Hell is Forever

If Virgil took Dante into the ninth level of Hell today, the pair would quickly arrive at the offices of the Santa Ana Unified School District. Already facing a $29.8 million budget deficit, the district's declining enrollment means less government cash. And while the district is No. 1 in at least one category—worst Academic Performance Index test scores in the county—the teachers union is talking strike.

Hell has a million stories. Maybe more. Call this one the Valley Vendetta.

It began in the summer of 2002, when counselors Jan Stewart, Deborah Ferber and George Reta joined the staff of Santa Ana Valley High School. State education officials had just advised Valley to relieve its overworked counselors, but months later, the problem remained. Too late, Stewart, Ferber and Reta learned they'd each oversee about 750 students; three senior counselors at Valley were responsible for just 350 each.

The newcomers asked principal Tony Espinosa and head counselor Lynn Kramer to follow the state's recommendation to balance the workload.

In a Jan. 23 complaint against SAUSD, the Valley 3 say that simple request sparked a pattern of “retaliation and discrimination.” The attacks, they allege, began with a declaration of war. Frustrated by the slow pace of change in the school's counseling unit, Valley 3 supporter and assistant principal Maria Aeberhard requested and received a transfer to another school. On Jan. 17, 2003, while packing for the move, Aeberhard received a farewell voice mail message: “It took a while, but we finally got you,” a female caller said. “You're going, and we're still here. Next comes the Jew girl, nigger-lover and the gay guy. You'll all be gone.”

Santa Ana Unified and Santa Ana police investigators spoke to Valley teachers; their records show that nearly everyone interviewed thought Kramer, the head counselor, recorded it. An SAPD report quotes Valley assistant principal Claudio Taniguchi as identifying Kramer “because of the content of the [phone message] as opposed to the sound of her voice.” Kramer firmly denied making the offending call.

Both departments turned over their findings to the district attorney as a possible hate crime. Citing insufficient evidence, the DA filed no charges. SAUSD superintendent Al Mijares dismissed the voice mail message as a crank call. (Mijares failed to respond to requests for an interview.)

One Valley teacher who heard the recording (available on our website at ocweekly.com) thinks that contention is absurd. “Only someone with inside knowledge that Aeberhard was going to be transferred and that Stewart is Jewish and that Ferber was in charge of Valley's black-student club could've made such a comment,” said the instructor, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation on the job.

If the call was a joke, the Valley 3 weren't laughing. In their Jan. 23 complaint, they say the voice mail message launched a campaign of all-out harassment. Espinosa jacked up their workloads, they say. Someone, they allege, deliberately screwed up the counselors' files—a rat-fuck that derailed all-important progress reports for graduating seniors. Someone left a blood-smeared napkin on Reta's desk; the blood turned out to be fake even if the threat felt real. It's a measure of the violence with which educators approach conflict that Kramer's backers chose to show their support with balloons—red balloons.

Following Aeberhard's lead, that spring, the Valley 3 transferred out of the school.

All was quiet for a few months. Then, last week, SAUSD notified 415 teachers that falling enrollments and a declining budget might claim their jobs by June. Though the Valley 3 have moved on to other schools, they say it's no coincidence they're among the Santa Ana 415.

SAUSD officials haven't responded to the Jan. 23 complaint. The Valley 3 vow they'll sue.

“This is the craziest school district I've ever worked for,” says one longtime Valley teacher. “[Stewart, Ferber and Reta] didn't want to go to a lawyer; they only wanted to keep their jobs and keep equity for students. But it seems that's why they eventually lost their jobs. We've been telling the three all the way through to keep quiet about the [racist phone message], to not go to the press. But I guess they don't have anything to lose anymore.”