This post about D.C. charter schools asks why these schools are free to choose which laws to obey and which to ignore.
One that they chose to ignore is suicide prevention training for their staff.
The leaders of the charter sector complained about the rules and regulations that the city wanted to impose on them.
The author, Jonetta Rose Barras, writes:
“When I read the email exchange between Michael Musante, a lobbyist for local charter schools, and Scott Pearson, executive director of the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB), I became enraged. I think, perhaps, you would have had a similar reaction.
“In discussing the introduction of the Youth Suicide Prevention Act in the DC Council, Pearson wrote on Sept. 22, 2015, “Unbelievable. Does it ever stop?”
“I wouldn’t be able to take trips to Europe every summer if it stopped,” Musante replied in the email chain, a copy of which was provided to The DC Line.
“I guess we can just add it to the pile of requirements that don’t get enforced,” replied Pearson about the law created to protect District schoolchildren.”
A 12-year-old student at the SEED charter school hung herself in 2018. This was one of those “miracle” schools celebrated in the propaganda film “Waiting for ‘Superman,'” which is now streaming on Amazon and other services. Did the child’s parent see the film and win the lottery to get her into this boarding school, which costs the District nearly $40,000 per year?
The parent of the child is suing the school and the foundation that operates the school for negligence.
Charter school leaders seem to be against any regulations, suggesting that they interfere with their independence. They currently are fighting a legislative proposal introduced by Ward 6’s Charles Allen that would subject all charter schools to the city’s existing open meetings and Freedom of Information Act requirements. That proposal doesn’t go far enough, however. It’s time to reassess the exemptions provided to charter schools, imposing many of the same regulations that apply to DC Public Schools.
Should a charter school be free from all regulations, all accountability, all transparency, even regulations protecting the lives of children?
Apparently, charters believe that they are above the law and outside of any accountability for their finances or their students’ lives. The laws and regulations are for other people, not them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Teachers in Newark are required to complete suicide prevention training every year. There are procedures in place to provide support for students who may be at risk. It is not a matter to be taken lightly.
Any school that serves high risk youth should be required to abide by a strict code of conduct and subject to unannounced inspections. This includes both private and public facilities. We have an obligation to ensure that children are safe, and the health and safety of all children must be the priority.
The school is funded by very high rollers, with the annual report listing these beginning on page 17. Readers of this blog will recognize some of the familiar “non-profit” tax dodging billionare foundations and individuals who love this private school and others in the franchise. I wonder how many of these funders are even aware of the serious risks for suicide in all schools to the extent that “suicide prevention training” is required for teachers. I wonder if Lakeside School requires this training.
Click to access Annual+Report+Electronic+for+Upload_2017_12_21+EM.pdf
You left out the most explosive revelation from the linked blog: The plaintiffs obtained emails between Michael Musante, a lobbyist for local charter schools, and Scott Pearson, executive director of the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB),
In discussing the introduction of the Youth Suicide Prevention Act in the DC Council, Pearson wrote on Sept. 22, 2015, “Unbelievable. Does it ever stop?”
“I wouldn’t be able to take trips to Europe every summer if it stopped,” Musante replied in the email chain, a copy of which was provided to The DC Line.
“I guess we can just add it to the pile of requirements that don’t get enforced,” replied Pearson about the law created to protect District schoolchildren.
In the month following the Netflix program about a person who commits suicide, “13 Reasons”, there was a 29% increase in male, teen suicides. The third season of “13 Reasons” is planned. The Netflix corporation is reportedly looking into the alarming statistics about increases in teen deaths by suicide after its program began airing.
Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, partnered in charter schools (he called for an elimination of democratically elected school boards), controls schools that taxpayers pay for and where communities send their vulnerable to learn and be nurtured. My opinion-it’s a very poor fit.
If justice existed, parents who work for billionaires, carrying out their education policy ventures, employed in think tanks, in government, in universities, would be the ones who suffered.
The Catholic universities in D.C. should examine Diane’s questions, as well as Gov. Bevin’s invited guest, a representative of the Catholic Church in Kentucky, at his recent non-public meeting with DeVos about public education.
It is obvious that publicly funded private sector charter schools and their wealthy supporters do not want the laws that govern public schools to get in their way. That is why they fight so hard to stay opaque and safely hidden beyond the reach of the law.
That means they do not like or respect or support the US Constitution and most if not all state constitutions because democracy gets in the way of making money any way you can even when it is morally and ethically repugnant and actually against the laws that came about through the Constitutional process.
They are fascists and/or kleptocrats and any legal system that protects their targeted victims gets in their way.
Several commenters on Twitter criticized me rather harshly for making a connection between the girl’s suicide and the charter, but I thought it was clear that the charter refused to require its staff to have suicide prevention training. The public schools did it, the charters didn’t. Apparently deregulation has its downside.
I think most of the publicly funded corporate and/or religious charter schools mirror the draconian, dystopian, thinking of the extreme right that has led to the US having the largest prison population in the world by a huge margin.
Most if not all of the corporate charters practice the authoritarian or disciplinarian model of parenting.
“In 2008, 0.66% of all U.S. children’s hospital visits were due to either suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts, also known as suicide ideation. By 2015, according to the study, that number had jumped to 1.82%, with rates rising across age groups and demographics.” …
“Interestingly, the researchers also observed significantly more suicide attempts or ideations during the school year; that’s in contrast to adults, among whom suicide rates tend to spike in spring and summer.”
http://time.com/5279029/suicide-rates-rising-study/
“Middle School Suicides Double As Common Core Testing Intensifies”
“Here’s a high stakes testing statistic you won’t hear bandied about on the news.
“The suicide rate among 10- to 14-year-olds doubled between 2007 and 2014 – the same period in which states have increasingly adopted Common Core standards and new, more rigorous high stakes tests.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/middle-school-suicides-double-as-common-core-testing_b_59822d3de4b03d0624b0abb9
“Middle School Suicides Double As Common Core Testing Intensifies”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/07/24/middle-school-suicides-double-common-core-testing-intensifies
“The deadly effect of high-stakes testing on teenagers with reference-dependent preferences” – MONASH University Business and Economics
“Suicide is now one of the leading causes of death for young adults aged 10 to 24 (Patton et al.2009). According to Cutler et al. (2001), youth suicide rates in the U.S. tripled between 1950and 1990, while suicide rates for adults and elderly were falling during the same period of time.”
Click to access b73850926dbe9189419820c9a78d53ce02e0.pdf
“Children’s & Teen’s Suicides Related to the School Calendar”
“School is clearly bad for children’s mental health. The tragedy is that we continue to make school ever more stressful, even though research shows that none of this is necessary. Young people learn far more, far better, with much less stress (and at less public expense) when they are allowed to learn in their own natural ways, as I have pointed out in many of my previous posts and in my book, Free to Learn.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/201805/children-s-teens-suicides-related-the-school-calendar
Rhetorically, are your twitter critics, the producers of Netflix’ 13 Reasons?
The court will decide culpability in the SEED case.
The public can decide the significance of the correlation between a spike in teen suicides and the Netflix program.
Linda, I have no idea.
Lloyd,
Thanks for the cited references on suicides. Interviewers pose the wrong questions to Melinda Gates. They should ask her, “To what lengths will you go to hide your culpability for the detrimental impact of your education policy?”
I think/suspect that Melinda Gates staff asked for lists of questions in advance and then disapproved of the ones they didn’t want her to be asked. Then they can control who is allowed to ask questions that are on the approved list.
Diane,
If your twitter critics propose a denial of the plaintiff’s right to their day in court, they propose injustice. If they expect the plaintiffs to be denied the visibility they want to make the tragic circumstances of their child’s death known, how dare they.
There’s reason to deduce the family thinks there is a connection. Evidently, their law firm assessed the facts and concluded they can prevail. The court’s ruling about additional evidence gathering by the plaintiffs suggests the judge thinks there’s reason to proceed. And, DCLine reported about documents (providing copies), submitted to the court, that purport to show mandated policy aimed at preventing suicides was not adhered to.
If the twitter critics have knowledge e.g. the documents are fraudulent, the defendants have the opportunity to make that claim in court.
The Twitter critics thought I was unjustly criticizing charter schools because the child who committed suicide was enrolled in a boarding charter school in DC that had been featured as a haven in “Waiting for Superman.” Their point was that kids in public school commit suicide too. Fair enough. But the point of the article I summarized was that all public schools were required to go through suicide prevention training. This charter school ignored the directive. The leaders of the state charter complained about the training and thought it was a waste of time. Public schools don’t have the option of ignoring mandates. Apparently the charter could and did.
Respectfully, the twitter critics have no basis for argument.
The case asserts negligence. Suicide is a significant risk for teens. A plan for deterrence was enacted. Even before final judgment in court, the evidence in Ravitch’s reporting provides an important public service announcement.
The high road that Diane Ravitch travels has no traffic on it from the privatization sector. Public schools and teachers are bashed without even the appearance of evidence.
Charters should not get public money. If they are private then they can have their private rules on certain things. Some laws governing education entities are universal like constitutional protections that can not be overlooked. State mandated rules. When charters receive public funds they should be subjected to the same rules and restrixmxtions of public schools. This is not the case now, hence more corruption within charter industry. No oversight or enforcement of students and parents rights. We