Troy ASB Election Rigged: Whistleblower Takes Fall
A recent Register feature story “ASB Election Rigged” raises a lot of troubling questions.
Bottom Line: The advisor who rigged this year’s ASB election (and possibly those of earlier years—no way to know) remains on staff. The student who proved the wrongdoing—Jacob Bigham–was suspended, stripped of the Vice Presidency he legitimately won and banned from future ASB participation.
Huh?
Since accessing the advisor’s database was the only way to prove fraud, why is he punished? Without his vigilance, how many future ASB elections would be rigged without anyone knowing?
If the whole purpose of student elections is to inculcate democratic values, what message does this send to students?
If an ASB advisor does not trust the electoral judgment of Troy High School students —ranked consistently among the nation’s highest performing—at what other schools are such elections routinely overruled without anyone knowing?
Is the sanctity of student elections protected by law? While the State Education Code is vague, the Elections Code is very specific in defining “election fraud” as applying it to “all elections.” No distinction is made. Just last spring, an arrest was made in a case of election in a student election at Cal State San Marcos.
The unilateral, secretive, intentional nullification of an election is as fundamental abuse of power as can be committed against democratic values. And exposing such an abuse is as high a service as a citizen can perform. Thank you, Jacob Bigham. You are one true Troy Warrior.
Ok, where is the school superintendent in this? What a bunch of poo-poo… I’m glad Bigham stood up for what was right — more adults need to do the same!
Wrong link.
Absolutely disgusting, there was a long article in Sundays’ newspaper.
The teacher should be fired, the principal should be sent off somewhere out state to teach fifth grade, and the superintendent should be demoted to the position ofASB liaison to replace the fired teacher.
This will become a big thing and a bunch of heads may roll. And just think, there was no money $0.00 involved or was there?
The teacher should have been transferred to another school. It is amazing that the teacher is still at Troy.
Where is the outrage!
Transferred to another school? How about canned on his ass. Or hers. Can’t tell – the link is to the wrong story.
America going down the SEWER, and fast too. It’s too bad. solution: bring under control ALL gov’t employee UNIONS, they are COMPLETELY out -of -control, THE TAXPAYERS ARE ALL TAPPED OUT. zero dollars to pay for taxes means exactly that. $0.000000000000000000000000 TUE. 7-24-12
Hey, Grover: fix the link!
Let me guess ……. I bet Chris Thompson’s kid(s) were involved. Whta happened in Big Bear with his son? Anyone know?
This is typical of Troy High School. The guilty were only caught this time.
Public employee unions needs to be dismissed from our whole state. Public sector unions are
killing our democracy and breaking our cities. Another example of total lack of respect of America and our constitution.
Well said Grace.
here is the correct link
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/asb-364574-school-redmond.html
Anyone who knows anything about Troy should not be surprised.
Does the school district have a whistleblower policy in place?
Thank you for taking this on! Dig in! And don’t let off. I was an ASB President of my HS. I was in a run off. You learn a lot through elections. And you cannot let this BS stand. It defines us. We run clean and fair elections and compete in the marketplace of ideas.
I remember a quick conversation with Norby on being ASB President. He was ASB President too. He knows what everyone’s tally count for votes was. I was cracking up. It is really important. Thank you so much for standing up for authenticity, for honor and integrity!
To every individual who runs with faith in the integrity of the process of elections, you do Yeoman’s work by not letting this slip under the radar. It’s rotten and needs purging.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/school-365258-election-bigham.html
Forget yeoman… Thank you for being an awesome gadfly!
Troy High School has had widespread corruption for decades. This is not the great school everybody thinks it is.
Election rigging pales in comparison to everything else. You know…
-Teachers having sex with students
-Teachers giving students drugs/alcohol/tobacco
-Teachers physically abusing mentally disabled students
-Teachers physically assaulting students
-Conspiracy by teachers and administration to conceal criminal acts
-Test fraud
And on, and on, and on… I’ve personally witnessed 4 of the 6 things listed above.
Yes. I vote yes.
Rigged elections in the high schools? I think it’s a great learning experience for what goes on in the real world. They should let the student candidates take campaign contributions from the school special interests too….like geeks, dopers, athletes, truants, gangbangers, etc…. for special favors. Make it as close to the real world experience as you can get. Show them how the real America operates.
So this student decided to expose a clear wrongdoing, knowing that he’d get in the soup due to his method of research. I would have used that password in a heartbeat, though not sure if I’d have had the guts to out the perp. Hard to fault him more than just a little. I predict a bright future for this kid Bigham. How old do you have to be to run for Fullerton City Council?
I assure you that there will be an attempted cover up somewhere along the way by the school, or the school district. Remember, the buck stops here! (Harry Truman). So Mr. Superintendant of Schools, since you are ultimately responsible, what do you have to say? Your school board wants to know!
“I predict a bright future for this kid Bigham”
I respect the kid for pulling back the curtain too. But with such a mindset he would never last in the adult political world. His political party and the other pols would sabotage him and wash him out early in the game. Don’t be a pol, kid. Play politics only as a hobby – not as a vocation. Learn a specific skill that others need and that you love to do. Put yourself in charge, son. Don’t let other people run your life. And whenever you lose in life make sure you come out ahead.
The Troy students may be disillusioned now. In 20 years, however, they will look around to their classmates who have become doctors, Phd’s, business owners, and other successful people. Then they will look at those in their class who have become educators and realize that many of them are the left over pieces.
At that time, they will realize that many of their educators were the left over pieces, just as decades ago, I realized that many of my educators were the left over pieces.
Don’t get me wrong, I can give you a long list of great educators in my life, but the truth is that almost half of all educators are under average. The formula is n/2-1.
those who can do……
Maybe an election where the voters and the candidates are all under the legal voting age, thinking that Calif Election Law applies, might be a bit silly. However, this advisor’s conduct is worthy of him being terminated for moral turpitude and the whistler blower being reinstated.
Yeah, here’s the real sadness to this.
The young man has the courage and integrity to understand the consequences of his actions before executing them, chooses to do it anyway because he believes his cause is right, then ACCEPTS the punishment as a product of his own decision.
In other words, a child being punished for acting like an adult. A responsible adult at that. Bravo kid– you’re going to have NO problem finding a good job. The successful people in the world value people like you, who have a brain and use it.
The actual adult makes her decision without regard for the potential consequences, gets caught, accepts absolutely no responsibility for her actions, defends herself using a technicality, and runs to her union for help.
In other words, she gets away from adult punishment by acting like a child.
This is beyond fucked up. Her union should be the first group to demand that she be removed. If I were a teacher in that union, I’d be EMBARRASSED that one of my students was being scape goated for the poor decisions of another adult. An adult who’s benefiting from the proceeds of my payroll deductions.
Sick, wrong, and needs to change. Bravo young man.
Yep. You pretty much nailed it. It’s the new American way. No good deed goes unpunished. The kid should be hailed as a hero. But the leaders are afraid it might catch on and others would start snitching out those who practice unethical and deplorable acts in local government. It could result in a feeding frenzy. Better to punish the honest ones who publicly expose wrongdoing. That way none of the dirt gets uncovered and the status quo lives to see another day.
Justice will only be served when this young man is made class Vice-President, and the corrupt teacher who threw the election is expelled from teaching anywhere in the Fullerton school system.
This young man is just like one of us in that hates corruption and cronyism so much that he’s willing to do something about it.
He deserves all of our respect and support for doing the right thing and exposing the corruption that Troy students say has existed for years.
“This young man is just like one of us in that hates corruption and cronyism so much that he’s willing to do something about it”
This young man learned a BIG LESSON about how the REAL world operates at a formidable age, didn’t he? He learned that good people are punished and bad people are protected by the very ones who claim to live by a code of honor and on higher moral ground. He learned that much of life is a lie. And he learned to be very careful going forward about doing the right thing and reporting wrongful acts to those with power. He learned it could have dire consequences. Welcome to the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave’. 😉
Fullerton School District needs to have a policy BEFORE the elections. The student must have a 3.0 GPA, no referrals to the principals office, no unsatisfactory comments on the citizenship grade, a good attendance record, two or three teacher recommendations etc. Wasn’t this done before the election? This “confidential crap” that the school is talking about is silly. If Jacob was such a hoodlum his request to run for VP should have been nixed before his name was ever put on the ballot. Why bother with elections at all. Just have the ASB advisor pick who she thinks should be on the ASB cabinet and quit wasting the students time. there are lots of times I’m unhappy with election results, but as long as someone wins fairly I’m okay.
Why should student candidates have a stellar background to be considered for a student office? Most of the people who run for political office in the real world aren’t stellar by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, most are crooks. Look at Mary Hayashi – a former assemblywoman in the Ca legislature – who got busted stealing $2500 worth of clothes from Nieman Marcus. Now she’s apparently going to run for a Supervisor’s seat in Alameda County vacated by Lockyer’s wife (which is a story all it’s own).
I think any kid in school should be able to run for a student office. If a gangbanger with a 1.0 GPA wins – well, that’s democracy in progress. Either abide by the rules of democracy or toss the whole system out. But at least be honest about it.
Sick! The bureaucrat thought it was OK to choose for the students in an election. Kids who win for President or other ASB leadership positions get special consideration when applying to college. Universities want ASB Presidents in their student body make up. Winning an election demonstrates leadership and communication skills, in the best case scenario. It’s a contest in organization skills, and if you run on your principles, it’s a contest in the marketplace of ideas.
What this adviser did cheated all of us in the big scheme of life. The student who uncovered and exposed this fraud is a hero! If the ASB President was party to the fraud, he or she should be stripped of title, and ASB V.P. would then become President and
Jacob Bigham should be reinstated his position as ASB V.P.
I don’t think that high school elections are covered by the Elections Code; high school student governments don’t actually have any independent power. Nevertheless, the guy who did this should be taken to task. They may well be teaching a lesson in “how the world really is,” but if so then we have to change that world.
Reported on page 8 in today’s OC Register: “An investigation into potential cheating on standardized exams at 147 CA schools will delay the annual release of scores”. QUESTION: If a Troy teacher & her superiors think it’s ok to cheat then should we really be surprised by this?
Section 18000 of the Elections Code uses the expansive phrase “all elections” in defining election fraud. It has been invoked in College student government cases (Cal State San Marcos last spring) though apparently not in high school elections.
A bill could clarify the code to include all governmental elections, including those of student governments at public schools.
Public school districts are under no legal obligation to hold student elections or even have student governments. However, any such elections must be honest and not subject to falsification—especially by administrators.
I am a teacher at a local high school. We use the same database – Illuminate – that Troy used to tally the votes for the election. This is the database that the Bigham kid “hacked” into. Just so everyone knows, if the Bigham kid was able to view the vote totals, we would also very easily be able to change the votes. All it would take would be a couple clicks of the mouse and he could change hundreds of votes in a matter of minutes.
I understand that the district is still investigating. Let’s wait for the investigation to be complete before we tag this kid a “hero.”
The teacher is a liar and a fool either way. She sucks.