Super Accountability

Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.

Today the Ysleta ISD Board of Trustees is going to meet to discuss what, if any, action they will take following an incident in which two area Superintendents were involved in a physical altercation, Dr. De La Torre and SISD's Dr. Espinoza.

YISD's Board of Trustees is likely to take action that will be some form of punishment. SISD's Board of Trustees not only didn't take any action against Dr. Espinoza, but they actually REWARDED him with a contract extension.

SISD's Board of Trustees and Dr. Espinoza should be ashamed of themselves and quite frankly, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

The El Paso Times wrote an editorial completely bashing the YISD Board of Trustees and said they were involved in covering up the incident. I can't believe that any rational person who has seen all the facts would believe that YISD was involved in a cover-up.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I ABSOLUTELY believe there was a cover-up. But from everything I have seen, the cover-up was orchestrated by Socorro ISD to protect their Superintendent.

I have a list of some inconvenient facts for the SISD Board of Trustees that the community should keep in mind. But before I get to that, I want to address what SISD Superintendent Espinoza said about the situation recently in a Board meeting.

Dr. Espinoza thumped his chest and went on a rant about what the definition of assault is and tried to play the victim card while portraying Dr. De La Torre as a drunk and hanging his argument on a police report. I'm about to completely tear apart that narrative.

First, Dr. Espinoza says that he punched Dr. De La Torre in self-defense. That is absolute bullshit. At best, he punched Dr. De La Torre in RETALIATION - not self-defense. Self-defense would have been an action to protect himself from harm - covering up, running away, or even attempting to restrain Dr. De La Torre - that is what self defense would be.

That isn't what happened. Espinoza punched Dr. De La Torre. That was retaliation, not self-defense. Had Dr. Espinoza been a student or a staff member of SISD and had physically retaliated against someone else, they'd be dealt with much differently.

The fact that Espinoza punched De La Torre, and if you watch the press conference from last week and pay attention to Espinoza's demeanor and tone, its easy to see why I feel the guy has a temperament and anger problem. Look how worked up he got when everyone was watching - how do you think he acted when this alleged incident happened?

And lets not lose sight of the fact that Espinoza is a PhD. You'd think a learned professional would exercise better JUDGEMENT in a situation like this, rather than resort to retaliation. But quite frankly, I think Espinoza's judgement was impaired and conflicting accounts of what exactly went down point to that being quite possible. I'll get back to that point in a minute.

Second, Dr. Espinoza and the SISD Board of Trustees are all pointing to a police report as what they hang their argument on as to Espinoza being the "victim". There are two gigantic holes in that argument that thus far the media hasn't done a good job of pursuing. The first problem with that report is that one of the SISD Trustees calls the report into question indicating that the responding officer told thee off-duty officer / witness what to write in the report.

Don't believe me? Listen to SISD Trustee David Morales' account of the police report for yourself:



The other and much bigger problem with the police report is this - if that police report is so accurate, why aren't the SISD Trustees that were in attendance listed in the police report? Why aren't any of them listed as witnesses? According to that police report, only two people are there - De La Torre and Espinoza. According to that police report, none of the SISD Trustees are even there.

But they were there.

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The SISD Trustee Cover-Up

Lost in the El Paso Times' irresponsible characterization of a cover-up is the fact that at no point did a single Socorro ISD Trustee ever come forward with the truth about what happened that night. Not a single SISD Trustee came forward to say that they were there when the incident went down - but somehow the El Paso Times says that the YISD Trustees who weren't even there, were somehow involved in a cover-up?

The SISD Trustees knew they were there and they knew how many of them were in attendance. They didn't volunteer that information to anyone. They made a pact to keep it in San Antonio. If you ask me, that sounds like they made a pact to cover it up.

But if you listen to Trustee Morales' taped account of what happened, he alleges his colleagues "fabricated" the story to make De La Torre the bad guy.

Morales, who I initially thought was a stand-up guy, has now changed his story...again. He's trying to walk-back what he said in the recording. If that recording hadn't taken place, we might not ever have known the varying accounts of what happened that night.

And the media hasn't asked Espinoza a single question about the varying accounts of that incident.

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Impaired Judgement & the SISD #WolfPack

I know, whenever I think of the phrase Wolf Pack, I think of The Hang Over.

You know what else bothers me about how this situation has been packaged by SISD? The narrative that alcohol was somehow a factor for De La Torre, but wasn't a factor for Espinoza and the rest of the Trustees that were in attendance.

In fact, the single biggest problem with this entire situation is that under no circumstances should an elected board be out drinking and fraternizing with the one - and only - employee that they supervise. Their job is to hold that individual accountable for his actions. Your ability to hold someone accountable for their behavior is completely compromised when you make it a practice to go partying it up with your subordinates.

There isn't an HR professional on the planet that thinks that kind of fraternizing with a subordinate is a good idea.

The fact that they SISD Trustees were out drinking with Espinoza and then just a few weeks later and doing his evaluation and rewarding him with a contract extension is an absolute joke. Voters should remember that next election cycle.

And the fact that the SISD Trustees are trying to say they weren't breeching open meetings laws because their is a social setting exception is a joke. A sadder joke is the idea that they think that they aren't in violation of the transparency laws because they didn't talk about SISD business is all predicated on them being trustworthy to begin with - but we know that several of the board members have deliberately been deceptive.

First - they were all deceptive by not disclosing that they were actually at the incident. That only came to light when reporters started sticking microphones in people's faces. Then there was this massive lie in one of the KTSM stories:

After wrapping up activities at a school leadership conference?

¡No manches!

THERE. WERE. NO. CONFERENCE. ACTIVITIES. THAT. DAY.

And that leads me to possible impairment...

You want to know that TRUTH about SISD Superintendent Dr. Espinoza and SISD Trustees Paul Garcia, Paul Guerra, Eddie Mena, and David Morales were REALLY at before going to Whataburger?

A bar.

They were at a bar called Howl at the Moon, where they specialize in drinks like Adios Mother Fucker, Get Lit, Chill As Fuck, and Sex on the Moon. I'm not making that up, I was on their website.

And after hearing that all the trustees were dressed up and Espinoza was in a soccer suit, he must be the SISD Wolf Pack's version of Alan (played by Zack Galifianakas). I should open records request SISD to see if Espinoza was wearing a jock strap, fanny pack, and carrying a baby now that I think about it...

Anywho, the SISD Nerd Wolf Pack that never disclosed to anyone that they were actually at the incident, and the same group of guys that 3 of the 4 of them say they didn't actually ever see a headbutt but still have the audacity to say their superintendent was a "victim", are the same group of guys that said they went to Whataburger after "wrapping up activities at a school leadership conference" when they were actually at this bar.

Hey, I don't blame them. When I went through the photo album I just linked to, there were a lot of attractive younger women...seems like a happening place! Also, they like for people to use the hashtag #Wolfpack with pictures at that bar.

But hey, I'm sure they Nerd Wolf Pack were just ordering sarsaparillas and cold glasses of milk.

Just kidding, they went to Whataburger after partying it up with their Super at the bar! Going to Whataburger after a bar is literally a Texas cliché.

We've all done it.

Plus its San Antonio...whats the alternative? Their shitty Mexican food? Even drunks have better sense than to eat that stuff.

Oh, I almost forgot...the super and at least two other SISD folks were at Top Golf before they were ordering their tall glasses of Adios Mother Fuckers ice cold milk at the bar.

But there was the SISD Super last week talking about how DLT was allegedly drunk. Meanwhile, DLT didn't actually arrive to San Antonio until the last flight from El Paso. The Nerd Wolf Pack had hours of a head start on the partying.

Go back and listen to that recording I posted earlier in this piece. SISD Trustee Morales describes having a concern for how intoxicated one of the trustees was that night, which appears to be Trustee Paul Guerra from Morales' account of the evening. That corroborates Trustee Garcia's assertion that he had to restrain Trustee Guerra from getting into a physical altercation with De La Torre.

All of that stuff has been left out of their account of what happened that night and out of the police report they all hide behind.

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Anything with the word "Socorro" in it...

Honestly it feels like anything that has the word "Socorro" in it is ultimately going to let the public down.

I'm an SISD parent. Maya goes to Americas High School.

I can state with 100% certainty that Socorro ISD's Wolf Pack - and the rest of their board - have let me down as a parent. I believe that they acted in a manner that lacked integrity, transparency, and honesty.

I believe that when given the opportunity to step up and provide clarity about what happened that night, that Espinoza and the Board of Trustees chose deception, silence, and half-truths to cover for their superintendent.

So is a wonder that just a few weeks later during a meeting to discuss his performance evaluation that they SISD Board of Trustees were unwilling to hold him accountable for his actions?

Of course not, their very presence at the event and their fraternization with their subordinate means they are compromised. There's no getting around that.

I mean for Pete's sake, they exalt Espinoza on high. They put him on billboards. They are out partying with him. Did you really think they'd hold him accountable? Hell no, he runs that board, not the other way around. Make no mistake who the Alpha Male is on that board.

It shouldn't be. They chose self-preservation over integrity. They knew that a majority of the board was with him during the alleged "incident" and were completely compromised in their ability to hold their only direct subordinate accountable because they contributed to the incident.

They called De La Torre over to them at Whataburger - De La Torre wasn't walking down the street looking for someone to attack as they'd have you believe. The SISD Wolfpack that consisted of 2 staff and 4 board bros, were the ones that instigated the whole thing by calling De La Torre over in the first place.

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The Public Wants Accountability 

Like it or not, Superintendents are public figures. Therefore they are held to a higher standard.

Don't like it, no problem. Give up your huge salary and all your perks and go back to being a regular Joe if you feel that strongly about it.

The public has been calling for both superintendents to be fired. They are wrong about that. Neither should be fired, but being disciplined is certainly in order.

But you'll see first hand the vast difference between the two boards. Each board has two women, each board has a couple of older guys and a couple of younger guys. But you don't see YISD Trustees partying it up with DLT and hanging out at Whataburger until passed midnight when there's a conference starting bright and early the next morning.

YISD is going to take some action. Because of confidentiality laws we may never know what those actions specifically are, but some action will be taken.

And Socorro ISD? Well they reward their superintendent because they are compromised. They can't possibly hold someone accountable they spent the night fraternizing with...that would require integrity.

And now the Nerd Wolf Pack will be the board that awarded their superintendent with a contract extension when he should've been held accountable.

Teachers and staff at SISD - are you paying attention? You think you'd get that kind of treatment? Are you allowed to fraternize with the trustees?

Fellow parents of SISD students - are you paying attention? If your kid is involved in a physical altercation, they are apparently allowed to retaliate.

SISD Board of Trustees have compromised themselves. They failed to hold their superintendent accountable because it would mean that they'd have to also hold themselves accountable. I feel they have let the community down, they let teachers and staff down, and they let parents and students down.

YISD's actions are going to send a message that no one is above the law, that negative actions will receive a consequence, and that there is such a thing as acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

SISD's actions send the message that as long as you all stick to your guns and everyone sticks to the same story - whether is true or not - that you can successfully cover-up an incident and protect your own ass.

How else do you explain why Espinoza didn't file charges? Because doing so means people have to testify. And saying something to the media or an account to the pubic is different than swearing an oath and facing legal consequences for testimony.