Orange Unified School District

A community college professor who lost a lawsuit accusing an Orange County school board of illegally censoring a dissident board member now owes the district nearly $80,000 in attorney fees, the professor said Friday. Richard McKee, who teaches chemistry at Pasadena City College, said he has had his wages garnished and had to borrow against his retirement as a result of his failed suit against the Orange Unified School District. He has delayed his retirement at least a year, he said.

A lawsuit filed by an Orange Unified School District trustee accusing fellow board members of violating his rights by voting to censure him for disparaging a school principal during a board meeting was dismissed Thursday by an Orange County Superior Court judge. Judge Clay M. Smith wrote that just as Steve Rocco -- who filed the suit -- has a right to state his opinion, fellow trustees have a right to register their displeasure at his comments.

Fed up with eccentric Orange schools Trustee Steve Rocco, his fellow school board members will try to curtail his ability to place discussion items on the meeting agenda next week. District staff will present a proposal at the Thursday board meeting that calls for the board president to decide whether a trustee's discussion item ought to be placed on the agenda. If the president denies the item, the trustee can appeal the decision to the full board.

In an effort to silence school board member Steve Rocco, Orange Unified School District trustees voted Thursday to change how board members place discussion items on meeting agendas. The move was prompted by a March meeting at which Rocco attempted to make a speech about what he calls "the partnership," a cabal of powerful individuals he says runs the county and has tried to assassinate him. At the time, members could place an item on the agenda with the support of another trustee.

Orange Unified trustee Steve Rocco and others who unsuccessfully sued the school district will have to pay $37,000 in legal fees, a judge ruled Friday. Rocco, Richard McKee and the nonprofit organization Californians Aware sued the district in November after Rocco's fellow trustees voted to censure him for disparaging a school principal during a public board meeting. Judge Clay M.

Eccentric Orange schools Trustee Steve Rocco has filed a complaint with state and county officials accusing fellow board members of meeting in secret and denying him official stationery. "Redress & Reform needed," he concluded in the Feb. 5 letter addressed to the Orange County Grand Jury and district attorney, the California attorney general, secretary of state and the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Orange Unified School District Trustee Steve Rocco has sued the district, alleging that his fellow trustees violated his rights by voting to censure him for disparaging a school principal during the public session of the board. The lawsuit, filed Nov. 21 by Rocco and the nonprofit organization Californians Aware, demands that the district rescind the censure, which was approved in October.

A jury convicted former Orange school board trustee Steve Rocco of petty theft Thursday for stealing a 14-ounce bottle of Heinz ketchup last September from a dining area at Chapman University. Rocco, an eccentric 58-year-old Santa Ana recluse known for wearing dark glasses and espousing shadowy theories about a powerful cabal he calls the Partnership, won a seat on the school board in 2004. He spent his term largely refusing to speak with colleagues, and survived a recall attempt.

Trustees for the Orange Unified School District will vote this month whether to revoke the operating charter of Santiago Charter Middle School following a teacher's arrest this week on allegations of sexually molesting two former students. The seven-member board ordered district officials to conduct a review of the Orange school to assess whether officials are caring sufficiently for the "health and safety of the children," Supt. Bob French said.

Orange Unified School District officials continued Wednesday to bear down on a local charter school, accusing school leaders of not protecting students from an abusive teacher. In a letter to directors of Santiago Charter Middle School, district Supt. Robert French contended that school administrators had been warned about the English teacher before her arrest this month on charges that she had sexual relationships with two teenage students.