Team Unruly Recommends a "NO" Vote on Both Incumbents

Juanita Ramirez (Incumbent)

Believes that she should stay through this transition because the board and admin are doing a good job. Feels she personally has done a good job in her 4 years. Sees the budget as the only real issue in the district. Current board president. Areas of concern and committee memberships are no longer assigned to board members; feels the info from admin is sufficient for making decisions. May have endorsements from labor and Hispanic community.

Ramirez has presided over a board that has been increasingly hostile to certificated and classified employees. A staunch supporter of the Superintendent, she has been contentious and arrogant in her dealings with employees and peers. But this is not a new trait. Ramirez has a long history of confrontation and incidents of temper tantrums when challenged. Only ten years ago she was involved in an alleged attack on a fellow board member in the Alum Rock School District:

From the San Jose Mercury News (CA) Archives:

May 12, 1994
Section: Local
Edition: Morning Final
Page: 1B

HERRERA ALLEGES ATTACK BY RIVALS
TRUSTEE SEEKS COURT ORDER TO KEEP THREE AWAY

Maya Suryaraman, Mercury News Staff Writer

Saying he fears for his family’s safety, Alum Rock school board member Esau Herrera charged in court documents filed Wednesday that his political enemy and fellow trustee, Alex Salazar, tried to run him down in a school parking lot last weekend while Trustee Juanita Ramirez “cackled in laughter.”

Herrera, who is a lawyer, applied for temporary restraining orders against Salazar and Ramirez to force them to stay at least 100 feet from him, his wife and two children. Also named in the request is Dolores Marquez, a longtime friend and supporter of Salazar’s who Herrera charges also goaded him during the alleged assault, yelling profanities and racial insults.

Neither Salazar nor Ramirez returned phone calls Wednesday. But Marquez, who is an Alum Rock Union Elementary School District employee, denied Herrera’s account of what happened. “I have no comment other than I feel he’s lying,” Marquez said. “He’s saying something that didn’t happen.”

Marquez refused further comment, saying she needed to get in touch with her attorney. In his application, Herrera claims the Saturday incident is the most recent of several attempts the three have made to harass and intimidate him because he is working to recall Ramirez. Salazar and his supporters have maintained that the campaign to recall Ramirez is a white backlash against the all-Chicano board, and that Chicanos involved in the campaign are “vendidos” or sellouts betraying their ethnicity.

Herrera said Salazar’s wife, Hortensia Salazar, was also riding in the car during the incident. A witness, Alum Rock parent Eugenio Vargas, confirmed that a man in a white American-model car with three passengers charged toward Herrera in the parking lot of James Lick High School.

“He (Herrera) almost got smashed,” Vargas said. “I kind of feared for his life.”

But Vargas said he could not identify the assailant as Salazar, Ramirez and Marquez because he had never met them before the incident and police have yet to show him photos.

According to the restraining order request, Herrera and several other Alum Rock residents had gathered at James Lick High School on Saturday morning for a weekly meeting in their campaign to oust Ramirez from office. The Salazars, Ramirez and Marquez were in Salazar’s car, Herrera said, watching their opponents.

After everyone else left, Herrera said, he was loading campaign materials into the trunk of his BMW when Salazar allegedly gunned his car engine and drove it recklessly toward the BMW, virtually pinning Herrera between the two cars. Herrera said Salazar, Ramirez and Marquez then shouted epithets, calling him a “puppet for . . . white people” and promising to “get” him. When Salazar backed his car up and charged one more time, Herrera said, he pulled his cellular phone out of his pocket and called police. Salazar then fled.

Vargas, who witnessed the incident from a pay phone, said he had only met Herrera once before and is not involved in the recall campaign. He said he was at James Lick High on Saturday to invite Herrera and other recall proponents to argue their case before a neighborhood activist group to which he belongs.

The San Jose Police Department took a report from Herrera and Vargas at the scene and is still investigating, according to the assault unit.

There was a follow-up article about this incident:

From the San Jose Mercury News (CA) Archives:

May 20, 1994
Section: Editorial
Edition: Morning Final
Page: 11B
Memo: Commentary

THE ALUM ROCK SCHOOL BOARD AT WORK

The Alum Rock Union School District in East San Jose is one of the poorest in Santa Clara County. It needs a first-rate school board but has the worst.

Here is an excerpted version of court statements filed by school trustee Esau Herrera
against fellow trustees Alex Salazar and Juanita Ramirez, and district employee Dolores Marquez.

Herrera's charges are, of course, unproven and untried at this time. But this document and the response at right offer insight into the feuding trustees.

I AM AFRAID for my personal safety and the safety of my wife and children. I am also concerned for the emotional well-being of my family, my mother, and myself.

On Saturday, May 7, 1994, at the James Lick High School parking lot, I was the victim of an assault with a deadly weapon. Alex Salazar - accompanied and encouraged by passengers Juanita Ramirez and Dolores Marquez - intentionally and viciously aimed their car at me and drove at a high rate of speed directly at me, in an attempt to intimidate or injure me.

Salazar came to a sudden stop only inches away from me. If his brakes had failed, or if Salazar had lost control, or if he had simply miscalculated his try at intimidation, he would have flattened me against my own car, causing grievous injury.

Only minutes before this assault with a deadly weapon, Salazar and his two cohorts (Ramirez and Marquez) ganged up on me just as I was leaving the school lot, gunned their car engine toward me and parked directly behind my car, preventing me from leaving the parking lot. Salazar, Ramirez and Marquez proceeded at that time to yell profanities at me in Spanish and English, such as,

"You're a (expletive) vendido," (Editor's note: Vendido translates to "sellout.") "You're just a puppet for the (expletive) white people," "You're just doing whatever the (expletive) white people tell you to do," among other profanities and race-baiting statements. They stated that their people would "take care of (expletive) vendidos."

I requested of Salazar that he move his vehicle and allow me to leave. He refused, as he and his gang continued to yell profanities at me.... Salazar drove his vehicle in reverse about 40-50 yards away from me.

As I was standing near the area of my car trunk, preparing to leave the school lot, I heard a car engine gunning toward my direction. I turned and observed Salazar - with Ramirez and Marquez still as passengers - racing directly at me, traveling at what appeared to be a high rate of speed. For a moment, I froze in fear. I then moved one or two steps to my left, thinking to avoid Salazar's gang. However, Salazar's car also seemed to move in my direction. Salazar then came to a sudden stop just inches away from my body. Salazar and his gang uttered more profanities and cackled in laughter at my predicament.

I then pulled out my pocket cellular phone and called the police. Upon seeing me dial the phone, Salazar and his gang fled. A San Jose police officer arrived within minutes and took my statement, as well as the statement of an independent witness. That officer stated to me that he "had all the elements of felony assault with a deadly weapon." That criminal investigation is now ongoing.

Approximately three to four weeks prior to this assault with a deadly weapon, Salazar and his gang (Juanita Ramirez and Dolores Marquez) had again harassed me and attempted to intimidate me and others at this same location, where parents and teachers were meeting with me to discuss and organize around education issues. On this occasion, Salazar, Ramirez and Marquez shouted profanities and threats at me and other parents.

On another occasion, on or about March 10,1994, Dolores Marquez - acting, upon information and belief, at the direction of Salazar and Ramirez - distributed fliers that urged "Nortenos and Surenos" (a common term for violent and intimidating Hispanic gangs) to "unite against" me and other parents. At this same incident of March 10, Marquez intentionally destroyed personal property of mine (a poster) that I had created and for which material I had paid.

Immediately after such destruction, Marquez bumped into me, forcing me to almost fall to one side. I took these statements to mean that the Salazar gang would solicit or encourage other gang members (Nortenos or Surenos) to physically assault me or members of my family.

On one occasion, a suspicious car resembling Salazar's was observed by a family member driving slowly in front of my residence. Shortly thereafter, that family member's car was damaged as she drove down my driveway, as she hit a large and jagged boulder that had mysteriously been placed in the middle of my driveway.

All of this conduct, threats and vile profanities of Salazar, Ramirez and Marquez has caused me substantial emotional distress. It has caused me - especially with this latest incident to intimidate and hurt me - to fear for the safety of my family and myself.

I ask this Court for an Injunction Prohibiting Harassment and for a Temporary Restraining Order.

With this Court order, Salazar and his gang members will at least be subject to immediate arrest if they persist in their juvenile conduct.

[The bold type is not in the original stories]

See also the story of the Filipino teacher fiasco.