Have you been following the saga? No, not that one, this one. You know, the one where ten Redwood High School students, after the Senior class picture, rearranged some lettered T-shirts to spell out “2FAG6OTS”? Yeah, that one. Here’s some more, about one of the School Board Trustees who said it was nothing more than a “student mistake”. It wasn’t Visalia Unified School District’s first rodeo, however.
The District quickly let us know they’d conducted an investigation, and put out this notice on February 13, 2026 – (the incident happened the day before, February 12)
That seemed rather quick, didn’t it? Yeah, I thought so, too. Then a few days later, this appeared:
“…please know that as we continue our investigation…”
Wait – you said on the 13th “…following a thorough investigation…”
I have questions. I addressed them in the format of a public records request.
To: Custodian of Records / Public Information Officer
Visalia Unified School District
5000 W. Cypress Ave. | Visalia, CA 93277
Date: 4/17/2026
RE: CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT REQUEST – SLUR INCIDENT INVESTIGATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
To the Custodian of Records:
Under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code § 7920.000 et seq.), I am requesting the following public records held by the Visalia Unified School District (VUSD):
Investigation Results (Feb 13): All reports, final results, and documentation regarding the “thorough investigation” referred to in the VUSD Facebook “Community Alert” posted on February 13, 2026.
Investigation Results (Feb 17): All reports, preliminary or final results, and documentation regarding the investigation into the “anti-gay slur” incident referred to in the VUSD Facebook announcement posted on February 17, 2026.
Staff Communications: Any and all emails, text messages (on district-issued or personal devices used for district business), or internal memoranda related to the senior class picture incident and subsequent investigations. This request specifically targets communications from:
VUSD staff assigned to the senior class picture event where the photo was taken.
The Principal and Vice-Principal of Redwood High School.
Named District Officials/Staff: Kirk Shrum, Andrew Di Meo, Monica Andrew, Dennis Dyck, Cristina Gutierrez, Jordan Markham, and Lesha Weatherford.
Named Board Members/Personnel: Todd Oto, Walta Gamoian, Paul Belt, Kenneth Dejonge, Jacqueline Gaebe, Joy Naylor, and Randy Villegas.
Redactions and Privacy: I recognize that certain information, such as specific student names or protected personnel records, may be exempt from disclosure under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) or California law. Pursuant to Gov. Code § 7922.525, please provide all reasonably segregable portions of these records. I accept legally required redactions (such as the masking of student names) so that the remaining public portions of the investigative findings and staff communications may be disclosed.
Request for Digital Format: Please provide these records in electronic format. If the District maintains these records in a searchable digital format (such as PDF), I request them in that native form.
Timeline: I look forward to your response within ten (10) days, as required by statute, indicating whether this request seeks disclosable public records and the date on which the records will be made available.
Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Sincerely,
Jim J. Reeves
Visalia, CA
I received this response at the ten-day deadline required by state law:
On May 18th, I got this response:
So we wait some more. I’ve had several people contact me through social media, commenting on my Facebook posts about this request. Basically, they’re saying, “good luck! I’ve had very little success with records requests with other school districts or governmental bodies!”
We’ll see what happens, but be assured that I’ll not stop my digging until I get everything legally available to me. And lest anyone think, and they have been thinking this and yelling at me about it, I’m not looking for information on the students or their individual punishments. That part doesn’t interest me at all. This is all about the Visalia Unified School District and it’s perpetuating of an environment of homophobia, and allowing a school culture that led these students to think this was something that was “funny”, a “prank”, or a “mistake”.
I earlier in this post said this wasn’t VUSD’s first rodeo when it comes to homophobia in their schools. Apparently their first rodeo didn’t teach them to keep a halter on their herd.
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
They Never Told Me! (yes they did)
May 21, 2026
Jim Reeves commentary, News, Personal bike, Bike lanes, Bike safety, bikes, biking, City of Visalia, cycling, cycling in Visalia, travel, Tulare Avenue, Tulare Avenue project, visalia Leave a comment
From the “Nextdoor” app for my city:
From Jerry E.
I’m one of the neighbors whose curb was painted red and I was not notified at all. They just showed up and painted it without any warning…
Has anyone else on Tulare Ave dealt with this or reached out to the city yet? Thank you neighbors for bringing this up and I believe more should bring this up before this becomes a bigger problem.
It irks me (a bit) to see things like this pop up in various forums. People get worked up about a project in their neighborhood, and complain that “I was not notified at all”. Well, yes, you were, you just weren’t paying attention (Unless you moved into the city and that neighborhood in the past week or so).
The City of Visalia is in the process of repaving most of Tulare Avenue. In that project, they’re changing the bike lanes, from ‘class 2’ to ‘class 4’. This improves safety for bicyclists by putting the bike lane next to the curb, and moving parking spaces out from their previous location at the curb to left of the bike lane. This puts parked cars closer to the traffic lanes, and people are freaking out. The redesign also eliminates some parking spaces on the street. People are not happy. Well, some people are not happy. People who ride their bikes are pleased with the changes. It moves them from having cars rushing by at 40 mph right next to them to having parking spaces or parked cars between them and the traffic. It’s a big improvement for safety, especially for children riding their bikes to school or elsewhere.
The complaints are three-fold.
The most vocal are those losing some or all of the on-street parking in front of their residence. They’re really not happy about that, and I can at least understand that attitude. I’ll be losing one of the two available spaces in front of my house when the project reaches me in August. I’ll adapt. Those that lose all of the parking have a legitimate complaint, but it is public property, and the project will improve biking safety. They’ll adapt.
Second are those who worry about parking their cars “out in the street”. The new configuration puts parked cars away from the curb, and closer to the traffic lanes.
They’re worried about the increased chance of a passing car drifting over and hitting their parked cars. This has happened already, but ‘side-swipe’ accidents already occur throughout the city on narrower streets. This is a legitimate concern, also, but you have this risk on many streets you might park on throughout any city. Some also worry about the heavy fog we sometimes get in Visalia.
The third complaint is about having to exit the driver side of the car into a traffic lane. This, too, is something we often have to do when parking in many areas of Visalia. Downtown is particularly bad about this condition. You simply have to be careful.
So that’s the background of the situation. Some nitty-gritty about the process:
The City of Visalia has been sending notices in the mail to residents living on and near Tulare Avenue for years. I first became aware of the project in 2021 or 2022 when a flyer arrived in my mailbox. I filled out an online survey about it at that time. I’ve attended three public information meetings about the plans, one at the Senior Center, one at Christ Lutheran Church, and one at Veva Blunt School. There have been those mailers, social media posts, and numerous discussions (fully noticed 72 hours in advance) at City Council meetings. I’ve spoken during the public comments sections several times about it. The newspapers in the area have carried articles about the changes.
It’s been thoroughly announced, but some folks simply pay no attention to such things until the work crews are tearing up the street in front of their house.
To see people complain that they didn’t know something was happening, and blame the city for not informing them, is just perplexing. I think to myself, “geez, what do you want? For them to spoon-feed you stuff you should already be paying attention to?”
The information has been out there for a long time. It’s not the city’s fault you ignored it.
<end rant>
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