Earlier this year, local prosecutors shocked the Hoover High School community when they accused an associate principal of sexual misconduct with minors. They also alleged he possessed child pornography.
But maybe not everyone was shocked. Our Jakob McWhinney investigated and has uncovered that, nearly two years before the arrest of Charles De Freitas, a parent at a different school where De Freitas taught had alleged that he sexually harassed and tried to groomed their child. Nothing happened to him and a few months later, the district promoted him to the associate principal role at Hoover High.
After his arrest, more than a dozen new complaints came into the district.
San Diego Unified School District officials refused to comment.
Read McWhinney’s full story here.
A Positive Post-Flood News Update
In February, we shared the tragic story of a Rolando affordable-housing complex devastated by the Jan. 22 flood despite property managers’ previous request that the city clean the canal alongside it. The flood displaced 57 families.
Good news: Most residents who were forced to move out have now moved back in, including residents who spoke to Voice of San Diego. NBC San Diego had the story.
Not everyone’s out of the woods: 10 News reports that some flood victims are uncertain about what they’ll do next as the county’s hotel voucher program ends.
National City Gets First Shelter with Assist from Padres Foundation
National City’s first homeless shelter opened this week.
The 162-bed San Diego Rescue Mission shelter is at a former charter school and will serve men, women and children. Outreach workers were set to hit the streets in National City Thursday to begin persuading unsheltered people to move into the shelter.
10 News reports that the Padres Foundation was a major donor to the shelter in honor of former Padres owner Peter Seidler, who passed away last year, and was devoted to reducing homelessness in the region. Seidler’s brother Tom Seidler, president of the foundation, said the South County Lighthouse Center is the first project to receive funding in Peter Seidler’s honor.
CA Supreme Court Kills Taxpayer Protection Act Ballot Measure
The California Business Roundtable got a measure qualified for the November ballot that would have made it much harder for local governments and the state government to raise taxes and could have rescinded taxes already implemented over the last two years.
Perhaps its main attraction: It also had a provision that would have prohibited local governments from imposing fees on vehicle miles traveled. The county of San Diego has a fee structure for housing developments that generate vehicle miles traveled by their potential residents. The fees are so high, critics in the building community say, that it effectively prohibits housing development in many parts of the unincorporated county.
The measure would have stopped those fees and some local developers supported it.
The news: The California Supreme Court says they wasted their money. The court sided with Gov. Gavin Newsom and other opponents who argued it would have illegally impaired the functioning of local governments.
From CalMatters: “The extraordinary decision marks the first time in more than two decades that the court has struck an initiative from the ballot following a full hearing. It last happened in 1999, with a measure that sought to restrict state officers’ pay and transfer redistricting power out of the Legislature, though a few others since then were removed after the proponents did not defend against legal challenges.”
The Morning Report was written by Lisa Halverstadt and Scott Lewis.
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