School Board Boss Asked to Resign from United Way Board of Directors

In recognition of International Human Rights Day last week, Chris Kelly, Superintendent of the Vancouver School Board, was asked to resign as a member of the Board of Directors of the United Way of the Lower Mainland.

The Dec. 11 request was made by a woman -- known in previous posts as the whistleblower --who alleges she became a target of political psychiatry by the Vancouver School Board in Nov. 2002, after announcing her intent to campaign in the then upcoming election about VSB "duplicity" in handling bullying complaints.

This is the second time the whistleblower has asked Kelly to resign from the United Way Board. She first made the request on November 6, 2007. Kelly didn't acknowledge receipt of the request even though she asked him to do so.

The whistleblower has the support of Canadians Opposing Political Psychiatry in requesting Kelly's resignation from United Way. It is the position of COPP that it is hypocritical for Kelly to be using United Way to promote himself as an individual committed to the larger social good, while he has done nothing in response to evidence that “political psychiatry” is being practiced by the Vancouver School Board to undermine political opposition. Political psychiatry practiced by the VSB, according to COPP, is similar to that practiced in China and the former Soviet Union.

Kelly was not an actual instigator of the alleged political psychiatry which has led to the request for his resignation. The political psychiatry was instigated in Nov. 2002, while the VSB was searching for a new Superintendent. When Kelly was hired as Superintendent, he inherited the political psychiatry scandal, a case which one VSB administrator referred to in a memo as "an ongoing problem."

Failure by Kelly to address evidence of political psychiatry practiced at the VSB resulted in COPP, "as a last resort", organizing an international boycott of high school diplomas issued by the Vancouver School Board. "Kelly had ample opportunity to avert that boycott," says the whistleblower. "He knew about it for years before it ended up on the internet." The future of every student in the school system is being affected by that boycott, but she says she has never seen Kelly show the slightest concern about it.

United Way promotes Kelly on their website as a visionary. In fact, he kicked off the United Way Campaign in September with a speech promoted on their official website as “a powerful vision."

Even the alleged fraud and misogyny to which the whistleblower was subjected after the VSB arranged for her to become the target of political psychiatry seemed to be within the comfort zone of Kelly. He has done nothing about the administrator who arranged for the whistleblower to become the target of political psychiatry after Sergeant Garry Lester, the VSB School Liaison, told him that there was "nothing untoward" about her conduct.

Kelly has done nothing about the fact that any sign of competence or intellectual ability in the female whistleblower was identified as social deviance by the psych nurse briefed by the VSB at the beginning of the political psychiatry exercise. Her letter announcing that she would be campaigning in an upcoming election was identified as "BIZARRE" behaviour. The fact that she had taken the time in the letter to substantiate claims by several people that their bullying complaints against a physically and verbally abusive teacher had been mishandled was considered suspect -- "It's "a little long, don't you think?", the psych nurse asked, peering at her through squinted eyes. [The psych nurse admitted that he had not read the letter but was relying on a briefing by the VSB.] Papers and books scattered around the whistleblower's computer in her work environment appeared to be the basis for the label "cluttered" in the report. The fact that she had submitted routine Freedom of Information requests was considered a key sign of mental illness -- in fact, "freedom of information requests" was the SOLE entry in the section of the psych report requiring that the official reason for the visit be identified.

Even vigorous physical exercise by the whistleblower was considered a sign of social deviance. When the psych nurse recruited by the VSB intercepted the whistleblower after her exercise class when she was still wearing her gym clothes, the fact that she was sweating appeared to be used against her. She was identified as having "strong body odor".

In campaign advertisements, United Way claims that, "Everyone's potential can be realized." The contradiction between this claim by United Way and practices at the Vancouver School Board which appear to be within the comfort zone of Kelly was cited as a reason why he should resign as a United Way Board member.

Attitudes of the VSB can best be summed up by comparing the resources they invested in attempting to discredit the whistleblower as a mental case, while avoiding investigation of a clearly disturbed male VSB administrator. This male administrator was working as a Principal at a VSB school in Nov. 2002 and appeared, the whistleblower says, to become "fixated" on her. "I had never been to his school," says the whistleblower, "I had never spoken to him; I had never heard of him; I had never expressed an interest in going to his school. But he had it in for me." But this Principal was determined to subject the whistleblowing woman to political psychiatry. He showed VPD-School Liaison, Sgt. Garry Lester, a copy of the whistleblower's letter announcing her intent to campaign in the upcoming tightly contested election. This was his basis for wanting her targeted for a psychiatric assessment at her home, assessment for potential apprehension to a mental hospital. Lester read the letter and told him that there was "nothing untoward" about the whistleblower's letter. But the administrator pressed Lester to essentially perform an illicit favor and approve the visit. "This is fraud," says the whistleblower, who in turn pushed for a criminal investigation.

This Principal then turned up at the whistleblower's home. He seemed to be "under the influence of alcohol or something" and pressed her to drop her complaints. He stood on the sidewalk speaking to her over her intercom, at one point telling her that if she had to deal with the "little c*nts and their mothers" that he had to deal with on a daily basis, she wouldn't last. Her livingroom window is close to ground level, just a few meters from the building's intercom system, which resulted in the Principal's loud, belligerent comments being heard by a man sitting in her apartment. The incident was reported in writing to the VSB and they were given the name of the witness and how he could be reached before he left town. The VSB did not contact either the whistleblower or the witness. Kelly, in the years since, has continued to allow this administrator to be in charge of children. "[This Principal] tried to do serious harm to the reputation and wellbeing of a woman he had never met and Kelly acts like it's business as usual for this guy."

"I believe. . . . that everyone deserves respect". That's one of the lines in this year's United Way campaign advertisement.

Not only was the whistleblower disrespected but she felt terrorized enough by VSB political psychiatry tactics that she did not campaign in the Nov. 2002 election. But she feels that the terror campaign initiated by the VSB has never ended. Kelly has done nothing to get the life long record that anybody targeted for political psychiatry -- even when cleared -- has adjacent to their name on the police computer system. Second, she says, Kelly has "left me dangling", never knowing to whom the VSB will next release the defamatory political psychiatry file they have on her. She discovered through Freedom of Information that her file had repeatedly been released by VSB staff to individuals external to the VSB Head Office. Kelly failed to respond to her written request dated Nov. 7, 2007 that, due to the "extreme level of libel" associated with the political psychiatry, he stop allowing her name to be released in regard to this case. He had to work within privacy legislation, she reminded him. The whistleblower has reason to be concerned about security as the "political psychiatry" record she was left with as a result of VSB actions has surfaced on two occasions to interfere with her life. "I feel stalked," says the whistleblower, "and Kelly doesn't seem to care how I'm treated."

"I believe. . . that every person has value." That's a line from a United Way Campaign advertisement.

This is a bad time for Kelly's link to political psychiatry to be exposed. United Way was exposed just two months ago for having a more direct link to political psychiatry. A Dec. 2002 case surfaced in which United Way had attempted to stop the dissemination of a Report on United Way by arranging for police to begin visiting a woman thought to be making it available to donors. The resulting police report has since been demonstrated to be rife with fabricated and misrepresented evidence. As United Way worked with police on the case, a VPD Car 87 assessment of the woman was arranged under allegedly fraudulent pretenses. Car 87 assesses a targeted individual for apprehension to a mental hospital.

If Chris Kelly fails to resign from the United Way Board of Directors, it is time that his fellow Board members request that he do so. COPP and the whistleblower agree with United Way campaign advertisements: "That a safe, supportive community is everyone's responsibility."