October 11, 2004

Notice: For administrators outside of the Atlanta Public Schools who receive a copy of this letter, let this letter serve as notice to you and to your agents that the rule of law is expected to be adhered to when interacting with representatives of MACE.

Dr. Beverly Hall
Superintendent
Atlanta Public Schools
130 Trinity Avenue, S.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Dear Dr. Hall:

I am writing to request access to records in the possession of the Atlanta Public Schools (APS), its agents, employees (including campus police and/or security officers), or other representatives. Please provide me with a copy of any document (written, audio, or video) concerning any activity related to the visit of representatives of the Metro Association of Classroom Educators (MACE) to Douglass High School on September 23, 2004. This request is made in pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act, O.C.G.A. Sections 50-18-70 and -71 and any other applicable statutes or board policies. I understand that I will be responsible for the cost of duplication of records requested herein, within the limitations and under the stipulations provided in the Act. O.C.G.A. Section 50-18-70(f) requires that a determination of access to records be made within three (3) business days. If you have any questions regarding this letter or anything stated herein, please do not hesitate to contact me. I appreciate your cooperation and will await your reply.

I am also writing this letter concerning recurring violations of the law on the part of administrators and police officers/security personnel associated with the Atlanta Public Schools. As you are aware, during this past year, members of the MACE staff have encountered several situations wherein the school administrators start acting as if they have carte blanche authority to kick MACE staff members out of "their" schools, for no other apparent reason then that these administrators get nervous when MACE representatives come to "their" schools. Last year, Mr. Norreese Haynes and I felt like we were verbally accosted at Dunbar Elementary School. We were leaving the school building when Ms. Davenport, the principal, essentially verbally accosted us about being in the building. However, this did not keep her from twisting the facts and claiming that we verbally accosted her. I’m sure that you know, the staff members of MACE always go to the main office and sign in. We then get permission (sometimes accompanied by a name badge) to see the teachers. We wait until the children leave the building before we go to the teacher’s room. We always get permission to see the teacher(s). At Fickett Elementary School, we encountered some difficulty in getting access to see the teachers. Finally, we asked the principal to call Mr. Dorsey Hopson, an APS staff attorney, and he evidently told him that we, like the staff members of the other unions, had a right to be there. The principal then let us see the teachers.

On August 19th of this year, Dr. John Trotter, Mr. Dennis Yarbrough and Mr. Edward Smith (all MACE representatives) visited Mays High School. Again, all three gentlemen signed in and received permission to visit a teacher. A few minutes later, Mr. McKnight, one of the assistant principals, arrived in the teacher’s classroom, looking for Mr. Smith. He said that Mr. Smith had to leave the school building. (Mr. Smith had taught at Mays High School the previous two years but was now working with MACE.) Dr. Trotter immediately took exception to Mr. McKnight’s "strong arm tactics" and proceeded to go to the front office to see the principal, Tyronne Smith, since Mr. McKnight said that the order came from Principal Smith. Mr. Tyronne Smith was not in the building. Therefore, Dr. Trotter called Dr. Thelma Mumford-Glover, an assistant to Superintendent Hall. Dr. Mumford-Glover suggested that Dr. Trotter call Sharon Pitts, the Chief of Staff, after Dr. Trotter told Dr. Mumford-Glover what had transpired. Ms. Pitts assured Dr. Trotter that she would deal with the situation, and she asked Dr. Trotter to put Mr. McKnight on the phone. After she talked to Mr. McKnight, Ms. Pitts assured Dr. Trotter that if he and Mr. Yarbrough and Mr. Smith would go ahead and leave the building that she would talk to Mr. Tyronne Smith and work out the situation. Out of respect for Ms. Pitts, Dr. Trotter assured her that the MACE representatives would leave, with the understanding that after Ms. Pitts had an opportunity to talk to Principal Smith, MACE representatives would return to Mays in the future.

On September 8th of this year, Dr. John Trotter and Mr. Edward Smith visited Brown Middle School. They arrived at the school early and signed in. They politely sat in the waiting area, waiting for the appropriate time to see some teachers. Dr. Ordu, the principal, walked by the two MACE representatives, and Dr. Trotter politely spoke to her. A few minutes later, Principal Ordu apparently asked one of the secretaries to approach Dr. Trotter and ask for the names of the teachers whom Dr. Trotter and Mr. Smith intended to visit. Dr. Trotter refused to supply any names, fearing that Principal Ordu might "target" these individuals. Asking for names is inappropriate, and it is not normally done when other unions visit the schools. (Keep in mind that Dr. Trotter was on staff with the Georgia Association of Educators for six years, and he worked the Atlanta schools. He’s very familiar with the usual and customary practice of how union officials are treated when they visit Atlanta schools.) Because Dr. Trotter argued his point that MACE was being discriminated against (treated differently than the other unions), someone called the campus police. Prior to this time, no one had asked either Dr. Trotter or Mr. Smith to leave the building. However, the police officer asked the two to leave, and both Dr. Trotter and Mr. Smith left the building, and they proceeded to picket on the sidewalk in front of the school building, a Category One Free Speech Forum (as described by the courts).

On September 23 of this year, Dr. John Trotter, and Mr. Edward Smith arrived at Douglass High School at school dismissal time. They had been invited to the school by one of MACE’s members. Dr. Trotter and Mr. Smith went to the front office and signed in. Dr. Trotter presented his MACE business card to the secretary. Both gentlemen waited in the office for Mr. Dennis Yarbrough who was running a few minutes late. Both Dr. Trotter and Mr. Smith were given printed hall passes and they were told by the office personnel that they could go to the MACE member’s classroom. As Dr. Trotter and Mr. Smith were walking down the hall, they were met by the MACE member, and he told them that they would be meeting in a classroom on the third floor instead of his classroom. This concerned Dr. Trotter because Mr. Yarbrough didn’t know about the new location. Dr. Trotter asked Mr. Smith to go back to the office and wait for Mr. Yarbrough so that Mr. Yarbrough could be told about the new location. When Mr. Yarbrough and the teachers all assembled, the time was about 3:30 p.m. when the "meeting" began. This "meeting" is the type of gathering that happens over and over in the Atlanta schools. At length, the teachers discussed several concerns that they had about the operations of Douglass High School. This is normal. This is why teachers join a teachers’ union. This is Labor Law 101. Dr. Trotter led the discussion. He gave the teachers some insights into their concerns, and he told them what MACE could do for them. He discussed the benefits of joining MACE. Near the end of the discussion, Mr. William Wade, an assistant principal, barged into the meeting. He did not knock on the door. Dr. Trotter did not know who he was but Dr. Trotter immediately introduced himself. Dr. Trotter told him: "You look like you’re an assistant principal since you have a vest on." Mr. Wade said that he was there to inquire of one of the teachers about a student. In jest, Dr. Trotter jokingly told the gentleman: "You tell Eldrick Horton [the principal] that we don’t need assistant principals barging into our union meeting" (or words to that effect). Dr. Trotter had never met Mr. Horton but he had been aware of Mr. Horton since Mr. Horton had been a teacher and had been a member of the Georgia Association of Educators while Dr. Trotter was working with that organization.

A few minutes after Mr. Wade left the classroom where the MACE representatives and the teachers were meeting, Mr. Horton came hurriedly and boldly into the room, walking in a fast pace. He and Dr. Trotter engaged in an argument about the MACE representatives’ right to be in the building, meeting with teachers. Dr. Trotter informed Mr. Horton that the MACE representatives had gone through proper channels, signing in the front office and securing permission to see the teachers. Mr. Horton took unusual umbrage at the word "ass" being used by Dr. Trotter. Dr. Trotter had made some metaphorical reference to Mr. Horton’s rear-end ("your ass") being saved on an occasion when he was a teacher. Dr. Trotter actually had a recollection of a situation at Turner Middle School when Mr. Horton was apparently "reprimanded" for complaining about the physical conditions of the school. (Mr. Horton may not have been "reprimanded" in a technical sense per O.C.G.A. 20-2-944.) After an attorney got involved in the situation, the "reprimand" was apparently dropped. Dr. Trotter was hoping that Mr. Horton would recall how it was to be an Atlanta teacher and would empathize with the teachers’ need to be represented. (Dr. Trotter believes that Mr. Horton was within his right to complain about the physical conditions at Turner Middle School and that he was treated unprofessionally by the APS administrators concerning that matter.) However, Dr. Trotter’s reference to this unfortunate situation apparently embarrassed Mr. Horton. He made a big deal of Dr. Trotter using the word "ass," a word which is used nightly on prime time television. There were no students in the classroom. Dr. Trotter did not call Mr. Horton an "ass" (or any other pejorative for that matter). But, I’ll advise Dr. Trotter to use the word "butt" or "rear-end" or "rectum" in Mr. Horton’s presence or in the presence of any other Atlanta administrator in the future.

Mr. Horton insisted that Dr. Trotter leave the school building, and he also insisted that Mr. Yarbrough and Mr. Smith leave. (Mr. Horton had ordered the three teachers to go to his office, whereupon he apparently interrogated each teacher separately -- as if they were charged with a crime. One teacher was apparently kept in the office for about two hours.) The meeting was taking place on the third floor of the building. As the three MACE representatives were being escorted out of the building by Mr. Horton, Dr. Trotter told Mr. Horton in no uncertain terms that his actions were in violation of the law (viz., treating unions differently) and that his actions were also in violation long established practice in the Atlanta Public Schools (viz., unions meeting with teachers after school, after having signed in the main office, and after having secured permission from the office to see the teachers). Dr. Trotter was correct in stating these things. Schools, unlike public parks and public sidewalks, are not public forum per se. However, once a school system opens up access to any group, the schools become a designated public forum and have to follow the rules of a public forum. Each group has to be treated in an equitable fashion. Any regulation has to be content-neutral. The Atlanta Public Schools (APS) cannot allow one teachers’ union to have access to the schools and yet deny the other teachers’ unions the same access. If APS grants representatives of GAE, AFT, and/or PAGE access to the schools in the afternoons (after the students have left) and refuses the same access to representatives from MACE, then this is a patent violation of federal law (Lamb’s Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School Dist., 113 S. Ct. 2141 [1993]; Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 [1981]; Perry Ed. Assn. v. Perry Local Educators Assn., 460 U.S. 37 [1983]). Mr. Horton apparently did not want to hear this from Dr. Trotter. He wanted Dr. Trotter to shut up. However, Dr. Trotter stated that he had a constitutional right to speak as he was exiting the school building.

Dr. Trotter informed Mr. Horton that representatives of MACE would be picketing on the public sidewalk in front of the school and that the public sidewalk was a Category One Free Speech Forum and that the police, without violating the law, could not remove the representatives of MACE from the public sidewalk. "Wherever the title of streets and parks may rest, they have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and, time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions. Such use of the streets and public places has, from ancient times, been a part of the privileges, immunities, rights, and liberties of citizens" (Hague v. Committee For Industrial Organization, 307 U.S. 496[1939]). In one Supreme Court decision, Justice Thurgood Marshall rhetorically asked: "What better place to picket than in front of a school?"

Mr. Horton apparently took offense at Dr. Trotter referring to him by his first name of "Eldrick." However, Mr. Horton kept referring to Dr. Trotter as "Mr. Trotter." Dr. Trotter told Mr. Horton that Mr. Horton needed to refer to him as "Dr. Trotter" since he had earned two doctoral degrees.

When Dr. Trotter, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Yarbrough were outside of the school building on their way to their vehicles, Mr. Yarbrough became engaged in a conversation with a "Mr. Bell." After Dr. Trotter took off his sports coat and hung it up in the van, he walked over to Mr. Yarbrough to see what was detaining him. At that point, Mr. Bell informed Dr. Trotter that he had to get permission from Mr. Horton before any "meeting" could take place in the school building. When Dr. Trotter firmly disagreed with Mr. Bell, Mr. Bell apparently got upset with Dr. Trotter and took a few steps toward Dr. Trotter, informing Dr. Trotter that Dr. Trotter didn’t know who he was dealing with. In this context, Mr. Bell blurted out: "I’ll kill you." Dr. Trotter retorted: "Well, if you kill me, I certainly hope that I have a lot of folks at my funeral." Dr. Trotter then told Mr. Bell that the three men (Dr. Trotter, Mr. Yarbrough, and Mr. Smith) certainly took note of the "I’ll kill you" remark and that it was a terroristic threat. Dr. Trotter and Mr. Smith then got into the van and left. Mr. Yarbrough talked a little while longer with Mr. Bell and then left.

The next school day (Friday, the 24th of September), two of the teachers were called to the office via the school intercom system. (The third teacher was absent on that Friday and the following Monday due to medical problems.) The two teachers were apparently whisked into a conference room to meet with a school system detective. The school detective wanted each teacher to write a statement concerning the incident herein described which took place on the previous day. One teacher eventually wrote a statement later in the day. The other teacher apparently indicated that he didn’t feel comfortable writing a statement. The following Monday, this teacher was apparently called to the office again and told that he needed to write a statement. Finally, this teacher complied, writing the statement on Monday.

Dr. Hall, I have no idea why the school detective would want statements from the teachers -- except to attempt to build a "case" against Dr. Trotter. But, I can assure you that Dr. Trotter did not violate any law on September 23, 2004 while at Douglass High School. To the contrary, one of your administrators, Eldrick Horton, violated a well-established rule of equitable treatment in a designated public forum. "[A]bove all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter or its content" (Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley, 408 U.S. 92, 95-6 [1972]). The U. S. Supreme Court has boldly declared that "[c]ontent-based regulations are presumptively invalid" (R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 382 [1992]). Just because Eldrick Horton does not like MACE or is afraid of MACE or just whimsically does not approve of MACE does not give him a right to "regulate" MACE out of "his" school building. Any such "regulation" has to be content-neutral. Strict scrutiny applies in this matter. Just because Dr. Trotter was not "nice" to Mr. Horton when he and the other representatives of MACE were being kicked out of the school building does not give Mr. Horton any justification to file any charges against Dr. Trotter. If he is trying to use O.C.G.A. 20-2-1181-82 (as Atlanta is wont to do), the elements of these statutes do not apply. Dr. Trotter, Mr. Yarbrough, and Mr. Smith never refused to leave the school building. Mr. Horton was never upbraided or insulted in front of any students -- nor in front of anyone, for that matter. Mr. Horton apparently did not like Dr. Trotter "standing up" to him and telling him that he was in violation of the law. Dr. Trotter is within his rights to do this. He is not and never will be one of Mr. Horton’s sycophants. He did not nor will he genuflect before Mr. Horton. Dr. Trotter is a man, and Dr. Trotter understands his rights as a union leader. He does not have to maintain a "Mr. Rogers"-type personality in front of Mr. Horton. He left the school building -- but he told Mr. Horton that his actions were wrong. And, he promised Mr. Horton that the representatives of MACE would be back -- if only to picket on the public sidewalk in front of the school. Perhaps this promise -- and the terroristic threat that Mr. Bell issued against Dr. Trotter -- caused Mr. Horton to overreact.

As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Trotter talked to Chief of Staff Sharon Pitts concerning the situation at Mays High School on August 19th. Also, after the situation at Brown Middle School on September 8th, Dr. Trotter again called and talked to Dr. Mumford-Glover and left a message with Sharon Pitts. An hour or so later, he called and left another message for Sharon Pitts to call him. He never received a return call from Sharon Pitts. On September 13, 2004, Dr. Trotter addressed the Atlanta Board of Education and Dr. Beverly Hall at the Community School Board Meeting. He went into detail about APS’s flagrant violations of Georgia statutes relative to students assaulting APS teachers and engaging in battery against APS teachers. He also handed out copies of the state statute (O.C.G.A. 20-20-985.5 et seq.) governing the manner in which school systems have to conduct grievance procedures. Dr. Trotter noted that APS simply ignores the statutory laws relative to student conduct and employee grievances. Representatives of MACE held picket signs in the audience, calling Atlanta a "Gangsta" school system, among other messages. When Dr. Trotter, Mr. Yarbrough, and Mr. Smith were leaving the school board meeting, Dr. Trotter approached Sharon Pitts in the hallway and asked her why she had not returned his calls. He again expressed his concern that APS principals were out of line in their attempt to keep representatives of MACE out of the school buildings in the afternoon. He reiterated the fact that MACE representatives have to be treated in the same manner as GAE, AFT, and PAGE representatives are treated. He specifically discussed the situations at Mays High School and Brown Middle School. Ms. Pitts concurred with Dr. Trotter’s statement that the treatment must be equitable, and Ms. Pitts assured Dr. Trotter that she would talk to the APS Legal Department, asking the lawyers to send a letter to the APS principals, informing them that MACE representatives, like GAE, AFT, and PAGE representatives, had a right to see teachers in the school buildings at the end of the school day. Mr. Yarbrough and Mr. Smith witnessed this conversation.

Dr. Hall, I’ve known Dr. Trotter for well over 20 years. He’s always been a law-abiding citizen. He’s never been convicted (or even tried) for any offense, with exception to routine and minor traffic violations. But, I’ve never known Dr. Trotter to allow anyone to trample upon his rights as a citizen of Georgia and the United States. I’ve never known a single situation when Dr. Trotter has bowed down to anyone using bullying tactics. I’ve seen and heard of him publicly oppose (face-to-face) former U. S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy, former Governor Roy Barnes, and superintendents like the late Clayton County Superintendent Ernest Stroud, perhaps then Georgia’s most entrenched and powerful superintendent whom no one deigned to oppose publicly and face-to-face. He doesn’t appear to have a scared bone in his body. On more than one occasion, he’s been willing to go to jail for his strong belief that he has to be treated equitably. Because Dr. Trotter knows his rights (and probably because of Dr. Trotter’s liberal use of a taping device), Dr. Trotter has never been prosecuted. On the other hand, I know that Dr. Trotter has sued several school systems in federal court. He once got a federal judge to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the Clayton County Government because of an unconstitutional political ordinance, which the county immediately repealed. He filed battery charges (although he didn’t swear out a warrant) against one Georgia school superintendent for grabbing him. He did swear out an arrest warrant against another Georgia superintendent and took him to trial for pushing him after a school board meeting. After Governor Roy Barnes got his now infamous anti-teacher legislation passed in the legislation, one state legislator assaulted Dr. Trotter (and had to be bodily restrained). Another legislator threatened to beat up Dr. Trotter if he stepped into the cloak room. The next session, one DeKalb legislator engaged in simply battery against him. All three of these legislators were apparently mad at Dr. Trotter’s message. Dr. Trotter was direct and forthright in telling them that they had sold out the teachers and that they should be ashamed of their actions. He didn’t candy-coat the message. He didn’t water-down the message. He didn’t have to. His "robust speech" is protected by the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. His style might be intrepid and "offensive" to the hearer. However, his "style" and his "offensive" remarks are totally protected by the U. S. Constitution (Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 [1971]). I say these things to apprise you that Mr. Horton may have been "offended" by Dr. Trotter. He may have been embarrassed by Dr. Trotter. But, Dr. Trotter never called Mr. Horton any name. He never engaged in any assault or battery against Mr. Horton. (In fact, in all of the years that I’ve known Dr. Trotter, I’ve never known of a single incident wherein Dr. Trotter engaged in any action which could be remotely interpreted as assault and/or battery.) Mr. Horton unlawfully kicked all of the MACE representatives out of Douglass High School at around 4:20 p.m. (The teachers are allowed to leave the school at 3:30 p.m.) Mr. Horton apparently let his fear and/or ego get the best of him. His brusque and rude interruption of a private meeting of union officials with teachers-members is what caused the entire situation to develop at Douglass High School. In fact, Dr. Trotter received a threat on his life (a terroristic threat which is a felony) in the parking area. (We have indisputable evidence that this incident occurred.) However, Dr. Trotter is a person who understands the weakness of the flesh, and he told me that he does not want any charges filed against the gentleman who threatened his life. He understands that people sometimes get caught up in the emotion of the moment and say things that they later regret. (He likewise did not file charges against the Georgia legislators who threatened him, assaulted him, or engaged in battery against him.) However, Dr. Trotter does insist that you or someone in your administration communicate to the school administrators that MACE representatives have to be treated in a manner that is equitable to the treatment afforded the representatives of GAE, AFT, and PAGE. Dr. Hall, the best way to treat Dr. Trotter is according to the law. He (and the other MACE representatives) will politely sign in at the school’s main office, wait for the appropriate time to see the teacher(s), and quietly go about doing their business.

Dr. Hall, if you or any agent of the school system (including campus police) engage in a false arrest of Dr. Trotter (or any other representative of MACE), you (and others) are engaging in this wrongful action with the full knowledge that your actions are illegal. Your action will be done under the color of law, and the severest response under the law will be forthcoming. You are now put on notice.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call me at (770) 716-7838.

Sincerely: