A NEW POPE … THE DANCIN’ DEAN SKATES … CHOKE HOLD … SPINNING … DOWNTOWN’s LATEST ‘BOON’ (or TO THE GRAVEYARD WE COME)
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THE WEEKEND EDITION MAY 9-11) — Doing spring housecleaning ], there’s always a few odd items to be found in the corners and under the buffet. Then it will be your turn with THE PLANET‘s talking stick.
USA! USA!–Looking forward to the papacy of the new Pope. He’s American Bobby Prevost. We’re not predicting radical changes coming out of the Vatican from Pope Leo XIV, but he’s from Chicago and will be throwing out the first pitch at Wrigley Field for an upcoming Cubs game. He’s been working on a new pitch: the “conclave.” It’s a mix of a curve and a knuckler. The concession stands at Wrigley will be selling Popesicles and Pope Pops. In place of the 7th inning stretch, they’re having the seventh inning benediction. “Sweet Caroline” will give way to “Tantum Ergo.” Also, the third base signs will be altered. Sign of the cross calls for a sacrifice. Hit and run is if the 3B coach begins praying the Rosary. If it’s a steal, the 3B coach is replaced with a confessional box.
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NOTHING TO SEE HERE, FOLKS–The Dancing Dean will dance … and skate. The city Friday released executive summaries of the $365/hr. report by law firm of Dewey, Cheaten’, & How. The verbiage says charges against DD “were found to be unsubstantiated.” The full, unredacted report is still in Al Gore’s lock box. Profiles in Courage Mayor Lumpy of Bitchfield, who also farts up a chair on the school committee, continued to maintain his silence (read: hide like a coward). The Dancing Dean might not want to fill his dance card just yet, however, as federal drug charges are pending.
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SPITTIN’ IT UP–Casita Restaurant in North Adams will hold a “Choke Saver” class at its spot at MAAA MoCA 10 a.m. on Monday. We’ve heard of novel ways to attract customers, but advertising the Heimlich maneuver certainly grabs one by the throat. THE PLANET is cool with the promotion, but we shall avoid the hash house if the Heimlich maneuver turns up on the menu as the “House Special.”
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ROUND AND ROUND—THE PLANET likes that the Berkshire Carousel at 50 Center St. will be spinning again, with a grand opening set for Flag Day. How much you wanna bet you see Lumpy and his lackey, council prez Voltron the Porkchop, plus other phony baloney pols there for the beets, the beer, and mainly the photo op? They should be barred, because the idiots tried to kill this horsed circle. Carousel Founding Father Jim Schulman wanted to make the carousel a gift outright to the city. So what did Lumpy and the council do? They worried about “liability.” Council then sent it to subcommittee after which the incompetents formed an ad hoc committee to “study” Shulman’s offer. Finally, Shulman, who knows about being on the short end of municipal duplicity, said screw you dopes. He got with volunteers and turned it over to them. So if you take a ride on the painted ponies, remember it was ordinary citizens who stepped up to the plate, not your brain dead “representatives.”
———- ooo ———-
WHAT COULD GO WRONG?–Flat had “vibrant and dynamic.” Lumpy has “openly gay.” And you wonder why the county seat has become a laughing stick. Yes, stick. The latest boon to property values and public safety is the so-called “Save Haven” house scheduled to go downtown. The shelter will have seven beds for the “houseless” (right, Peter White?), junkies, schizophrenics, manic-depressives, PTSDers, those with borderline personality disorder, Trump Derangement Syndrome, and more. The best part of this latest addition to the downtown graveyard is a quote from Christine Haley, site director (quoted by Brittney Polito in iBerkshires). Haley says the occupants “don’t have to be agreeing to treatment, you don’t have to take medications. You don’t have to be stable. You don’t have to be sober. You don’t have to want to be sober. It’s a harm reduction model.” Harm reduction. Really? How about “further fucking the downtown and its struggling small business owners?” Must be Lumpy and Voltron’s idea of revitalization.
That’s it for now, folks. Now, your turn. Open topics, anything at all.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
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“Poetry is the clear expression of mixed emotions“–Robert Frost.
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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Just read the IB version of the summary.
It’s very explicit: student sexual assaults are common, and there is widespread suspicion it is assisted or organized by staff paying students to attack.
It provides complaints that call for police investigation, and it states repeatedly that the 365 club could not explore allegations or identify evidence. It does not conclude that the complaints are false, the evidence fake, but that 365 could not prove them
This looks like a damning document.
CHAZ, you hit on THEEEE essential point: [The report] does not conclude that the complaints are false, the evidence fake, but that 365 could not prove them. There’s a huge difference between those two.
Unsubstantiated doesn’t mean false. I just means people wouldn’t talk and that’s EXACTLY what the summary said.
also, everyone knows about Molly West. You think some 20 somethings are going to upend their lives now publicly because some ho teacher gave you the ‘ol beef jerky at your graduation party?
Exactly right.
Thanks Chaz for steering us to the IB, even the Eagle to be fair gave a pretty chilling update. This wouldn’t had any legs though if it wasn’t for Dan and the Planet.
Yes
Trump fired the black woman librarian of congress.
A career bureaucrat who didn’t want to follow the rules of her boss, TOUGH SH!T.
Most of us have all had jobs in which we disagreed with a boss’
decision.
You have 3 choices:
*adhere and move on
*quit
*defy your boss and get canned.
Guess what option she chose TSC?
BTW-what does her race have to do with her job termination?
Keeping racist ideology on life support TSC?
Second point:
The summary is alarming. Female students are indeed right to be anxious, and bullying is unaddressed problem with allegations being supported by staff. Responsible parents will choice out or homeschool. That the aged members of the SC don’t care is not a surprise for they are corrupted souls, unredeemable most likely. However, the silence of William Garrity, who for years was selected by classmates to sit at SC meetings and relay their concerns, and then proceeded to accept a seat on the Committee is disappointing.
If everything was on the up and up with these PHS investigations then why be so crazy about protecting the identify of so many in the report? Why was the VP cleared of wrongdoing, but is still on paid administrative leave? Iberkshires ran an article saying Lavante Wiggins has been cleared of sexual allegations, but remains under investigation for federal narcotics offenses. Wiggins was hired in 2021 by PHS without having a secondary-level certification from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. As of August 2024 when he was reappointed, he still didn’t have a license.
Your first question says it all, PAT.
In addition to allegedly dealing narcotics, it seemed PHS Student Dean Lavonte Wiggins, aka- the Dancin’ Dean or Lady’z Man, also had an unhealthy (i.e.-illegal) appetite for PHS female students.
*….Wiggins told a student he wanted to have sex with her….
*….noncompliance with a student’s restraining order against another student for sexual assault… I’m sure the student who was sexually assaulted BY ANOTHER STUDENT, appreciated Lavonte Wiggins ignoring her COURT ORDERED 209A.
*….paying for another student to assault another student…. That’s also known as Solicitation to Commit a Crime, punishable under MGL 274/8.
https://www.iberkshires.com/story/78913/Pittsfield-Investigation-Clears-Wiggins-of-Student-Improprieties-.html
I will now chalk this up to another DEI failure. When will they learn? When you hire trash like Lavonte Wiggins, this is the end result.
Can we get a media outlet to try and get a story from Linda “Flat” Tyer-Clairmont about these allegations? She was the hiring authority and approved all of these hires, not to mention these allegations date back a few years when she was the mayor. She is a key figure in this investigation.
RELEASE THE FULL REPORT!!
Exactly, if nothing nefarious happened, then why the secrecy? Release the full report!
Precisely. If all is on the up-and-up, the FULL REPORT, not summaries, MUST be released. Otherwise, the public, having been betrayed so many times by these jamokes, has no reason to trust that no serious wrongdoing was (and probably still is) being committed.
I suspect the full report would reveal all the people they did not interview and statements made they had reason to not to share. You would see the choices made by 365 and the activity of the lawyers.
He had knowledge of “data” for restorative practices and the like. Go ask ANY TEACHER in PPS how sick of hearing about Joe Curtis and his “data driven” everything. They drove it into the ground.
Once again he was hired by JAKE MCCANDLESS and during the Lovely Linda’s reign of black brushing the whole city. How’s the BBEC doing? haven’t seen it open ever
Bitchfield’s current and past leadership’s behavior towards the taxpayers isn’t an anomaly but an indication of how deeply the rot within our whole local government system has permeated.
Today, in the Eagle, they did a “quick analysis” of the executive summary that the DEI completed. It’s a joke. If it truly exonerated the key players, like Bill Cameron is trying to project to the public, then it would have been the Eagle’s and all other Berkshire media outlets lead story with a detailed explanation of what was alleged and what really happened.
It is nothing more than a whitewash. In the Eagle’s story, Bill Cameron stated, “I hope that it will enable people to be confident that the work that was done was done seriously and thoroughly and that the conclusions drawn were based on evidence rather than on rumor.”
Yeah, sure Bill. You want us (the public) to believe you now, after you originally called for the full release of the report, but since backtracked. Why?
*Were details of the report so disturbing that it would implicate a few PHS employees and maybe a former mayor, amongst others?
*Knowing this, did the GOBSIGs help Bill Cameron “seek clarity,” in what needs to be released, not expecting pushback from parents?
***If I were a betting man, I would toss my chips on both of these events. I believe both happened.
From reading the article today, it gives the appearance that this whole “investigation” by DEI Law Firm, is based primarily on the DCF “investigation.” If this is true, it’s an absolute scam on the Bitchfield public school parents and taxpayers. DCF has limited investigative capabilities.
**Unless you are a sh!tty parent at risk to lose your children, anyone else has ZERO REASON TO COOPERATE WITH DCF. NO REASON TOO.
I am friends with a former executive who used to tell me, if you want to bury a story and make sure the public forgets about it, send it to the press for a Friday (or Saturday) story. As he/she said, “somebody, somewhere, will do something stupid over the weekend and make people forget about my story.” Believe it or not, he/she was right usually 90% of the time. Most people forgot and moved on.
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/central_berkshires/executive-summaries-released-phs-investigation/article_dbb1ea6c-bdf3-481c-a518-ea8049cfda85.html
RELEASE THE FULL REPORT
wow they really put the hammer down on the dancing dean !
It’s “Synthetic,” RK!
It makes me scratch my head how Da Dancin’ Dean even had employment anywhere within the Bitchfield School Department.
A 209A is a court ordered document. When the Lady’z Man violated this, why was he not referred to the Pittsfield Police Department for criminal investigation?
Again, when an ADULT person in a position of authority, especially in a public school, makes an illegal and unwanted sexual advances towards a JUVENILE STUDENT, why was this not referred to the Pittsfield Police Department for investigation? Were her parents even made aware?
Allegedly paying another student to beat up a fellow student, is straight out of the John Gotti school of hard knocks.
It seems like extortion was just around the corner for Da Dancin’ Dean. I guess we’re lucky the Feds got him.
Not to sound like a broken record, but why was this not referred to the Pittsfield Police Department for further investigation?
Was this person’s parents made aware of this criminal activity being plotted against their child by the PHS Student Dean?
An unqualified DEI hire, but hey, it made Picklefield look diverse and inclusive to outsiders.
Right????
Didn’t have a teaching certificate. One was rush-ordered from Certificates-R-Us. We could go on and on. Synthetic, man. Synthetic.
If the Dancin Dean was unqualified, how qualified are the people who hired him, and supposedly oversaw his work and interactions with students?
Exactly. This is who the GOBSIG’s are shielding from this DEI law firm report IMO.
1st, Nobody knew….
2nd, It will be transparent….
3rd, the allegations were unsustained….
4th, the state mandated the report be released….
5th, the school district requested additional time from the state….
6th, early retirements and the like….
7th, Pittsfield’s new tagline: It’s Synthetic….
8th, Sara Hathaway’s new blunder: While chuckling, she said you kids and your anxieties.
9th, the 2-Pete’s Pittsfield politics remain silent….
10th, the blogs and social media writers protect the students, while the elected officials protect the bureaucracy….
11th, between 650 to 700 students choice out to neighboring school districts per academic year….
12th, Pittsfield lives up to its Level 5, Group 11 school district state rankings of failure and underclass status….
The word for today is “Synthetic.”
love the secret word – say the secret word and win $100 Bitchfield Bucks it’s a common word a word you use every day – like Grocho use to do
Synthetic.
Has “Synthetic” replaced “Vibrant and Dynamic,” in a place where “people from the outside will be jealous of our diversity and inclusion,” according to Linda “Flat” Tyer-Clairmont.
Flat stated this to the press when she gleefully welcomed 75 illegal alien families to Bitchfield, on the taxpayers dime of course.
That part of the story ended up on the cutting room floor.
Yes. “Synthetic” is the new “Vibrant and Dynamic.” The beat goes on.
Third point, probably most important. It is extremely bad to mix religion and sports. I hope never to experience this again on these pages.
If the “witnesses” were put on a stand and questioned under oath then there may be different answers than we have received. people do not want to get involved because of retaliation in our small little quaint community. How can the “Teacher” have been accused or rumored to have the same exact thing happen multiple times over a twenty year plus span and none of them true? come on… Get rid of her. plus the accused drug dealing Wiggy wig who couldn’t pass the license test shouldn’t be on paid leave. Why are they protecting these people?
Because this is what THEY DO.
Witnesses considering legal option would be extremely foolish to poison their case by muddling it with extraneous legal pursuits.
“Not my lawyer: NOT my friend.”
A summary of a report can never substitute as a public record release for an actual report. Not only is this a fact, it is common sense. Just buying more time at big bucks rate.
Didn’t the State say that a summary is unacceptable? They think this report will soften anything to follow. I feel it makes clear there is danger of abuse, tolerated or not. Reporting abuse to the State doesn’t mean that the school admin supplied all that they know.
Us taxpayers are the biggest losers in this whole fiasco. The Mayor, City Councilors and School Committee members can do whatever they want whether it is legal or illegal and there is not a friggin thing we can do. None of these pompous fools can ever be fired! They are boss less and don’t have to answer to anyone. They certainly don’t answer the taxpayers. Sure we can impeach them but in this crooked city and state it would take years before we might ever have success. It makes me sick. We have no rights. Real shitty form of government we have.
So, Lumpy wants to be the chair of the School Committee. I ask, what would he have done differently in this latest situation? He can’t even run the City as Mayor. He doesn’t have a set of hoo hoo’s to even speak out to the taxpayers. He has his “security assistants” blocking any calls to him, that’s if they even answer the phone.
Wonder how much witness intimidation took place during this investigation? These young teenagers are at the prime of their young lives, thinking about the future, colleges, etc., they were most likely petrified to tell the truth so chose to go quiet or forgetful. Their parents were also most likely in fear of the backlash their child would receive. Do you blame them for protecting their child, I don’t. I will never forget how Sara Hathaway and Cameron treated the young speakers when they voiced their concerns. That’s how those students were treated out in the open and on television, imagine how they were treated in a private conference room. Shameful.
Also wonder how much “bonus” was given to both Joe and Maggie for resigning? Will that bonus be filtered into the open check to pay the law firm? No one will answer how much taxpayers money has been wasted so far? Evidently we don’t have the right to know, or is Kerwood spinning his numbers in the back office trying to hide the truth.
One more thing, why would anyone want to be the intermin Superintendent in this screwed up city? If they have any smarts they would walk away. How much “bonus” will this person be paid? Why are we not looking for a permanent Superintendent? Just another waste of taxpayer money.
Biggest question of all, who is telling the Mayor and City Councillors to keep silent, are they also receiving a back sided payout for their silence? They all forgot they work for us, the taxpayers!
Thanks, M&B. Your sentiments represent the VAST MAJORITY of ordinary citizens.
Sec state on downhill will always side with the schools and all firms decision.Period. Sec state controls voting and inquiries. What mayor was great friends with the Sec State for years?
Other cities in Massachusetts have released their budget proposals for fiscal year 2026. In 53 days from now, the 2-Pete’s Pittsfield politics fiscal year 2026 budget will begin on July 01st, 2025 and run through June 30th, 2026. How much will they increase city spending in less than 2 months from now?
I have to laugh. Because we have protests going on almost every weekend and a rally was held to “get rid of the king” and “no kings”. Well I only see the local government and our representatives treating us like subjects. Like they are the Kings and Queens of what’s left of the kingdom of Pittsfield. Most of the senate and state reps. have been around forever as has the Mayor and his first mate Gilligan. Taxpayers are getting ripped off !
The hypocrisy is notable!
The Council, save Kavey and Serre, voted to request extending their terms to 4 years.
Councilor Persip notably states that since it takes a long time to become fully learned to all the tricks of the political class, there is no good served with new people taking their seats from them. Fresh terms are only for those retiring from politics?
Say “Good morning” to your new daddies.
Hi Dan.
Inquiring minds in Pittsfield want to know if the Federal case between Victoria May & Peter Marchetti has a court date or has the case been settled.
It’s Synthetic.
Well done, JM!!
As best that I know, I don’t think a court date it set. Last I think from my legal sources, they were talking about September 2025, but that’s not official by any means. Let me poke around and try to get better information.
Needs another ninety days Dan.
Yup. Strictly synthetic.
Ir must stand the Camerom Synthetic Acid Test.
Dan couldn’t agree more about “Save Haven House “. WTF are these looney liberals thinking. Should be re-branded Assisted Suicide House. How and why would you want mentally ill people to go off there Meds? Alcoholics drinking, Drug addicts using. Of course they’re a non- profit with a CEO, CFO, CMO, 2 Sr. VP, 5VP, 3 Associate VP and a 32 Million dollar a year budget that we are paying for. RIP downtown Pittsfield.
Most dangerous to those interred to that madness. You outside will not hear about the battering and barricaded and bungie corded doors.
Just finished watching a video of our totally broken school department breaking rules once again.Although we are being told “they don’t do anything wrong” according to the corrupt law firm we are paying for. For those that haven’t seen it yet, it’s a video of PHS Principal Maggie Harrington banging on PHS employee Kayla Donnelly’s door to deliver a “termination letter” while Kayla was home sick with COVID. Reason for termination was Kayla reported an issue occurring at PHS and did not report it to Maggie Harrington first so Maggie could bury the issue. It is against the law to go to an employee’s home, especially in a city owned car driven by a security employee of the School department, but evidently not in Shitsfield. There are no laws!
Kayla worked at the City of Shitsfield health department during the COVID epidemic, and busted her butt doing so. Evidently she then applied for a job at PHS. She followed rules and reported an issue to someone at Mercer. So this is the thanks she gets for working hard at keeping us citizens especially the children safe.
Typical Shitsfield, good guy gets canned and bad guy get’s taken care of. Joe Curtis, Maggie and Cameron should all be charged with intimidation. Wonder what the two useless Pete’s feel about this latest video. Of course we will not hear a peep from the Mayor, City Council and School Committee, they are being advised to keep their egotistical mouths shut.
When is it going to stop?
M&B
Thanks for the post. THE PLANET has spoken with Kayla. The video, from November and taken from security cameras at her home, shows principal Maggie attempting to deliver the termination notice while beefy security sits in an official city vehicle. VIOLATIONS GALORE but nothing was done. The video is damning, and we got the feeling this incident will be dug up from its burial ground. Stay tuned.
Please also address the latest tagline quotes:
You kids with your anxieties (while chuckling) by Sara Hathaway.
An INVASION by the school district’s HR bureaucrat.
It is SYNTHETIC by Bill Cameron.
Cowardly SILENCE by the 2-Pete’s Pittsfield politics.
Most perceptive, JM.
INVASION: What Cameron called the public’s right to know.
SYNTHETIC: What Cameron called THE PLANET’s coverage of the PHS scandal.
SILENCE: The 2-Petes’ refusal to address the scandal.
Now Cameron and the School Committee are going to vote once again to extend Judge Corrupt and her Law Firm for a second time. Why, I thought they found nothing wrong according to Cameron. If taxpayers are paying the bill we should be the ones voting. I don’t feel this contract should be extended until taxpayers are told what the current cost has occurred and be shown the FULL report. We have a right to know. Of course we will never get the truth from Marchetti or Kerwood. Wonder if Marchetti will vote for approval along with the rest of the members.
Were any abortions involved as a result of this scandal and if so would anybody on the school committee care?
Why didn’t the Bitchfield Pubic Scohol Department’s Human Resources Chief of Diversity and Inclusion Director, not make a phone call and tell her she is on PAID leave, while her investigation fleshed out?
You know, like every other job in America does. This is why they have HR Departments. To try and not cost the taxpayers/companies from having to pay out civil lawsuits, like Maggie Eskimo-Harrington-Dwyer-Hypenate just created.
Da Dancin’ Dean was dealing drugs, making unwanted sexual advances towards juvenile students, ignoring mandatory court orders, and allegedly trying to pay a student to beat up another student, and HE IS STILL GETTING PAID.
Makes sense, huh?
As most could have told these fools ahead of time, the North Adams (D)idn’t (E)arn (I)t rally was an utter flop.
Of the 8-10 people who showed up, all were more than 55 years old, ALL WERE WHITE. Not one single POC bothered to show up.
Besides the fact there was NO DIVERSITY at the DEI rally, I would also like to know how many of those people there yesterday actually have one black friend.
My bet, they as many black friends, as all the black people who attended former DA Andrea “Wrong Way” Harrington’s, all-white Lenox party during her DA campaign.
https://www.berkshireeagle.com/multimedia/photos-north-adams-residents-protest-president-donald-trump-at-diversity-makes-america-great-rally/collection_aac147b2-12d0-441e-a84a-a2abcbc3f5ce.html
It was an anti-Trump rally that faulted his culture conflicts so-called war against Diversity Equity & Inclusion far left nuts politics. I hate culture conflicts for political extremism on all sides.
It is SYNTHETIC, an INVASION, You kids with your anxieties (while chuckling) nonsense, and the 2-Pete’s Pittsfield politics cowardly silence while they ignore the voiceless students in the city’s Level 5 (failed), Group 11 (underclass) “Scohol” district.
I got it Dan. Every teacher will be required to wear a body camera. Behnke should be able to come up with the money?
If nobody did nuttin why did at least two high profile people resign? Just becuz?