Dictators and Rogue Regimes around the world have all been known to exploit members of their own society. The Germans under Nazi rule exploited the Jews as well as homosexuals and other misfits according to their own prejudices. The USSR under Communism, Stalin and other Communist ideologues pretty much did the same as the Nazis. Red China too. One thing Cleveland County, North Carolina has in common with the Nazis, Soviets, Red China, Cuba, etc. is they all exploit their handicapped citizens and try to punish or discredit all political dissent. A “Dissenter” being defined as someone who questions the moral authority of the ruling class. Etc. All human rights violations.
Over the years of watching Cleveland County agencies operate I have caught a whiff of the corruption surrounding the treatment of the handicapped. And the cover-up. And the extent that the cover-ups go. The New North Shelby School Project is one of the most recent examples of Cleveland County Schools wastefully spending $millions to cover-up problems with education in Cleveland County Schools. The location of the new North Shelby School Project was poorly chosen in regard to cost effectiveness in the resources spent on the new school. Poor soil and topography cost millions in remediation. Only to recognize that the Project was located at James Love Elementary School, a failing school, to add the handicapped to the James Love mix to change the category of the school failure to a less offensive grade. All the while CCS leadership didn’t give a whit about the handicapped students, except as a smoke screen for a failing school.
Also, over the years, the Cleveland Vocational Industries Incorporated operation has generated a number of quick “hide and go seek” indicators of basic problems with the operation at CVII. When you stop for an instant and apply a little critical thinking to CVII you realize that CVII is the recipient of handicapped students that “age out” of CCS. Are these students really taught at CCS to be a part of a productive society through employment at CVII? Or is CVII just a warehouse for the handicapped to be used, abused and exploited under the cover of confidentiality until they die?
Recent hints of abuse at CVII surfaced in two locations:
1. The new Shooting Range:
Remember the very recent episode of rifle shots ricocheting out of the shooting range onto neighboring occupied private property? The long range rifle course shooting was shut down and corrective actions were initiated. Remember that part of that corrective action was to bring CVII workers in to pick up rocks at the range that rifle bullets might be ricocheting off of? The now disgraced and fired Range Manager, Sam Lockridge commented in a Shelby Star article that bringing in CVII workers was a “win-win” situation? A ready source of cheap and exploited workers might be a “win” for the Shooting Range and Cleveland County government, but it certainly was no “win” for the exploited handicapped workers provided by CVII and graduates of a so-called CCS education. Nor was it a win for taxpayers and parents of handicapped children who want to believe their precious children can have some sort of way to have productive and meaningful lives. Just like the parents of children who are not handicapped. I am sure the last thing these parents and taxpayers want to hear is they have paid many $millons for a system of exploitation that teaches their children the skills needed to pick up rocks somewhere.
But, “Oh!” County Officials might say, “this was an isolated incident.”
Anybody that might believe that standard lie should have come to the June 5, 2018 Commissioner’s Meeting and stayed for the entire meeting. And listened.
2. The Commissioner’s initiative to “clean up” Cleveland County:
During the first part of the June 5, 2018 Commissioner’s meeting there was a series of “Special Presentations” that any person with basic critical thinking skills would have recognized as an Election Year Political scheme to get the incumbent Commissioners, especially Commissioner Chairman Eddie Holbrook, re-elected. A Commissioner’s Chamber full of young children (and their voting age parents) who were going to get awards and their pictures taken with the commissioners. The children were excited and proud. So were the parents.
The occasion, besides Election Year Politics, developed from a Commissioner initiative to clean up Cleveland County. CCS had gladly jumped on board the political scheme that they obviously knew what it was as they do the same thing themselves at every School Board meeting. CCS sponsored a “Poster Contest” for the elementary schools called the “Litter-Bug Coloring Contest.” Judges were chosen and the winners were to be given the awards at this Commissioner’s meeting.