AT BISD: AND EVENING OF RECKONING FOR NARCISSISTIC PENA

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

People couldn't believe  that in the obituary to her deceased daughter-in-law, three-term Brownsville Independent School District board member Minerva Peña grabbed the top headline to announce the funeral services for the 27-year-old teacher.

In fact she was listed among the surviving family members before her father and mother and siblings.

And in a made-for-publication event, Gary Long of the Brownsville Herald wrote and published an article on the woman's death (by her own hand, but he wrote of her "passing") and  included an extended defense by Peña herself and that her four colleagues on the board who placed items on the agenda to censure her and issue a trespass order against her are sadly mistaken, by Gawd.

The four placed the following on today's agenda: 

XII.E.2.a. Discussion and consultation with Counsel concerning possible Resolution to Censure Trustee M. Pena and to issue referral to Cameron County District Attorney. (Board Agenda Request Eddie Garcia-Board Support Dr. Prisci Roca Tipton, Denise Garza, Daniella Lopez Valdez)

XII.E.2.b. Discussion and consultation with Counsel concerning possible Resolution to Censure Trustee M. Pena and to issue trespass notice. (Board Agenda Request Eddie Garcia - Board Support Dr. Prisci Roca Tipton, Denise Garza, Daniella Lopez Valdez)

Agenda of the closed session of the board of the Brownsville Independent School District's regular meeting today, Sept. 7, 2021 

The proposed referral to the DA's Office is related to the woman being terminated from district after the BISD administration was informed that the woman – an instructor at Veteran's Memorial Early College and High School – had a Master's in Educational Technology with a Technology Leadership certificate from University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was related to Peña by virtue of ehr being married to her son.

She had been working for about a month before the administration was told of potential violation of its nepotism policies (and the Texas Government Code) 

When the BISD administration learned that a potential criminal nepotism violation had been committed, they gave both Peña and her relative an ultimatum. 

To Peña, resign or remain; to the teacher to resign or be fired. Peña refused to resign denying any knowledge of her daughter-in-law's hiring and the teacher quit her job instead. 

Four days later – and perhaps as a direct result of losing her job compounded by other personal problems – the woman took her husband's service weapon (U.S. Customs) and killed herself. It was later clarified that it was his personal weapon that had been used. Some commenters have said that not only did the woman lose her life, but that students in the district lost out on a passionate, enthusiastic teacher who loved her profession. But Peña refused to leave the board instead of allowing her daughter-in-law to keep on teaching hee.

“None of that is correct,” Pena said to The Brownsville Herald. “I’m in shock that my colleagues would do this to me. Those two agenda items were shocking to me and I’m as surprised as anyone else. I’m in total shock.”

She added that she had “done nothing wrong” and that “it can be verified that I have done nothing wrong.”

Then, as is her wont, she cloaked herself in religion, the last refuge of the scoundrel and hypocrite.

“It’s extremely disheartening,” she said of the board’s action. “They’ve already decided to come after me. They already have their quorum. I pray to God. This is the hardest test because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The first item on the agenda, we have to assume, concerns the possible commission of a misdemeanor crime by the employment of her daughter-in-law by the district and/or whether she approved payment or compensation by a vote on the board. Nepotism is a misdemeanor under Chapter 573 of the Texas Government Code. 

The code "prohibits public officials from appointing any individual to a position that is to be directly or indirectly compensated from public funds or fees of office if the individual is related to the public official within the second degree by affinity or within the third degree..."

In Texas, it is illegal for public officials to hire, appoint, or approve payment for certain relatives. A public official who violates the nepotism prohibition commits an offense involving official misconduct. The offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not less than $100 or more than $1,000.

We don't know what DA Luis Saenz will do int this case, but it is clear that the majority of the board was repulsed by the turn of events and Peña's apparent callousness toward her daughter-in-law's wish to teach BISD students in her expertise. In a sense it is a very political and moral statement of her human values. 

The meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the BISD board room at 1900 Price Road.