Ross Valley Political Group Continues Harassment of Children

Stand, an anonymous political group in Ross Valley, continues to express dissatisfaction with state law by harassing local elementary-school children.

On August 21st, the first day of school in the Ross Valley, a billboard truck carrying a sign displaying the message "Charters Divide Communities" was hired by a Stand leader to drive a route back and forth on Sir Francis Drake between the Valley and San Rafael as children flocked to their first day of school.

Until now, Stand's main objection to RVC has been their use of Prop 39 to secure facilities for the public school. Although the Ross Valley School District has a surplus of space, including a mostly-unused campus near the District offices at Red Hill, Stand objected to the use of public space to educate public Charter school children.

Moreover, in June, RVC dropped its petition for use of District space and moved to a private campus owned by St. Rita's Church. This move means that the District does not need further involvement with the Charter, and can stop their ongoing financial commitment to fighting the Charter's legal right to exist.

Stand complains that 100% of per-student funding that public schools receive from the state should go to the District. However, California law dictates that State funding "follow the student" and be allocated to the public school they attend. With RVC renting private facilities, the impact on Ross Valley School District of a student attending RVC is no different than if that student attended private school or homeschool.

The financial impact on Ross Valley School District of a student attending RVC is no different than if that student attended private school or homeschool.

With the District poised to spend about $4 million to renovate the District offices, and Stand's willingness to spend money on expenses like this billboard truck, it's hard for Stand to claim that RVC causes financial hardship.

While Stand has repeatedly claimed they do not target children and are trying to effect change at the State level, hiring a large, orange billboard truck to drive past Ross Valley children on their way to school shows their true motivations. Similar to the protests that held in previous years at school drop-off and other child-centric events, Stand continues to use intimidation and propaganda towards children as their primary tactic in accomplishing their goal of shutting down Ross Valley Charter*.

If Stand were to put the energy and financial contributions they've spent fighting RVC towards building up the Ross Valley School District, they could truly make significant improvements to District schools. Instead, they continue to follow a destructive path attempting to kill local school choice and force unwilling residents to attend District schools.

*While Stand claims to be anti-charter in general, their efforts are focused mainly on RVC, ignoring other charters in the area.