I am the Library Assistant at Kalākaua Middle School!
Since I'm labeled an "assistant", that means there's another person
who is in charge of the library. Her name is Natalie Lum (aka Miss Lum)!
And today I say I have a vote of NO CONFIDENCE
in the school's head librarian Natalie Lum!
That's right, I said it!
I don't do this lightly! I usually try to be the "nice guy" who
presents a happy vibe!
But the issue is way too serious for me to be the "nice guy" who
"goes along to get along".
The amount of generosity I shown to Miss Lum has been very excessive.
The school administration knows about what I'm writing about for
months! Don't believe them if they said they didn't know about
this and "why didn't Pablo tell us?".
Miss Lum has poor people skills, doesn't know how to communicate
diplomatically, is very rigid, and never apologizes for anything even when
over-ruled by the administration.
But that's the not the
worst thing about Miss Lum
For one thing, the school administration KNOWS that Natalie Lum said racist
things about Micronesians, one of the major ethnic groups in the school.
(note: in this campus,
Filipinos are the majority, though Polynesians and Micronesians are also noted
as major groups on campus. There are other ethnic groups on campus in smaller
#s)
She doesn't say that stuff when they're
around! But she did say that stuff when I'm around, and I did report that
issue to the school administration AND the DOE Civil Rights Office!
Natalie Lum is still employed by the school!
The principal Lorelei Aiwohi actually told me she can't fire Miss Lum just
because she made those statements.
Think about that!
Had Miss Lum made those statements at any other job, she would've been
fired!
Here is what I sent to the school administration in September 2019. A copy was also sent to the DOE Civil Rights Office.
============
IntroductionThis document is written by Pablo Wegesend, the Library
Assistant at Kalakaua Middle School since January 2019. This document keeps
track of negative statements by Natalie Lum about Micronesian people. Natalie
Lum is the School Librarian at Kalakaua Middle School.
This isn’t to say every single comment Miss Lum made about
Micronesians are negative, I also noted non-negative situations, just to be
fair & balanced.
2/11/2019 letter
The following was a letter written by Pablo Wegesend to Natalie
Lum, and it was left in her mailbox on February 11th.
Coincidentally, that was Teacher Institute Day, when Miss Lum was off campus.
From: Pablo Wegesend
To : Natalie Lum
The reason I am writing this letter is that I have becoming uncomfortable with
your multiple negative comments about Micronesians. You may not have intended
your comments to come out that way and I do want to give people the benefit of
the doubt. However, it has become a pattern that I find very
disturbing. I am hurt when good people are being slandered just because
of the bad actions of a few.
When a few Micronesian students have overdue books or didn’t
make any payments., you claim that “Micronesian population acts like we owe
them everything.”. Yet Filipino, Polynesian and other students also haven’t
turned in overdue books or paid for lost books but you never said any
stereotypical comments about them. When the mostly Filipino clique
fool around the stacks during recess, you didn’t make any stereotypical
comments about their ethnicity. That’s how it’s supposed to be. When the
Polynesian student from Toynton’s class attempted to steal a book, you didn’t
make any stereotypical comments about his ethnicity. That’s how it’s supposed
to be. But when a Micronesian student does something wrong, you make Donald
Trump like comments about their ethnicity. I know you are better than
this!
Now, the reason why I’m putting this in writing rather than
introduce this topic in a spoken conversation is that I made it a New Year’s
resolution to avoid heated conversations, especially if they might get
witnessed by students or other staff members. I want to give you time to
process what I write, knowing that a spoken conversation doesn’t always give
people time to process dissenting thoughts expressed to them.
Don’t get me wrong, I
value many things about working with you. I appreciate your patient style of
mentorship, your work ethic and the knowledge you have shared. I want all of
that to continue. I just don’t want to hear anymore Trump-like stereotypes being
expressed about any ethnic group. I know you are better than this
Sincerely,
Pablo Wegesend
After the LetterOn February 12th (the following day),
Pablo Wegesend decided to wait for Miss Lum to bring up the topic in case she
needed time to mentally process what I have written. Miss Lum stated “I
got your letter and I didn’t know I come across that way”, then complained
about her experience working with the ELL department when the staff was
evaluated based on low test scores. She also noted that she did
experience racism growing up as an Asian-American in California.
February 13, 2019Natalie Lum mentioned about Micronesians
swimming in dirty water during the floods, then complained that the federal
government isn’t paying Hawaii enough to help the Micronesian population. She
used the word “inundated” (which has a negative connotation) when
describing Hawaii’s increasing Micronesian population. She complained it
is increasing “our taxes”. Despite her concerns about increasing taxes,
she made no comment about other things that contributed to increasing taxes
(ie. US military involvement overseas, Trump’s planned border wall, Trump’s
plan to place tariffs on foreign imports, the Honolulu rail project, backlog of
maintenance of local schools and colleges), giving an impression that
“increasing taxes” aren’t her main concern.
In that conversation, I noted that the US government committed
genocide by using the Marshall Islands for nuclear testing.
February 14, 2019Natalie Lum complained again about her
experience working with the ELL department, claiming that too many Micronesian
families don’t take education seriously. Nothing was mentioned about families
of other ethnicities who are negligent about their children’s education.
She also noted that school counselors visited the nearby housing and found
Micronesian students at home watching TV during school hours. Nothing was
mentioned about students of other ethnicities who also lived in the nearby housing.
Nothing was mentioned about Polynesian gangs who also operate in the nearby
housing (according to the school’s security personnel).
Miss Lum did mention that a Micronesian student in her previous
school that did well in the school’s Spelling Bee. I then mentioned that at
Queen Kaahumanu Elementary School (the school where I was on the school’s
preferred substitute teacher list), there were also some Micronesian students
who were their class’s representative in the school’s Spelling Bee. Miss Lum
replied by assuming they’ll loss focus when they go to middle school because
“too many Micronesian families don’t consider education a priority”. This
despite there being no way for Miss Lum to prove that will be the case for
those students from Queen Kaahumanu Elementary School, being that the students
from that school tend to continue their education at either Stevenson or
Washington Middle Schools.
February 15, 2019Natalie Lum mentioned a recent case where
Micronesian gang members attacked a security guard at Kuhio Park Terrace. No
mentioned was made about Polynesian gangs who also operate at Kuhio Park
Terrace.
February 20, 2019This date is noted because a representative
from PREL (Pacific Resources for Education and Learning) came for an
afterschool faculty meeting to talk about the challenges facing Micronesian
students and how to help them. The representative was from Kosrae.
The video was shown where a Marshallese woman described the
racism she faced living in Hawaii. Then the PREL representative discussed how
the racism hurts the self-esteem of Micronesian students and how it causes some
of them to act out!
The PREL representative also noted the differences in
development of various island groups within Micronesia. She noted that Kosrae
and Pohnpei were relatively more developed and had better access to education.
She noted that Chuuk was less developed, less enforcement of school attendance,
and in many islands, students would have to ride boats to an island with a
school. She noted that Chuukese immigrant students faced more culture shock and
other disadvantages compared to immigrants from Kosrae and Pohnpei.
February 21, 2019This is the day after the PREL presentation
about helping Micronesian students. Miss Lum finally acknowledges the nuances
and differences between the different Micronesian groups. She did note that her
former ELL students from Kiribati, Pohnpei and Kosrae were relatively more
academically prepared than the students from Chuuk. She also mentioned
that Kalakaua Middle School once had a Marshallese staff member who worked on a
part-time basis and that he was valued by the school staff struggling to relate
to Micronesian students.
This was when Miss Lum finally talked about Micronesians as
people who can be helped rather than dismissing them as burdens and criminals.
Also relating to yesterdays meeting when the PREL representative
mentioned about the shock that Micronesian immigrants faced when dealing with
Hawaii’s high cost of living, Miss Lum mentioned one apartment in which a
Micronesian family had 60 people living in a space designed for 6 people.
Miss Lum said that would be a fire hazard if that many people had to evacuate
the apartment all at once.
--------
Weeks went by without
Miss Lum’s negative comments about Micronesians.
But just when you thought it was over
April 10, 2019Some students were cruising outside while
there were classes were in session. Vice-Principal Randiann Porras-Tang told
them “come on, you’re supposed to be excited about learning, walk faster”.Miss
Lum’s comments were that this was unique to the “Micronesian population” and
she claims their culture doesn’t take education seriously. I reminded Miss Lum
that students of other ethnicities have also cruised the campus, and Miss Lum
looked at me as if I said something out of the ordinary.
Months went by. During this time, Miss Lum ran a Teen CERT
program in which there was one female student of Micronesian ancestry. I have
seen zero conflict between that student or Miss Lum. In fact, the student left
a “Teacher Appreciation” note on Miss Lum’s desk, which happened to be during
the week in which Miss Lum was out with an ankle injury. As far as
I know, that student was never informed about Miss Lum’s negative
comments about Micronesians.
Also, there was summer break in which Miss Lum came sporadically
and unannounced.
August 2, 2019This was the last weekday before students
return to school. I had a conversation about Miss Lum about our progress in
re-arranging our library’s bookshelves. Then all of a sudden, Miss Lum brought
up the letter I sent to her on February, in which she claims I called her a
racist (note: the note didn’t say “you’re a racist) about her negative comments
about Micronesians. She then said she heard data that even though Micronesians
make up 11% of the school’s population, they’re involved in 35% of the
incidents on campus. I reminded her of the good relations with the
Micronesian student that was in her Teen CERT program. Miss Lum did say
she loved that student, but that she was the rare ones who are focused in
school. She also said every group experienced discrimination but her Chinese
immigrant ancestors worked 3 jobs whereas she claimed that many Micronesians
don’t even have one job. At that point, I walked away to do another task.
August 14, 2019Long-term substitute teacher Susan Galariada visited the
library during her prep period to talk with Miss Lum. Galariada was venting
about her difficulties with students. She mentioned a case of a student
complaining to administration about “what does this origami have to do with
math”. Galariada then said about the students “those micros know all about
social media” then implied that they’re not doing the class work. Galariada
also said that “those micros feel entitled” Miss Lum said to Galariada “watch
out somebody is going to accuse you of prejudice”, to which Galariada replied
“if I’m prejudiced, I’m just prejudiced against stupid people”.
====================
The principal received that letter on September 6, 2019.
The vice-principal got around to meeting with Miss Lum about the issue on
September 23, 2019.
That's a 17-day delay!
In other organizations, people have been disciplined, even fired, for one
mildly offensive statement a lot faster than 17 days.
It would've been longer than 17 days if I hadn't told the vice-principal
that I can leak this to the media. Also, within the 17 days was when I
forwarded that memo to the DOE Civil Rights Office. Another impetus to
get the administration to get moving on this issue.
Anyways, about that September 23 that I mentioned, I could easily see the
defeat in Miss Lum as she came back from that meeting! At that point, I knew
the conference finally happened!
Since then, she never said any more negative comments about Micronesians (or
any other ethnic group) in my presence.
---
As for Miss Galariada (the long-term substitute teacher mentioned in that memo
who also made negative comments about Micronesians), she actually confronted me
saying "don't tell on me to the office, you wasn't even a part of the
conversation". Then she complained to another substitute teacher "you
know Mr Pablo, he listens to other people's conversations".
Well, if you say something loud enough to be heard by other people, that means
people are going to hear it. And once you hear certain things, you just can't
unhear it!
And this "don't tell on me to the office"? I told on her a second
time.
And who do you think this blog post is about?
https://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2019/09/dont-tell-me-not-to-tell.html
But since she told me not to tell, I tell the world.
Had she made a simple apology, I would've forgiven the whole thing.
----
On January 22, 2020, a
person from the DOE Civil Rights Office gave a talk to the whole staff about
discrimination and the use of offensive words.
In that meeting, a slide show showed a homophobic note by an unknown person on
a Thanksgiving staff poster at our school.
But I know (and Miss Lum knows, and Miss Galariada knows, and the
administration knows) that wasn't the only reason the DOE Civil Rights Office
came to talk to the school staff about what should actually be common
sense.
=============================
Racism is just one of Natalie Lum's sins.
She also has the worst people skills out of every staff member on campus
(that's also taking into account others on campus who others complain about).
Yes, I mentioned in the February 2019 letter that she had a
patient style of mentorship. The keyword is had. That's a
past tense word.
Since then, and especially since this school year, she responds in a rude,
condescending tone.
In the library setting, there are multiple tasks and backlogs to deal with. So
of course, some things get dealt with at another time. Natalie Lum gets
mad when some boxes haven't yet been moved (because I was working on other
tasks) when she could've just said in a nice voice "let's move these
books". She acts as if it was due to laziness (even though I come to work
every day but she doesn't, and even though I'm the one who moves the boxes
across the campus even when walkways are blocked by renovations). The school's
administration has been notified about this issue.
Even a simple question like "is there a meeting in the library later this
week" gets Natalie Lum mad. I responded, "gosh, I was just asking a
question." The school's administration has been notified about this
issue.
Many bosses I've had (whether at other libraries, schools, retail, etc) are
able to respond in a friendly matter when I have questions or
errors.
But the last straw was when I expressed to
Miss Lum and vice-principal Randiann Porras-Tang that I wasn't properly
notified about library procedures since the coronavirus shutdown.
Vice-Principal Porras-Tang apologized
and communicated diplomatically about the issue. She made some
clarifications.
(that was on May 18, 2020)
However, on the following day, Miss Lum sent
an angry email saying that she did explain things that she didn't actually
explain. In other words, Miss Lum (the queen of lacking social skills) didn't
respond in a diplomatic way. She didn't apologize for any confusion. It's
"I did explain this". In other words, she's showing another of Donald
Trump's tendencies, the tendency to pretend that they were clear on something,
but really wasn't.
Well, if that's how she wants to roll, then
here I go. I'm done with being diplomatic with Miss Lum.
This was my email I sent to Miss Lum
(and our supervising Vice-Principal Randiann Porras-Tang) on May 19, 2020 in
regards to Miss Lum's severe lack of clarity.
(note: the "you" in this email
refers to Miss Lum)
As usual, clarity has been a long running problem here! Things
haven’t been clearly explained, as usual, and telling me “nothing was hidden
from you” and “things were clearly explained to you” doesn’t make it true!
Also, telling me that clarity hasn’t been a problem doesn’t make it true. Other
employers I had in the past would apologize if their previous instructions
weren’t clear instead of telling me “nothing was hidden from you”. That’s
called humility.
According to the 1st paragraph, you said about
the week before spring break. At the time, it was not yet clear that campus
would be closed to students for the 4th quarter. The official
announcement that school came later. Therefore, before Spring Break, there was
no discussion about the collection of books if campus was closed. Telling
me there was a discussion doesn’t make it true.
In regards to the 2nd paragraph, my comment in
the faculty meeting was in response to Ivy Hsu comment that there were
plenty of books on the cart in the staff lounge when the books were already
been sent to Miss Powers room. I admit that I didn’t take into account about
the boxes labeled for Aiwohi/Fukuda and I admitted to that issue in the
following meeting in the chat.
In regards to the 3rd paragraph, in the faculty
meeting, I heard nothing about the content of the mass call. That may or
may not be an oversight on my part.
I came to campus today (5/19/2020) as part of the sign-out
procedures. I was given a box of returned books by Miss Aiwohi and I took it to
the library. At the same time, Miss Porras-Tang suggested that I wait for your
instructions on dealing with returned books so I didn’t scan them. I did label
the box that the items were returned on 5/19/2020 and the end of the 2
week period is 6/7/2020. I will be back tomorrow (5/20/2020) and I will follow
the listed procedures regarding the returned books.
One more thing, I might as make the announcement that I don’t plan on coming back for the next school
year. This is too
toxic an environment for my mental health. We are not a compatible team,
it’s beyond repair at this point. I had plenty of employers in the past
has been able to guide me without all this drama.
If you want to keep arguing about this, I’m at home all
day, I could do it all day. If you googled my name before hiring me, you
would know the type of stuff I write in my blogs and mention in my videos. So
far, my blogs/videos haven’t yet mentioned about what I have submitted to the
DOE’s Civil Rights Office last semester. According to Miss Porras-Tang, she has
talked with you about this. So yeah, you can tell everyone that I’m not good
with machines or that I don’t put labels on correctly. That’s nowhere
near as embarrassing as what I submitted to the DOE Civil Rights Office.
Or better yet, I’ll might just delete your responses. I’m done
with this!
Natalie Lum will probably resort to exposing any errors I might have committed
on the job. Any negative responses from her towards this blog post is
just sour grapes for being publicly exposed in this blog post.
Her responses about whatever flaws I might have will be just like Bill Cosby
saying "I don't curse on stage". Hannibal Burress had a classic
response to that, "yeah, but you're a rapist".
So if Miss Lum wants to talk about whatever flaws I have, I'll just respond
"Yeah, but you're a racist"
But even if this makes me come across as a "snowflake" (nevermind that I've been a substitute teacher for 13 years, really impressive for a "snowflake"), this is nowhere near as bad as what I've mentioned about Natalie Lum's racist stereotyping towards Micronesians.
Natalie Lum complains about other staff members not having "people
skills" (look in the mirror Miss Lum) and the administration causing
low morale on campus nevermind that she contributes to low morale on campus. I
sure took low morale for me to publish this blog post.
Natalie Lum complains that the administration has "favorites", but lo
and behold, Miss Lum has "favorites" on campus that she gives special
preferences too. Lum claims that the principal "doesn't like
confrontations" and therefore doesn't hold other teachers accountable. But
Natalie Lum is the #1 beneficiary of any leniency from the administration! What
I have exposed would've gotten her fired (or at least "administrative
leave") if she worked anywhere else.
=====
And what do the other school staff members think?
I've heard FIVE staff members offer unsolicited negative opinions about Miss
Lum. Unsolicited meaning that THEY
introduced the topic of Miss Lum in the conversation, not me. THEY introduced their dislike of Miss Lum in
the conversation, not me.
And one of them offering a negative opinion of Miss Lum happens to be one of
her "favorites". Their opinions focus on her rudeness,
rigidity, and negative attitude in general.
I wouldn't be surprised if others on campus have negative opinions of Miss Lum
but never bring the issue to me, probably thinking that since I work directly
with her, that I might snitch to her. But once this blog post gets
published, I can guarantee more troubling revelations from longtime
staff members will be revealed.
======
So what will the school administration do to
me?
Schools usually don't want staff members to talk to the media!
They don't want their school to "look bad", especially during an
accreditation year.
Too bad, I already leaked embarrassing info!
They want to punish me for that, it will be more bad publicity for them.
If they want to terminate my employment over violating any "no
snitching" rules, I will hold up signs near the campus and the cameras
will be rolling, (social distancing off course)!
I definitely encourage people in the community to communicate with the school,
but please do so in a civil tone of voice (in other words, express
sadness instead of threatening rage).
Kalākaua Middle School
821 Kalihi
Street Honolulu, HI 96819
Phone(808) 832-3130
Fax(808) 832-3140
email at this link https://www.kalakauamiddle.org/apps/contact/
If they still want to
keep Natalie Lum employed while I'm still employed, then this is my statement:
Miss Lum, I am done with you!
Unless it's a life or death situation, you
will be ignored and your actions will continue to be documented!
I will do things my way and I will do things
when I feel like doing them!*
If there's something I can't solve, I won't
even bother to ask you for help, I'll leave it unsolved! **
*I've been accommodating when Miss Lum wanted me to change the
way I do things. NEVER AGAIN! I will be accommodating again when I have a
leader with proper people skills.
**note: any life-or-death situation or any damage to facilities
will continue to be reported to the proper authorities on campus
Or better yet, one of
us has to leave. Either you go or I go! Based on your rude behavior, I think it
should be you! You should just resign already!
=======
Miss Lum, you should've seen this coming! You (and the school's administration)
could've done your research before my job interview and notice that what I am
doing to you is what I've done to workplace bullies and other scum I dealt with
in the past!
Some examples
·
I stood up to the
biggest, baddest, rudest mid-level sales manager at Ala Moana Macy's and
refused to take off my Santa hat even after she got into my face and
repeated "take that hat off"
·
When taunted by Nadine
Chun (an extremely rude staff member at Palolo Elementary School), I
slammed a few chairs, and then sent one of the biggest, baddest,
meanest letter to ever question a senior staff member. The
principal was on my side, even though Ms Chun cried to the police. I was
NEVER prosecuted for this, as the police only interviewed me about the
incident.
Learn more at My battles at PES
·
I wrote a blog
post describing one of the meanest co-workers ever, Jesse Newman. He is
very dangerous and writing the blog post was major risk to my physical
safety.
Learn more at Bullies of Summer Fun
·
I wrote "Exposed
to the Light" which I made the most classic comebacks to my school
peers and teachers who verbally abused me when I was a student in middle/high
school!
Learn more at Exposed to the Light
·
I wrote "Public
Shaming of Hawaii's bigots" which I basically called out a
former classmate for being a trashy person, because of her
racist remarks about Micronesians. That classmate has one of the
most vicious posts that I have ever read on my facebook news feed! She is
an extremely emotionally disturbed person who could be very dangerous! My blog
post was another risk to my personal safety!
Learn more at Public Shaming of
Bigots in Hawaii
And here's more on the Public Shaming of Bigots series
Part 2 I exposed a former classmate who
supported Donald Trump restricting immigration from Muslim-majority countries
Part 3 Part 4 I spoke against racist comments that
other people have made about Micronesians, and I screenshot some of comments
that racists post on facebook.
·
I posted
some flyers around UH-Manoa about my dissatisfaction with the editor and
faculty advisor of Ka Leo! After posting those flyers, I attended a
public meeting where the editor and faculty advisor was present! I
yelled into the mic ripping them in front of everyone!
Learn more at Problems at Ka Leo
(again)
and Ka Leo's Free Speech
Forum
·
When the internship
supervisor at the Hawaii State Library terminated my internship and spread
negative & false innuendos behind my back, I responded with blog posts and
video. And when the LIS (Library & Information Science) internship
coordinator tell me to withdraw complaints about the situation, I responded
with more blog posts and videos.
Learn more at Problems at HSL Professional Victim
Professor 1 Professional Victim
Professor 2 Professional Victim
Professor 3 Tisha the Librarian 1 Tisha the Librarian 2
Don't Dare Silence Me
(LIS edition) Professional Victim Professor (video)
·
·
I wrote "The
Problem with Nordstrom Rack and Earpieces" in response to that company's
sales manager (and a salesperson who acts as if she's a manager) who attempted
to pressure me to wear those earpieces that can directs instructions (at unpredictable
volumes) directly into your ear.
Learn more at The problem with
Nordstrom Rack and earpieces
All of that was publicly available
information when I got interviewed for my current position
at Kalākaua Middle School!
So neither Natalie Lum
nor the school administration can act like they didn't have access to that
information during the hiring process.
They can't act surprised that I am using my blog to expose this situation to
the public!
In fact, with all those blog posts I've written in my life I've been way too
generous with Miss Lum!
Those days are over!
If I get disciplined for writing this blog
post, my response is that my honor & soul is not for sale!
======
(note from 2023): Miss Lum petitioned for a TRO on me because of this blog post. We hard a court hearing on 07/01/2020. My attorney at the time (Steve Ceillos) told me Lum’s attorney will withdraw the TRO if I deleted the post. At the time I was in the middle of a time sensitive work project involving the inspection of ballots to be used for the Primary Election. I didn’t want to miss more work days. If that wasn’t my situation, I would’ve advised my attorney to pursue a defense of my posts more aggressively. Since that time sensitive project is long over, I posted this back on my blog. As far as I’m concerned, it’s been years since I last communicated with her, I have no intentions of being anywhere near here, so there’s no case that Lum will ever need another TRO on me. Life goes on )
