Five false facts about the 1994 school board recall

LIE (1) The New York Times devoted a front page story to the 1992-94 VUSD school board because VUSD teachers were chanting and disrupting board meetings. There are tapes of those board meeting available at VUSD district office. There was no chanting. I attended those meetings. I will give $100 to the favorite charity of anyone who can find one instance of chanting teachers disrupting any board meeting during the 1992-1994 time. The real reasons that the national media covered that VUSD Board majority had to do with inserting creationism into the public school curriculum, weakening the teaching of real science, and denying life saving information to our students in our VUSD sex ed classes. Read more below*

LIE (2) The VTA organized the 1992-1994 recall. The truth is that the VTA did not join the recall of the 92-94 board until months after a broad based community group launched it. There was a lot of discussion and disagreement at the Executive Board and Rep Assembly meetings about the VTA becoming politically involved. The disagreements had to do with was it right for the VTA to have a role in local elections for the first time ever and what happens if we do get involved and the recall fails. The first time the idea of joining the recall was brought to the Executive Board in March of 2002, it was voted down. Executive Board and Rep Assembly minutes are on file at the VTA office which prove we joined late and only after much disagreement and discussion.

LIE (3) The VTA led the 1992-94 recall to get more salary. No, the VTA joining the recall was about sex ed. The Executive Board only recommended that the VTA join the existing recall when the 92-94 extremist board voted to remove life saving information from our VUSD sex education courses. Executive Board and Rep Assembly Minutes on file at the VTA office prove the issue was sex ed, not salary. Salary was never mentioned in the discussion either at Ex.Bd. or Rep Assembly. (Note: as a former science teacher I am disappointed to mention that the insertion of creation into our VUSD curriculum by that board received no support as a reason to join the existing recall movement.)

LIE (4) The recall was organized the Novemeber 1992 election night that the 92-94 majority won. Therefore the recall was unfair since the new board majority had done nothing to deserve a recall. The truth is that no one I know heard any talk of organizing a recall that night. If a few sour grape folks did say the word recall, so what? After every election there are a few angry people. This anger goes nowhere unless an opening is provided. The 92-94 board provided lots of openings and lots of national headlines that embarrassed VUSD and the City of Vista. Those actions and those headlines are why the recall was successful. It could not have been successful no matter when the subject was first broached without those extremist's actions by the 1992-94 board. By the way no ANTI or any ANTI media mouth piece has ever provided any evidence of the recall being organized that night other than it happened "somewhere" because we "just know" it did.

LIE (5) The 1992-94 recall was part of a "part of a national campaign against Christian conservatives on school boards". The real truth about VUSD school board members is that the vast majority of them in the eighty year history of VUSD were Christians. I know, I know there were a couple of Jews elected over the years. One has to wonder if electing Sandi Carter and Barbara Donovan was the conspiracy against Christians that our ANTI friends and their media lap dogs like Jim Trageser were talking about?

Read these charges as written by the number one media mouth piece for the movement, Jim Trageser here:

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/08/10/opinion/trageser/z354f6144e8d0282d8825749f0060debd.txt

Read my comments at the time here:
http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2008/09/jim-trageser-editorial-nctimes-reply.html

*Read articles in New York Times archives below:

* http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&query=creationism+Vista&srchst=nyt&submit.x=13&submit.y=7&submit=sub&hdlquery=&bylquery=&daterange=full&mon1=01&day1=01&year1=1981&mon2=01&day2=26&year2=2010

New York Times headlines about VUSD from 1992 to 1994 includes the following:
1.A School Board in California Makes Room for Creationism
2.Political Proving Ground For the Christian Right
3.A City Pulls Its School Board Back to the Center
4.TELEVISION REVIEW; Exploring the Crusade Of the Anti-Darwinians

Read more about that 92-94 VUSD board's actions at the Los Angeles Times Archives:
http://articles.latimes.com/keyword/vista-ca-schools

A few headlines about the 1992- 94 VUSD school board majority found at the Los Angeles Times site above:
1. New Vision for Vista Schools: After Recall of Religious Conservatives on School Board, Moderates Are Casting Off Many of Its Policies.
2. Bibles and the Board--a Skirmish Brews : Education: A new religious fundamentalist majority of school trustees in the San Diego County community of Vista raises fears about its agenda.
3. Christian Bloc Ousted From Board : Education: Two members of Vista school panel are recalled after seeking to impose a religiously oriented approach to teaching students about sex.
4. School Board's Creationist Trend Causes Stir in Vista : Education: Members to vote on forbidding 'dogmatic' teaching of science. Test of Christian right's strength seen.
5. Vista Schools OK Sex Education Program With Religious Theme
6. Vista Board OKs Teaching of Creationism