Two students whose cases we’ve covered as part of our ongoing school sexual misconduct investigation initially lied to school officials who were investigating potential abuse, and said nothing was going on.
They say that’s because of the way officials approached them – angrily, defensively, like they were in trouble instead of potential victims.
In a new story, those students and others describe a softer kind of failing by school officials that’s harder to describe. It’s not necessarily that the officials investigated their case violated a law or broke an official policy. It’s that they didn’t treat them with care or consideration, or offer any follow-up support.
“Many of these students say their experiences still haunt them regularly – not just because of the abuse or harassment itself, but because the way their cases were handled complicated the healing process,” McGlone writes. “They believe more follow-up, support and care from school officials could have revealed the truth sooner in some cases and stop abusers in their tracks. If red flags are raised and it’s clear something is amiss, they say a single round of questioning from officials isn’t enough.”
County Approves Election Change, Gaspar Did Not Like It
It took two tries, but the County Board of Supervisors approved the opening of four new Registrar of Voters satellite locations to help register people to vote on Election Day.
A new state law means residents can now register at any polling location. But the county will try to convince people to go to the satellite centers, to keep lines clear at neighborhood polling places. The Politics Report went into detail on the dispute.
The board meeting got nasty Monday. The board voted the item down last week when it required four votes for approval; Board Chair Dianne Jacob then found a way to pass it with just three votes and called a special meeting to do so.
County Supervisors Kristin Gaspar and Jim Desmond took exception to the maneuver. But Jacob dismissed their concerns.
“I’ve also heard a lot of rhetoric since our last meeting, which some might call political grandstanding, but, frankly, it isn’t worth a response,” Jacob said.
Gaspar then read a six-minute prepared statement, quoting President John F. Kennedy at length, chastising the rest of the board for holding a second vote on the item.
“The fix is in, folks,” she said. “Today I will not be casting a vote. While I am physically in my chair, my vote doesn’t count, my voice doesn’t matter.” She later tweeted her speech with the hashtag #TheFixIsin.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher invoked the Voting Rights Act in response to Gaspar’s comments.
“I’ve got to go back to 1964 to find people so fiercely opposed to just doing modest things to let people vote,” he said.
Anderson Finds a Way Around Local Contribution Limits. Again.
Former state Sen. Joel Anderson’s campaign for county supervisor is under investigation for potentially skirting the county’s campaign contribution limit, according to the Union-Tribune.
When Anderson started his 2020 campaign in late 2014, he accepted maximum contributions from donors, then decided to run against Supervisor Dianne Jacob in 2016 and renamed the committee, where he had already raised money. He then bailed on the 2016 challenge, and opened a new committee for 2020, transferring the previously raised money into it. When he then began fundraising for the 2020 race, he raised money from some of the same individuals who donated to his original 2020 run, potentially circumventing the campaign contribution limit.
Anderson’s campaign provided a letter to the U-T from an attorney saying everything was fine. A statement for the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission said it was a local issue, and a county spokesperson said he could not yet determine if Anderson’s move broke the county’s rules.
It’s not the first time Anderson has managed to use a previous run to his advantage in this race.
In 2015, Anderson received $200,000 from the county’s Republican Party for his challenge to Jacob. The donation came one day before campaign contribution limits went into effect that limited party donations to candidates at $25,000.
He then dropped out of the race, and transferred everything in the 2016 race into his 2020 race, effectively evading the limitation on party donations.
This Week in Ballot Measures
It’s official: San Diegans will vote on whether to raise hotel room taxes to fund a convention center expansion, homeless services and road repairs in March 2020. If you need a refresher on the arguments for and against the measure, check out the recent debate on it from Politifest.
Not the only measure: The San Diego City Council also put a measure on the March ballot Monday that would reform the way the city selects its independent auditor, a change championed by Councilman Scott Sherman, as the U-T covered in July.
Right now, the mayor’s office appoints the city auditor, who is then expected to oversee the mayor.
The measure would task the City Council’s audit committee with vetting interested parties and recommending three candidates to the full City Council, which would then make a decision.
And another: Tuesday, the Council will decide whether to put up a ballot measure that would reform the city’s body tasked with overseeing the San Diego Police Department.
The measure, put forward by the independent group Women Occupy San Diego and championed in City Hall by Councilwoman Monica Montgomery, would create a new group called the Commission on Police Practices, which would have its own independent legal counsel and would have subpoena power so it could conduct its own investigations into officer misconduct.
The existing board, the Community Review Board on Police Practices, relies on SDPD’s internal affairs for investigations.
Chargers to … London?
Vincent Bonsignore, who as a writer for the LA Daily News was perhaps the reporter most credulous and supportive of the Chargers’ eventual success in Los Angeles, broke some news at his new gig at The Athletic: The Chargers are being considered for a move to London.
He didn’t have much in the way of sourcing on that, but this was the passage most interesting to those who have followed Bonsignore’s work: “Finally, The Athletic has learned that NFL owners are concerned enough about the Chargers’ situation in L.A., where a crowded sports market and the presence of the more established Rams has resulted in a tepid embracement of the Chargers, that they would provide the necessary support for a relocation to London if the Chargers pursue it.”
Bonsignore has always insisted the opposite was the case so maybe something really is going on.
Old friend alert: In another article pondering how pathetic the Chargers have been in Los Angeles, writer Jay Paris runs some rumors about the team’s woes by Fred Maas, the former chairman of the Centre City Development Corp., who led the charge in 2016 to get the Chargers a new convadium downtown. His quote was typically dismissive of San Diego. However, we do learn from the piece that Maas, who made it clear in 2016, often (like, quite frequently) that he was volunteering for the team, is now the Chargers’ chief of staff, “who oversees day-to-day business functions.”
In Other News
- The Guardian reports that Tijuana’s “methamphetamine-fueled murder epidemic” could see an even higher number of murders than last year, when the city recorded a record 2,518 murders.
- The Sweetwater Union High School District has added two bus stops for San Ysidro High students. The district earlier cut 20 bus routes as it attempts to save money amid an ongoing financial crisis. Here’s what the journey to school without a bus looked like for one student we chronicled. (NBC San Diego)
- We’re still over here ugly-crying over our former intern Katy Stegall being named Ernie Pyle Reporter of the Year by the Associated College Press. (Union-Tribune)
- Our latest San Diego Explained video breaks down the ways the Remain in Mexico policy for Central American asylum-seekers is causing chaos in San Diego’s immigration courts.
Correction
Friday’s Sacramento Report misattributed a quote praising Pete Wilson; the quote came from Brian Maryott campaign manager Richard Hernandez.
The Morning Report was written by Sara Libby and Andrew Keatts, and edited by Scott Lewis.