REV High School security guard who complained about misconduct now fighting termination
Redlands CA September 16 2019
A Redlands East Valley High School security guard and varsity track coach claims he was suspended and faces termination in retaliation for accusing his supervisor of misconduct and speaking out against other wrongdoing.
The Redlands Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday, with three board members present, voted to suspend Perry Davis, 45, without pay and move forward with his recommended termination.
According to internal school district documents, Davis is accused of showing favoritism to student athletes who violated school rules, sexual harassment and other transgressions.
Davis, who has worked at the school for nine years as a security officer and has coached varsity track and JV football, says that, until this year, he has had an untarnished record and never been disciplined. He alleges top school and district administrators are trying to discredit him for reporting unethical and harassing conduct by his former supervisor, Glenn Baskerville, who has since been transferred to Citrus Valley High School, where he holds the same job title.
In January, Davis told former school Principal Jennifer Murillo that Baskerville had emailed a nude photo of a 15-year-old male student athlete to security officer Gabriele Allen, now the secretary to Assistant Principal Catherine Obregon. Murillo’s investigation confirmed that Baskerville sent the photo to Allen, but that it was the subject of an investigation at the time.
In his complaint, Davis said he had walked by Allen’s office and saw her gazing in “astonishment” at her computer monitor. “I remember Officer Allen saying, ‘Why would he send this to me?’ ” Davis said in his complaint letter.
Murillo said in her Feb. 25, 2019, memo to Davis that sheriff’s Deputy David McDermott confirmed the photo was sent as part of an investigation into the student, but it only had the word “case” written on it, with no other information provided, when it was emailed to Allen.
Redlands Unified spokeswoman MaryRone Shell declined to comment on the case, other than to say, “We can assure you that when disciplinary action is commenced, it is based on credible allegations of misconduct and never based on retaliatory motives.”
Davis, who in 2018 received certificates of recognition from former Assemblyman Marc Steinorth and Sen. Mike Morrell for his dedication to public safety and for promoting student safety, has the option of resigning and negotiating a settlement with the district or contesting his pending termination.
He said he has no intention of going quietly.
“I have no plans to take a resignation deal,” Davis said Friday. “What’s right is right and I’m not afraid to fight back. Their job is to take care of kids and, as a parent, I believe they have failed to do so.”
Davis, who has amassed more than a dozen character reference letters from teachers, coaches and security staff at the school, is requesting that his future evidentiary hearing, where he can try to refute allegations against him, be open to the public.
On Sept. 3, Davis received a notice from Sabine Robertson-Phillips, the school district’s assistant superintendent of human resources, informing him the district was recommending he be fired for a laundry list of alleged transgressions spanning from October 2018 through May 2019.
Davis said the school district never questioned him or reprimanded him in his nine years at REV, and things didn’t start ramping up until April, when he was informed an administrative investigation had been launched against him. The stated causes for suspension and dismissal were incompetence, insubordination, negligence, discourteous and abusive conduct toward others and dishonesty.
The notice listed nine specific offenses, including alleged sexual harassment involving inappropriate comments to female staff members and favoritism to student athletes facing trouble for fighting, drug use and other offenses.
Davis also is accused of other inappropriate behavior, including hostile behavior toward his co-workers and making critical comments. The notice claims he accused a female staff member of stripping him of summer school duty and refused to take on more duties when a security officer was transferred to a secretarial position.
“It’s retaliation and it’s basically stuff they started drumming up after I reported what I did,” Davis said. “In all these years, I’ve never had a bad evaluation, so why now? It’s like all of a sudden they pile on a bunch of stuff. How come none of that came up a long time ago? They’re just trying to pile up enough stuff on me to find a way to fire me.”
In mid-April, Davis claims, students and staff were called into Murillo’s office and asked if they could recall any inappropriate conduct Davis may have engaged in.
He said the school and district started cracking down on him after he insisted on the removal of Assistant Principal Ron Kroetz and Deputy McDermott, REV’s school resource officer.
Davis accused the two of allowing a student to return to the prom at the Indian Wells Golf Resort on April 13. McDermott reportedly caught the boy with a vaping device that contained marijuana. Davis claimed the student was under the influence of drugs.
Among the staff members called into Murillo’s office for questioning was security officer Erik Fox, who said he was so unsettled by the experience that he subsequently wrote a letter in defense of Davis describing what happened.
“The questions asked were questions that to me felt to be targeting Cpl. Davis and trying to find anything to go after him,” Fox wrote in his letter. “The whole time it felt like they were trying to find something to put on Cpl. Davis so they could punish him.”
Murillo, who was assistant principal at REV in 2016-17 and principal from 2017 to 2019, now works as a teacher at Redlands High School, Shell said.
Davis said that after a sex abuse scandal rocked the school district last year, officials are is still going out of their way to cover up potential controversies.
“They’re in a time when they’re trying to improve their reputation. They have a lot to lose,” Davis said. “But they’re going backwards instead of forwards.”
Relands Daily
