1998 Steve Lane And Wes Curtis Confront Travis County Commissioners On Heavy Handed Truancy Program [p0vB6vY4yIQ]

00:00 My name is Wes Curtis. I'm with Texas Best Seminars. Texas Best Seminars puts on the Downsized Government Conference, the last Sunday of every month at the Chariot Inn 7300 North I-35 It begins at 1 o'clock Our speakers this month are going to be surviving members of the Branch Davidians We're gonna provide evidence that the government has murdered men women and children That's February 22nd of this month. Texas Best Seminars is an interactive media and teaching organization, and our purpose is to uncover the blackout by the mainstream media. And part of that is

00:44 As we were here last month to talk about ASAP, there were military police here, SWAT members and the mainstream media did not report any of it. I understand that these police were here to protect the commissioners and I would propose that they were her for the purpose of intimidation. Intimidation not only from the audience but also from the speakers So we're here again to talk about the same subject again, ASAP. If you want to talk about that same subject again sir, you can do that when we bring up item 5A Well as I have comments today about that program Your comments now can be about any item but anything listed on the agenda because your being taken out of order

01:38 We'll be glad to hear any comments you want to make about ASAP when that item comes up so we can discuss it. We don't know what time that's going to come out today do we? Probably in just a few minutes. I'd also add Texas Best Seminars and staying true to our mission statement of being an interactive news and education organization, not blacking out the public...we just heard a gentleman give a presentation about people being able to access websites through the internet to really find out about their government, that they don't have to come to Austin and find out about government. Well I would tell people anyone who might hear this when you see those websites your going to hear a very slanted website geared towards advocating that particular agency what i will tell you is Texas Best Seminars website

02:27 We now have live internet broadcasting capability. We tried it out for the first time last night, we did it and I would tell the Commissioner's Court and all other agencies that hold public meetings and executive sessions that we will be making a very concerted effort to show up to those meetings and we will be broadcasting the audio from those meetings live over the Internet worldwide there will no longer be a media blackout we will not allow Could you identify yourself for the court? Yes, I'm sorry. My name is Steve Lane By the way that website is www.texasbestseminars.org and you can tune into that and see when we're going to go to these city council meetings commissioners courts meeting put out to the entire world how Austin City Government works Thank You very much

03:18 Good morning. Yes, my name is Greg Erickson I come to you as a representative of Texas Seminars. We have Constable Van from Precinct 2 on the left, Constable Bruce Alphonse from Precinct 5 and Mel Coleman from Austin Independent School District As Commissioner Gomez noted Superintendent Neal from Del Valle also wanted to attend but was unable too Constable Alphonse is going to go ahead and start us off with a couple of comments on the ASAP program, and then we're going to proceed into just a quick status report about what's happening with ASAP. What impact are having it? And what improvements are we working on in the near future? Good morning I'm Bruce Alfonse constable for precinct 5

04:00 I wanted to open up our comments with a little discussion about why we have the trustee program to begin with. Why are we doing this? We started about four years ago when our juvenile population over at Garden of Betz was bursting at the seams. The alternative, at that point, was to spend millions of dollars incarcerating more and more juveniles in the outlying years What we found in research is that almost all juvenile crime has this initiating point with the very first time a child skips school

04:36 It really starts with truancy. What we found in Travis County is a child becomes truant and the school district, the parents nobody's doing anything about it they get in with some other kids that are truants they start doing graffiti They might start doing some drugs. To do those things they have to steal, to support their habits and then they start stealing automobiles and then they start hurting people. The premise of this program is that for our community it's a lot cheaper and more effective to deal with the child the very first time he or she skips class that we can see what's going on in that household and become partners with those parents to help that child get back in school. We've seen a lot of children where the parents say, my child is out of control and I need help. We've seen children where the parents say he has some sort of learning disorder and we don't know what to do. We have all kinds of issues at the constables offices criminal justice

05:34 and our social service agencies have been able to intervene and help these parents in a partnership to get their children back in class and graduating. The downside of truancy is that we have more dropouts, we have more juvenile crime, and we have more government assistance helping folks who don't have an education or can't hold down a job so it's very cost effective thing to have a law enforcement and social service strategy to go out and say here's the truancy laws, it is state law you have to go school. In state law you have to compel your child to go to school but also we're here to help you understand what going on in this household that causing your child not to go to school I can say my experience has been that 99% of the parents we've dealt with have been very appreciative whether we had serious problems in the household or not attendance is up

06:25 And I think that this is for the long term a very beneficial program for Travis County because it's probably one juvenile justice center in the outlying years that we won't have to build. Those are my opening remarks and I will turn it over to Roger. Let me just reiterate, I fundamentally agree with what you said and I think it was important for you to begin this presentation by reminding folks what we were trying to accomplish and that is a good hearted a sincere effort to try to prevent more serious problems with youth in our community while at the same time showing respect for the role of parents. Most of the parents that are contacted through this program by far

07:12 appreciate finding out that their children weren't in school if they didn't know it. There may be a few exceptions but most parents appreciate finding out and what we see from the government standpoint is that's usually the last time we have to be involved in that, if you simply told But this was the situation. Many of them were quite able to deal with it and God bless them, that's the best government there is as the parents dealing with it on their own. We had a Margaret's office representative and I had a meeting with you all about this and I want to explain the spirit of that meeting

07:56 This is fundamentally a good idea, smart investment of resources from the county's end. Number one because we're supposed to enforce the law that's our duty and we took oaths of office to do that but secondly because it's a good strategy as Bruce has pointed out to avoid greater tax expenditures more invasive kinds of things that we do with people when these kids really misbehave. But while we believe in this program and believe that this program needs to go forward, We've recognized long before recently that this program was not perfect and we needed to continue to perfect it. Not only in what Travis County does with our resources but what the school districts are doing and what processes are there, it takes better and better information and some investment in making sure that the information is right before we take any action

08:54 We've seen that as we got into this, there was a lot of work to do both on the front end of the process in terms of information that generates the visit at all. As well as on enforcement and later when we have to get to our JP courts and hold folks accountable for violating their truancy laws As well as the connections into the health and social services area where people need a little help from the community in order to stabilize their relationship with kids. As well as the connections into the health and social services area, where people need a little help from the community in order to stabilize their relationship with kids and get their kids have good relationships with the community at large

09:36 So I guess, I don't want anyone who will be criticizing me. to be under the impression that we so strongly support this program, we already think it's perfect. We don't and we know there is a chance with this much volume of work for there to be mistakes. We are looking at those mistakes honestly openly unafraid to deal with them on any other organizations involved in this were trying to get better and better at this program. It substantially a good program and will keep on working on things that are wrong

10:12 I wanted to say that because it's not just a personal attitude about this but the people involved in this team and have been working on this program have that attitude in spite of what others may try to characterize. We set up to hopefully change community values so they wouldn't be necessary. One of the things I'll point out about this program is that it's a learning experience both that the children are in school learning as they should be but the parents are learning too and they can effectively stop our program by getting their children to school. That's good. And, uh, that's the only way we get referrals is when the school tells us that they just don't know why the kid wasn't

11:06 Wouldn't you all agree that what Bob just said is in fact a goal we wouldn�t mind having at all? If there wasn�t an unexcused absence from any school, we would be thrilled. I believe we discussed this before and this program was set up to hopefully change the community values so it wouldn�t be that necessary We said the same thing about the handicap parking program. We would love for that to go out of existence and everybody simply has to follow the law. The enforcement? That enforcement, they have to go away because everyone pays attention to what they're supposed to do. But if people would not pay attention to those signs we would love it for that enforcement to have to go away because everybody pays attention to what their supposed

11:55 Good report y'all. Thank you, there's some more. Would you like to hear about the plan and program improvements? Yes if we would. Well just to close up the current state of affairs I just wanted to mention that to give you a sense of scope and scale right now ASAP is making anywhere between 400-500 visits per night It's a really large number. We've significantly increased in size and I think it speaks to also the planned program improvements because as we get to that scale, we'll start to see more anomalous things showing up more often where we have made mistakes and need to improve or recognize an area that needs additional work

12:36 There are six issues and I'll discuss them fairly quickly. Good morning, I'm Wes Curtis with Texas Best Seminars to reiterate a little bit about what I talked about earlier. Texas Best Seminars is an interactive media teaching organization And our purpose is to expose the blackout by the mainstream media in which what's really going on is not being brought to the American people. Which I might note that Fox 7 News has left before we decided to speak so that kind of supports the notion. They always do that, they miss the best stuff.

13:18 The fact is that when we were here last time, we had SWAT and military police here. And none of the mainstream media covered that We think it's kind of important that people know That's an intimidation factor for the audience and the speakers We notice they're not here today I noticed somebody on those TV related programs has been reporting for SWAT members to be here and I want you to know that's not true. I was told the reason they were here was to protect commissioners here,

13:59 If you heard some of the phone calls we were getting during this last week, it's possible people might interpret that to be a little bit more than just intellectual disagreement and it might be verging on being threatening. But I didn't ask for anybody in this commissioners courtroom. If just that one little subtle point is reported correctly, since we're all interested in the truth and the whole truth. And what's really going on? The purpose for us to be here is to bring to the people information about out what's going on out there and let them make some decisions about what they think they can or cannot do as far the government is concerned. So again we're here to talk about item number five on the agenda today, and I can interpret from what were discussing here that this purpose for item number five is to expand this program

14:53 No sir, the purpose of item 5 was to give us a status report and to get formal approval to the interlocal agreements with the Austin Independent School District and Del Valle for the program as planned. This is not expanding the program from its current operation. But the end intent would be to expand the program? Actually the end intent is to do away with the program The intent is not to have absences. One of the things I hear a lot of, and I've heard a lot of statistics here, one thing that I've seen no one present and thats the problems this program has

15:35 brought about and I'm sure from what I understand here that we're discussing these problems, it's in a constant mode of improvement but nobody is talking about what kind of problems it has incurred so that we know how to address those particular problems. No one has addressed that today. So one thing that I want to bring out in this as I understand ASAP started approximately two years ago at a current cost of approximately $400,000 beginning with the pilot program in three counties. It was embraced by the people of that community increasing student attendance potentially for the purpose of bettering education

16:22 I understand that Karen Sunlighter has been on the radio promoting this program, talking about its success. that in these other counties, the majority of people in these other counties do not embrace this program and like Travis County they don't even know the program exists. The fact is I think we have installed this program without consent from a majority of people for the purpose of increasing revenue only

17:04 And I believe that by installing this program without the knowledge of the people, that the statistics have been arrived at by intimidation methods with threats of jail and $500 fines. Anybody with any common sense is going to figure out that the statistics are automatically going up and I believe they're going up because of fear so you take no written authorization from the people and only using attendance statistics gained by intimidation tactics plus armed military police brought in to intimidate the people who want to speak out against this program like we did last time. I propose that this is tyranny, and the Texas Vest Seminars is going to expose that by radio television international shortwave and by the internet

18:01 I believe there's going to be a proposal today presented where the people can opt out of this program if they choose to do so. And if they choose to stay in this program, that they go on our list and will receive a call within a 48 hour period. We are opposed to background checks on all parents we feel that is another invasion of the parent privacy And if no one votes to allow the people to opt out of this ASAP program, then we're going to know who the enemy of the people are. If we have to jam the phone lines or fill this room or picket this court then were going to do so

18:49 and Texas Best Seminars is quickly becoming a voice for many of the people in Travis County. And if anyone wants to discuss any other issues about that with us, they can call us at 703-6767. That's 703-6767. I would like take odds with your statistics. Would you introduce yourself again please? Yes, my name is Steve Lane. You had mentioned that overall that you were seeing 1-2% improvement in attendance at school. Is that correct? Roger, would you join us back here please? Is that a correct... Did I write it down correctly? Sorry, Judge. Can you address the question again? I believe you said typically throughout the program you were seeing one to two percent gains in attendance through the ASAP program is that correct an overall figure

19:46 Each year, approximately each year we will see an improvement at the middle schools and elementary schools ranging around 1%. They had lower attendance rates than the school that didn't participate in the program. Now have higher participation rates or attendance rates in those schools My point is this you kept your very fond of this word significant You kept bringing up the word significant This a significant improvement when you were talking about 1-2% gains, I suggest that if your boss decided to give you a significant raise of one or two percent, you would probably be offended. One to two percent statistically speaking doesn't mean ten and twenty percent improvements in

20:27 in attendance rates. I must admit you totally threw that off balance because I haven't seen anything impressive or significant about 1-2%. Again, if I gave you a 1% to 2% raise you wouldn�t be impressed at all but that aside You know, for all this bickering and these discussions about issues and people's liberties and people's rights. One of the things I'm most concerned about is through all this something that has been lost And that's these kids Bickering in these discussions about issues and peoples' liberties and peoples' rights One of the things I am most concerned about is through all this something that has been lost And thats these kids Now I don't think anybody would disagree with me whether you're an advocate to this program or not

21:12 the main tool used in getting these children to school is intimidation and you cannot deny that. By their parents? No, intimidation by a law enforcement official, a constable okay I don't think that the opposition...I don't want to speak for anybody who opposes it but from my personal standpoint i'm not opposed to developing away administratively that perhaps uh... you're talking about caseload here..a large case load use the telephone. Why can't you sit in an office and pick up a telephone and call the parent? For God's sakes, why don't we just get really old-fashioned about it and send them a letter saying your child has been absent two or three days please contact us at the school. You said that point is communication dialogue if that's the point why are we sending armed constables out to initiate the dialogue

22:07 Why is that necessary? Couldn't we do the same thing through administration. I don't understand it you cannot deny that is the intimidation factor of sending a law enforcement official an armed law enforcement official to someone's house, you cannot deny that that is what has caused the increase in attendance. That deeply disturbs me! I really don't understand how we can justify getting results by selling our souls. I mean that's what we're doing, we're saying to our children and i think you would readily admit that a lot of these children probably are starting into becoming problem children okay? That having been said that means for whatever reason or another they don't want to go to school perhaps and I haven't heard anybody say this perhaps the school is garbage

23:02 And we've seen that. Public schools, generally speaking have a certain garbageness to them if that was not the case you wouldn't see the rapid drive away from these schools into homeschooling into rapid support for school vouchers especially at the state level. Some of them aren't going because the school is garbage, others are not going because they genuinely fear for their safety. Schools have drug problems we have crime problems in schools

23:40 of. We have gang problems in school, a lot of those kids might be scared to that so what are we doing? They're scared to go to their school or they don't want to go to their school and the last sanctuary they have on this earth is staying at home for whatever reason and what are we doing? We're intimidating even further because it's the last place that has a sanctuary for them on this earth which is their home and we're sending armed armed law enforcement officials to their house. to intimidate them even further. It's not enough for a high school child, if you don't think it is intimidating to stare at law enforcement official who is armed with probably a flashlight that capable of whacking over the head pretty hard as they are trained to do perhaps I don't know what the term for this nightstick something like that and probably the weapon choice for most constables 9mm semi-automatic pistol If you don't think that's intimidating

24:35 I don't believe that. If you've ever been pulled over by any law enforcement official for a ticket, your heart races why? They're law enforcement officials they have guns they have clubs they can whack you over the head if they want to. My heart is usually racing because i just did something wrong and got nailed for it. But its intimidating but point is the law enforcement official is intimidating what is the problem? with my picking up the telephone. Why do we have to make our messenger an armed law enforcement official? I've got to say this because, I'm sorry, I grew up in a household where my parents taught me and my teachers taught me and my neighbors taught me that if i were in trouble that a police officer was my friend And that's who I should seek out for help and that certainly what I am teaching my niece and my nephews

25:26 uh... and my you know everybody that i come in contact with a police officer is a friend and I think it's the real sad situation some people are getting the message of somehow that is something intimidation and children are being taught that but they can also be taught that they are friends. And while we're trying to clear up somethings in terms of Judge Elshar was trying to get something clear about what was happening here couple weeks ago, I actually watched Mr Jones' program that night so did pick up with viewer They were showing video of Commissioner Moore and I discussing with a lieutenant from the Travis County Sheriff's Office up front. And the video was being shown of us talking with that officer, and the play-by-play was something to do with us ordering in our SWAT officers and we were laughing and joking and pointing out specific people in the audience referring to Mr Jones and some others. Let me tell you what that conversation was for the record.

26:21 a lieutenant up here having a conversation with Commissioner Moranai and what he told us was, thank you so much for voting for the pay increases for the Sheriff's Office which went into effect January 1st. And I was joking with him saying well gee it hasn't really hit your paycheck yet it will hit at the end of the month and he said to us, well gee if it's not there I'll come back and see you. At which point I turned to the audience and pointed out in that direction that pay raise is not in here, you and everyone else are going to be in this audience. And that's where we were laughing and joking about a conversation. In fact I got here thinking what's going on today? It was just

27:04 Good question. Why were they here? No, I was referring to the number of people in the audience. I had no idea who you are. I'm not a forensic officer. Why were they here? I didn't order them there. Somebody had to order them to be here, they don't just come here on a payroll somebody ordered them to be here. Well it wasn't for me and I wasn't discussing with my SWAT officers conspiracy theories about what Marbury and Autoraptors look like... I don't want to be rude but Mr Jones' show is a call in show. Believe it or not we actually weren't discussing you all. Mr Jones's show is a call-in show so you can take issues up with Alex Jones within Percy. The issue here is about children okay

27:40 I don't want to get involved in the pettiness of things like that because it's petty quite frankly. We're talking about children and we're talking about intimidation, okay? Well this isn't the appropriate forum for your personal problems with Alex Jones. It sounds like it now what I'm getting at is this If this program is such a wonderful program, I heard you tout it and several people in support of it including constables, sheriffs whatever. You seem to be in support of it okay? if its not a question whether or not its good or effective then I challenge all of yall to do this

28:17 Instead of making it a mandatory program that by going to school you have to be in this program, you are part of this ASAP program. Let it stand on its own merits if it's truly good program people will opt into it I heard several times said today the parents are gracious that an armed law enforcement official comes their house and tells them their child has been absent from school fine let that parent it, buy into the system. What I'm saying is make the system stand alone and voluntary then you can promote it however you want. You can go down and say look at all these wonderful statistics, look at our improvement in our pilot programs if you convince

29:01 parents that it's a good program, let them sign into it. Why? If if it is such a great program why is it mandatory? Why not say to the parents hey we have this idea for program we've already had in place now were gonna make at 100 percent voluntary. If you wish to participate and think its a good program think it has merits then buy into it make it be a free market decision that is truly what this country is about Is there anything else you want to say? I think that's about it. I think it deserves serious consideration, that point. It really does. Thank you very much.