Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And yet more has come out the number one trending story.
I have a lot of different things that I used
to locate trends, and I find it fascinating what trends
and what doesn't trend. But still five days later, the
highest training story in Omaha is the superintendent of the
Des Moines Public School Districts, and the latest information is
that he has officially tindered his resignation. We knew that
(00:25):
when we were here yesterday, but the school board had
to meet last night to accept that. I'm going to
play the audio of how the public school districts meeting
began yesterday. I remember they had to meet on Friday
to put him on paid leave. Ian Roberts, the former superintendent,
well he was the superintendent, got detained by ice. The
(00:46):
only way the reason they knew he had been detained
by ice when it happened was he had accidentally well
I don't know if it was an accident. He may
have meant to do it, but he facetimed the communications
director of the Des Moines Public School District and he
was in handcuffs and he had police officers behind him.
(01:07):
They deduced quickly he had been detained by ice. They said,
we need radical empathy while we learn about this. They
put him on paid leave. Over the weekend, more stuff
comes out that, oh, yeah, this guy is not who
he said he was, and then the Iowa Board of
Educational Examiners decide we need to revoke his license to
be a superintendent in this state. When that happens, the
(01:28):
board met again on Monday night to put him on
unpaid leave while they continued to do whatever investigation they
were trying to do. Again, they could have, realistically, they
could have debated and fired him in that moment. That
was not a step they were willing to do at
that point because they liked the guy. These people just
(01:51):
over two years ago hired the guy. Not the exact
same people in the same roles, but you get you
know what I'm saying. You know, it's the same entity
that makes the call on who to hire and put
in this position, and they're trying to do what they
can to maybe save a little of their own skin
a bit. In this conversation versus what the you know,
(02:12):
what the normal thing to do would be common sense wise,
It'd be like, well, this guy lied to us. A
lot of what he said was incorrect or false. Well,
they had a meeting. They basically said, now we're just
going to make sure none of his tax payer none
of the taxpayer dollars going to pay him still now
that he's not even eligible based on the Iowa Board
(02:33):
of Educational Examiners, to be a superintendent in this situation,
So let's put him on unpaid leave and then we
can kind of work through whatever situation we need to
if we want to try to retain him. Well, they
didn't even get a chance to think about that because
he threw his attorney, Alfredo Perish, he tenders his resignation,
(02:57):
and they have another meeting last night. And here is
the opening statement from the school board chair from Des
Moines Public Schools, Jackie Norris.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, begin with a brief board statement.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Tonight, we are here to act on the district's contract
with Superintendent doctor Ian Roberts. Friday morning, everything changed for
all of us, including doctor Roberts. The individual who was
leading our district with energy and enthusiasm was detained by
Ice agents.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Since that time, this district, the Iowa.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and others
have learned that his citizenship and status and eligibility to
work in the United States is not what we were
led to believe.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
New details have led.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
To more questions, really important questions for all of us.
This is not what we anticipated when we welcomed doctor
Ian Roberts into Central Iowa and the Des Moines School
District a little more than two years ago. It is
a sad and troubling end for an individual who gave
many people, especially our students' hope. As Des Moines' School
(04:07):
board members, we have a responsibility to uphold the law,
to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and to lead
the district forward in the best way possible. DMPs reviewed
doctor Roberts I nine, where he stated he was a
US citizen and provided two forms of ID, a driver's
license and a Social Security card, and Denton's Davis Brown
(04:30):
determined the information submitted was consistent with his claim that
he was a US citizen. However, in the past twenty
four hours, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners revoked doctor
Roberts's license, meaning he is not able to serve as
a superintendent in our state. Yesterday afternoon, the Department of
(04:52):
Homeland Security informed us that he is not eligible to
work in the United States and therefore could not be
impl Lloyd in any fashion at DMPs.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
There are several reasons.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
There are several reasons leading to just cause for termination. However,
the above two actions by different government agencies mean that
doctor Roberts can no longer remain employed with.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Our school district.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
In accordance with due process, we gave doctor Roberts an opportunity,
through his attorney, to provide any information that would substantiate
his claims by answering a set of questions regarding citizenship.
He did not provide the board with the information we requested. Instead,
he submitted a letter of resignation through his attorney, and
(05:43):
the board will vote to accept his resignation as each
board member votes. Please know that the school board made
the difficult but right decision given the circumstances.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
There you go. That is Jackie Norris, who is the
Des Moines Public Schools chair. Yeah, so there you have it.
There's what they opened up with. Multiple things here. Number one,
the energy and enthusiasm she was talking about it is
infectious and I'm not telling you that he didn't have that.
(06:17):
I'm not going to tell her that he didn't have that.
I'm not going to tell the students who staged walkouts
by the way yesterday, think about this, ladies and gentlemen,
they staged walkouts with kids who are under the age
of twelve years old. You think in any way, shape
or form, they have any idea what's going on here? No,
you know, what they're being told is that doctor Roberts,
(06:37):
who's not even really a doctor from what we found out.
We talked about it yesterday. Morgan State University says, we
never gave that guy a doctorate, so we have no
idea what he's talking about. He says he got a
doctorate from Trident University International. That's like an online program.
They won't comment, so I have no idea what to
make of this. Is he a doctor or is he not?
(06:58):
Probably not, doesn't sound like it. He's claiming a bunch
of stuff that he isn't. You know something else? They
found out that he claimed that he is the Washington,
DC Principle of the Year because he was in well,
he worked in Washington, DC before right. That was issued
by George Washington University, which is located there in DC. Well,
people reached out to Washington DC's George Washington University and said,
(07:21):
can you tell us about Ian robertson when you guys
gave him the Principle of the Year award, And they're like,
we don't even give that out. That's not even a
word we give, like we don't even know who this
guy is. Yeah, so come on now. Anyway, these kids
that are going and walking out like they they're chanting
(07:41):
they want justice for doctor Ian Roberts. It's like they
have no idea and nobody wants to tell them. They're
just being told, either by their teachers or by their
parents or by the people of the school district that
if you really want to support doctor Roberts, you got
to do this. And all they're thinking of is, yes,
doctor Roberts, we loved him, you know why, because they did.
(08:05):
And it's not their fault. He was a nice guy
to them, He did have energy. They did like him.
He showed up at their schools. It was always you know,
when you're in a thirty thousand kids school district, you
are constantly trying to like find ways to help your students,
(08:25):
especially in a diverse district like the moinne Is. It
is ridiculously diverse compared to every other school district in
the state of Iowa. Omaha and the Moine are not
dissimilar in a lot of the diversity they have, but
the Moin you'd be surprised about the Moyne Public Schools
how diverse they actually is. Now, this isn't to say
that it matters what the color of a guy's skin is,
(08:45):
but for him to be a person of color, to
have an accent and to carry himself the way that
he did around the children and be a different elementary schools,
middle schools, high schools, it was a big deal to
a lot of the kids that he would be there
and they got to know him as a person. So
I'm not here to say like he wasn't that person
(09:10):
because he was full of energy and enthusiasm. He just
wasn't a superintendent. He didn't have a doctorate, he didn't
have all the degrees he said. He wasn't in Principle
of the Year in Washington, d c. He isn't a
guy who you can trust with anything based on the
fact that he's like wrote down on multiple job applications
(09:30):
and I nine forms that he's a United States citizen,
which was obviously also false. It's a difficult thing to
have to explain to your children who were in the
school district and liked this guy for the guy he was,
and they weren't thinking about what his accolades were or
whether or not he deserved to be in that position.
And it makes it even more convoluted when you have
(09:52):
a school board trying to protect themselves from this and
still trying to, you know, celebrate this guy for who
he was, despite the fact that he completely lied to
them and put them in this situation. The Ian Roberts snafu,
the superintendent situation in Des Moines and why it's such
a big deal and it's still the number one trending
story in Omaha. If it wasn't training in Omaha as
(10:14):
much as it was, I probably wouldn't talk nearly as
much about it. But when it broke, I just kind
of had a feeling this is going to be a
big deal, especially with the proximity that Omaha has to
De Moine. And this is as a story that the
more we learn, the more it's like this is going
to be not just a documentary. One day somebody could
realistically make a movie about all of the twist and
turns that this has taken in this guy. It's basically
(10:35):
like a sequel to Catch Me If You Can with
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, which is a fantastic movie
by the way. Anyway, Jackie Norris is the chair of
the Des Moines school Board and we just heard from
her about the way that she was describing what was
going to take place, and they were accepting the resignation
of doctor Ian Roberts. She keeps calling him doctor even
(10:56):
though he has no we cannot verify that he's got
a doctorate. Well, on Monday, I wanted to share this
with you. On Monday, Jackie went on to her personal
social media, which, by the way, she has lessened two
thousand followers for whatever it's worth. She's in the race
to be the new Senator of the state of Iowa. She,
you know, weeks and weeks ago, announced that she was
(11:18):
going to run for the Democrat nomination of the for
Senate in the state of Iowa because Johnny Arst is
not running for reelection. Ashley Henson, who is a Republican,
is going to be likely the nominee for the Republicans.
As she moved from the House to the Senate. That's
her aim. And then the you know other thing here
(11:41):
is you know who the Democrat is going to be.
And it's a pretty crowded field. There's a handful of
people that have done this stuff and or have put
in the paperwork. Well, here's Jackie Norris on Monday while
all this Ian Roberts stuff is going on, and here's
the video she put out.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
It's Jackie Norris.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Some of you know, I have been busy dealing with
an extremely serious situation in my volunteer role as chair
of the Des Moines School Board. As a result, I
have not had any time to focus on politics or fundraising.
And we have a big fundraising deadline and it is
my first filing and the deadline is Tuesday, And so
(12:25):
I would love to ask it if you have it
in your heart, if you've thought about donating and haven't.
If you've donated, maybe you can donate a little bit more.
But I would appreciate your investment in me and my
vision for a better country and a better politics, so
I can just stay focused on supporting the students and
(12:46):
kids and staff of our school district.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Thanks so much, appreciate it all.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right, So there you go, there's a Jackie Norris running
for the United States Senate. Hey, don't forget I'm running
for the Senate. Can you please don't to my campaign
because I have had no time to worry about it
because of my volunteer job as chair of the Des
Moines Public School Board. I hate to break it to you, Jackie,
I don't think anybody really cares. And if anything, this
(13:14):
is probably not the best time for you to be
pining people for their cash so you know you can
have a better chance to run for office. And you
want to talk about being ratioed on Twitter? She's got
one hundred and one likes on this thing and this
is from a couple of days ago, over two thousand comments,
most of which are just flaming her, and over almost
(13:36):
three hundred reposts of people who were saying, get a
load of this woman, and uh, yeah, rightly. So I
think Jackie's a Senate run is going to be pretty
short lived.
And yet more has come out the number one trending story.
I have a lot of different things that I used
to locate trends, and I find it fascinating what trends
and what doesn't trend. But still five days later, the
highest training story in Omaha is the superintendent of the
Des Moines Public School Districts, and the latest information is
that he has officially tindered his resignation. We knew that
(00:25):
when we were here yesterday, but the school board had
to meet last night to accept that. I'm going to
play the audio of how the public school districts meeting
began yesterday. I remember they had to meet on Friday
to put him on paid leave. Ian Roberts, the former superintendent,
well he was the superintendent, got detained by ice. The
(00:46):
only way the reason they knew he had been detained
by ice when it happened was he had accidentally well
I don't know if it was an accident. He may
have meant to do it, but he facetimed the communications
director of the Des Moines Public School District and he
was in handcuffs and he had police officers behind him.
(01:07):
They deduced quickly he had been detained by ice. They said,
we need radical empathy while we learn about this. They
put him on paid leave. Over the weekend, more stuff
comes out that, oh, yeah, this guy is not who
he said he was, and then the Iowa Board of
Educational Examiners decide we need to revoke his license to
be a superintendent in this state. When that happens, the
(01:28):
board met again on Monday night to put him on
unpaid leave while they continued to do whatever investigation they
were trying to do. Again, they could have, realistically, they
could have debated and fired him in that moment. That
was not a step they were willing to do at
that point because they liked the guy. These people just
(01:51):
over two years ago hired the guy. Not the exact
same people in the same roles, but you get you
know what I'm saying. You know, it's the same entity
that makes the call on who to hire and put
in this position, and they're trying to do what they
can to maybe save a little of their own skin
a bit. In this conversation versus what the you know,
(02:12):
what the normal thing to do would be common sense wise,
It'd be like, well, this guy lied to us. A
lot of what he said was incorrect or false. Well,
they had a meeting. They basically said, now we're just
going to make sure none of his tax payer none
of the taxpayer dollars going to pay him still now
that he's not even eligible based on the Iowa Board
(02:33):
of Educational Examiners, to be a superintendent in this situation,
So let's put him on unpaid leave and then we
can kind of work through whatever situation we need to
if we want to try to retain him. Well, they
didn't even get a chance to think about that because
he threw his attorney, Alfredo Perish, he tenders his resignation,
(02:57):
and they have another meeting last night. And here is
the opening statement from the school board chair from Des
Moines Public Schools, Jackie Norris.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, begin with a brief board statement.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Tonight, we are here to act on the district's contract
with Superintendent doctor Ian Roberts. Friday morning, everything changed for
all of us, including doctor Roberts. The individual who was
leading our district with energy and enthusiasm was detained by
Ice agents.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Since that time, this district, the Iowa.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and others
have learned that his citizenship and status and eligibility to
work in the United States is not what we were
led to believe.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
New details have led.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
To more questions, really important questions for all of us.
This is not what we anticipated when we welcomed doctor
Ian Roberts into Central Iowa and the Des Moines School
District a little more than two years ago. It is
a sad and troubling end for an individual who gave
many people, especially our students' hope. As Des Moines' School
(04:07):
board members, we have a responsibility to uphold the law,
to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, and to lead
the district forward in the best way possible. DMPs reviewed
doctor Roberts I nine, where he stated he was a
US citizen and provided two forms of ID, a driver's
license and a Social Security card, and Denton's Davis Brown
(04:30):
determined the information submitted was consistent with his claim that
he was a US citizen. However, in the past twenty
four hours, the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners revoked doctor
Roberts's license, meaning he is not able to serve as
a superintendent in our state. Yesterday afternoon, the Department of
(04:52):
Homeland Security informed us that he is not eligible to
work in the United States and therefore could not be
impl Lloyd in any fashion at DMPs.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
There are several reasons.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
There are several reasons leading to just cause for termination. However,
the above two actions by different government agencies mean that
doctor Roberts can no longer remain employed with.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Our school district.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
In accordance with due process, we gave doctor Roberts an opportunity,
through his attorney, to provide any information that would substantiate
his claims by answering a set of questions regarding citizenship.
He did not provide the board with the information we requested. Instead,
he submitted a letter of resignation through his attorney, and
(05:43):
the board will vote to accept his resignation as each
board member votes. Please know that the school board made
the difficult but right decision given the circumstances.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
There you go. That is Jackie Norris, who is the
Des Moines Public Schools chair. Yeah, so there you have it.
There's what they opened up with. Multiple things here. Number one,
the energy and enthusiasm she was talking about it is
infectious and I'm not telling you that he didn't have that.
(06:17):
I'm not going to tell her that he didn't have that.
I'm not going to tell the students who staged walkouts
by the way yesterday, think about this, ladies and gentlemen,
they staged walkouts with kids who are under the age
of twelve years old. You think in any way, shape
or form, they have any idea what's going on here? No,
you know, what they're being told is that doctor Roberts,
(06:37):
who's not even really a doctor from what we found out.
We talked about it yesterday. Morgan State University says, we
never gave that guy a doctorate, so we have no
idea what he's talking about. He says he got a
doctorate from Trident University International. That's like an online program.
They won't comment, so I have no idea what to
make of this. Is he a doctor or is he not?
(06:58):
Probably not, doesn't sound like it. He's claiming a bunch
of stuff that he isn't. You know something else? They
found out that he claimed that he is the Washington,
DC Principle of the Year because he was in well,
he worked in Washington, DC before right. That was issued
by George Washington University, which is located there in DC. Well,
people reached out to Washington DC's George Washington University and said,
(07:21):
can you tell us about Ian robertson when you guys
gave him the Principle of the Year award, And they're like,
we don't even give that out. That's not even a
word we give, like we don't even know who this
guy is. Yeah, so come on now. Anyway, these kids
that are going and walking out like they they're chanting
(07:41):
they want justice for doctor Ian Roberts. It's like they
have no idea and nobody wants to tell them. They're
just being told, either by their teachers or by their
parents or by the people of the school district that
if you really want to support doctor Roberts, you got
to do this. And all they're thinking of is, yes,
doctor Roberts, we loved him, you know why, because they did.
(08:05):
And it's not their fault. He was a nice guy
to them, He did have energy. They did like him.
He showed up at their schools. It was always you know,
when you're in a thirty thousand kids school district, you
are constantly trying to like find ways to help your students,
(08:25):
especially in a diverse district like the moinne Is. It
is ridiculously diverse compared to every other school district in
the state of Iowa. Omaha and the Moine are not
dissimilar in a lot of the diversity they have, but
the Moin you'd be surprised about the Moyne Public Schools
how diverse they actually is. Now, this isn't to say
that it matters what the color of a guy's skin is,
(08:45):
but for him to be a person of color, to
have an accent and to carry himself the way that
he did around the children and be a different elementary schools,
middle schools, high schools, it was a big deal to
a lot of the kids that he would be there
and they got to know him as a person. So
I'm not here to say like he wasn't that person
(09:10):
because he was full of energy and enthusiasm. He just
wasn't a superintendent. He didn't have a doctorate, he didn't
have all the degrees he said. He wasn't in Principle
of the Year in Washington, d c. He isn't a
guy who you can trust with anything based on the
fact that he's like wrote down on multiple job applications
(09:30):
and I nine forms that he's a United States citizen,
which was obviously also false. It's a difficult thing to
have to explain to your children who were in the
school district and liked this guy for the guy he was,
and they weren't thinking about what his accolades were or
whether or not he deserved to be in that position.
And it makes it even more convoluted when you have
(09:52):
a school board trying to protect themselves from this and
still trying to, you know, celebrate this guy for who
he was, despite the fact that he completely lied to
them and put them in this situation. The Ian Roberts snafu,
the superintendent situation in Des Moines and why it's such
a big deal and it's still the number one trending
story in Omaha. If it wasn't training in Omaha as
(10:14):
much as it was, I probably wouldn't talk nearly as
much about it. But when it broke, I just kind
of had a feeling this is going to be a
big deal, especially with the proximity that Omaha has to
De Moine. And this is as a story that the
more we learn, the more it's like this is going
to be not just a documentary. One day somebody could
realistically make a movie about all of the twist and
turns that this has taken in this guy. It's basically
(10:35):
like a sequel to Catch Me If You Can with
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, which is a fantastic movie
by the way. Anyway, Jackie Norris is the chair of
the Des Moines school Board and we just heard from
her about the way that she was describing what was
going to take place, and they were accepting the resignation
of doctor Ian Roberts. She keeps calling him doctor even
(10:56):
though he has no we cannot verify that he's got
a doctorate. Well, on Monday, I wanted to share this
with you. On Monday, Jackie went on to her personal
social media, which, by the way, she has lessened two
thousand followers for whatever it's worth. She's in the race
to be the new Senator of the state of Iowa. She,
you know, weeks and weeks ago, announced that she was
(11:18):
going to run for the Democrat nomination of the for
Senate in the state of Iowa because Johnny Arst is
not running for reelection. Ashley Henson, who is a Republican,
is going to be likely the nominee for the Republicans.
As she moved from the House to the Senate. That's
her aim. And then the you know other thing here
(11:41):
is you know who the Democrat is going to be.
And it's a pretty crowded field. There's a handful of
people that have done this stuff and or have put
in the paperwork. Well, here's Jackie Norris on Monday while
all this Ian Roberts stuff is going on, and here's
the video she put out.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
It's Jackie Norris.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Some of you know, I have been busy dealing with
an extremely serious situation in my volunteer role as chair
of the Des Moines School Board. As a result, I
have not had any time to focus on politics or fundraising.
And we have a big fundraising deadline and it is
my first filing and the deadline is Tuesday, And so
(12:25):
I would love to ask it if you have it
in your heart, if you've thought about donating and haven't.
If you've donated, maybe you can donate a little bit more.
But I would appreciate your investment in me and my
vision for a better country and a better politics, so
I can just stay focused on supporting the students and
(12:46):
kids and staff of our school district.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Thanks so much, appreciate it all.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right, So there you go, there's a Jackie Norris running
for the United States Senate. Hey, don't forget I'm running
for the Senate. Can you please don't to my campaign
because I have had no time to worry about it
because of my volunteer job as chair of the Des
Moines Public School Board. I hate to break it to you, Jackie,
I don't think anybody really cares. And if anything, this
(13:14):
is probably not the best time for you to be
pining people for their cash so you know you can
have a better chance to run for office. And you
want to talk about being ratioed on Twitter? She's got
one hundred and one likes on this thing and this
is from a couple of days ago, over two thousand comments,
most of which are just flaming her, and over almost
(13:36):
three hundred reposts of people who were saying, get a
load of this woman, and uh, yeah, rightly. So I
think Jackie's a Senate run is going to be pretty
short lived.
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