Southeast Bexar County Awareness: Southside ISD Police Department next on the chopping block

While the answer to this question is more opinion than fact; it is nonetheless at least food for thought.

• A child arrives at school clutching to his/her backpack, finds a safe spot, pulls out a weapon and begins to fire randomly. An on campus police officer has seconds to respond and secure the area. On off campus police officer, has to receive the dispatch to go to the scene; requiring travel time.
• How much mayhem do you think can be caused at the school before the officers can respond? One fatality is too much.

http://history1900s.about.com/od/famouscrimesscandals/a/columbine.htm

The "team" at the helm of Ms. Mendelsohn is not exactly private. They boast to the community supporters about what they will do next.

It seems that the board has marked off their campaign promises of removing the superintendent, food service, employees that didn't support them, it's time to go after the police department as mentioned shortly after the election.

The latest is a combination of plans A,B, and C. Ms. Mendelsohn paraded around her replacement for chief at the recent school board meeting, Ray Lopez who was recently appointed by Chico Rodriguez to the ESD#6 board and quickly introduced him to the "supporters" of the "team". The agenda includes removing half of the police department.

It is anyone's guess as to what will happen next at Southside ISD. The newly elected "team" is rapidly checking off the campaign promise list. Peddling promises to voters, the "team" ran on getting rid of the Police Department and bringing in the Constables to cover the district, but ran into unexpected community anger.

Plan A

The original plan; the "team" members campaigned on was to get rid of the police department and use the constables office for security purposes. Being that Ms. Mendelsohn and her supporters worked tirelessly to crucify Constable Tejeda, what better way to go after him, "if" something were to go wrong at the school district; which falls under Constable Tejeda's Precinct and the Constable's office didn't perform to "their" standards; then they achieve their goal in proving him a bad leader and use the children to do it.

Plan backfired, with school shootings fresh in the mind of community members; they didn't want this. However, Mr. Brewer; known to hold grudges that go back to his junior high school days, alluded to a well known fact around the district. In the last couple of years, Mr. Brewer had been escorted off the premises of the district for his disruptive and bullish behavior. Therefore, the sole reason to get rid of the police department.

With Plan A dead in the water......

Plan B

From an internal source, it seems the plan is to hire away another ESD#6 board member and political ally of Ms. Mendelsohn and the County Commissioner Chico Rodriguez.

County Commissioner Rodriguez, given his history of "hate" for Constable Ruben Tejeda, appointed his opponent, Mr. Lopez to sit on the ESD#6 board, temporarily until the move can be made to hire him at Southside ISD.

With the police chief, Mr. Palermo vacating his position, the time is ripe for the board to proceed.

The plan is to bring Mr. Lopez and his wealth of experience in police work to the district to evaluate and re-align the police department, as there are "a couple of weak links that "might have to go."

The weak links that have been mentioned. Officer Thomas (active duty serving his country) and Officer Ramirez who were those that escorted Mr. Brewer, on occasion, off the premises or met with him and subdued incidences at the district involving Mr. Brewer.

If they follow through on the plan at hand, this will put not only the Superintendent at the mercy of the board president, but the police chief and the department will also be under the control of Mr. Brewer, Ms. Mendelsohn and most of all with the support of the County Commissioner, Chico Rodriguez.

Plan C

Too much heat on the board for them to bring in another ESD#6 ally. Going to Plan C doesn't ruffle that many feathers. Promote police officer, O'callaghan from within the district and wait for later to implement plan B.

No matter the plan, the wheels are in motion and change is certainly in the future for the safety of the students at Southside ISD.

The "team" elected in mid May, took less than three months to implement another campaign promise.

The "team" used their newly over paid interim superintendent to promote an officer from within the current police force staff; with marching orders to cut officers. When the officer commenced to do his job, the fall back on the interim superintendent was swift.

The officer was quickly removed for not being a "team player" and replaced. It is evident that the micromanaging by this district's school board has also shown non-ethical behavior.

As I said in the beginning, the campaign promises of these elected officials, will come at the detriment of the children. What will happen to their education? Does this "team" even care?

Their actions have shown and continue to show that "no" they do not.

When they have finished using their appointee in the police department to do their dirty work for them, they will boot him out the door as well and replace him with their first choice. Hand picked by Ms. Mendelsohn.

BOARD MEMBERS VIOLATE OPEN MEETINGS ACT....no one does anything about it. The "team" recently called a board meeting "regular" at 7a.m. The district record shows that the board passed an agenda item that calls for Regular board meetings to be on rotating Tuesdays at 6p.m.; therefore a 7 a.m. meeting on a Monday constitutes a "special board meeting".

What could be so pressing and who could they be hiring that it required a 7 a.m. meeting?

• A position that needed filling, without going through the proper channels