Your Taxes At Work

“We had — had already taken — Joe [Wyatt], being one of them, was already broken down. He was already taken out. So the next step was the easy one. Once Brad got these pictures, Billy was next in line.”

– From the deposition of Sukhbir Dhillon

The conversion of El Camino Real from a publicly controlled LAUSD high school to a publicly funded private school left behind a deeply divided community. One side argued that the school was already highly regarded and feared its stellar record would be compromised by becoming a charter school. The other was envious of its crosstown rival, Granada Hills High, which had already gone down the road of privatization, ridding itself of unpopular policies like bussing minority students onto its campus.

When being deposed as a witness in a lawsuit against El Camino, Sukhbir Dhillon, who teaches science at the charter school, described the division in this way:

“So the school…ended up being divided up. And the red team was made up of people that were basically pro UTLA, but really against the administration.

And we felt, because I was probably more -- I leaned more blue team, we felt that they were actually against our school charter, as well.

And the blue team were people that were pro El Camino. We didn’t want to be part of the union, but we wanted an alliance.

So there was that divide there that occurred. And the two sides did not get along very well.”

These divisions were exasperated in 2016 after former “Executive Director” David Fehte was caught with his hand in the charter school’s cookie jar. What started as a story centered on extravagant spending at the taxpayers’ expense quickly became an example of outright corruption. Not only was the public paying for Fehte to dine at expensive restaurants, fly first class, and stay at luxurious hotels, he had the publicly funded charter school pay for airline tickets so that he could scout for the San Antonio Spurs. The NBA team then reimbursed him personally for the expenses he had not paid.

With the overwhelming evidence against Fehte, it should have been easy for the school’s community to coalesce around holding it’s leader accountable. Instead, the “Blue Team” attacked the critics instead of condemning Fehte’s actions. One parent aligned with these teachers excused the corruption by saying that Fehte deserved the “rewards” for the success he had allegedly brought to the school.

The fight turned nasty as those loyal to Fehte used intimidation in an attempt to silence his critics. One parent reported that her employer was contacted by someone saying that her “attacks” on the charter school looked bad for their business. A teacher was approached in the parking lot and threatened by a mother that if he did not stop publicly criticizing Fehte, she would go to the authorities to report that the teacher had attacked her daughter. Similar slanderous attacks were used online against me for daring to cover the scandal in a series of articles.

As authorizers of El Camino, the LAUSD failed the school’s community throughout the scandal. The Charter School Division sat on the Notice to Cure that covered the financial improprieties for over a year, only acting when the information was published through an article in the Daily News. Forced to act, the School Board was set to vote on revoking the school’s charter when a last-minute agreement was reached that resulted in Fehte’s termination. Before the Board voted to approve this agreement, information that Fehte’s departure came with a golden parachute was withheld from the public. Instead of facing criminal charges, he walked away with a $215k payment because his firing was “without cause.”

The LAUSD also stood by as the remaining leadership at the school covered up their failure to prevent Fehte’s actions. After unanimously voting to contract with Oracle Investigations Group, Inc. for a $20,000 forensic audit of Fehte’s spending, the El Camino Board refused to release the results to the public. They falsely claimed that they had hired its lawyers to sign the contract with the auditor, shielding the final report from the public’s prying eyes. The LAUSD refused to do anything about El Camino’s violation of California disclosure laws.

Emboldened by this lack of meaningful oversight, others have stepped into Fehte’s shoes as they use the charter to enrich their bank accounts. One pervasive complaint is that contracts are being signed with businesses owned or operated by relatives of those with the power to suggest or approve contracts.

The lawlessness has also fostered an environment where leadership and staff act more like the students they are supposed to be molding into adults. Cliques run rampant, and those who have fallen out of favor with leadership are subjected to harassment, including threats to their reputations and careers.

At the center of one set of accusations is Brad Wright, the President of El Camino’s Governing Board. A petition seeking his removal states that he:

“consistently acts in the role of an ECR employee and has repeatedly sat in on teachers’ classes, attended various departmental meetings, and is known for issuing directives to employees and ECR’s executive administration even though he neither holds a superior position nor is he an employee of ECR.”

Court documents allege Wright has “inserted himself into the athletic program” and personally selected coaches for the basketball program. In a sworn deposition, Dhillon states that Wright had the school’s “technology department set up access to the school security cameras and microphones so he could observe from his home.”

Wright is currently being sued along with the organization that holds the charter and other staff members. In this suit, Billy Ramirez, a former teacher at the school, alleges that he was a victim of defamation, emotional distress, retaliation, discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination. The details alleged in the filing paint a picture of a publicly funded school where leadership is allowed to operate freely without any semblance of accountability.

As the coach of the girls’ golf and soccer teams, it would be expected that Ramirez would have regular contact with female students. The fact that he was hired by some parents to provide private lessons away from school would increase the likelihood of these interactions. However, it is alleged that Wright saw them as an opportunity to get rid of a teacher who had fallen out of favor with him.

Dhillon alleges that Wright instructed him to write a letter to him alleging that Ramirez was engaged in inappropriate relationships with female students. He states in his sworn deposition that the purpose of this email was to get Ramirez suspended. Dhillon also stated that he did not necessarily believe the allegation and only followed the instructions because he feared for his job.

Included with the email was a series of pictures of girls from around the campus that were said to implicate Ramirez in wrongdoing. According to the filing, nothing in these pictures indicated bad behavior and some of them did not even include Ramirez.

The pictures were allegedly taken by Mr. Vazquez, who El Camino also employees. There was no explanation as to why Vazquez was taking pictures of female students on campus.

With the email in hand, Wright allegedly approached David Hussey, the “Executive Director” who succeeded Fehte and demanded an investigation. As a mandated reporter, Hussey should have notified the authorities if he felt his students had been put in danger. Instead, he agreed to suspend Ramirez and have an investigation conducted. The school hired TNG/Oracle, the same firm that conducted the forensic audit of Fehte’s spending that has been hidden by the public, to investigate Ramirez.

In an outcome alleged to have been preordained, TNG/Oracle’s report provided the information needed to fire Ramirez. Even with this alleged evidence of wrongdoing, Hussey did not fulfill the requirements of a mandated reporter.

There are no good possible outcomes for El Camino in this court case. At best, a jury will decide that the school had cause to fire Ramirez, but it will then have to explain why the Department of Children and Family services was never contacted. If they find in favor of the plaintiff, it will be because the charter school operates in a way that permits gross abuses of power.

No matter what the outcome, funding meant for education will be diverted from El Camino’s budget, impacting the entire student body. The legal defense will cost the school money, adding to the reported legal fees in excess of the $373k the school has reportedly spent since 2020. The school also faces financial risk if the plaintiff wins and is awarded damages. If the school wins the case, it may face future lawsuits from alleged victims who were put at risk when Wright and Hussey failed to report their allegations to the authorities.

These are the risks of allowing a charter school system to operate without meaningful oversight. The LAUSD needs to do better.

Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, and serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.