Recalling the Desert Sands School Board

And Forcing a Special Election For Open Trustee Seat

A group of parents, teachers, and concerned citizens from the Coachella Valley are leading the charge against the uber-woke Desert Sands Unified School District Board of Trustees. The recall group’s specific reasons for the recall are (from dsusdrecall.com):

1. For failing to uphold their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California.

2. For abdicating their duties to her constituents to unelected bureaucrats in Sacramento.

3. For gaslighting their constituents about the curriculum of Ethnic Studies and the California State Seal of Engagement and approving said curriculum against the wishes of their constituents.

4. For instituting mask mandates that are not based on science and are proven to be harmful to Children in particular.

The dsusdrecall.com group has served two members of the Board of Trustees, Area 1 Trustee Wendy Jonathan and Area 3 Trustee Tricia Pearce. The Trustees from Area 2 and Area 5 were not subject to the recall as they are up for re-election in the next election cycle and the Area 2 Trustee resigned. The recall group intentionally left Linda Porras of Area 4 unserved with recall papers so there will be one original board member left next year to explain their actions to (hopefully) a new board majority that will clean up the CRT, Sex Ed, Covid related waste and ridiculousness, and all other Cultural Marxist education and staff “training” that has been welcomed into the DSUSD.

The recall group is currently awaiting petition approval from the Riverside County Registrar of Voters before they can begin collecting the signatures needed to force a recall. Once the petitions are approved, the group will have 120 days to collect signatures equal to 20% of total voters in each area, about 4,000 signatures will be needed in each area.

These are the official answers of board members Wendy Jonathan and Tricia Pearce to the Intent to Recall petition:

Wendy Jonathan:

This is a time of strong and passionate convictions. At the end of the day, we all want the same thing for our children; an excellent education in a safe and healthy environment. That has been, and always will be, my goal -- pre COVID, during COVID, and post COVID.

Tricia Pearce:

My name is Tricia Pearce.  I was elected to the Desert Sands Unified School District school board for Trustee Area 3 in November, 2020.

 I have served dutifully for the past year, and am a long-time resident and community member and a parent of two sons that attended DSUSD schools  I have been a teacher in Desert Sands for the past 25 years, recently retiring in June 2020, and have dedicated my career to helping students, parents, and teachers to work together.  I believe that building relationships is the best way to succeed in educating our students, and have alway encouraged collaboration and communication. 

Area 2 Trustee, Don Griffith Jr., resigned his seat effective, according to the DSUSD web pages, either January 14, 2022, at 12 pm, or January 18, 2022 to accept and serve as a California Superior Court Commissioner in Kern County. Griffith will be presiding over a newly formed Domestic Violence and Family Law Calendar. There are no reports if the resignation was related to the accusations of OANN Dan Ball, during a comment at the October 19, 2021 board meeting, that Don Griffith had covered up a rape occurring at the residence of a DSUSD coach. The comment was recorded by a local parent and is recorded in the board minutes:

He received a phone call from someone in this desert who just recently moved. A predominant business man who informed him, and he took a step back. If we all remember the young girl who was raped at a house party by a Palm Springs Power Baseball player a couple years back, that young man is in jail now. That was the house of a coach that worked at this district. The man who called him, verified it to a second source that they brought evidence to bear to Don Griffith at the time this coach that worked for the district knew the rape occurred, and that he knew that happened at a employee of this district's home. He didn't tell this board, maybe he did. The board didn't say anything. Mr. Bailey, you weren't here back then in 2014-2015. Fast forward to about 2018, that teacher/coach was let go for an underage relationship with a student. The district finally fired him. Don never said a word

It will be up to the judges of the California Superior Court to look into this as, according to this Superior Court of California, County of Kern news release, “Court Commissioners are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the Judges of the Superior Court.”

The board reviewed its options to replace Don Griffith at the January 18, 2022, board meeting, and decided on the option that would represent a true Constitutional Republic the least— they opted to make a provisional appointment rather than allow the community to elect their representative. Those that know politics, realize that this appointed member would have a boost in the next general election (term expires in ‘22) as they would already be a sitting board member, albeit a provisional one.

At that meeting, where options were discussed, board member Tricia Pearce’s major concern seemed to be if the Brown Act would require them to live-stream their interviews of prospective board candidates. According to the DSUSD website, interviews for the board appointment will be conducted in a special public meeting, prior to the regular meeting on February 15, 2022. No exact time of the meeting was provided by the DSUSD.

These discussions by the board, coupled with how the board preserved their power by splitting up neighborhoods in order to keep their positions when choosing the redistricting options, did not give the recall group confidence that the board would be anything but self-serving in who they chose to appoint to the board. The DSUSD does not need another board member that will abdicate their position as a representative of the community to Sacramento, or that will fail to research anything and believe anything they are told. The DSUSD does not need another unthinking, robotic politician on the school board, this is not the time for yet another Teacher’s Union “yes” person.

Never fear, the recall group is prepared!

According to California Government Code 5090 and election codes 100 and 104, registered voters of a school district can petition for a special election after the board makes its provisional appointment. Voters would have 30 days after the appointment to gather signatures that equal 1.5% of total voters in the last election. The board has 60 days from the date of Griffith’s resignation to make a provisional appointment or order a special election. If the board fails to act, the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools would be obligated to order a special election. The recall group has a petition prepared should the boards appointment prove to be repugnant to the voters.

The DSUSD board, in their discussion, claimed that their decision to make an appointment rather than hold an election was to save money, up to $100,000. The same board however, has no issue with spending $5.5 million to train all DSUSD staff in CRT training.

The DSUSD Board of Education will make an appointment and swear in the new trustee immediately after the interviews on February 15, 2020. Hopefully the DSUSD will deign to let the public know the exact time of the special public meeting soon.