Hostage crisis

Interesting stuff coming out of the Orleans Parish teachers' mass firings lawsuit against OPSB and LA Dept of Education. The school board defendants are saying the state was basically running the show since it had already placed management consultant Alvarez & Marshall in charge of the board's operations before Katrina. Also former board member Cynthia Cade is alleging that just after Katrina, former US Secretary of Education Rod Paige was holding her hostage.

Cade said Paige and Picard lobbied her to back these changes in leadership. She insinuated that Paige allowed her to evacuate to his Houston home after Katrina in exchange for her support. Picard called Cade while she was at Paige’s home and asked for her assistance in supporting Paige and Roberti for leadership positions.

Cade said she had told no one that she was staying with Paige. “I felt my privacy had been invaded,” she said of Picard’s call. “I didn’t think it was anyone else’s business that I was staying there.” Cade said that Picard told her over the phone that he knew she “would do the right thing to help the district.”