THE

LIE

This will come as no surprise but

I find myself in extraordinary situations or scenarios with incredible frequency. It’s kind of wild.

you will have noticed by now

It’s part of what makes me a semi-interesting human and sort of enigmatic.

slightly conceited too it seems

I’ve got a million stories to tell because of this and for the most part they are equal parts astonishing and hilarious.

This one being a glaring exception

and that is called an understatement

As best I can tell, my personality plays a pretty big role and the fact that I’m incessantly restless. I can’t sit still for a second.

Like, at Smith, I used to walk 10 miles a day on average…just in my classroom

But I think the biggest reason for all of the

“hilarious high jinks”

-Micheal Scott

and unbelievable situations I wind up in is: I’ve always been after the truth.

In nearly every season, my life has been a sort of relentless pursuit of truth.

I just mean I’ve always sought out authentic experiences and wanted to feel things genuinely.

I’ve never been able to turn away from it or be ambivalent. It’s like when I was maybe 15 years old and Kess explained to me that the world was broken, nothing is as it should be or will be one day.

Nighttime cityscape with tall buildings and bright lights, black and white photograph.

There’s comfort in knowing what the problem is

naming it

being honest about it,

facing the truth.

That’s how the HR letter felt when I got it.

well, it took a couple of days

One of the nights when I was still living out of a borrowed car and going from hotel to hotel, I stayed downtown at The Main (credit card points…)

I couldn’t sleep and I’ve never been downtown late at night during the week. It was empty.

So I got on one of those scooters you rent with your phone

and probably the second leading cause of death in college students.

and rode all over the city.

It was the same day I got the HR letter that

turned me into a character. I distinctly. remember feeling

something close to relief

as I zigzagged all over Norfolk. It was the same sort of relief I felt when Kess told me about the world being broken… at least I knew.

I realized the shit storm we were living through

cat 5

wasn’t some cosmic accident.

This was intentional. On May 19th, I received a letter laced with lies about events on May 12th based on reports that didn’t exist until May 15th. The letter had enough details for us to be sure that someone in admin at OSM went after my family.

And now they were using HR to keep me quiet.

I had a problem to solve now at least.

Although, I was still holding out hope that this was somehow a massive misunderstanding…

maybe someone hacked into the network at HR

and at Smith too I guess…

I don’t know.

I have this annoying tendency to always believe the best about people.

It’s the only flaw in my personality…

✕

To be honest with you, when I first got the letter from Rogan/HR, it was pretty disorienting.

It’s like a dystopian version of what I remembered happening and,

on it’s face, it was pretty damning.

When folks read it or we told them about it when I was explaining what happened, many of them dismissed me along with any credibility I might have had. My employment lawyer dismissed me pretty quickly, friends, family, etc. Hell, even I dismissed me during some low points.

Not our neighbors though.

They stood by us and never flinched.

We do a lot for our neighborhood, we host a block party twice a year and are intentional about “neighboring” Stef calls it. Well, during this season, the neighborhood did a lot for us and we came to rely on our neighbors quite a bit.

It’s one of a few things we’ve clung to in the midst of all this and we’re incredibly grateful for them.

I was pretty taken aback but still figured this was a misunderstanding, a major miscommunication.

Something that could be fixed with honest words

Not that I was sure exactly what the hell happened or why I was being vilified for wanting to make sure students were safe…

I figured surely someone at HR would give me a fair shot at correcting that letter. Someone would listen to the other side of the story for sure.

this is what I’m talking about me “believing the best about people”…

At this point, I was going deaf from all the

silence.

but at least the letter had some words.

When I received the letter, I had moments of doubt or questioning my perception of what happened…

But, trust me, there was already plenty of doubts and questioning of my perception of what happened,

a whole shit-ton of people (who knew nothing really about the situation) had those things covered.

The cruelest part

of falsely accusing someone of “mental health issues” is that it robs them of their voice, of defending themselves, of even having a say.

Everything can be dismissed. All the sudden, everything they say is “exactly what a crazy person would say”. So now that person has to be hyper aware of how they are being perceived by others because they don’t want to “seem crazy” and give anyone a reason to think the false accusations might be true…

and you know what will make you sound crazy…

actively thinking about whether or not you sound crazy.

Every account of something unexplainable becomes proof that it’s true.

and man, was there a lot I could not explain.

At some point, though, I realized that discussion is really tertiary and sort of irrelevant here.

Because the reality is, I documented this whole thing really well.

You will have noticed

(I mean, it was entirely out of self-preservation…)

the jury is still out on how successful I was

preserving myself I mean

also, too soon.

…a courtroom joke, really?

See if you’re tracking with what I’m trying to say here:

The value in having a record of something or documenting events well, in my situation, is that it creates an independent and impartial account of what actually happened.

For instance:

If I told everyone that “I am the owner of your car, that you actually stole it from me. And everybody says so.”

Well, that would be silly,

but if enough people are saying so, other folks will probably start to believe them.

Pretty soon we’d be having a public argument about who actually owns the car

and then you’d have to rely on whether you could convince the crowd that the car is yours

or

convince me to tell the truth.

But the solution is much simpler with a record. Because all you’d have to do, the thing that would settle that argument real quick, would be to go get the title and

see who’s name is on it.

That’s what should happen in my situation…

I documented my meeting with Williams really well soo we don’t need to argue about who said what or whether or not they can remember it

or if they’re lying about what was said…

You can just listen to the recording.

That tells us exactly what happened and what was said,

but only if you care to listen to it.

✕

If it came down to it though, I knew I could prove the vast majority of the letter was false with just the recording of Williams alone.

I set out to set a meeting.

I was going to find a way to sit down with somebody from the school district so that I could set the record straight.

That’s all I wanted… a meeting.

But when I took a second look at that thing, I realized apparently I was under a gag order and didn’t have many options.

Rogan wrote in the letter that I was

“not to have contact with any division employees other than Mrs. Williams, Ms. Edgar, or myself.”

Edgar is such a confusing last name for a woman…

As best I can tell, Edgar’s job is to do admin-level damage control. Like, Chesapeake Public Schools pays her to get involved whenever an administrator finds themselves in a cucumber.

And I sure as shit wasn’t trying to find myself

sitting in the principal’s office

getting chewed out

[Normally, I would say eff the ban on speaking to people, I’m going to go find whoever the most effective person is that can actually make decisions about the situation… I’d like to talk with them. But because I was living under the weight of the CPS situation, I doing my best trying to run a tight ship and do like I was told.]

Yes, it was bad

That left me with one option:

INTRODUCING

Chesapeake Public Schools business card featuring the district logo with a heron, contact information for Edie L. Rogan, and title as Assistant Director of Human Resources.

Over the course of about 5 months, Rogan and I sent a lot of emails back and forth. Like a lot.

A bunchy bunch McGruber

We’ve only ever spoken in person once at the district office before the grievance hearing to appeal my dismissal. She held the door open and looked up

(AH!)

she looked like she had just seen a dementor that escaped from Azkaban

and she never passed her Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.

A man wearing a purple bandana speaking with a serious expression, with the text "The worst thing about prison" overlaid.

Rogan works in HR at the Student Administration Building and so she wasn’t at the center of all this, obviously. But it wasn’t possible that she didn’t know who was behind it.

The details in the narrative were too stupid.

There’s no way this came across her desk and she was like,

“Huh. Another Honduranian cocaine ring situation. That’s the third one this semester. I wonder if he showed the deer videos… what’s with the deer videos? they always show deer videos.”

It seemed unlikely she was following HR guidance on the situation either. Apparently she was in a doesn’t-have-to-report-to-a-supervisor-or-anyone-with-some-common-sense-or-decency kind of situation.

Like, when I looked up what school board policy she could possibly be using to justify requiring me to submit to a medical exam, it’s about communicable diseases…

But the goal was to make sense of all of the asinine bullshit in the HR letter and, in so doing, figure out who made the false CPS report and seriously f*cked my kids up.

(we didn’t find out it was Williams for months at that point. Although we had our suspicions… Ms. Pontoon knew it was Williams from the start though. She pays attention to language and words the way I do and something about the wording of the letter made her certain from the start. Like I said, she’s bloody brilliant.)

The false narrative originated somewhere.

I knew it wasn’t all some giant cosmic injustice or the god’s hurling boulders and lightning bolts at each other (or whatever they do) or, even less likely, a coincidence.

The HR letter and my two hour scooter ride had given me that much clarity at least.

also a sprained thumb…

So I’m not allowed to talk to anyone and

Rogan

is who the letter came from so

Rogan

is who I decided to email

and this is what I asked:

A formal email from John Carr concerning employment review requests, details of incidents involving students and drug misuse, and requesting reports from staff. The email includes a signature and contact information.

✕

THE CARR MATTER

is about two things at once:

  1. an unnecessary workplace dispute

  2. an unfounded allegation of abuse

The two are connected by more than just Williams.

They both rest one “objective” claim

—“drug dogs found nothing”—

That claim is meant to silence any other narrative. That claim is how the workplace narrative turn into a CPS nightmare.

The CPS nightmare didn’t just pause because HR pressed “send”

While my school safety report was turning into a file in HR’s “24-25 investigations” folder,

CPS was turning Williams’ false report into an investigation of our home.

It’s real easy to read that May 19 letter from HR and shrug it off as a weird workplace thing and say “its a bummer they treated you like that, but what can you do?”

It wasn’t like that though.

By the time I was emailed the HR letter and opened the PDF on my phone, my “workplace dispute” had already spilled out of the school building onto my front porch.

They collided in the same week,

in real time

inside the same household.

There’s a line in the record that reads like a logistical update, but functions like a bridge:

“Dee is contacting Norfolk CPS to request that they do a wellness check on the family.”

That’s not a metaphor.

it’s a simile but that’s not the point I’m making.

(I just smiled real big when I was writing that haha)

While my professional conduct was being rewritten into a false narrative, CPS was interviewing my children at school. Alone.

While school administrators were forwarding emails about my “behavior,” officers were showing up at my address.

While HR was drafting a letter that would functionally end my career, CPS was in court getting a judge to sign off on a list of allegations and false information but swore under oath were true.

And the timing matters.

Because none of this existed in the record until after I escalated.

That’s not rhetoric or proving my point.

That’s chronology.

I reported a student‑safety concern up to the district‑level

and then

literally only then,

after I escalated my concerns

I’m described like a caricature of a teacher — caught up in his own conspiracy — chasing kids down to test them for drugs and steal their takis or whatever

and then,

literally only then,

after I escalated my concerns

Williams called CPS

 

The way Stef and I view foster care is the same as it was from the start.

— There are kids who need homes right down the street,

and we have a home we can share —

Once we adopted the Littles, we started deciding on whether or not to take a placement together as a family. We take a vote.

(no one has ever voted “no” although my oldest child and I voted “I’m not sure” once… and the next day we switched our votes to “yes”) 

Even if we are in a season of life that makes it not practical to take a placement, we made it clear to NDHS that

If there’s ever a time that a child who’s taken into care and they are going to have to spend the night the DHS building, please call us.

Even if we weren’t in a position to take a placement at the moment,

no child who is in the middle of the kind of experience that ends with you being separated from your parents, should have to spend the night in a damn building.

One time we got a call about three siblings, two teenagers and a 12 year old, in that kind of situation at like 11:30PM. When the supervisor called us about it, I responded “no way Stef, no way“

We were leaving town early the next morning to meet up with Stef’s folks in South Carolina. 

If you know us at all, you know we’ve never been a minute earlier than 15 minutes late everywhere we go.

And if we’re trying to leave town, triple it

and add 30 minutes…

If you must know that’s the reason why we were up so late in the first place, we do that last minute kind of packing where you already know you forgot something before you’ve even left

Stef told the supervisor to finish going down her list and call us back if they couldn’t find anything. It was 1130 at night so five minutes later she called back.

“They’re going to have to split them up John” 

Shit.

I’ll tell you exactly what we both knew that meant:

The two girls were older (teenagers) so they’d be headed to a residential center in Richmond.

Their younger brother was on the spectrum but hopefully they’d find a local placement for him in the morning.

The way the system works, if that happened, the odds of those three being together again before their court case was settled is slim to none.

Sometimes it takes years.

I was in the backyard when Stef told me.

I was doing God knows what, certainly not packing. It could’ve been any number of

but not less than 19

things that distracted me.

(Stef is so patient with me about that, it’s kind of amazing)

I remember, I had this flashlight,

because it was dark out

and we should’ve done been to bed already

and as soon as she finished saying,

“They’re going to have to split them up John” 

I whipped that thing as hard as I could at the fence in our backyard. I wasn’t pissed at Stef obviously or our fence.

(less obviously)

(Although… She did know damn well what the outcome of her little announcement would be.)

See, the idea of splitting siblings up is untenable to us.

That shouldn’t even be an option.

“Of course they can come here” Stef said

“just for the night!” I yelled from across the backyard looking for the flashlight in the dark…

(you should also know the way the system works is “just for the night“ can you turn into weeks and months if DHS can’t figure something else out…)

We spoke with the supervisor on the phone, we’ve worked with her before and she’s the best. I told her upfront we leave in the morning. We can only take them for the night, we can’t take three placements right now

(or ever probably but… Stef is something special so I’d never be so foolish as to rule it out)

but no, send them here, don’t split them up.

She told us how grateful she was and then

I kid you not,

she asked if maybe we could take the three of them with us on vacation...

What’s even crazier is the only way I got out of that with the supervisor (and Stef) was that we didn’t have enough room in the car…

We have some hilarious stories from that night, including waking up to a kid in our bathroom using the shower head to fill up the tub while he was sitting in it wearing boxers and singing “it’s raining tacos…”

In the morning, they found a placement for all three of them together

and we were three or four hours late to meet up with Stef’s folks.

Worth it.

✕

Wanna hear something wild?

Between May 15th and 20th,

(starting with the 911 call)

government authorities were on the front porch of our home; the police and/or CPS showed up:

8 times in 5 days.

  8  

A police welfare check. Then a home visit with police as back up. Then they ran it back the next day when CPS showed up again to convince us to sign the safety plan. Police came twice to serve us papers (three counts of abuse each).

Then a detective started calling Stef and never said why, but our attorney said to keep screening his calls.

+

CPS could show up at any minute. Legally once the case had a number,

they could literally show up any time they felt like it; we felt like we were being hunted.

They tried to get ahold of us incessantly:

(FSW Hunter didn’t need to leave her number, I already had it from months before when she took our 8 year-old foster son into care after a home visit to “provide services” and Mom was trying to look out for her son but doesn’t speak English so FSW Hunter called the police, reported Mom was on the run, and she ended up in the back of a police car.)

—while our family was actively dealing with CPS intrusion—

I had been “on the run,” for five days, which I describe that way with a certain degree of seriousness

beacause it really felt like

CPS was hunting us down.

SO,

We avoided being at the house,

We had zero control over anything really.

All we could do was use our physical location to try to mitigate harm and attempt to control the situation.

If CPS was coming to the house, we could try to make sure the kids weren’t there when they did.

We couldn’t do anything about it on Monday, though, the kids would have to go back to school.

Our lawyer was clear: the kids had to go but she can’t promise anything

and CPS could take them while they were there.

As Stef was dropping the kids off for school on Monday one of them asked:

“Who is picking us up from school today?”

(not wanting to promise anything, Stef half-answered)

“I hope to see you after school”

Our oldest, A (who is terrifyingly smart by the way), picked up on it immediately,

“What do you mean?”

“I hope I can still pick you up after school today, like normal”

That was the same day she called Stef from school:

If you’ve already listened to the clip, please don’t do that to yourself.

Stef spent school days at our next‑door neighbor’s house, in the living room, where she could see if anyone came to the door.

The first time a sheriff showed up to serve papers

—it would’ve been the sixth or seventh time authorities were banging on the door—

I was still on the run and Stef said she had just left our neightbors house and went in the back door. When the dogs started barking and she saw the squad car out front, she started to panic. She slid down to the ground and crawled over to the front door and the sat up with her back against it.

She said she was paralyzed. Like she couldn’t move.

Couldn’t face another police officer, bringing more bad news.

On one side, this officer was pounding on the door shouting

“NPD—OPEN UP!”

On the other side

Stef is sitting with her back to the door, holding Buxton and silently weeping and praying that the man would leave.

✕


We felt like we were already pushing it

by not signing their “safety plan.”

We knew (or were pretty sure) they didn’t have the authority to remove our kids—It wasn’t an emergency removal kind of situation.

But then again, they’re targeting our family based on nothing but

lies and unverified statements

loaded with coded language

that escalates responses

We didn’t know for sure what FSW Hunter knew—

whether our kids were adopted or not.

or if she really thought they were foster children.

OF COURSE NOW WE KNOW

SHE KNEW.

AND LIED TO MAKE US LOOK GUILTY

(we didn’t get copies of police reports or our CPS records or body‑worn camera footage for months and months at that point, so all we could do was go off what we remembered)

We were confused about parts of what was happening.

Like who the hell messed up this bad

but certain that if we signed the safety plan (that was being scrawled out on our front porch), CPS would’ve had me doing God knows what for “up to 60 days.” Whatever "services" they "recommended" 

And at several points stated the plan included,

NO CONTACT WITH MY KIDS

until DHS determines I’ve “completed the services recommended by the agency.”

The system turned temporary separation into prolonged punishment.

And the case was dragged out.

A five‑day hearing was supposed to resolve things quickly.

Instead, the City sought “additional time to gather evidence,” asked for a 30 day continuation, and all the sudden we were scheduling the adjudication on July 1st.

A five‑day hearing is supposed to be a checkpoint.

A moment where the state either proves its basis or it backs off.

Instead,

the City requested more time.

The short‑term “emergency” posture was extended,

The consequences were not abstract or insignificant.

It meant the protective order stayed in place.

It meant

no unsupervised contact.

Not for a weekend.
Not for a “cooling off period.”
For over forty days.

I took FMLA to help care for our oldest daughter. She had been admitted to a partial-hospitalization program for stabilization during her mental health crisis. It was (and still is) a grind. Every day,

appointments/therapies/interventions/psychiatrists

I couldn’t take any of the load from Stef either.

I couldn’t drive my daughter to her partial-hospitalization program or even take the younger two to the pool while Stef drove her to and from or did appointments.

because I couldn’t be alone with them.

I couldn’t be “unsupervised.”

Every single response by authorities; administrators, HR staff, CPS was way over blown and none of it made a damn lick of sense. 

Unfortunately, much of our support system felt the same. Most of our church community, a few close friends, and even some of our family pulled away or voiced concern that felt more threatening than comforting.

Almost everyone reacted with skepticism, concern, disbelief.

It was

all

too much,

too fast.

for us too in case anyone’s wondering…

We can only guess. But since we can, we’d guess people thought something akin to: 

“CPS showed up, so they must’ve done something” or “something must’ve happened, something must be wrong”

So, our support system got stripped out from under us.

But again, we were more disoriented by everything we were experiencing than anyone else was.

We’ve been a licensed foster family with the city for half a decade. THE SAME AGENCY THAT WAS PROSECUTING US HAD CALLED ME ABOUT TAKING A PLACEMENT 4 HOURS BEFORE THE 911 CALL.

(a five-year-old latino boy)

all the racists I know take in latino children and care for them like their own

and get are the first to get the call because they speak Spanish…

The week before,

we were called as witnesses by the city to testify to the excellence of care our former foster son received while he was with us.

—literally half the courtroom roster assigned to our case, including the judge, had to recuse themselves becausae the knew us personally—

So the lines were blurred and blended together for

us

most of all.

I mean we’ve been in the same courtroom where our hearing was scheduled

and rescheduled

many times before, it’s just that usually we’re there to support a foster child and sitting on the benches behind the witness stand.

Like, even if the power went out,

we could easily still find our way to courtroom 3B.

Wait, hold up, say watt?

Not now, I’m trying to highlight something

What about the shady people at court, the ones glowing to prism?!

You’re being dim.

I’m just saying, I’d be looking for an exit instead, fire you. I’m telling you, don’t switch off for a second because if daybreak out...

They’d be outmatched

Once you get blindsided and catch that smoke it’ll dawn on you.

✕

We were stunned by that hearing for a while,

I guess we sorta just expected it to be so obviously, foolishly, inexplicably, wrong that it would be quicklu tossed aside.

Maybe we’d get an apology.

Or a ribbon

We didn’t really know what all of it meant.

But our lawyer called us and said it was fine to go home.

Even though were crushed by the courtroom decisions, there was enough disambiguation to mean I could finally be back at home. The kids were already spiraling and everything was a confusing anxious mess for them more than everyonr else.

and

and Mom had been giving a kid-friendly half-explanations for why Dad wasn’t home.

And the kid-friendly half-explanations weren’t cutting it

they never do tbh

(because the Little’s process information at an unbelievable speed in crisis; they were forced to after years of survival and abuse. This means they can spot a kid-friendly explanation a mile away; that kind of crap doesn’t cut it with them.)

Despite everything else,

the insane levels of anxiety,

the constant barrage of bad news,

the wondering when the next phone call will come,

the false accusations and false narrative,

the loss of confidence that comes when your support system is suddenly gone.

Despite all of that,

I met Stef and the kids at Regent under those massive oak trees. Stef hadn’t told them I was coming home but when I came around the corner, our youngest saw me first and immediately sprinted straight at me, didn’t break eye contact once.

I won’t soon forget that.

I’m not crying, you’re crying

After the five-day (turned forty-day) hearing, we at least knew more or less what to expect when it came to CPS and the rules they were playing by.

The rules they were supposed to be playing by anyways.  

So I turned to my employment “feud”

That’s for you, Officer Hunter

It’s hard to explain what it feels like

to try to explain to the same system

that knowingly wrote a false narrative into a document

that would like to meet to “correct the record.”

It was a foregone conclusion from the start.

The moment this entire story turned

—the moment I stopped hoping this was all just a misunderstanding and started looking for evidence—

wasn’t the Fitness‑for‑Duty letter

It was the email after the letter.

The one where I asked to see the receipts.

Anddd that brings us back to the documents

Because the false narrative

that I’ve mentioned fifty-leven times…

is not abstract.

They put all that shit in writing.

And repeated it.

And then it got repeated again.

And again.

Look, the keyboard-warrior-email-war with Rogan started when I asked to see the receipts. I knew they didn’t have proof,

It wasn’t true, how could they?

I just needed her to admit they didn’t have proof and the easiest way I could think to do that was to boldly ask to see the records but come across as ignorant and naive.

That way Rogan keeps her guard down while self-righteous indignance compels her to respond directly and foolishly reveal things.

So, that’s why I decided to ask:

May I please have a copy of:

you know, take a little look-see

I knew they were lying

and I knew they didn’t have proof

because I knew

it wasn’t true.

They’d either have to admit they had no proof (documentation)

or

make shit up.

That’s why I emailed her in the first place.

When she finally got back to me

attached to her email was…

Nothing.

She said everything was just told to her by Williams.

Rogan answered in red text like she was correcting me.

which is the exact wrong response if she was trying to get me to drop it…

But she also accidentally showed the structure of the whole case:

Every statement or quote was a second-hand summary of a verbal report from

WILLIAMS

Every description of my character or behavior was a secondhand summary of a “verbal” report from

WILLIAMS

You’re going to remove an employee from their position and question their

“fitness to perform the essential functions of their job - teacher,”

then order them to take sick leave

and complete a mental‑health evaluation

based on specific claims about what they said and did…

but it’s not documented?

there’s no record of complaints?

No one reported anything about “concerning behavior”?

No teachers, no administrators, no students, no one gave a statement describing what they saw?

(but, yeah, obviously that’s the case)

like I said,

I already knew they wouldn’t have

any proof or documentation

because I knew it wasn’t true.

Everything

in the letter was a secondhand summary of a verbal report from

Williams.

what about the drug dogs tho?

Except the drug dogs.

The results of the classroom investigation are treated like an objective police finding, Rogan writes:

“The K‑9 request came from the Office of School Safety… You are not entitled to police findings.”

Wait, why not?

I mean “entitled” is a strong word

I meant more like can I see what we’re talking about?

Plus, the report is about my classroom… Right?

And, I’m the one who I reported the safety concern.

I mean even if she couldn’t show me the “official report” or whatever, she didn’t have to react like I stuck a 9Volt to her tongue…

Especially when those “police findings” are the reason she wrote

“at this time, the district has concerns about your ability to perform the essential duties of your position - teacher.”

in a letter addressed to me.

Why would Rogan guard the results like a Gimli down to his last lembas loaf?

She denies me access the police report

but tells me to accept the conclusion

like the conclusion itself is the proof

ONCE AGAIN,

The procedure playing out was straight up

BACK ASSWARDS

✕

HERE’S THE ISSUE

If drug dogs searched my classroom, there would be record of it.

A K‑9 deployment leaves independent

Footprints. Pawprints.

Nice.

Imma tell you what I’m talking about:

A K‑9 deployment is a dispatch event with a handler, a report #, and a conclusion.

A K‑9 search has only two outcomes:

either the dog

alerts or it  doesn’t

If a K‑9 unit came to my classroom,

there would be evidence of it.

And that information would be found in independent systems;

you’d see proof

in places Sabattis can’t edit…

✕ a K‑9 unit line on the CAD

✕ a handler name / unit number

✕ arrival and clear times

✕ a handler worksheet / notes / attachments (and usually BWC somewhere in the chain)

✕ emails between admin and CPD about the investigation

✕ logistics communications that had to be worked out for it to occur during school hours

So,

I sent FOIA requests to the two places that would have those records:

THE CITY OF CHESAPEAKE 

AND

CHESAPEAKE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

And when they answered, they didn’t say: “we can’t release them,”

they said:

“no records exist.”

And I asked a bunch of times… Here I’ll show you

  • SRO REPORT CLIPPED

    This is the single sentence that started the entire K‑9 records hunt

    Key line (CPD narrative, page 2):
    “On said day 5/15 our Chesapeake K9 officer came to do an open air sniff on Mr. Carr’s room, with no alert.”

    If a K‑9 came to the school, there’s typically some surrounding operational trail (dispatch/unit activity, logs, evidence/video entries, communications). This sentence is what the City later points back to when it says “it’s only in the incident report.”

  • (2025‑1409)

    Chesapeake PD FOIA response.


    They determined there were no responsive records, and that any K‑9 “open-air sniff” info is only in the SRO’s report. They explicitly add: this includes no body cam videos.

    Why it matters:
    This is the City putting a stake in the ground: no additional K‑9 records exist beyond the narrative mention + CAD history

  • k9? 2 Clipped

    A second City FOIA response, later in time, reaffirming the same position.

    What the City said (plain English):
    Again: the City reaffirms the K‑9 reference is only in the incident report + CAD history, and states there were no body cam videos.

    Why it matters:
    This removes any “misunderstanding” excuse. It’s a repeat, in writing.

  • K-9 3 Clipped

    City FOIA response describing an internal email search.

    What the City said (normal people speak):
    They conducted an email search for communications between Chesapeake PD and CP Schools staff (using @cpschools.com + (Carr OR Oscar Smith) with a date filter) and reported no responsive records for the May 15 incident.

    Why it matters:
    If a K‑9 deployment (or anything adjacent) was “known” and discussed between agencies, you’d expect something in writing. This exhibit is the City saying: we searched, and found none.

  • K9 4 1 clipped

    k9 4 2 clipped

    Straight up. In writing.

    What CP Schools said:
    “There are no documents responsive to request 5.”

    Why it matters:
    If the school district is part of the chain of events involving a claimed drug dog search, “no documents” is not a small statement. It’s an official position.

  • k9 5 clipped

    CP Schools response describing the search posture.

    What CP Schools said (normal people speak):
    They told me the K‑9 request required an email search. And when I narrowed it to non‑email records (logs/notifications/other admin documentation), they still said no responsive documents exist — and they closed the request.

    Why it matters:
    This is the school district saying: even when you narrow the request to the kinds of administrative records that should be easy to produce, they’re saying nothing exists.

From the outside,

a K‑9 deployment sounds like a big deal.

On paper, it’s one sentence.

in a narrative —

and then a trail of official emails saying nothing else exists.

At that point, the records aren’t just supporting the story.

The records are the story.

✕

A timeline visual titled 'The Lie Timeline' showing key events related to K-9 record claims, including dates, times, and descriptions of incidents, searches, and reports from May 15 to October 22, 2025.

FACT

✕ The K‑9 claim is repeated as if it’s an objective police finding.

but there is no official evidence of a K‑9 deployment from either “system-of-record” that should have one

Why make up the story?

Well, once the K‑9 claim is introduced, it does three things at once:

  1. It retroactively turns my reporting into irrational paranoia.

  2. It turns the school’s failure to respond into my instability.

  3. It makes escalation look like “mental health” instead of “procedure.”

And that matters because it sets the logic for everything that follows.

Once you accept the K‑9 story, you can justify anything:

✕ removing me from duty

✕ forcing an evaluation

✕ restricting access

✕ reframing my motives

✕ and eventually… recommended me for dismissal

Not because there were inaccuracies.

Because drug dogs searching my classroom and finding nothing

is the one core claim—the one “objective” claim, the one supposedly neutral claim— it’s the only claim that’s worth a damn.

and if that ain’t true,

how can any of it be?

HERE’S THE LOGIC BEHIND THE THING

  • SABATTIS POLICE REPORT

    The SRO’s incident supplement report states “On said day 5/15 our Chesapeake K9 officer came to do an open air sniff on Mr. Carr’s room, with no alert”

  • Abstract black, white, and gray geometric shapes arranged in a pattern.

    SCHOOL DISTRICT NARRATIVE

    Internal emails state: “Williams said dogs would be coming…fullblown investigation” “the dogs found nothing” “The K-9 request came from the office of School Safety”

  • A vertical white rectangular light on a black background.

    WILLIAMS -> CPS -> NPD

    CPS 911 call reports I am convinced of a cocaine ring, I bought kits to test kids, and “drug detection dogs were brought in…no drugs were found or suspected”

  • A digital countdown timer displaying the number 4 with a neon-style outline, on a black background with some text at the top and bottom.

    CPD REPORT CAD HISTORY

    The CAD history for the SRO’s police report contains no K9 unit lines or attachments and no indication of a canine handler dispatched or logged.

  • A wireframe 3D model of the number five on a black background.

    FOIA REQUEST

    FOIA request for any record of K9 unit. School district responds: “no records exist” and CPD states the only record of a K9 classroom search is the SRO narrative

when there should be proof of something but there isn’t, it’s called the

EVIDENCE OF

ABSENCE

“silence is also an answer”

Will you look right quick?

The incident report narrative looks a lot like

Sabattis basically copy and pasted the text from his email “OSM Statement(teacher)”

into the narrative for the report…

There was no caller.

There was no crime.

There were no drug dogs.

There were no other officers.

AND

There was no new information.

BUT

THERE’S A POLICE REPORT AND I’M THE SUBJECT.

WHY?

The morning after I called Dr. Schultz and escalated my concerns to DSSS,

Sabattis sends his email “OSM Statement(teacher)” to Williams at 10:57 AM on May 15th

THEN

Williams forwards that email to HR at 12:06 PM on May 15th

THEN

SRO Sabattis works the call for Police Incident # 25-59563 that opens at 2:57 PM on May 15th

THEN

The status of Police Incident # 25-59563 changes to “work in progress” at 3:29 PM on May 15th

THEN

SRO Sabattis closes the call for Police Incident # 25-59563 at 4:02 PM on May 15th

THEN

SRO Sabattis submits the narrative for Police Incident # 25-59563 the next day at 9:06 AM on May 16th

BUT HOLD UP

The narrative for Police Incident # 25-59563 written by SRO Sabattis was rejected (un-submitted) at 9:34 AM on May 16th

THEN

The narrative for Police Incident # 25-59563 is submitted by SRO Sabattis again at 4:02 PM on May 19th

(…five days after the date on the report, two minutes after the end of the work day, on the same day I receive the Fitness for Duty Letter from HR.)

AND WE KNOW THAT

CPS calls 911 at 10:23 PM on May 15th and tells Norfolk PD that

“there’s an investigation being done due to the dogs having to search the classroom”

and then gives the police report number they got from Williams to dispatch

WHICH MEANS

Williams called the CPS hotline she already had a CPD report number (#25-59563) and gave it to CPS as proof

A close-up of a printed document containing a transcript of a conversation about concerns related to a classroom setting, police investigation, and a police report, with some words redacted or censored.

FACT

The police records produced under FOIA show that

✕ On May 15 at 2:57 PM, CPD Incident Report (2025‑00059563) was created at OSM

✕ It was handled entirely by one officer - SRO SABATTIS

✕ I was added as an 'involved party' and a sequence of VCIN/NCIC queries were run. (driving record // criminal history // driver’s license information)

✕ The SRO’s narrative for that incident is dated May 15, but describes events the occur later

Call log showing an assistance call for code 4 on 5/15/2025 at 2:57 PM from Jessica Raiford on machine PSOC-EAST. 
(“CODE 4” means it’s being handled by one officer…)
Extracted text from a report showing personal details, unit status, and alert status related to a person named Jeremy Sabattis, including date of birth, role, sex, height, weight, and alert retrieval information.
Screen displaying a list of NCIC requests related to vehicle plates and personal information, including request times, request types, and personal details such as names, dates of birth, sex, Driver's License numbers, Social Security Numbers, and phone numbers, with some data blacked out for privacy.
A typed document discussing a school incident involving a student named Carr, who was advised to leave early, and law enforcement responses, including a welfare check and adult threat assessment.

INFERENCE

Given the police incident report written by SRO Sabattis on May 15th:

✕ Focuses on checks about me not my classroom or the student safety concern I reported

✕ Makes reference to drug dogs that were never deployed and other officers that were never there

✕ Contains information about things that hadn’t happened

✕ The audit log for the report shows that it was back-dated and edited after the fact

✕ Provides the only “objective” anchor (a report number + K‑9 line) for HR’s decision

It is reasonable to conclude:

the police report written by SRO Sabattis was falsified*

*inference

That’s why the only K‑9 “evidence” lives inside Sabattis’s narrative.

Because he can write a sentence about drug dogs.

But he can’t make the pawprints appear.

#GHOSTDOGS

Williams tells it → Sabattis writes it →

Rogan/HR cites it → CPS repeats it →

THEN

The police show up to my house and a nightmare unfolds.

✕

The “drug dogs found nothing” line is not the lie by itself.

It sounds “objective” and if you put it in writing, it becomes official. But there’s nothing to back it up in the system‑of‑record.

If HR is going to remove me from the classroom and require a mental health exam—so the report I made can be dismissed—they need something that looks neutral.

Not what “Williams said.” // Not how “people felt.”

Something official. Something with a number.

And that’s what the police report provides.

A report number +

a narrative that says “law enforcement looked into this”

(Even if it’s just a sentence typed into a supplement)

OK, BUT WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THE POLICE REPORT?

SUMMARY

Principal Williams:

✕ Creates a false narrative comprised of an unusually consistent set of specific phrases and details; then provides that information in verbal reports to both SRO Sabbatis and HR .

Officer Sabattis:

✕ Sends an email, “OSM Statement(teacher)”, repeating the same false narrative (that he was just told by Williams) to Williams as if he’s providing a witness statement

✕ Later he embeds the same set of unusually consistent phrases and details into his police report (adding the k-9 line)

AND

✕ His official police report includes false statements about a k-9 deployment that never occurred and a classroom investigation that never happened.

Human Resources:

✕ Internal emails written by Edgar/Rogan repeat the same set of unusually consistent phrases and details reported to them by Williams

AND

✕ Removed me from the classroom, required a mental health exam, and ultimately dismissed based on the false narrative provided by Williams and the police report authored by SRO Sabattis.

Timeline infographic titled 'The Lie Timeline - K-9 Record Gap (May-July 2025)' with a timeline of events from May 12 to October 22 regarding K-9 record documentation and related incidents, including safety concerns, escalation, police reports, CPR call, HR issues, and city FOIA requests.

✕

CONCLUSION

The decision to remove me from the classroom and require a mental health exam is based entirely on:

✕ A false narrative full of bizarre phrases, absurd details, and demonstrably false allegations

AND

✕ An official police report that is backdated, falsified, and makes claims but it cannot bear them out

SO,

It’s a closed loop.

Black text in a circular pattern reading 'WILLIAMS ROGAN' and 'SABATIS' separated by small crosses on a white background.

The drug dogs and report # are the props.

The police supplement is the mechanism.

And the goal is… to lend credibility to an HR letter?

[btw, I am not contesting the results of the “investigation” I’m not decrying outrage in the streets. I’m not rocking back and forth in the corner of my (occasionally flooded) basement muttering about it… If they searched and didn’t find anything, thank God I was wrong. Honestly, that would’ve been best case scenario after I reported to Williams. So then, what’s all this about?]

And, I mean, they could have done a search and not found drugs, sure. But even if they searched my classroom and no drugs were found,

why make up the drug dogs and details about other police officers?

That’s an awful lot of risk and effort.

It’s almost like the only place you find record of the k-9 search is inside the false narrative that flowed downstream directly from a single source, and the one person who benefits from it…

Williams.

Removing me from the classroom, the fitness-for-duty exam, all of it rests on the police investigation and k-9 deployment.

The police investigation and k-9 deployment were used to light the fuse that blew up my family.

But it turns out, no “objective police finding” ever existed.

Which sorta makes you wonder…

what exactly are they covering up?

THE

RECEIPTS

  • This is the single sentence that started the entire K‑9 records hunt

    Key line (CPD narrative, page 2):
    “On said day 5/15 our Chesapeake K9 officer came to do an open air sniff on Mr. Carr’s room, with no alert.”

    If a K‑9 came to the school, there’s typically some surrounding operational trail (dispatch/unit activity, logs, evidence/video entries, communications). This sentence is what the City later points back to when it says “it’s only in the incident report.”

    SRO REPORT

  • City of Chesapeake FOIA response.


    They determined there were no responsive records, and that any K‑9 “open-air sniff” info is only in the incident report + CAD history. They explicitly add: this includes no body cam videos.

    Why it matters:
    This is the City putting a stake in the ground: no additional K‑9 records exist beyond the narrative mention + CAD history.(R‑2025‑1409)

  • A second City FOIA response, later in time, reaffirming the same position.

    What the City said (plain English):
    Again: the City reaffirms the K‑9 reference is only in the incident report + CAD history, and states there were no body cam videos.

    Why it matters:
    This removes any “misunderstanding” excuse. It’s a repeat, in writing.

    CAD history P‑2025‑5798

  • City FOIA response describing an internal email search.

    What the City said (normal people speak):
    They conducted an email search for communications between Chesapeake PD and CP Schools staff (using @cpschools.com + (Carr OR Oscar Smith) with a date filter) and reported no responsive records for the May 15 incident.

    Why it matters:
    If a K‑9 deployment (or anything adjacent) was “known” and discussed between agencies, you’d expect something in writing. This exhibit is the City saying: we searched, and found none.

    EXHIBIT K9‑3

  • Short. Direct. In writing.

    What CP Schools said:
    “There are no documents responsive to request 5.”

    Why it matters:
    If the school district is part of the chain of events involving a claimed drug dog search, “no documents” is not a small statement. It’s an official position.

    EXHIBIT K9‑4

  • CP Schools response describing the search posture.

    What CP Schools said (normal people speak):
    They acknowledge your K‑9 request “requires an email search.” Then they state your “adapted” request for non‑email records (admin pages, notifications, logs) “results in no responsive documents” and they consider the request closed.

    Why it matters:
    This is the school district saying: even when you narrow the request to the kinds of administrative records that should be easy to produce, they’re saying nothing exists.

    EXHIBIT K9‑5