CPS officials are covering up deaths in the schools -- in violation of federal law, which requires reporting of all deaths within eight hours... CPS claims providing information is 'burdensome' while ignoring how burdensome deaths in the schools are...
One of the first people appointed to an executive position at Chicago Public Schools by the new administration under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Jadine Chou has served as "Chief Officer for Security and Safety" since June 2011. Under Chou's leadership, the Board of Education's "Office of Safety and Security" has devoted hundreds of hours to documenting claims that the so-called "Safe Passages" program has been an overwhelming success since the closing of 50 schools in May 2013, federally required reporting of deaths in schools is not being done. CPS officials are claiming that CPS has no information on the problems of death in the schools, while publicity stunts about the success of "Safe Passage" have been staged regularly since the massive school closings of 2013. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.Chicago Public Schools officials are covering up deaths of teachers and other school workers on school property, in a violation of both Illinois and federal law. The cover up, which continues at this writing, is confirmed by the refusal of CPS officials to provide accurate answers to requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). While the Board of Education's "Office of safety and security" has devoted hundreds of hours to documenting claims that the so-called "Safe Passages" program has been an overwhelming success, required reporting is not being done -- and then CPS officials are claiming that CPS has no information on the problems.
In an ongoing multi-year investigation into violence, working conditions, and deaths in the public schools of Chicago, Substance News has been told that there have been no "work related" deaths on school property in the last two years. But that claim is false.
On August 28, 2015 Substance News made a FOIA request for a list or records of all work-related fatalities in the Chicago Public Schools going back five years. CPS "Senior Assistant General Counsel" Jaculin Jerman Milovich states unequivocally in a September 29, 2015 to the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Illinois that CPS �confirmed that their search located no reported incidents of an employee fatality� for school years 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Interestingly enough the Federal government contradicts the CPS claim of no fatalities. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) website has a searchable safety database. With a few click of a mouse (not the rodent kind) any individual can find two fatalities in the past 6 months in Chicago public schools.
The first fatality report dated 7/29/2015 from Ray Graham Training Center High School (OSHA Nr: 1081400.015; Report ID: 0551701).
Above, Chicago Public Schools "Chief Executive Officer" Forrest Claypool is shown during the September 29, 2015 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. Claypool is the fourth "CEO" to head the city's public school system since Rahm Emanuel became mayor in May 2011. Emanuel's strategy is to privatize as much of the city's public services as possible, and the destabilization and corruption at the top of the system has continued from Jean-Claude Brizard, to Barbara Byrd Bennett, through "Interim CEO" Jesse Ruiz, to Claypool. The Board and its officials are committed to undermining the city's public schools, while proclaiming fatuous talking points and refusing to hold press conferences. Substance photo by David Vance.Then 5 more lines of data lower is another fatality report dated 3/19/2015 from Spencer Technology Academy (Nr: 1047347.015; Report ID: 0551701).
When navigating the federal government�s website (osha.gov) one can reach the Establishment Search. Then typing in Chicago Public Schools what pops up is 32 lines of data. The data represent all the that CPS has reported under OSHA Standard, 29 CFR Subpart 1904.39, "Reporting Fatality, Injury and Illness Information to the Government". The rule requires covered employers to report work-related fatalities to OSHA within eight hours of learning of the event, and report all work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye to OSHA within 24 hours of learning of the event.
OSHA Standard 1904.39(a)(1) requires employers within eight (8) hours after the death of any employee as a result of a work-related incident, you must report the fatality to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Department of Labor.
Then to clarify that any death must be reported OSHA Standard 1904.39(b)(5) requires all deaths even if they are not directly related to the work performed the standard states: Do I have to report a fatality caused by a heart attack at work? Yes, your local OSHA Area Office director will decide whether to investigate the incident, depending on the circumstances of the heart attack.
Clearly, from the federal government�s Safety website Chicago Public Schools had at least two deaths in the last two years contradicting the official statement made to the Illinois Attorney�s General�s office that there are no records of work related fatalities in the past two years. A prime example of the mendacity and corruption of any statements coming out of Chicago Public Schools central office.
When an old-timer was asked the question: �When do you know CPS is lying?�
Old-timer responded: �When they open their mouth!�
UPDATE: CPS RESPONSE TO FOIA REQUEST FOR RECORDS ON SCHOOL DEATHS...
September 29, 2015
Assistant Attorney General - Public Access Bureau Office of the Attorney General, State of Illinois 100 West Randolph Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601
RE: FOIA Request for Review� 2015 PAC 37475 (Kugler)
Dear Assistant Attorney General Barnaby:
I am writing in response to Request for Review 2015 PAC 37475 in which Mr. John Kugler disputes the Chicago Public Schools' two responses to his August 28, 2015 FOIA request #N000972-082815 for:
"Please provide each individual incident report for work related injuries and fatalities on all CPS properties for the 5111041, SY11-12, SY12-13, SY13-14, SY14-15. To make this request easier provide each incident report for the incidents provided in this prior FOIA release of records. Reference No: N000353-122314 Type of Record Requested: Incident Reports Describe the Record Requested: Records or lists of all employee accidents for SY10-11, SY11-12, SY12-13, SY13-14, SY14-15.
Attachments: IMPACT PPM 144934 Verify Data Extract of Employee Injuries_for FOIA_Request 2015 01_07 (4).xlsx."
The CPS FOIA Officer Andrew Mason replied to Mr. Kugler on September 4, 2015 asking that he narrow his unduly burdensome request in accordance with 5 ILCS 140/3(g) citing the fact that the Excel spreadsheet provided to Mr. Kugler under CPS FOIA N000353-122314 details 8484 incident reports. Attached for your reference is, the Excel spreadsheet provided to Mr. Kugler in response to his FOIA request #N000353-122314.
On September 8, 2015 Mr. Kugler narrowed his request by advising "Let's start with all incident reports for the last two school years SY13-14 and SY14-15." The CPS FOIA Officer replied on September 14, 2015 asking that Mr. Kugler again narrow his unduly burdensome categorical request in accordance with 5 ILCS 140/3(g) citing that there are 3172 incident reports for School Years 2013-14 and 2014-15 listed on the previously-produced Excel spreadsheet.
Mr. Kugler's categorical request for copies all individual incident reports for School Years 2013-14 and 2014-15 is extremely voluminous and fulfilling the request will unduly burden the operations of the District, An Incident Report is generally at least 2 pages in length and some reports are longer based on the amount of information noted. Each of the 3172 individual incident reports requested by Mr. Kugler would need to be located in the District's Verify incident reporting system, printed and then reviewed for redactions. The District's Verify Incident Reporting system does not have a feature that can locate and print multiple incident reports by batch. Therefore, each of the 3172 incident reports would need to be looked up individually by incident report number, printed and then scanned-in as a PDF document before undertaking redactions. We estimate this process will take approximately 5 minutes per incident report with at least 2 additional minutes per report to redact for student record information and personal information like employee ID numbers. Therefore, to satisfy Mr. Kugler's FOIA request, the District would need to undertake a minimum of 370 hours of work (7 minutes per report times 3172 reports equals 22,204 minutes or 370 hours).
Given that the District would need to task an employee full-time to look-up/locate, print, scan and redact 3172 reports for an estimated 53 work days or more than 2%2 months, we assert that CPS FOIA Officer Andrew Mason properly responded to Mr. Kugler's FOIA request 01000972-082815 in accordance with 5 ILCS 140/3(g). As part of Request for Review 2015 PAC 37475, Mr. John Kugler also disputes the Chicago Public Schools' response to his August 28, 2015 FOIA request #N000974-082815 for:
"List or records of all work related fatalities in the Chicago Public Schools for SY10-11, SY11-12, SY12-13, SY13-14, SY14-15."
CPS FOIA Officer Andrew Mason replied to Mr. Kugler on September 14, 2015 stating that the District had conducted a search for work-related fatality records and determined there were no responsive records. As part of this Request for Review, we have verified this search result. The District's third-party claims administrator overseeing workplace injury and death claims confirmed that their search located no reported incidents of an employee fatality determined to be work-related under 56 Illinois Administrative Code 350 for the time periods requested by Mr. Kugler. Based on the foregoing, we assert that the CPS FOIA Office conducted a proper search for records and properly responded to Mr. Kugler's FOIA request M1000974-082815.
If you require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me at (773)553-1696.
Sincerely, Jaculin Jerman Milovich, Senior Assistant General Counsel
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