001Good evening everyone. I would like to call the meeting of November 12th, 2025 of the uh call to order the meeting of the Mount Diablo Unified School District. Um we are starting a little bit earlier tonight. So we first item is 1.1 um was called to order. 1.2 is roll call. Mr. McDougall >> present. >> Mr. Lawrence >> present. >> Miss Mason >> here. >> Miss Enzwi >> here. [laughter] >> And Linda Mayo is here also. Uh do we have uh cards for public comment? So, uh, we have a public comment from, um, Alisa Scales. Uh, so would you please come forward and present your public comment? You have three minutes for your presentation. welcome. >> She wants to go. >> Okay. >> Um I would like my comment uh to be directed directed to
002the board. I have a fifth grader at Valhalla Elementary School and I was personally physically present on August 20th, 2025 when Principal Theodore Papus uh gathered the fifth grade students outside and publicly shamed them. Um she told the children that they were the worst class she's ever had, that the TK is better behaved than them. She stated, "My kindergarteners through third grade are such a dream, that you should um be ashamed of your behavior and act more like them." Um, she repeatedly told them that they should be embarrassed and ashamed of everything that they had done during that lunch period as an adult and a parent there. I was actually there for my fourth grade student who struggles with being left out during lunch and he had asked me to come to lunch to volunteer
003and I had simply walked over to talk to my fifth grader to say hi when these comments started. So, I ended up sitting down next to him and I I'm unaware if anyone knew I was there as a parent during this time. Um, but my fifth grader was really nervous. he doesn't like getting in trouble and he was visibly like kind of shaken up by her screaming at them. Uh so anyways, she started saying like you should be ashamed of your behavior and things like that. Uh the entire grade was silent when this started happening. And as they were silent, she screamed, "Your teachers are going to have to miss lunch now because of the things that you guys have done." And she made all the teachers come out and leave their lunch early while
004continuing to say these disparaging comments towards the children. Um, and then they were forced to stand or sit silently and it was 96 degrees outside. And as you might know, they they are not allowed to bring water bottles to lunch because it becomes this thing where they either wrestle with it or they want to go refill it. And so none of them had water during this time. Um, and this whole time she was saying belittling things and taking away privileges, saying we might not do outdoor ed. And I heard these with my own ears. Um, we might not [clears throat] not do outdoor ed and send a fun Friday this Friday. you're going to be writing a five paragraph apology to me um about your behavior today. And my son personally was very shooken up
005by this. And when he came home, he said, "I don't even know why we're in trouble. You were there. Why are we in trouble?" And I remember looking around and just being like, I went over to another person that was present and I said, "Why are they getting in trouble?" Because I actually thought that their behavior was pretty typical for kids being outside during lunch. Um the email she sent us afterwards basically said, "Hey, you uh your kids were being very like disruptive and unsafe, but I didn't see any unsafe behavior." Afterwards, at least two dozen children were crying and some were even sobbing uncontrollably and I watched that with my own two eyes. My own child was sick, had a headache, sunburn, and stomach ache and he told me he was no longer feeling
006safe at school. Um, the reason that I wanted to bring up this comment is just that, uh, I believe that leadership needs to be able to self-regulate and be able to say, "Hey, I'm having a bad day. I'm going to take a step away and instead of doing that, she took it out on these children." And these children, and it's not just me. There's a lot of parents that felt very upset about the way their children were shamed and talked down to in these moments because we work really hard as parents not to shame our children. >> Thank you for your comment. >> All right. Um, I will now share what's being presented in close session. 3.1 is negotiations. The board may discuss negotiations or provide direction to its um, representatives regarding represented employees. Government
007code section 54957.6. 3.2 is discipline, dismissal, release or reassignment of public employee. Government code section 54957B1. 3.3 is conference with legal counsel existing litigation. 3.4 is conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation. 3.5 is liability gain claims government code 54956.95. Um it's um the DF is the name of agency against which the claim is made is Mount Diablo Unified School District. 3.6 Six is consideration to hear an appeal of a decision in complaint against an employee per board policy. 1312.13.7 is a student matter consideration of student records challenge education code 49070. And with that we will adjourn to close session. Thank you.