UFT Solidarity: Francesco Portelos Reality Check

Oh, Francesco Portelos is at it again. Crossing that line between reality and Portelos reality. Soon the two reality's will merge and as mentioned on Star Trek, or Back to the Future, time will cease to be. Or something like that.

As mentioned on these pages on February 21 Portelos had a vast increase of usage of his app for parents to use to opt their child out of state tests. In just 72 hours, the app had gone from 400 parents accessing and using the app to 500 parents. Supposedly. he just got caught with knickers down not being able to keep up with his story.

So it makes one wonder, question, and wish to verify when this claim comes in the email this morning;

WOW! Almost 3,000 mommies and daddies, as well as guardians, signed up to use this groundbreaking app in just 16 days! How could this be?

The Crack Team did some research. The Crack Team Googled several variants of "Opt Out New York State/Long Island/New York City/Western New York" (Here, here, here, and here) and not once did the Portelos thingy appear on either the first or second pages of Google.

Only when we Google the name of the app, or website, or whatever, "opt them out" does the website or app or whatever appear in the search results and not even as the top hit.

So The Crack Team decided to check some of the leading website/groups that are actually doing something about being in the forefront of the Opt Out movement in New York State. We checked NYSAPE, NYC Opt Out, United Opt Out, Western New Yorkers for Public Education, and found not a link to the website/app or henceforth known as the Portelos Thingy. Even checking the NYC Opt Out Facebook page there are only two mentions, March 1, and  November 10, of the Portelos Thingy with no comments or no likes.

We need check the Long Island Opt Out page and did find a mention on February 26 how the Portelos Thingy has 700 parents, and one yesterday. But again, something is giving off a bad odor in Denmark.

Are these over 3,300 parents real? Conjured up in Portelos' mind? The pieces of the puzzle don't fit so a visit to the Portelos Thingy was in order.

The Crack Team nailed it. It's so easy. One does not have to fill out any fields. Just click on the "Preview refusal letter" and a preview will appear. Click the "Create Opt-Out Email," and presto! The counter goes up one.  Do it enough times over the course of several weeks and playing with the Portelos Thingy enough suddenly gives it the appearance of being much bigger than it really is.

The numbers, The Crack Team believe, are a phfallacy. Someone, as usual, is trying to make something that is tiny seem to appear bigger than it really is.