The reading wall...
Posted on 06/05/2008 3:25:08 AM PDT by sbMKE
Parent wants apology from school district He spends $4,000 fighting citation By JANICE KAYSER jkayser@cninow.com Posted: June 5, 2008
The Wauwatosa father said he took a photo of a reading wall in a Wilson School classroom Feb. 19 to help a parent in his wife's online support group for parents of autistic children.
The photo, however, led to an interrogation of another parent, conspiracy accusations and, eight hours later, a disorderly conduct arrest of the puzzled father.
"I just cannot believe this happened," Dave Gallenberger said.
Gallenberger and his wife, Arlene, and Dana and Barbara Nicholson told a reporter last week that they had hoped to resolve things quietly with the district and let the justice system work.
And it did, in their favor.
But even after a municipal judge dismissed the disorderly conduct citation against Dave Gallenberger on May 7, the family has a $4,000 attorney bill and no apology from the Wauwatosa School District.
"That they (the district) took things this far and did not have the decency to speak with us about what happened, is so troubling," Dave Gallenberger said. Teacher raises concern
According to the Gallenbergers, the matter started with an inquiry Arlene received from another parent through an online support group for parents of autistic children. The Gallenbergers' son has autism.
The reading wall of a Tosa School of Health Science and Technology charter school classroom showed simple directions and line drawings to help struggling readers decode words.
Arlene Gallenberger thought the wall might show the parent a glimpse of the kind of reading assistance available at the charter school, so she asked her husband to snap a photo when they took their children to school.
On Feb. 19, Dave Gallenberger stepped in the room, quickly snapped the photo and started to leave.
At that point, he was approached by charter school teacher Jean Shanower, asking who he was and why he was taking photos in the classroom.
Gallenberger said he provided his name. Shanower said he did not identify himself.
A few parents who were standing nearby identified Gallenberger as a Wilson parent, according to the statements they later gave police, including his wife, who explained to Shanower why Dave took the photo.
Eventually Shanower telephoned Principal Jenny Keats, who had been out of the building that morning. She told her that there was an unknown man taking pictures in the classroom and she was concerned, according to police reports. Police contacted
About 90 minutes later, Shanower called Barb Nicholson, the mother of one of her first-grade charter school students, to come to the school for a meeting at 11:30 a.m. that day.
The Nicholsons had been questioning the school's reading curriculum for a few months, and the teacher apparently thought the Gallenbergers and Nicholsons were in collusion to get a picture of the reading wall, which they deny.
School district phone records show that just before 11:30 a.m., and shortly after as the Nicholsons arrived for their meeting with Shanower, several phone calls were made between the school resource officers, Keats, Superintendent Phil Ertl's office and district cell phone numbers.
The police arrived and talked to Shanower, Keats and the Nicholsons.
At 3:30 p.m., Dave Gallenberger received a call from the Wauwatosa Police Department asking him to come to the station to talk about the events that morning. When he and his wife arrived at the station, Gallenberger was arrested for disorderly conduct.
The Gallenbergers said that over the next week they attempted to meet with Keats and Ertl, who told them he could not talk about the situation and that it was in the police department's hands. Judge throws out citation
After the Gallenbergers hired an attorney, the city attorney offered a plea deal to cut the $172 fine in half if Gallenberger would plead "no contest." Gallenberger said he refused to take the deal because he had not done anything illegal.
He admits it was a mistake to not seek the teacher's permission to take a photo of the wall. He has apologized for that.
"Looking back? Yes, I should have asked her permission, but I cannot believe this entire situation," he said. "We just want to know why they did this."
On May 7, after a three-hour trial, Judge Richard Baker dismissed the citation, stating there was insufficient evidence for a disorderly conduct ticket.
Ertl said this week that he cannot comment on the issue because the school district is still under threat of legal action.
The Gallenbergers say they plan to refile a complaint with the School Board asking for reimbursement of their legal fees and a public apology. They had filed a complaint that was put on the agenda as a closed session item for the School Board meeting May 12, but the Gallenbergers retracted their complaint because they want the matter discussed in public.
A father snaps a photo of a teaching aid in his child's classroom which results in the teacher getting defensive and retaliative, confronting another family, accusing of a conspiracy and having police charges made under trumped up particulars as retaliation.
One must wonder why the school district is so defensive. The story makes clear that the teacher and principle consulted extensively within the district.
You just know this teacher blames every failure and shortcoming in the program on the fact that parents do not get involved.
That’s my question, too. I wish there were more details on what the other family objected to in the reading curriculum. Is it “Heather Has Two Mommies, Three Daddies and a Sheep?” or is it the “CAIR Allahu Akhbar Introduction to Jihad?”
What a total travshamockery. He readily amditted his mistake by not requesting permission first to take a picture but the school is not willing to admit their error and recompense? What elitist effette snobbery!
If he does not have the right to photograph public property then GIVE HIM HIS TAXES BACK!!!
From what I read, it sounds like it was not his child's classroom at all. And he should definitely have asked permission. Should all the rest have happened? No, but I am pretty sure that the guy was far more belligerent than this story portrays.
Why didn't he simply explain what he wanted and ask permission? The school went too far but any parent knows today that actions like this will be reported.
I agree. Parents of "special" children tend to have expectations of entitlement more than parents of regular children. It comes from the extra attention, laws and teachers and special ed people constant fawning all over them.
If people can’t come in and take pictures of the rooms, how is it that this school is called “public?”
Was belligerency an element of the offence charged?
Is it the law of that state that a person advocating his rights must abstain from forceful language falling short of the elements of an offence?
What expectation of privacy exists for a "reading wall" in a publicly funded school?
Is it the law of that state that a citizen in that state has no lawful interest in what is being taught to that state's children unless one of the children of said citizen is in actual attendance in the classroom at issue?
A three hour trial for taking a pic? Something has gone haywire in our juducial system.
He should not have to ask permission, his tax money pays for that classroom.
“They had filed a complaint that was put on the agenda as a closed session item for the School Board meeting May 12”
Big mistake.
Wisconsin most likely has a strong open meetings law - as most states - including fines, compensation for attorney fees and jail time for public officials who violate it.
File a civil suit, win it and then go to the prosecutor and demand these liberal maggots go to jail.
I’ve used it a couple of times at illegal public meetings threatening to throw local scum politicians in jail. It’s one of the few laws that gives citizens real power against the liberals.
Learn your open meetings laws and use it. Liberals are holding illegal meetings in communities across America.
Well, you get parents in the school showing interest in education methods and the government arrests them.
The idea that parents ought to bow and scrape and ask permission to take photographs makes me think we live in a feudal society.
Government schools are run by petty thugs with enormous chips on their incompetent shoulders.
Any considerate person would have, but my question is, should he have to ask persmission in a public facility?
Gallenberger said he provided his name. Shanower said he did not identify himself.
Am I underestanding this correctly? Could both these statements be true? He walked into the classroom, did not identify who he was, and snapped the pic, then the aide asked who he was and he provided just his name?
It’s a charter school - they tend to be quite protective and controlling.
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