Conejo Valley school trustee's email to blogger's employer sparks free speech controversy

Conejo Valley Unified School District board trustee Mike Dunn ignited controversy Thursday after he sent an email to the employer of a local blogger accusing her of libel and slander.

Dunn said in his email that he would mention the name of the company the woman works for if she spoke in public session at a board meeting and asserted that the company supported her political positions.

Jessica Weihe, better known in the community as “Anonymous Mommy” — the name of her blog — got a text message from her boss, Scott Harris, at the Newbury Park-based public relations firm Mustang Marketing telling her to check her email early Thursday.

What she found was an email from Dunn that she categorized as an attempt to censor her as a result of her being outspoken about alleged censorship in the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

“Scott, I am told that you approve of the political activities of Jessica (Weihe) (anonymous mommie),” Dunn wrote in the initial email to Harris, which he shared with The Star. “Every time she slanders or libels the school district or a school board member during public comments at a board meeting, I am going to respond that Jessica she (sic) works for Mustang Marketing and that you support her opinions.”

Weihe has been a critic of the recently passed alternative assignment policy on her blog and most recently at Tuesday’s board meeting. The controversy and subsequent board policy amendment grew out of a debate that began last spring after Sherman Alexie’s controversial “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” was proposed as an addition to the ninth-grade core literature list.

Tuesday marked the first time the mother of two spoke during the public comment portion of a board meeting, she told The Star, noting that she did read a statement for someone else once before. In Tuesday’s public comment, Weihe said she saw the addendum to high school syllabi that went out this week and didn’t see “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” on the list of titles that carry a California Department of Education annotation flagging books that may contain mature content.

“I’m not really surprised,” Weihe said in public comment Tuesday. “Unlike Mr. Dunn, I actually read the book in its entirety. ... I was quite disappointed to find no salacious material. You all had me bracing to clutch my pearls. ... Mr. Dunn ... falsely and inappropriately asserted in a public letter to The Acorn that approving this book was akin to ‘child abuse’ and that it was ‘pornographic’ in nature ...”

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Dunn told The Star his email was in part prompted because he was re-watching the board meeting online Wednesday evening and had been told Harris agreed with Weihe’s political activities.

Harris responded to Dunn, defending Weihe’s right to speak, and told The Star he viewed the email as an intimidation tactic and an attempt to silence Weihe.

“Thank you for the courtesy of putting your threat in writing,” Harris replied to Dunn in an email. “However, before you go off half-cocked and wrong — again — and while you often have little apparent interest in the truth or facts, allow me to correct you in advance of you making good on your threats. I support Jessica’s right to her views and to her expressing them. Her views are her own, not mine or my companies. (sic) If you’d like to point out that I support community involvement, community activity and freedom of speech — please do. You can open and close each meeting with that and hang a poster over your head that states the same thing. Heck, I’ll pay for the poster, if that helps.”

Harris told The Star that no matter how he may or may not feel about Weihe’s political views or what she says during school board meetings or on her blog, he honors her ability to exercise her First Amendment right.

Dunn agreed that Weihe has a First Amendment right to express her opinion.

“... But slander and libel are not protected speech. ... She has hurt a lot of people with her comments, and she has hurt the board, she has also hurt the school district, which hurts the students,” Dunn said in an interview with The Star.

Dunn sent an email to Harris requesting mediation. Dunn told The Star he later called Harris asking for a face-to-face meeting. In a series of emails The Star was copied on Friday morning, it appeared as though Harris and Scott were working to schedule a meeting.

“It would appear that she is doing this on company time during office hours with his (Harris’) consent — based on the timestamps of her posts, and has been doing this for months,” Dunn said. “If he’s (Harris) going to hurt the district, if he’s going to hurt board members, if he’s going to hurt the local economy, then there are going to be consequences. ... This is all about the kids. This is all about the damage that this woman is doing to the reputation of the local school district.”

Weihe said she is a salaried employee and that her work hours stretch from the time she wakes up in the morning to the time she goes to bed at night.

“In addition to state-mandated breaks and lunch hours that my work abides by, I imagine that those who are not savvy with social media, like Mr. Dunn, may not be aware there is a scheduling tool,” Weihe told The Star. “If he is attempting to imply that my work pays me for my personal blog page and opinions, he would be doing so falsely. A PR job doesn’t simply exist within a typical 8-to-5 time frame.”

Weihe said her speech to the school board was not slanderous and the content of her blogs not libelous.

“I’m not sorry for it. It’s unfortunate that we are here today and we are having this very contentious battle. ... It’s important to me to keep speaking about it,” Weihe told The Star. “It’s important, regardless of opinion, if you are a constituent and a tax-paying resident of this community, that you be able to voice your concerns and criticism at a public school board meeting without fear of retribution from a school board member.”

Dunn later said in an email to The Star, on which he copied Harris, that he believes “Harris is behind all the attacks against Republicans and conservatives in our community.”

“That is why I emailed him,” Dunn said. “Jessica is just a foot soldier taking orders from Scott.”

Harris said he was surprised Dunn sent him that email.

“It just sounds like the words of a desperate, petty man,” Harris said.

Several attempts were made to reach board President John Andersen, but as of deadline, he had not responded.

“The District identifies community engagement and involvement as key pieces to our success as a high-achieving school district,” Superintendent Mark McLaughlin said in a written statement. “We respect and uphold the rights of all citizens to exercise their freedom of speech. Additionally, the District respects and supports the rights of all local citizens to speak on matters within the jurisdiction of Conejo Valley Unified School District at our public Board meetings.”

The next Conejo Valley Unified school board meeting will be Feb. 6.