WIGHTMAN'S SNIT WITH CATA BESMIRCHES BISD NATIONALLY

By Juan Montoya

The overblown rumor about Brownsville Independent School District trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia having a so-called "meltdown" earlier this month after learning she had to pay a $25 baggage fee to United Airlines at the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport has gone national.

Thanks to local misanthrope blogger Robert Wightman, school districts throughout the United States who are members of Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) and its steering committee will be filled in the latest anonymous gossip and a video of the so-called altercation between Presas-Garcia and the United Airlines ticket clerk.

We wonder who at the airport provided the video Wightman claims he has and which he says he will distribute to every member of the CUBE steering committee and the member school districts. All he has posted is the still photo below of Presas directig her remarks at Tetreau who can be seen seated at the far top right.
 Now, the last time we went through the airport we clearly remember the heavy presence of Brownsville Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Enforcement, and even U.S. Customs officers there. If there had been an altercation or even a semblance of one, we're sure they would have arrested her or not allowed her to get on the plane. Of course, nothing even resembling that occurred. But it makes for titillating copy for those adherent to his warped views of people.  

The rumor started with the posting of an anonymous email sent to Jim Barton of the Mean Mister Brownsville blog who quoted a tipster who said he was behind Presas-Garcia at the ticket counter.
He said:
"Jim,
FYI Cata Presas-Garcia was ahead of us in line for a flight from Brownsville to Miami yesterday. When she was told she would have to pay extra for her bags, she threw a fit. She even shouted out to Jessica Tetreau who was behind us with her kids saying 'Better get your money ready commissioner. They're charging us for bags.' Just thought her behavior was odd and classless for a woman in her position."
Now, by coincidence, a delegation of the City of Brownsville Commission was also present who remember things quite differently. Mayor Tony Martinez was among them as was, as Wightman mentions, city commissioner Jessica Jessia Tetreau-Kalifa and her husband and kids.
The mayor and commissioners remember things distinctively different than Barton's anonymous tipster.
According to Presas-Garcia, she did protest the $25 United Airlines baggage charge and turned to the commissioner to tell her that Southwest Airlines out of Harlingen did not charge a baggage fee. She then turned to ask her when Brownsville residents could expect to see Southwest back in Brownsville again. We would venture to say that the majority of frequent flyers would agree with her opinion. And as a supposed defender of free speech, why isn't Wightman defending Garcia-Presas' right to protest the baggage charge?
And that should have been the end of that.
But from such meager journalistic fodder, Wightman has fabricated a scenario where Presas-Garcia is yelling and foaming at the mouth with rage at the ungodly $25 baggage fee.
Not only that, he takes a devious and malignant swipe at the CUBE and likens the organization (a branch of the National School Boards Association) to "United Brownsville, and the All American City Civil League. It was created to allow school board members to go on free vacations at the expense of the taxpayers...Cata was on her way to a bogus CUBE meeting which serves no benefit to BISD except draining limited funds from the district which should be going to the children."
He also throws in a snide comment about Presas-Garcia reporting that a part of the CUBE meeting dealt with teenage pregnancy.
"Maybe if she would stop traveling on the taxpayers nickel and stayed home she might learn something from the hundreds of girls who get pregnant at BISD. Ah, but that would not be fun."
Here is the agenda for the CUBE meeting held in Miami:
The Brown Imperative
As we bring our year-long theme to a close, we celebrate the successes of addressing pertinent subjects such as:
*Strengthening the Nation: Expanding Educational Opportunities for African-Americans
*Brown v. Board to Race to the Top: An Overview of the State of Public Education
*Using Data and Community Partnerships to End the School Pushout Crisis
*With all Deliberate Speed: Enacting Board Policy to Achieve Racial Equity
*Defining Leadership for Equity in the Digital Age
*“Race” Matters in Education
*School Desegregation: Learn, Preserve, and Empower
*Why Race and Culture Matters
*Living a Legacy
Do you really think these topics are already readily available to BISD trustees?
But Wightman's gratituous remarks about CUBE Steering Committee member Bruce Alexander hit a nerve in Akron. He sent Presas-Garcia an email after he received Wightman's distorted view of CUBE and of his candidacy for the Akron, Ohio School District where the legal malingerer states:
"This man from the Akron, Ohio school district, Bruce Alexander. pushed for Cata to fill an opening on an interim basis. Under the standards to even be able to get your name on the ballot for a formal election, Cata would not qualify. To understand how easy it is to be elected to the CUBE Steering Committee Mr. Alexander won his election in Akron with a mere 18.6% of the vote. With just under 19% of the people voting for you, how can you claim to speak for the people? His own dismal numbers could explain why he thinks Cata is what CUBE needs. CUBE like so many organizations exist to boost the egos of the Board Members or City Commissioners - worthless awards which serve one purpose - to mislead the people as to the truth. But then when you are paying for the award through dues, it's easy to win."
What Wightman fails to mention is that in Akron, the top four vote-getters at an at-large election are elected to the board. Alexander won the second spot in both elections where he has run. All, except for one other candidate, drew less than he did. It stands to reason that if there were seven candidates (2013) and eight (2009), they would split the 100 percent of the vote amongst them.
If that isn't a valid reason for Wightmans demeaning evaluation of Alexander's candidacy, could it be that somehing else – his race, perhaps – roiled his displeasure?
This drew this from Alexander after he received the distorted missive from Wightman via his email:

From: Bruce Alexander
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2014 11:03 AM
To: Catalina Garcia;

Subject: Fw: 

See attached. I need to find out who put this out. If you know, please forward their information to me. This will probably go to my attorneys. 

You see, what he doesn't know is that it wasn't Alexander who nominated Presas-Garcia for the CUBE appointment and that that individual who did has also conveyed his displeasure at Wightman's fabrications to Presas-Garcia.
Wightman can't help himself when he thinks he is on a roll. He continues his attacks by saying:
"The BISD Board needs to stop all funding for any more trips to this con artist organization. Think about it, Cata and Luci are suing BISD for $2 million because they cannot get their way with the votes, and CUBE finds her to be the type person they want on their Steering Committee. Think about that!!!. The video and this post are going to the entire Steering Committee and all of the school board presidents for the 100 member school districts."
So far, he has claimed he is technologically-challenged and has not posted the incriminating video to either his three readers or the members of the CUBE and its Steering Committee. We're all dying to see it, including, we've heard, Da Mayor and his party.
So Wightman thinks nothing about bad-mouthing the BISD and spreading his distorted version of events throughout the nation and bad-mouthing the CUBE, an organization that, by the way, awarded the BISD its annual award in 2008.
In addition, former trustees Ruben Cortez and Christina Saavedra were members of the CUBE Steering Committee. Why wasn't it a worthless organization then?
And if it's such a drain on the school district budget and "draining limited funds from the district which should be going to the children," why isn't he protesting the bloated legal fees being sucked from the district, too?
If the CUBE, indeed, is a worthless organization, perhaps Wightman should also be imparting that opinion to his buddy trustee Minerva Peña, who has never hidden her ambition to get on the CUBE Steering Committee but has not been able to get elected? Do we detect the green-eyed devil (envy) behind Wightman's ravings?
(That's Minnie giving Wightman the scoop in front of the county elections office at right.)
 Once the "100" school board presidents of the urban member school districts get Wightman's poison, we wonder what they will think of the people of Brownsville who actively seek to discredit a board member who represents the interests of their school district at the national level?
Of course, he also injects a few tidbits about himself taking steps to avoid paying the baggage fee cause he's just so smart. He was smart enough, for example, not only to get himself disbarred, but also to claim he hadn't worked in 18 years and likened himself to a returning ill Iraq war veteran to welsh on paying back U.S. taxpayers the $40,000-plus in student loans. He also claimed a service-connected disability with the Cameron County Appraisal District to get a reduction on his property taxes when by his own words he has admitted that he served in the peace time Army at most for a year and a half before being discharged after a negative psychiatric diagnosis.
It's no wonder that this bitter man can create such flights of fancy and spin a simple protest over a baggage fee into a confrontation of gigantic proportions not becoming a "professional." He willingly drags the BISD through the mud and spreads his bile far and wide to discredit one of its school board members throughout the nation.  
Does Wightman have such a poisoned soul that he plain doesn't give a damn if he cuts off the BISD nose to spite its face?