Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
Santa Ynez Valley Union High School Vice Principal, Peter Haws, has been accused of racism and abuse of authority while supporters describe him as a “good man.”
Tyler Hayden of the Santa Barbara Independent released a follow-up to his first story about a a 16-year-old student who was forcefully sedated and arrested in January after he was suspected of smoking marijuana in a campus bathroom.
Haws and a Santa Barbara County Sheriff School Resource Officer were accused of escalating the situation with a minor suffering from mental health challenges.
Following Hayden’s report, a petition garnered nearly 4,000 signatures and scores of former students stepped forward to accuse Haws of “targeting and profiling non-white students,” among other things.
When reviewing the incident Haws had with the 16-year-old student, Heather Zakson, legal director of the Learning Rights Law Center in Los Angeles, said she’d never encountered an incident so “horrifying” in her 30 years of practice. Educators are supposed to “raise children in school,” she said, “and we don’t raise children by tying them up and shooting them up full of sedatives. That’s like the Dark Ages.”
Read the full story on independent.com.
Related Articles
- February 23, 2023: Student Sedated at Santa Ynez High School
SYV has problems. Problems with rainbows and minorities.
Sign the petition to fire Peter Haws
https://www.change.org/p/fire-peter-haws-vice-principal-of-santa-ynez-high-school
He studied at BYU – that explains a few things.
Sacjon, some of the comments are even from alumni 20 to 25 years ago. It seems Haws has a detailed history of these patterns.
GT – it truly is a hate-ridden town. VP Haws has a pretty long list of racist acts/encounters if you read the comments on the petition. Time for him to go and for SYV to start cleaning up the filthy image their leaders have given it lately.
In the Independent story, someone defends Haws based on him being a church member. I find that a laughable defense.
Yes, but it’s impossible for him to be racist because he was sent on a mission to Bolivia as a young Mormon. Oh….. and also his daughter married a Latino man. LOL!
I don’t believe that Mr. Rubio has ever apologized for his actions that day. Had he not: 1) smoked weed on campus 2) not run away from school administrators and LE 3) complied with requests to get our of his seat/classroom…..we would not be hre today. From the information that I’ve read, the student (Mr. Rubio) flipped/freaked out and they needed to medically calm him down to get him to comply. Maybe LE/admins could have done something differently, but the only person responsible for what happened that day is Mr. Rubio. Some may see it differently, but that’s how I see it. Mr. Rubio should have stayed home that day and hit the books….and not the pipe.
Release the body cam footage!
You’re talking about a CHILD with mental health struggles that was known by administrators. Everyone else involved are adults with supposed training. Disgusting comments Babycakes, absolutely appalling.
Babycakes – your comments are very out of touch with dealing with mental health issues. All the administration had to do was follow the student – law enforcement could have followed him off campus if necessary. The parents could have been contacted. Numerous other ways to de-escalate that situation and not including physical assault and forced drugging.
Simply a messenger who is bringing forth a message. I would say that this school and other schools need to change their policy on allowing known mentally ill students into the classroom where they can do harm to themselves and others. I was not there that day and have only read reports about what some are calling an assault on a student. Not sure where anyone got that idea, more like they solved a problem that needed to be solved quickly. I won’t tell you how to interpret what happened and expect others to at least respect MY interpretation. That way we can cut down on the vitriol, hate, and name-calling. I’m just one person who thinks the way I do, which is allowed in our society….or maybe not? Think about it for a moment and relax.
ALEX – he’s got some serious competition though….. boy does he ever!
Babycakes.
Your opinion has no value. If you don’t want kids with mental health challenges in schools then you are looking at knocking out massive numbers of kids. And then what. You have no answer.
You are so clearly off the mark on the issue that it doesn’t rate discussion.
Just keep it to yourself.
Babycakes – so now you are proposing that anyone with a mental issue or on certain IEP’s cannot attend school? I think the ADA might take issue with that. My god where did you grow up – East Berlin in the 60’s? Extremist views. “Simply a messenger who is bringing forth a message.” The post is low information and more of a mouthpiece of ignorance than bringing forth any message.
Babycakes is employing a very tired explanation in criminal justice: just blame the victim…
Babycakes–
No, you said he should have hit the books instead of a pipe. You’re saying he owes an apology. You’re saying he has all the responsibility and that the trained and paid professionals have none.
Now you backpedal. It’s ridiculous. Just be quiet.
It’s as if some of you did not bother to read my comments. The story is not about me. It is about a young person who desperately needs some additional mental-health care. All I am saying is that no student should disrupt the entire student body when they are having an obvious melt-down. Maybe there is another school where he can attend that has the resources to deal with his condition.
Let’s all agree to say some special prayers the Good Friday for Mr. Rubio and his family because short of a miracle, things are not going to end well if he continues on without getting the help he needs and deserves.
Side Note: See you at Lucidity! There will be plenty of spontaneous flash mobs that’ll be poppin’ up when you least expect it. Plenty of house/trance/techno for all ages and abilities. Loosen up and have a gooooooood time!!!
BABYCAKES – don’t eat the brown acid 😉
Babycakes – you want us to care about your comments and well-being, but displayed none of the same care in your comments towards the child that was assaulted. You say you don’t know anything about the incident, but then you disparage this child’s future. The F your feelings crowd gets butt hurt when they get called out. Save your prayers as they are insincere. Might be a good time to just call it a day.
Arrested for smoking weed and sedated. More like One Flew Over the Cockoo’s Nest
Going to Lucity?Haha bunch of glitter pony’s and moochers trying to find themselves among the disgusting out houses while tripping on all kinds of drugs. Guess it’s ok if you can spin it as a spiritual artistic journey. Hope they do a better job of cleaning up the place
Thank you to Officer Parker for openly admitting things should have gone differently, and admitting he did not know there was an IEP in place.
Shame on those who deny any and all wrongdoing without an ounce of consideration or attempt at understanding. When this many people think you did wrong… It’s time for some self reflection.
I am also glad that the panel supported a suspended expulsion. And again, shame on Haws pushing for immediate expulsion of this student with a known IEP. Haws just can’t get it right, even now.
My son went to SYHS 8 years ago and he and his friends told me Haws was racist. Among many incidents that led them to feel that way, Haws and other school Administrators even let a student who had a famous grandpa go to school dressed like a Nazi most every day. But heaven forbid anyone wear a T Shirt they deemed to be slightly offensive. I’ll sign that petition.
Lina24. Literally this is true? The administration let a kid go to school wearing Nazi symbols? If this is true then every administrator who still works there who was present during that time needs TO GO.
LINA – I actually recall hearing or reading that somewhere. How awful. Why do they let racism and bigotry run so rampant out there in the valley?
SACJON, The wealthy there run that Valley, and most of them tend to be of a certain political persuasion that is known for racism. You should’ve seen what happened to a brilliant young man who was part Hispanic and was elected Class President three years in a row. The third year he got elected Administration stepped in and ousted him for a flimsy excuse that happened 8 months before, that he was set up for by upper classmen. Some jealous parent reported the silly incident (not worthy of being ousted for) only after he won again.
LINA24,
Unbelievably disgusting. Good thing my kids didn’t go there or it would have been a shit show of a confrontation with the administration.
Yes Alex it’s very true. You’re right, they should all be let go. I don’t understand why they continued to let him parade around that way. His grandpa must have a lot of pull I guess. He also has a history of antisemitism and made some remarks/ jokes in the past on his game show, too, I heard. That was back in the 70’s.
So much hate, bigotry and extremism incubates in the shadow of the Reagan Ranch.
Why does a whole city put up with a racist in charge of their kids for decades? Because they wanted a racist running their High school, or they were unable to remove the racist. If you want your public schools to be free of racist administrators, I suggest the parents of the the 16 year old who was forced to go through that “horrifying” event of forced sedation should sue the Santa Ynez school district for $10 million to $50 million dollars plus.
Given the very strong case, you should be able to find a respectable lawyer who will handle your case “Pro Bono”, which means you don’t have to pay them until you receive a settlement from the case.
It’s one way, (sometimes the only way) to remove a criminal racist from entrenched school administrators.
Or, SYVS can remain in the “dark ages”, and continue traumatizing kids, as they have done for decades. For the sake of reference, outside Santa Ynez, good people actually protect kids, not traumatize them, and racists are removed, not left to traumatize kids that they are in charge of for decades.
When the city of Santa Ynez is beyond their insurance and forced to borrow tens of million$ to replace the 8 figure lawsuit settlement to balance their budget, then and only then will they see the results of their actions.
Another example. Many of the parents parents are bad apples themselves
https://www.independent.com/2021/12/16/black-santa-ynez-head-coach-plans-to-resign-after-harassment-from-parents/
MESA – good point. The valley is rife with racists. I always wonder why. It’s only 30 minutes away from an extremely liberal city, yet SYV is as backwards as Texas. I recall back in the early 2000s, a couple buddies of mine and I were camping at Cachuma Lake and decided to “go into town” for some drinks at Mavericks. Two of our buddies were Indian. We walked up to the bar and started getting the “you here to bomb the place?” and other 9/11ish type remarks. They unleashed on those dumb racist ranch hands explaining the “differences in ‘brown people'” and how backwards they were for their racist assumptions. My other buddies and I got ready for a brawl, but the bartender calmed it down, buying us drinks and made the hillbilly idiots apologize. We got out of there FAST though. Yep….. good ol’ ‘Merican morons. Those simple stooges probably grew up to be the parents who harrassed that coach and now support VP Haws. They certainly weren’t moving on to bigger and brighter career paths.
The only HATE that is glaring is from the comments of the usual Edhat commenter’s —-as usual.
COAST – typical Repub/Con/RWer response. You see condemnation of and intolerance for racists and bigots and cry that the left is being “hateful” towards those racists and bigots. Good! We SHOULD call them out and cast them out!
They made the CHOICE to be racist and bigotted against people for they way they are born. Until you and your other con/rep/rw buddies here get that, we’ll keep calling you out.
Coastwatch
F Nazis
F Racists
F Homophobes.
If any of those describe you, then I think you know where this is going, LOL
California’s schools used to be among the best in our country and now they are among the worst. Here in Santa Barbara. more than 50% of K-12 children do not have a grasp of basic English or math. Stunning, but true. White flight has left several schools with a huge imbalance of immigrant children. Some teachers dress as if they are spending a day at the beach and do not engender respect from their students. Some are not familiar with the subject matter that they teach. Classroom deportment has suffered and teachers and even some administrators are affraid to repremand trouble making students. In Virginia, a 6-year old boy brought a gun to school and shot his teacher, but only after he was previously given a candy bar to make him behave after another incident thta same day. I am not balming or defending Mr. Haws, but I am sure that along with millions of teachers all over our country, he is at the end of his rope. Our kids and our schools are in deep trouble!
10:32 – “White flight has left several schools with a huge imbalance of immigrant children.” – So what? Why is that the 2nd example of why our schools now “are among the worst[?]”
3rd example is how teachers dress? I’ve never heard of a teacher wearing a swimsuit to school. Maybe a sundress on a hot day, but so what? The teachers my kids respect the most are the ones who treat their students with respect, regardless of their clothes. The days of robed professors with paddles for beating children is thankfully over. You’d be amazed how respect, understanding, honesty and integrity goes as far as gaining that respect back as a teacher. You don’t scare or beat respect out of kids, you earn it.
Undoubtedly, our public school system needs help and isn’t what it should be given our resources, but to blame poor performance on immigrant children and teacher’s outfits not earning them respect is pretty far off.