Rhonda Hall, former principal at Mabelvale Middle School in the Little Rock School District (LRSD,) was fired last week after the district’s two-month investigation into surveillance videos of her assaulting students on school property. Education Commissioner Johnny Key upheld the termination almost immediately. Hall has been charged with assault, and is scheduled for trial on October 31, 2019.
This seems like justice, right? LRSD and the Little Rock court system appear to be working together to protect children, without trampling on the “due process” or “fair trial” rights of adults. The girl falsely accused of battery by Rhonda Hall is no longer on house arrest; she is back in mainstream school.
If you find yourselves lulled into believing that Blind Lady Justice is hard at work, stop kidding yourselves. As Austin Porter (attorney for Rhonda Hall) suggested at Hall’s termination hearing, LRSD only started to investigate the situation at Mabelvale Middle School after I embarrassed them.
If LRSD administrators, Johnny Key, and Pulaski County law enforcement truly want to serve the children of Little Rock, then why have they consistently refused to arrest Isaac Davis for assaulting students at Henderson Middle School?
At a public forum on August 27, 2019 at St. Mark Baptist Church, the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) listened to several members of the LRSD community speak about the need for returning LRSD to full, democratic, local control. One man who spoke was Ryan Gore, a former LRSD teacher who worked at Henderson Middle School in 2015.
Here’s what you need to know about Ryan Gore:
On September 1, 2015, Gore was recommended for termination because he allegedly used “abusive and profane language” toward Frank Williams and James Hemphill. Principal Williams and Mr. Hemphill (a Teacher on Special Assignment, who never successfully got a teacher’s or administrator’s license) had been working together to protect Isaac Davis from the accusations of students and parents since November, 2014, when one of the students recorded an incriminating cell phone video in the classroom that Davis shared with Paula Korte, the sister of Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley.
Three days after Gore reported the incident to Frank Williams, Williams claimed Gore said, “I don’t want to hear that coaching shit” and “He is not a real man, that’s why he don’t want to talk.”
Two weeks later, Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley’s office wrote to Gore, saying Frank Williams told them Gore said, “Y’all ain’t shit, I don’t know who you think I am, I will whip all you asses up here.”
By the time the story of Gore’s alleged profanity reached Superintendent Baker Kurrus, Ryan Gore’s words had been inflated enough (per the “Cat’s Paw Theory“) that Kurrus described them thusly:
I don’t have those statements committed to memory, but there was this discussion about, you know, who was a real man. Or, you know, ‘Why won’t you talk to me? Are you not a real man?’ something to that effect. I hadn’t refreshed my — ‘You ain’t nothing but a Sigma ass fake blank anyway.’ I mean, those are fighting words. ‘You’re going to talk to me now you, MF. I’m tired of you bitch ass N word.’ Those are not things people — and then this is a statement: ‘I’ll whip all you MF’s ass up here.’
Howard Baker Kurrus, Deposition 8/4/2017, Ryan Chase Gore v. Baker Kurrus, et al.
Frankly, I would have used profane language too, if I discovered that two school administrators and LRSD central office administration were covering up violence against students with special needs. I might have hired a marching band covered in cuss words to carry the message down the street, if I thought it would help protect children.
Nevertheless, instead of investigating the abuse of children or working to stop the wrongful trafficking of students with special needs from LRSD into the private prison industry, Baker Kurrus (then-superintendent, and beloved former Rockefeller employee) and Johnny Key terminated the whistleblower — Ryan Gore. Kurrus and Key allowed Davis, Williams, and Hemphill to continue working in LRSD until they resigned, one at a time.
Since then, Isaac Davis has been attempting to establish traumatic brain injury as a plausible excuse for his violent behavior, while Williams and Hemphill have reunited in St. Louis to reign over the Ferguson-Florissant district with another one of their Sigma fraternity brothers: Superintendent Joseph S. Davis.
Meanwhile, Gore’s lawsuit against Kurrus, Key, LRSD, Frank Williams, and James Hemphill has gone all the way through interrogatories and depositions, and is waiting for a trial date. The judge recused himself briefly (when the Friday Law Firm threatened the judge’s family) but there should be a trial date set any day now. In the meantime, Ryan Gore remains active on behalf of his former students.
Here is Ryan Gore speaking to LRSD stakeholders last week:
I reported child trafficking, abuse of federal funds. . . . I’m shaking here, because I’ve seen the abuse to these students. . . . I was told, being a mandated reporter, you have to report these abuses. What do they do? They retaliate against you. . . . So what are we going to do? I need you all not to fight for me — fight for these babies.
Interesting that Gore mentioned the “abuse of federal funds.” That is happening at Rhonda Hall’s former school, too.
Another connection between these two stories is LRSD Safety and Security Officer Mike Green. Green is the husband of Connie Green, principal at Williams Magnet Elementary (one of the favored LRSD schools located north of I-630.)
Mike Green allegedly witnessed Ryan Gore’s refusal to sign a written reprimand for the use of profanity toward a colleague while employed at Watson Elementary. Gore later testified that neither the profane language nor the written reprimand were legitimate, but Stephanie Pickett’s unsigned (and likely fake) reprimand entered Gore’s personnel file nevertheless. Frank Williams was able to cite Gore’s “documented [sic] pattern of abusive and profane language” as justification for his suspending Gore prior to Kurrus’ recommendation for termination.
Mike Green was also, according to my sources at Mabelvale Middle School, the LRSD Safety & Security officer who first viewed the surveillance video of Rhonda Hall punching a student earlier this year. Nevertheless, Green apparently decided not to report Hall for child maltreatment.
Several months later, Safety & Security Director Ron Self falsely asserted that the Safety & Security department “did not request this video,” apparently to protect Mike Green from any hint of impropriety.
The very next day, Mike Green approached the Mabelvale staff. He knew (likely from Ron Self) that I had started investigating Rhonda Hall’s violence toward students. In an apparent effort to protect himself and Rhonda Hall, Green warned the teachers not to talk to me since I was likely to “sue” LRSD.
No, Mike, I am not trying to destroy LRSD. Perhaps you have me confused with the Arkansas Public School Resource Center, Arkansas Learns, The Reform Alliance, or some other Walton-funded privateer…?
What I’m trying to show is this: If the problems in LRSD can be identified by a stay-at-home, volunteer “mom blogger” like me, they can (and should!) be easily identified and fixed by Johnny Key and the Arkansas Department of Education. We do not need Walton-funded “reforms” or “reconstitution.” We just need an Education Commissioner who does his job in good faith.
*Read Dr. Anika Whitfield’s open letter to Johnny Key (about “reform,” billionaire “philanthropists,” and democracy) here.