Edhat Staff
(Photo: MAD Academy)
By edhat staff
Santa Barbara Unified School District’s (SBUSD) public meeting on Tuesday revealed more claims of misconduct involving Santa Barbara High School’s MAD Academy and its director.
Earlier this month edhat reported the Multimedia Arts & Design (MAD) program director Dan Williams was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation and returned to finish the school year before ultimately retiring. Williams is in his 40’s.
Santa Barbara High School Principal Elise Simmons stated SBUSD and Williams came to an “amicable agreement” and the investigation is not criminal, but a confidential personnel matter.
Many parents of Santa Barbara High School students commented on edhat and social media platforms claiming there’s more to the story.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Mark and Tami Sherman, parents of a current MAD Academy student and a former student who graduated in 2018, stated their older son came forward with allegations of inappropriate behavior at the academy. He claims he showed Williams inappropriate text messages in January 2018 that were sent from then-MAD Operations Director Pablo Sweeney. Williams allegedly brushed off the incident and said the texts must have been sent to him in error due to crossed wires from the Montecito Debris Flow, reports Jerry Roberts.
A year later, in January 2019, Shermans’ son reported the incident along with screenshots, emails, text messages, and voice recordings displaying Sweeney’s “predatory behavior” to Santa Barbara High School Assistant Principal Tiffany Carson. After reporting this incident, Sweeney was subsequently barred from being on campus, reports The Independent.
“Unfortunately, we are… intimately aware of the inappropriate relationships and the reprehensible and dangerous actions and inactions that define the culture of the MAD Academy, as exhibited by their current leadership,” said Sherman during Tuesday’s meeting, as reported by Jerry Roberts.
Aside from Willams being a state Mandated Reporter and allegedly failing to report such an incident, a video has surfaced allegedly showing Williams partying with underage students.
The video, provided by Ventura County Public Defender and MAD Academy parent Justin Tuttle, shows several students with a bong and a marijuana-filled glass jar with Williams in the background, reports KEYT News.
The SBUSD has yet to make a public comment about Sweeney and has not further commented on the reasons behind Williams’s temporary leave outside of it being confidential but not criminal.
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May 1, 2019: MAD Academy Director to Retire Following Investigation
Yikes. Lots of edhatters called it in the comment section of the first article. Sad it took this long for these bad apples to be removed. Now what to do about the School District …
Does anyone else find it interesting that the former principal at SB High where all this went down is now the Human Resources Director for the District?
The schools need to serve both groups. Yes, we need more trained trades – but we also need to provide for those kids that will go on to college and graduate programs too.
Probably you can make a good living working in trades but very few will have the option of doing something that will make you one of the elite 1%. And that kind of work can also break you down physically. I think those programs got eliminated because too often the minority kids were shunted into the vocational classes and the GATE classes were mostly caucasian. If you want to bring those programs back, you’d better fix that problem first.
Kids at MAD academy learn skills that can earn money without a college degree, so I guess you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Beyond that, yeah, we need tradespeople.
The district’s administration is a mockery while they collect fact paychecks and lifelong benefits they are putting our kids in danger, lying, and covering up. Horrible.
Cottage shouldn’t talk. Exacting how competent is their head pediatric surgeon? Has he botched any cases? Was he sued multiple times at his previous positions? Does cottage hide behind its morbidity and mortality committee?
Apparently kids think it’s more “respectable” to get a BA (aka Barista of Arts degree) in English or transgender studies and then work at Starbucks then to learn a useful trade.
Daniel Williams
Teacher (2017)
Regular pay:$86,394.49
Overtime pay:$0.00
Other pay:$2,896.10
Total pay:$89,290.59
Benefits:$15,016.82
Total pay & benefits:$104,307.41 (Transparent California)
When the principal says, “It is not a criminal matter”, what she really means is that “It is a criminal matter” but SBUSD Administration is trying to limit their liability at the expense of SBUSD students. Why not be accountable?
“Transparent California” is neither transparent nor California. It is just one of the many names used by the tax-exempt “free-market think tank” Nevada Policy Research Institute (NPRI). NPRI refuses to provide its own funding sources, stating, “NPRI respects the privacy of our donors, which includes the amount of a donor’s gift”.
NPRI’s primary funding source, as determined by The Conservative Transparency Project, is Donors Capital Fund, a dark-money source of funding for conservative groups. Its donors also include The Cato Institute, co-founded by the Koch brothers, and organizations affiliated with the climate change denial movement.
NPRI spends 75% of its revenue on six-figure salaries and benefits. Its goal is to undermine support for employee unions nationwide, thereby decreasing salaries and increasing corporate profits.
Transparent California uses data provided by the district and is also available at the State Treasurers Office. This organization makes it more readily searchable. You can trust it as much as the district that provides the data to state authorities.
Ha,ha,ha,haaaa
Like your obvious grasp of the English language? Spell check much?