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Today, I present to you a timeline of events, without biased commentary. Simply the events as they have unfolded since the January 23 CVUSD board meeting at which I spoke during public comments about my concerns regarding the haste implementation of the alternative assignment and curriculum review policy.
Please keep in mind, that the concern we are discussing here is not whether you agree with my opinions or not. The content of my speech does not matter. What matters, and this is the takeaway, is that no publicly elected official should be able to threaten and/or seek retaliation against a constituent and the constituent's employer in response to public comments made at a public session of a school board meeting by the constituent. A constituent should never fear exercising their right to free speech, and a publicly elected representative is not to abuse the power of their position to threaten or intimidate constituents in any way. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT MY COMMENTS WERE IN REGARD TO, READ THIS BLOG FIRST FOR BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT. ***
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Today has been, um, colorful.
This morning started with pumping and a quick shower before my in-laws came to visit. And then the emails started to come in.  Why must I own the label of being a polarizing figure simply because I exercise my right to free speech?
I first interviewed for a position with Mustang Marketing nearly two years prior to when I began my employment with them in October of 2016. Unfortunately, at that time, they chose to go in a different direction and hired someone else to fill their needs. Two years later, the job notice would appear again and I knew I had to make an impact.
I reached out immediately to Dianne, one of Mustang's owners, and "re-introduced" myself and expressed my continued interest in working with them. There were a few back and forth exchanges, but then the the job was put on hold briefly and, by then, I was due to take another casting job to pay the bills. The day before I was supposed to start my new show, I decided to give it one more go. I wrote up a press release as if they had hired me, and sent it to them announcing my new employment with Mustang Marketing. I was called in the next day to interview and offered employment immediately following. I was absolutely thrilled. As I got settled into my job, I became more and more aware of just how involved both of my bosses, Scott Harris and Dianne McKay are in the community which was inspiring and motivating. This also terrified me. I'm no stranger to having people call my employers in attempts to get me fired because they have taken issue with my opinions on my blog, and I feared that my new bosses would not want to be associated with anything "controversial." It's weird that having an opinion labels you as controversial these days, but there it is. I didn't post anywhere the name of the company I was working for and I was very careful. As fate would have it, a "Trumpette" really did her research and found out the name of my employer. She called my work on election day and weirdly asserted that my entire blog and page were about her to the company's EVP for nearly 15 minutes. I had never met her before and we were't Facebook friends so it was kinda weird to say the least. And that's how my work first found out about my blog. I quickly offered to delete it. They said, do no such thing. They supported my free speech, regardless if they agreed or disagreed, they told me. It was a relief. Since then, others have come forward, calling my work in hopes of having me fired because they disagree with me politically, and each time my work has had my back. While many having seen Scott's responses HERE and HERE to Mike Dunn's email threatening retaliation against them for my public comments at the recent school board meeting, both Scott and Dianne are fully supportive and have handled this situation with extreme class. The last thing you want to be worried about while on maternity leave is if you're going to get fired because of backlash resulting in your community engagement. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about that. My bosses continue to hold down the fort. In the latest round of exchanges between Mr. Dunn and my employers, Mr. Dunn suggests that we go through mediation. You can see Scott's response to this request below. Thank you everyone who has been reaching to Mustang Marketing in support of their supportive responses, their support of free speech and their support of me. I'm proud to work for the largest full-service marketing firm in the Ventura County, one that has provided clients with high-quality content, website services, graphic design and PR services for more than 30 years. You know when you break out into a bit of a cold sweat and start shaking because your adrenaline is up?
We're at that point now. |
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