The investigation began in April 2006 when Michael Wiltshire, principal of Middle College High School, telephoned the office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation (« SCI ») and reported that after entering ‘Middle College High School » into Yahoo Internet search engine, he discovered two websites apparently created by Fofana, www.mathspell.com and www.teacherabuse.com .
[ SCI's letter to Chancellor Klein ]

Wiltshire lied to the SCI : mathspell.com, made available to my students on October 5, 2004 -- the first day the site was integrated into my teaching --, was known to him, if not because of its popularity in such a small school of 700 students.Teacherabuse.com,published on May 31, 2005, was known to him as well. He lied because he was in a quandary : on the one hand, filing a complaint would have attracted his superiors' attention to a documented exposé of his misconduct and incompetence ; on the other hand, time is not on his side : sooner or later the website would be known to them. He decided to contact the SCI in April 2006.To pre-empt inevitable questions like "what takes you so long to come forward ?" he found a solution that befits his intellect, our-dog-eated-my-homework type : it was only in April 2006 that "after entering ‘Middle College High School » into Yahoo Internet search engine, he discovered two websites apparently created by Fofana..."

This explanation is untenable for the following reasons :

• Wilthsire attended a teacher professional development workshop in Fall 2004, conducted by Richard Devir , a consultant from teachingmatters.org , an educational consulting firm. Workshop to "prepare educators to effectively use the Internet, web-based content, and various software applications to support project-based instruction aligned to the core curriculum. Workshops are designed to improve student outcomes" as advertised on their website .
Mr. Devir congratulated a teacher for his website, the only one at school at the time ? It was www.mathspell.com. At the end of the workshop Ms. Adilifufu, the AP for administration, conducted a survey intended to identify teachers who are proficient in that area. I filled out the survey form and handed in to her.

•  My direct supervisor, Yvonne Adonai, and Wiltshire, conducted four unannounced, retaliatory observations of my lessons ( two in one day !)  : 9/30/04 ; 9/30/04 ; 10/25/04 ; 11/19/04. Is it possible that mathspell.com, an essential element of my instruction, was not evoked ? I think not. And yet they pretended it did not exist : no mention in their reports. resentment clouded their judgment.

•  Adonai took umbrage at the site because some of her own students wanted to transfer to my class (she taught two M$2 classes). Her resentment translated into obstruction : absent on 10/28/04, I posted classwork and homework (still online) for each class, and called her to have the substitute printed them out, say, in the teacher's lounge. She refused, and demanded that I fax them !

If students' privacy was so important to them, Wiltshire and Adonai had all latitude to have me removed the students' names and pictures from the website the moment they saw them in October 2004.