The ultimate corruption
The most precious thing in our lives is our children and their safety. Sending them to schools assures us that they will be taken care of and safe. When that trust is violated, we expect the school administration to respond but, in Lawrence, it doesn’t happen that way.
It has been brought to my attention that Dimar Torres, Lawrence High School Dean at the 9th Grade Upper School Academy and Cultural Coordinator was discovered in a very compromising situation with a female student and it was decided to keep it quiet for the sake of the school’s reputation.
The administration decided to brush it under the rug and the best route was not to renew his contract. His Facebook page was deleted and no other action was taken.
I have been told that Lawrence Police Department has investigated the case so I sent a message to Police Chief Roy Vasque. I believe it’s despicable for the police department to cover-up sexual misconducts in our school system. This is not the first time because there are videos of two teenagers doing similar things in the hallway at LHS with a similar reaction.
Chief Vasque’s response came soon thereafter:
“In reference to your comments the Lawrence Police Department does not participate in cover ups. The dedicated men and women of the department conduct thorough investigations based on facts not speculation and rumor.
“The Lawrence Police Department has Not conducted any investigation or been given any evidence of your allegations regarding Mr. Torres.
“Regarding the students in the hallway, the department conducted an investigation and the teens were taken into the District Attorney’s diversion program. Since they are juveniles, the law does not permit us to release any details, so it’s not a cover up.
Thank you for your time.
Chief Roy Vasque
Lawrence Police Department”
It is refreshing that Chief Vasque defended his department but I trust my sources. There are staff members, responsible individuals who are sickened by what’s going on at the high school. There’s a YouTube video Mr. Torres made while a student at Bridgewater State University describing an encounter with a young girl in the most disgusting, undignified manner imaginable. And to think that he would end up working with young women here!
He is 28 years old and graduated from LHS. Attended Bridgewater State University, graduated in 2015 and has been working at LHS since 2017. He was very responsive to teachers whenever they called him with any discipline problem. Also, he is number 87 in the Lawrence Police Officer Eligible List.
Now that parents are aware of how these serious issues are handled in our schools, what are they going to do? I know: Nothing. That’s why they happen.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling
US Attorney for the First District of Massachusetts Andrew Lelling appeared on Boston Herald Radio with Adriana Cohen. The topic of the interview was beating the opioids epidemic which he considers crisis No. 1. They also talked about illegal immigration and sanctuary cities.
We have seen the increase on drug raids all over the Commonwealth and Mr. Lelling is greatly admired by law enforcement for working with them and helping eradicate this problem.
Something that caught my attention was the last paragraph about Lawrence and Dominicans specifically, which I reproduce here:
“The level of cooperation varies, even if something is ‘a sanctuary city.’ But I think overall it does make the job of law enforcement harder because over the years, federal authorities have counted on cooperation from local authorities to be able to do their jobs, and this comes up in 100 different ways. So in standard law enforcement cases, gang cases, whatever, we work a lot with state police, with local police. Local police know their towns better than the feds do. To count on that kind of cooperation — and ICE is the same way. So if local authorities will not cooperate with ICE, yes, it makes it harder for ICE to do its job. Now, there is some variation in this. So for example, I don’t think it’s a secret — in fact, I’ve said publicly — that we’re doing aggressive enforcement in Lawrence on the subject of fentanyl trafficking, other opioid trafficking and all that stuff. And we actually have a pretty good relationship with the Lawrence Police Department despite Lawrence itself being a sanctuary city because the Lawrence Police also wants to clean up the town and get rid of drug traffickers. You have a high percentage of drug traffickers in Lawrence who are Dominican nationals who are here illegally; the Lawrence PD helps us arrest those people despite the immigration issue looming in the background. And so that’s sort of an exception to the rule. But overall, yes, the sanctuary city phenomenon makes it harder for the feds to do their jobs.”
Museum Square
The City Council meeting of June 4 ended abruptly when the Council President Kendrys Vasquez called for “charter objection” which ends all discussions. They were about to take a vote to table the borrowing of 4 million dollars and we know that it would die tabled for a long time. This way, they are forced to bring it up again at the next regular meeting. However, it’s comical that the council president called a charter objection on a motion that he had to second.
Some of the councilors have managed to find copies of old contracts between the City and Museum Square but getting any information has been nearly impossible and highly insulting. When they try talking to Mayor Dan Rivera about what they already know, his standard answer is, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Instead of sharing what he knows and educating them in order to make better decisions, he insults them. I wonder who he is sharing it with. That will be one way to show how unprepared and uninformed they are. What councilors should do is call for a public records request. That way when Mayor Rivera denies the request, the councilors (individually or collectively) can have the secretary of state be involved.
But as caution to this document, if I were a city councilor, I would not vote for something that I have not all, or no, information to make a clear decision. That is how the city got itself into a financial crisis some 10 years ago – councilors voting for things without having all or any information.
Lawrence High School Graduation
Last week we proudly dedicated two pages to the graduation exercises of our high school but I forgot to thank Suzanne Carey Fernandez of the Lawrence Public Schools.
She took the beautiful pictures and sent me the speech of Student Speaker Jeranny Geraldo. We have a good working relationship and I don’t want you to think that I’m taking you for granted. Thanks.
Lights under the bridge
There was a celebration at Pemberton Park to view the lighting of the Ayer Mill Clock Tower and the lights on the Casey Bridge. The mayor found the necessary funding to contribute our matching portion of the expense.
All I can say to this short-attention spam public is remember last Christmas when he could not put a single bulb on the streets to celebrate the season.
Where’s the School Committee
Elections will be coming up and I don’t see much excitement from candidates planning to run for the Lawrence School Committee.
When the Lawrence Public Schools was taken over by the Commonwealth and Jeff Reilly became superintendent and the Alliance for Education was created. We were told that the reason for that was to train the members of the School Committee to eventually take over the responsibility of handling the Lawrence Public Schools.
Many years have gone by; school committee members get tired of not having a role in the education of our children and every two years we end up with new faces. Some elections have taken place with districts showing no candidates and they had to be appointed at a later date.
I cannot blame them for not showing interest. Most people in Lawrence cannot name a single School Committee member. What is the sense of being part of a group that doesn’t amount to anything and is learning nothing?