Vin Gopal: We need curriculum transparency

By Rubashov

We need transparency and open government. Patrick Henry said, “The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.”

We need transparency about what is being taught to school children and what government is paying contractors to create the materials to teach them. The concealment of the truth exposes government’s lack of respect for parents and taxpayers.

Democracy is impossible without transparency.

Senator Vin Gopal seems to agree. This is important, because Senator Gopal is the Chairman of the Senate Education Committee. He recently posted:

In response to multiple articles relating to curriculum education in our schools, I have read through the 66 pages of the Department of Education Guidelines '2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards - Comprehensive Health and Physical Education' as well have spoken in detail with New Jersey Acting Commissioner of Education Angelica Allen-McMillan. Here is what I have learned:

1) Much of what I read in these articles is not in the guidelines. There is generic language on identifying gender roles and treating all kids, regardless or their gender, with respect. Anything that is more specific than that is coming from a specific Board of Education locally.

2) According to the Department of Education Commissioner, these guidelines are not being mandated - they are recommended. It is up to a local board of education to use them if they want but they don't have to.

3) According to the Department of Education Commissioner, any parent can opt their kids out of this if they choose to. I have re-confirmed this with our Monmouth County representative to the State Board of Education which approves the adopted guidelines.

Given the amount of misinformation out there and questions coming from parents, as Senate Education Chair, I have formally called on the Department of Education and the Governor's office to provide clarity on all of these items and issue it publicly before any further action is taken on implementation.

This is an important public admission from a majority party politician. You can read the full post here:

https://www.facebook.com/100003265460331/posts/4911458728972927/?d=n

As a starting point, let’s remember how we got here. After extensive lobbying by activists – including Governor Phil Murphy's wife, Tammy – the New Jersey State Board of Education, in a split vote taken in 2020, adopted new “Comprehensive Health and Physical Education 2.1 Personal and Mental Health by the End of Grade 5” learning standards. The New Jersey Department of Education instructed local boards of education to consider this new curriculum a mandate for the 2021-2022 school year.

What is the New Jersey State Board of Education? It is a state government agency. According to its website (www.nj.gov/education/sboe/):

The New Jersey State Board of Education has 13 members who are appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the New Jersey State Senate. These members serve without compensation for six-year terms. By law, at least three members of the State Board must be women, and no two members may be appointed from the same county.

The Commissioner of Education serves as both the secretary and as its official agent for all purposes. The State Board also has a nonvoting student representative selected annually by the New Jersey Association of Student Councils.

The State Board adopts the administrative code, which sets the rules needed to implement state education law. Such rules cover the supervision and governance of the state’s 2,500 public schools, which serve 1.38 million students. In addition, the State Board advises on educational policies proposed by the Commissioner and confirms Department of Education staff appointments made by the Commissioner.

The State Board conducts public meetings in Trenton on the first Wednesday of each month. The State Board Office publishes an agenda in advance of each meeting to notify the public of the items that the State Board will be considering.

The public is invited to participate by providing comments on proposed rules either at a public testimony session or by submitting written comments on proposed rules.

Proposed rules for education in the state are also published in the New Jersey Register. Written comments on proposed rules are accepted 30 to 60 days following publication in the Register and may be sent to the State Board office at the Department of Education.

The Minutes of the June 3, 2020, meeting of the New Jersey State Board of Education read:

Resolved, the State Board of Education reaffirms its commitment to ensuring the Standards both set expectations for and meet the needs of New Jersey’s students and by adoption of this resolution hereby directs school districts to integrate the New Jersey Student Learning Standards – Visual and Performing Arts, Comprehensive Health and Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, Computer Science and Design Thinking, World Languages, and Career Readiness, Life Literacies, and Key Skills in kindergarten through grade 12; and be it further

Resolved, the State Board of Education hereby directs that the revised New Jersey Student Learning Standards – Visual and Performing Arts, Comprehensive Health and Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, Computer Science and Design Thinking, World Languages, and Career Readiness, Life Literacies, and Key Skills will serve as standards of quality for public school students in kindergarten through grade 12 programs in New Jersey; and be it further

Resolved, district boards of education shall fully comply with this resolution and shall implement the revised New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Science, Visual and Performing Arts, World Languages, and Career Readiness, Life Literacies, and Key Skills by September 2021 and Comprehensive Health and Physical Education, Social Studies, and Computer Science and Design Thinking by September 2022, align their curricula with the standards, and ensure students learn and are assessed as required by federal law; and be it further

The entire Minutes of the June 3, 2020, Meeting can be accessed here:

www.nj.gov/education/sboe/meetings/minutes/2020/June%203,%202020.pdf

If the above sounds like religious training, that's because it is.

Taxpayer-supported, faith-based assumptions.

A revolutionary Elite is getting paid by government to erase the past and replace it with some pseudo-religious vision of how things should be.

Nobody voted for this. It isn’t popular.

To paraphrase Joseph Stalin (and this is the view from Trenton): A single act of bullying is a tragedy, a million people bullied is a statistic.

Candidate brags to local media about NBC “hit job” on Sheriff

By: Sussex County Watchdog

Since its founding in 2012, the contributors here at Watchdog have generally been just ordinary citizens, not professional journalists.  Nevertheless, we have got the ball rolling on a number of big stories in Sussex County – including the illegal negotiations to sell the county solid waste facility (caught in time and prevented), the solar program that ended up going bust (which ultimately cost taxpayers $26 million), the corruption at the county college (leading to the resignation of several trustees), and environmental issues impacting the health of county workers (CWA members) in Newton (which was addressed after our report).  Whether via tips or submitted columns, we publish stories that address the bad behavior of the government and corporate establishment.  

Generally we work with for-profit corporate media, which is advertising based. As we do not run ads, we do not have a need for click-bait, as they do.  Nevertheless, we respect them for the work that they do.  So we were shocked when a local media person had a story concerning a media organization outside the county – in New York City, in fact – that was using Sussex County to attract viewers.  

Apparently, a candidate for Sheriff in the upcoming GOP primary – Andy Boden – bragged to local media that he had arranged for a “hit job” on his opponent, Sussex County Sheriff Mike Strada.  It seems that Boden said the “hit job” would be about how Strada has suspended him for running, and that now he must work construction and that his wife had to take a job.  Boden claimed that the “hit job” was being done on his behalf by a friend of a friend who has a show on NBC out of New York City.  

Andy Boden is a rather sad case.  Earlier this year, a police psychologist found him “unfit for duty” and he was placed on leave.  Boden went to Sheriff Strada and asked him to restore him to duty – which meant giving him back his power over people, a firearm, handcuffs, and badge.  The Sheriff’s office told Boden that he needed to get well first and re-evaluated by a mental health professional, before he could be re-instated. 

Boden’s case mirrors the current national debate concerning mental health and gun laws.  Should employers act when they observe traumatic stress in employees (in this case, confirmed by a mental health professional) or should they wait until after something actually happens?  It is a complex issue.

Boden’s case has been further complicated by his candidacy, which was not his idea, but rather that of a local union fighting to preserve the jobs of corrections officers at the Sussex County jail (the Keogh-Dwyer Correctional Facility).  The jobs of many who work at the jail were put in jeopardy by the passage of Bail Reform, a bi-partisan bill aimed at reducing the number of people incarcerated while waiting for trial.  Before bail reform, many innocent people were locked up for weeks or months simply because they couldn’t afford the cost of bail.  They often lost jobs, homes, and relationships while they were locked up – only later to be found “not guilty” or have the case against them dismissed.

After bail reform became law in New Jersey, jail populations began to diminish drastically and elected officials started to consider shared services agreements that would allow them to close or scale-down some facilities and save money for taxpayers.  The August 2014 “needs assessment” on the Sussex jail (Keogh-Dwyer Correctional Facility), conducted by Pulitzer/Bogard Associates LLC, clearly outlined the devastating impact keeping the jail open would have on county taxpayers.  Making the jail compliant with basic standards would cost $11 million in short term and $64 million in long term expenditures. 

At the insistence of county Freeholders, Sheriff Strada has been working to scale-down the jail and enter into shared services agreements with Morris County. An agreement to house Sussex County’s female inmate population has recently been reached (and the quality of life for female inmates markedly improved, according to media reports).  

A working group that includes county bureaucrats, elected officials, and union leaders has been working to place every corrections officer likely to be displaced by the plans for the jail.  It is our understanding that County Administrator Greg Poff will shortly announce that positions have been found for every officer likely to be displaced.  Unfortunately, some union people have continued to oppose any changes to the jail.  They’ve complained about the length of the commutes to other facilities and such.  And it is this group who recruited Andy Boden as their candidate and spokesperson.  

They have been using their media contacts to shop around “dirt” on Sheriff Strada and even used a fake Facebook account to distribute a fake video of an “incident” between the Sheriff and a female firefighter, which was later found to have been doctored by the media (including the Star-Ledger/ NJ.com and the New Jersey Herald).  After the media spoke with the female firefighter, who confirmed that the incident never happened, Andy Boden claimed to have had no knowledge of it – despite the fact that Boden’s campaign managers had met with the local party chairman and threatened him with the release of the video some 48 hours before it was released.  This according to a legal statement given by the party chairman.

Boden’s managers went to a well-known statehouse blog in Trenton with their “dirt” – but after the reporter reviewed the transcript of the public hearing Boden asked for regarding his “unfit for duty” status – the story that was written was not to Boden’s liking:  

Incumbent Sheriff Mike Strada faces a challenge from corrections officer Andy Boden, who suspended earlier this year after a police psychologist ruled he was unfit for duty.

Following his suspension, Boden has mounted an offensive against the three-term sheriff, accusing him of endangering his deputies and misusing public funds.

“My decision to run is to end the culture of harassment and mental abuse that Strada has created and fostered. His actions, along with his posse’s, will come out in the upcoming weeks,” Boden said. 

Boden has been suspended since early March. The New Jersey Herald first reported his suspension.

In testimony provided to the New Jersey Globe by Strada’s campaign, a police psychologist said he or she could not rule out the possibility of Boden harming someone if he was allowed to continue working while receiving therapy.

The psychologist recommended the corrections officer receive additional treatment to restore fitness for duty.

“Lt. Boden was to engage in individual treatment outside of the treatment that he had already been receiving with his wife with the sole purpose on managing his stress level, identifying coping mechanisms that work for him so that he could return to his position,” the psychologist said.

For further reading, visit New Jersey Globe at…

https://newjerseyglobe.com/local/sussex/mud-flies-in-sussex-sheriffs-race/

Watchdog is attempting to find out just who the NBC person is who Andy Boden was speaking about when he told local media that a “hit job” was being done on Sheriff Strada.  Stay tuned…

Thugs attempt to shut down discussion of candidate Boden’s record

Yesterday, the New Jersey Herald reported that Andy Boden, a challenger to Republican Sheriff Mike Strada, was suspended from duty in January, per a determination by Undersheriff John Tomasula and Dr. Matthew Guller of the Institute of Forensic Psychology, and is awaiting a "fitness-for-duty evaluation”.  You can read the full story here:

https://www.njherald.com/20190319/sheriff-candidate-suspended-from-job

Again and again we have publicly asked Candidate Boden for his side of things and offered the use of this website for that purpose.  We have invited Boden and his campaign to provide documentation that would dispute the documentation provided by Boden’s own attorney, which is the basis of the Herald story.  On at least a dozen occasions we have published requests for this and have assured him that will publish whatever he sends, unedited.

Instead of taking us up on the offer, those around Andy Boden have resorted to the tactic, used by Antifa and other far-left advocates, of silencing any opinion they happen to disagree with.  Instead of free and open discourse about a candidate who wants to be the top law enforcement officer in Sussex County, we have received threats and thuggery of the most Neanderthal variety.

The message of the thugs who surround Andy Boden is clear:  If you attempt to bring up why Candidate Boden was suspended by a police psychiatrist, the Boden team will hurt you and will personally attack anyone they believe might be against their candidate.  Frenzied, aimless attacks, in the manner of a mad dog.

One Boden insider, who is himself an elected official in Sussex Borough, went so far as to attack Senator Steve Oroho over this, apparently unaware that Boden is a supporter of the Senator.  Again, these are frenzied, aimless attacks that fail to take reality into account.  Another Boden-backer took time from his work at a real estate office in Vernon to attack Senator Oroho’s consultant from his 2017 campaign… simply because the Boden-backer “believed” he was involved.

This is crazy, shoot-first-ask-questions-later behavior.  Which, in a way, is the whole worry in the first place. 

So let’s recap.  The New Jersey Herald ran a balanced story on the case of Andy Boden, who is now running for office against the head of the department that suspended him – Sheriff Mike Strada.  Citing a letter written by Boden’s attorney to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, here’s what the Herald wrote:

The letter begins by saying the law firm has been retained "with respect to his (Boden's) suspension as a result of a Jan. 16, determination by Undersheriff John Tomasula and Dr. Matthew Guller of the Institute of Forensic Psychology."

The letter then asked that the document be accepted in lieu of a more formal petition for interim relief "as Lieutenant Boden has been orally advised that as of Monday, March 4, 2019, he is no longer on paid leave status and he is being required to use his own time while he undergoes counseling with a licensed mental health professional."

The Institute for Forensic Psychology was founded in 1972 and built a reputation for providing services for police applicants, recruits and on-duty officers throughout northern New Jersey as well as several federal law enforcement and other agencies, according to its webpage and other newspaper stories.

That is what Boden’s attorney wrote.

That’s right, a prison officer who carries a loaded firearm at work was suspended “while he undergoes counseling with a licensed mental health professional.”  That sounds to us like the right move by Sheriff Strada.  Why take chances when you have an employee who carries a firearm suffering from what could be a serious psychological issue?  Let him get the help he needs to get back on his feet, then re-evaluate him to see if he is fit for duty.  Don’t brush it under the rug and hope that the problem attends to itself.

Unfortunately, the Antifa-like thugs who surround Candidate Boden don’t think the voters should be allowed to know any of this.  Instead, they go mad dog on anyone they even believe dares to think about it.   They attack Sheriff Strada, accusing Strada of suspending Boden, when Boden’s own attorney clearly admits that it was a police psychiatrist who suspended Boden.  Haven’t we had too many deadly incidents concerning firearms to simply ignore the concerns of a police psychiatrist?  Don’t we have the right to ask questions?  Or should we expect to be bullied and threatened just for asking?

Once again, we invite Andy Boden to present any documentation he has to correct the record that his own attorney provided.  We invite candidate Boden the use of this website to provide us with his perspective.  We will publish what he sends us.