It’s only fitting to start your diatribe about how racist the school system is by making a racist statement of your own.

But then again, there isn’t much conventional wisdom in anything that Ashley Drain does as an elected member of the Manteca Unified Board of Education. 

On Tuesday Drain was verbally served with a cease and desist order from Weston Ranch parent Alison Ordner who claimed that she was threatened and cyber-bullied by the district’s new watchdog for injustice. Ordner had plans to read the entire email exchange that she had with Drain during the meeting but time constraints prevented her from doing so. 

She provided the trustees and administrators with a copy instead. That same copy is reprinted in today’s issue of The Bulletin. 

“Why do you care? Thankfully for you  your children are white and will never have to deal with policies and procedures and even LAWS in many cases that do not reflect fairness toward each student or person of color for that matter,” wrote Drain in the very first sentence when Ordner asked her for clarification that should have been easy to provide. 

The issue, apparently, was that Ordner didn’t see how an exchange between a Weston Ranch janitor and a student was inherently racist. When she inquired why she was met with that gem of a comment as well as a host of others that included what read as thinly-veiled threats. 

“Why now? Why when I start targeting issues that you choose to ignore. Can you honestly say that racism does not exist on any level of our district,” Drain writes in the email exchange. “Be careful when you answer that. I am a social media/web coder by trade…Which has given me unlimited access to people’s personal thoughts and opinions, and have spent countless hours researching these administrators, board members, teachers, and students- developing my program for Emotional Development and Cultural Competence. Yes- You can spread the word Mrs. Ordner. I am coming for every policy, procedure, personnel, board member, parent, and person that has limits in their thinking.”

Great. Just the person that I want teaching my children about tolerance and understanding. 

This peek behind the curtain is disturbing on many levels, the least of which is how an elected official tasked with improving the lives of each and every student within the district they’re sworn to represent – that’s every student, not just those that fall within the parameters of a program – can bully a parent that asked an innocent and innocuous question. 

This is a “read it for yourself” kind of situation because the response and the question that preceded it is truly staggering. If this was somehow an attempt to get people onboard with an afterschool program it failed miserably. And given her track record with afterschool programs – she was fired from one at Weston Ranch High School because she “stood up for our students” – I’m not necessarily sure that’s the right direction she should be heading. 

Is that maybe a reason to aim both barrels in that direction? Never quite got over that sting?

The real issue in all of this is that sometime in the near future there is going to be another Alison Ordner who wants to contact her trustee and will be afraid to do so based almost exclusively on reputation alone. That’s not representation. And when you’re dealing with children, and making decisions that affect their lives, creating a circus sideshow atmosphere and then dismissing those who speak out against you as those who just aren’t in line with the new way of thinking is reckless. 

Parents shouldn’t live in fear of their elected officials. The hierarchy goes the other way. 

At least that’s the way things are supposed to operate.