Hello Prince George’s County Citizens:

I am Edward Burroughs, a member of the Prince George's County Board of Education and I need your help. The school district lost over $6 million dollars in federal funds because PGCPS employees neglected and abused students in the Headstart program. Headstart is a program where low income children ages 3-5 are provided an opportunity to attend preschool at no additional expenses. This program is supposed to help some of our most vulnerable students get a Headstart, and yet PGCPS managed to provide the exact opposite: students were actually victimized and humiliated. The school board has now learned that there were several cases of abuse not reported to child protective services or police. This week we learned that Dr.Kevin Maxwell has concealed from the board an investigation of allegations of child molestation on a school bus.

Just as alarming as the fact that these heinous acts occurred in our system is this discovery that some officials were notified of these issues and failed to act. And when they failed to act, they failed our students. And when we fail our students, we fail at our one, most vital task. We must hold these individuals accountable.

The federal government sent notice to the Board Chair Segun Eubanks in February informing him that we had several employees not complying with the federal investigation. Segun Eubanks did not inform the board about this letter then nor did he brief the board about the severity of the many abuse cases. By the Chair’s own admission he kept the information away from the board out of fear the information would become public. Even as he appointed Carolyn Boston, Vice Chair of the Board, to represent the board on the Headstart Council, this issue never got the dire attention deserved or even a mention to the rest of the board. This school board’s leadership chose image over action; preservation over prevention.

Those students deserved our attention, and now they deserve an external investigation into how exactly we allowed this system to fail them. Sadly much of the political debate has become a game of he said she said, but this matter is too serious to be hampered by bureaucracy and further negligence. While the board leadership has been doing everything in its power to block even an external investigation into the matter---already stifling board votes on the issue twice----we need your help to get the answers you deserve and the solutions our students need.

With leadership more interested in salvaging the way things look than fixing the way they are, the only way we are going to get that external investigation is if the public demands it. Please sign the petition and send it out to your networks---help us get to 1,000 signatures and show that we will not be silenced, and, most importantly, we will not let those victimized students be either.

-
Edward Burroughs, III
Board of Education District 8

Please Watch the Following:

FOX 5 EXCLUSIVE: Prince George's Co. school board member calls for CEO Kevin Maxwell's resignation

http://www.fox5dc.com/news/207081712-story

Rep. Donna Edwards calls for independent investigation of Head Start program

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/upper-marlboro/rep-donna-edwards-calls-for-independent-investigation-of-head-start-program/309423063