Challenging our public school district’s obedience of county ‘health’ ‘orders’: District threatens me with ‘disciplinary action’ for communicating all 14 CA government agencies REFUSE BASIC QUESTIONS of dictatorial orders under threats of fine and impriso

Perhaps the most helpful communication is a summary of events to now, an update, and preview of coming events (articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14).

Summary to date: The California “lockdown” to “flatten the curve and keep hospitals running” has lasted since March 3, 2020, despite statutory limit for emergency powers due to “beyond control” hospitals lasting only 60 days (§ 8627.5 California Emergency Services Act). Thankfully, our local hospitals have been in full control of patient numbers at all times.

As a NorCal public school teacher, I inquired to our district’s leadership and teachers’ union how their negotiated policy to “obey” county “health” “orders” is legal given the above reasonable limits to dictatorial authority.

Three emails were met with silence, then a fourth promising legal action was met with silence. I filed three legal complaints: federal, state, and a grievance for district violation of worker safety to support apparent dictatorial and illegal policy under direct threat of $1,000 fines and one year imprisonment.

Our union responded with support to ask the district, and to communicate indirectly that they wouldn’t pursue the grievance to arbitration because the working conditions were negotiated in good faith. The grievance process finished with district and union agreement the complaint didn’t qualify as a grievance.

I appealed the district’s answer to our community school board for what the district defined as a “written complaint.” From October 2 to December 18 2020 the district was silent, despite policy promising a response within 30 days of the board’s receipt. After this December 13 reminder they were out of compliance for a response, the superintendent answered that the school board upheld the district response without comment.

I also received a “non-response” after nearly 5 months from my complaint to the US Department of Justice regarding unlimited government. My complaint to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing complaint was fielded with a phone call response in December, with their promise to follow-up, and silence since then.

In March 2021, our NorCal public school superintendent sent all staff an email citing county deaths from COVID nearing 1,300 with 80,000 “cases.” He also asked for our professional responses to an upcoming survey. I responded with three basic questions: how many of our staff and students have died of (not with) Covid, what is the data for overall county deaths given controversy over causes of deaths, and how many staff and students have been injured by vaccines. He ignored my questions twice, which I then shared with our school’s ~100 teachers with zero support and Social Science Department cognitive dissonance when directly asked.

I followed up with 14 CA government agencies, with all ignoring the 60-day limit of “emergency” authority I provided them from § 8627.5 of the California Emergency Services Act (ESA) except finally in April with CA Senator Glazer’s office stating the 60-day limit applied only to “non-safety” related orders. I hadn’t considered an American legislature would surrender forever dictatorial powers to a governor or elected officials without a time limit, as public recourse would be limited to recall (as is happening with Governor Newsom) or electing other legislators.

In follow-up to the more complicated question requiring “beyond control” hospitals, Senator Glazer’s office refused to answer.

Their answers are therefore intentional lies of omission to claim they answered a question about ESA to “justify” dictatorial government while leaving out any consideration of crystal-clear letter and intent to prevent dictatorial government past 60 days unless hospitals are “beyond control.”

These 14 CA government agencies claim dictatorial power to close businesses, stop social gatherings, force masking, force humans to forever remain no closer than six feet from each other, and with forever power until legislators or governor say otherwise, and while ignoring the requirement for “emergency powers” by sharing transparent and independently-verifiable hospital data.

I communicated these findings to district leadership, school board members, teachers’ union leadership, our Professional Learning Community (PLC) members and school teachers. The district’s Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources immediately responded with threats of disciplinary action for unspecified violations of district policies, as did my school principal.

Update 1: District threatens “disciplinary action” for unspecified “violations” + my response with obvious questions

Apr 26, 2021, 5:55 PM
Dear Mr. Herman,

The District received your email dated April 25, 2021. At this time, I am sending you an email communication to cease using District email to communicate political views and discontent with the District’s direction to comply with state/county guidelines. Additionally, you may not communicate as if you are representing the district, your school, or colleagues at your school (i.e. referring to the HHS Solutions and Beyond! PLC) Continued use of District technology resources to District employees in this manner is in violation of HUSD Administrative Regulation 4040 (attached). Continued communication in this matter may result in disciplinary action.

As communicated by Dr. (superintendent name omitted) on December 18, 2020, the board upheld the decision to comply with local health measures in the prevention/control of communicable diseases during the pandemic. There is no further action that will be taken in this matter.

Kind regards,
(name omitted)

Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources

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Herman, Carl
7:25 AM (16 minutes ago)

STATE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.

HUSD CORE VALUES
Well-Supported Staff: We enhance the capacity of every employee to promote equity and model service excellence.
Collaborative Leadership: We develop leaders at all levels who creatively tackle our challenges and communicate with integrity and transparency.
Data-Informed Decisions: We use multiple types of data, including stakeholder voice, to inform decisions and monitor progress.

Ms. (Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources),
I have every intention to uphold district policies, and have done so to the best of my knowledge. Moreover, I find that I uphold the California History-Social Science Framework our teachers are hired to model (passages below), and our mutual Oath by transparently communicating current, relevant, and important updates from 14 CA government agencies Superintendent Wayne directly asked me to pursue.

You claim I violated HUSD Administrative Regulation 4040, but provide no evidence:
Please cite what you claim are “political views” in my PLC communication.
Please explain and cite the problem/violation of how I communicate as if I am “representing the district, your school, or colleagues.”
Please cite the passage of 4040 you claim that I violate.
As my employer, please inform me of the proper way to communicate (“well and faithfully discharge the duties”) an apparent violation of our entire community’s constitutional rights given our mutual Oath and ESA language making the “health” “orders” HUSD requires as illegal. This Oath is a requirement of our employment; please research and answer.
On March 12, Superintendent Wayne emailed, “If you do not agree with the state and county guidelines or if you believe we are not following them, please pursue your questions and concerns with the appropriate agency.” I responded I would do so, and report my findings. If HUSD had and has no interest in such a report, that would have been the time to decline.

Thank you,
Carl

“Civics is not limited to the study of politics and society; it also encompasses participation in classrooms and schools, neighborhoods, groups, and organizations. . . . What defines civic virtue, which democratic principles apply in given situations, and when discussions are deliberative are not easy questions, but they are topics for inquiry and reflection. In civics, students learn to contribute appropriately to public processes and discussions of real issues. Their contributions to public discussions may take many forms, ranging from personal testimony to abstract arguments. They will also learn civic practices such as voting, volunteering, jury service, and joining with others to improve society. Civics enables students not only to study how others participate, but also to practice participating and taking informed action themselves.” ~ California History-Social Science Framework, pg. 9

From page 14:

“Teachers are encouraged to have students use the community to gather information regarding public issues and become familiar with individuals and organizations involved in public affairs… Whenever possible, opportunities should be available for participation and for reflection on the responsibilities of citizens in a free society… At each grade level, students can reflect on the individual responsibility and behavior that create a good society, consider the individual’s role in how a society governs itself, and examine the role of law in society.”

From page 15:

“Educators want students to perceive the complexity of social, economic, and political problems. They want them to be able to both comprehend and evaluate an argument and develop their own interpretations supported by relevant evidence. Educators want them to have the ability to differentiate between what is important and what is not. Students need to know their rights and responsibilities as American citizens and have both the capacity and willingness to participate in a democratic system of government. Educators want students to understand the meaning of the Constitution as a social contract that defines a democratic government and guarantees individual rights. Educators want them to respect the right of others to have different beliefs and ideas. Students need to take an active role as citizens and know how to work for change in a democratic society. The value, the importance, and the fragility of democratic institutions must be understood by all students. Only a small fraction of the world’s population now or in the past has been fortunate enough to live under a democratic form of government, and students need to understand the conditions that encourage democracy to prosper.”

From Appendix E on page 780:

“In today’s information age, informed citizens must be prepared to evaluate multiple and often contradictory sources to identify evidence for constructing claims, making arguments, or drawing conclusions about public issues, policy, and political candidates.”

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Update 2: My school principal claims another contract violation without citation + my response

8:07 AM (45 minutes ago)

Hello Mr. Herman,
I would like to address your usage of collaboration time with the HHS Solutions and Beyond PLC. In the contract, there are specific guidelines for how collaboration time should be utilized. Namely, “collaboration time should be teacher directed and focused on standards based instruction, and/or school, and/or district goals” (Contract Article 10.D.4). After your last email, it appears that collaboration time for the HHS Solutions and Beyond PLC has not been adhering to the contractual language. I am directing you to keep your PLC meeting time focused on standards-based instruction, and/or school goals (e.g. – Culturally Responsive Teaching, Distance Learning curriculum, etc.), and/or district goals. If your PLC makes a decision around school or district goals, please notify me per the contract. If you need any support with this, please let me know. Also, please let me know if (PLC committee members’ names omitted) (or anyone else) are still in the PLC so that I may send them the same message.

Please stay safe and well,

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Herman, Carl

8:38 AM (14 minutes ago)

STATE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter.

HUSD CORE VALUES
Well-Supported Staff: We enhance the capacity of every employee to promote equity and model service excellence.
Collaborative Leadership: We develop leaders at all levels who creatively tackle our challenges and communicate with integrity and transparency.
Data-Informed Decisions: We use multiple types of data, including stakeholder voice, to inform decisions and monitor progress.

(Principal’s name omitted),
You allege, “it appears that collaboration time for the HHS Solutions and Beyond PLC has not been adhering to the contractual language.” Just as (Assistant Superintendent of HR name omitted), you provide no evidence to support your claim.

Please cite and explain how you come to this conclusion.

The broad condition of HUSD policies based on county health orders is directly connected to the worst drop in student productivity measured by HHS GPA and failure rates in likely school history, just as I wrote in our PLC report. Please explain how addressing the worst productivity drop in known history fails to address school and district goals.

Moreover, I have cited what everyone agrees is definitive law, California’s Emergency Services Act (ESA), to demonstrate that HUSD is allowing apparent illegal “health” “orders” that so far HUSD and all 14 CA government agencies have refused to specifically address other than claim prima facie-illegal “we just follow orders.” As my direct supervisor, I repeat my request of Ms. Watts: please inform me of the proper way to communicate (“well and faithfully discharge the duties”) an apparent violation of our entire community’s constitutional rights given our mutual Oath. This Oath is a requirement of our employment; please research and answer.

I have cc’d (omitted committee members’ names of our faculty).

I professionally model in good faith the civic leadership all are teachers are expected to stand for:

“Civics is not limited to the study of politics and society; it also encompasses participation in classrooms and schools, neighborhoods, groups, and organizations. . . . What defines civic virtue, which democratic principles apply in given situations, and when discussions are deliberative are not easy questions, but they are topics for inquiry and reflection. In civics, students learn to contribute appropriately to public processes and discussions of real issues. Their contributions to public discussions may take many forms, ranging from personal testimony to abstract arguments. They will also learn civic practices such as voting, volunteering, jury service, and joining with others to improve society. Civics enables students not only to study how others participate, but also to practice participating and taking informed action themselves.” ~ California History-Social Science Framework, pg. 9

From page 14:

“Teachers are encouraged to have students use the community to gather information regarding public issues and become familiar with individuals and organizations involved in public affairs… Whenever possible, opportunities should be available for participation and for reflection on the responsibilities of citizens in a free society… At each grade level, students can reflect on the individual responsibility and behavior that create a good society, consider the individual’s role in how a society governs itself, and examine the role of law in society.”

From page 15:

“Educators want students to perceive the complexity of social, economic, and political problems. They want them to be able to both comprehend and evaluate an argument and develop their own interpretations supported by relevant evidence. Educators want them to have the ability to differentiate between what is important and what is not. Students need to know their rights and responsibilities as American citizens and have both the capacity and willingness to participate in a democratic system of government. Educators want students to understand the meaning of the Constitution as a social contract that defines a democratic government and guarantees individual rights. Educators want them to respect the right of others to have different beliefs and ideas. Students need to take an active role as citizens and know how to work for change in a democratic society. The value, the importance, and the fragility of democratic institutions must be understood by all students. Only a small fraction of the world’s population now or in the past has been fortunate enough to live under a democratic form of government, and students need to understand the conditions that encourage democracy to prosper.”

From Appendix E on page 780:

“In today’s information age, informed citizens must be prepared to evaluate multiple and often contradictory sources to identify evidence for constructing claims, making arguments, or drawing conclusions about public issues, policy, and political candidates.”

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Up next: How will the district respond??? What about the teachers’ union for intimidating and unspecified “violations”?? Will anyone stand with Carl, or will he remain alone? Stay tuned for our next episode!

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