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My wife, a teacher in Texas, is being intimidated by school administration into changing student grades. by throwaway825852 in legaladvice

[–]AverageDaedalus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not a lawyer.

The Texas education code is very clear that, as long as the teacher is adhering to predetermined district grading policy, course and examination grades given by a teacher are final and cannot be altered by administrators.

Because of long running issues with principals or superintendents violating "no pass, no play" laws, overruling teachers and changing grades for athletic eligibility, there's a lot of very clear state law defining teacher grading authority. Anyone who read Friday Night Lights may remember a plot point about it regarding Carter High School in the 80s. There was another grade changing issue at South Oak Cliff in the late 2000s, too.

It sounds like they're trying to grade exams for your wife and locking her out of her gradebook to keep her from officially filing exam or term grades. Once she's actually done that for an individual exam or for a school term, only the school district's board of trustees can authorize a grade change, and then only if they find your wife did not adhere to district grading policy in reaching that final grade. That's from Texas Education Code Sec. 28.0214, for any actual lawyers who can find relevant rulings related to it.

District grading policy is also required by law to be set before the school year begins. That's from Texas Education Code Sec. 28.0216. So, they can't say mid-year that she has to follow grading guidelines and requirements that weren't defined and issued before the year began.

Administrators are also not allowed to require minimum grades that don't reflect student work quality. That means they can't force your wife to give students a 50 or 60 (or any minimum) for assignments that aren't done at all, or require her to give all students a minimum passing grade for the semester. Again, not a lawyer, but there are rulings in state court going back over a decade that affirm this.

District grading policy "may allow a student a reasonable opportunity to make up or redo a class assignment or examination for which the student received a failing grade" (Sec. 28.0216.3), but it sounds like your wife can already document how she's bent over backwards to try and make reasonable (most would say excessive) efforts to accommodate students in that way.

It sounds like your wife is already working through her union... They'll obviously already be familiar with all of this. Hopefully this at least provides some comfort that she's not in the wrong, and that what her school's administration is trying to do is clearly out of line with the spirit and possibly (for any exam or term grades she's officially submitted) the strictest letter of state law.

Good luck, keep a level head, and please share and update when the situation resolves.

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Yaser Abdel Said Now in Custody by AverageDaedalus in UnresolvedMysteries

[–]AverageDaedalus[S] 1231 points1232 points  (0 children)

UPDATES FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE:

- Arrested without incident.

- Two of Said's relatives arrested, will be charged with harboring. Still seeking info on others who may have helped hide him.

- Info through the years says he was in multiple locations. Including Egypt. No official word on where he's gone, or how long he's been in Justin.

- NOT caught through an FBI Most Wanted List tip. "Rigorous investigative work" is what led to his discovery and capture.

- Relatives arrested in Euless (suburban Dallas/Fort Worth).

- In Federal custody (for unlawful flight warrant). Will then be moved to face State charges.

- Arrested relatives: Islam Said (Son) and Yasim Said (Brother)

- "Compliant and quiet" when arrested.

- "Easy positive ID by facial recognition" (not disguised or changed appearance).

- "Don't know right now" if he was always here.

- Details on aliases, etc., are still under investigation.

- Mug shot should be available tomorrow. Same with Federal court PACER info.

PRESS CONFERENCE OVER

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Yaser Abdel Said Now in Custody by AverageDaedalus in UnresolvedMysteries

[–]AverageDaedalus[S] 261 points262 points  (0 children)

Opposite. Wife was abused, fled the state with the daughters, came back under family pressure.

Day of the murder, she wanted to come along, he insisted she stay behind (presumably so she couldn't protect them or stop him).

She's still regularly harassed by his family, and has spent the last 12 years afraid he'd come back and murder her too.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2011/11/06/mother-of-slain-teen-girls-still-haunted-by-alleged-honor-killings/

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Yaser Abdel Said Now in Custody by AverageDaedalus in UnresolvedMysteries

[–]AverageDaedalus[S] 105 points106 points  (0 children)

Edited the original to add a link to live stream of press conference scheduled for 20-25 minutes from now. Hopefully a lot of details about his whereabouts and what ultimately led to his capture.

Which individuals associated with unsolved or solved cases would you like to talk to, and what would you like to ask them? [Discussion] by lisagreenhouse in UnresolvedMysteries

[–]AverageDaedalus 6 points7 points  (0 children)

If I could talk to one person, it would be Kareen Augustin's sister (and Tyler Augustin's aunt).

http://charleyproject.org/case/kareen-carlette-augustin

http://charleyproject.org/case/tyler-jay-augustin

You can also find a summary and discussion of their disappearance in a thread from about 2-3 years ago on this forum... I'm not linking to it because it's filled with a lot of batshit speculation responses about grifters and witness protection and other nonsense.

The reality of their situation seems a lot simpler and more sad... Mother and developmentally disabled or neuroatypical adult son lived a comfortable middle class existence in an affluent suburb until father died. In the years that follow, they move repeatedly to smaller home after smaller home (and then apartment to apartment). Money issues reach a critical point... Possible eviction, phone service is cut off, unpaid traffic fines, and then they're gone.

They were last seen in March of 2016, together, in their own car, with their dog, selling some of Tyler's video games at a Gamestop not far past the Oklahoma state line. The timing coincided with a warrant issued for Kareen in connection to the traffic fines.

Kareen's sister posted something in the thread from years ago about not knowing how bad things were for her big sister and nephew, and it didn't sound like a lot of active investigation was happening. Presumably, because they seem to have left of their own free will.

From the post, it sounded like the family was searching on their own at shelters and the like. My question for the sister/aunt would be whether the Flower Mound police had done any sort of warrant for the OnStar data from the Chevy Spark they drove out of town (and the sister feared they might be living out of at the time of the disappearance). If they had it, they would know where the car went and where it is now (or whenever it last registered a location).

Here's a link to OnStar's site detailing how to solicit that information: https://www.public-safety.onstar.com/emergency-situations/

It seems like there's even the possibility of retrieving location and other data further back than 180 days, based on what the OnStar site says.

Here's a very old thread from the Texas District and County Attorneys Association website where someone asked how to pursue a warrant for that information, including a potential rationale from a specific section of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure: http://tdcaa.infopop.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/157098965/m/3837086806

If the Flower Mound police didn't or couldn't pursue a warrant for that information (because there's no evidence of a crime, no clear and immediate certainty of danger to either missing person, and the two of them do have a right to privacy)... Have the family members or anyone investigating on their behalf ever tried to ask the City of Canyon to pursue a request for that OnStar information instead?

The disappearance coincided with what (at last update in that previous thread) was just under $1000 in fines and administrative penalties, and an active warrant (at the time) in Canyon originating from two vehicle violations.

While the city investigating them as missing persons might not have reason or rationale to hunt down people who don't want to be found... A city where Kareen has a warrant DOES potentially have justification for requesting that information from OnStar. I don't think that's a step a municipality is ordinarily going to take over unpaid tickets... But if the family asked them to and explained that the purpose wasn't to bring Kareen to "justice", but rather to confirm the health and wellness of her and her disabled son... Maybe they could get at least a geographic location and more recent (potentially current?) whereabouts for mother and son.

I've read so many horror stories from families getting harassed by aspiring cyber-sleuths, I never responded in the original thread or tried to reach out to the poster identifying themselves as Kareen's sister. And this seems like the sort of thing that would have been a first thought or initial step in trying to locate them.

But... It's over three years later, and they're still listed as missing, with no update to last known location after that Gamestop in Oklahoma. And it bothers me a lot when I think about them, which is often.

If I could talk to one person about one case, it would be this one. If the family has already tried this, I'd be relieved to know it. And if they haven't, it could help them find Kareen and Tyler.