Why My Latest Book Is No Longer Available
The Official Reason and What I Think The Real Reason Could Be
I have been legally threatened by Amergis, my previous employer when I was working with SPED kids, to “cease and desist” from making my book The Secret Lives of Kids: My Time Spent with Class Bullies, SPED Students, and the Most Splendid Group of Kids in the World available, as it supposedly contains identifiable descriptions of children at the schools where I worked and is thus an invasion of their privacy.
At first I refused to remove the book from amazon, because in it I changed the names of all the kids (and adults, too — teachers, parents, and co-workers) and so I did not consider them to be identifiable.
On further reflection (and after increased pressure from Amergis and a law firm they hired, saying I was in violation of State and Federal laws and could be prosecuted for such), I had to admit to myself that some of the kids described in The Secret Lives of Kids would probably be able to recognize themselves (even under a different name) if they read it, and even be able to figure out who some of the others in it were, too. The last thing I want to do is embarrass any of those kids or hurt them in any way, so after looking at the matter from that angle, I finally acquiesced to the demands of Amergis — I “unpublished” the book.
I hope, though, that although the chronicle of the group that I consider my “grandkids” (the youngest students at Monte Vista TK-8 in Monterey, California, particularly those who were first and second graders this year) is no longer available, they will always remember that I consider them — as the subtitle of the book says — the “Most Splendid Group of Kids in the World.” I miss them every day.
NOTE: These “most splendid” kids are all neurotypical (in other words, they are not SPED, or Special Education) kids. Many of them, without prompting, regularly called me “Grandpa.” Their stories comprised the first half of the book.
But speaking of subtitles, what about the subtitle of this post: The Official Reason and What I Think The Real Reason Could Be?
The “official” reason (the complaint that Amergis lodged) is that I supposedly invaded the privacy of these “identifiable” children. I have to wonder, though, if the real bur in their saddle is where I write about how they (Amergis) responded when I was banned from going back to a particular school because of an accusation that I had “crossed boundaries” with one of the students, when she sat on my lap.
I will copy below that portion of the book (what I wrote about them/Amergis), but first: It’s true, a female student sat on my lap. HOWEVER: this was a SPED student who backed up to me and sat on my lap for a few seconds as I was sitting in a chair. I continued to work in that same classroom with that same student for a couple more weeks. If this incident was such a problem, why was I invited to come back and work with her there for two more weeks?
So, now, here is what I wrote about this incident which I think may be the real reason Amergis was so adamant that the book be removed from circulation (for some context, on telling me that I couldn’t return to that particular school to work because “boundaries were crossed,” they asked me if I’d be interested in working at schools further away [an offer that I declined]):
So in my opinion (again, whose else would I give?), Amergis should either have stood by me if they thought that maybe the complaint was bogus, and pushed to see how valid the complaint was and what others thought of it (those who have watched me work with the kids) OR, if they are convinced that I am a danger to the kids, they should NOT have offered me work in another school district, like a catholic pedophile priest being shunted off to another destination when caught molesting kids.
If I’m right about Amergis’ true motives, the whistle I was blowing about their conduct is only, with this post, louder than before, and thus their attempts to shut me up have backfired. But they did not complain about the passage above in the book. What they did complain about, namely that children’s privacy was supposedly being violated (which may have been masking their real concern) has been handled: The book is no longer available.
So if they have a problem with my publishing the outtake above, I will invoke the protection that whistleblowers are afforded. In addition to the First Amendment of the Constitution, encompassing freedoms of speech and of the press, even when company agreements exist stipulating that their employees not reveal particulars about the way a company runs their business, I have to believe that whistleblower protections apply when the conduct exposed is wrong and is potentially harmful to its customers and society in general (especially kids!).
To be clear: If Amergis truly cared primarily about the kids (which they should, and everybody should), they should not have offered someone they apparently suspected of being a threat to kids another job doing the same thing in a different location.
Is what Amergis has accomplished a form of book banning? A manifestation of “Cancel Culture”?
Anybody can say this, of course, but I want to assert as strongly as possible: I would never hurt any child in any way. In fact, quite the opposite is the case: anybody who does so in my presence won’t be doing it for long, unless they kill me first — especially when it comes to my “grandchildren.”
What you used to see when you clicked on the link for the Kindle edition of Secret Lives of Kids:
What you see now:
This pooch could almost be Taterskin, the chief protagonist of my Taterskin & The Eco Defenders trilogy (presumably somber because Secret Lives of Kids is no longer available)
