Schwarzenneger Ally Mum as Outlawed Poet
Reinstated at Computer Center
Exonerated, Adult Ed Student Vows to Bring Lawsuit
Over Lengthly “Suspension”
Seeks Compensation for “Down Time” as
College Officials 'Take the Fifth'
By Jeremy Ellington
nospamjeremyellington_criticatlargeNOSPAM (at) yahoo.com
SANTA BARBARA, CA - -
Published on the Education Page at indybay.org, California's
only Education-specific IMC page.
Santa Barbara City College's Vice President of Continuing
Education Lynda Fairly is tight lipped.
She needs to be, if there is any substance to the press release of
Arjuna Ahimsananda, formerly of Santa Cruz.
Arjuna is the SBCC Adult Ed student who fasted last Thanksgiving
and Christmas to pressure the College, which had him in de facto
suspension over what he characterized as “trumped up
allegations fabricated from whole cloth.” During those fasts,
he emailed Fairly and other college officials, but received no reply
until February.
Spelling is correct. Fortunately, he was not fasting the whole
time.
Fairly may find herself subpeoned to testify in a court case
directed primarily to her colleagues at SBCC, as to why she never
responded to the Poet's numerous communications with her, as VP. The
college has already been subject to a formal complaint with the
Office of Civil Rights. But Fairly had allegedly neglected to take
action to achieve a resolution when, as Vice President of Continuing
Education for SBCC, she had an affirmative duty to act.
According to the recently reinstated student, for eight months the
VP “stone walled” him as he barraged college
administrators with detailed counter-claims, threats to litigate in
Federal Court, and formal complaints to the ACLU and the Department
of Education. According to the press release issued by The Outlaw,
Fairly neglected to reply to a series of written greivances.
Married to former Santa Barbara councilman and current Chamber of
Commerce honcho Rusty Fairly, Lynda oversees a program which touts
itself as “one of the best in the nation”. But, according
to the Outlawed Poet, it is “one of the best at social control,
intimidation of the intelligentsia, and preparation of compliant
drones for the corporate machinery.”
Republican Control of Continuing Education?
The Fairly's were recently feted at a dinner with Der Terminator
himself, California Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger.
Arch-republican, the name Fairly has cropped up on enough Boards and
Commissions of this that and the other to make your head spin. If it
isn't water or pipes and conduits it's schools and widgets.
Rusty, who was in his younger days a football jock, has nothing to
do with the fiasco at SBCC. But he's there.With one phone call, he
can tap his massive Republican-leaning Rolodex to make trouble for
anyone who crosses him.Lynda, for her part, keeps a low profile, but
lets the student body know that she is ready to bring in the Big Guns
at the drop of a pin.
Posted prominently in the Computers In Our Future lab (CIOF) is a
notice to students letting them know that they are regarded as
security threats, nutjobs and fodder for the criminal justice
machine. It basically says that any students which crosses the staff
shall incur not a visit to the Dean's office or a discussion of the
issues, but a call to 911.
Last time we looked, the Wake Center is not located in a badass
neighborhood like South Central or Watts. And, even if it were, that
kind of antagonistic notice on the wall would not be appropriate.
According to The Outlaw, the placid suburbs of Santa Barbara are not
a hardcore inner city 'hood where everyone is part of a set and drive
by's are par for the course. “There is no need for a defensive,
or offensive, antagonistic notice to interpose an adversarial
criminal justice model on an essentially academic setting. I say that
students are entitled to a learning atmosphere which is conducive to
collegiality and exhibits a presumption that we are there to learn,
not that we are dangerous rebels seeking to disrupt.”
He says he sent an email to Vice President Fairly in July 2005,
complaining about the Fairly letter posted at CIOF. “ I have
yet to receive any sort of reply from Fairly, at all. Instead, I was
subjected to a relentless smear campaign and a vicous canard
engineered by her subordinates.”
A canard is a set of false allegations, a frame up. In a letter
dated [insert copy], Dr. Ben Partee, Dean of Campus Discipline,
exonerated the Outlaw from all charges. In today's press release, The
Outlawed Poet stated that he fully intends to file a libel action in
the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. He
states:
“SBCC reminds me of that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs
has a cannon pointed at Elmer Fudd, and the ol' farmer thinks its a
barrel.I know how to litigate without an attorney.I am very, very
good at it. . I was a pro se (self-representing) litigant
representing myself as an interpleader in Gore vs. Harris (Bush) when
I was living in Florida and my vote wasn't counted. That was probably
the most important civil litigation of the past decade, and it went
to the U.S. Supreme Court - twice. I worked with Gore's attorney
David Boise, a specialist in complex simultaneous multiple
litigations. But I really got my litigation chops from the late
William Kunstler, the most important radical attorney of my lifetime.
I had the pleasure of knowing Bill, working with him, and even
visiting him at his home. I think that SBCC has gotten itself into
this matter – an egregious case of censorship- way over its
head, and I aim to establish that the kind of high school shenanigans
it has allowed to occur will not be permitted without accountability.
“
According to the Outlaw, “I also contacted Francisco Campo,
director of CIOF and he never got back to me until after Dean Partee
made his determination. I confronted him about his failure to act,
and he just said that it was due to legal considerations. But it's
their job to respond to student complaints, and I was twisiting in
the wind while Lynda and Francisco did nothing. I want them held
accountable for dereliction of duty, whatever excuses they offer,
they failed to act when it was their obligation to do so.”
Lynda Fairly has not responded to an earlier “fact checking:
email requesting her comment on this matter.
About the author: Jeremy Ellington was born in the Bay area and
formerly resided in Santa Cruz. He is currently researching the
University of Colorado's most recent critique of Ward Churchill,
which appears to be a case of differential enforcement in that
Churchill was singled out for heightened scrutiny. In the past,
Ellington has sharply criticized Churchill for the latter's highly
aggressive criticism of pacifism. Jeremy Ellington is a psuedonym, as
announced in his debut article on seattle.indymedia.org
(c) 2006 Jeremy Ellington All Rights Reserved
I clicked on Double Post Report Icon and no one deleted the post...but then I saw it was TRIPLE.
Maybe from hitting the back button???
I apologize for the inconvenience of multiple post, it was not intentional.
"There is nothing that educates an honorable man more than living in a revolution." - Che Guevara
The following text is substituted for the pertinent paragraph:
Last time we looked, the Wake Center is not located in a badass neighborhood And, even if it were, that kind of antagonistic notice on the wall would not be appropriate. According to The Outlaw, the placid suburbs of Santa Barbara are not a hardcore 'hood with a history of serious social conflicts among the students. “There is no need for a defensive, or offensive, antagonistic notice to interpose an adversarial criminal justice model on an essentially academic setting. I say that students are entitled to a learning atmosphere which is conducive to collegiality and exhibits a presumption that we are there to learn, not that we are dangerous rebels seeking to disrupt.”
Jeremy's Note to Correction: I grew up splitting time between the suburbs and, myself, in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the western hemisphere, in a predominantly non-white neighborhood. Often, violent crime attained new heights with each passing year, a phenomenon which seems never to cease. But I don't mean to take too casual an attitude to such a serious topic - - it is the administration of SBCC which is taking a too-cavalier approach to serious issues: cavalier in the sense that they throw around their authority as if it was their own private preserve, rather than a public resource of which they are in a guardianship role.