A Major Civil Rights Victory Just Occurred in Temecula

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Monday November 24, 2014 · 7:18 AM PST

2014/11/24 · 07:18

The Riverside County Registrar of Voters has certified the ballots for the 2014 Temecula School Board election, and the results are now official. Huge congratulations are in order for our newest board members, Julie Farnbach, Kevin S. Hill and Sandy Hinkson. These are the three candidates we publicly endorsed and they come to the five member board as an immediate majority. History will show that this election was an important moment in a burgeoning civil rights movement. Children are often the forgotten victims of civil rights violations, and we maintain that every undercover drug sting in schools is a violation of children's civil rights.

The outcome of this election is a direct result of Operation Glass House, the abusive debacle in which undercover officers from the Riverside County Sheriffs Department entrapped twenty two of Temecula's children in a fabricated drug sting, nine who were Special Education students, including our autistic son, Jesse Snodgrass. This is precisely the result we worked for, on behalf of Jesse, and all other children who we believe were abused under the watch of TVUSD administrators.

After Operation Glass House, members of TVUSD's brass responded with behaviors toward its victims that we consider to be inappropriate and offensive. And after Operation Glass House was exposed as a sham in numerous media sources, most notably Rolling Stone (The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass) and VICE (The War on Kids), along with the tireless efforts of our partners, including the Drug Policy Alliance, and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, TVUSD did little more in response than to stick its head in the sand. This stands in stark contrast to the response from the powers that be at the University of Virginia following last week's Rolling Stone exposé involving abuses of students on their campus - penned by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, also the author of The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass.

But since the people who are supposed to be in charge of Temecula's school children refused to act, the citizens of Temecula forced action upon them from the voting booths on November 4.

In Temecula, school board incumbents have historically gotten a free ride with the voters. Two of the incumbents, Richard Shafer and Robert Brown, first became board members in 1994 and 1995, respectively, and had never been seriously challenged at the polls. The third incumbent, Vincent O'Neal, announced in August that he would not seek reelection, which was a wise move because had O'Neal run, he would have suffered the same fate as Brown and Shafer.

Here is the final vote total:

We have a few thoughts about the election:

The only memorable accomplishment of Robert Brown's tenure on the board is that he was one of only three people who were aware that adult undercover cops, Yesenia Hernandez and Daniel Zipperstein, were masquerading as students on Temecula's high school campuses with no accountability, and entrapping the most vulnerable children. Not only did Brown pre-bless the operation, he sung its praises in the immediate aftermath. "I thought it was great,” he said. “I was glad to see it was happening...I’m sure this sent a message to the rest of the kids." Unfortunately, part of what Brown was cheerleading included reports of inappropriate undercover officer conduct on campus.

But although (undercover cop) Daniel was in a relationship, that didn't stop him from admiring other girls, like when, during one lunch period with a view into the dance room, Daniel exhorted about a 15-year-old in spandex, "Dang, look at the ass on that one!"
[...]

Daniel informed Perry and Sebastian he didn't swallow Vicodin, he smoked it. The boys were dubious, so Daniel described how he'd rub off the pill's coating, grind it to powder, then freebase it off tinfoil. To demonstrate, Daniel popped the pill into his mouth and sucked it, then spat it out and rubbed it on his shirt, explaining that it was now ready for crushing and smoking. "I heard you can do the same thing with heroin," Daniel said, dropping a hint about his next drug target. The boys didn't pick up on the bait; they were agog, having learned a new drug-taking technique.

Julie Farnbach and Sandy Hinkson actively campaigned, and received some endorsements. The largest endorsement, which included heavy advertising and press, came from the Temecula Valley Educators Association (TVEA), who endorsed Hinkson and Cherlyl Eckard. As you see though, Eckard - who also had the heaviest advertising in this election - only finished 5th in this race, so the TVEA endorsement appears to have had little positive impact.

Kevin Hill did no real campaigning. He was the only challenger who had no campaign yard signs, and he didn't even have a website. The only endorsement he appears to have received was from us. But his message resonated strongly with us. And with Hill (a teacher with solid special ed experience), retired teacher Hinkson, and zero-tolerance policy critic Farnbach, our endorsement was based not primarily on non-incumbent status, but on the fact that we strongly believe them to be the right people for the job.

Shafer, O'Neal and the rest of the board members, (Allen Pulsipher and Kristi Rutz-Robbins) have blood from Operation Glass House on their hands too, as they rubber stamped the expulsions of all students entrapped in Operation Glass House. And in Jesse's case, even though a criminal judge threw out the charges against Jesse, TVUSD decided to move forward with his expulsion. We filed for a due process hearing to stop the expulsion, which resulted in Judge Marian S. Tulley issuing a scathing decision against TVUSD, and ordering Jesse's immediate return to school. At 7:00 a.m. on March 13, 2013, only three business days after Judge Tulley issued her ruling, and only 48 hours before Jesse's return to school, the school board held an emergency session behind closed doors, in which they voted to file an appeal of the ruling. There are many levels on which this appears vindictive and irrational, but here is the most glaring example: The remedy sought in the appeal was to expel Jesse. However, the appeal process is such that it would not have even been heard by a judge until well after Jesse was set to graduate. So the bottom line is that the board voted - in secret - to authorize the use of thousands of taxpayer dollars to try to expel a student that had already graduated.

The local message of the 2014 Temecula School Board election is this: TVUSD is broken, and the citizens have forced action upon the administration.

The national message of the 2014 Temecula School Board election is this: Any school administration that allows undercover drug stings on their campuses puts their students, their school district, and their own jobs at risk.

dsnodgrass

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Monday November 17, 2014 · 7:48 AM PST

2014/11/17 · 07:48

History is filled with those who have placed themselves squarely on the wrong side of civil rights issues, and history is never kind to them. Meet one of the newest members of this exclusive club, Perris Union High School District Superintendent Jonathan Greenberg.

Greenberg's legacy is the authorization of a 2013 undercover operation in his Perris and Menifee, CA schools, approximately 20 miles from Temecula. The operation was nearly identical to the 2012 Temecula fiasco that entrapped 9 special education students, including our son, Jesse, who has autism.

In the Perris/Menifee sting, one of the entrapped students was a 15-year-old special education student, who read at third grade level. According to sources with first-hand knowledge, after being relentlessly hounded by an adult cop in disguise, the child finally caved under the pressure. He got a vicodin pill that had been prescribed to him and sold it to the cop for $3. For this, the child was charged with a felony and did time.

At the time, Greenberg was kind enough to publicly lecture parents like my wife and me with this gem:

"Some parents will excuse their children's behavior all the way to state prison."

Greenberg has not hesitated from piling on these kids since the arrest, seemingly bragging about his role in this round of institutionalized child abuse to anyone who will listen. Not sure what he was thinking, but for some reason he figured that the readers of Teen Vogue were clamoring to hear from the mind of Jonathan Greenburg. So he used the opportunity to get one more kick in the teeth of his students who spent the holidays in lockup, while he was likely celebrating with loved ones.

"We hope for them that this is the worst day of their lives."

Stay classy John.

Email: jonathan.greenberg@puhsd.org
Telephone:(951) 943-6369 x80102 or x80103

dsnodgrass

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Friday November 07, 2014 · 7:08 AM PST

2014/11/07 · 07:08

For background, read the Rolling Stone magazine article, The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass.

As we're preparing for the upcoming lawsuit, (trial likely be scheduled for June or July of 2015), I realize that it's been nearly six months since I last provided an update. Much has happened during that time, and more details will be coming. We have some great news to report (further down the page), but first, here's something we'd like to bring to bring to your attention that you may or may not have already seen.

THE DOCUMENTARY

VICE releeased a 24 minute documentary about Jesse, titled, "The War on Kids".

This is the story of Jesse Snodgrass, a kid with Asperger's syndrome who was arrested by an undercover cop posing as a student at Jesse's high school. This is the story of how the war on drugs preys on the most vulnerable.

A short while after VICE published it on their site, they posted it on YouTube (embedded below), and it went past the million views mark after about three weeks. We feel that VICE did a good job with this, and it's a great companion piece to the Rolling Stone article.

Here are some personal bullet points.

- Footage of the Jesse's interrogation is included. The interrogation video is something that has always been very difficult for us to watch, but it's important for the public to know the truth about what happened.

- Nine Inch Nails...you'll understand once you watch the video.

- Other students who were arrested in the sting are interviewed here. They have our heartfelt thanks for agreeing to go public.

- We were able to reveal that 9 of the 22 students arrested in the sting were special education students.

- VICE follows the money, and shows how lucrative these stings can be for law enforcement.

- This is something we've been sitting on for some time. When we first went public about this, we did it initially here on Daily Kos (Our Autistic Son was Handcuffed and Arrested in School, We Were Not Notified), and that was immediately followed with an interview in the Press Enterprise newspaper. The day after the Press Enterprise interview appeared, we received a voicemail on our home phone from Blaine Hopp, Riverside County Senior Deputy District Attorney, who was directly involved in the sting. The voicemail is aired in the documentary. Here's the transcript of his voicemail:

Yes, this message is for Mr and Mrs. Snodgrass. This is Senior Deputy District Attorney Blaine Hopp, Riverside County DA’s office calling. Mr and Mrs. Snodgrass, I read what it is you had to say about Operation Glasshouse to the newspaper Press Enterprise, Sarah Burge reporting, and I’m just contacting you to make sure that the information you provided her was true and accurate and correct, because I think it will affect the way the District Attorney’s Office deals with your son’s return date to court.
If there are anything that you were misquoted, I would truly appreciate a phone call back, otherwise I look forward to seeing you and your son on July 16th, 2003 in court. Thank you.

If you prefer, you can read the transcript of this documentary here.

dsnodgrass

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Monday May 05, 2014 · 7:06 AM PDT

2014/05/05 · 07:06

As reported by the Press Enterprise and the Associated Press, this story has taken another strange and unexpected twist. Our son, Jesse, filed a lawsuit against Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD) about six months ago. Now, TVUSD has filed a cross complaint against Riverside County, and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

The rationale is striking and best summarized in paragraph 7 of the Cross Complaint (which can be viewed here).

If it should be found that cross-complainants are liable under the allegations contained in the complaint (which allegations cross-complainants have denied and continue to deny), then cross-complainants are informed and believe, and upon such information and belief allege that the negligent, unlawful and tortious conduct of cross-defendants, and each of them, including any alleged unconstitutional entrapment, search, and seizure, was active, primary and affirmative, and that the conduct of cross-complainants, if any, was passive, secondary and derivative only.
(Emphasis added)

So TVUSD is claiming that if they are found liable, the county and the police should be responsible for paying all of the damages, (as well as TVUSD's attorney fees), because of the sheriff's department's "negligent, unlawful and tortious conduct" and their "unconstitutional entrapment, search, and seizure" of Jesse.

At the same time, their response to Jesse's lawsuit continues to be that he is a drug dealer.

It appears that a few of Riverside's law enforcement community have aired their opinions in the Press Enterprise comment section (which is a common occurrence when the PE reports on this story). Here's the link, feel free to make your voice heard if you wish.

For background, read the Rolling Stone magazine article, The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass. Read More

Sunday's LA Times Op-Ed Decries Our Autistic Son's Entrapment - and Tomorrow We See Deputy Dan

dsnodgrass

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Monday April 07, 2014 · 7:02 AM PDT

2014/04/07 · 07:02

Just ahead of Tuesday's scheduled deposition of officer Daniel Zipperstein, a/k/a Daniel Briggs, a/k/a Deputy Dan, a/k/a the undercover police officer who targeted our son, Jesse, this appeared in the Sunday edition of the LA Times.

Jesse Snodgrass had recently transferred to Chaparral High School in Temecula and was feeling out of place and alone in 2012 when a boy named Dan, another newcomer, befriended him. Jesse, a 17-year-old autistic student, wasn't good at making friends and he was pleased by the overture. But there was something he didn't know about Dan: He was an undercover narcotics officer attending class at Chaparral hoping to bust student drug dealers.
Dan quickly began exerting pressure on Jesse to sneak a pill from his parent's medicine cabinet or buy him some marijuana. Jesse, whose demeanor and speech clearly signal his autism, was at first at a loss for how to meet his friend's request. But he finally sought out a homeless man near a dispensary and traded a $20 bill Dan had given him for a plastic bag containing less than a gram of marijuana leaves. A few months after the two young men met, Jesse was arrested and found himself alone and bewildered in juvenile detention.

[...]

The Riverside County Sheriff's Department regularly targets high school students, sometimes, as in this case, inspiring crime where it otherwise would not have existed. In the last four years, the department has staged four undercover sting operations in which adult officers, masquerading as high school students, repeatedly pressured students to obtain illegal substances for them. Over the last four years, nearly 100 students, a number of whom were special-needs students, have been arrested.

[...]

But we as a society still have some soul-searching to do. Should we really allow adults to dress up as kids, embed themselves in school classrooms and trick children into breaking the law?

[...]

Children should receive honest drug education from their schools, not face deception and betrayal by people they think are their peers. Inevitably, as in the case of Jesse Snodgrass, high school drug stings will ensnare some students who would never have been involved in obtaining or selling drugs without being manipulated by undercover officers. Is pushing students into illicit activities really the best use of scant law enforcement resources?

The piece was written by Theshia Naidoo and Lynne Lyman, senior staff attorney and California state director, respectively, for our an organization that we partner with, the Drug Policy Alliance. Read More

Our Autistic Son's Entrapment: The Jig is Up – The End of Undercover Drug Stings in Schools

dsnodgrass

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday March 20, 2014 · 7:13 AM PDT

2014/03/20 · 07:13

This week, our partners, the Drug Policy Alliance, have mailed a letter to the Superintendents of 20 Riverside County school districts, along with a copy of the recent Rolling Stone investigative piece about our son, The Entrapment of Jesse Snodgrass.

We are certain that the Riverside County Sheriff's Department's annual 21 Jump Street style dog and pony show, which accomplishes nothing more than destroying lives, will now be dead in the water.

We are asking you to download the letter - click here to do so - and share it everywhere. Share it with your school district's superintendent. Share it with your school board members. Share it with your principals. Share it with your PTA. Share it with your city officials. And when you do so, share the Rolling Stone article as well.

The day is coming where legislation will permanently end undercover drug stings in schools, but until then, this is how we can make them stop immediately. Any administrator who reads the letter will understand the risks to their students, and the potential liability to their school districts and to themselves.

Click the image below to enlarge page 1 of the letter. Click here to view the entire letter.

dsnodgrass

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Thursday February 27, 2014 · 7:09 AM PST

2014/02/27 · 07:09

The new issue of Rolling Stone tells the full story surrounding our autistic son’s in-school entrapment, arrest, detention, expulsion battle, and our efforts to rescue him.

In addition to several hours of telephone interviews, the writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, spent two days with us in November, recording lengthy interviews with us, and our son, who is also identified in the article.

His name is Jesse Snodgrass.

It begins like this.

Jesse Snodgrass plodded around yet another stucco corner, searching for Room 254 in time for the second-period bell, only to find he was lost yet again. Jesse felt a familiar surge of panic. He was new to Chaparral High School and still hadn't figured out how to navigate the sprawling Southern California campus with its outdoor maze of identical courtyards studded with baby palm trees. Gripping his backpack straps, the 17-year-old took some deep breaths. Gliding all around him were his new peers, chatting as they walked in slouchy pairs and in packs. Many of their mouths were turned up, baring teeth, which Jesse recognized as smiles, a signal that they were happy. Once he regained his composure, he followed the spray-painted Chaparral Puma paw prints on the ground, his gait stiff and soldierly, and prayed that his classroom would materialize. He was already prepared to declare his third day of school a disaster.
At last, Jesse found his art class, where students were milling about in the final moments before the bell. He had resigned himself to maintaining a dignified silence when a slightly stocky kid with light-brown hair ambled over and said, "Hi."

"Hi," Jesse answered cautiously. Nearly six feet tall, Jesse glanced down to scan the kid's heart-shaped face, and seeing the corners of his mouth were turned up, Jesse relaxed a bit. The kid introduced himself as Daniel Briggs. Daniel told Jesse that he, too, was new to Chaparral – he'd just moved from Redlands, an hour away, to the suburb of Temecula – and, like Jesse, who'd recently relocated from the other side of town, was starting his senior year.

Jesse squinted and took a long moment to mull over Daniel's words. Meanwhile, Daniel sized up Jesse, taking in his muscular build and clenched jaw that topped off Jesse's skater-tough look: Metal Mulisha T-shirt, calf-length Dickies, buzz-cut hair and a stiff-brimmed baseball hat. A classic suburban thug. Lowering his voice, Daniel asked if Jesse knew where he might be able to get some weed.

"Yeah, man, I can get you some," Jesse answered in his slow monotone, every word stretched out and articulated with odd precision. Daniel asked for his phone number, and Jesse obliged, his insides roiling with both triumph and anxiety. On one hand, Jesse could hardly believe his good fortune: His conversation with Daniel would stand as the only meaningful interaction he'd have with another kid all day. On the other hand, Jesse had no idea where to get marijuana. All Jesse knew in August 2012 was that he had somehow made a friend.

Please share the article, and comment at the site. Read More

California Government Opens Formal Investigation of Our Autistic Son's School District

dsnodgrass

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Thursday January 23, 2014 · 7:03 AM PST

2014/01/23 · 07:03

The California Department of Education (CDE) has initiated a formal investigation of the Temecula Valley Unified School District. The investigation has come to light just months after the CDE issued a notice of non-compliance with corrective actions against TVUSD related to their suspension and attempted expulsion of our son.

On Thursday night, January 16, 2014, the CDE conducted a parent/guardian input meeting at the TVUSD administrative office. In attendance were approximately 100 parents and/or guardians of special education students, and several personnel provided by the CDE. No TVUSD administrators were in attendance.

A brochure, paper questionnaires and electronic devices for answering questions were provided to the audience. The brochures included the following:

CDE will investigate your district using these methods:
    * Parent/Guardian Input Meeting
    * Interviews with parents and district staff
    * Visits to school sites
    * Review of policies and procedures
    * Review of program implementation
    * Review of student records

CDE will prepare a Corrective Action Plan based on findings of non-compliance found during this review.

dsnodgrass

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday January 03, 2014 · 7:57 AM PST

2014/01/03 · 07:57

Last month, one year and one day after several armed police officers rushed into our autistic son’s classroom at Chaparral High School in Temecula, CA, handcuffed him in front of his classmates, took him away, medically probed him, interrogated him without a lawyer, booked him, and then locked him up, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department did it again, this time, about 20 miles down the road. It was in a different school, but the details and results were strikingly similar.

It has now been confirmed that the similarities are even more sickening than we first knew.

A 15-year-old Menifee special-education student, one of 25 teens arrested in an undercover school drug bust, is spending Christmas in juvenile hall.
The Paloma Valley High School freshman is charged with a felony after selling a single Vicodin pain pill for $3 to a Riverside County sheriff’s deputy who posed as a student all semester, the boy’s mother said.

Monique Gallo said her son suffers from learning disabilities and reads at a third-grade level. He used the $3 to buy snacks at school, she said.

[...]

But because her son was on probation, the judge ordered him to stay in juvenile hall through the holidays, Gallo said. She said he got in trouble for fighting at his middle school last year. Gallo said she and her ex-husband can’t afford a private attorney for their son.

To the point of the student being on probation for fighting at his middle school last year, the Riverside Sheriff's department appears to have a sometimes uncomfortably cozy relationship with some school administrations, and in many cases, handles discipline issues that would normally be handled by school districts. However, zero tolerance policies become a convenient enabler of these relationships. And to quote retire Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Stephen Downing writes in his email tagline, “A red flag should go up anytime a person in a position of responsibility utters the words ‘zero tolerance,’ because that means they do not have the confidence to make a decision in their discipline, they do not have the compassion to see differences between situations, and they do not have the administrative or managerial skills to make the kind of decisions that create a thriving institution.”

Special education students have notoriously bulked up discipline records which typically become active in middle school, where the environment is a virtual Petri dish for bullying. Factor in an age where students are going through awkward and noticeable physical and emotional transformations, a suddenly unstructured class schedule with hourly changes, and minimally supervised Physical Education and lunch period environments with very large numbers of students, and the most vulnerable become immediate targets. Feeling helpless and frequently with limited means of expression, they are pushed to their last available defense and physically fight back against their bullies. And each time the fight back, they are disciplined and face suspensions, as their discipline record grows thicker.

Here is How You Can Help

We recently filed a lawsuit against the Temecula Valley Unified School District, Director of Child Welfare and Attendance Michael Hubbard and Director of Special Education Kimberly Velez. We believe that by making our son’s story public, and by holding the school district accountable through highly visible legal action, we have the opportunity to make what happened in Temecula so well known that when school districts are approached by law enforcement, offering to bring undercover drug stings to their campuses, school administrators will think twice.

Our legal expenses in this effort are significant, so your donation to the Snodgrass Legal Fund will be appreciated.

Also, sign the petition to permanently end undercover drug stings in schools.Make this story public, share it in every corner.

Share This Story

An abuser relies on the secrecy of their behavior for empowerment. Once their abusive behavior is exposed, their ability to continue abusing is threatened.

Let Them Hear You

Perris Union High School District:
Superintendent Jonathan Greenberg
Email: jonathan.greenberg@puhsd.org
Phone: (951) 943-6369 x80102 or x80103

Board of Trustees:
William Hulstrom
President
Email: william.hulstrom@puhsd.org

Joan Cooley
Vice President
Email: joan.cooley@puhsd.org

Carolyn Twyman
Clerk
Email: carolyn.twyman@puhsd.org

David Nelissen
Member
Email: david.nelissen@puhsd.org

Edward Agundez
Member
Email: edward.agundez@puhsd.org

Riverside County Sheriff's Department:
Phone: 951-955-2400
Feedback Form: http://www.riversidesheriff.org/...

OUTRAGE! A Year and a Day After Our Autistic Son's Arrest, 25 More Kids Arrested

dsnodgrass

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday December 13, 2013 · 7:12 AM PST

2013/12/13 · 07:12

Yesterday, one year and one day after several armed police officers rushed into our autistic son’s classroom at Chaparral High School in Temecula, CA, handcuffed him in front of his classmates, took him away, medically probed him, interrogated him without a lawyer, booked him, and then locked him up, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department has done it again, this time, about 20 miles down the road.

About two dozen students were arrested Thursday morning, Dec. 12, at high schools in Menifee and Perris as part of a semester-long undercover drug investigation in which deputies posed as students, authorities said.
Deputies descended on the campuses of Paloma Valley High School and Perris High School during second period to make the arrests, Riverside County sheriff’s officials said.
Lt. Paul Bennett said deputies identified a total of 25 students, two of whom are adults, suspected of selling drugs. Officers served 22 drug-related arrest warrants on campus Thursday. Three suspects weren’t in school Thursday and are still at large, he said.

[...]

Two deputies – a woman at Perris and a man at Paloma – had been posing as students since the beginning of the school year in an attempt to ferret out drug dealing on campus. Over the course of the investigation, deputies seized drugs including marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, hashish and various prescription pills, the release said. Lt. Paul Bennett said most of the drug buys were for small amounts of marijuana.

[...]

Last year, the investigation focused on Chaparral and Temecula Valley high schools in Temecula. About two dozen students were arrested. One of those arrests, of a special education student with autism, has prompted a lawsuit against the Temecula Valley Unified School District.

[...]

Bennett said the deputies selected to go undercover this year received additional training about special needs students, in addition to training about avoiding entrapment.

He said all of those arrested this year are “mainstream students” in general education classes.

The last two sentences in the above quote actually raise numerous questions.

These undercover drug sting operations are still happening in schools across the nation at an alarming rate, and they do not work. The Los Angeles Police Department, who pioneered these operations, actually stopped doing them because they were ineffective, and entrapped a very high ratio of special education students and minorities. And zero tolerance policies allow the civil rights of kids to be trampled, which is what happened to our son.

So we find it ironic that these sting operations entrap kids who don’t have drug problems, while ignoring the real issues involving students and drugs. They create problems and headlines, but never solutions.

We are certain that the administrators at the Perris Union High School District will soon see that, by agreeing to participate in this barbaric practice, they essentially made a deal with the devil. I cannot say strongly enough how offended we are by this wretched, abusive behavior, and we intend to shine a public spotlight on it.

Shame on those who allowed this to happen. This cannot ever happen again.

Stay tuned.

Here is How You Can Help

Let your feelings about this be known. Key links and contact info:

The comments section at the Press Enterprise:
http://www.pe.com/...

Riverside County Sheriff's Department:
Phone: 951-955-2400
Feedback Form: http://www.riversidesheriff.org/...

Perris Union High School District:
Superintendent Jonathan Greenberg
Email: jonathan.greenberg@puhsd.org
Phone: (951) 943-6369 x80102 or x80103

Board of Trustees:
William Hulstrom
President
Email: william.hulstrom@puhsd.org

Joan Cooley
Vice President
Email: joan.cooley@puhsd.org

Carolyn Twyman
Clerk
Email: carolyn.twyman@puhsd.org

David Nelissen
Member
Email: david.nelissen@puhsd.org

Edward Agundez
Member
Email: edward.agundez@puhsd.org

More Ways to Help

Sign the petition to permanently end undercover drug stings in schools.

Donate to the Snodgrass Legal Fund.

Our Autistic Son's Arrest: Lawsuit Filed, Individuals Named

dsnodgrass

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday October 31, 2013 · 7:02 AM PDT

2013/10/31 · 07:02

Please visit and share the following links:

Click here to donate to the Snodgrass Legal Fund

Click here to sign the petition to end undercover drug stings in schools

dsnodgrass

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday July 29, 2013 · 7:02 AM PDT

2013/07/29 · 07:02

Nearly six months ago - 177 days to be precise - when my wife and I first went public about the fact that our autistic son was handcuffed in front of his classmates, taken away, medically probed, interrogated without a lawyer, booked, and incarcerated as part of a drug sting - all without our knowledge - we created a petition. The response was overwhelming, to say the least, as it was signed by 7,670 people, including many of you.

In the petition, there was a demand for a public hearing, so we have an obligation to fulfill.

We are announcing, “Accountability In Our Schools: Is TVUSD Using Your Tax Dollars to Help or Harm Children and Families? A Public Hearing”. This will occur on Monday, August 12th, at the Community Recreation Center in Temecula, CA.

My wife and I will be part of the panel of community leaders and subject matter experts that will speak and then answer questions from the audience. Here is some background on a couple of the panelists.

Stephen Downing, Deputy Chief of Police, Los Angeles Police Department (retired)

Stephen Downing began his twenty-year police career in a squad car and finished as a deputy chief of police. As Commander of the Bureau of Special Investigations at one point, the Administrative Narcotics Division was one of the divisions within his scope of authority. His vast experience in law enforcement has led him to the conclusion that the War on Drugs can never be worth the human and fiscal costs.
Stephen entered the LAPD in 1960 and spent twelve years assigned to operations in South Central Los Angeles. He is a veteran of the Watts riot and its aftermath, which gave birth to the first community-based policing programs in the country. His assignments covered a wide range of specializations including patrol, criminal investigation, narcotics, vice and organized crime intelligence. Among the many commands held in the LAPD, his most memorable include: Captain of Detectives, where he established homicide investigation techniques still in use today; Commanding Officer of Juvenile Division, where he established and published a file that brought an end to abuses in state probation subsidy programs; and Commanding Officer of Southwest Area, where he designed and implemented the first functionally integrated police operation in law enforcement aimed at combating gang activity - a program that became a national model. As a staff officer Stephen was involved in reorganizing the LAPD from a centralized functional organization to a decentralized line organization.

During his final years with the LAPD he was a Deputy Chief in the Bureau of Special Investigations, where he supervised city-wide narcotic, vice and criminal intelligence functions. He was also a Deputy Chief in the Personnel and Training Bureau, where he oversaw operations involving the Police Training Academy, recruitment, personnel management and affirmative action and chaired the Department Shooting Review Board.

Diane Goldstein, Lieutenant Commander, Redondo Beach Police Department (retired)

Diane Goldstein is a 21-year veteran of law enforcement who retired as the first female lieutenant for the Redondo Beach Police Department, (CA). During her career she worked and managed a variety of patrol and investigative units. She is recognized as a subject matter expert and trainer in the area of crisis negotiations and critical incident management. During her career she was one of the original founders of the California Association of Hostage Negotiators, receiving an Honorary Life Member Award in 2007. She is a speaker and Executive Board Member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a columnist and has appeared on radio and television as a commentator.

Invitations have also been extended and received by the members of the TVUSD School Board, Superintendent Timothy Ritter, Director of Child Welfare and Attendance Michael Hubbard, and Director of Special Education Kimberly Velez. We are expecting that they will attend in a spirit of accountability and cooperation, though we have not yet received their responses. However, we will reserve their seats and name placards on stage, with the rest of the panel.

Numerous representatives of the media have confirmed their attendance, including a very well-known national television outlet. This event will also be recorded on video, which we will make publicly available.

Here are the topics currently on the agenda:

- Temecula Valley Unified School District’s use of taxpayer funds.
- The TVUSD authorized undercover sting operation which resulted in the arrest of nearly two dozen students, including a high number of special needs students.
- Proactive strategies for protecting TVUSD’s students from drug abuse.
- How can taxpayers and TVUSD administrators work together to ensure accountability and mutual trust?

We will also have informational material available for attendees from organizations, including the Drug Policy Alliance (who are partnering with our family), and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

If you, or someone you know would like to RSVP, you can do this by either of the following methods:

* If you have a Facebook account, click here. Even if you don't wish to RSVP for the event, we will appreciate it if you Like our organization's Facebook page, located here.

* If you don’t have a Facebook account, you can RSVP by clicking here.

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