Vallejo City Unified School District (VCUSD) managers adopted a defensive, combative attitude toward community members’ who report or comment about school district problems. Most recently, they chastised students attending Vallejo High School for reporting facilities’ problems. Their comments to students were unjustified, unacceptable, and possibly unlawful.

This latest episode began when some Vallejo High School students presented a petition to the school board signed by 800 members of the student body. The students reported unclean rest rooms.  State Administrator Damelio and school board members should have praised the students for the orderly, efficient method they used to report the problem. Some school member did praise them.

Damelio chastised the students for petitioning the school board without first discussing their concerns with Principal Saroyan.  His remarks obviously flustered the students. They tried to deflect this criticism by saying they did not blame the principal for the problems. 

Damelio did not earn assignments as a State Administrator of Vallejo schools with a history of bad public relations decisions. I thought that he would realize he needed an attitude adjustment after he gave a schoolteacher a public and a negative employment evaluation, because the schoolteacher discussed a problem with VCUSD hiring. However, Damelio obviously saw nothing wrong with the nature of his prior comments. Next, he interfered with students exercising their constitutional rights at school board meeting.

“The people have the right to instruct their representatives, petition government for redress of grievances, and assemble freely to consult for the common good.” [Calif. Constitution Art 1, Sec3 (a).] 

Those Vallejo High School students are VCUSD’s customers with a legal right to clean rest rooms and clean classrooms. Anybody who doubts this should read the settlement of the case Williams vs. California.  Damelio and VCUSD employ Principal Saroyan to manage Vallejo High School with clean rest rooms and classrooms. Damelio should not have taken Saroyan side during the students presentation and force them to defend their decision to petition the school board.  

No matter other possible remedies, Vallejo High students have the right to petition the school board and to register their grievance about unclean rest rooms. They should enjoy this right without Damelio, a nonelected public official, interfering with comments that suggest they exercised this right inappropriately or prematurely. 

 Damelio erred in the constitutional area. In addition, he is wrong procedurally when he tells students, “Something as important as this would have warranted a meeting with the principal.” 

The regulations do say, “urgent facilities conditions that pose a threat to the health and safety of pupils shall be filed with the principal of the school.” The students did this. In addition, the regulations say the complaints may be filed anonymously. The regulators understood the unsafe and unhealthy conditions reported in a complaint would be obvious to the investigating officer without having to discuss them with the complainant.

Damelio’s criticism of students’ procedures was a transparent attempt to shift some responsibility for the unclean rest rooms onto students. He tried to make them responsibile by suggesting they had a duty to help Saroyan enforce clean rest room standards by discussing the problem with him. Accepting this assertion would make Saroyan the sympathetic victim of the students’ omission. Damelio should feel shame for this sham.

 School Board President Hazel Wilson’ abusive remarks also tried to shift blame for the unclean rest room to students. Reportedly, she said that students’ pride should develop so they keep the rest rooms clean throughout the day. This comment suggests all students, including those filing the petition, were responsible for the unclean rest rooms, because they attend school there. By her logic, all Vallejo residents lack pride because some people throw their trash on streets and in vacant lots. 

Students are not school janitors or janitors’ supervisors.  They should clean up after themselves; Wilson cannot say most of them do not do this. However, they do not have parental duty to clean up after other students’ sloppy rest room practices.

Except for his defensive attitude, Damelio might realize the students did him and VCUSD a favor. Instead of one petition, each of the 800 petition signers could have filed individual complaints and requested a mailed response. This would have consumed an enormous amount of staff time and money opening, reading and responding to each of them. I read no complaint by Damelio or Saroyan that they did this. So, thank you students for acting responsibly.     

We Vallejo residents have a duty to monitor operation of our city and schools. Public officials and school managers should resign who dislike this scrutiny. 

Kenneth Brooks is an independent writer. Write him at opinion@ethicalego.com, or P.O. BOX 882, Vallejo, CA 94590.