Except for the divisions over school closures during the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s rarely been a sense that a significant part of the community felt that San Diego Unified has lost its way. For decades, the district has been firmly run by an establishment dominated by district employees, with trustees often deferential to staff.
That must change. On Aug. 9, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released a stunning report that found San Diego Unified had failed to properly respond to any of the 253 reports and complaints of sexual harassment and assault of students from 2017 to 2020. “In every single one of the 253 case files the federal office reviewed, key information and documents were missing — including police reports and investigative notes, witness statements, interview notes [and] discipline records,” the Union-Tribune reported. District employees were oblivious to their responsibilities under federal civil rights law.
This is mind-boggling. Yet in an interview with the U-T Editorial Board, district trustee Sandra Bazzo noted they related to events from before her election in 2020 — as if things then miraculously got better. When asked if the report was an indictment of virtually every district official with responsibilities to protect children, Bazzo’s first instinct was to cite problems with the district’s policies.
Huh? Those policies, based on federal law, are plain. Don’t tolerate sexual harassment. Investigate harassment reports. Most of all, protect students.
We don’t mean to vilify Bazzo, but she is the opposite of a change agent. Her opponent for the Sub-District A seat that includes Kearny Mesa, Clairemont, Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch is college lecturer Crystal Trull. In her interview with the U-T board, Trull called for holding responsible officials who ignored student harassment. She criticized how severe misconduct allegations against recently fired Superintendent Lamont Jackson were hidden from trustees for months and ripped the district’s secretive culture. Trull also expressed appropriate concerns about the district’s inadequate response to the “learning loss” among students kept out of classrooms during the pandemic.
Bazzo defeated Trull in 2020. That must not happen again. The stakes are too high. Vote for Trull for school board. San Diego students badly need her in their corner.
