Why did SAUSD Superintendent cover up the abuse of a special ed student?

Jane Russo might be a good chauffeur, but she is a terrible school superintendent!

I ran into a lady today who was quite mad at me.  “Jane Russo is a nice lady,” she kept saying.  Well, that might be the case, but time again Russo has proven that she is completely inept.

Case in point, what would YOU do if a school district employee got busted for abusing a special education student?  You think you might let the parents know?  And if the parents warned you about the guy in the first place, wouldn’t you have done something about it?

You would have done something about it, but not Russo.  “Yesterday, Saddleback High special-ed assistant Alonso Manuel Gonzalez plead guilty to child abuse and endangerment in a case that has dragged on since November yet has provoked no public or parental notification from Santa Ana Unified High School District officials,” according to the O.C. Weekly’s Navel Gazing blog.

We wrote about his previously, and compared how Russo handled this to how the Capistrano Unified School District handled a similar matter – Capo officials reported the incident to the Register.

I was so mad when Russo was hired – the SAUSD school board allegedly conducted a national search, only to hire a former assistant to inept former SAUSD Superintendent Al Mijares.  Russo had ZERO experience as a Superintendent.  She had ZERO experience turning around troubled school districts.  She has NO doctorate in education.  And she is paid a quarter million a year!

And she still has no clue how to do her job.  Honestly, how can anyone give this lady a free pass after she bungled this case?  She STILL hasn’t told the parents about the arrest and plea bargain of Manuel Gonzalez!

How will things ever get better at the SAUSD with an inept, secretive bozo like Russo in charge?


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"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.