The Bayou

November 16, 2009

Daybreaker: BISD administrator harnesses the power of email

The BISD had a rough week; nothing new there.

What is relatively new is the spunk on display from a member of the BISD administration. In response to an unflattering story in this week's Examiner, BISD spokeswoman and special assistant to the Superintendent, Jessie Haynes, decided enough was enough.

She penned a LONG email, addressed to the reporter responsible for the piece (she's since apologized for the note, claiming to have written it while recovering from an illness). She then sent this email to the entire BISD staff, as well as members of the local media. To say she was livid would be an understatement.

Like we said, the email is WAY long. Instead of reprinting it, we'll give you a few highlights (if you wanna read the whole thing, we noticed that an anonymous reader placed it in the comments section of this post). She begins:

"On today, the Examiner Newspaper featured me on its front page. (Please don't spend a dime on the crap, just log on to their site if you must read it.) In any case, I believe it is my duty to share with you the facts. Here is an email that I did not send the reporter because I was in and out of grogginess while home trying to recuperate from an illness. However, I will share it with you and the media at large for you to have in the face of what I consider to be yellow journalism." Peeved, she is. Her note goes on...and on, addressing many of the accusations from the story. In her anger, she probably uses some language she shouldn't have. Like when she says, "You went on to claim some crap about Calvin Walker."

Then, she addresses what she believes is racism.

"The fact that Dr. Thomas is at the helm of an operation that includes multi-billion dollars worth of assets, more than 3,000 employees and millions of dollars in annual operations has made him the target of people who usually control Jefferson County and who have found he is not their "boy." Me working for him makes me your target, too, as was Dr. Mackey and many others over the years of your paper's existence. These are my opinions developed from seeing 70 percent of your covers being an attack on people of color." She does it again near the bottom of the note:

"Why am I on your list? Many thoughts cross my mind...[ ]...could it be your true colors coming out, despite a hood and sheet not being your cover, your defacto efforts appear to me to be to tar, feather and hang any person you can who is trying to bring about equal opportunity in this community? Go figure???" Ouch! Look, Ms. Haynes doesn't need us to tell her she's entitled to her own opinion. However, as the mouthpiece for the BISD, she's in a position of enormous responsibility. Why lend credence to a report she calls "yellow journalism?" And why send this treatise to ALL of your colleagues AND the entire local media? Why use the inflammatory language?

The race thing is a common undercurrent in all of these controversies, just spend a few minutes reading the comments to any of the recent BISD blog posts. What many seem to lose sight of are the kids. This is, after all, about them. Sure, it's about tax dollars and busted leadership and bloated salaries and disparate agendas and egos and power, but -- in the end -- Beaumont's children and their betterment are the endgame. How does any of this crap help them?

If these allegations and innuendo are, in fact, untrue, then there is no need to dignify this stuff with a retort (especially one as colorful as this). Instead, Ms. Haynes just gave the campus bully the satisfaction of knowing that they got to her.

No one looks good here. Not The Examiner, not Ms. Haynes and certainly not the BISD. Fireable offense? You betcha! As a wise woman once said, "there's enough blame to go around."


33 Gator-baiters:

Anonymous said...
I don't understand. Why doesn't the Examiner look good? They're only doing the journalism the Enterprise won't. The Examiner is reporting the facts, and showing some hustle; something the Enterprise seems to have forgotten how to do. I see nothing wrong with the behavior of the Examiner or any of their staff; on the contrary, they are to be commended.
November 16, 2009 12:43 AM

Sneeky said...
The Examiner reported the facts. They are not going to print something that they don't have the goods on - in hand. Ms. Haynes has chosen to pull the race card which always seems to poke it's head out. If these folks, were doing right by the tax payers - there would be no need for their garbage and wrong doings to be put in a paper. Shame on Ms. Haynes - I thought she had more class than that. Talk about helping put a major divide between races... you go girl ... cuz you are sure doing just that. If you worked for me - and this went out - you would be fired on the spot.
November 16, 2009 4:00 AM

Anonymous said...
BISD administrator's and board need to go.
November 16, 2009 5:10 AM

Anonymous said...
My dealings with Ms. Haynes have been lackluster at best. I have in the past few years tried to get information from her, and it tooks weeks and weeks to get anything out of her.
November 16, 2009 5:11 AM

Anonymous said...
People in control are bad enough - BLACK people in control are impossible. And when all else fails - there's always the race card. It never ends. That woman is a looser - and she can't write herself - started the whole thing with "ON today" - it should have been "IN today's". If it wasn't so sad, it would be funny -- actually, it is funny.
November 16, 2009 5:36 AM

Anonymous said...
Follow the money trail............
November 16, 2009 5:43 AM

Anonymous said...
If a white person wrote this they would be fired for discrimination and creating a hostile work environment....a black person in charge writing it? A good Obama supporter....I wonder when she will get a pay raise for this....
November 16, 2009 6:03 AM

Anonymous said...
Wow, are there any whites left in Beaumont? If so why? "On today" you should realize that everything your granparents feared has come true.
November 16, 2009 6:11 AM

Anonymous said...
The whole letter was ridiculous and she should be fired. Talk about unprofessional. BTW- who cares?
November 16, 2009 7:09 AM

Gotcha Girl said...
Why would BISD allow this woman to send this ranting personal letter to 3,000 other employees? Will she be reprimanded? Wouldn't take bets on that one. I understand that not long after this email was sent, the same 3,000 employees received a second email telling them to disregard and delete the email....kind of like saying "OOOOPS, sorry, never mind, My Bad!!!". That's SIX THOUSAND EMAILS that had to processed in the BISD email system and 3,000 employees who had to take work time to read both emails. It takes several minutes to read her ranting letter. Wonder how much labor cost that involved? That's not even counting the countless "What the Hell was she thinking?" conversations between employees for the next several days. Obviously Ms. Haynes thought by just telling 3,000 (THREE THOUSAND) employees to disregard something, that all would be little dutiful robots and obey. Didn't she ever hear the old saying, "Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead!!" Ms. Haynes is very unprofessional. I think it's ironic and hilarious for her to justify and excuse her rantings because she was too doped up to know what she was doing. Isn't there another old saying..."no one will know you are stupid unless you open up your mouth and remove all doubt".
November 16, 2009 8:05 AM

Anonymous said...
This was highly unprofessional -- especially for a communications officer for a school district. However, since Ms. Haynes is listed as "Special Assistant" to the superintendent, maybe effective communications wasn't her objective in the first place.
November 16, 2009 8:06 AM

FF said...
I just read Jesse’s resume at the BISD website. Now, we have all been known to pad our resumes, but it would take this ol’ gal a couple of lifetimes to accomplish all she sez she’s done. She was interviewed by KBMT last week. Sexy momma! The hormones were a-flyin’. I don’t think her resume could ever capture those bedroom eyes and that bedroom voice. One can immediately comprehend why Carroll has her working under him. I wouldn’t be too hard on Jesse! Her outburst was probably the result of a “menopausal moment.” Just wondering aloud, but her bio begs the question: How much of her stuff was done undercover? If she keeps up this shit, Carroll needs to buy her one of those t-shirts that reads: I have PM

S and a Gun!" She ain't never needed no affirmative action to get a-head in life.
November 16, 2009 8:24 AM

Shag said...
Examiner attacks 70% Black people with its cover stories huh? Anybody care to pull the last 52 covers and see?
November 16, 2009 8:36 AM

Anonymous said...
You go Jessie! Always good to see someone calling the local media on its racism and usual dirty games. You notice, however, that you never see anything on the Bayou about the dirty things going on at the Beaumont Enterprise. You don't hear about all the people they have fired, mistreated or lied to.
November 16, 2009 8:54 AM

Uncle Remus said...
N*gg*r with an attitude. I think she see's her nest egg falling apart.
November 16, 2009 9:19 AM

Oust these jokesters said...
Anonymous at 8:54, The Beaumont Enterprise isn't a public governmental agency. BISD is. By that virtue, BISD is held to different standards than a private business. BISD must answer to the public and held accountable to taxpayers. What Jessie did was EXTREMELY EXTREMELY unprofessional and a poor example of how to handle yourself under pressure. She and Dr. Thomas are not being role models for our children and are teaching them that when challenged, lie or just make up excuses for your actions. They both need to take RESPONSIBILITY for their mistakes and own up to what they have done wrong rather than point the finger at everything and everyone around them. By practically calling the Examiner the KKK is a pretty slanderous accusation. But when you're put in a corner, try to distract the attention off of you by throwing crazy allegations out there. In that regard, I suppose you could say she's "doing her job" by being a PR spin artist. I read the whole thing - she could use spell check - shows us where all those awful mistakes in the BISD publicatiosn come from. She should be fired.
November 16, 2009 9:26 AM

Anonymous said...
yea - spell check AND grammar check - I just laugh - those people want to be in charge - so they get there and just make total fools of themselves.
November 16, 2009 9:47 AM

Fed Up said...
I think it’s very interesting that someone who holds so much power in the BISD world, someone who works so closely with the Big Man Himself, obviously lacks any and all attributes in order to do said job. I know if I was looking for an employee to fill the spot Jessie Haynes now occupies I would look for someone who could at least write a legible e-mail, especially if this e-mail is going to be sent to 3,000 employees and most of the media in the area. To write something, so badly, and then make it public for so many people, only goes to show how utterly stupid this woman is. Does no one else see that? Also, why don’t we all grow up and get over the race card issue? It worked for O.J. and he got away with murder. He was also an extremely famous football player. Jessie is a local power hungry self obsessed tyrant who needs to be fired so that maybe instead of all of this money she funnels into “outside projects” could, oh I don’t know, go to the kids? Just a thought. But what do I know? I’m just a tax payer who lives in Beaumont, but if these are the people who are going to be in charge of deciding how the money is spent on my child’s education than maybe we should just move to a better school district. A school district that cares more about the children under its care and less about their employees unlimited personal budgets.
November 16, 2009 9:49 AM

West End Wanda said...
Beautifully put Ms. Haynes....don't apologize, continue to do good work, and bring our area schools up to par. An electrical contract is the least of our worries...and let's think about how we can get some better TAKS scores, let the electricians, accountants, financial advisors, and school board do their job, and we as parents do ours. For those of you slow folks, that is taking more time to help our children get better resources for learning, and stop bitching about some damn wire and electrical tape. Most of you bitchers live in apartments and don't pay property taxes...
November 16, 2009 12:23 PM

Anonymous said...
No matter what, no one should be calling anyone names. It high time that racism on both parts be relgated to the past. People need to move on and look at the people and their skills/work ethics and not the color of their skin.
November 16, 2009 12:23 PM

Anonymous said...
Anonymous 12:23 pm Blacks will never look at people based on their skills/work ethics. Haynes' email just further verifies that. It's all about looking out for blacks, and preferential treatment, and quotas. Why do you have to put your race on job applications? Why do you have to put your race on college applications? Why do we track grades by race? It is absurd. West End Wanda: Catch a clue! You are probably an apartment dweller and not a homeowner paying taxes. Or, better yet, you probably live in the projects. If you really believe your post you are truly out of touch with reality! Anonymous 12:43 AM

I wondered the same thing. Why does reporting this make the Examiner not look good? What is wrong with them reporting the news? If the Board and the Superintendent and his Special Assistant had nothing to hide then what they report would not be an issue. And, so far, everything they've reported has been substantiated as 100% factual.
November 16, 2009 12:38 PM

Anonymous said...
"Why do you have to put your race on job applications? Why do you have to put your race on college applications? Why do we track grades by race?" Dude if you dont know the answers to those questions you must be a graduate from BISD! Take a history course or something!
November 16, 2009 12:44 PM

Anonymous said...
i'm just glad that our children can't see what scumbags hold their futures in their hands. they are way too young to lose hope.
November 16, 2009 12:49 PM

fed up said...
for those of us who actually received "the rant" in our BISD in-boxes, the 1st email came @ 9:47 a.m. Friday Nov. 13th. The "apology" arrived exactly 8 hours later @ 5:47 p.m. hmmmmmmm...wonder what took so long?? Did folks simply TWIST OFF & lose it on Friday the 13th?? seems poor Ms. Haynes can't decide when & for which interview and/or comments she was medicated! Not to mention that if one is under the influence of drugs, it's probably NOT a great idea to make statements of any kind to anyone... "go figure".
November 16, 2009 1:18 PM

Anonymous said...
This is a test.
November 16, 2009 1:43 PM

Uncle Remus said...
PLEASE EXCUSE MY EARLIER POST. I BORROWED JESSIE HAYNES BONG AND REALLY GOT ATTACHED TO IT.
November 16, 2009 1:45 PM

Gotcha Girl said...
UNCLE REMUS...your commment cracked me up. You got to wonder what Jessie Haynes was thinking, admitting she didn't send the email to Jerry Jordan because she was too doped up from meds, then turned around and sent it to 3,000 BISD employees. Did she think that she would seem any less doped up, unprofessional(and stupid)to them? Jessie Haynes and Dr. Thomas are an embarrassment and disgrace to the good and decent black folks in Beaumont.
November 16, 2009 2:39 PM

Voter said...
This is one property tax payer who is concerned about where my hard earned money is going, that's all. Nothing else to it. I gladly pay my fair share for good schools and I voted for the bonds. Now spend the money right, for the kids' sake. Stop the finger pointing, keep the books straight, and get to work. Whats so bad about that idea?
November 16, 2009 3:17 PM

fed up said...
Uncle Remus, you are TOO funny!! How many other BISD employees could have pulled Jessie Haynes' stunt and STILL KEPT THEIR JOBS?? This is one tax payer who has not nor will EVER vote FOR a bond until after Thomas and his goonies are gone far, far away...can't trust 'em. I am all for the best for our children, and have 2 grown ones who went through these schools, but until this district can hire someone who works for the TAXPAYERS, and has a shred of honesty, I will remain against further spending of my tax dollars toward this corrupt school district.
November 16, 2009 3:37 PM

disgruntled taxpayer said...
Jessie Haynes lists her position as: Special Assistant to the Superintendent/Communications Office of the Superintendent Wooooo doggies! sounds just super important, doesn't it?? It would seem that one charged with such an important function as communications from the Office of the Superintendent would exercise a bit more discretion and intelligence in the performance of her job...
November 16, 2009 3:57 PM

Anonymous said...
maybe being medicated is a common occurance?
November 16, 2009 4:15 PM

Anonymous said...
It would seem that one charged with such an important function as communications from the Office of the Superintendent would have a better grasp of the english language...?
November 16, 2009 4:16 PM

Anonymous said...
this reminds me of an old Chris Rock routine, Black People Vs. ......
November 16, 2009 4:18 PM



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