Willard Principal Dennis Cole cancels all the student clubs at his school

After weeks of outrage, the Principal at the SAUSD’s Willard Elementary, Dennis Cole, was directed to cancel the Bible/Prayer clubs he had been promoting at his school. Many teachers and other community activists were outraged by Cole’s actions with regard to those activities as he appeared to be mixing religion with the public school environment – far beyond what the law allows.

Cole canceled the clubs in question, but he apparently did not stop there. He canceled ALL the student clubs at his school!

Here is what one commenter, at the Orange Juice blog’s long-running SAUSD thread, had to say about this latest development:

Dennis Cole is a vindictive evil individual! Had no reason to cancel all clubs. He was directed to terminate his bible club, that was it. He took it upon himself to cancel and get rid of the other clubs on his own.

Cole is a person who can not and will not accept positive or constructive criticism. If it did not come from him, it is not a good idea and its not happening.

And here is more information about Cole’s actions, from another commenter:

Click here to read the rest of this post.

Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.
Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

View Comments

  • Allah is great!

    If you are asking me too work at the local muslim amphibian society. I don't think they are going to hire me!

    If they do, they better not think of stoning me! Cause I am from Northern Ireland..Stoning the Peelers was once of my greatest compliment's

  • The one person Dennis Cole needs to address is his Office Manager, Maria Gutierrez, she is the most inept person ever. Most of the time she is yelling at the office staff and causing a
    hostile work environment. She belittles the front office workers. It doesn't surprise me, because shes being trained by the best.

    Maria Gutierrez needs to learn how to treat the office staff as well as the rest of the Willard employees with respect. You can hear her annoying screeching voice from a mile away.
    She can't talk with a normal tone of voice, she always yelling or screaming, and she wonders why she has no friends either. Most of the time you will see her having lunch by herself,
    no one wants to sit with her.

    Students,
    there have been several instances, I have dropped of my attendance during my prep period, when here comes a student into the office looking for the nurse. She immediately
    turns to the students and sends him or her back to class without asking whats wrong. It frustrates me, if that was my kid, I would be calling down town and reporting her A$$$.
    The students turns around and tells her, "but I don't feel good, can I call me parents" With and angry voice,
    she screams at the kid and tells them, "we don't have a nurse, just go back to class".

    My heart melts to see the little one turn and walk away.

    Employees like her are the one Dennis Cole needs to take a hard look at and force her to do her job and stop treating kids like dirt.

    I have personally witnessed this in several occasion, this is why I make it a habit to turn my attendance sheets myself instead of sending a student or just walk by the office durng my prep.

    People like her don't get it, if it wasn't for the kids, she wouldn't have a job, but like bad Administration, that knows, the Willard kids will most likely not tell their parents how
    rude or disrespectful the adults were to them.

    I invite you or anyone, to stop by the Willard front office. Don't say anything just come on in. Wait for the office staff to address you. Mostly, you will get to meet Maria
    Gutierrez and then you can form your own opinion.

    How will you know who she is..

    Trust me,
    you will know when you meet her.
    Talk about a rude, disrespectful and someone who literally does not know what she is doing.
    It's almost comical to watch her, run in circles trying to get a simple answer.

  • 6th grade teachers!

    Join the rest of the public who have encountered PUBLIC WORKERS!

    And I am sorry, but willard teaching staff needs to upgrade the teaching quality at willard before RESPECT can be on the table!

    Really, I swear you guys don't have a clue about your schools API!

  • Michelle,

    Beside you being ill-informed about everything you write about. We are talking about an adult being rude and malicious to a child.

    It is a child abuse. If I as a parent neglect my child, and not take him to the E.R when he is seriously ill. I will end up in jail if not prison.

    It is not just, for anyone to maliciously neglect a child. Maria Gutierrez shouldn't be allowed to have any type of contact with children.

  • Vern,

    Any luck on trying to get a response from Dennis Cole or Jane Russo?

    Keep the thread above.
    and continue to show Cole's Picture. We need everyone in Santa Ana to know what this monster is doing to their kids.

  • At its March 2008 meeting, the State Board of Education (SBE) approved the California Department of Education’s (CDE) recommendation that Corrective Action F be mandated for all Local Education Agencies (LEA) in federal Program Improvement (PI) Year Three Corrective Action. Corrective Action F dictates that districts should be “instituting and fully implementing a new curriculum that is based on state academic content and achievement standards, including providing appropriate professional development based on scientifically-based research for all relevant staff that offers substantial promise of improving educational achievement for high priority pupils.” The SBE requires each LEA to revise its LEA Plan or Plan Addendum which must include objectives and action steps to fully implement Corrective Action and must be submitted to the CDE for SBE review.

    Dennis Cole and Jane Russo's way of fixing Willard,

    not State approved, if you follow the above guidelines. Dennis Cole is wasting every cent, he can on nothing but, more administrators. Like SAUSD, is admin. top heavy already.

    He has not once, has he raised the issue of bringing in more teachers, or getting more staff, or reducing class size. It's all, we need more admin.

    He along with Jane, have changed the Title from Administrator to Manager to be able to hire more Admin.

    Their duties stay the same while their titles change to go around the law..

    Willard, is getting 3 more Managers, aka Administrator on Coles request and whose paying for all this?

    All the funds that are to be used for more instruction!

    talk about illegal.

    Call H.R, and request a copy of the newly reclassified Administrator classification and see for yourself.

  • District Insider
    Posted January 2, 2011 at 6:50 PM

    You have to remember on important factor!

    Dennis Cole is a control freak, and a micromanaging bigot. He is the typical Administrator who feels, thinks, and believes he is protected by D.O Administration; Jane Russo, Dawn Miller and Cathie Olsky.
    Why? You might ask!

    He is a friend of Dawn; appointed by Jane and placed at Willard Cathie for one specific mission, break the will, turn employees against each other, reprimand, remove or terminate any employee who does not “obey” his directives. All this, sanctioned by the D.O, approved by Jane Russo.

    You might not remember the press release from Angela Burrell
    Public Information Officer. You need only read the section under Dennis Cole and the brief description of his background and why he was placed at Willard to start to understand his mission objective and the support he has from the D.O. You might also not remember how the D.O described Willard staff; IMPLANTED, DEEP ROOTED.

    D.O Administration place him at you school for one specific mission, I can highly assure you, it is not to raise test scores or improve the quality of education there at Willard. D.O, along with Jane Russo does not care of or about Willard Staff or Students alike. If they did, they would have never placed an Administrator with little to no background or experience in Administration.

    Your best chances of getting rid of your Principal Mr. Dennis Cole are the same directives he received from the D.O themselves. They gave him such large room for error, and at the same time gave him unrestrictive access and unquestioned support.

    The D.O was blind with their objective, they neglected to set guidelines to avoid the pitfall that all new power hungry, micromanaging unprofessional immoral Administrators fall into. The D.O did not anticipate your Principals fanatical religious believes. The D.O can not protect or support his fanatical religious believes him much longer. He is his worst enemy. Dennis will hand you all you need to file a complaint against him, not only with the D.O, but the State Dept of Labor, Cal/Osha and EEOC.

    Regardless, of what your Principal does this new calendar year or what new directives Jane Russo gives him, he will always revert back to his religion for direction. You all have what he does not, decency and common sense.

    And foremost, always carry a voice activated recorder. He can not repeal his own verbiage or say you are lying or misinterpreted his verbiage.

    I see you Principal here all the time, there are many here who support Willard Staff.

    Happy New Year.

  • After reading what is happening at Willard, I am wondering if there would be so much outrage if a Jewish or Muslim teacher wanted to volunteer their lunch for a similar club? After all, if the teacher wants to volunteer and the students want to participate during non-instructional time what is the big deal? Being the lowest performing school in the area, prayer couldn't hurt!

  • By the way, when you don't spell correctly and you have poor grammar you lose credibility in your argument! Spell check people! For those of you in education I don't even know what to say!

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