DRAMA AT BULLARD HIGH (AND ELSEWHERE)

Dan Waterhouse

 

It’s halfway through the first month of 2019 and indications are already the new year’s gonna be drama-filled.
 

First, there’s a new sheriff in town at Bullard High. Homophobe Brooke Ashjian decided not to run for a second term on the Fresno Unified School District board of trustees. Ex-Marine Terry Slatic was the surprise winner in November out of a field of three candidates.

As soon as the results were in, Slatic started talking about shaking up the district culture.
 

He certainly did.
 

He got into an altercation with a student at Bullard High after school hours on January 11th. He claimed that, out of nowhere, the student threatened to kill him. The school board scheduled an emergency meeting for January 15th, to discuss “pending litigation” behind closed doors.
 

According to a report by GV Wire, Slatic and Michelle Asadoorian, his chief of staff, encountered the student sitting on a picnic table on the Bullard campus. Evidently Asadoorian said something to the kid and the kid replied. What he might have said wasn’t clear. Slatic then confronted him and further words may have been exchanged. Reportedly, Slatic tried to grab him and there was a struggle before he got away.
 

Fresno police were looking into the matter.
 

I don’t necessarily buy Slatic’s version of events. I spend much of my time around late teenagers and young adults because I’m a student myself and am deeply involved at Fresno State. Odds are one of the adults said something insulting or threatening to the kid and he reacted. People don’t threaten people unless something’s triggered that response.

In addition, I find it fascinating Asadoorian was involved. She’s a former school board member who was infamous for sticking her nose into business at Bullard High when she was on the board. Her brother, Donnie Arax, was the Knights’ varsity head football coach at the time.
 

I am curious too about Slatic’s ties (to be fair, if any) to a parent/community group, Bullard Pride. The organization has been at odds with Fresno Unified administrators for years, and floated the idea of breaking the Bullard and Fresno High attendance areas off from the school district several years ago.
 

I live in the Bullard area and looked into getting involved with Bullard Pride a few years ago. Several neighbors warned me off, saying the group’s founder was a racist and I should stay as far away from the organization as possible.
 

Second bit of drama is the idea of a private business improvement district for the Tower District that’s being floated by some folks connected to the area’s anti-crime Facebook group. It’s not the first time something like a PBID has been proposed for the Tower.

In 2004, city council member Cynthia Sterling recommended the district pursue organizing a community benefit district to help fund police and other services. The idea was shot down in a contentious meeting at Fresno High. Attendees were adamant the district deserved ‘enhanced city services’ at no additional cost.
 

The current rendition of the PBID surfaced as the Tower became the epicenter of Fresno’s growing fentanyl crisis.

Three young adults overdosed on what they thought was cocaine on January 11th. The three were partying in a live/work unit at an old office complex just south of the canal on Van Ness. Two lived. The third person died. Toxicology testing revealed the ‘cocaine’ was actually fentanyl.
 

The Tower may have been hoist on its own petard finally.
 

The Tower first got its avantgarde reputation back in the 1960s when hippies began setting up communes in some of the larger houses. The area very quickly became the heart of Fresno’s drug scene. There is a reason many pot dispensaries and delivery services chose to locate in Tower in recent years.
 

Finally, there’s breaking news on the local literature front.
 

The Normal School, Fresno State’s literature magazine, is ceasing its print version after the coming spring issue.

According to Dr. Steven Church of the English department, “the cost and logistics of running a biannual print magazine are just one challenge, but there are others as well, related in part to the personal and professional goals of the founding editors.”

Church said the magazine will continue to operate as an online publication, through a graduate class. He added, “we’ll continue to provide opportunities for students to get hands-on experience in publishing and editing for a nationally recognized journal.”

He said all production will now be done in-house, “meaning students will do all of the copyediting, proofreading, factchecking, design and layout.”