[San Joaquin County] Emails didn’t seem to be ‘strong-arming’

Editor, Manteca Bulletin,

I would like to thank Karen Pearsall for her thoughtful response to my letter concerning the Bulletin balancing the recent negative Grand Jury report on the Manteca Unified School District. The fact that the Grand Jury did not interview me or other folks with supportive perspective is noteworthy.

I have been able to view most of the emails associated with the exercise program at August Knodt. To me the emails do not come across as “strong-arming”. At the rough spots they come across as problem solving and overall they come across as mutually supportive.

Among the supportive emails is one from the principal for August Knodt identifying the ELAC committee as the original impetus for moving the exercise class to their campus. The email identifies many positives of having the class on campus including increased participation and school pride.

Pearsall is misinterpreting my support for a conciliatory approach to Ashley Drain and Alexander Bronson as ‘disdain for process’. In my experience recourse to coercive processes such as formal complaints, grand jury reports, recalls and litigation are approaches that best follow gentler approaches. This is the idea that informs the restorative approaches to discipline that are improving education at MUSD’s schools.

It remains my hope that continued dialog can increase MUSD’s moments of “sweetness and light Kumbaya collaboration”. Such moments were evident in the Bulletin’s editor sweating together with Trustee Sam Fant and many parents at August Knodt. More moments should be forthcoming since the board agreed last Tuesday to hold study sessions in each of MUSD’s major communities.

November 18, 2015

Manteca Bulletin

Letter to the editor from Leo Bennett-Cauchon, Manteca