Larry Lewis also tried to control media in Austin — the Reagan High stabbing aftermath

During Lancaster ISD Superintendent Larry Lewis’ time as an area superintendent with the Austin Independent School District, the most major issue he faced, in all likelihood, was a fatal stabbing at Reagan High School. I talked with a couple of reporters from the Austin American Statesman about how Lewis dealt with the media on this issue.

Because these e-mails were given to me as “backgrounders,” I’m omitting names, and not completely or directly quoting from any of them. Nonetheless, as the incidents mentioned all occurred in public, I don’t have a problem referencing them in a general way.

One set of e-mails refers to an off-campus memorial for the student, at an area church. A Statesman editorial section writer was there, looking for ideas for a future column. The writer was talking to students when Lewis (and other officials) approached her and told her to leave.

Well, a church isn’t a school facility; Lewis had no legal authority. Allegedly, he said he was trying to protect students. Well, a writer will try to not be too “in your face” in most cases, in a situation like this.

But, the story doesn’t stop there.

Lewis then reportedly talked to the district’s public information officer to try to get an official complaint lodged against the paper. (Facing me more directly, he tried leaning on the managing editor of Today Newspapers, and the owner at the time I first wrote something less than perfectly PRish about Lewis and Lancaster ISD. He later approached that now-former owner last fall, when I first started doing investigative reporting about problems at the new Lancaster High School.) Anyway, the PIO didn’t do anything with that idea.

Before that, when the Statesman was covering the story itself, he tried to order a reporter and photographer to leave Reagan, despite them being with the school’s principal and district flaks.

Now, again, one incident of this, we might excuse as protecting students, or, as Lewis would say, “putting children first.”

BUT, he did the same thing at the student’s funeral, which again was at a public place where he had no legal standing.

Of course, the bigger issue might be whether the district could have done more to prevent the tragedy in the first place, and if THAT behind why he attempted to control the media.

From the Statemen’s April 4, 2003 coverage:

The Austin school district will launch an independent investigation into the death of sophomore Ortralla Mosley, who was stabbed March 28 at Reagan High School.

Mosley’s ex-boyfriend Marcus McTear, also a sophomore, was charged with first-degree murder.

Since Mosley’s death, school officials have said they were baffled by the tragedy. But parents, the Rev. Sterling Lands and a prosecutor with the Travis County district attorney's office said school officials had previous reports of violence by McTear against female students.

On Friday, school board President Doyle Valdez announced in a statement that the district will review how Reagan officials “handled events leading up to the tragedy to ascertain whether more could have been done to prevent the incident.” …

The board and Superintendent Pat Forgione will also review all discipline data and procedures at every campus, which could lead to policy changes. [Note: Lewis also had a “history” with Forgione in his last months in Austin.]

Lands, who conducted Mosley's funeral Wednesday, asked Valdez to investigate the campus. He said a Reagan security staff member, whom he wouldn't identify, said McTear had been sent to security the morning of Mosley's death after fighting with her.

Elaine Gifford, the mother of a former Reagan student who dated McTear, said McTear pushed her daughter down some stairs at Reagan, a charge backed by prosecutor Melissa Douma in McTear’s detention hearing Monday.

That “previous history” of problem behavior McTear had? From another story:

Melissa Douma, chief prosecutor of the juvenile division for the Travis County district attorney's office, told a judge that McTear brought two knives to school Friday. She also said he had a record of at least six disturbances at Austin schools, including one at Reagan that involved him pushing a girlfriend down the stairs.

That girlfriend was Rae Spence, 15, said Spence's mother, Elaine Gifford.

Gifford said her daughter and McTear were involved in a tumultuous relationship for more than a year, starting at the end of eighth grade. Gifford, a pharmacy technician with Albertson's, said she grew so concerned that she eventually enrolled her daughter at Anderson High School.

Trouble started soon after their freshman year began. Gifford said Spence would come home in tears because of arguments with McTear over her choice of clothes.

“He was nice and polite at first,” Gifford said. “As they got into high school, it became more possessive.”

When Spence came home with bruises, Gifford’s concern turned to fear. She said that she called Principal Nolan Correa several times and that he never called her back. [It’s unknown from this story whether she then went the next step above Correa’s head and called Lewis.] …

When Spence and McTear had another argument, this time on a school bus last April, Gifford filed charges against McTear with the Austin Police Department. She decided to move to Northwest Austin and enroll Spence in Anderson High School for her sophomore year.
On Aug. 20, the two families appeared in municipal court. Gifford said the judge dismissed the case. [It’s unknown whether Correa knew anything about this, let alone Lewis.]

And, from a Statesman editorial:

A high school must be a house of learning, not the seat of fear. One incident, even one as violent as Mosley’s stabbing death, doesn’t mean the campus is out of control. But it is a question school officials must probe as they search for answers in order to prevent similar assaults in the future.

Austin Superintendent Pat Forgione and Reagan Principal Nolan Correa should be forthcoming about the events that led to this unfortunate assault and about the atmosphere at Reagan. The Austin school district must guarantee that students are in a safe environment while at school. [Note 2: Forgione wasn’t forthcoming AT ALL with me when I tried to get him to talk about other issues related to Lewis. In fact, I never got the chance to directly talk to him via phone or e-mail, thanks to (the same?) PIO, playing gatekeeper.]

All said? Even with multiple attempts to obstruct the media, if it were limited to this incident alone, I might, just might have given Lewis a free pass on looking at his past, or at least a lighter scrutiny. But, as he repeatedly did the same thing in Lancaster, it has to be considered part of a pattern of behavior. (I don’t know how the Dallas Morning News has related to him, as Kathy Goolsby’s never done any of the tougher pieces, and instead a non-beat reporter, education-specific, tackles the tougher stuff.)

Sorry, Larry, but like I said in this space last fall, you don’t always get to have things go exactly your way. Beyond that, I do not see a smoking gun, but I do see a pattern of behavior.