Rusty Harris falsely villifies Vista school teachers

Rusty Harris continues the long tradition at the North County Times of one sided vilification of the Vista Teachers Association today. http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/harris/harris-vista-teacher-union-stakes-out-big-win/article_6b4453cc-5ca9-508e-b897-8eb35b889d57.html

As usual the attack is without merit and without fact. Apparently the only source Rusty Harris has is VUSD school board member, Jim Gibson. Gibson whose ability to tell fantasy tales is legendary also seems to have an anti-public education bias that filters everything he understands, sees or hears so that even the most ordinary school business is turned into dreadful tales of union and teacher maleficence. His accounts of what happened at a school board meeting are so tinged with this bias that they bear no relationship to the reality reflected in the recordings of the meeting, the minutes of the meeting or the heard or seen by the rest of the folks in attendance including the North County Times report Stacy Brandt.

Harris in the editorial today simply repeats the old Gibson shibboleth that the teachers control the school district with the additional paranoid touch that now the teachers will pick the new superintendent to get as Harris puts it "the big award it has diligently strived for during the past six years ---- total control of the school district."

This last bit of paranoia strangely contradicts the standard Gibson group propaganda lie that the teachers took control of the district in 1994 when two trustees were recalled by the VUSD community. The Gibson group use as proof of their false "control" accusation the democratic participation of Vista teachers in school board elections. The Gibson group views democracy by teachers as threatening or demonic.

As you may recall the Vista Teachers were forced into politics for the first time when radicals took majority control of our board in 1992 and made national headlines by their antics. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vista,_California

Apparently it is an outrage when school teachers avail themselves of the same democratic right as every other American. Even when they only did so to save the district from the circus that occurred during the take over of the school board with major network satellite trucks stationed outside our school board meetings and national reporters from many national news papers assigned to cover the meetings. Hundreds of radical religious right showed up to yell support for gutting FACT based sex education and diluting science programs with superstition.

I presume since Vista Teachers have one of the lowest median salary in San Diego County and since the school board we "control" sued us, the lie that the false allegation that teachers control the district just will not fly any more so now it has morphed into teachers 'will control' the district soon.

As to controlling the process of picking the new superintendent because the VTA "controls" three school board members what an insult to duly elected representatives of the school district. Besides the president of the VTA was informed by the school board that neither she nor any teacher will be involved in the search for a new superintendent. There will be no seat at the table for teachers even a non-voting, non-speaking seat. No teacher will be able to listen in or have input in the selection process at all until possible the field has been narrowed to three candidates. And then perhaps if the board is in a good mood that day, they might inform the VTA of just who the top three candidates are. Wow, that sure sounds like control of the process to me, yeah right.

Poor Rusty, he needs to go back to basic Journalism 101 and get facts from more sources than one, grouchy old man (Jim Gibson) who frequent statements show a disdain, even hatred, for fact based public education, who refused to allow his four children to attend public schools, who pushed religiously based discrimination issues (Prop 8, Carrie Prejean Day) and never has one nice thing to say about any school or any teacher in Vista

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