A Baseball Story In The Birthplace Of Little League Baseball – PART XXIII

The following is the result of a now more than 26-month long investigation
into the Williamsport Area High School Baseball Team trip
to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in the spring of 2018.

TalkWilliamsport.com using the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law obtained the ever elusive room assignments after nearly two years of digging for it.

The obtained e-mails in question leave no doubt the Williamsport Area School District has been in possession of these documents since their employees received them.

The same employees who the WASD told the public had no conflicts of interest in running an investigation into the Myrtle Beach incidents.

The same employees who received the very room assignments e-mail Wanda Erb WASD Right to Know Law officer claimed in multiple sworn affidavits to the Office of Open Records the “WASD had no record of it”.

The same employees who were on the trip in Myrtle Beach.

The same employees who never came forward to correct the record when “A Baseball Story In The Birthplace Of Little League Baseball” – PART I was published outlining the fact the WASD could not produce a room assignment list.

The same employees who have claimed for two plus years this author is “making it worse.”

The same employees who took part in weaponizing the WASD tax office which they oversee; by having an arrest warrant issued for this author in attempt to silence him.

The same employees who the WASD school board failed to hold accountable for this colossal failure.

The same WASD school board which failed to act when asked to launch an independent third party investigation to acquire full transparency into the handling of the Myrtle Beach incidents.

By failing to act, the question arises, how many WASD school board members knew of the existence of the room assignment e-mails when they failed to second the motion for an independent third party investigation in the Myrtle Beach incidents?

Is the reason there was no second is the knowledge by the WASD school board of the existence of the room assignment e-mails; thus opening up questions about the handling of the Myrtle Beach incidents?

This series has well chronicled the investigation underway by recently re-elected Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro into the Myrtle Beach incidents.

How is a baseball parent able to handle student information and codify it in an e-mail without violating FERPA or other privacy laws?

Are these privacy laws only applied by the WASD when being used to obscure public records?

WANDA ERB WHEN ASKED FOR A ROOM LIST “NO RECORD EXISTS” – FROM PART I

NO ROOM LIST AND NO CHAPERONES

As part of the Appeal from RTKL Denial of Williamsport Area School District undertaken by Talk Williamsport filed with the OOR on August 8, 2019, the WASD under the penalty of perjury offered the following answers from Wanda Erb, in an affidavit on October 8, 2019:

I, Wanda Erb, hereby declare, pursuant to 18 Pa. CS 4904, that the following statements are true and correct based upon my personal knowledge information and belief:

1. I serve as the Open Records Officer for the Williamsport Area School District (“Agency”) and am responsible for responding to Right-to-Know requests field with the Agency.

2. In my capacity as the Open Records Officer, I am familiar with the records of the Agency.

6. Regarding Requestor’s fourth request, all of the chaperones on the trip were district employees, coaches, or volunteer coaches. No other adult chaperones accompanied the baseball team to Myrtle Beach.

WASD again admits in writing no other adult chaperones accompanied the baseball team to Myrtle Beach other than 6 or 7 adults who were district employees, coaches, or volunteer coaches, plus two administrators with players on the team.

WASD RTK Officer, Wanda Erb asserts under the penalty of perjury, “No other adult chaperones accompanied the baseball team to Myrtle Beach.”

So with no adult chaperones and only the WASD district employees, coaches, or volunteer coaches, plus two administrators why was there no room assignment list outlining where each student athlete and coach was staying at the Atlantica Resort?

If there was no room assignment list, how did the WASD safeguard and monitor every floor a student was on?

A room assignment list was one of the first items Talk Williamsport requested in the Right-to-Know Law process.

From the June 17, 2019 RTKL Request

2). The hotel room assignments as outlined by the WASD Baseball Coaching Staff for the baseball team trip to Myrtle Beach during the 2017-2018 school year.

WASD Responded in the July 18, 2019 RTKL denial

2. Hotel room assignments – Denied because no record exists.

The WASD Baseball team trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina did not have a hotel room assignment list at the Atlantica Resort with no adult chaperones and only the district employees, coaches, or volunteer coaches.

Talk Williamsport has independently confirmed the two administrators did not stay on property at the Atlantica Resort.

Talk Williamsport appealed the WASD July 18, 2019 RTKL denial

As filed by Terry Mutchler on behalf of Talk Williamsport :

Requester’s position: The District must provide a statement made under penalty of perjury, detailing its good faith effort to ascertain this record. See 65 P.S. § 67.901 (requiring the AORO to undertake a “good faith effort”); see also Hous. Auth. of the City of Pittsburgh v. Van Osciol, 40 A.3d 209, 216 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2012) (unsworn statements are not competent evidence).

Again, Wanda Erb in the October 8, 2019 affidavit offered the following response:

4. Regarding Requestor’s second request, I conducted a thorough examination of files in the possession, custody and control of the Agency for records responsive to the request. As these types of records would be in the possession of the athletic director or head coach, I spoke with WASD Athletic Director Sean McCann and former head baseball coach Ryan Miller. At the time the request was made (6-17-19 original RTK request), neither Mr. McCann nor Mr. Miller had any record identifying which players were assigned to which hotel room. Accordingly, I have made the determination that the records requested are not within the Agency’s possession, custody or control. 

5. Regarding Requestor’s third request, I conducted a thorough examination of files in the possession, custody and control of the Agency for records responsive to the request. As these types of records would be in the possession of the athletic director or head coach, I spoke with WASD Athletic Director Sean McCann and former head baseball coach Ryan Miller. At the time the request was made (6-17-19 original RTK request), neither Mr. McCann nor Mr. Miller had any record that was responsive to the request. I have also contacted members, or former members, of the WASD Baseball Boosters Club, and outside organization not within the control of the Agency. As a result of those efforts, I obtained a bus invoice and a hotel invoice which were provided to Requestor’s counsel although they were not paid for by the Agency.

Talk Williamsport confirmed there were 10 rooms at the Atlantica Resort, 9 -2 bedroom suites and a single 1 bedroom suite assigned to Ryan Miller and the WASD baseball team.

There were no more than 2 rooms per floor assigned to Ryan Miller and the WASD baseball team.  Rooms were scattered all over the sprawling Atlantica Resort tower.

DID WANDA ERB COMMIT MALFEASANCE OR IS SHE JUST INCOMPETENT?

How Wanda Erb ever conducted a search for the room assignments with the facts in evidence is to believe the earth is flat.

A basic search with the following keywords, “room assignments” would have produced the e-mails on the @WASD.org server.

Or was she a co-conspirator in the cover-up too?

When Erb was asked in RTKL mediation side-by-side with now Magistrate Judge Jeff Rowe, to produce a room assignment list, both failed to do so.

Erb and Rowe when asked if ALLEGED PERPETRATOR #1 was ever punished, they each had diametrically opposite answers which caused the Office of Open Records attorney to audibly gasp.

The “room assignments” email was sent to WAHS head principal Brandon Pardoe and WAHS athletic director Sean McCann.

The “room assignments” email was also sent to the WAHS baseball coaching staff including former WASD administrator Randy Zangara and employees of Little League International, Nick Caringi and Jamie Joy.

THE BLAME GAME BEGAN WITH THE FIRST RTKL REQUEST

WAHS athletic director Sean McCann authored an e-mail to former WAHS Ryan Miller and copied Erb, Superintendent Dr. Timothy Bowers and head principal Brandon Pardoe requesting the room list from Miller on Thursday, July 11, 2019, 2018 at 2:02 p.m.

“Good Afternoon. I have been asked by our Business Administrator and Right to Know Officer, Wanda Erb to contact you regarding a recent right to know request received by the district.”

McCann goes onto say, “Also, Ryan 

1. Do you have a copy or any records of the rooming lists, from the 2018 trip for the lodging?
2. Do you have a copy of the travel list, who went on the trip for players and coaches in writing?

Thank you for your willingness to comply with this request.

–Sean”

This is laughable since McCann already received the very room assignment list and e-mail he was then asking Miller to produce.

Was McCann unable to produce it because he already deleted it?

When reading the e-mail, why did Brandon Pardoe not chime in with the fact he received it as well?

It took the wife of WAHS head principal Brandon Pardoe, Rae Ann Pardoe a 4th Grade teacher in the SWASD and mandated reporter to produce the “room assignments” e-mail nearly two years after it was first requested of her husband.

She was in Myrtle Beach on the trip too.

As a footnote, Fred Holland who characterized the Myrtle Beach incidents as “indecent and inappropriate behavior on the part of a WAHS baseball player” serves as the solicitor for both the Williamsport Area School District and South Williamsport Area School Districts.

According to the Murphy, Butterfield & Holland, P.C. website: “Attorney Jeffrey A. Rowe is Of Counsel to our firm. His practice includes real estate, business formation, and estate planning and administration. He also serves as a Magisterial District Judge in Union County.”

TalkWilliamsport.com was able to reach an assistant to Magisterial District Judge Rowe at his office in Union County, that individual referred this author back to the offices of Murphy, Butterfield & Holland, P.C. and has yet to hear back at this writing.

According to the Board Agenda posted, tonight at the meeting of the Williamsport Area School District School Board beginning at 6 p.m. in the WAHS auditorium winter coaching contracts will be approved.

From the Board Agenda:

B. The following winter sport coaches at the respective schools for the 2020-2021 cont’d:

Wrestling
Varsity Assistant: Drew E. Dickey (5) $3,600

Drew Dickey was also a recipient of the room assignment list and e-mail.

Drew Dickey in his role as a teacher and a coach is a mandated reporter.

PART XXIV of A Baseball Story In The Birthplace Of Little League Baseball is forthcoming.