News From Ohio

[TheEpitome1920]

Posted on Tue, Jan. 10, 2006

Fraternity handshake gives away principal's resume shortcomingsAssociated PressCLEVELAND - A charter-school principal whose resume was challenged when he failed to recognize a secret fraternity handshake has resigned.

Lewis Thomas, 28, who moved here from Washington, D.C., last fall, resigned Dec. 8 from the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy. The head of the school advisory board said much of Thomas' resume was false.

Tim Goler, head of the advisory board and a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, said he began to question Thomas' credentials when Thomas failed to recognize the fraternity handshake offered by Goler. Thomas had said in his resume that he was a fraternity member.

Thomas resigned for personal reasons, according to Mosaica Education, a management company that runs the Cleveland school and 50 other charter schools in seven states. His departure prompted some parents to picket the school and to write a letter seeking his return.

Mike Connelly, Mosaica's CEO, would not comment on Thomas or why he left, citing company policy not to talk about personnel matters. He said a background check was completed on Thomas before he was hired and both sides agreed that he would leave the job.

When reached on vacation in the Bahamas last week, Thomas said he wasn't sure if the resume provided to a reporter for The Plain Dealer was actually his. Thomas said that what Goler said wasn't true.

"Look, there's a separation agreement between Mosaica and me. I resigned for personal reasons," he said. "I support the new administration, and I didn't make any disparaging remarks."

The newspaper said Thomas' resume showed discrepancies including a claimed master's degree from the University of Illinois and a claim of having worked as a principal at Phelps Career High in Washington.

Thomas doesn't have a listed phone in the Cleveland and couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday. The school said he hadn't left contact information and referred questions to Mosaica's New York offices, where a message seeking comment was left Tuesday.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/13592070.htm

[AKA2D '91]

Perps, like
flies I do despise!



booooooooooooooooooooo!

[mulattogyrl]

Wow, that's really bad.

[Steeltrap]

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

School principal stretched his résumé
Discrepancies force charter leader out
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Janet Okoben
Plain Dealer Reporter
Lewis Thomas' new career as principal of a local charter school was undone by a secret handshake.

The 28-year-old man moved here last fall from Washington, D.C., to run the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy. His impressive résumé listed jobs as senior political adviser to Sen. Barack Obama and senior political consultant to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton - as well as membership in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

Tim Goler, head of the school's advisory board and an Alpha himself, offered Thomas the fraternity's secret handshake during one of their first meetings.

Goler recalls Thomas looking at him "like there was something wrong with my hand." The response planted a seed of suspicion that would ultimately reveal a résumé rife with lies.

Thomas resigned Dec. 8 for personal reasons, according to representatives of Mosaica, the New York-based management company that runs the publicly funded charter school. His departure spurred some parents to picket outside the Euclid Avenue school Dec. 21, and to write a letter pleading that he be allowed to stay until the end of the school year.

Goler said discrepancies in Thomas' résumé are the reason for his resignation. Mike Connelly, Mosaica's CEO, would not comment on Thomas or why he left, citing company policy not to talk about personnel matters.

He would only say that a background check was completed on Thomas before he was hired and that both sides agreed that he would leave the job.

When reached on vacation in the Bahamas last week, Thomas said he wasn't sure if the résumé provided to a Plain Dealer reporter was actually his. When asked why he referred to himself as "Dr. Thomas" without a Ph.D., Thomas deflected questions. He was equally vague about his work experience, simply saying that what Goler said wasn't true.

"Look, there's a separation agreement between Mosaica and me. I resigned for personal reasons," he said. "I support the new administration, and I didn't make any disparaging remarks. It was the parents who kept pushing this."

Later in the conversation he said, "I wish this would just go away."

Thomas asked for a chance to prove his case in person but did not appear for an interview at The Plain Dealer Monday.

A check of the colleges and employers listed on Thomas' résumé found little in common with his true academic and work history. Obama's office has no record of Thomas as a paid staffer, said spokesman Tommy Vietor. Thomas may have worked as a campaign volunteer, Vietor said, but a check with several campaign organizers provided no evidence of that. Clinton's office also has no record of Thomas' employment during Clinton's 2000 run for the U.S. Senate, as he claims, said campaign spokeswoman Ann Lewis.

When Thomas came to Cleveland, Mosaica officials touted him as a hotshot from Tree of Life Community Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., where his résumé says he was principal from 2003 until last year. In fact, Thomas was hired as principal there in June 2004 but was replaced within two months, said an employee at the school.

The employee, who said she was not allowed to speak for the school, said Thomas was asked to leave because of discrepancies in his work history. Nona Richardson, spokeswoman for District of Columbia Public Charter Schools, said she did not have specific details on Thomas' employment but added, "We are aware that he was there for a short period of time."

Thomas does not have a Ph.D., though he was called "Dr. Thomas" by parents of the nearly 300 students in kindergarten through fifth grade at Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy. His résumé claims he earned a doctorate from Howard University, but college records show only that he took some graduate-level classes toward a master's degree in education.

His claims of a master's degree from the University of Illinois are false, too, according to university spokeswoman Robin Kaler. Thomas spent only the summer of 1999 in a continuing education class there that did not count toward a degree, Kaler said.

Thomas also claims he was principal of Phelps Career High in Washington, D.C., from 2001 to 2003, when he was only a teacher at the school for the 2001-02 school year, said district spokeswoman Roxanne Evans.

John Schelble was surprised to hear that Thomas' résumé lists him as deputy chief of staff for then-U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek. Schelble was Meek's chief of staff during 2000-2001, the time Thomas claims to have held the job. Thomas did work as legislative correspondent for Meek for four months in 2001, but Schelbe didn't remember him.

As for Alpha Phi Alpha, Thomas asked for an application in 2000 but never completed it, said Darryl Jackson, a membership coordinator for the fraternity.

Goler said the stellar résumé made him doubt Thomas, because he couldn't understand why someone who seemed to have so much experience would end up at a charter school in Cleveland.

"He said it was because they were paying him six figures," Goler said.

Goler said the board he heads has no input on hiring or firing employees, and he did not know what Thomas was being paid.

Ohio charter schools are considered public and generally receive at least $6,000 for each pupil from the state. About 40 percent are run by for-profit entities like Mosaica, according to the Ohio Education Association.

Had Thomas been honest about his education and work experience, which includes a bachelor's degree from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, he still would have been qualified to hold the charter school job. Principals at Ohio charter schools don't need licenses or certificates, said J.C. Benton, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education, but they must meet standards set by their employers.

Newspaper articles document that Thomas was a rising star in his teens. He was elected president of the U.S. Student Council at 16 and was national youth chairman of the Million Man March at 17.

"Someday I want to be president," Thomas told a reporter from the Philadelphia Tribune, a daily newspaper serving the black community, in 1994. "When I do run for office someday, I don't want people to look at me as a politician. I want to be viewed as someone who uplifts his community."

Plain Dealer researcher Cheryl Diamond and Nedra Shelly of The Plain Dealer Washington bureau contributed to this story.

[ARTIC-U-LATE]

HELL NAW.....Like I say, CHARGE UM UP!!!!!!

[jitterbug13]

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Didn't he know he was going to be found out anyway, whether it was by an Alpha or someone checking his previous work expericence?

[CrimsonTide4]

That is a sin and a shame that it took him perping Alpha for all of his credentials to be found out.

[LionOfJudah]

Just because someone says they are something means nothing...research....challenge....ask questions....talk to people...this isht is silly...it is a shame that you get caught up over your fraternal affiliation...."good job" to that member of A PHI A for catching this perp...

sad state of affairs...

LoJ

[AKA_Monet]

Haha...

Doubting Thomas...

Now that's funny...

[n4sir5]

To quote Martin Lawrence from Black Knight... "Punks Rise Up To Get Beat Down"

Below is an editorial forwarded by the Ohio District Director from Alpha Sam Fulwood, Columnist with the Cleveland Plain Dealer...


One false claim led to unraveling
Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Sam Fulwood III Plain Dealer Columnist

Tim Goler saw through Lewis Thomas' self- promoting lies.
If I would have met Thomas, who resigned last month as principal of the
Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy, I would have seen through them,
too.
So would have any of the 125,000 worldwide members of the Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity Inc.

We can spot a charlatan claiming to be a brother with the grip of a right
hand.
Of course, I'm not going to divulge any secrets here. Suffice it to say that
when Brother Goler, head of the charter school's advisory board, met Thomas,
he greeted him with an embrace that any good Alpha man would have recognized
and welcomed.
"I went to hug him, grip him and show him some love as one Alpha man to
another Alpha man," Brother Goler told me. "I tried that two separate times,
but he just didn't get it."
When the pretender failed to respond appropriately, Brother Goler began to
question everything Thomas said about himself. After all, if a man lies
about being an Alpha, he's probably hiding something else.
"Once you start lying, everything else you say becomes suspicious," Brother
Goler told me. "I told [the board] we need to check him out."
Arriving in town last fall to run the fledgling charter school, Thomas had
presented himself as a man with sterling professional credentials and a PDA
packed with political contacts amassed while working in Washington, D.C.
As my colleague Janet Okoben details in today's story, Thomas' résumé was as
fictitious as the latest Harry Potter novel. He said he had spent his
college life at Howard University, and he claimed to have worked on the
staffs of Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of
Illinois.
After learning that those boasts were bald-faced lies, the charter-school
company last month forced Thomas to resign.
Thomas might have gotten away with his deception, if he hadn't lied about
being a member of the nation's oldest black Greek-letter fraternity.
Those of us who actually pledged Alpha Phi Alpha take a dim view of
pretenders who try to get the uplift of our fraternal bond without doing the
hard work of becoming a member.

The fraternity was founded in 1906 by seven black students at Cornell
University, and those early Alphas demanded a lifelong commitment to public
service, to "manly deeds, scholarship and love for all mankind." Some famous
Alphas include the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall and
W.E.B. DuBois.
Almost 30 years ago, I was a charter pledge of Alpha's Mu Zeta chapter at
the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Our pledge class lasted 10
long and painful weeks.
Among those who pledged with me are the current president of the University
of Missouri system, a prominent Los Angeles urologist, several lawyers and a
handful of successful entrepreneurs.
Every one of them is like a real brother, someone I'd drop whatever I'm
doing to help in any way possible. Brother Goler, who is also executive
director of the Cleveland chapter of 100 Black Men, shares my Alpha spirit.
That's why he refused to allow Thomas to trade on our name.
"As much as I want to see a young black man stand as a role model for young
people, I couldn't let him get away with that," he said. "Once he started
lying about Alpha, there was no way I could look the other way."

To reach this Plain Dealer columnist:
sfulwood@plaind.com, 216-999-5250

[AKA2D '91]

Originally posted by LionOfJudah
Just because someone says they are something means nothing...research....challenge....ask questions....talk to people

LoJ

Weeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll! hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! rocking and fanning) mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

PREACH!

[Lady of Pearl]

Wow, talking about being cold busted! A case of where the supposed fraternal connection worked against him! As I told my class today, if you tell one lie you gotta tell two!and eventually you will be found out, as one of my students said THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE!

[ARTIC-U-LATE]

Cleveland is the WRONG city to perp Alpha. After graduation, I immediately transitioned into DAL (Cleveland's Alumni Chapter) and was amazed at the number of active Brothers...not to mention the large number of brothers in the city. He better be glad that he only lost his job.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by ARTIC-U-LATE
Cleveland is the WRONG city to perp Alpha. After graduation, I immediately transitioned into DAL (Cleveland's Alumni Chapter) and was amazed at the number of active Brothers...not to mention the large number of brothers in the city. He better be glad that he only lost his job.

For real.