by David Safier

Last night I wrote about Dr. Steve Gallon, the man who has been assigned to audit the Mexican American Studies program to determine if it complies with A.R.S. § 15-112. Today, the Save Ethnic Studies Defense Fund put out a Media Release about Gallon which has more information about him than my post:

Gallon had been charged with providing false documents to show that the children of two women who worked for him actually lived with him so that those children could attend South Plainfield public schools. In addition Gallon faced allegations that he had demoted district employees for opposing him, that he had violated board policy by failing to post employment opportunities and position vacancies, and that he breached union contracts without board authorization, among others. Gallon resigned shortly before Christmas, 2010 after receiving a $100,000 settlement from the school board which said it did so because it would be too costly and time consuming to go to trial against Gallon.

The Defense Fund is "calling upon the TUSD school board to call an emergency meeting Friday to evaluate the decision and provide public input, stating that Gallon likely couldn’t even obtain the fingerprint clearance teachers and volunteers must obtain to work in the classroom."

[UPDATE: Here is a copy of the letter Save Ethnic Studies hand delivered to the TUSD school board office.]

I hope the media will pick this up. It shows an incredible lack of judgement and common sense that Huppenthal would consider this man to have the judgement to evaluate an educational program's legality.

Read the entire Media Release after the jump.