Tuesday, October 1, 2019

CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST: CASTRO IN BULL'S EYE

10. Board Self-Evaluation.
a. Discussion, consideration, and possible action on complaint by parent regarding the BISD's Facebook page procedures relating to board member's public actions and Board Member's actions in schools. 

b. Discussion, consideration, and possible action on complaint by parent regarding Board Member, Mr. Erasmo Castro's, public actions. 

c. Discussion, consideration, and possible action on Petition for Removal in Cause No. 2019-DCL-5623-C of Board Member, Mr. Erasmo Castro. 

By Juan Montoya

Well, as the saying goes; The chickens have come home to roost. Or maybe it was Harry Truman who stated it best: The buck stops here.

In today's BISD meeting, six of the seven Brownsville Independent School District will discuss - and possibly take some action - on the ongoing public spectacle embodied in the actions of their  colleague Erasmo Castro.

The board will hear a complaint by a  parent (or parents?) that Castro has made it a habit to appear at the district's high school campuses and often snap selfies with students that later appear on his Facebook page.

This seems to go counter to BISD policy that requires  parental consent is required before taking photographs of students. The problem is then compounded when the student's photo (next to Castro) are posted on Castro's social pages. A cursory view of the photos there shows that the majority of the students portrayed are young male students. The sites do not contain disclaimers that they were posted with the consent of the students or their legal guardians.

The board will also consider what action to take in response to the petition for removal from the board by four residents of the district that was filed in district court based on his recent arrest for public intoxication.

The petition for removal of Castro was accompanied by the petition of four other residents of the San Benito Consolidated independent School District who want the court to remove board president Michael Vargas.

Two visiting judges will hear the cases. Under Chapter 87 of the Texas Local Government Code, the removal of of a school board member can be initiated by petition to the judge of the state district court where the trustee resides.

The power to initiate removal proceedings rests with individuals petitioning a state district judge - and not with the school board.  Euresti is the presiding judge for Cameron County.

The code lists 14 elected officials from district attorneys to county judges, sheriffs, county commissioners and justices of the peace who can potentially be removed from office. School board members of independent school districts are included.

One of the grounds for removal is intoxication. Castro was arrested Sept. 2 at about 1:35 a.m. on charges of driving while intoxicated at 900 Morrison Road in Brownsville.

Vargas was arrested July 5 at about 2 a.m. on the 1500 block of Ed Carey Drive in Harlingen and charged with DWI.

A police report indicated that Vargas, 32, was found “sleeping behind the wheel of a black passenger vehicle,” around 2 a.m. Friday July 5. Apparently, someone called the police in reference to an alleged intoxicated driver.

Castro was found sitting in the back seat of a his car which had damage to the driver's front side and a flat tire. When he refused to submit to a alcohol breath test after he failed sobriety tests, police acquired a warrant to draw blood to determine alcohol content. The results have not been released.

It is unclear what specific action the board majority could take since it would appear that the most it could do is to censure Castro and prohibit him from unilaterally entering high school campuses without authorization from the administration. Current BISD policy does not address the matter.

The board will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the BISD Administration Building, 1900 Price Road.

15 comments:

BobbyWC said...

The removal action for both are a mess and both sets of plaintiffs are receiving really bad legal advice. Both visiting judges are tied to corrupt rulings. Flores allowed Saenz niece and nephew to walk after they left a man to die while they were driving drunk. Angela Nix was the niece's lawyer. Juan I believe you have an old post on this. BaƱales issued a wrongful spoliation instruction which allowed Mary Tipton's murderer to walk.

The form you file with a lawsuit asks if there are similar suits. The reason for this is to insure you have only one judge ruling on all questions of law. I have a federal guardianship case being filed in the next two weeks. The law firm is finishing it. It will be filed in Brownsville, but because the Chief Judge of the Southern District already is overseeing the guardianship cases and failure of Adult Protective Services the suit will automatically be assigned to her in Houston.

So people understand with two judges they can issue conflicting rulings on the key question of law which means nothing happens until the Court of Appeals resolves the conflict. There is a solution to this problem but the plaintiffs are taking really bad advice. Castro will walk.

To semi-quote Rudi Gulliani in response to the subpoenas from the House. "They know I am an attorney, right?" People fail to understand no matter what they believe or their lawyer tells them, only one side wins. The parties fail to understand this. All the plaintiffs should object to the visiting judge and ask the regional administrative judge to assign one judge to both cases.

Now the picture issue is interesting. Several weeks ago I had a parent file with a principal a threat that if any pictures of her children shows up on the internet without her persmission BISD will be held accountable.

Bobby WC

Anonymous said...

All hollow bluster. Board cannot do shit about this. Political posturing by Head Gallina of the Crazy Coop Sylvia Atkinson.

Anonymous said...

What about the port elected officials can they get dumped that's also who we need to go after including that puppet...

Anonymous said...

If the Cheeseman gets dumped, or has the guts to resign, who do you think The SPA SQUAD will appoint. A board member can be appoint, it has already been done.

Anonymous said...

Robert Wrightman — still practicing law despite being disbarred. When will he ever learn?

Anonymous said...

Time to pay the piper guay...

Anonymous said...

Hey, Blimp, get the fuck outta here and go back to your dead blog, you unbought and unneeded blogger! Not getting readers over there? Yeah, that must be it, blogsquatter. smh

Anonymous said...

Also the Scumbag Rene Oliveira should be removed from the solicitor Roll as he confess to the crime he now is denying, like a true Scumbag.



Anonymous said...

Come clean Erasmo aka Jason honesty and transparency would be appreciated

Anonymous said...

Funny how Board LPR claims she is all about safety yet downplayed a DWI that could of ended in an accident. The community sees her posts about her BFF and hanging out like all is ok, yet DWI and public drunk scenes are no joke and good examples for our youth. LPR grow ip.

Anonymous said...

Otro pendejo!

Anonymous said...

@October 1, 2019 at 11:49 AM

He's in brownsville remember and that's why he's here oops sorrrri he got here before the Mex-Am war 1498 he did't uuh buy any land because he didn't want to work in the fields other wise he'd be very rich and many streets and cities would be named for him...

Anonymous said...

"honesty and transparency would be appreciated" JOKE OF THE WEEK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH...

Anonymous said...

Private investigators need to be dispatched on the citizens leading the complaint. They need to be certain they don’t have any corrupt ties to the BISD board in any way or have previous ruckus upheaval doing in the community as well (or those citizens credibility is at stake and Is nothing but ‘concerned citizenry’ bullshit). If those citizens heading this require visiting judges that are not corrupt and get rid of Saenz and Oliveira for corruptness, then I’d believe there wasn’t hidden agenda from Atkinson’s gang to want Erasmo out because he is the only one that stands up and disagrees with her corrupt agendas. Also, regardless if this is community led, many administrators and teachers have had dwi’s or dui’s and have been reshuffled around and not fired. That is the culture at BISD that has already been established regardless of policies in place or not. Erasmo being a chismoso ranch hand that can be seen as tacky, is no reason to remove him as the tacky community voted for him and BISD is full of tacky drunks who’s dwi’s and dui’s have been pardoned. Why make a federal case about Erasmo? Who does Sylvia want to appoint in his seat is the real question? Those are the real questions to ask.

Anonymous said...

I heard he wants to given them another month OFF with pay so let himn stay los huevones need him

rita