It was 1 year ago today that Lillian Hepburn-Richmond was born: April 8, 2021. And what an amazing day that was! We launched our online Petition to "Let Judie Finish" that day, quickly gaining dozens and dozens of signatures as the hours and days passed by. The petition gathered 144 signatures (“the 144,000”) which we know represented hundreds more who did not feel "at liberty” to put their names on the petition, including staff members at SAA. That petition presented 2 simple, reasonable, reachable, respectful requests: First, to let Mrs. Rosa finish the school year; Second, to hold a town hall meeting on the situation. That’s it.
In other words, the 144,000 wanted SAA’s elementary students to have the benefit of the experienced and effective administrator who had recruited many of them to the school, whose work at the school was paid for by parents’ tuition money, and whose leadership the children and their teachers were entitled to for the full school year. In addition, the 144,000 wanted explanations and answers to basic questions for a school community that had clearly expressed its displeasure at the sudden, unexplained disappearance of its Elementary Principal with one-fourth of the school year still to go.
But simple, reasonable, reachable, and respectful got our community exactly this much: Nothing.
Well, not exactly nothing. The "144,000" peaceful petition signers were blamed for inciting a crime and had their Christianity called into question in a rather divisive "call for unity" by Spencerville SDA Church's Senior Pastor Chad Stuart - not to mention the irony and hypocrisy of a "call for unity" if he had any involvement in the very dis-unifying takedown of Mrs. Rosa. If in fact you had nothing to do with that, Pastor Stuart, why don't you write another epistle to say so?
After a 35-day period of typical hubris-inspired silence, SAA announced that Mrs. Rosa was no longer employed there, and wouldn’t be coming back.
So on May 10, 2021, we launched our “Eyes On SAA” blog as an open forum for this school community to share information with each other and to become informed with news and analysis that will never be found in the school newsletter or any email from SAA’s administration or Secret School Board (for shorthand, we’ll just call them the “Aristocracy”). Information and analysis you deserve to have to hold the Aristocracy accountable, and to help you make the best decision for your children’s education.
After the sabotage of the last school year by the coup d’etat of March 31, 2021:
· Some families chose to leave, which is its own expression of dissent.
· Other families “emancipated” or “aged out” as their children graduated.
· Other families swallowed “the blue pill” and went along with the pretend world that everything is wonderful.
· Other families quietly grimaced and groaned as they resigned themselves to the status quo.
· And some families chose to stay, and not being happy with the school’s leadership or direction swallowed "the red pill."
Eyes On SAA exists for those families that stayed, and for the new ones that came into this place unsuspectingly. We provide a safe space to speak up and to call out, with the promise of confidentiality and anonymity these families need to protect their children and themselves from the reprisal and retaliation of the Aristocracy. And if you think the Aristocracy will not stoop this low, then you really are dreaming and have failed to see the underbelly of this place. Mrs. Rosa's "abduction and disappearance" should have been your reality check, but if it wasn’t then you need to wake up and smell the coffee. Decaf, of course.
Eyes On SAA is your watchdog. We exist to shine light on the darkness that enshrouds the Aristocracy’s work and decisions, to break the silence that they exist and thrive upon, and to hold the Aristocracy accountable - by name.
You could think of us as a junkyard dog that lives at 2502 Spencerville Road. Nice people may not openly talk about or cheer for the junkyard dog. And no one doing what they’re supposed to do needs to think about, worry about, or care about her. But those who do harm? Those that figuratively trespass, steal, or take a dump in this yard? Take notice: this junkyard dog is a mama, and when it comes to protecting her pups, she is one fierce bitch.
So if you take down our Elementary Principal in your incompetence and dirty politics – this junkyard dog is coming for you. If you then gaslight us for 35 days that there is nothing to see here - this junkyard dog is coming for you. If you allow an abuser who slaps our children around to stay in the classroom – this junkyard dog is coming for you. If you harm our kids’ education by unjustifiably forcing them online for a full year while so many other area private schools remained in-person - this junkyard dog is coming for you. If you impose vaccine mandates on our children - this junkyard dog is coming for you. If you try to indoctrinate our children with your politics and bias - this junkyard dog is coming for you. If you try to keep your governance secret and keep distance between us by confiscating our school family directory – this junkyard dog is coming for you. If you let our children’s school lunch program disappear out of sheer dereliction – this junkyard dog is coming for you. If you make a bunch of nice promises at the Constituency Meeting and fail to deliver on most or all of them - this junkyard dog is coming for you.
All right, let’s all take a deep breath now and calm ourselves.
Normally one would expect to receive presents for their birthday - but Eyes On SAA doesn’t need any presents - because we already have what we sought: 2000+ views of our posts, a public forum receiving input from SAA parents and giving them voice, and the close attention of the Aristocracy. Word has filtered back to us through multiple back channels that SAA’s and Chesapeake Conference’s administration desperately want us to go away and disappear. Sorry, but we’re not sorry. We ain’t gonna disappear - we’re kinda just getting started.
Actually, we are grateful. A movement for truth and accountability such as ours would not be needed, and could not survive long in a place of openness, transparency, orderly processes, competence, and accountability. Yet by not practicing such principles, the Aristocracy keeps giving us oxygen to breathe, live and grow.
So in a real way we owe our existence to SAA’s administration and Secret School Board, to people like Principal Bowerman, Superintendent Walker, Chairperson Noble, Vice-Chairperson Rodriguez, Pastor Stuart and the rest of the Aristocracy. For a truth and accountability movement like ours to be born and survive requires the very things they have given us: abuse of power, incompetence, political favoritism and patronage, the trampling of democratic systems of accountability, disenfranchisement of SAA’s parents, secrecy, silence, hubris, dissembling of truth, and more. The Aristocracy continues on without any significant change or reform - it is the “gift that keeps on giving.”
We could never have been born without the Aristocracy and we owe the inspiration for our whole existence to them. So even though it's our First Birthday and we are the ones being celebrated here, we would like to give the SAA Aristocracy a gift in honor of the occasion. So while we enjoy our yummy First Birthday cake, we present our gift of classic and contemporary literature:
A Reading List for the SAA Aristocracy
1. Democracy in America by Alexis de Toqueville
2. Animal Farm by George Orwell
3. Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy by Christopher Hayes
4. Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum
5. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
We’ll be administering tests and giving out grades from time to time on this Blog.
In the meantime, Happy First Birthday to us!
-Lillian Hepburn-Richmond
(A Cohort of Concerned Parents)
Shining Light. Breaking Silence. Holding Accountable.
We’ve got Eyes On SAA.
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