California school board erupts over sinister device allegedly planted under desk: So sneaky and distrustful

A bitter California school board feud has erupted into a full-blown spying scandal after surveillance footage appeared to show a trustee secretly planting an electronic device beneath the desk of two fellow board members, prompting a police investigation and calls for resignations.Temecula Valley Unified School District board members Emil Barham and Steven Schwartz said they were stunned after seeing footage from a Sept.22 meeting that showed Trustee Melinda Anderson approaching their shared desk, kneeling down and placing a small object underneath it.The footage appears to show fellow Trustee Jennifer Wiersma nearby as Anderson handles the device.

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By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Never miss a story “I was in shock; it was disbelief,” Barham told ABC7.“Literally I was flabbergasted,” Schwartz said.Schwartz blasted the incident as an invasion of privacy and called for both Anderson and Wiersma to step down.“The two of them need to resign immediately,” he told the outlet.

“We cannot have people like that on the board with us, who are so sneaky and distrustful.”Additional surveillance footage appears to show Anderson later returning to the desk and retrieving the mystery device after the meeting.“What they did is disgraceful — invading people’s privacy and recording fellow board members,” Schwartz told The Sun.“When we sit in board meetings, we talk about baseball and our grandkids.

We don’t talk about anything she could possibly want to record.”But Anderson has offered a dramatically different account of the escalating boardroom battle.She announced Oct.1 that she plans to resign and said she had begun carrying a small microphone because she felt threatened and wanted to document what was being said to her.“For a period of time, I did begin carryin...