Emma Leheny leaves her job as head counsel at CTA; Priscilla Winslow steps in again as temp chief counsel

UPDATE FEB. 19, 2013: Emma Leheny is back as CTA chief counsel!

UPDATE FEB. 18, 2013: Priscilla Winslow appointed to PERB board.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Former (and future?) CTA head counsel Emma Leheny

There's been an upheaval in the legal department at California Teachers Association. Chief Counsel Emma Leheny has stepped aside from her position at the top of the CTA hierarchy. It appears that attorney Priscilla Winslow has challenged Leheny's power. Winslow is acting chief counsel.

CTA did not explain these goings on. It posted only the following on its website:

"The Legal Services Division is directed by Associate Executive Director and Acting Chief Counsel Priscilla Winslow."

This isn't Priscilla Winslow's first time as acting chief counsel. She also took over the CTA legal department temporarily when previous head counsel Beverly Tucker retired in 2008. Then Winslow went back to being Assistant Chief Counsel before becoming Assistant Executive Director.

It seems that Priscilla might be somewhat hard to get along with. Emma Leheny's predecessor, Ann O'Brien, served for a very short time.

On behalf of CTA, Winslow represented child molester Charles Bateman, helping him keep his credential for six years. CTA spent far more on Bateman than it was obliged by its member contract to spend.

Apparently, PERB was impressed with Winslow's practice of law. It's 2012 annual report states that on July 23, 2012, Priscilla Winslow was appointed Legal Advisor to Mr. Hugeunin. At the same time, she was Associate Executive Director of CTA as well as Assistant Chief Counsel of CTA.

Why did Emma Leheny leave her position so soon, after less than three years? Is she really gone, or did she just step aside from her leadership role, while remaining at CTA? Why isn't anyone saying anything about why Leheny left?

In fact, Leheny is still listed by the State Bar Association as working for CTA:

Emma Leheny - #196167
The following information is from the official records of The State Bar of California.
California Teachers Association
1705 Murchison DrBurlingame, CA 94010
Phone Number: (650) 552-5413
Fax Number: (650) 552-5019
e-mail: eleheny@cta.org
County: San Mateo
Undergraduate School:Brown Univ; Providence RI
Sections: Labor; Employment
Law School: Northeastern Univ SOL; Boston MA
6/29/1998 Admitted to The State Bar of California

Perhaps the Bar Association is right, and Leheny is still at CTA, just not in the chief counsel position.

Yahoo!'s Marissa Mayer--an opponent of free speech? Or just a pal of CTA boss Emma Leheny?

UPDATE:

11:27 a.m. August 8, 2012: Wow! That was fast! My website is back up again! I just sent an email to Yahoo! at 10:57 a.m. complaining about my site being down. Yahoo!'s site was available, but not my site. But perhaps it was this post that did it, not my email. The email I sent is at the bottom of this post.

ORIGINAL POST:

No sooner has Marissa Mayer become CEO of Yahoo! than I find that my website about education and politics has been taken down.

In the past it has been Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz that got Yahoo! to take down my website, but today I have a different suspect: California Teachers Association.

Poor Dean Vogel, the CTA president, is a very nice guy, but he has to do what the lawyers tell him to do.

Head Counsel Emma Leheny, the real decision-maker for California Teachers Association?

Chief Counsel Emma Leheny is the real power behind the puppets at CTA. She was personally involved in keeping evidence out of my case. I wish I could put a link to my website to provide detailed information about my case, but my site is offline.

I can provide a link to a California Court of Appeal decision in my favor which overruled a shockingly unconstitutional injunction. But energetic folks at CTA keep trying to get around the Court of Appeal. They figure they can finish off my website before the Court of Appeal can rule again. CTA, I have learned, does not believe in free speech or democracy.

It seems that new Chula Vista Educators president Jennefer Porch got particularly worked up about THIS POST. She must have been on the phone to Emma Leheny in a hot second.



EMAIL SENT TO YAHOO!:

from: Maura Larkins
to: Yahoo! Web Hosting
date: Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 10:57 AM
The California Court of Appeal has already ruled once against the people you obliged by taking my site offline

Dear Yahoo:

Are you getting as tired of this as I am? You have taken my website mauralarkins.com offline again.

You have taken down my site in the past at the request of various lawyers. Usually it has been Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, who lost in the Court of Appeal when they got a judge to order me never to mention their names. Here is that decision: http://www.leagle.com

I am headed back to the Court of Appeal again, since the judge has tried to use a different injunction to achieve the same goal as the unconstitutional injunction. She refuses to say that ANY statement at all is acceptable, even "Daniel Shinoff trains school attorneys." I will win in the Court of Appeal.

When I win, will Yahoo lose? Are you going to continue to behave as unconstitutionally as Judge Judith Hayes? You certainly did in the past.

It's not always Stutz law firm that asks you to hack my site. It's also California Teachers Association.

Is it in your interest to do these little favors for these people? To blatantly help them violate the First Amendment?

Shame on Yahoo.

I insist that you immediately put my site back online.

Maura Larkins

Is this CTA official completely incompetent--or is she committing perjury?

Gina Boyd, former president of Chula Vista Educators, an affiliate of California Teachers Association, gave some bizarre responses to deposition questions by Chula Vista Elementary School District teacher Maura Larkins. Maura Larkins was removed from her position at Castle Park Elementary when Assistant Superintendent Rick Werlin claim that he'd received Saturday night phone calls in which two anonymous teachers claimed that they feared Larkins would kill them. The school district never investigated the matter.

Why did Ms. Boyd hide the truth? The only motivations I can think of are that she wanted to get reelected, and to protect her friend Robin Donlan and other members of the Castle Park Five.


[Page 79 10:17:36 Maura Larkins:]

Were you curious as to what my behavior might have been that caused them to fear for their lives?

[Gina Boyd:]


(long pause...) I guess...I don't know...



[Maura Larkins 10:18:20:]

You weren't drivingly curious as to why teachers were concerned that another teacher might kill them?

[Stutz law firm Atty. Kelly Angell:]

Objection. Asked and answered.

[Maura Larkins 10:19:]

...Were you curious about it--the results of his investigation?

I don't know whether he ever completed it, frankly.

Q. Did you ask him?

A. No.

10:19:28

Q. Were you concerned about the safety of teachers at Castle Park?

A. I'm concerned about the safety of all my teachers...

10:20:06

Did any teacher ever tell you that he or she feared that I might kill him or her?

No.





[Page 81, line 19]

...Did you believe that I had behaved in a manner that threatened the lives of others?

No.

Did you think these two people had lied?

No...

Inspiring but arbitrary Capistrano teacher settles

August 08, 1999
Fired Teacher Settles Case With O.C. District
By Karen Alexander
August 08, 1999

Former Capistrano Valley High School teacher Paul Pflueger, who was fighting his dismissal for controversial teaching methods, has agreed to take early retirement because he said he could not afford to continue his legal battle against the school district.

Pflueger, 55, was fired by the Capistrano Unified school board in February on the grounds of unsatisfactory performance and has been on administrative leave while his appeal was pending.

Although there were frequent complaints about his unorthodox teaching methods and sometimes abrasive approach, Pflueger’s case drew testimonials and letters of support from hundreds of current and former students and parents.

He had vowed to fight the dismissal. But the 18-year history teacher entered a settlement with the school district on July 30 after he learned that the teachers union wanted him to begin paying a portion of his legal bills. The union had been covering most of Pflueger’s expenses until that time.

“I would like this thing to have gone a long way so we could prove to the parents and students who have supported me that they can’t get rid of a teacher just because [of] a few unorthodox methods,” Pflueger said.

A hearing before an administrative law judge was scheduled to begin at the end of this month and could have lasted several months, Pflueger said.

The state’s largest teachers union, the California Teachers Assn., has spent $46,000 on Pflueger’s case, according to Chris Kirkland, executive director of the union’s local affiliate, the Capistrano Unified Education Assn.

School board members voted 6 to 1 to remove Pflueger after an emotional meeting attended by about 300 people. Scores of parents and students spoke in his defense. Capistrano Valley High School administrators had leveled 42 charges against the teacher, claiming he taught inconsistently, used offensive language, graded arbitrarily and failed to comply with suggested improvements.

Pflueger’s defenders portrayed him as a caring and dedicated teacher who inspired students and challenged them to think for themselves. His rough manner was a valuable part of his teaching approach, some argued.

Under the terms of the settlement, Pflueger will remain on administrative leave until next June. He will be entitled to the same medical benefits as any retiree, according to the school district’s lawyer, David Larsen.

Pflueger said the district offered him another teaching position in its continuation home school programs, which he rejected.

After Pflueger was dismissed, he rented a room at his own expense and offered students a free lesson to help them prepare for their advanced placement exam in U.S. history, his former subject.

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