Friday, June 14, 2013

Standing room only at the SUSD Board Meeting!

The Saugus Union School District Board of Trustees faced a packed room, standing room only, of furious parents, teachers, staff, and residents prepared to speak out against board member Stephen Winkler's disturbing conduct and to demand his resignation.

Despite not having a single supporter speak favorably about him in the room, Winkler remained defiant and refused to resign, claiming that Jehovah told him to keep fighting.  As onlookers watched and listened to Mr.Winkler crack jokes about how he thought tonight's meeting would be "fun", one can't help but think that he was misinterpreting the message he received from above.

Mr.Winkler has laid claim to several different faith systems.  Tonight he claimed to be a "devout Jew" who attends weekly Torah study and thus couldn't possibly be a Nazi. Moments later he admitted to being a follower of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministry and, his many online accounts and outlets demonstrate periods of a Christian faith as well. And, a report has surfaced that just last year Mr.Winkler may have been baptized into the LDS church as a Mormon.

Mr. Winkler's religion hopping activity is worth noting as it's just one example of many where he has demonstrated a very confused sense of self and purpose.  A former pro-choice advocate, recently turned staunch pro-lifer (dedicating his entire campaign platform to this issue), his views and positions often shift within a single conversation. He's an immigrant who feels illegal immigration should be punishable by execution (statement he made on camera after the board meeting). He is a man with an hobby of watching children ride on dogs and other animals but who hates dogs and wants to see them tortured and killed.  He claims to have been a life-long Democrat but when he ran for his seat on the board he became a devoted Republican. His car is plastered with bumper stickers that reveal confusion of his own views, displaying stickers for Hilary Clinton, John McCain, Barrack Obama, Buck McKeon, and "Harvest" (a Christian organization - curious for a Jewish man to promote that, don't you think?).  A "shape shifter" is how many refer to him.

Unfortunately, there's little the Board can do about Mr.Winkler's misconduct. But they did censure him, putting on record that the rest of the Board disapproves of his behavior.  However, Board members are required, by law, to maintain residence within the district. A domicile investigation is underway and may be helped by the court documents which surfaced yesterday, in which Mr.Winkler filed a request for a protective order from someone he referred to as his "roommate" in both August 2012 and January 2013 and gave a Sylmar address (outside of the district). Mr.Winkler evaded the direction question about this at the meeting but finally admitted signing those court documents.

The Board will meet again on Tuesday, June 18th, at 6:30pm 7:30pm to announce the findings of the domicile investigation. Furious Parents will be there and we urge you all to join us. That meeting will occur at the SUSD District Office at 24930 Avenue Stanford, Santa Clarita, CA.

If Mr.Winkler is not vacated from his seat on the Board following the conclusion of the domicile investigation, he will be recalled. We are already organizing and consulting appropriate experts to initiate the recall process and we will win. As one speaker said at the meeting last night "Hell hath no fury like a Santa Claritan scorned." 

You can view video of the entire Board meeting last night HERE.

THANK YOU to all who attended the meeting and submitted written comments to the Board. Our unity, as a community, as parents, as teachers, and residents of the Santa Clarita Valley, to protect our children from Stephen Winkler and others like him, is paramount. AND, a very special THANK YOU to Mike Devlin, blogger for www.santaclarita.com for his tireless effort and dedication, and talent for investigative reporting that helped bring this important situation to the attention of our community. We owe you a debt of gratitude.

News reports about the meeting:

Santaclarita.com Blog (Conducted the investigative report and broke the story)
ABC 7
NBC 4
The Signal
SCVNews.com
KHTS


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