From: Vanessa Ott <msvott@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 11, 2023 at 7:39 AM
Subject: If you don't fix the CRCB problem, you are complicit in the ADA violations
To: Keith Hayashi <Keith.Hayashi@k12.hi.us>
Cc: Heidi Armstrong <Heidi.Armstrong@k12.hi.us>, <curt.otaguro@k12.hi.us>, <tammi.chun@k12.hi.us>, <beth.schimmelfennig@k12.hi.us>, Stacey Bello <stacey.bello@k12.hi.us>, Sue Aina <sueaina100@gmail.com>

Mr. Hayashi,

You are complicit in DOE ADA violations if you don't exercise your authority to ensure the CRCB follows the law.

It has been 12 days since I sent a 3rd-party accommodation request for Ms. Aina to be moved back to the ADA compliant classroom she's been assigned to since 2016 as part of pre-trial settlements in the lawsuit she filed in 2015. (See emails from attorneys below.)  I have not even received acknowledgement from the CRCB that the request has been received!

The requirement of Ms. Aina's assignment to an ADA compliant room was an issue that was settled in May 2016.  See the attorneys' emails copied below.  Room assignment became a legal issue in 2012 when the Principal, Darlene Javar, retaliated against Ms. Aina for triumphing in her discrimination complaint about having been denied a key to the parking gate so she could work after 4:30 and on weekends.  After that, Principal Javar suddenly reassigned Ms. Aina to one of the smallest classrooms in the school where she remained until May 2016.  It took filing a lawsuit to have Ms. Aina moved to an ADA-compliant classroom because Beth Schimmelfennig, CRCB Director, has shown no interest in abiding by the ADA ever since I filed my first request for disability accommodations since 2008!

Now that Ms. Aina's lawsuit ended in November 2022, the DOE is breaking the agreement.  Rather unethical.  Ms Aina is still stuck in a room that is not ADA compliant.  100% not legal.  And, I have no doubt that this is retaliation for the 8-year lawsuit.

When are you going to take responsibility for fixing this problem?

Mahalo,

Vanessa Ott

The following emails are from Ms. Aina's attorney, Lunsford Phillips and Deputy Attorney General Bosco Petricevic, the Defendant's (DOE's) attorney in 2016.  Note that Bosco's comment that Ms. Aina never requested a larger room is not true. 

 _____________________________

From: Lunsford <lunsfordp001@hawaii.rr.com>
Date: Mon, May 9, 2016 at 1:47 PM
Subject: Fwd: Proposal
To: Sue Aina <sueaina100@gmail.com>
Cc: Vanessa Ott <msvott@gmail.com>

Well, gals.  I’m pleasantly surprised.  I just wonder why this took six months!

Begin forwarded message:
From: "Petricevic, Bosko" <Bosko.Petricevic@hawaii.gov>
Subject: Proposal
Date: May 9, 2016 at 12:45:19 PM HST
To: Lunsford <lunsfordp001@hawaii.rr.com>
Cc: "Petricevic, Bosko" <Bosko.Petricevic@hawaii.gov>

Lunsford,

There are 3 accommodations requested by the plaintiff. Here is the way to resolve all of it.

• The first accommodation the plaintiff seeks in this action is the assignment to her of a key for the main campus gate for the teachers' school year (including three business days before and after that year).  (Principal will give her a gate key. It will be attached to her classroom set of keys.) 
• The second accommodation the plaintiff seeks in this action is a modified emergency evacuation plan for plaintiff's students that obviates the necessity for the plaintiff to operate her power wheel chair over unpaved and unstable ground and also enables the plaintiff to resume control, responsibility and supervision of her student at the evacuation rallying point on the west side of the playing field where it borders the paved walkway. (This has been agreed upon at prior meeting. Students will walk around the back as she proposes.) 
• The third accommodation the plaintiff seeks in this action is the provision of space for safely storing plaintiff's power wheelchair on campus- valuable personal property that is necessary for her to perform her essential job duties. The space provided must allow reasonable access to her wheel chair during and after school hours.  (Principal will give her a key to the teacher training room and turn off the alarm system. This is where she currently keeps her chair and is directly outside of where she normally parks. She can still cover her chair if she chooses.)

Principal is also willing to reassign her to the classroom next to her, Room 11, effective 2016 - 2017 school year. It is approximately 675 sq feet. Ms. Aina's class and most classes in the building are approximately 525 sq feet. We are reducing that particular grade level from 3 classes to 2 classes next school year due to student count projections. In addition, the current teacher is not returning. The room is 'unassigned' at this time. This also maintains both of my fifth grade classes in close proximity while giving her a larger room. (For clarification, S. Aina has not ever requested a larger room. She was moved into her current room when she was offered a 'choice' of teaching lines.)

Principal will lift the campus time constraints.

I think this solves everything.

Thoughts?

Bosko

_____________________ 

 From: Vanessa Ott <msvott@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 7, 2023 at 8:25 AM
Subject: Documentation of Sue Aina's ADA Accommodation: Assignment to Room 11 is the Agreement
To: Keith Hayashi <Keith.Hayashi@k12.hi.us> [State  Superintendent]

Cc: Heidi Armstrong <Heidi.Armstrong@k12.hi.us>

        Curt Otaguro <curt.otaguro@k12.hi.us> [Deputy Superintendent]

        Tammi Chun , <tammi.chun@k12.hi.us>, [Deputy Superintendent] 

        Beth Schimmelfennig <beth.schimmelfennig@k12.hi.us>

        Stacey Bello <stacey.bello@k12.hi.us> [Complex Area Superintendent]

         Wilma Roddy <wilma.roddy@k12.hi.us> [Naalehu Elementary School Principal]

         Sue Aina <sueaina100@gmail.com> [Teacher in a Wheelchair]

Aloha DOE Gang of People in Power,

This is a Facilities issue (wheelchair ramp, fire hazard safety, cleanliness), an HR issue (ADA rights in the workplace and teacher support), and Student Achievement issue (clean classrooms and supplying teachers with basic needs so they can best serve students).  And, of course, a Civil Rights issue.  I don't know who is responsible for fixing the problems, but it has to be one of you.
Sue Aina's granted disability accommodations includes being assigned to Room 11 at Naalehu School.  It is not the largest classroom at the school. (The largest two classrooms are located in the new wing, but Sue's requests to be assigned to either one was never granted by the previous Principal.)  Room 11 was the best Ms. Aina could get, and it's the Room she needs for her classroom to be ADA-compliant.  Attached is a copy of Principal Roddy's summary of her May 31, 2023 conference with Ms. Aina; it includes a list of the accommodations granted to Ms. Aina (after years of fighting for them).
THE EASIEST ADA-COMPLIANT SOLUTION to this ENORMOUS PROBLEM

The agreement since 2016 has been that Ms. Aina is to be assigned to Room 11 because it can accommodate her wheelchair so she can get to all her students' desks, and does not pose a safety hazard in case of fire.  Therefore, the DOE should honor its agreement, and move Ms. Aina back to Room 11 without further delay.  If the Principal wants Ms. Aina to teach Grade 2, Sue can do it in Room 11.

DOCUMENTATION OF ACCOMMODATION: ASSIGNMENT TO LARGER ROOM

Sue was able to find the piece of paper that documents her accommodations. (The CRCO never issued one.)  It is Principal Wilma Roddy's Summary of Conference on May 31, 2023 (attached). The picture below shows the list of Ms. Aina's granted accommodations.  Item #6 clearly states that Ms. Aina is supposed to be assigned to larger Room 11.

  MORE INFO ABOUT GRADE REASSIGNMENT

Who replaced Ms. Aina in Grade 5, Room 11?  It is a new, younger, physically-abled teacher who was a substitute last year.  Probably not fully certified yet.

What was Ms. Roddy's reason for the Grade Level reassignment?  According to Ms. Aina, Ms. Roddy's justification is this is for Ms. Aina’s benefit to help her be more well-rounded.  Well, what legitimate business purpose is served by retraining a teacher to teach another grade level when she is soon to retire?  Training is expensive and an investment in the future.  It's an extremely poor business decision to start retraining an employee who is soon to retire. Likewise, it is unwise to not take advantage of a teacher’s experience and knowledge teaching a specific Grade level for over a decade.

I think anyone with a grain of common sense should be able to see that Principal Roddy’s is not a sound business decision because it merely a pretext for making Ms. Aina’s work life as difficult as possible.

MORE INFO ABOUT CONDITION OF ROOM 5
Yesterday, I measured the clearances in Room 5 (new room for Sue). Room 5 definitely does NOT meet the minimum ADA standards.  

Also, Room 5 is filthy. Here's a few pictures of the disgusting mess under the sink; louvered windows caked in dust; the entire walls and carpets covered in dust; and dust so thick on the filing cabinet and shelves, you could write in it. Click on each picture to see the detail.

 From: Vanessa Ott <msvott@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 1, 2023 at 7:47 AM
Subject: EMERGENCY! Beth Schimmelfennig is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act
To: Keith Hayashi <Keith.Hayashi@k12.hi.us>
Cc: Sue Aina <sueaina100@gmail.com>, <beth.schimmelfennig@k12.hi.us>, Erik Ott <otterik@gmail.com>

Aloha Superintendent Hiyashi,
Your direct report, the CRCB Executive Director, Beth Schimmelfennig is violating the ADA. I've written to her about it and she has refused to respond to me. Her inaction has created a crisis for handicapped teacher Suzanne M. Aina. It is your responsibility to make sure your direct reports do their jobs properly. Therefore, it is now your responsibility to fix this emergency problem and that Ms. Schimmelfennig does her job, tells Principal Wilma Roddy how to follow the ADA, and makes sure Ms. Aina is not harassed any more by being forced to work in a classroom that is too small to accommodate her wheelchair.
You can read the letter and the 3rd-Party Request for Disability Accommodation I sent to Ms. Schimmelfennig on my website here: Screwing The Handicapped (freespeech4us.com)
Attached is the letter I sent to the Board of Education this morning.  It explains the serious problems in the CRCB that have been going on for over a decade and, as far as I'm concerned, are completely Ms. Schimmelfennig's fault.  Now that I have brought this to your attention, she has become your problem, too.  As I said in my closing statements to the BOE members, 

The BOE also has the power to evaluate Superintendent Hiyashi each year. I think it’s important to include in Superintendent Hiyashi’s year end evaluation how he addresses Ms. Schimmelfennig’s ADA violations in the short term and the long term.  I would expect that any Superintendent worth his weight would do two things:

1.) Instruct Ms. Schimmelfennig to follow the ADA and explain to the Principal that she’s required to provide a classroom for Ms. Aina large enough to accommodate her wheelchair. Ms. Aina can just go back to the classroom she had last year; and, 2.) Investigate CRCB operations over the coming months, and include in next year’s strategic plan (which should be completed before Mr. Hiyashi’s evaluation) specific steps for improving the civil rights education of CRCB employees as well as oversight for the branch’s operations.

At this immediate juncture, I ask that you immediately override Ms. Schimmelfennig's inaction, contact Principal Wilma Roddy at Naalehu Elementary School and tell her to make sure that Ms. Aina is assigned to a classroom large enough to fit all the students seated at their desks with ADA wheelchair compliant egress. The teachers are setting up their new classrooms as I write this. 

NEWS FLASH JULY 31, 2023

A friend can request an ADA accommodation for you. 

So, I am officially asking for the accommodations that were in place for handicapped teacher, Sue Aina, while the ADA discrimination trial was on-going, but suddenly disappeared after the trial judgment was entered.  There's no discrimination if the employee has the accommodations. What's to keep the employer from taking away the accommodations once the trial is over?  Another trial?  No way.  This one lasted 8 years an was an unjust failure.  Read the reasonable disability accommodation request sent to the CRCB and its Executive Director, Beth Schimmelfennig.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Sun, Jul 30, 2023 at 4:42 PM
Subject: Reasonable Disability Accommodation Request
To: <beth.schimmelfennig@k12.hi.us>, CRCB <CRCB@k12.hi.us>

Ms. Schimmelfennig,

I decided to start the The Story by making my email to you sent July 26th available online. Click here to read it.  As I said, you're an integral part of this story, and the ball's in your court as to what happens next.  Note that since you are responsible for the current crisis at Naalehu Elementary School, not only will Ms. Aina be inconvenienced, but so will the other teacher with whom she will have to exchange rooms if my campaign to tell the truth about what's going on is successful, and Ms. Aina is re-granted the reasonable accommodations she had before.  

Per the EEOC guidelines, attached is my 3rd-Party request for reasonable accommodations for DOE employee Suzanne M. Aina.  

Mahalo,

Vanessa Ott