San Diego School Board Trustee Kevin Beiser Could Stay, Despite Calls for Resignation
There was an unusual press conference in front of the San Diego Unified School District offices on Tuesday. A bipartisan group demanded the resignation of Trustee Kevin Beiser, who’s been credibly accused of sexual misconduct by four men.
The motives amongst the Republicans and Democrats were different and there was plenty of apprehensiveness over even being seen standing in the presence of the ‘other.’
County GOP Chair Tony Krvaric organized the press conference. Democratic activists called for a picket line. In the end they all stood together, seeking to let the community know that Beiser was no longer fit to serve.
The conservative crew was there--at least in part--because the accusations against a school board trustee complimented ongoing efforts to oppose many of the policies at San Diego Unified, most recently including a district anti bullying campaign focused on Islamophobia and the curriculum for sex ed courses.
Progressives were motivated to be there by the #MeToo movement. Lessons learned with Mayor Bob Filner, union leader Mickey Kasparian, and State Democratic chair Eric Bauman loomed large in the weeks prior to Beiser’s accusers going public.
When reporters were finished asking questions, both groups went inside to attend the school board meeting. Beiser was not in attendance as the rest of the trustees voted unanimously to call for his resignation.
While some parents have called for a recall campaign, they are prohibited by law from starting such an effort until six months following the targeted official’s most recent assumption of office, meaning they’ll have to wait for at least until June.
County Registrar of Voters Michael Vu told Voice of San Diego recall advocates will need to collect signatures from 15% of registered voters within the school board member’s district as of the last election, or roughly 88,000 signatures.
For now, unless Beiser tenders his resignation, he remains a San Diego Unified Trustee.
The local Democratic party central committee, the Union-Tribune editorial board, the San Diego Education Association, and nearly all of the region’s high profile LGBTQ leaders have also called for Beiser to step down.
Kevin Beiser has disappeared from public sight since the allegations were made public. His last statement proclaimed his innocence, promised a robust defense and claimed the allegations were politically motivated.
Talk show radio host Carl DeMaio, who ought to know something about the perils of rushing to air misconduct allegations, has repeatedly asserted that Democrats and “liberal” media sat on this story for a long time. GOP chair Tony Krvaric has made similar accusations.
Interestingly, DeMaio admitted knowledge about Beiser’s aggressive behavior going back to 2010, saying his husband referred to him as “Mr. Creeper.”
Rumors about Kevin Beiser surfaced in Democratic party circles just after the 2018 elections. It took a couple of months to track down people willing to publicly admit they had been victimized, since none of the allegations rose to the level of criminal conduct.
(Yes, I knew about the rumors. And I agree completely with the decision to have them researched by media organization with ample resources.)
Political consultant Eva Posner, who’d worked a campaign for one of the accusers, was the person who introduced the four victims to Voice of San Diego reporter Andy Keatts.
He spent weeks working on a story that would be airtight, both legally and ethically, only to get scooped by the Union-Tribune when the attorney for one of the accusers tipped the paper off about filing a lawsuit.
From Times of San Diego:
As for the claim that Democrats long knew about Beiser’s alleged misconduct, Posner said: “It is absolutely true that there were rumors circulating for months around Mr. Beiser and inappropriate behavior. That knowledge appears in the Voice of San Diego story.
“However, action cannot and should not be taken by the party or party leadership based on rumor alone. That would be irresponsible and would allow for political manipulation of survivors which is unfair to everyone involved. Once the accounts were made public, the San Diego County Democratic Party and elected leaders acted swiftly to stand with survivors.”
She added: “The party has made great strides in our approach to handling sexual assault allegations, and I am proud and grateful for the evolution that has taken place in the last few years.”
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Lead image: The back of Tony Krvaric's head by Doug Porter