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MVWSD teacher lawsuit
I agree that the recent lawsuit against Mountain View Whisman School District (“Teacher claims school district failed to prevent rape, assaults,” Sept. 6) is a sign that the district needs to change the method and reach of their training if faculty saw things and did not report them — all the more so with the new SB 1343 law in place for 2020. Yet the reporting on the principals was completely one-sided. By law, principals cannot speak about their employees, but the paper openly covers one person’s perspective of these principals.
I have met many teachers and parents who have appreciated the work of these two principals. Who would want to work for a district and community that will so readily destroy the reputation of any educator? At the very least, the paper should have waited for court documents to present both sides.
Christopher Chiang
Former MVWSD trustee
Space Park Way
Discussing climate change
Dear Congresswoman Eshoo,
Having read your Mountain View town hall summary (“Eshoo tackles impeachment, health care at town hall meeting,” July 26), it came as a surprise to me that climate change was not discussed, and I decided to attend your Redwood City town hall meeting. Again I was most disappointed by the absence of climate change. Regrettably, I was not given an opportunity to speak.
I will not waste much time about the urgency of this matter, other than to say that the outlook to recover from climate change is most distressing.
Climate change is by no means a new concept. It was well understood at the international level through the 1990 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. Yet we have decided to ignore the issue. As a generation, we have utterly failed to take action. Even when we had a presidential candidate like Hillary Clinton who suggested that we can address the issue by installing millions of solar panels, I cringe. She failed to understand the issue. In fact, it was not until I recently heard the new European Union president, Ursula von der Leyen, speak in Brussels, that I finally heard a top politician that ranked and addressed the issue as it should — the No. 1 priority issue!
You may feel at loss as to how to address the topic. That is understandable. But it simply cannot be swept under the rug for another day. It must be brought out at every opportunity, and people must be reminded.
Mogens Lauritzen
Pilgrim Avenue
A step backwards
Why does Caltrain refuse to listen to the thoroughly thought-through ideas of the people who are affected by their decision about bike cars — the bike commuters? And why is the Caltrain board willing to break its promise about the quantity of bike spaces? Electric trains will have only seven folding seats within view of 36 bike spaces and 72 bike spaces per train. Today’s diesel trains have up to 34 fixed seats within view of 40 bike spaces and 77 bike spaces per train on average.
What a step backwards. Instead of designing a good layout for bike cars before they are built, Caltrain will be faced with expensive retrofit costs when the design fails in the field. I really do not understand Caltrain’s logic.
We are Caltrain customers. Who benefits more from the designs Caltrain approved? We certainly do not.
Virginia Smedberg
Palo Alto
Mother of Mountain View motorcyclist who died in crash sues Palo Alto for negligenceDecember 22, 2025 6:12 pm
No truer words spoken by former Board Member Christopher Chiang
“Who would want to work for a district and community that will so readily destroy the reputation of any educator?”
With these principals, and the principals let go two years ago, the MV Voice deprives these professionals of right to defend themselves. Furthermore, the cowardly anonymous and sniping comments that always follow allow their characters to be attacked and defamed. More protections are given to criminals in this paper.
Why not require Facebook log ins like the San Jose Mercury News does? Oh that’s right, click bait and ad revenue trump doing the right thing.
A quick Google search reveals that Mr. Lauritzen heads a company that provides micro-electronics to the renewable energy sector. Re-read his impassioned letter with the knowledge that he and his business would profit handsomely if “climate change” were made #1 priority by the federal government, as he wishes would be the case.
Cui Bono?
Let’s not do something rash like try to fix our broken world if there are any people who might make a livelihood in the process.
Bono doesn’t believe in the power of the free market. Some people just aren’t capitalists.
The comments by Mr. Chiang and “Elaine” run in stark contrast to my experiences with the MVWSD. In fact, what the MV Voice, and the other media outlets corroborating their claim said, almost perfectly mirrored my experience with the superintendent and a principal. MVWSD staff simply refuse to answer simple questions, they don’t return phone calls, and they don’t answer email. The last time I walked into the office of my sons school, the receptionist was as rude to me as anyone has ever been. It was the first time we had ever met, it was crazy. In fact, I would describe the actions of the MVWSD as page one in Dr. Rudolph’s playbook. If you treat someone or something poorly long enough, it goes away, right?
While it is true that there are certain instances in which public officials are not able to discuss matters for privacy concerns, it is not universally true of every instance, obviously. What I have personally seen is the same officials Mr. Chiang is defending being evasive when there is no legitimate reason to do so. To this day, the superintendent and principal of my sons school refuse to tell me what happened to him there. If you were in my position, I sincerely doubt you would feel so warm towards these people.
Placing the blame on the people reporting is very poor in my mind, and frankly tiresome by now. Let us not forget that the real victims are the the women whose lives were absolutely destroyed by Brian Rios and the MVWSD’s choice to ignore the problem. The people who couldn’t be bothered to protect them are not victims, they are people that should work somewhere else. This is not a he said/she said, there are multiple victims and Brian Rios had been on administrative leave with the district before. Presenting this situation as if there is some hidden clue that’s going come to light and change our collective understanding of it all, seems disingenuous. I feel as though Mr. Chiang is getting perilously close to victim shaming here.
Our school district needs improvement, and that’s not going to happen unless we change the culture. To that end, we have the opportunity to elect 3 new MVWSD trustees in the upcoming election. I urge everyone to go out and vote against incumbency, that’s what I am going to do. We need active, responsible, transparent people in charge of our schools, not people who are going to try to save their buddies job.
Dear Mr. Bono,
In order of full disclosure, you should know the following. I build my first solar collector together with my physics teacher in 1977. In 1979 I flew for the first time across southern Greenland and observed the ice cover out of curiosity. Around 1980 I read a report on Global Warming. At the time, adaptation was commonly thought as the best way to manage the problem. Aside from Lauritzen Inc, my career has been devoted to the local high-tech sector, and I consider it as having been very successful. About 20 years ago, after yet another flight across Greenland and noticing a markedly change, it became clear that something was going on. After reading the IPCC assessments of the time, I now understood the severity. We were on a path to destroy my children’s future unless our energy infrastructure changed. I found the stonewalling from politicians, friends, and neighbors like you so frustrating that I finally decided to quit my six figure plus hi-tech career, in favor of doing something – but what? Writing a paper to myself, carefully researching all our alternatives turned out to be very useful.
Please let me enlighten you; did you know that if we were to plaster a 20×30 mile area with standard solar panels, we could from that system produce the same amount of electricity as California consumes on an annual basis? Granted, the system would with today’s technology come with its own headaches. The point is really this; the sun’s energy is free, and if there’s one thing we are good at, it is to exploit free resources. It was time to put my solar energy hobby to good use!
The last 15 years have been nothing but very long hours, tremendous responsibility, providing around the clock support to world-wide customers, funding it all generically, and now dealing with the double whammy of 25% component tariff and additional documentation in the renegotiated NAFTA deal.
Regardless, I am proud of having made that decision – though, it may not be for reasons you would understand. Do you really think I care about wealth? No Sir. My accountant will happily tell you that I should have stayed with my old hi-tech career. I am, however, comforted that when I one day go to Valhalla, I will be able to tell my kids that at least I tried.
So, what did you do?
Respectfully – Mogens Lauritzen