[IMC] SRO Contract Vote

Tue Aug 13 19:24:38 UTC 2013

Dear Mr MacAdam,

There is no Mister over here. It is Dr. Morales. I obtained my PhD in
Biochemistry and will soon have my MD.

Thank you for not even putting a rationale forward as to why such a
fiscally responsible individual agreed to pay for line items in a budget
that you cannot verify (ie $900+ for a radio each year or even the laptop).
Thank you for voting to pay for an officer who actually won't even work. Mr
Orlando Thomas even told you that the CPD would pay for the program if the
Board voted NO against the contract because Chief Cobb was committed to the
program. At the least, from a fiscal perspective, you could have voted NO
and saved the Board funds to use towards education. I mean, they were
already working out of contract since it ended in June. I would have
thought a scholar of your standing would bring economic responsibility to
the table especially as it pertains to dollars used for our most precious
resource - the kids in this community. Show me a study that demonstrates
school resource officers improve safety! Show me that more kids are
graduating and achieving higher accolades thanks to this type of program.
The qualifiers utilized by Mr Thomas to substantiate the proposal for the
contract were downright insulting. I don't even have any children, but the
shear thought that any of these young scholars could be subjected to this
program and that individuals such as yourself feel that you are doing good
for the community by doing this is disheartening. I posit that having
smaller classroom sizes improves outcomes. Having more physical education,
theater, arts and music resources for schools leads to better outcomes. But
cops? No sir. To that argument, I cannot agree and more so when it is done
in such a fiscally callous fashion.

And I did not vote for The Bronx to employ that tactic so I'm not sure why
you quoted that statistic to me. As evidenced by the recent court decision
regarding the unconstitutional Stop & Frisk program that erroneously
criminalized Black and Brown people in NYC, there is reason to be
optimistic that the tide is turning. And once I move back, I will assuredly
continue to educate people that Police in schools do not make it safer and
that it simply leads to criminalizing adolescent behavior at an earlier age
which ultimately leads to more incarceration.

And yes, I've been awarded many grants and scholarships during my time here
including a City of Urbana Arts Grant which *Busey *likely supports so
THANK YOU for your support. As someone who grew up with nothing, I
appreciate everything that I have. But that doesn't buy my vote or my
opinion. Your suggestion that I be more appreciative is simply odd. I grew
up in the poorest congressional district in this great country and I am
here attaining the highest level of education here at your best
Institution. I show my appreciation to my community, the people that paved
the way for me and the people that raised me by advocating using my God
given abilities for what I think is right. If you don't agree, then put
forward a decent argument to the contrary with facts or invite me to a
public meeting where we can engage in discourse. Otherwise, what are you
talking about or trying to accomplish with your obscure comments?

Still shaking my head in disbelief with you all,

Raymond Morales, Ph.D.
MD Candidate Class of 2014
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

ILL POETS SOCIETY project, Executive Producer
Snippet: http://youtu.be/cAUl6Qq8qV4<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffBKbcnWls>

Executive Producer & Host, The Show
www.theshow1045.com

On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 10:49 AM, MacAdam, Scott <Scott.MacAdam at busey.com>wrote:

>  Mr. Morales:****
>
> ** **
>
> Thank you for your response.****
>
> ** **
>
> 89.3% of children in public schools in the Bronx are covered by a school
> resource office (or similar).****
>
> ** **
>
> I’ve been to the Bronx.  Best of luck in getting that changed.****
>
> ** **
>
> Sorry to hear that you view your time at the University of Illinois a
> “prison sentence”.  I hope you weren’t awarded any scholarship funds that
> could have gone to a student that would have appreciated the opportunity.*
> ***
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *Scott* *MacAdam*, CFA
> Executive Vice President | Managing Director Equities
> 100 W. University Ave.
> Champaign, IL 61820
> P: 217.365.4803 | Ext:54803
> C: 217.841.5805*
> *** <http://busey.com/>**
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Raymond Morales [mailto:rmorales02 at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Monday, August 12, 2013 9:03 PM
> *To:* sowersta at champaignschools.org; stuckeyly at champaignschools.org;
> lauriebonnett at gmail.com; jamarbrown2011 at gmail.com;
> Saveleyil at champaignschools.org; Chalifoux4BoE at gmail.com; MacAdam, Scott;
> Leeke at champaignschools.org; Wiegandju at champaignschools.org
> *Subject:* SRO Contract Vote****
>
> ** **
>
> Dear Board (please forward to those who I missed),****
>
> ** **
>
> Thank you all for the opportunity to speak earlier. I wanted to explicitly
> state that I am utterly disappointed with your vote today. You followed
> through on a vote to allocate over $250,000 to a program that shows no
> proven educational benefiut and I am left laughing at how incredulous this
> to mask the tears. Do you have more students taking AP courses and getting
> higher AP grades as a result? Do you have better attendance at schools as a
> result of your program? How about an anonymous student self-reported sense
> of "safety" to suggest that students feel "safer"? None of you who voted
> yes even had the decency to engage me while I stood before you to even
> begin meaningful dialogue. Instead, your Chairperson roped me into
> dog-and-pony show for your "discussion" with Mr. *Thomas* (does anyone
> see the irony in that?).  ****
>
> ** **
>
> Moreover, you went through the vote *with problematic terms* in the
> contract or *without vital information*:****
>
> For example, you agreed to pay the salary for an officer who will not
> service any school (Edison, I believe it was). ****
>
> You explicitly know that there are Police Officers in your buildings with
> whom there are known problematic student/teacher-officer interactions that
> you cannot remove. ****
>
> You don't know whether the items you are paying for in expenses (like the
> radio and computer each year) are even going towards those items. ****
>
> You don't even have proof that the police officers respond to issues
> faster being off site vs on your premises. ****
>
> With the shuffling of Black and Brown students within your district and
> with the new policies you employed internally, your statistics prove
> exactly what they were designed to do -  to give a false sense of
> "success". None of you even asked how many of those students who do fall
> into the cracks are able to rejoin your educational system to be able to
> succeed as a metric for success for your program. ****
>
> ** **
>
> Shame on you all who voted for this item without that information and
> without having demonstrated proof that this tactic leads to better
> educational outcomes. Until you provide information that demonstrates that
> there is an actual different in the quality of education for each child
> exposed to police officers, then I will view your vote as a forgone
> conclusion filled with arcane and preconceived notions on the way to ensure
> the safety of future scholars. And admittedly, I take particular umbrage
> for all the Black and Brown scholars who are forced to endure this
> ill-begotten psychological experiment that you are conducting at the
> taxpayers expense.****
>
> ** **
>
> Kids don't go to school to become friends with cops. They go to school to
> become sponges for knowledge and wisdom. If the cops really cared about
> those kids then hold a tournament where the CPD has teams of 5 to play
> 5-on-5 basketball with the kids or a cops vs students soccer game,
> volleyball game, etc. Don't give me a facade of wanting to ameliorate the
> relationships with the community as a pretense to implementation. I was
> born and raised in the The South Bronx and know that safety is paramount.
> But this isn't the way. Someone with the power to incarcerate walking
> around with a glock isn't the solution and you have no data to suggest it
> is. ****
>
> ** **
>
> If you want better educational outcomes, invest in teachers and increased
> mechanisms of civic engagement. Increase the number of teaching assistants,
> healthy food vouchers for parents to attend all day or to participate in
> the PTA, pay for teachers to have extra trips or resources for their
> classrooms, have grants for innovative ways to engage the curriculum for
> Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. ****
>
> ** **
>
> Fortunately, I will be leaving this community within a year and my prison
> sentence at the U of I will come to an end so that I can leave back to The
> South Bronx where I will be safe from this ignorance. Until that point, I
> challenge you all to reconsider your position.****
>
> ** **
>
> Sincerely,****
>
> ** **
>
> Raymond Morales, Ph.D.****
>
> MD Candidate Class of 2014****
>
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>
> ILL POETS SOCIETY project, Executive Producer****
>
> Snippet: http://youtu.be/cAUl6Qq8qV4<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffBKbcnWls>
> ****
>
>
> Executive Producer & Host, The Show****
>
> www.theshow1045.com****
>
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