June 18, 1999
The San Diego City Schools are well under way to being reduced to insignificance by the actions of the Chamber of Commerce controlled elected Board members and their appointed Superintendent!
The knee-jerk actions of the Board of Trustees, who slavishly are following the orders, of someone who can only be described as a total rank amateur, in the field of education, has heighten concerns among parents, teachers, citizens, and yes, even the business community over the future of the San Diego Unified School District.
To anyone, other than residents of Texas where lynching, total autocratic school systems, and where you need not train for anything than to be a "Cowboy," the piece meal destruction of the San Diego City Schools has become a major concern. Their was a total disregard and lack of respect for those Principals who were removed without any prior notice or any cogent reasons as to why they were removed. Other than having a group of hired guns from the Superintendent coming around telling them "they didn't show leadership" no reason or evaluation had been made of their work that reflected this "skill" they claimed to have been lacking. Even the worse criminals in our democratic society receive a fair trial and have their day in court. The educators in fact didn't even receive the courtesy of being informed of what they were being charged with, what were the elements of the charges if at all, much less of being given their day in court.
Superintendent Allan Bersin, as a former U.S. Attorney has demonstrated very poor knowledge of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. In a sense the Superintendent and The Board of Trustees have imposed a BILL OF ATTAINDER AGAINST THE 13 PRINCIPALS AND 2 VICE PRINCIPALS by assigning a punishment without due process. What we have is a Superintendent who is trying to be a tyrant and trample over peoples rights and the Board of Trustees has abrogated their responsibilities.
We fear for our children and what is happening to our Institutions of Education.
The question is what are the citizens of this City, County and State going to do over this flagrant disregard of the rights of the citizens of this country???
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