CASTING STONES WITH THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS

At the end of the June 16th ESUHSD board meeting, a mia culpa of unprecedented proportions took place. The attending board members publicly apologized for the largest unnecessary layoff in the history of California public education, the superintendent accepted full responsibility for the low morale decimating the district’s various school sites (promising not to move any administrators for the next year while simultaneously declaring the first Tuesday of each month “hug your APED day”), and, in an effort to heal some gaping wounds, the board’s most outspoken member pledged to work harder than ever to gain the trust of his harshest critics, boldly demonstrating remorse for attacking teachers through email, a behavior he contritely agreed was unbecoming of a public servant charged with serving the public’s interest rather than his own.

Oh, wait! That happened on Bizarro Earth, the alternative universe from Superman comic lore where reality is the converse of our own.

What did happen at the end of the June 16th board meeting was another prime example of the dysfunctional politics crippling employee and management relations in the ESUHSD. It also marked the first time the existence of The Unruly Advocate was publicly acknowledged by a trustee (see this month’s related article “Trustee Heal Thyself” )

At the end of the meeting, Board President J. Manuel Herrera implied that the year had been very difficult for everyone and that a much-needed break was in order. Other board members were given a chance to make some final comments. Trustee Craig Mann spoke out against a signed letter in ESTA’s Panorama, taking a jab at the newsletter by telling the audience he calls it “The Paranoia,” and descrying Bill Mustanich’s (the article’s author) use of the phrase “Mamacita de Hope” to characterize the superintendent. He told the audience he considered that type of language “garbage,” questioned how district officials would ever be able to work together with employees when people used such hateful terms, and asked Board President Herrera to use district counsel to pursue a libel or slander investigation. Trustee Patricia Martinez-Roach concurred, saying that Panorama and “that Unruly website” were unbelievably offensive, adding that they needed to find out who was behind the website. Herrera argued against using the district’s limited resources for such an investigation, saying he believed the board needed to focus on the positive. Mann spotted a community representative from a local civil rights organization in the audience, and asked that his group conduct the investigation. A handful of administrators in the back of the room applauded.

Mann is absolutely correct to argue against the use of racial epithets in political discourse. They are hurtful and easily misconstrued terms that can shift the focus of public debate to the periphery of the inflammatory language instead of the central issue.

But there is no honor in hypocrisy. Team Unruly wonders if those applauding administrators publicly displayed the same level of indignation when Mann inappropriately suggested that the members of the employee unions thought of him in these terms: “I am not naive enough to forget that we still live in a less-than-perfect society, one where emancipated, intelligent, prominent, principled and upwardly mobile blacks are still viewed by some as uppity niggers that must be stopped by any means necessary." ( read “Mann Overboard” here: )

And how many of Mann’s righteous board colleagues called for an investigation when Wendy Stegeman, an East Side teacher and ESTA site-president, received an inflammatory ghosted e-mail calling her the “Grand Dragoness of the ESTA KKKLAN” and ESTA President Don Mckell the “ESTA KKKLAN leader” the evening after ESTA won a court ruling under the Freedom of Information Act to publicly release an auditor’s report suppressed by Mann and Zendejas, a report that detailed Mann’s misuse of the district credit card? (read “Mystery Emailer” here: )

The bottom line is simply the Golden Rule of politics. If you are going to criticize the behavior of others, make sure you aren’t guilty of the behavior yourself.

There is also the matter of the person behind the incendiary message. Mustanich is a district employee who wrote an editorial commentary for the teachers’ union newsletter. Team Unruly acknowledges that a number of people would find the use of the term “mamacita” offensive. But Mustanich has no power. His opinions—even if shared in a public forum like Panorama—are his own. He doesn’t set salary schedules, approve district expenditures, sanction 400k below-market home loans to superintendents, nor motion to authorize 965 unnecessary pink slips. Craig Mann was elected to serve the public trust. He is one of five primary officials charged with setting, guiding and crafting district policy. He is one of the district’s six primary representatives. As a public figure and an elected official, decorum demands that he adhere to a high ethical standard.

Bill Mustanich has a history of ruffling administrative feathers. For well over a decade he penned a popular column for Panorama called “Yer ‘Umble Servant,” with a primary focus of exposing the blunders and ethical lapses of district and site management. He stopped writing the column in the mid-90’s when those conflicts lulled, only to resurrect the column as Zendejas neared the end of her first controversial year.

Mann has a history of attacking those he perceives as enemies through email, and if any outside agency wishes to conduct an investigation, this would be a good place to start. ESUHSD employees famously read his response to Julie Pratico’s questioning a change in site administration at her school, where he told her to stay “laser-focused” on performing the duties she was hired to do, and if she couldn’t she should look for employment in another district. Another e-mail response to a Panorama article by teacher Rick Caton tells the recipient to “climb out of the swift-boat veterans for truth swamp and come up for air”, ending on this not so positive phrase: “There’s hope, even for you.” When Rick Callendar of the NAACP consulted the city attorney over Mann extending his position as head of the Human Rights Commission for a year, Mann attacked Callendar in a series of nasty emails (read “Fight the Power” here: ). In last year’s school board campaign, Mann attacked his competitor-turned-colleague Lan Nguyen for making a campaign promise to bring accountability back into the district. (read “The E Word” here: )

Then there’s the matter of the aforementioned e-mail to Stegeman. Conclusive evidence linking Mann to the e-mail does not exist. But Team Unruly feels there is a preponderance of circumstantial evidence to prove Mann the responsible party. Compare the tone and voice in the following emails. Note the similarities in style, diction, and format. We’ll start with the e-mail he sent to Stegeman:

This Story has been sent to you by : stegemanw@esuhsd.org
To: Wendy, Grand Dragoness of ESTA KKKLAN
cc: Don McKell, ESTA KKKLAN Leader; Dr. Zendejas, Mercury News, jfensterwald@mercurynews.com

The school community is well aware of you and your disgusting ESTAKLAN and I agree w/Mann's characterization of this as a "hate campaign." I'm terribly embarrassed that our association is led by such hateful people as you, McKell and the other small-minded misleaders. You don't represent us and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. You are disgusting...take a look in the mirror if you can stomach it.

East Side trustees' spending under fire: A report released by the East Side Union High School District's teachers union Thursday found that rampant credit-card spending by some board members signaled minor, but ``potentially illegal'' spending practices.
The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/
10045290.htm
(c) 2004 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

The second half of that e-mail is part of a story from a Mercury News article. The sender used the Mercury News’ “email this story to a friend” service to generate the email. The sender sent the email anonymously, using the recipient’s email address to make it look like she sent the email to herself. Here’s a copy of a similar email Team Unruly received from a sender known only as bob@hotmail.com:

TeamUnruly,

Your website (www.unrulyrus.com) is truly disgusting and our teachers are being ill representing [sic] by its teachers association leadership, the same misleadership responsible for this site.

I've copied the board members you've trashed to make them aware of your attacks, Supt. Zendejas, as well as SJPD Chief Rob Davis. Maybe the SJPD cyber unit can discover who exactly (to a person) the cowardly source of this hate-filled site is. Also, our feckless leader, Mr. Don Mckell, East Side Teachers Association president is copied. He can make this site go away if he wants, but don't hold your breath.

EAST SIDE UNION SCHOOL BOARD: RAMIREZ AND MANN Next month's election could determine whether Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas can move forward with the bold changes and curriculum reforms that the East Side Union High School District deserves. Electing trustees who fully support and defend her is, in our mind, the overriding issue in the election.

The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time:

(c) 2004 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

Compare these emails with those Mann openly sent to teachers. Here’s one he sent to Oak Grove teacher Kim Schaupp in response to her questioning all members of the board about the wisdom of laying off people with over 20 years experience in the district:

“Given all of the turmoil resulting from our budget crisis and the apparent inability for all stakeholders to answer the Kennedy-like clarion call, "ask not what your school district can do for you, ask what you can do for your school district," I am becoming increasingly convinced that we should probably just ask the county (or state) to take over East Side to impose the necessary corrective actions.

I'm just talking out loud, but unless the vitriolic dialog [sic] is replaced with productive solutions, oriented dialog [sic] and meaningful results, I'm of the mind to bring such a resolution to my colleagues for discussion and action. This way, a neutral party, free of the bitter politics can do right by our students and school community.

Your thoughts, suggestions?

Best regards,
Craig Mann, Governing Board Member
East Side Union HSD”

For the sake of comparison, there is also this letter published in the San Jose Mercury News by an “S. Mann.” The Mercury News has a stated policy against publishing anonymous letters. Rarely if ever do they publish a letter with only a person’s first initial. The last name is a giveaway, but so too is the letter’s vitriolic tone:

Teachers need more than slap on wrist
In your March 23 editorial about the walkout at the East Side Union High School District you state: ``If some teachers encouraged the walkout, they should be disciplined.''

How about fired?

We know that won't happen. If any other custodians of our children were to encourage similar misconduct that resulted in arrests, they would be in jail. Teachers just get a slap on the wrist.

S. Mann
San Jose

You can find it here:

Then there’s this one Team Unruly just received. Mann sent this reply to Bill Mustanich regarding the incident in question:

Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 9:55 PM
To: Mustanich, Bill
Cc: McKell, Don; rick@sanjosenaacp.org; JManuelHerrera@aol.com; frank@laoferta.com; hmorales@el-observador.com; Nunez, Bob

Subject: Racist slur

Mr. Mustanich,

I wanted you to hear this directly from me tonight, but you left the meeting prior to item 11, "Board Comments", but I put this on the record. I found your ethic, racist slur "Mamacita de Hope" (referring to Dr. Zendejas) in a letter penned by you in the most recent edition of of the East Side Teachers Association publication Panorama (aka. Paranoia) as repulsive as can be. I find it both ironic and scary that you work at Andrew Hill (in East Side) and exhibit what could best be described as ethnic insensitivity or at worst, just plain racist inclinations. I'm truly worried about the students and staff that are subject to your sphere of influence given what you've exposed about yourself in your writings.

A representative of both MAPA and the NAACP, Mr. Garza, was present at tonights meeting and will be bringing this issue to both bodies he represents.

Best regards,

Craig Mann
Governing Board Member
East Side Union HSD

Astute readers can draw their own conclusions, but we’ll point out the big similarities. Each email is a response to a public criticism about Mann, the board, or the superintendent. The common tone displays the author’s defensive nature; he feels personally attacked and thus justified in sending an embittered reply. All of the emails end in a strong attack on the recipient, from telling Stegeman to “look in the mirror if you can stomach it,” to suggesting McKell can shut down the Unruly Advocate “but don’t hold your breath,” to implying that Schaupp is guilty of perpetuating the “bitter politics” destroying the school district, to telling Mustanich he is “truly worried about the students and staff” because of what he read in the Panorama. This compulsion to go beyond the ethical boundaries of political decorum is called “narcissistic rage” in psychology.

In the two “ghost” emails, Mann uses the term “disgusting,” but even more interesting is the use of the adverb “truly” instead of the more common “very”. “Truly” appears in the “Hotmail Bob” and Mustanich emails. There’s also the solecism “misleader” in two emails, used to scathingly characterize union leadership. And each email contains at least one typo or spelling error, often a key word in the sentence.

Mann also has a habit of Cc-ing his emails to those he perceives as political allies or, at the least, people with influence he hopes will sympathize with his plight. The Stegeman email was copied to McKell, Zendejas, and the Mercury News’ John Fensterwald, though Fensterwald swears he never received the email according to the Metro story. The Hotmail Bob email was copied to Don McKell, Zendejas, Mann’s board colleagues, and San Jose’s chief of police. The Mustanich email was copied to a number of San Jose’s civil rights and cultural organizations, community newspapers, and even the man the Metro once described as “Mann’s nemesis”, Rick Callendar.

Team Unruly does not deny that Mustanich’s use of the phrase “Mamacita de Hope” is controversial. All editorial opinion is controversial. That’s the nature of opinion. Should he publicly apologize for the comment, as his enemies would like? That’s not for Team Unruly to decide. The purpose of The Unruly Advocate is to expose hypocrisy and note political irony. We sympathize with those who find the term offensive. However, the person referenced in the phrase is far from blameless when it comes to inappropriate and offensive comments. Team Unruly hopes people are just as indignant over a superintendent who quietly allowed the work visas of a few Filipino teachers to expire after telling them that students were not succeeding in their classes because they had accents; who has told district janitors on a couple of occasions that they would have been more successful if they had put down the booze and stayed in school; and who routinely asks administrators that arrive a little late to official meetings if the cause of their tardiness is due to an extramarital affair.

Mann might truly be upset over the term, but other probable causes for Mann’s indignation are easy to find. Mustanich took the gloves off for this “Silly Season” jab that hit the irate trustee square in the solar plexus: “One of the Bozos sports a pink shirt cuz he can't keep a job and recently allied with the loser who couldn't buy a downtown election.” And it didn’t help his ego to discover that the Metro did a little snooping on the appointment of John Fox, Esperanza Zendejas’ husband, to be principal. The story that came out the day before the board meeting in question notes that while there was technically nothing illegal about Fox’s appointment, Mann did little to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. One MetroEd board member conceded that the appointment was “touchy.” ( Read the story here: )

Depending on who’s reviewing the facts, Mustanich might be guilty (if one can be guilty in an editorial) of insensitivity at worst, or a poor choice of words at best. Had Mann limited his narcissistic rage to a few overt emails, he would be guilty of the same, though his position as an elected official elevates the inappropriate nature of the aforementioned incidents. However, by using Stegeman’s email address to mask the sender of a racist letter’s identity, Mann (or, for those few remaining skeptics out there, Mann’s supporter) is guilty of the crime of Identity Theft pursuant to California Penal Code 530.5. Law enforcement officials note that it is extremely difficult to prosecute identity theft cases, but if Mann (okay, okay, or his supporter) were found guilty, he would face a thousand dollar fine and up to a year in jail at best, and additional prison time and a larger fine if found guilty of a hate crime at worst.

And he’d be forced to resign from office.

Perhaps that is why, in the words of the Metro, “the normally loquacious Mann [. . .] isn't answering questions” about the incident. When the Metro’s reporter tried to interview him, “he failed to respond to two phone calls and several emails.” (See “Mystery Emailer” above). Curious, since Mann emails reporters on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis.

It’s easy to get an emotional reaction from an audience by raising the specter of racial insensitivity. It’s also politically expedient to shift the focus of an issue to an inappropriate comment in order to avoid facing the more problematic controversy of distrust, low morale, and managerial incompetence that will, in time, prove politically damaging. In this particular instance, the self-righteous should be very cautious of the hypocritical stones they cast.