Morning Report: A Fight for Records

For months, VOSD’s Ashly McGlone has been digging into how public schools handle sexual harassment and misconduct complaints.

McGlone has been trying to obtain complaints, investigation reports, findings and settlements from schools throughout San Diego County.

“Our goal is to assess how many credible sexual harassment and misconduct cases involving public school employees have arisen in the region’s schools, as well as how complaints are addressed and whether there are gaps in the system that’s supposed to keep students and employees safe and free from harassment,” writes McGlone in her latest piece, detailing some of the disturbing incidents she’s uncovered and obstacles she’s running into.

Some districts are fighting her requests.

Others, though, want to turn over the documents but are battling teachers and a union attorney in court to do so.

The La Mesa-Spring Valley School District is seeking to keep all employee identities private, including the identity of special education teacher who sent inappropriate messages to a male student on Facebook and tried to meet up with him.

San Marcos and Vista Unified teachers are going to court to prevent the release of records to Voice of San Diego.

McGlone’s request also played a part in the imminent departure of a San Ysidro School District principal, who had previously been investigated while at the Solana Beach School District.

North County Report: ICE Can Access Carlsbad License Plate Data

Records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, have shed light on who has access to the license plate data that the city of Carlsbad has been collecting.

In this week’s North County news round-up, VOSD contributor Ruarri Serpa explains what these records tell us.

During the eight months of 2017 that the cameras were online, Carlsbad police logged nearly 8.4 million license plate records. These records were submitted to a database controlled by Vigilant Solutions that’s also known as National Vehicle Location Services and accessed by over 500 law enforcement agencies around the country. Carlsbad also directly shared its data with 125 law enforcement agencies.

The Carlsbad Police Department said it doesn’t share the data with federal immigration officials, like Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. But, Serpa writes, that doesn’t mean ICE can’t access the data.

Also in this week’s North County news, Solana Beach establishes a community choice energy program and Oceanside moves forward with medical marijuana business rules.

Potcast: Cannabis Industry Challenges

In another special Potcast podcast, Kinsee Morlan and Jesse Marx talk to marijuana entrepreneurs about why they got involved in the industry and why they persist.

They work in an all-cash business, face high taxes are forced into dodgy corners of the city and the product they sell is illegal under federal law.

Morlan and Marx wanted to know, given all this, why is anyone in the business?

They talked to dispensary owners Rocky Goyal and Alex Scherer about how they got involved in the industry and why they put up with the risk. It turns out that both men not only see themselves as businessmen, but advocates for social justice and marijuana’s medicinal benefits.

I also stopped by this episode to talk about the impact California cannabis is having on Mexico.

Opinion: Chula Vista Faces a Public Safety Crisis

On June 5, Chula Vista residents will vote on a measure that would increase staffing for both the police and fire departments.

David Oyos, the president of the Chula Vista Police Officers Association, sent us a commentary imploring voters to support the measure.

The police department has been understaff for roughly a decade and is last in officer-to-population ratio in the county, Oyos says.

“The staffing crisis is causing us to not meet our response times for priority 1 emergency calls, but the truth is that we haven’t met our emergency response time standard in four years,” he writes. “Our targeted response time to priority 2 urgent calls has not been met in 19 years and that’s embarrassing to admit to the public.”

Quick News Hits

• After President Donald Trump blocked Singapore-based Broadcom’s bid on Qualcomm, Broadcom said Wednesday it has withdrawn its offer to acquire the San Diego-based firm, reports the Times of San Diego.

• NBC 7 reports that Qualcomm stock is down 5 percent since the presidential order barring the hostile takeover.

• Chula Vista will now require stores that sell tobacco or electronic cigarettes to obtain a permit. (Union-Tribune)

• San Diego City Councilwoman Georgette Gomez’s “HireSD” program, which was proposed Wednesday, would require builders who receive city money for affordable housing and public works projects to hire skilled, local workers and pay them prevailing wage. (Times of San Diego)

• Thousands of students across the county walked out of classes Wednesday as part of a nationwide action to honor those killed in last month’s school shooting in Florida and urge federal legislation to curb gun violence in schools. (KPBS)

• The San Diego Police Department’s new neighborhood policing division started Saturday and will be focusing on issues including graffiti, crime and homelessness. (Union-Tribune)

• Thirteen flu-related deaths last week have brought county’s flu deaths to 302 so far this year. (City News Service)