In my previous blog, “Hate In A Small Town 5 (Visalia Edition)“, I talked about the how the community responded to ten Redwood High School seniors taking a picture of themselves in tshirts that spelled out “2FAG6OTS”. It’s caused quite the dust-up in our community, and has become international news.
You can read my previous post about the situation to see what the Visalia Unified School District has done about the situation, but I wanted to highlight a particular response by one of the Visalia Unified School District Board of Trustees, Paul Belt.
In a Facebook post on 2/17/26, Belt says the incident was a “student mistake”. Then in the comments, he blames it all on being part of a “spiritual battle”, rather than young people being raised in an environment that condones such actions. He seems much more bothered by the uproar in the community than he is with the students actions. “Hatred and vitriolic language have no place for young minds to grow and flourish”. Does he think the students should be free to express hatred and vitriolic language, since it’s just a “mistake”.
I wonder if he would think it was a “mistake” if the students had spelled out “SATAN ROCKS”, or something similar. I’m suspecting not, but, hey, you never know, right?
I think we can tell what Mr. Belt thinks about the LGBTQIA+ community, when he says a deliberately committed act of making and posting a derogatory image to social media is a “student mistake”.
The March 10, 2026 School Board meeting promises to be a packed affair. A lot of folks have a lot to say to the Board and the District. I think it will be a long night, unless the Board moves to limit comments.
The regular session begins at 5:30pm, at the Board room of VUSD, 5000 W. Cypress, Visalia.
UPDATE 2/23/2026:
Belt has deleted (or hidden) his posts about the “student mistake” from his Facebook page. Makes one wonder if someone at the Visalia Unified School District yelled at him, sorry…, ‘recommended’ he delete those posts.
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
VUSD – favoritism, retaliation, and nepotism?
June 8, 2026
Jim Reeves commentary, News education, El D, El Diamante High School, News, teaching, visalia, Visalia Unified School District, VUSD Leave a comment
The Visalia Unified School District has been in the news a lot this year. Much of it was not good. My own blogging has been this, this, this, and this, regarding not recording ‘Special Meetings’. Then the real mess began, for me, with an incident at Redwood High School on February 12, 2026, when graduating Seniors at class pictures decided to us their lettered tshirts, originally organized to spell out “ALWAYS LEGIT CLASS OF 2026” into a homophobic slur. My blogging on that can be found here, here, and here. Another item, buried in the next School District Board of Trustees consent calendar agenda is here.
That’s only the stuff I’ve been following. Layoffs, cutbacks, and new administration-level hirings have been roiling Board of Trustee meetings for some time now.
I was contacted recently by a person who wanted to remain anonymous, about problems at El Diamante High School. The District, Board of Trustees, the Superintendent, and teachers were sent an email, from another anonymous person (not the same one that contacted me), about the issues at El D. Concerns about favoritism, nepotism, and retaliation are discussed.
Click on “MORE”, for the entire email as sent to the District, educators, the Board of Trustees, and the Superintendent.
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