Shocked: Politically Ambitious US Attorney Carmen Ortiz Criticized by Boston Globe: Her Boston Latin School Travesty

(1) Boston_Latin_School_logoTwice! Yes, twice the Globe took off its cheerleading uniform and decided to tell the truth about its Bostonian of the Year. Earlier one of its columnists Scot Lehigh on September 16  criticized her prosecution in his column headlined: US attorney prosecutorial overkill. He wrote about the two guys who worked in the mayor Walsh’s office who tried to get union members some work. I wrote about that here. 

Now, Alex Beam, has stepped up on October 3 and rightfully called her out under his story headlined: The politics of a Boston Latin School education writing about her sending the federal storm troopers of the Civil Rights bureau into investigating what once was the best school in America.

The school, Boston Latin School (BLS), with its hundreds of students flowing in and out for 180 days a year from one year to the next was found to have committed one civil rights violation. What a joke considering the thousands of opportunities for having them occur when young students get together in a competitive atmosphere that only one event over many years could be found and then be used as an excuse to impose upon the school foolish mandates.

The tragedy of it all is the pusillanimous reaction of the Boston officials. Rather than sticking up for their school they folded. Of course that is par for the course for Mayor Walsh who is running scared giving a performance that compares well to that of Bert “if I only had the nerve” Lahr when it comes to Ortiz

I went to BLS in the seventh and eighth grade; my brother Jeremy Jim graduated from there. I recall a lot of juvenile interactions; I know I had at least two disputes where we took it to the men’s room and fought it out. My first few months at the school I was confused about what to call that bathroom. The sign on the door read: “To let.” I had seen that sign on the windows of vacant stores and assumed it was Latin for bathroom. At some point I figured someone had erased the letter “i”.

Nasty comments were tossed around between the ethnic groups especially the Irish and Italian kids. No one made much ado about it. We were all like colts stretching our legs for the first time and seeing how far we could push things.

The report from Carmen Ortiz; rightly described as a “politically ambition US attorney” consists of two parts: one setting out their investigation findings consisting of 9 pages not including the signature page; and the resolution agreement consisting of 13 pages.

In the findings Ortiz said they focused on the last six years which is about 1100 school days. Over that period of time they found one incident in November 2014 that Ortiz labeled “a troubling failure by BLS to comply with its obligations to stop racial harassment that created a hostile environment for the targeted student.” That means that for the more than 4,400 students who passed through the school’s corridors over a period of six years only one student was involved in a serious unwarranted incident.

In any other world other than Ortiz’s and Mayor Walsh’s that would be considered a wonderful accomplishment. In Ortiz’s it is “a troubling failure!” It reminds me of her attempt to steal the Caswell Motel from a hard-working guy because over a dozen years there were twelve illegal drug related incidents in his 50 plus room motel which he had nothing to do with. Fortunately a federal magistrate copying the early Patriots handling of tea tossed that attempt into Boston Harbor.

The BLS incident involved a male student (of unknown race) directing a “racial slur and profanity” at a black female student. The female student did not complain. A faculty member heard her talking about it. The member reported it an assistant headmaster (AH) The male student was talked to by the AH. He admitted doing it. The report leaves out what the AH said or did. The AH did not speak to the female nor her parents. AH said she assumed the student would tell her mother. Nothing further was done the AH apparently believing she handled it satisfactorily.

Over six months after the incident the female student’s mother told the headmaster  of the incident (we do not know how she came about this knowledge) but added that the male threatened to hang the black female. The AH had no knowledge of that. The Boston School’s Office of Equity investigated the incident in January 2016. (The report does not say how it found out about it.) The report found the AH and school did not properly follow procedures set out in the regulations. The female felt uncomfortable around the male, her experience at BLS was negatively affected; a year and a half later talking about it she was visibly upset.

That’s it. That once incident to Ortiz is “a troubling failure” that forces a thirteen page agreement on BLS requiring yearly comprehensive reports to her office and the hiring some type of watch dog compliance officer at BLS expense taking money away from the educators. Even here where the tremendous good of having thousands of students get well-educated and exist in an otherwise helpful environment one misstep, if it even can be called that, caused unwarranted federal interference.

Alex Beam cuts to the chase noting: “Everyone knows the core issue here: . . .” It is simple, both blacks and Latinos are underrepresented in the school population. The reason is not that they are intellectually inferior; they simply have not been academically prepared to attend. They either have not been provided the opportunity to learn the skills and or having had it have not worked to achieve them. Those who complain like the NAACP, the ACLU, and others seek to have the requirements to attend BLS lowered; they should rather be working to have the academic achievement of the blacks and Latinos heightened.

I’ve often thought the NAACP did more to harm blacks than help. This is just another example. The federal government in buying into its act also retards. The excellence of BLS should not have been disturbed by the mediocrity of federal investigators.

8 Comments

  1. Tadzio:

    Maine sounds like North Wisconsin. It’s all trumpies up in the North Woods. There was very active chapter of the Posse Comitatus in those parts. They’d incorporated their own town, Tigerton Dells, and were issuing license plates. One of the Posse decided that he didn’t have to pay the mortgage on his trailer. When the Sheriff showed up to serve the eviction, he was confronted with a well armed mob of Posse guys. The Sheriff and his deputies split the scene, and, the Posse set to partying. All was forgotten. Then, in the dead of winter, six months later, the guy with the trailer awoke to what he thought was an earthquake. Stumbling through the heaving trailer, he made it to the door, and, fell head-first into the snow. When his vision cleared, he noticed the gun metal cheerios of several weapons poised six inches from his skull. The County Sheriff, and, his SWAT team, were in the process of pulling the guy’s trailer off its blocks, and, dragging it away. My brother (different politics) witnessed the whole event. Do things like that happen up in Maine?

  2. “The hiring some type of watch dog compliance officer at BLS.” Where does one apply? I’ve been looking for a good paying job that requires expending an hour or two on one day every six years. As a Swamp Yankee my White Privilege will prevail over Affirmative Action as it does every day at the Police Department, Fire Department, Post Office, MTA and all government offices where one is judged solely by one’s character rather than by the color of one’s skin.

    • It sounds like this job would be akin to the “city sealer” job which the crooked mayor offered in a wonderful Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell movie – “His Girl Friday.” The crooked mayor couldn’t quite describe what the city sealer job responsibilities were.

      tadzio, I want one of those jobs.

    • Tadzio:

      No use applying. The job will most likely go to a minority person since all whites are considered as being some type of racist even if they don’t recognize anything racist in themselves. Swamp Yankees are usually automatically eliminated as soon as they apply for any government jobs.

  3. We used to rumble the Wops. It was a tradition. They were a block away from Iggy. In my father’s day (early 40s), the whole student body, plus, the scholastics, and, younger priests, armed with baseball bats requisitioned from the athletic dept., marched down Taylor St. to confront the Taylor Street Dukes. They’d been strong arming kids at the bus stop on Racine and Roosevelt. The Dukes backed down (it must have been those squadrons of Irish cops, four to car, stick in hand, orbiting a block off Taylor. ) .
    The Dukes fed the Forty-twos with up-and-coming recruits. The Outfit took their pick of Forty-Twos. By the time I got to high-school, the arm was sending their own sons to Iggy.

  4. Matt, I know that quite a few years ago the National Guard was sent to Arkansas to protect black students – 9 of them, as I recall – who were trying to go to Central High School. Ike federalized the National Guard, and the issue was enforcement of integration.

    But it is hugely bothersome to me – as it is to you, I think – that a US attorney has some sort of control over a school as to day-to-day affairs, including adding the cost of submitting reports.

    I agree with you – this is severe overreaching.

    This is from her Wikipedia bio:

    “Born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents, Ortiz grew up in East Harlem. Ortiz has said that, as a child, watching Perry Mason on television inspired her to become a lawyer.”

    PS – decline the Latin: to let 🙂

    Had to take Latin in a Jebbie high school – glad I did.

  5. Briefly, Ortiz owns Walsh.

    • GOK:

      He is afraid of her but she is soon on the way out (hopefully hillary has her own appointment more one that will please Betty Warren) — signs of her departure are the advocacy for ex-Speaker DiMasi to get out of prison early. Do you think Ortiz is looking to run for a political office? How about Governor Ortiz.