District Superintendent Claims 14-Year-Old Student Bullied Her By Using Her Photo In A Criminal Justice Class Project
from the the-only-adult-here-is-the-one-pulling-her-daughter-out-of-this-district dept
14-year-old Lucero Tovar's project for her criminal justice class was supposed to depict the inside of a courtroom. In an unexpected turn of events, her diorama instead proved an unlikely theory: there's a child running Texas' Santa Maria Independent School District.A 14-year-old Texas student was suspended last week after she created a diorama of a courtroom using pictures of school board members to represent various people in her project, including a prosecutor and "fake" defendant.Tovar also used photos of family members and relatives, along with various dead presidents, to ensure every "person" in her diorama had a face.
The assignment, which was due Oct. 20, was to create a miniaturized 3D courtroom setting, she told KGBT-TV.
She decided to use photos of school district personnel and elected board members, which she printed out from the Santa Maria Independent School District’s website.
But one of the people "depicted" in her diorama had a problem with her face being used: Santa Maria ISD superintendent Maria Chavez.
As you can see from this screengrab of KGBT's report, Chavez's face was applied to the "defendant's" body.
Somehow, Superintendent Chavez was informed of Tovar's criminal justice project, resulting in Tovar being called to her school's office.
“The principal just looks at me and is like, ‘You know why you're in here right?’” Tovar explained. “I said no. She said, ‘You're harassing people.’ And I was like, ‘Huh?’ For me, I was like, ‘What?’"Tovar's mother -- perhaps realizing there would be no reasoning with the childlike-but-in-all-the-wrong-ways entity running the district -- pulled her child from the school rather than deal with the ridiculous suspension.
Tovar adds: “She just told me that I was harassing and that she's going to suspend me for 4 days.”
If you think I'm being too harsh on Maria Chavez (and by extension, everyone under her command), read on. The suspension notice obtained by KGBT says the following:
You are hereby advised that Lucero Tovar is assigned an In-School-Suspension (ISS) from Santa Maria High School for the following Code of Conduct violation(s): damaging innuendo message on class project to another’s reputation — district personnel.After dodging KGBT reporter Ryan Wolf for an entire day, Maria Chavez finally answered one of his phone calls and made the following statements.
Chavez did not want to appear on camera but said over the telephone how she felt Tovar’s depiction of her and others was “bullying” to personnel...Chavez also claims Tovar's project caused a "disruption," which is a really lame way to shift blame to the victim. (Meaning the actual victim -- Lucero Tovar -- and not the fake victim who's supposed to be acting like an adult.) There would have been no disruption if school personnel hadn't somehow arrived at the conclusion that Tovar's use of district personnel photos was a form of bullying.
Chavez said she found the rationale behind her face on the defendant in an orange jumpsuit as “politically” motivated, “distasteful” and a complete deviation from the project’s “requirements."
And while Chavez found it “distasteful,” she told Wolf none of the board members, whose faces are also featured in the project, complained to her about harassment or a damaged reputation.
What's even sadder than Chavez's gratuitous display of power is that she continues to maintain the pretense that this is really about Tovar's unwillingness to follow the project's instructions. This assertion (and nothing to back it up) leads to non-sequiturious paragraphs like the following:
There was no written description required, according to Tovar.Unless the instructions specifically stated that no photos of district personnel were to be used, then this assertion is a painfully stupid attempt at misdirection. Even if there were certain instructions Tovar didn't follow, the worst she should have expected was a low grade from her teacher, not accusations of bullying from the district superintendent and a suspension.
Tovar said she was just trying to be creative with the assignment and used photos of her relatives as well.
Wolf asked the superintendent if the teacher listed any requirements to students ahead of the assignment to which she responded “yes.”
What makes it even stupider is Chavez's actions following the assertion that Tovar didn't follow the project guidelines.
[Chavez] also said [the project instructions] would be faxed over to Action 4 News around noon time.Maria Chavez may not have liked her face being pasted to an orange jumpsuited body, but the proper response for someone in her position would have been to tell the teacher or administrator that brought it to her attention to find something productive to do with their time. Instead, she chose to be the victim in a situation that clearly wasn't crying out for anyone to fill that role. To become the victim, she had to turn a 14-year-old student into someone capable of intimidating the top of the district's organization chart. Now, because she chose to fully inhabit the victim role, she's exposed herself as someone incapable of filling the role of district superintendent and unworthy of the trust inherent to the position.
They were never received as of 11 p.m. Wednesday.
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Filed Under: criminal justice, diorama, lucero tovar, maria chavez, school project
Companies: santa maria high school
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fuck her, the DIRECT OPPOSITE of the type of open-minded educators we should have...
its authoritarians all the way down...
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Harassment, I doubt this girl even met this superintendent, obviously Mrs.Chavez is a little too sensitive, perhaps that's from criticism of the school board by parents, but to chastise this girl for it because of the girl used Chavez's picture in a diorama is beyond stupidity.
I highly doubt any court or person who is of rational mind would see this as harassment, obviously the other people whose pictures were used didn't see an issue.
Maybe someone needs some sensitivity training, and I am not talking about the student. Mrs Chavez will be lucky if the school board isn't on the end of a lawsuit over this
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There's a joke here somewhere...
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Re: There's a joke here somewhere...
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So what you are saying is that the superintendent just wanted to put some more life into the diarama by acting guilty?
"Your honor, I am taking the fifth... class, of course."
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Land of the free (highest prison population world wide) and the home of the brave(afraid of everything)...
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Can you prove that the world wouldn't be a better place for it?
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dumb ass
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Instead of the students who made the flyer getting a suspension or any form of punishment, the vice principle framed a copy of the flyer and put it up in his office. His philosophy on student conduct was that if the worst students were doing was making fun of him rather than getting into fights or doing drugs on campus, he'd gladly laugh at himself along with the students.
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What's wrong with you people?!? This is a *hate* crime!
Uh, was that over the top? I would love to hear what her employees are saying about this, if they can manage to stop laughing long enough to say anything. Their lunchroom that day must've sounded like a comedy club. Way to improve staff morale, Chavez. Madre de dios!
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What is wrong with schools
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Re: What is wrong with schools
Basically they a taught to fear, obey and not criticize people with more power than themselves, or the hammer will fall hard. This is also the way law enforcement, corporations and politicians wish the public would behave like.
I guess they have decided to try the "catch them while they are young" approach.
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Re: What is wrong with schools
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Re: What is wrong with schools
First, judging by what I've heard of "teachers' education" from a friend who just recently got both her certificate and her degree, I suspect much of the problem stems from what the teachers are learning prior to starting their careers.
Second, federal influence in the form of monetary subsidies either granted or withheld, increased or decreased could - probably does - strongly influence school policies, and not necessarily in the good way envisioned by the feds.
Third - and this is the sad one - the current generation of teachers and administrators were quite possibly coddled as children and young men and women, so did not develop the necessary coping skills.
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Re: Re: What is wrong with schools
Teachers have their stifling New World Order bureaucratic regime pushing them from one side, and parents and PTA expectations for their precious snowflakes demanding favor from the other.
Why anyone wants the job mystifies me. They're professional masochists.
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Re: Re: What is wrong with schools
You have tossed both teachers and administrators into the same bag, this is either just being lazy or it is intentional misinformation. School board members and administrators are politicians and typically know little about education even though a few of them may have been employed as a teacher in the past. Many parents and community members are tiring of the continual teacher disparagement emanating from the anti public school echo chamber. These anti public education people do not have the student's best interest in mind, they are after the public tax dollar and a possible future political career.
Public school policy is a local affair, typically controlled by the "elected" school board at a county level. Federal influence is placed upon the State, not the school board nor the county. Possibly you have been confused by the debate about common core.
Not sure what to make of your last comment. Teachers and administrators are very different, professionally and socially. To claim the are the same implies ignorance.
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Re: Re: What is wrong with schools
I agree completely.
But you would think that someone who takes a job as a school administrator, which deals with kids, would have a thick-skin when it comes to kids.
Plus, is this issue really that big of a deal for this lady? The girl used photos of a lot of people, but no one else is complaining that they were "bullied" by having their face as the judge or lawyer or whatever else.
I think another poster got it correct that this lady might have had a run-in with the law and the diorama made her think the girl found about it.
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"A child is not an adult in a smaller body"?
I'd like to add:
"But some adults are just children in a bigger body"...
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Enter Streisand
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principal
Seems this principal's face would go good in a lot of images and across the web, be quite funny if this got viral enough to make the bitch quit.
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time to dig a little deeper into the stuporintendent's past
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Re: time to dig a little deeper into the stuporintendent's past
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Too bad I don't live in Texas
As both a lawye and an educator with a doctoratre in ed, this sounds like an A± assignment to me. I don't blame the parents for sending Ms. Tovar to another district. As much as they may have wanted to fight, the best interests of the child mean that they should get her elsewhere.
The Streisand Effect may shed some light on Ms. Chavez, the (unnamed) principal, and goings-on in Santa Maria Independent School District. If the superintendent had sued over this rediculous incident, it would have been a SLAPP and subject to the Texas Anti-SLAPP provisions. What is needed now, however, is a SLFPP, a Straegic Lawsuit FOR Public Participation.
So I hope some Texas lawyer will help the family out. By the way, having read the original stories and comments, KGBT reporter Ryan Wolf from KGBT sounds like an excellent journalist.
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They removed her ASAP from an obviously abusive situation. That doesn't preclude suing the pants off Chavez and the fools who hired her and supported her decision. I'd be on my hands and knees begging for forgiveness and voluntarily signing up for sensitivity counseling right now if it was me, which it never would be.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to say, shove it up your ass, Mr. MacCaulay (my grade eight math teacher). I imagine every kid who's ever been forced to endure public school has some petty tyrant in his past s/he still resents being forced to endure.
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Re: Too bad I don't live in Texas
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There's a whole bunch of them over at NPR saying the Maine Ebola nurse was doing her thing for self-aggrandizement and personal gain, like maybe she thought going to Africa would look good on her resume. Have fun.
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Streisand effect in 3..2.1
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Ludicrous
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That's sending a message that learning "the System" is more important than learning the Constitution.
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It doesn't appear that recent generations learned anything in civics class. They appear to equate it with nap time. So, if they can't be bothered to learn about their rights, now they can learn about the consequences, ie. how to defend yourself when you're inevitably dragged into court for whatever reason.
Watch out for that Judge Chavez. She's a hangin' judge.
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This common trope of attacking the younger generation is tired but still useful, wrong - but useful.
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Defendent? Why yes of course!
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Egomaniac
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you much southpark for the super?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hkcZilKChI
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Innocence is a Crime
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Re: Innocence is a Crime
On the other hand, the kid's getting a valuable lesson in abuse of authority, and she's going to come out of it smelling like roses, possibly even rich. That's a lot more than most get from public school. Earned college tuition before she reached fifteen. Think of the street cred she's going to walk away with; took down a superintendant at only fourteen!
Fom here on no teacher, no matter where she winds up, is going to take this kid at face value. She's golden. :-)
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Why only the Superintendent getting hate?
BOTH of them had to look at the diorama filled with various sets of people(Her family, dead presidents, and faculty) and think to themselves...."Man something needs to be done here!". I can NOT fathom how two adults could even get to the point of even contacting the Superintendent in the first place.
Hate on the Superintendent, but make sure you hate on the teacher and principal for being giant idiots just as much
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Re: Why only the Superintendent getting hate?
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Send her an email.
mchavez@smisd.net
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The bigger underlying issue
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Face
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