Ashley... I don't care. Were you or Ryan on CasaRuby board too? You're governing Capital Pride like you were.  Capital Pride Board President threatenms Tom in an email  Toms response to Capital Pride  
Seriously You Can do anything while an ANC Commissioner. No wonder some run for it. I'm a resident that lives in Ward 8 and whose ANC Commission falls under Holly Muhammad. Long back story short, Chairwoman Muhammad ejected me from the July 13, 2021 ANC Virtual Meeting after I joined others in expressing through the chat room the way Commissioner Muhammad was keeping a fellow commissioner from gaining the access she needed to represent her single member district. As soon as I echoed the same concerns and how the back and forth was eating into time needed for constituents to share concerns Ms. Muhammad nearly immediately ejected me without warning, cause or any discussion from the meeting and I was prevented from returning.
As a result, I immediately sent in a notice to the office of the ANC and to Holly Muhammad a request to preserve the meeting video and chat as I was request that as part of a Freedom of Information Act Request. Chairwoman Muhammad then engaged in an exchange of emails of which upon the request of certain ANC related items she replied "You don't dictate to me. “I don't take instructions from the Proud Boys from Charlottesville." In another response she said, " Don't email me again.” And “Your threats of meetings and recalls don't frighten me. YOU don't frighten me. I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO! So, you better stay out of my way.” (You can catch up by visiting https://tomdonohue.pw/tomsthoughts/category/holly-muhammad) I decided to file notice of intent to recall with the board of elections. Her response not only didn't respond to my job-related matters I accused her of rather she decided to file lies and mistruths about me so that while collecting signatures my neighbors would read her response with the intent of her response having influence on whether our neighbors would support the recall. That recall currently sits with the Board of Elections while I decide the best way to move forward. See the Board of Elections will allow anything to be written in response, she could have written that I was a murderer and the BOE would permit it if it fell within 200 words. This irresponsibility on behalf of the BOE prevents registered voters from taking part in a recall election and is a disservice to our community. "While DC FOIA does indeed apply to Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, as they are public bodies of the District Government, an agency is not required to seek out responsive records that are outside of its possession or control. See United States Dep’t of Justice v. Tax Analysts, 492 U.S. 136, 144-45 (1989).1 In this instance, OANC has stated that it does not have records responsive to your DC FOIA request and has suggested that the request would be more appropriately directly to ANC 8A. Based on the foregoing, we conclude that OANC properly responded to your DC FOIA request and we hereby deny your appeal." -Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel November 15, 2021
While all of that was processing, I was elevating my FOIA request through the system as both requests were being ignored. On August 14th I finally decided to file an appeal with the office of Legal Counsel who handles the appeals for FOIA requests. This is really a no brainer, she legally has to turn over this information that I have requested, right? Here comes the bullshit part. The office of ANC says we don't handle or process the FOIA requests for ANC's we'll support them if they are requested to do so by the ANC however they are not required to provide the information the requesting ANC is to handle those requests. So apparently that is sufficient enough for the Office of Legal Counsel. Their response was ... "While DC FOIA does indeed apply to Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, as they are public bodies of the District Government, an agency is not required to seek out responsive records that are outside of its possession or control. See United States Dept. of Justice v. Tax Analysts, 492 U.S. 136, 144-45 (1989).1 In this instance, OANC has stated that it does not have records responsive to your DC FOIA request and has suggested that the request would be more appropriately directly to ANC 8A. Based on the foregoing, we conclude that OANC properly responded to your DC FOIA request, and we hereby deny your appeal." Huh!? SO, my only recourse is to take the matter up with the Superior Court. The office of Legal Counsel wishes not to influence Ms. Muhammad the court will. It’s so incredibly sad that Ms. Muhammad refuses to comply with the FOIA request, it’s even more disgusting that the other ANC Commissioners have chosen to put up with and refuse to remove Ms. Muhammad from her Chair ship. The most recent ANC Meeting, as required I did not receive any notice of the meeting and I had to login under a fake account as I must be blocked. So how the hell am I to take part in my ANC Meetings if my ANC Commissioner blocks me? So, to Superior Court I go filing against ANC08, OANC, & Holly Muhammad. Oh, let’s not forget about this...
Charles H. et al. v. The District of Columbia et al.Corrado [email protected]  A proposed class action alleges the District of Columbia has failed to provide special education to students with disabilities who have been incarcerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 55-page complaint alleges incarcerated students with disabilities have instead received for more than a year “work packets in lieu of classes,” and been left to effectively “teach themselves all of their subjects.” The case argues that without “swift” intervention from the court, incarcerated students with special education needs will “continue to languish without education and the critical supports they need, causing irreparable education and social-emotional harm.” Filed by attorneys with the School Justice Project, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and a D.C. law firm, the lawsuit states that high school students with disabilities and special education needs who are detained in the District of Columbia’s Central Detention Facility and Correctional Treatment Facility (the D.C. Jail Complex) are enrolled in an on-site school called the Inspiring Youth Program (IYP), run by District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, DCPS, the District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and the District “eliminated these students’ classes and have since effectively abandoned efforts to teach them.” Per the suit, the DCPS stopped in-person classes for all students on March 13, 2020 and began the transition to distance learning later that month. Students learning from home were provided by DCPS “class materials and direct instruction by teachers” via an online platform with two-way videoconference classes, the case says. According to the lawsuit, however, classes never resumed in any format for roughly 40 students enrolled in DCPS at the D.C. Jail Complex, “all of whom have disabilities and special education needs,” the suit stresses. From the complaint: “While other students resumed virtual (and later in-person) classes the students at IYP only received work packets. These work packets are inaccessible for students with disabilities, many of whom, are functioning below grade level in reading comprehension and writing skills. DCPS has the work packets sporadically dropped off at the students’ cells or uploaded to tablets and expects the students to complete the work on their own with no teacher instruction. Then, after the work is collected, the students never see their assignments again and receive little to no feedback except for generalized progress reports or final grades at the end of each term. Students are also not receiving mental health counseling or their other required services. The lack of these critical services, like counseling, leaves these vulnerable students to cope on their own.” The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Rehabilitation Act and D.C. law require that the defendants provide or otherwise ensure IYP students, each of whom possesses an Individualized Education Program (IEP) tailored to their academic needs, receive a free appropriate public education, the proposed class action says. For students in the D.C. Jail Complex, DCPS has “systematically failed” to implement their IEPs by halting class instruction and related services, the suit claims. In what the complaint describes as “the most extreme of implementation failures,” the plaintiffs, according to the lawsuit, have not received regular teacher instruction, let alone the specialized instruction they require, or regular related services in conformity with their IEPs since March 13, 2020. As the case tells it, the work packets students at the D.C. Jail Complex receive are a poor substitute for the real thing. “The work packets cannot provide these students with the specialized instruction and support that they need and do not replace their classes or counseling sessions,” the lawsuit says, stressing that the students require direct instruction that calls for teacher-student interaction either in person or virtually. The complaint says that the allegations contained therein are “not the result of an error or mistake, but a deliberate decision to abandon the educational welfare and needs of students detained in the D.C. Jail Complex.” More from the suit: “Plaintiffs are members of a vulnerable student population. These detained students must grapple with the challenges caused by their disabilities while being entirely dependent on the District government. Unlike students in the community who are learning at home, they cannot enroll in another school or district. They cannot avail themselves of family to assist in obtaining alternative educational services or help securing the services of a private tutor. They rely solely on defendants, and defendants have left them to languish.” Named as defendants in the case are the District of Columbia, District of Columbia Public Schools and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. The lawsuit can be read below. |
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