Elia was silent about student death, Tampa Bay Times was always clueless, Mayor BOB Buckhorn now silent! Happy Anniversary!

This past Sunday the Tampa Bay Times once again demonstrated their skill at obfuscation and fabrication of news with their article “Elia supporters silent as Hillsborough School Board members vie for re-election” by Times Staff Writer Anastasia Dawson. Love that title- Elia was silent about a student death and now “Elia supporters are silent”; go figure. Of course they are, any of them trying to get re-elected in the future hope that you will quickly forget about their support of not-so-superintendent Elia; like Mayor BOB “Black$ on Bike$” Buckhorn; he wants to run for governor in 2018 so he declined comment for the article. BOB also wants you to forget his “Black$ On Bike$” law enforcement funding program.

Elia’s firing was followed by a wave of school retirements and job changes of her lieutenants, like rats abandoning a sinking ship (please enjoy how lieutenants is spelled lie-utenants; coincidence? I think not!). Furthermore 3 incumbent board members- Candy Olson, Carol Kurdell and Doretha Edgecomb who had all been steadfast Elia supporters all refused to run for re-election knowing how they would have to answer for the deaths of all those students at every campaign event; they were basically shamed out of running for re-election. None of this was mentioned in the Times article.

Something else not mentioned in the Times article- this past Sunday when the article was printed was the anniversary of Tampa’s 2012 Republican National Convention. It has been noted here in Scott Adams News Commentary that the cover-up of the death of Isabella Herrera from choking on a school bus coincided with Tampa preparing for the 2012 Republican National Convention dictated by Mayor B.O.B. “Black$ On Bike$” Buckhorn who treated Tampa like a police state while it was in the national spotlight, including communications.

BOB must have thought comrade MaryEllen, then Chair Candy Olson, then Chief Facilities Officer Cathy Valdes, and the Sheriff’s Department (article) all did a great job keeping this student death covered up from January until the end of August when the Republican National Convention finally ended. But then, because of their lack of action, another student died.

When a child choking on a school bus is covered up, Bob doesn’t have anything to say about that; but after the convention when MaryEllen is fired Bob is tweeting the entire country about how stupid Tampa’s Hillsborough school board is. Nice to see your true colors Bob; apparently your only interest in this matter was how it might help you get elected governor in 2018, and you were counting on MaryEllen Elia to continue intimidating staff and use the School District resources to distribute newspapers to school children and staff to support you (article).

It is note-worthy that Marlene Sokol, the Times’ designated Hillsborough School Board reporter did not write the article. We say “designated” rather than “dedicated” because for 5 years Marlene Sokol has done this community a huge disservice by doing selectively uninformed and clueless reporting on Hillsborough County Schools as long as she has been the Times’ designated reporter which allowed Elia and her lieutenants to run roughshod over our school district. Perhaps Marlene will also do us all a favor and retire like the rest of Elia’s Lieutenants?