Letter: Pushing petitions at schools is crossing the line

An old friend of mine gave me some advice years ago. He said to always, “write angry but always edit calmly.“ That’s what I’ve done with this letter.

Wednesday night we went to see the Frozen play at Tahoe Valley Elementary School where our daughter was the director. We brought our granddaughter and our son. When we arrived, a man was standing at a table. At first, we thought he was selling play tickets, but it turned out he was one of Councilman Scott Robbins' minions, asking people who approached, as we did if they were for affordable housing. Who would say no to that?

It turned out that he was pushing people to sign the $6,000 per year Vacancy Tax initiative. If it makes it onto the ballot, every homeowner in South Lake Tahoe would have to register to verify that they would occupy their home at least six months per year. We asked him if he had permission to be there on school grounds, especially since several people had already gone in and complained to the principal. The man claimed he did have permission but the principal clearly said he did not know the man was out there and had not given him permission.

I stayed out there much to his irritation, asking people to read the tax bill first. He had not brought any with him (what do they have to hide?). Someone called the Lake Tahoe Unified School District superintendent, asking if he was okay with them pushing a political initiative at the schools.

He was not OK with that. He then gave directions to all the school principals to not allow it.

Then on Thursday, I was informed that they showed up at Bijou School, walking up on school property with clipboards, accosting parents waiting for their kids, and knocking on idling car windows.

Then they went to Sierra House School to accost parents standing together waiting for their kindergarteners. When asked to leave they then walked out onto the road going in between cars, knocking on car windows. I was called by someone who saw how unsafe it was to see them out in the road knocking on windows rolled up because it was cold and snowing.

I was at the middle school and received a call from a parent who was in the line of cars during pickup time when a man knocked on her window. This was concerning to her as she didn’t know who he was or what he wanted. I came out to see him out by the highway walking away as someone had asked him to leave.

I have thought about it and let my anger calm down, but my concern has not calmed down. These pro-vacancy tax people are worried that they aren’t going to get enough valid signatures and are becoming desperate. But they should keep our kids out of it.

I believe they really crossed the line.

First, they didn’t have permission to be there.
Second, it was unsafe to be walking through the line of cars, especially on the road.
Third, these days with harmful things happening at schools unvetted strangers who have no business being there should stay off the campus.
Lastly, if I were a single mom with kids, I’d be frightened by having a strange man knock on my car window and having him want me to write down my name and address.

- Duane Wallace
South Lake Tahoe