Parsons defends Santa Ana teachers who blew the whistle

Unfortunately for the corrupt administration at the Santa Ana Unified School District, the developing story of fraudulent class rosters just won’t go away. Today Times columnist Dana Parsons weighed in, with an article entitled “Santa Ana teachers give a lesson in honesty.”

Parson’s put it this way, “What has interested me from the start was the decision by several of the teachers first to confront their bosses over the issue and then, when nothing was done after a few weeks, to go public.”

Parsons asked one of the teachers why she did not sign a fraudulent roster. Here’s what she said, “I definitely agonized over it,” she said as we talked in her home last week. “I knew by not signing the roster, I was making a statement. By not signing it, it’s almost like you’re not following the rules. My supervisors expected me to sign it. It’s almost like I’m being defiant. In the workplace, you don’t necessarily want to be defiant.”

Parsons ends up asking the teacher why she went public, even though she risked retaliation from the district. Her answers are quite revealing:

Too often, the teacher says, news stories dwell on negative things. Too seldom, she says, people of faith or conscience explain how those belief systems influence their decisions in a society that challenges people’s personal ethics on a daily basis.

The roster deception was bad policy, she says.

But more than that, it was wrong.

“I think if more and more people were to come forward,” she says, “and tell their stories about whatever it is within them

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"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.