Madison Denies Greater Benefits For Gay Employees
Rejection Comes As Governor Doyle Makes New Push For Same Sex DP Benefits
Madison - The city of Madison has rejected a grievance filed by one of its unions seeking greater health insurance benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian employees. The rejection came February 27, just weeks after Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and City Council members made a strong statement for gay rights by pledging to amend their oath of office to protest the state’s new ban on gay marriage.
  The grievance accused the city of violating its union contracts by failing to offer full health benefits to gay and lesbian employees because its insurer does not cover domestic partners. Those employees only qualify for single, as opposed to family, coverage. However gay workers also are paid about $600 per month to help their partners purchase coverage on the open market.
  The stipend does not cover the full cost of buying insurance, it does not extend through retirement and partners with medical coverage have difficulty qualifying on their own, according to Scott Matthews, a city property appraiser and union leader who filed the grievance.
  The same day the city’s rejection was announced, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz received a letter from Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle advocating for the city to explain same-sex partner benefits. Doyle said he supported allowing the city of Madison and other local governments offer health benefits to their employees’ gay and lesbian partners through a state plan. In his proposed state budget released in mid-February Doyle also proposed extending health benefits to the domestic partners of all state and University of Wisconsin System employees, regardless of sexual orientation.
  Doyle referenced his budget proposal in his February 27 letter to Cieslewicz. “I would also support a change in state law so that the domestic partners of municipal employees who obtain health insurance through their municipal employer through the (state plan) could access this program,” Doyle wrote.
  According to Doyle spokesman Matt Canter, the law change would promote fairness for gay and lesbian workers and would help local governments keep good employees.  Canter suggested that despite the lack of a current, definitive proposal, municipalities who would participate in the state plan would also most likely have to provide the domestic partner benefit to their employees.
  Doyle’s letter came in response to an earlier letter from Cieslewicz requesting the expansion of the benefits. Despite the city’s reimbursment to gay employees of up to $7,200 a year for private insurance costs for employees’ domestic partners Madison cannot cover employees outright because the state plan used by the city does not offer such coverage.
  In his letter Cieslewicz said the change would not only strengthen Madison’s current benefit package but could provide a permanent solution to the rejected grievance and allow the city to remain in the state insurance plan.
“I want to thank the governor for his willingness to go to bat for municipal employees as well as state employees,” he wrote.
  Republican lawmakers and anti-gay activist Julaine Appling have already weighed in on Doyle’s DP budget proposal. Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) earlier said he opposed Doyle’s plan to add domestic partner benefits for state workers because it could add to the state’s costs. Reacting to criticism that he had opposed the benefits idea sight unseen, Fitzgerald spokesman Mike Prentiss later said the senator would want to see the actual proposal for municipal employees before he took a final position on it.
  However, chief executive of the Family Research Institute of Wisconsin Julaine Appling used a classic conservative “local control” position by noting that the proposal would force some local officials to offer a benefit they don’t support. “He’s taking control away from the local units of government,” Appling had said of Doyle’s idea.
  To date about 35 Madison employees have accessed the domestic partner benefit out of a work force of about 2,700. In 2006 the city spent an estimated $86,000 on the benefits, according to Cieslewicz spokesperson George Twigg, noting that the mayor believed any increased cost to the city from passage of the Doyle proposal would likely be relatively small.
  On March 1, the editors of the Beloit Daily News directly slammed Doyle’s proposal and indirectly referenced  Cieslewicz’s letter, suggesting the recently adopted constitutional gay marriage ban trumped any domestic partner benefits scheme. “What pert of last fall’s statewide referendum, resoundingly rejecting full marital and family status for domestic partners, did officials in Madison fail to understand?” the uncredited editorial began.
  The paper opined theirs was a “fair question” to both the Doyle Madison letter and his budget plan that would  “provide gay partners’ health insurance at taxpayer expense.”
  While exonerating itself because of its earlier editorial opposing the ban, the editors said they believed  “the will of the people - the folks who pay for all these benefits - is what really ought to matter to those elected to represent those citizens. And the people’s will was made pretty clear, in terms of what they do or do not want as a legal definition of family.”
  The editorial, however, ignored the repeated claims from Republican leaders in the run-up to the referendum who said that domestic partner benefits would not be impacted by its passage. The editorial also failed to consider that despite the 59-41% majority voting for the amendment only about half of the state’s eligible voters had turned out, meaning the “will of the people” was mandated by less than 30% of Wisconsin’s actual adult citizens.
 
Episcopal Leader Asks For Roll Back Of Gay Issues Support
Move Seen As Schism-Avoiding Compromise For Anglican Communion
New York - In a live webcast February 28, the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop began the painful task f persuading members to roll back their current support for gays so the denomination can keep its place in the world Anglican fellowship.
  The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts-Schori told a studio audience, callers and those who submitted questions by email that they should make concessions that Anglican leaders are seeking to buy time for reconciliation. “To live together in Christian community means each member takes seriously the concerns and needs of other members,” Jefferts-Schori said. “If we can lower the emotional reactivity in the midst of this current controversy, we just might be able to find a way to live together.”
  Asked whether she was abandoning gay and lesbian Christians, Jefferts-Schori said, “My view hasn’t changed, but I’m called to be pastor to the whole church.” Jefferts-Schori had openly supported the ordaining of gay men and women in committed long-term unions.
  Anglican leaders earlier had emerged from a closed-door meeting in Tanzania with an ultimatum for the U.S. denomination: They gave Episcopalians until September 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another partnered gay bishop or authorize official prayers blessing same-sex couples. Failure to comply will risk a much-reduced role for the U. S. church in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.
  The Episcopal Church, which represents Anglicanism in the United States, caused  the current uproar in 2003 by consecrating its first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson. The decision put the liberal Christian focus on social justice directly at odds with the traditional biblical view of sexuality.
  On February 27, Robinson made his first public comments on Anglican demands, saying the church should reject the ultimatum and instead “get on with the work of the Gospel” no matter how communion leaders react. Several other Episcopal bishops have issued similar statements.
  Most of the calls and questions submitted during the February 28 webcast were filled with emotion and based on personal stories. One woman said her daughter is a lesbian seeking to become an Episcopal priest who was “brokenhearted” by the restrictions on gay church members. Another asked whether Anglican leaders were actually promoting division instead of healing.
  Jefferts-Schori responded by saying “an ethic of justice and inclusion would seemingly also urge us to include the dissenter.”
  The presiding bishop cautioned that a rush to break from other Anglicans would hurt Episcopal humanitarian work, disconnecting the U.S. church from sister churches overseas. She said she understood the fear created by the crisis, but a split would not solve the problem.
  “We are being pushed toward a decision by impatient forces within and outside this church who hunger for clarity. That hunger for clarity at all costs is an anxious response to discomfort in the face of change which characterizes all of life,” she said. “The impatience we’re now experiencing is an idol - a false hope that is unwilling to wait on God for clarity.”
  The Episcopal House of Bishops will take up the proposal for the first time at a closed-door meeting in March. Jefferts Schori said she was also trying to find a way that the House of Deputies, which represents clergy and lay people, could weigh in on the decision without calling a special convention, which would be expensive and time-consuming.
    Theological conservatives are a minority in the 2.3 million-member U. S. church, but are the majority among Anglicans overseas.

World & National News:

Gay Rights Pioneer Barbara Gittings Dead At 75
Philadelphia - Gay rights pioneer Barbara Gittings has died. Gittings lost her battle with breast cancer in here on Sunday, February 18. She was 75.
  “Barbara was a real pioneer who fought tirelessly in the name of human decency and human dignity,” Pennsylvania Governor Rendell said in a statement noting Gittings’ passing.
  “She is our Rosa Parks,” Malcolm Lazin said of her passing. Lazin is the executive director of the Equality Forum in Philadelphia.
  “Barbara gave a face to the gay community when it was deeply in the closet,” Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal added. “She had a sense of humor. She had fun winning over hostile audiences.”
  A half century ago, gay life in the United States was conducted in society’s shadows. In 1950’s America sodomy was illegal in all fifty states. Police routinely harassed and raided gay bars and other places were “deviant homosexuals” were known to gather, arresting and jailing all who might be present. Barbara Gittings was one of a handful of brave men and women who began the modern gay rights movement,  a decade and a half before the Stonewall riots.
  In 1956 Gittings was instrumental in the early fight for lesbian rights, founding the New York City chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis (DOB) and edited its magazine, The Ladder. DOB had started a few months earlier in San Francisco by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon. DOB was the first lesbian rights organization and an alternative to the bars.
  Four years before Stonewall, on July 4, 1965, Ms. Gittings helped organize a march at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to support what gay activists then called  “homosexual civil rights.”
  “It was both scary and exhilarating,” Gittings said years later. “We knew we were doing something that hadn’t been done before. It was our first in-your-face street picketing.”
  The demonstrators dressed conservatively. “We were fighting for federal employment,” Ms. Gittings’ partner Kay Tobin Lahusen told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We wanted to look employable.”
  Gittings continued to march on July Fourth at Independence Hall for three more years, and in 1972 she helped organize the city’s first major gay pride parade. She also was active in the campaign that led the American Psychiatric Association to drop its categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973, and received an award from the association in the fall of 2006. Ms. Gittings headed the American Library Association Gay Task Force and edited its gay bibliography. The Free Library of Philadelphia’s Gay and Lesbian Collection was later  named in her honor.
  In a 2001 interview Gittings revealed that as a young woman, she tried to resolve her sexual orientation through books and literature, and could only find homosexuality listed under “sexual perversion.” “This was not about me,” she said. “There is nothing here about love or happiness.” Eventually, she said, “I simply found my own people.”
  Gittings was born in Vienna, Austria, where her father was serving in the U.S. diplomatic corps. She graduated from Wilmington High School and spent a year at Northwestern University. She worked at office jobs and in a music store in Philadelphia while pursuing her activism. She and Lahusen met in 1961 at a picnic in Rhode Island. They lived in Center City and in University City, and moved to Wilmington in the 1990s to care for Ms. Gittings’ mother and aunt. She enjoyed classical music concerts, especially baroque and renaissance music, and sang with the Philadelphia Chamber Chorus for 50 years. In addition to her partner of 46 years, Ms. Gittings is survived by a sister, Eleanor G. Taylor.
  Memorial donations in Gittings’ name may be made to Lambda Legal Defense Fund, 120 Wall St., Suite 1500, New York, N.Y. 10005-3905.

Poll: USA Okay With A President Who’s Gay
Princeton, N. J. - A mid-February USA Today/Gallup survey has found that 55% of respondents would vote for their party’s gay or lesbian presidential nominee if he or she were “generally well-qualified.” Moreover, the hypothetical gay politician polled better than one who had been married three times - which only 54% of respondents found acceptable.
  Given the wide range of backgrounds among the current and presumptive 2008 presidential contenders, the poll asked how willing Americans would be to vote for them. 95% of those polled would vote for a Catholic; 94% would vote for an African-American; 88%would vote for a woman and 72% would vote for a Mormon.
  Only 42% said they would be “comfortable” voting for someone 72 years old, the age of  recently-announced candidate Senator John McCain.
  Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is Catholic and on his third spouse; Senator Hillary Clinton is female; Senator Barack Obama, black; and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Mormon.
  The only category to poll below 50% was “atheist.”

Judge Quashes Massachusetts Anti-Gay School Lawsuit
Boston - A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by parents who objected to discussions of gay families in their children’s classrooms, ruling the parents do not have the right to dictate curriculum in public schools.
  U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled on February 23 that federal courts have decided in other cases that the constitutional right of parents to raise their children does not include the right to restrict what a public school may teach them. Those earlier rulings also have held that teachings that contradict a parent’s religious beliefs do not violate their First Amendment right to exercise their religion, Wolf said.
  ‘’In essence under the Constitution public schools are entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy,’’ he said in his ruling.
‘’Diversity is a hallmark of our nation. It is increasingly evident that our diversity includes differences in sexual orientation.’’
  Wolf dismissed both the federal and state claims made in the lawsuit, but said the parents could refile the lawsuit in state court. The case has attracted attention in part because Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that allows same-sex marriage.
  Tonia and David Parker of Lexington sued last year after their son brought home a book from kindergarten that depicted different kinds of families, including a gay family. Another Lexington couple, Joseph and Robin Wirthlin, joined the suit after a second-grade teacher read to the class, King and King, a fairy tale that tells the story of two princes falling in love.
  Both couples claim they have religious beliefs that homosexuality is immoral and that marriage is a holy union between a man and a woman. They argued Lexington school officials violated their parental rights to teach their own morals to their children.
  ‘’It boils down to this simple thing: the parents have a fundamental right to be the primary directors of their children’s upbringing and moral education,’’ David Parker said in response to the ruling. ‘’At the very least, this translates to monitoring the curriculum and conversations going on in elementary school,’’ he said.
  Jeffrey Denner, an attorney for the parents, said they would appeal Wolf’s ruling to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and also refile the claims in state court. Parker said Lexington school administrators violated a state law requiring that parents be given notice and an opportunity to exempt their children from any curriculum that ‘’primarily involves human sexual education or human sexuality.’’
  But John Davis, an attorney for Lexington school officials, said the books cited by the Parkers and the Wirthlins did not focus on sex education, but depicted various families, including same-sex families. Davis said school officials view the decision as confirmation they can teach diversity to students without violating student or parental rights.
  In his ruling, Wolf said parents have a fundamental right to raise their children and are not required to abandon that responsibility to the state. But he said the Parkers and the Wirthlins have alternatives if they do not approve of the curriculum at public schools, including private schools, home-schooling and working to elect a Lexington school committee that will choose a curriculum more compatible with their beliefs.
  ‘’However, the Parkers and Wirthlins have chosen to send their children to the Lexington public schools with its current curriculum. The Constitution does not permit them to prescribe what those children will be taught,’’ Wolf said.
  The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which supported Lexington school officials, praised the ruling. ‘’This is not a case about teaching about homosexuality. This is a case where Lexington sought to teach about diversity and about having respect,’’ ACLU staff attorney Sarah Wunsch said. ‘’It’s not about sexuality; they were teaching about different kinds of families.’’

Gay Civil Unions Begin In New Jersey
Asbury Park, N. J. - Gay couples across New Jersey began claiming the same legal rights as married couples early February 22 in ceremonies that formalized their relationships as civil unions. The state law establishing civil unions for same-sex couples took three days earlier. But because there is a 72-hour waiting period after applying for a license, most couples had to wait until to hold civil union ceremonies.
  New Jersey is the third state in the nation to offer civil unions, which offer the protections and benefits of marriage - but not the title. Vermont and Connecticut also offer civil unions, and California offers domestic partnerships with similar benefits. Massachusetts is the only state to allow same-sex marriages.
  In Asbury Park, a shore community being revitalized largely by a growing gay population, two couples were joined in ceremonies after midnight at a party sponsored by Garden State Equality, a gay rights advocacy group.
The event was part ceremony, part political rally. Two couples were read two sets of vows. The Rev. Bob Krieset asked the couples - Thomas Mannix and Kevin Pilla, and Degn Schubert and Mark Rado - to vow to continue fighting for the right to marry. Then Mayor Kevin Sanders led the exchange of civil union vows.
  For Schubert and Rado, such ceremonies are becoming old hat. They have had seven so far, including domestic partnerships and a marriage ceremony, both in San Francisco. The state of California ordered that marriage annulled, however.
  The couple wore matching suits for their vows. Rado said the New Jersey recognition was the most important because it comes with the most protections and benefits. “I just feel lucky that we live in New Jersey,” he said.
  In Lambertville, an arts community 20 miles north of Trenton, Beth Asaro and Joanne Schailey, who have been together for 20 years, also entered into a civil union shortly after midnight. “It was something we never dreamt could happen,” Asaro said of their new benefits.
  Last October, the state Supreme Court ordered New Jersey legislators to offer gay couples all the benefits of marriage, but left it up to the lawmakers what to call it. They opted for “civil unions” in part because of opposition from legislators who objected on religious grounds to calling it “marriage.”
  The civil unions law grants same-sex couples hundreds of benefits, including the right to file state taxes jointly and inheritance and child-custody rights. Also, people in civil unions cannot be forced to testify against their partners in criminal court. The benefits, however, are not recognized by the federal government or in most other states.
  Gay rights activists say they’ll continue to push for the right to marry in New Jersey. Opponents want to amend the state constitution to specifically ban gay marriage. Forty-five other states have either laws or amendments with such bans.

Heirs Challenge Lesbian’s Claim To IBM Founder’s Fortune
Portland, Maine - A gay woman who claims she was both the daughter and “wife” of multimillionaire IBM heiress Olive Watson has sued for a stake in the Watson family fortune. Patricia Spado was Watson’s domestic partner for more than ten years until 1992, when the couple split up, according to court records. Before the breakup, Watson - the daughter of IBM founder Thomas Watson Jr. - legally adopted Spado in Maine in order to circumvent state laws that forbid them to marry.
  At the time, Spado was 44 years old and Olive Watson was 43. Spado contends that the unusual arrangements were intentionally designed to allow her to become Watson’s legal heir. Since Spado was legally adopted by Watson, she is technically Thomas Watson Jr.’s granddaughter.
  However, the elder Watson’s other grandchildren now contest Spado’s claim to a share in a family trust reportedly worth millions of dollars. Thomas Watson earmarked the trust specifically for his grandchildren, and it became active when he died in 1993. He did not know about his daughter’s arrangement with Spado, according to court records.
  Thomas Watson’s blood heirs have been arguing in probate courts in Maine and Connecticut that he intended the trust solely for children born to his children, and not their adult partners.
  In their 14-year relationship, Patricia Spado and Olive Watson spent only five nights apart. They lived in New York, spent summers in Maine, and shared the more practical pieces of a life together - a home, a joint bank account.
  “It shows what people are driven to when they don’t have access to marriage and the conventional way of forming a family,” gay legal activist Mary Bonauto noted. Bonauto is a lawyer with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based group that won the legal battle that introduced gay marriage to Massachusetts.

Proposed Oregon Bills Would Give Couples Legal Protections
Legislation Comes As Neighboring Washington DP Bill Passes Senate
Portland, Oregon - Two bills backed by Basic Rights Oregon would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and authorize civil unions of same-sex couples.
  The bill introduced in the Oregon House of Representatives would afford same-sex couples some of the legal protections that marriage offers opposite-sex couples, although civil unions would be distinct from marriage. Couples also would have to be residents of Oregon.
  The bill introduced in the Oregon Senate would bar discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, public accommodations, education and public services.  An earlier proposal, known as Senate Bill 500, would also bar gay discrimination, but is limited to the first three categories.
  Both bills emerged from the Governor’s Task Force on Equality. The Senate passed a combination bill two years ago, and nondiscrimination bills in 1991 and 1993, but none has passed the House.
  In neighboring Washington, a domestic partnership bill for gay and lesbian couples appeared headed for state law. On March 1, that state’s Senate passed the measure by a 28-19 vote after a heated debate that boiled over when a Republican senator made references to bestiality and necrophilia.
  The bill is expected to easily pass the Washington House, though it’s not clear when it will come up for a vote. Governor Christine Gregoire has said she supports the measure.
  The legislation would give gay and lesbian couples the right to visit a partner in the hospital, inherit the partner’s property without a will and make funeral arrangements, among other things. That right also would be extended to unmarried heterosexuals in which at least one partner is 62 or older.
 To qualify partners must be part of a same-sex couple, or if in a heterosexual partnership, one person must be at least 62. Additionally they must share a residence, be at least 18, capable of conenting and not be married to another person or in a domestic partnership with anyone else. Blood relation restrictions already in state law would also apply.
  Washington DP supporters noted that older heterosexuals were included because they face the possibility of losing pension rights and Social Security benefits if they remarry. The pervasive reality of such senior living arrangements widely have been credited for the failure of Arizona’s constitutional marriage ban last November.
  Currently, three states, plus the District of Columbia, have domestic partnerships or similar provisions, according to the Human Rights Campaign. One state, Massachusetts, allows same-sex marriage; three others allow civil unions.

NBA Team Owners Donated Over $1.1 Million To Anti-Gay Group
Olympia - The millionaires recently turned to Washington’s legislature to authorize a $300 million tax subsidy for a new basketball arena also have been playing right-wing politics. Two members of the new Sonics ownership group are heavyweight financiers of a national political group dedicated to banning gay marriage.
  Together, co-owners Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon donated more than $1.1 million to Americans United to Preserve Marriage (AUPM), a right-wing group that has been one of the leaders in the fight against gay marriage. AUPM  group is led by former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, also known for his helming of other anti-gay groups such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.
  According to  Bauer’s group, gay couples allegedly “flout marriage by using it for their own political agenda (and) cheapen the institution.”
  As Seattle Sonics struggle to persuade the Legislature to support a new $500 million basketball arena in Renton, the latest revelations are adding static to the already-strained conversations with Democratic leaders who have consistently backed gay rights issues.
  They also have come as the National Basketball Association is attempting to define itself as a champion of diversity to counter the public relations fallout from anti-gay statements made by former NBA star Tim Hardaway. After Hardaway said in a radio interview that he hated gay people, NBA Commissioner David Stern banished him from the All-Star weekend in Las Vegas.
  Sonics spokesman Jim Kneeland suggested that  the co-owners’ contributions and political activity do not contradict the NBA’s recent condemnation of bigotry.
  “First of all, (Clay Bennett), who is the managing partner in this effort, is not involved in anyway,” Kneeland said. “That’s a key distinction. People are entitled to have their views, they are not views that I happen to agree with ... but they are not trying to impose them on anyone out here.”
  “I won’t argue that some of the owners may have more conservative political views than the norm out here; one of the things that they agreed to when they bought the team is that they would leave their politics at the state line,” Kneeland added. “They have done that. They were not involved in the election cycle out here last year and have no intention of doing so.”
  Ward is the chief executive officer of an oil and natural gas production company. McClendon is chief executive of a natural gas production company. Both companies have headquarters in Oklahoma City. The ownership team of which they are a part also owns the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.
  Sports radio talk show host New York Vinnie Richichi of KIRO-AM/710 regularly has heard what thousands of wide-ranging sport fans think on his weeknight call-in show. According to Richichi the Hardaway controversy was a hot topic.
But Richichi noted that the fans’ overwhelming view about gay players was one of indifference. “Especially the way the Sonics are going, they could have 12 gay guys sitting on the bench, we don’t care as long as they win,” he said.
  Richichi added that stadium opponents could use the issue against the Sonics if the issue ever comes up for a public vote. “And I think you’d have certain people in the community who would look at that and say, ‘It would be tough for me to say in good conscience to support (this).’ It would be tough for Storm fans who are openly out to support an ownership that would do this,”noting that most people who root for sports teams don’t know that kinds of political activities the owners engage in.

Meth-Selling School Principal Busted While Watching Gay Porn
Bethlehem, PA -  Nitschmann Middle School principal John Acerra was at his office on the evening of February 27 when police arrested him on charges of allegedly dealing methamphetamine. Sources said he was naked and watching gay pornography at the time of his arrest.
  Acerra also had sex toys, drugs, cash and a pipe in his school office when authorities stormed his office, the sources added. Police said Acerra remains jailed on $200,000 bail.
  After the arrest, one of his neighbors said they still couldn’t believe the whole situation. “It’s pretty sad if you’re supposed to be the principal of children that you’re suppose to be molding,” the woman, who prefer the remain unnamed, told a reporter for greater Philadelphia’s NBC 10. “Maybe not be a hero but someone a child could look up to. To do that, it’s pretty disgusting.”
  School administrators said that facts of the arrest have been hard on the students. Officials said they have counselors on hand to help students cope with what the school district described as a betrayal of trust.
The president of the Bethlehem School District, Dr. Craig Haytmanek, described former principle John Acerra as one of the “rising stars in the district.” “Everyone was impressed with Mr. Acerra,” said Haytmanek, also also noted that while the school district had some inkling of a problem with Acerra, officials “had no idea it was related to narcotics.”
  Haytmanek said that Acerra often showed up late for work, but that principals were allowed the keep their own schedules.

State News: