Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) has turned into a hostile and toxic workplace that has fostered retribution and gaslighting towards anyone who speaks up. A major contributing factor to this is the 27 law firms on retainer for the district. FUSD has shown a pattern of denying all claims presented to them, regardless of their merit. It’s more lucrative for a law firm to have an attorney battle these victims rather than take the necessary actions to correct terrible situations. This needs to change. I want FUSD to act with integrity and comply with federal and state laws. 

FUSD must make the following changes:

1. FUSD has 27 law firms on retainer, in addition to the lawyers they have on payroll within the district. These law firms are ready to silence anyone who comes forward seeking justice and cannot afford court battles that could potentially drag on for extended periods of time.  Impartial investigations are needed into the patterns of toxic behavior enabled by these law firms.
2. FUSD has shown patterns of manipulating facts to cover up/hide poor behavior made by site officials and district administrators. This needs to change. Note: FUSD board meeting notes contain examples of these claims and social media sites like Facebook also show examples of community members trying to stand up against them. FUSD employees should not be scared to speak up when they witness injustices. There needs to be safe whistleblower protections upheld by FUSD. Recent FUSD board meetings had several FUSD employees speaking out and begging for help with the environment.                                                                                                                                                                                           See this news story with examples: https://kmph.com/news/local/employees-say-there-is-a-culture-of-retribution-at-fusd
3. FUSD board policies are created to follow federal and state laws. There needs to be a written policy of accountability to FUSD employees who do not follow them.
4. FUSD needs to create a zero tolerance policy of Tortious Interference with outside organizations. A lifetime ban from using FUSD facilities should be created and implemented for organizations that violate this policy or have in the past.          See attached timeline and screenshots of reviews given to the Fresno Area Manatee Master’s (FAMM) swim club. See their Facebook page reviews and review comments.
5. FUSD must bring Fresno High School’s (FHS) pool facilities to the level of other high schools. Administrators at FUSD  “sustained” equipment missteps in their own investigation and still have not corrected their “missteps”. This includes the current aquatics score board which has holes where the Warrior logo once was displayed.
6. FUSD needs to uphold the expectation that all kids, parents, and community members are responded to in a timely and appropriate manner. Letters, emails, phone calls, and speakers at board meetings are ignored, even after repeated attempts to contact FUSD officials.

FUSD’s patterns of bullying and manipulating facts have caused a hostile work environment. Because of this environment, the marginalization of kids is rampant. Especially as the school population has become heavily minority over the last two decades, while most school officials in the administration are not. FUSD is a public school district with a responsibility to be honest and transparent. My goal with this petition is to bring awareness and change to the myriad of problems within FUSD impacting our community.