a series of warnings that differ at each high school.

Students had mixed reactions to the new policy.

Wyatt Wagner, an incoming junior at Shadow Mountain High School, said he has heard of people posing as different students on campus.

But even though he can see why the district would want to require badges, Wagner thinks it will be too much for schools to enforce the rule.

“I heard about it a couple months before school ended,” Wagner said. “Nobody’s going to actually follow through with it. There’s going to be too much trouble going on.”

“I don’t think it’s really that much of a big deal to have it on you,” said Nick Anderson, a senior at Shadow Mountain High School. “But also, 16- to 18-year-olds should be able to be trusted to be at your own school at your own time.”

Paradise Valley’s new policy is similar to one the Scottsdale Unified School District adopted last year, with mixed success. Not wearing badges in Scottsdale meant a dress-code violation for students, and the district reported that dress-code violations were up 900 percent this year.

Republic reporter Mary Beth Faller contributed to this article.

School can’t ban ‘boobies’ bracelets, court rules

Another good reason to end the government's near monopoly on educating our children.

Source

School can’t ban ‘boobies’ bracelets, court rules

Associated Press Mon Aug 5, 2013 10:27 AM

PHILADELPHIA — After years of litigation about students’ free speech rights, a full U.S. appeals court ruled Monday that a Pennsylvania school district cannot ban “I (heart) Boobies!” bracelets.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected school district claims that the slogan — designed to promote breast cancer awareness among young people — is lewd. It also concluded that school officials didn’t prove the bracelets were disruptive.

“Because the bracelets here are not plainly lewd and because they comment on a social issue, they may not be categorically banned,” the court said in a 9-5 decision.

The ruling is a victory for two Easton Area School District girls who challenged the school rule in 2010 with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. Easton is one of several school districts around the country to ban the bracelets, which are distributed by the nonprofit Keep A Breast Foundation of Carlsbad, Calif.

ACLU lawyer Mary Catherine Roper said the ruling supports the rights of students to discuss important topics.

“It explicitly says school children talk about important things, and when they (do) … that’s the kind of speech we want to protect and promote,” Roper said.

The teens, Brianna Hawk and Kayla Martinez, testified that they merely hoped to promote awareness of the disease at their middle school. They filed suit when they were suspended for defying the ban on their school’s Breast Cancer Awareness Day.

The school district has since kept the litigation alive, appealing when a lower court judge ruled for the girls. District solicitor John Freund said he planned to comment on the decision later Monday.

He has argued that the bracelets have a sexual undertone that invites disruption in the classroom.

“Middle school is a witch’s brew of hormones and curiosity,” Freund has argued, while calling the bracelets “cause-based marketing energized by sexual double-entendres.”

In a rare move, the entire 3rd Circuit elected to hear the school district’s appeal in February rather than leave it to a three-judge panel.

During those arguments, Judge Dolores Sloviter said she did not see the slogan as sexual, and told the packed courtroom that she had once lost a colleague on the court to breast cancer.

In their dissent, five judges said the majority had wrongly reasoned that schools cannot limit student speech involving social commentary, even if it “could reasonably be deemed lewd, vulgar, plainly offensive, or constituting sexual innuendo.”

Photo radar bandits for 15 mph school zones???

Scottsdale Schools to be run like POW camps???

Scottsdale Schools to be run like prisons???

Also the schools in the Scottsdale school district will now be run like like prisons where the students are treated like inmates, rather then students.

Source

Tighter security first lesson in Scottsdale this school year

By Laurie Merrill and Mary Beth Faller The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Aug 5, 2013 9:35 AM

Parents and students will notice increased safety and security measures in the Scottsdale Unified School District when school resumes this week.

Classes begin Wednesday, and some of the changes will affect parents before they even get to the school buildings.

School-zone cameras

Scottsdale has become the first municipality in the region to launch portable school towers, new devices that look like phone booths but conceal cameras, police said.

The two units, which began issuing citations July 21, will be rotated through Scottsdale’s 31 school zones, according to police.

Unlike typical speed cameras that snap photos when a car exceeds the limit by 11 mph, the school towers click into action at 6 mph over the limit.

The speed limit is 15 mph between the portable signs erected when school is in session, according to state law.

Motorists in the zones may not pass other vehicles and must stop when anyone is in the crosswalk.

Failure to stop when a child is in the crosswalk could mean double fines.

Violators face fines of $219 and $305 and are not eligible for traffic school, according to Scottsdale City Court. They must appear in court.

The Scottsdale, Cave Creek and Paradise Valley unified school districts all have campuses in Scottsdale, as well as several charter and private schools.

Scottsdale police in June tested a portable tower on Miller Road, Officer Dave Pubins said. From June 4 to 6, the devices recorded 130 violations, though no citations were issued during the test phase, Pubins said.

When school is not in session, the tools will be placed near other pedestrian high-traffic areas, such as parks, pools, shopping areas and sports fields, Pubins said.

The Scottsdale City Council in December approved a five-year contract with American Traffic Solutions, the company contracted to provide photo enforcement in the city.

The school towers and two mobile photo-enforcement vans were included in the contract, which also called for adding cameras to eight new intersections and more electronic-feedback signs, police said.

The devices can be used in places with too little room for the vans, Pubins said. Scottsdale will keep deploying the vans in school zones that have enough parking and continue to use patrol officers, police said.

The contract calls for the city to pay ATS $1.2 million the first year, the same amount it paid last year, according to a City Council report.

Officials said the program is essentially self-supporting, citing revenue generated from traffic penalties. In fiscal 2010-11, the program put about $925,000 back into city coffers, the report said.

‘Gate-to-gate’ security

Parents will no longer be allowed to walk their children to the classroom door under a stricter security policy in the Scottsdale district.

James Dorer, chief of security for the district, said the schools will start a “gate-to-gate” philosophy, meaning that gates at all campuses will be closed.

In the morning, parents who choose to park instead of using the drop-off lane must leave their children at the gate, where staff will take them to their classrooms or the playgrounds. The same rules apply for afternoon pickup.

Parents who want to go to a classroom must sign in at the front office and get a visitor badge.

“We know parents like to walk their kids to the classroom,” he said, and it has been common for most elementary schools to leave the gates open for classroom drop-off and pickup.

“But that becomes a weak spot,” he said of the congregated adults outside the classrooms. “We don’t truly know if they are parents and what their intentions are.

“The vast majority are parents who are supposed to be there, and they are welcome, but we need to have a process.”

Badges required

All parents on Scottsdale district campuses will be required to get a visitor badge at the front office, even if they are quickly visiting a classroom.

“I’m trying to stress that anytime anyone is on a campus, they have to have an ID (badge) visible, so someone who doesn’t have one sticks out. That’s the goal,” Dorer said.

However, the district is tweaking its philosophy on ID badges for students. A year ago, Dorer outlined a plan that would eventually require all students to wear ID badges at all times. This year, middle- and high-school students will be required to wear them but not younger students.

“We had some successes and some setbacks as with any first-year program,” he said. “There has been mixed reception to it.”

Dorer said that some parents of elementary students didn’t support the plan, and that enforcement varied among campuses.

Elementary students still are supposed to keep their ID badges with them this year, but there won’t be daily enforcement, Dorer said.

Middle- and high-school students still will be required to wear their badges, and that was a mixed bag last year, too. A missing badge, which costs $5 to replace, was considered a dress-code violation, and the district recorded a 900 percent increase in that type of violation last year.

Dorer said that in the workplace, employees are required to wear security badges. “We’re trying to prep our students for that world.

“It’s a change of culture, and it will take time.”

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