The Coast News, December 25, 2020

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PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94

THE COAST NEWS

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VOL. 34, N0. 52

DEC. 25, 2020

SAN MARCOS -NEWS

Teachers union files suit against SDUHSD Lawsuit seeks to block January reopening date By Jordan P. Ingram

ENCINITAS — A local teachers union filed a lawsuit against San Dieguito Union High School District on Dec. 18 in Superior Court, hoping to overturn the school board’s recent decision allowing for a complete return to in-person instruction by late January. The petition, filed by the California Teachers Assoc iat ion’s legal department on behalf of San Dieguito Faculty Association ( SDFA) , seeks to block reopening Allman at Canyon Crest, La Costa Canyon and Torrey Pines high schools. The legal filing comes as San Diego County spirals deeper into the state’s purple tier of COVID-19 guidelines, with public health officials reporting some of the highest daily totals since the pandemic began. “The ultimate goal for us is to not reopen while we are in the purple tier and for (the school board) to reconsider its Jan. 27 proposal,” Duncan Brown, president of SDFA, told The Coast News. “Teachers want to come back onto campus and they want to teach our students in-person learning, there is no question about that. Our teachers are some of the best in the county — they are passionate about

TORREY PINES High School students Danielle Moraga and Delaney Hall draw signs before a protest on Dec. 17 at Earl Warren Middle School in Solana Beach. Students protested the San Dieguito Unified School District’s reopening plans and Trustee Michael Allman’s comments during a recent school board meeting. Photo by Steve Puterski

what they do, they love our students. We just want to return safely.” The complaint alleges the district’s reopening plan violates both Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive orders and California Department of Public Health’s guidelines, threatening the “health and safety” of students, teachers, faculty and “community-at-large.” According to the state health department’s “School Reopening Framework,” which sets the rules for when school districts

may reopen, in-person operations are permitted only if the “county satisfies the eligibility requirements for schools” to reopen, which requires remaining in the state’s red tier for at least 14 days. However, schools operating only under “Cohorting Guidance,” meaning small groups of 10 students or less, are not considered “open” for in-person instruction under the state’s framework and may not expand in-person instruction. Additionally, the law-

suit claims the board’s Dec. 15 resolution ignores the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the district and San Dieguito Faculty Association on September 18. The lawsuit comes 10 days after Chang sent a Dec. 9 cease-and-desist letter to Superintendent Robert Haley demanding San Dieguito Union High School District immediately halt its current reopening plans, which it claims are the “wrong step at the wrong time” and a violation of state law, as previ-

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ously reported by The Coast News. A day after the school district issued a Dec. 13 statement denying the union’s claims, Chang submitted a second letter to Haley alerting him to the board’s “apparently mistaken understanding regarding the County Office of Education’s position on reopenings” and to “renew our demand that San Dieguito Union High School District cease and desist from unlawfully and unsafely reopening to general in-person instruction.” The matter of resuming in-person instruction has been a lightning rod for spirited debate and protests in previous months. On September 24, parents, teachers and students rallied against the district’s Sept. 17 decision to continue full-time distance learning through January 2021, demanding a return to in-person learning and improved communication between the school district and families. Many have expressed concerns over their children’s mental health after spending several months in quarantine isolated from their peers. At the beginning of October, the district announced it would re-establish its expanded public reopening committee in response to protests. More recently, approximately 30 students held a protest on Dec. 18 at Earl Warren Middle School in Solana Beach following the approved reopening plan and newly elected Trustee Mike Allman’s Dec. 15 remarks about the “value” of student board members’ concerns

OPEN FOR TAKE OUT & PATIO DINING THURS. - SUNDAY

THE VISTA A BLURRED image of murder NEWS

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suspect Haloa Beaudet, 17, who was charged in the Nov. 23 death of Lisa Thorborg at Hosp Grove Park. Screenshot

Judge releases name of teenage murder suspect RANCHO

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By Steve Puterski

SFNEWS

CARLSBAD — A Carlsbad teenage boy facing murder charges for the killing of Lisa Thorborg appeared in a juvenile courtroom on Dec. 22 in downtown San Diego. Judge Richard Monroy ruled the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office presented enough evidence to move the case forward, while the suspect, Haloa Beaudet, 17, was not released. The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 25. Beaudet is accused of stabbing Carlsbad resident Lisa Thorborg, 68, twice in the neck on Nov. 23 in Hosp Grove Park. Carlsbad police arrested Beaudet on Dec. 14, several days after he was questioned about Thorborg’s murder. Debby Kirkwood, Beaudet’s attorney, said her client was not a threat and presented Beaudet’s grandmother Christie Hernandez and great uncle Ray Bercini as char-

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