Dear Dawg: I confess.  Our district has been encouraging teachers to vote.  Not only that, we’ve even encouraged them to vote for people who will support a good education system. But we haven’t tried to tell them who those people are. We let folks make up their own minds about that.

Anyway, we are being harassed by multiple PIA requests seeking every email, text message, etc. that contains loaded words like “vote” or “culture of voting.”  Some of these folks are publicly saying some nasty things about our board members.  One guy asked us to remove a video that our superintendent made, encouraging people to vote to support public education.  We prepared a response to this guy that we think is good, but we wanted to run it by you before we send it out.  Here it is:

Dear Sir:  Your facts are wrong.  You’re wrong about the law too.  No laws have been violated and so we kindly ask you to retract your stupid letter.  If you don’t, we intend to hit you with a few res ipsa loquitors, res judicata and zenyatta montattas thrown in to be all legal and stuff. We’ve got more important things to deal with, so bug off, buster.

Waddyathink, Dawg?  STRAIGHT SHOOTER.

DEAR STRAIGHT SHOOTER:

We like the attitude, but the tone could be…..toned down.  We suggest you take your cue from Jeff Crownover, General Counsel for Lewisville ISD.  After the AG’s Office went public with criticism of efforts in Lewisville to encourage voting, Mr. Crownover wrote a point by point rebuttal, concluding with this:

In fact, throughout the entire video, Dr. Rogers [Superintendent] does not name a single politician or candidate for office nor does he encourage anyone to vote for a particular candidate. He does not tell anyone to vote for an incumbent or a challenger in any race. Dr. Rogers does not mention a specific political party, or in which party’s primary someone should vote.  As an educator who has given over 30 years of his life to serving kids in public education, of course, Dr. Rogers encourages people to unite behind the cause of public education because of the amazing impact he has seen it have on countless children’s lives. 

As you know, uniting behind the common cause of public education is not a violation of any law, and supporting public education generally is not “supporting or opposing a candidate for nomination or election to public office or office of a political party, a political party, a public officer, or a measure.” Tex. Elec. Code 251.001(a6).  The District believes Dr. Rogers’s comments in this video have not violated any laws, and it maintains there is currently no reason to remove the video from the District website. 

DAWG BONE: GET OUT THERE AND VOTE, FOLKS.  A LOT IS RIDING ON IT.

Tomorrow: Toolbox Tuesday!!