1996: Ollie North visits Saddleback College

North’s Saddleback Appearance Draws Warm Reception
By MICHAEL GRANBERRY

SEP. 21, 1996

     After two standing ovations, numerous autographs, dozens of flashbulbs popping in his face and countless displays of spontaneous applause Friday, former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North was ready to field his first question.
     The young man approached the microphone in the brightly lit Saddleback College gym and wanted to know about a recent newspaper series. Was what he had read in the San Jose Mercury News really true, the man asked:
     Did a connection exist between the Nicaraguan Contras whom North once supported and drug dealers in South-Central Los Angeles, who allegedly helped fund the Contras with proceeds from the sale of crack cocaine?
     For the first time all day, North appeared momentarily flustered. Coy and cool from the moment he set foot on campus and embraced by virtually every adoring fan who extended a hand or hug, he suddenly sounded irked.
     Calling it “a frivolous, crazy question,” North, 52, told the man: “I want to be very specific. I do not know, nor have I ever known, anyone who would tolerate drugs coming into this country. . . .
     “Where were these accusers in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 . . . when Congress conducted one of its longest inquisitions in history” into allegations that North masterminded a plan to finance the Contra rebels in Nicaragua by selling weapons to the Iranian government.
     “Where were they then?” he demanded. “Can you tell me that?”
     North’s response was punctuated with more thunderous applause from the highly partisan crowd that packed one entire side of the Saddleback Gauchos basketball arena and included a who’s who of Orange County’s Republicans.
     Based on the mood of the crowd, it was hard to believe that advance word of North’s appearance had sparked any controversy at all, as, in fact, it had.
     Articles in the student newspaper had questioned the validity of inviting onto campus such an icon of the far right, and both pro- and anti-North protests had been promised all week long.
North was convicted of aiding in the obstruction of Congress, accepting illegal gratuities and destroying documents. The courts overturned his convictions on appeal in 1990.
     Friday’s protests failed to materialize, with only one 60-year-old man from Dana Point holding up a sign that read “California Is Clinton Country” and jockeying for position with a handful of dark-suited students from the Young Americans for Freedom. The latter group wore “YAF” on their lapels and carried such banners as “United We Stand, Liberal We Fall” and “Ollie Never Went Whitewater Rafting.”
     Aurnie Sutliffe, who appeared to be the lone Democrat anywhere in the vicinity, was outside the gym arguing to anyone who would listen that a Clinton supporter ought to be given equal time--even in Orange County, where recent polls show Clinton running neck-and-neck with challenger Bob Dole. “At a college of higher education, both sides ought to be given the opportunity to present their views,” said Sutliffe, who seemed genuinely surprised upon being greeted warmly by a smiling North, who spotted the pro-Clinton sign en route to the gym and walked over to pump Sutliffe’s hand and thank him for coming.
     Moments later, North said he agreed with Sutliffe—that college campuses ought to be forums of every political view, even if it meant having to listen to the likes of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
     “And furthermore,” North told a reporter, “I’d be disappointed if there weren’t a few protesters.”
     Before his speech, North met briefly with the press, which wanted to know his reaction to the newspaper series that only last month dredged up the Iran-Contra scandal, although this time with a radically different twist.
     North said he had welcomed onto his radio show--"The fastest-growing talk show in the United States!"--Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), only to tell her she owed him an apology for “making ridiculous allegations” on the floor of the U.S. House.
     “I think the whole story is absolute garbage,” North said of the allegations. “It’s an effort to distract the American people from the Clinton administration’s appalling record of dealing with drugs. It is typical of the most liberal elements of our political spectrum to find somebody else to blame for everything.”
     An ex-Marine who rose to fame as a key player in the Iran-Contra arms deal, North was invited to Saddleback College by Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside), who introduced North and the subject of his speech, “Is the U.S. Constitution Still Relevant?”
     It is relevant, said North, who wore his boyish, gap-toothed grin most of the day and whose answers occasionally provoked murmurs of surprise among the crowd, though in no way chilling their enthusiasm. After being serenaded by a drill team that wore glittery American flags as tight-fitting vests, and getting to meet the great-great-grandson of Francis Scott Key, North took aim at the street curfews imposed on teenagers by some cities. Hitler, he said, was a big fan of such curfews.
     He decried almost all attempts at censorship, denounced an unannounced police search of a black woman’s apartment in a public-housing complex and even defended the right of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf of the Denver Nuggets basketball team not to stand during the national anthem.  

     “But,” he thundered, flashing his trademark smile, “I also defend the right of the Denver Nuggets owner to fire that guy . . . which I believe he should have done—with enthusiasm!”

Trustee Lorch exceeds legal limit (of classes)

     Teddi Lorch was a long-time part-time instructor at Saddleback College and friendly with the Faculty Association (union) when, in June of 1993, Trustee Iris Swanson died and the district needed a quick replacement. The union recommended Lorch, and (after the board interviewed several candidates) she was appointed. She ran for the office in 1994 and, with the union's support, she naturally prevailed. She was very much the union's person on the board of trustees—along with Williams and Frogue. With the addition of Fortune in 1996, the notorious "Board Majority" came into being: Lorch, Williams, Frogue, and Fortune.

Trustee’s Teaching Load Questioned: 

Education: Teddi Lorch might exceed legal limit. Some see potential conflict, others credit her action.
By RENE LYNCH

DEC. 21, 1995

     The president of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees, who also happens to be one of the district’s longtime instructors, is apparently teaching a heavier load of courses than state law allows.
     Besides the legal issue the situation raises, some critics point to the potential conflict of interest that Teddi Lorch faces, being the boss of the district chancellor, Robert A. Lombardi, as well as his paid employee.
     Lombardi said Saddleback College erred in asking Lorch to fill in as a substitute teacher when a fellow instructor suffered a medical emergency.
     “That was not right, it shouldn’t have happened,” Lombardi said. “But the way it was explained to me was, it was an emergency situation.”
     Lombardi said he would prefer that trustees be prohibited from teaching at all, but he noted that the California Education Code allows a trustee to teach one class at a time, in an area relating to his or her occupation.
     “My preference would be that trustees make themselves fully available to the board,” said Lombardi, who said Lorch’s teaching requires her to abstain from votes relating to teacher salary, benefits and the like. “You hate to have a trustee abstain.”
     But some trustees dismissed the issue as nit-picking and said Lorch is owed the district’s gratitude for helping an ailing colleague.
     “She is very careful to avoid any conflict,” said Thomas Carroll, president of the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Assn.

     “I really don’t think this is much of an issue at all,” Trustee John S. Williams said.
     Earlier this month, Lorch was unanimously elected president by her board colleagues, some of whom now say they are uncomfortable that Lorch appears to have exceeded the Education Code’s teaching limit of one class for trustees.
     This semester, Lorch, whose subjects are psychology and sociology, took on two additional classes when a colleague suffered a medical emergency and missed several sessions. Lorch filled in for 15 hours during the current semester, college district spokeswoman Diane Riopka said.
     “It’s my impression trustees are able to teach just one class, and [substituting] would be more than one class,” Trustee Joan J. Hueter said. “If she’s teaching more than one class, she’s breaking the law.”
     Lorch, 48, of San Clemente did not return phone calls seeking comment. An attorney for the district also did not respond to requests for comment.
     Trustees are expected to walk a fine line between the competing interests of the district’s 30,000 students, its administrators and faculty—for whom the trustees regulate salary and benefits. As a result, full-time district instructors are not allowed on the board.
     Retired Chancellor Richard Sneed, who refused to allow Lorch to teach while he held office, said trustees should generally be barred from teaching.
     “A trustee teaching poses an inherent conflict of interest,” Sneed said.
     While Lorch has abstained from voting on issues that influence her salary and benefits, Sneed said the public deserves a full-time board member.
     “Abstaining on these important issues really cripples her as a board member,” he said.
     However, Alannah Orrison, chairwoman of the social science department, said Lorch deserves praise for filling in for her ailing colleague.
     “We were desperate,” Orrison said. “She stepped up. We didn’t think it would be a problem.”

     Lorch was appointed in August 1993 to fill a vacancy on the board and earlier this year was elected to a four-year term. She has been a popular part-time instructor in the social science department at Saddleback since 1975, district officials said.
     Currently, she is paid more than $40 per hour in the classroom and is paid $400 a month for attending board meetings, Riopka said.
     Sneed said he barred Lorch from teaching at the district shortly after she joined the board in part because he believes the code limits trustees to teaching subjects relating to their occupations.
     Sneed said he questioned whether Lorch’s professional background at the time—as a civilian analyst for the Navy—permitted her to teach psychology.
     “It was something I obviously was concerned with,” Sneed said.
     School officials report that Lorch is an organizational psychology consultant, although it is unclear how that applies to child and adult developmental psychology, the course she teaches.
     When Lombardi took office in early 1994, he reversed Sneed’s decision based on a legal opinion. Lorch began teaching again in the summer 1994 session.
     The code is somewhat unclear on trustees who teach, said Tom Nussbaum, vice chancellor for legal affairs for the chancellor’s office of the California Community Colleges.
     “The code limits teaching to one class, but it’s a very technical law,” said Nussbaum, who said he personally advised Lorch she could teach one class. “I’m not sure she’s violating the spirit of it by substituting, but that has to be challenged at the local level. There are a lot of gray areas here.”

Trustee denies holocaust, according to former students (Francis; The Voice)

Trustee denies holocaust, according to former students 

(the Voice, 4/20/95) 

By Ked Francis Staff Writer 

Despite repeated denials by Trustee Steven Frogue, former students of the trustee claim in an April 4 Orange County Register report that he teaches a revisionist version of the Holocaust and claims the killing of 6 million Jews did not occur. 

According to Foothill High School student Emily Hoffman, Frogue "decided the Holocaust was made up." Frogue told his World Cultures class "the Jews made it up to make people feel sorry for them," according to Hoffman, who was quoted in the Register. "He said it was more like sixty people that got killed, rather than 6 million." 

Other high school students of Frogue's say he used racially derogatory terms in class, referring to Asians as "yellow people," Latinos as "brown people" and African Americans as "negras." 

Frogue denies the students' claims. "I don't even know most of the kids quoted in the article," Frogue said. "The Register reporter was inaccurate in everything he wrote, from my hometown to the spelling of students' names." 

Frogue admitted using racially sensitive terms, but claims they were to show the racist attitudes of others. "I use the term 'negra' to explain southern racist views during the civil rights movement. I quoted a World War II sermon that used the phrase 'yellow belly japs'' to show racist attitudes in wartime," Frogue said. 

Questions regarding Frogue's views on the Holocaust first arose when he harshly criticized the Anti-Defamation League and questioned its role in an IVC course on the Holocaust. At a January 23 Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustee meeting Frogue alleged that the ADL has conducted a "massive espionage apparatus against thousands of law abiding American citizens." 

Frogue continued his assault on the ADL at the Feb. 27 board meeting, but was challenged by Trustee Harriet Walther, who all but called Frogue a Holocaust denier. 

In a March 23 follow-up interview with The Voice, Frogue suggested that a notorious Holocaust denial group, the Institute for Historical Review, should be allowed to "enter the debate" regarding the Holocaust, while labeling claims he denied the Holocaust as "an obscenity." 

Finally, in the Register article Frogue questions whether 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, drawing distinctions between "people who were actually killed, . . . people who actually died, . . . [and] people who were actually put in the gas chambers." 

Frogue's views echo those of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), which claims in its publications that "there was no German program to exterminate Europe's Jews, that numerous claims of mass killings in 'gas chambers' are false, and that the estimate of six million Jewish wartime dead is an irresponsible exaggeration." 

Richard Prystowsky, the IVC professor whose course on the Holocaust drew Frogue's attention in January, said he is concerned about Frogue's comments that the IHR should enter "the debate" regarding the Holocaust. 

"What debate? There is no legitimate debate on the phenomenological reality of the final solution," [said] Prystowsky. "There simply is not." 

As for Frogue, he still expects to resume teaching at Foothill High School next fall, and continues to deny making the statements his students say he did. "But there are too many questions about the Holocaust for it to be judged a certainty in all aspects," Frogue said. 

Frogue called the controversy over the Register article "a bit of a nightmare, and all for telling the truth." 

Mel Mermelstein, a Holocaust survivor from Huntington Beach, suggested a simple solution to the Frogue controversy: "Let the people who elected him take care of the problem."

LETTER to the VOICE, 4/20/95 

ADL asserts Frogue made 'false and malicious statements' 

Dear Editor, 

     Steven Frogue, a trustee of the Saddleback Community College District, has made false and malicious statements about the Anti-Defamation League and others. While we will not respond specifically to his outrageous charges, we want to present an accurate picture of the ADL. 

     The Anti-Defamation League was founded over 80 years ago to "secure justice and fair treatment for all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination and ridicule against any sect or body of citizens." Throughout its history, the ADL has been in the forefront of efforts to protect minority groups and secure constitutional guarantees of free speech, equality and freedom of religion. 

     The ADL's model hate crimes legislation has been enacted at the state and federal levels. These laws, and the ADL's training program is combating hate crimes, helping law enforcement officials respond to violence against minority individuals. The ADL's support for the federal Religious Freedom Restoration ACT was instrumental in guaranteeing free exercise rights for all individuals. 

     The ADL also monitors anti-Semitic, racist and extremist groups and exposes their bigotry to the light of public scrutiny. Publications on such issues as neo-Nazi Skinheads, terrorism and private militias, have served to educate the Jewish community, law enforcement officials, educators, public officials and the larger American public. The ADL's report, "Embattled Bigots: A Split in the Ranks of the Holocaust Denial Movement," serves as an analysis update on developments regarding the leading Holocaust deniers in this country, including the Institute for Historical Review. 

     These reports are not published to silence those whose views differ from the ADL, as some critics have asserted. The ADL believes that the extremist ideology of bigots is best countered by an educated society. Therefore, our reports detail the racism, the anti-Semitism, the terrorist goals, and the denial of the Holocaust. In addition, the reports are an exercise of the ADL's own First Amendment rights to present information to the public and to voice the ADL's views and opinions. The ADL publications are recognized by public officials, the media, law enforcement and others as credible and informative. 

     Steven Frogue has voiced fabricated allegations about the ADL, irresponsibly implicated individuals in criminal activities without a shred of evidence and attempted to silence his adversaries by intimidation and smear tactics. The ADL's view of the First Amendment is that it protects Mr. Frogue's right to speak; apparently he would not extend the same protection to the ADL. 

     Sincerely, 

     Joyce Greenspan, 

     ADL Regional Director Orange County/Long Beach Office 

Trustee Steven Frogue and the Institute for Historical Review (5/11/95) 

by Roy Bauer 

Steven Frogue, a member of the Saddleback Community College Board of Trustees and a Foothill High School history instructor, recently expressed interest in the publications of the foremost Holocaust denial organization in the U.S.: the Institute for Historical Review. In an interview with The Voice, Frogue says: 

"There is a group, right here in Orange County, called the Institute for Historical Review...[T]hey have raised questions about [the Holocaust]. I've looked at some of their publications, kind of strange and definitely new, I've never seen anything like it before. There's somebody that wants to engage in the debate about the Holocaust." 

Frogue goes on to suggest that the IHR's headquarters were bombed and its research burned by enemies of the organization. This alleged fact leads Frogue to wonder if the IHR is onto something: 

"Then I say, 'wait a minute,' is it maybe they have uncovered some stuff that the public should know?" 

Oddly it does not occur to Frogue that the IHR bombing can be explained in ways that do not assume that the bombers sought to suppress truths. (Mightn't they have sought to suppress lies?) Contrary to Mr. Frogue, the fact (if it is a fact) that the IHR was bombed by some of its enemies does not provide a reason to respect IHR "evidence." 

 Do we have any reason to believe that the IHR has good evidence for its revisionist themes? Do we have any reason to take the IHR seriously? The organization's central idea is the denial of what is now understood as the Holocaust. Though the IHR asserts that it does not deny the Holocaust, in truth, it promulgates works that in essence do exactly that. Further, it has adopted Austin J. App's "incontrovertible assertions," including the thesis that the Third Reich's plan for solving the "Jewish problem" was emigration, not annihilation. 

 The first thing to note, then, is that the IHR denies what common sense affirms. Insofar as it does so, it is in about the same intellectual league as the Flat Earth Society. That the Holocaust revisionists promoted by the IHR suffer from serious lapses in thinking is indicated in other ways as well. For instance, revisionists are oblivious to the difficulties that attend grand conspiracy theories of the sort they embrace. No one doubts that, in the course of human history, secret plots have occasionally been carried out; but it is implausible to assert, as Holocaust revisionists do, that thousands of unerring and loyal conspirators have managed perfectly to execute a series of massive scams on the world. Such assertions defy reason. 

The common sense deficit in revisionist "research" is often matched by an honesty deficit. For instance, the editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review, Mark Weber, has written a leaflet for the IHR called "Auschwitz: Myths and Facts." In it, he writes that "America's leading gas chamber expert, Boston engineer Fred A. Leuchter, carefully examined [Auschwitz'] supposed 'gas chambers' in Poland and concluded that the Auschwitz gassing story is absurd and technically impossible." 

Sounds impressive. But, as Deborah Lipstadt reveals in her book Denying the Holocaust, Fred Leuchter, Weber's "expert," is not an engineer and has no education in engineering; indeed, he has been compelled by his home state of Massachusetts to refrain from presenting himself as an engineer. Further, Lipstadt can find no evidence that Leuchter has ever build a gas chamber. How, then, can it be that Leuchter is "the foremost specialist on the design and installation of gas chambers used in the United States to execute convicted criminals," as Weber claims? That the editor of the IHR's journal is willing in this way to play with the facts (or, alternatively, is capable of overlooking such important facts) rightly causes us to doubt the reliability of the IHR. 

So, too, do the efforts of the IHR's founder—Willis Carto—to disguise the organization's relationship with other organizations. The IHR insists that it is an independent entity dedicated only to uncovering the truth about history. Yet, in 1988, the United States Court of Appeals rejected an attempt by the IHR and various plainly racist and anti-Semitic entities to present themselves as unrelated. What many of these organizations have in common is the involvement of Willis Carto, who has a long history of anti-Semitic and racist activities, including the promotion of a scheme in the mid-fifties to return all blacks to Africa. Such backgrounds are typical among the central characters of the IHR saga. 

Can we rely on the likes of Willis Carto and Mark Weber to support honest and objective historical research? Surely we cannot. We reasonably suspect that at least some of the historical "investigations" that they sponsor or author are liable to be committed more to a hidden political agenda than to objectivity and truth. That suspicion combined with the evident dishonesty or incompetence of much revisionist "research" and the patent implausibility of revisionist conspiracy theories force this conclusion upon us: that we err when we fail to discriminate between the IHR and reliable research organizations. 

This, of course, is precisely the error that Mr. Frogue commits. That Frogue, a member of a college board of trustees, does not perceive his error is disturbing. 

Bauer is a philosophy instructor and the Humanities Department Chair

His view of Holocaust stirs furor (Dan Froomkin)

Dan Froomkin

Orange County Register
April 4, 1995

Teacher's view of Holocaust stirs furor

EDUCATION: Steven Frogue is embroiled in controversy at school-and at the community college district where he is a trustee.


By DAN FROOMKIN

TUSTIN-Some students at Foothill High School say history teacher Steven Frogue told them the Holocaust never happened.

Others say Frogue called his Asian students "yellow people," made derogatory remarks about other minorities and frequently quoted historical figures who used racist terms .

Last summer, after complaints from parents, Tustin Unified School District Officials pulled the 27-year teacher out of his classroom He's spending this year in charge of detention.

But Frogue denies the allegations.

And after he filed a grievance, the Tustin school board voted to send him back to his classroom next fall. The district's teacher contract doesn't allow administrators to reassign teachers for disciplinary reasons.

Officials said they can't discuss the case because it is a confidential personnel matter.

Frogue, an ex-Marine and a Presbyterian deacon, said he has no racist feelings and would never deny that the Holocaust took place. "It would be insane to say something like that," he said.

Yet for the past two months, Frogue has been using another pulpit-his position on the board of Saddleback Community College District-to make controversial comments about the Anti- Defamation League, a Jewish organization that fights anti-Semitism and chronicles the Holocaust.

And the furor exploded last week when Frogue told the Irvine Valley College student newspaper that he believes the Institute for Historical Review has "raised questions" about the Holocaust that should perhaps "enter the debate."

The institute, based in Costa Mesa, is the nation's foremost center of holocaust denial.

Even as the world prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, the institute's members say the Nazis never had a policy of systematically exterminating Jews and call the widely accepted figure of about 6 million Jewish victims a wild exaggeration.

Frogue said he has raised questions, both in class and out, about the number of Jews killed.

"Was it 6 million who died?" Frogue asked, saying he wonders "whether it's the number of people who were actually killed, or the number of people who actually died, or the number of people who were actually put in the gas chambers."

But he called it "absolutely undeniable that a calamity of the first magnitude occurred."

Frogue ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Chris Cox in the Republican Congressional primaries in 1992 and 1994, and he describes himself as a conspiracy theorist who believes the assassination of President Kennedy was not the work of a lone gunman. He has been married to a fellow teacher for 28 years and lives in Mission Viejo.

At Foothill, an 1,800-student high school in affluent, unincorporated North Tustin, several colleagues have come to Frogue's defense.

"He certainly has been accused of various things, but having taught for many years I realize that students don't always understand or hear what is being said," fellow teacher Marilyn Reardon said. "I think he's a very fine, upstanding citizen."

Some students interviewed were supportive as well.

"He's opinionated," said senior Michele Churnack, 17. "But I learned more in his class than I did in any other class."

But several students recalled comments that they found shocking and offensive.

Junior Emily Hoffman, 16, took Frogue's World Cultures class as a freshman.

"He decided that the Holocaust was made up," Hoffman recalled.

"He basically said that the Jews made it up to make people feel sorry for them, because he decided that it was impossible for so many people to have been killed in such a short amount of time," she said.

"He said that it was more like 60 people that got killed, rather than 6 million.

"I would raise my hand and tell him, 'That's wrong,' and he would just really get mad at me and send me out of the class."

Classmate Leah Killen, 17, also recalled Frogue's comments about the Holocaust.

"He said it never happened." She said.

Frogue said he doesn't recall any such comment. "I can't think of anything even close to that that I would have said," he said.

Hoffman's friend Stacey Marcus, taking the same course during a different class period, started taking careful notes after Hoffman told her what she had heard.

Marcus' notebook contains several statements she found anti-Semitic. From her notes on a lecture about the Ottoman Empire: "Five percent of all Jewish people are bad, but 95 percent are just as good as the rest of us."

Frogue said he might have said that, but in a general context. "It would have been in a general statement about how you take any group, and there's probably 5 percent bad."

Senior Wendy Hayashi, 18, had Frogue last year for advanced-placement U.S. history.

"He said some really racist things that really really hurt a lot of his Asian students," Hayashi said. "There was this one time, I forget what he was talking about, but he called us 'yellow people.'"

Hayashi said he also referred to Mexicans as "brown people."

"He always characterized ethnicity by color, and it really bothered me. Maybe he was trying to be funny, but it didn't work."

Senior Jeanette Anderson, 18, said Frogue "would pick specific quotes using derogatory terms" and repeat them "over and over."

One time, one of those quotes included a derogatory word for blacks.

"It was shocking. My eyes almost came out of my head," Anderson said.

Two years ago, after Hoffman told her mother what Frogue had said about the Holocaust, Diane Hoffman went to see Foothill's then-principal, Janis Jones. Diane Hoffman said Jones gave her the impression that hers wasn't the first complaint.

"She explained to me that it was the students' word against his, that he had been counseled and he had been monitored and they hadn't seen anything, and unless somebody had it on tape recorder or had absolute proof, there was nothing she could do."

Jones, now an assistant superintendent, said she can't comment on personnel matters.

Students said Frogue avoided the topic of the Holocaust last year.

"He'd say, 'I know I'm going to get in trouble if I talk about it,'" said Allison Haines, 18.

But at the end of the year, Frogue was reassigned to run "on-campus suspension"--a sort of all-day detention program.

At the community college district, Frogue raised eyebrows in January by expressing concern about links between Professor Richard Prystowsky's Understanding the Holocaust class and the Anti-Defamation League, which he called a threat to academic freedom.

Prystowsky, in turn, expressed concern over Frogue's suggestion that the Institute for Historical Review should be taken seriously in academic circles.

"What are we possibly gaining there in listening to such an absurd point of view?" he asked.

Frogue, meanwhile, said he is happy to be heading back to the classroom.

"I'm a very good history teacher," he said. "I know my subject. I love my subject. All I want to do is teach it."


April 16, 1995
Letters to the editor

History and the Holocaust

Education: Foothill teacher demeans the profession

As a retired history teacher, I have had the experience of running across several biased and even prejudiced teachers, such as Foothill High School's Steven Frogue seems to be ["Teacher's view of holocaust stirs furor," Metro news, April 4].

The very fact that Frogue's classroom remarks stir up so much racial and religious controversy makes a sham of his claim, "I'm a very good history teacher. I know my subject. I love my subject. All I want to do is teach it." If he were such a "good" teacher, his remarks would not result in so much misunderstanding and disagreement among students and parents.

A "good" history teacher does not seriously rely on or even consider the views of an organization such as the "Institute for Historical Review." This organization is apparently primarily interested in promoting its hatred of Jews and the irrational twisting of history to suit this agenda. This organization's denial of the holocaust--a historical even witnessed and testified to by thousands living today--makes a mockery of its claim to be "historical."

Teachers and students face many difficulties and hazards in the public schools today. To continue to employ a teacher who, if not prejudiced, is certainly biased to the point of creating such attacks upon the racial and religious sensitivities of his students is not in keeping with the best our teachers have to offer.

Irving E. Friedman
Laguna Niguel


THE IHR: We are not 'Holocaust deniers.' 

Once again, the Register has inaccurately portrayed the Institute for Historical Review. The IHR cannot be "the nation's foremost center of holocaust denial" because we do not deny the Holocaust. We acknowledge that a great many Jews were killed and otherwise perished during World War II. What we dispute, among other things, is the familiar "6 million" estimate of Jewish victims, claims that the Nazis had a plan or policy to exterminate Europe's Jews, and allegations that the Nazis used gas chambers for mass murder.

Also, the IHR has no "members." What we do have is subscribers to our periodical, The Journal of Historical Review.

Greg Raven
Newport Beach
(Mr. Raven is associate editor of "The Journal of Historical Review”)

Excerpt from "A conversation with Steven Frogue" (Ked Francis)

Excerpt from "A conversation with Steven Frogue" (Ked Francis)
The VOICE, 3/23/95

THE VOICE: Are there lines you shouldn't cross in open debate? For example, should there be open debate with groups who claim the holocaust didn't occur?

FROGUE: There is a group, right here in Orange County, called the Institute for Historical Review...they have raised questions about some of this stuff. I've looked at some of their publications, kind of strange and definitely new, I've never seen anything like it before. There's somebody that wants to engage in the debate about the Holocaust. In 1984 their headquarters in Torrance was burned to the ground. Maybe that guy was back from his CIA stint. The guy who killed Alex Odeh, I don't know. It was not terribly long after that the FBI reported most of the terrorist actions in the United States in that previous year had been by pro-Israeli groups...Whatever their opinion about the Holocaust, if it's garbage, expose it to the light of day, why bomb their headquarters and burn all their information and research? Then I say, "Wait a minute," is it maybe they have uncovered some stuff that the public should know? Should they be able to enter the debate?

THE VOICE: Why are you no longer teaching?

FROGUE: I don't know. They reassigned me without consulting me or my department chairman. It makes no sense for me to spend all day supervising students...while my fellow teachers in my department are teaching 48 student classes.

THE VOICE: Are you being disciplined?

FROGUE: If it was anything like that, it was not brought to my attention. The only reason I was given was that I would do a good job here. I think it's a waste of taxpayer money. It could be run by campus supervisors...and here you have detention run by the best historian, the best history teacher in the school, maybe in the district, who knows, maybe even in the country. I think I'm good, judge for yourself. It just doesn't make sense.Irvine Valley College once had a student newspaper. It died an ignominious death, but that’s a story for another day.

* * *

Early in 1995, the IVC Voice interviewed Trustee Frogue. In it, reference is made to his being pulled from the classroom at Foothill High, where he taught history. Frogue praises the institute For Historical Review, a notorious Holocaust denial organization.

Not long after, the Orange County Register reported that some of Frogue’s students at Foothill High were accusing him of Holocaust denial. See “Teacher's view of Holocaust stirs furor,” 4/4/95 by Dan Froomkin.

The IVC Voice did some fine reporting about Frogue. 

[LATER, FROGUE EXACERBATED THE SITUATION CONSIDERABLY BY MAKING SOME CURIOUS REMARKS TO AN L.A. TIMES REPORTER. SEE:

Studying the Lessons of Steven J. Frogue : Profile: The teacher and Saddleback trustee does not retreat from controversy that his views generate 

(LA Times, Nov. 25, 1996)

By Michael Granberry

* * *

Trustee denies holocaust, according to former students (the Voice, 4/20/95)

By Ked Francis
Staff Writer

Despite repeated denials by Trustee Steven Frogue, former students of the trustee claim in an April 4 Orange County Register report that he teaches a revisionist version of the Holocaust and claims the killing of 6 million Jews did not occur.

According to Foothill High School student Emily Hoffman, Frogue "decided the Holocaust was made up." Frogue told his World Cultures class "the Jews made it up to make people feel sorry for them," according to Hoffman, who was quoted in the Register. "He said it was more like sixty people that got killed, rather than 6 million."

Other high school students of Frogue's say he used racially derogatory terms in class, referring to Asians as "yellow people," Latinos as "brown people" and African Americans as "negras."

Frogue denies the students' claims. "I don't even know most of the kids quoted in the article," Frogue said. "The Register reporter was inaccurate in everything he wrote, from my hometown to the spelling of students' names."

Frogue admitted using racially sensitive terms, but claims they were to show the racist attitudes of others. "I use the term 'negra' to explain southern racist views during the civil rights movement. I quoted a World War II sermon that used the phrase 'yellow belly japs'' to show racist attitudes in wartime," Frogue said.

Questions regarding Frogue's views on the Holocaust first arose when he harshly criticized the Anti-Defamation League and questioned its role in an IVC course on the Holocaust. At a January 23 Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustee meeting Frogue alleged that the ADL has conducted a "massive espionage apparatus against thousands of law abiding American citizens."

Frogue continued his assault on the ADL at the Feb. 27 board meeting, but was challenged by Trustee Harriet Walther, who all but called Frogue a Holocaust denier.

In a March 23 follow-up interview with The Voice, Frogue suggested that a notorious Holocaust denial group, the Institute for Historical Review, should be allowed to "enter the debate" regarding the Holocaust, while labeling claims he denied the Holocaust as "an obscenity."

Finally, in the Register article Frogue questions whether 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, drawing distinctions between "people who were actually killed, . . . people who actually died, . . . [and] people who were actually put in the gas chambers."

Frogue's views echo those of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), which claims in its publications that "there was no German program to exterminate Europe's Jews, that numerous claims of mass killings in 'gas chambers' are false, and that the estimate of six million Jewish wartime dead is an irresponsible exaggeration."

Richard Prystowsky, the IVC professor whose course on the Holocaust drew Frogue's attention in January, said he is concerned about Frogue's comments that the IHR should enter "the debate" regarding the Holocaust.

"What debate? There is no legitimate debate on the phenomenological reality of the final solution," [said] Prystowsky. "There simply is not."

As for Frogue, he still expects to resume teaching at Foothill High School next fall, and continues to deny making the statements his students say he did. "But there are too many questions about the Holocaust for it to be judged a certainty in all aspects," Frogue said.

Frogue called the controversy over the Register article "a bit of a nightmare, and all for telling the truth."

Mel Mermelstein, a Holocaust survivor from Huntington Beach, suggested a simple solution to the Frogue controversy: "Let the people who elected him take care of the problem."


LETTER to the VOICE, 4/20/95

ADL asserts Frogue made 'false and malicious statements'

Dear Editor,

Steven Frogue, a trustee of the Saddleback Community College District, has made false and malicious statements about the Anti-Defamation League and others. While we will not respond specifically to his outrageous charges, we want to present an accurate picture of the ADL.

The Anti-Defamation League was founded over 80 years ago to "secure justice and fair treatment for all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination and ridicule against any sect or body of citizens." Throughout its history, the ADL has been in the forefront of efforts to protect minority groups and secure constitutional guarantees of free speech, equality and freedom of religion.

The ADL's model hate crimes legislation has been enacted at the state and federal levels. These laws, and the ADL's training program is combating hate crimes, helping law enforcement officials respond to violence against minority individuals. The ADL's support for the federal Religious Freedom Restoration ACT was instrumental in guaranteeing free exercise rights for all individuals.

The ADL also monitors anti-Semitic, racist and extremist groups and exposes their bigotry to the light of public scrutiny. Publications on such issues as neo-Nazi Skinheads, terrorism and private militias, have served to educate the Jewish community, law enforcement officials, educators, public officials and the larger American public. The ADL's report, "Embattled Bigots: A Split in the Ranks of the Holocaust Denial Movement," serves as an analysis update on developments regarding the leading Holocaust deniers in this country, including the Institute for Historical Review.

These reports are not published to silence those whose views differ from the ADL, as some critics have asserted. The ADL believes that the extremist ideology of bigots is best countered by an educated society. Therefore, our reports detail the racism, the anti-Semitism, the terrorist goals, and the denial of the Holocaust. In addition, the reports are an exercise of the ADL's own First Amendment rights to present information to the public and to voice the ADL's views and opinions. The ADL publications are recognized by public officials, the media, law enforcement and others as credible and informative.

Steven Frogue has voiced fabricated allegations about the ADL, irresponsibly implicated individuals in criminal activities without a shred of evidence and attempted to silence his adversaries by intimidation and smear tactics. The ADL's view of the First Amendment is that it protects Mr. Frogue's right to speak; apparently he would not extend the same protection to the ADL.

Sincerely,,
Joyce Greenspan, ADL Regional Director
Orange County/Long Beach Office

Trustee Steven Frogue and the Institute for Historical Review (5/11/95)

by Roy Bauer

Steven Frogue, a member of the Saddleback Community College Board of Trustees and a Foothill High School history instructor, recently expressed interest in the publications of the foremost Holocaust denial organization in the U.S.: the Institute for Historical Review. In an interview with The Voice, Frogue says:

"There is a group, right here in Orange County, called the Institute for Historical Review...[T]hey have raised questions about [the Holocaust]. I've looked at some of their publications, kind of strange and definitely new, I've never seen anything like it before. There's somebody that wants to engage in the debate about the Holocaust."

Frogue goes on to suggest that the IHR's headquarters were bombed and its research burned by enemies of the organization. This alleged fact leads Frogue to wonder if the IHR is onto something:

"Then I say, 'wait a minute,' is it maybe they have uncovered some stuff that the public should know?"

Oddly it does not occur to Frogue that the IHR bombing can be explained in ways that do not assume that the bombers sought to suppress truths. (Mightn't they have sought to suppress lies?) Contrary to Mr. Frogue, the fact (if it is a fact) that the IHR was bombed by some of its enemies does not provide a reason to respect IHR "evidence."

Do we have any reason to believe that the IHR has good evidence for its revisionist themes? Do we have any reason to take the IHR seriously? The organization's central idea is the denial of what is now understood as the Holocaust. Though the IHR asserts that it does not deny the Holocaust, in truth, it promulgates works that in essence do exactly that. Further, it has adopted Austin J. App's "incontrovertible assertions," including the thesis that the Third Reich's plan for solving the "Jewish problem" was emigration, not annihilation.

The first thing to note, then, is that the IHR denies what common sense affirms. Insofar as it does so, it is in about the same intellectual league as the Flat Earth Society. That the Holocaust revisionists promoted by the IHR suffer from serious lapses in thinking is indicated in other ways as well. For instance, revisionists are oblivious to the difficulties that attend grand conspiracy theories of the sort they embrace. No one doubts that, in the course of human history, secret plots have occasionally been carried out; but it is implausible to assert, as Holocaust revisionists do, that thousands of unerring and loyal conspirators have managed perfectly to execute a series of massive scams on the world. Such assertions defy reason.

The common sense deficit in revisionist "research" is often matched by an honesty deficit. For instance, the editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review, Mark Weber, has written a leaflet for the IHR called "Auschwitz: Myths and Facts." In it, he writes that "America's leading gas chamber expert, Boston engineer Fred A. Leuchter, carefully examined [Auschwitz'] supposed 'gas chambers' in Poland and concluded that the Auschwitz gassing story is absurd and technically impossible."

Sounds impressive. But, as Deborah Lipstadt reveals in her book Denying the Holocaust, Fred Leuchter, Weber's "expert," is not an engineer and has no education in engineering; indeed, he has been compelled by his home state of Massachusetts to refrain from presenting himself as an engineer. Further, Lipstadt can find no evidence that Leuchter has ever build a gas chamber. How, then, can it be that Leuchter is "the foremost specialist on the design and installation of gas chambers used in the United States to execute convicted criminals," as Weber claims? That the editor of the IHR's journal is willing in this way to play with the facts (or, alternatively, is capable of overlooking such important facts) rightly causes us to doubt the reliability of the IHR.

So, too, do the efforts of the IHR's founder—Willis Carto—to disguise the organization's relationship with other organizations. The IHR insists that it is an independent entity dedicated only to uncovering the truth about history. Yet, in 1988, the United States Court of Appeals rejected an attempt by the IHR and various plainly racist and anti-Semitic entities to present themselves as unrelated. What many of these organizations have in common is the involvement of Willis Carto, who has a long history of anti-Semitic and racist activities, including the promotion of a scheme in the mid-fifties to return all blacks to Africa. Such backgrounds are typical among the central characters of the IHR saga.

Can we rely on the likes of Willis Carto and Mark Weber to support honest and objective historical research? Surely we cannot. We reasonably suspect that at least some of the historical "investigations" that they sponsor or author are liable to be committed more to a hidden political agenda than to objectivity and truth. That suspicion combined with the evident dishonesty or incompetence of much revisionist "research" and the patent implausibility of revisionist conspiracy theories force this conclusion upon us: that we err when we fail to discriminate between the IHR and reliable research organizations.

This, of course, is precisely the error that Mr. Frogue commits. That Frogue, a member of a college board of trustees, does not perceive his error is disturbing.

Bauer is a philosophy instructor and the Humanities Department Chair

Trustee STEVEN J. FROGUE: EARLY SKIRMISHES, Part II

(continuation of Part I)

Saddleback Community College District Trustee STEVEN J. FROGUE: 

EARLY SKIRMISHES, Part II

12/12/96 

Irvine World News 

Frogue, Williams and Fortune to lead college board  

Steven J. Frogue was chosen Monday night as president of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees. John S. Williams was elected by his board colleagues to be vice president and Dorothy Fortune was selected as the clerk of the board for the coming year. Officers were chosen at the board's annual organizational meeting after David Lang, Fortune, Frogue and Williams were sworn in to begin their new four-year terms. Lang and Fortune are new to the board while Frogue and Williams were re-elected in November's election. Board members Joan Heuter, Marcia Milchiker and Teddi Lorch continue on the board as mid-term members. The election of officers came on a split vote. President Frogue and Vice President Williams were elected 5-2 with Lang and Heuter dissenting. Fortune was elected with five votes and Lang and Heuter abstaining. Board officers are elected each year at the first meeting in December. 

12/13/96 

OC Weekly Letters: 

LOSING THE FORTUNE [WALKER/MOXLEY] 

I'm writing to express my support of Democrat Dorothy Fortune's election to the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees. 

The office of college trustee is nonpartisan. I regretfully observed the presumption of attitudes or opinions based on political registration, as stated in R. Scott Moxley's "Adventures in advertising" (Nov. 15), which focused on an anti-gay mailer that Moxley alleges "benefited" Fortune's campaign. 

Fortune was supported by members of both political parties in the November election because she will serve the community and students rather than partisan interest groups. Prejudging an individual's performance before he or she takes office is unwise. As a longtime South County resident, I can vouch for Fortune's integrity and abilities. She has served as chair of the 73rd Assembly District and worked diligently. Her Democratic credentials are impeccable. To allow the OC Weekly to continually bash her by interviewing her losing opponents is detrimental to the spirit of unbiased and open inquiry. I prefer to see reason preserved and bipartisan cooperation encouraged. 

Why don't you ask about Fortune's ideas for Saddleback Community and Irvine Valley colleges' futures? The election is over; let's get on with the job of educating our students. 

 —Janet Walker, Laguna Niguel 

R. Scott Moxley responds: 

Rather than "continually bashing'' Dorothy Fortune, I wrote one article detailing an anti-gay mailer cynically used by four candidates--including Fortune—for the Saddleback Community College District Board. Although The Orange County Register and the L.A. Times knew of the mailer before the election, they chose to withhold the story. We didn't, and I'm sorry that Walker is bothered by the truth. However, those behind the mailer—including Christian Coalition backers—despicably sparked homophobic sentiments in a race that had nothing to do with gays and lesbians. 

If gays are taking control of the school system as the mailer sinisterly alleged, then Walker and Fortune should come forward with evidence. But they won't because they don't have any. 

For the record, I did interview Fortune for the one or two minutes she permitted, but she forcefully refused to talk about the mailer and how it pertained to improving education. And finally, Fortune contacted me after the article appeared to thank me for writing a "reasonably fair" account. 

12/13/96 

Orange County Jewish Heritage: The Jewish Grapevine 

COMMUNITY WATCH 

Prof. Richard Prystowsky's Holocaust course at Irvine Valley College (which is now open for registration) gained notoriety two years ago when eccentric Saddleback Community College District trustee Steven Frogue attacked him for participating in the Anti-Defamation League's Oral History Project. It seems that Frogue believes, among other things, that the ADL ordered the assassination of President Kennedy. Now that the election is over, and Frogue has another four-year term on the board, people are suddenly willing to talk to HERITAGE about this idiot. We will be writing extensively on Frogue, and his appalling alliances, in future editions. And perhaps he won't be on the board as long as he thinks. 

12/15/96 

LA Times Letters to the Times: Trustee Reelection Reveals Flaws 

TIMES.LETTERS 

 • Every time I hear someone denying the existence of the Holocaust, I would like to smear in his face the blood of my family (grandparents, uncles and cousins) who died under torture of the Nazi butcher, Riga Latvia ("Studying the Lessons of Steven J. Frogue," Nov. 25). Shame on you people in Orange, County, who with your votes put this man back in a pulpit of hatred and bigotry. 

— E.J. FRIEDMAN, Fullerton

The union's choice, Dorothy Fortune, was very assertive.

 • Unfortunately, I have to come to the conclusion that the voting public is not informed enough to select officials to local low-profile positions. Here in Irvine, Mike Ward, who voted to borrow, bet and lose millions of dollars, and who apparently wishes to approve any business development and have the city look like Harbor Boulevard, is returned to the City Council. In the Saddleback Community College District trustee election, Stephen J. Frogue, a man who believes Lee Harvey Oswald was in the employ of the Anti-Defamation League and who wants to "debate" the validity of the Holocaust, is also reelected with over 60% of the vote and allowed to make crucial decisions regarding educational standards. The returning of such individuals to public office indicates that a better system of selection is in order. 

— JAN RAINBIRD, Irvine 

12/96 

CONCERNED FACULTY LETTER 12/96 [TO CCA/CTA] 

Letter sent, in mid-December, 1996, by 109 full-time "concerned faculty" of the Saddleback Community College District to CCA president Kathy Sproles: 

Dear Ms. Sprowles [sic]: 

We are faculty members at the sister colleges of the Saddleback Community College District: Irvine Valley College in Irvine and Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. 

Some of us are current members of the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association; some of us are potential members of the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association. All of us are concerned with the current crisis that has been precipitated by a very small number of people in the Faculty Association. 

While we have no intention of decertifying CTA/NEA as our bargaining agency, we also have no intention of allowing the current practices of a small minority of rogue faculty to embarrass--both in the press and on our campuses--the majority of faculty at both colleges or to link CTA--through name, money or both--to questionable campaign practices and to questionable organizational procedures which limit both members' access to information and members' open hearing of their voices and the reflection of those voices in the policies and practices of the SCCD Faculty Association. 

We are primarily concerned with the ethics of the small number of faculty who control the Faculty Association; particularly the ethical nature--or lack thereof--of a campaign waged during the November elections for the SCCD Board of Trustees. A small group of faculty members working under the names of "the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association," "O.C. Citizens for Quality Education," and "Taxpayers for Responsible Education" have, in recent months, waged a political campaign using campaign tactics which include one campaign mailer—"Tax Payer Alert: Same-Sex 'Marriage'"—characterized by "local political observers" as "'the most scurrilous and vile' campaign ad of the season" (OC Weekly November 15-21, 1996, page 8). According to the OC Weekly, the "anti-gay mailer was paid for by Taxpayers for Responsible Education, a political-action committee (PAC) established by the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association." (See section 2.) 

An editorial of retraction concerning a parallel newspaper ad placed in O.C. Jewish Heritage states (in part): "Heritage regrets having run the ad without authenticating its accuracy and intent and apologizes to Harriett Walther for publicizing false charges about her. Heritage further regrets any role it may have inadvertently played in damaging the reputations of candidates Lang, Rhodes, Brooks and Moraes [opposing candidates], and affecting the outcome of the election" (November 2, 1996, page 2). 

The distribution of the "Taxpayer Alert" flyers mentioned above outraged and galvanized the faculty. In a single swipe, the taxpayer alert flyer 1) misrepresents positions of opposition candidates; 2) misrepresents information regarding cost, number and guidelines for establishing domestic partnerships in the Saddleback Community College District; 3) attacks instructors' academic freedom in the areas of Gay and Lesbian studies; 4) denigrates the Gay and Lesbian faculty, students and administrators in our college community; and 5) "attempt[s] to kindle fear and hatred in voters as a technique to garner support for a candidate" (The Laguna Beach Democratic Club's statement of withdrawal of its endorsement for one FA candidate). 

As a consequence of the taxpayer alert mailer, Women For: Orange County joined the Laguna Beach Democratic Club in withdrawing support for the same candidate [Fortune]. An additional ramification was the resignation of several union members. Although all opposing candidates voiced approval for domestic partnership benefits should the item be brought forward by the Faculty Association during the negotiations process, none of the candidates focused campaigns predicated on the issue of domestic partnership benefits. 

In response to the mailer, Trustee Lee Rhodes is quoted as saying, "'Personally, I am open to the idea of domestic-partner benefits. But it just isn't on the radar screen of pressing issues we face'" (OC Weekly November 15~21, 1996). In the same article, newly-elected Trustee David Lang used more stringent language in addressing the "issues" raised in the flier: "That flier appealed to the worst in human nature by trying to incite certain elements in our community that are susceptible to hatemongering and hysteria. The piece could not have been further from the real education issues at stake. It was just an underhanded smoke screen." 

In a letter to OC Weekly, Lisa Alvarez responds to portions of the flier addressing college class content and seminars and conferences: "As an associate professor of English at Irvine Valley College, I can say that the gay and lesbian faculty of Irvine Valley and Saddleback College and the faculty whose classes contain gay and lesbian content are shocked and saddened to find ourselves tossed into such rough, unfriendly waters by our colleagues--a powerful minority willing to sacrifice the rest of us--along with a hard-fought academic freedom--in order to fatten their salaries and pensions" (OC Weekly, November 22-28,1996). 

Finally, members of the District's Gay and Lesbian Task Force question the accuracy of the "information" provided in the flier: "We have always been told that the implementation of domestic partnership benefits would not appreciably change district insurance costs" is a recurring comment expressed by members of the Task Force which has worked intensively to establish guidelines for domestic partnership benefits, provisions for definition and criteria for benefit approval and processes for documentation of eligibility. 

Another issue of grave concern is the Faculty Association's troubling endorsement record: a candidate respected by the faculty is abandoned while a candidate disdained by the faculty receives support. Trustee Lee Rhodes, a retired Saddleback College biology teacher and former FA head negotiator, well-respected by the faculty of both colleges, was led to believe—until the week before the $4200 ballot statement fee was due—that he would again be endorsed by the FA. That the promised endorsement was dropped—and dropped on such short notice—incensed many faculty who saw the sudden withdrawal of support as a means of stalemating his candidacy. 

Upon withdrawing its support of Rhodes, the FA then turned to unprincipled tactics to ensure his defeat. Rhodes himself characterized the tactics as "lies" (November 18 Board report). Statements attributed to Trustee Rhodes include an assertion in the October 1996 FA newsletter that he "advocat[es] the elimination of the last ten steps of the faculty salary scale" (page 3) and, along with other candidates, "wants to cut faculty salaries and instigate a different faculty evaluation system which CTA has declared to be a violation of the contract and a threat to academic freedom" (page 3). According to Rhodes, at the November 18 Board meeting, he directed Chancellor Bob Lombardi to look at page 2 of the Taxpayer Alert flyer. He then asked Lombardi, "Is the statement that it costs $9,000 per partner true?" According to Rhodes, Lombardi replied, "It's not factual." 

"I replied, 'Then you mean it's a lie?'" 

Paid for by union leadership

Rhodes' second question to Lombardi was, "Who approves [negotiations for benefits]?" And he (Lombardi) replied, "It's the FA." Rhodes then said, "If they do this [that is, if they are responsible for forwarding negotiated items regarding benefits] then they know what they have here is false." 

When asked for clarification of his comments to the Board, Rhodes said, "I was getting at the fact that they lied and they knew they lied and as far as I'm concerned, they're breaking the law. As far as I'm concerned, it's fraud." 

The Faculty Association's continued support of Steven J. Frogue is especially disturbing. Trustee Frogue, first elected in 1992, was once again endorsed by the FA in 1996 despite objections raised by FA members. In past years, Frogue's behavior both in the classroom and in the board room has come under public scrutiny. According to reports published in the OC Register, former students in Frogue's high school history class complained that Frogue denied or diminished the existence of the Holocaust (OC Register April 4, 1995). During this same period, Frogue devoted extraordinary amounts of time to matters that would seem to have no relevance to a college Board of Trustees; namely, the work of the Anti-defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL). Indeed, as the LA Times recently reported in a front page article, "his tirade against the ADL took up hours and hours of open meeting time." 

Frogue's attacks on the ADL arose in conjunction with his criticism of a course on the Holocaust taught at Irvine Valley College by Dr. Richard Prystowsky. Additionally, Frogue has spoken favorably about the work of the Institute for Historical Review, an organization characterized by the LA Times as "assailed by academicians around the world for saying that the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust is exaggerated and claiming that no Jews died in gas chambers." 

In an interview conducted by the IVC Voice (March 23,1995), when asked about the work of the Institute for Historical Review, Frogue observed that "Well, I hear that they have raised some interesting questions." Further, Frogue now asserts that "Lee Harvey Oswald worked for the ADL" and "the ADL was behind" the Kennedy assassination (LA Times). 

Given the crisis situation that exists in our District—and, particularly, in our representation by the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association—we are asking that CTA formally intervene to reestablish the justifiable pride we once felt for our Faculty Association. The state leadership has a responsibility to keep a local affiliate true to the ethical and representational standards exacted by CTA and NEA. 

We expect you to exercise your responsibility in the following areas: 

 1. facilitate our enrollment as dues-paying members of SCCDFA/CTA/NEA; 

 2. distribute to the present and potential membership copies of the current Faculty Association Bylaws; 

 3. interpret and clarify the articles of those Bylaws; 

 4. ascertain times and procedures for the election of officers; 

 5. supervise such elections and monitor all attendant processes; 

 6. investigate claims by Faculty Association members that their voices have not been recognized by the current leadership and that they have been denied information regarding the expenditure of campaign funds and the role of their dues in such expenditures; 

 7. censure the actions of those who have denigrated the names of Saddleback College, Irvine Valley College, the Saddleback Community College District, and the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association; 

 8. provide copies of CTA/NEA Bylaws; 

 9. provide copies of CTA/NEA Codes of Conduct; 

 10. monitor and direct our efforts to take back our Faculty Association. 

We, the undersigned, hope that soon we can participate in a union which is truly representative of its membership. We appreciate your efforts to realize our shared goal. Respectfully,.... 

12/20/96 

Letter sent by mail by Faculty Association to membership [newsletter]

Dear Faculty: 

We hope that you are having a restful and peaceful vacation. 

We feel that it is necessary to contact you because the California Teacher 's Association has informed us that a group led by Harriet Walther is continuing in its attempt to destroy the Faculty Association by making at-home calls. 

There are several lies that are being spread. The most ludicrous one is that the Faculty Association is anti-faculty and anti-sabbatical. In truth many members of the Faculty Association Council have donated enormous amounts of time to produce and protect our contract, which is considered to be one of the best anywhere. We have fought continuously to protect and expand sabbaticals and will always do so. 

As to the reassigned time issue, the Faculty Association does not negotiate college reassigned time. It is given at the discretion of administrators. Yesterday we checked with the CTA about the issue, CTA said that many state funded districts are experiencing problems with reassigned time in tight budgetary situations. It is a divisive issue for faculty. Faculty members who have reassigned time naturally want to protect it. Faculty who teach full-time and do not get reassigned time for non-teaching projects often object to what they perceive to be inequities and favoritism. Our current system of allocating reassigned time is outside the purview of the Faculty Association. 

The Partners in Education (P.I.E.) group is circulating a book of newspaper articles to prove that the Faculty Association is not respected by the community. The "many groups that they quote can all be traced back to the same few people: P.I.E. leaders. It is true that Harriet Walther is very successful at influencing newspaper reporters. (Just ask any District administrator.) Ms. Walther has been less successful in imposing her agenda on the electorate in south Orange County. The Faculty Association has a very positive image in the community as evidenced by the landslide victory of our endorsed candidates in the recent election. 

The only P.I.E. candidate who won election to the Board (with only 36% of the vote) was David Lang. Mr. Lang presented a plan to the Board on December 16 to cut your salary. Can you imagine what the New Year would be like for you and your family if his P.I.E. colleagues had won the election? Lang's specific proposal was to cut salaries across the board. In spite of all their nice-sounding rhetoric, the bottom line is that the leaders of P.I.E. think that you are overpaid and underworked. 

During the up-coming in-service week the Faculty Association is housing an open forum where all of these issues can be openly debated. After that we hope that P.I.E. will allow us to direct our energies to teaching and to negotiations. Divisiveness in the Faculty Association subverts negotiations. We do not know whether that those who continue to produce strife are driven by the conscious goal of undermining negotiations, but they will undoubtedly produce that effect. As Ben Franklin used to say "we can all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang apart."

Best Wishes for a Great New Year! 

— The Faculty Association 

12/29/96 LA Times 

THE 10TH ANNUAL TIMES ORANGE COUNTY NEWS TRIVIA QUIZ  

By MICHAEL GRANBERRY, TIMES STAFF WRITER 

For Orange County, it was the year of "the oust." Oustees included a principled bus driver, a congressman who refused to believe he'd lost, a baseball manager canned by a band of Angels and a former tax collector-treasurer who finally got his comeuppance. We look back on 1996 with the 10th annual Times Orange County news trivia quiz, a review of the events that made headlines during a year in which Bob Dornan said good-bye and the Orange County Board of Supervisors told its South County constituents, "You're getting a new airport whether you like it or not!" To quote Loretta Sanchez: "Enjoy!" ........ 

#7. Maybe he's spent too much time on the grassy knoll. Steven J. Frogue, president of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees, accused which group of playing a role in President Kennedy's assassination? 

 A. The Bolshoi Ballet. 

 B. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. 

 C The Orange County Board of Supervisors. 

Union leadership defender Patrick Fennel often seems unhinged

1997 

1/14/97 

Letter from Ron Albright (FA member) to Sherry Miller-White: 

Dear Sherry Miller-White: 

The purpose of this letter is to request some important information that I need as an active, dues-paying member of the CTA and the SCCDFA. 

As I told you in the Faculty Association meeting for questions and answers which you scheduled and held on Friday, January 10, 1997, during in-service week at Saddleback College, I am once again a paying member of the CTA and the Saddleback Community College District Faculty Association. I have always been a member at every University and College I have ever taught at, save for the past two years at Saddleback when I dropped out because, as I explained to you at the time, I felt that my voice was not taken into consideration by anyone in a position of leadership. 

At the January 10th meeting, you held up a dark blue packet of information for new members that you said I would receive. Since our mailboxes are in the same room at Saddleback, it will be easiest for you to simply put the packet in my mailbox. I have not yet received it. 

You also said at the meeting that [the CTA's] Diane Fernandez-Lisi was planning to mail to all faculty members in the district a copy of the most current by-laws which govern our Faculty Association. In a telephone conversation with Ms. Fernandez-Lisi on January 9th, 1997, I understood her to say that you were asked at the December 16th, 1996, meeting with CTA President Kathy Sprowles and with Diane Fernandez-Lisi to mail out a copy of the most current SCCDFA bylaws by which we are governed to all Saddleback and IVC faculty members, paying and non-paying members, during the holidays. I may have misunderstood. Please check with Ms. Fernandez-Lisi so we can all have a copy of the most current bylaws as soon as possible. 

At the January 10, 1997, Faculty Association question-answer meeting, you said twice in your presentation that the "Taxpayer Alert" flyer which was sent out by the FA's PAC, "Taxpayers For Responsible Education" (ID# 942285) was "homophobic", but that you felt it was the right thing to do because the FA had to win the election and could not have won without that flyer. You stated that you would not personally have chosen this flyer but that you were outvoted and as President of the FA you gave the final approval. 

I would like to have a copy of the minutes of the meetings in which this decision was taken, in which the vote was taken. I wish to see how such important decisions are made in our Faculty Association. 

Also at that same January 10, 1997, meeting, Professor John Allen stated in very strong terms that he deplored the FA's full page ad in the Lariat just after the election (November 7, 1996) in which a staff member at IVC was attacked along with Harriet Walther, former member of the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees, retired. He said he felt that this was an "immoral" and "unprofessional" way for the FA to deal with this issue. In response, vice-president Sharon MacMillan offered the information that the FA has not paid for this ad and has no intention of paying for this ad because the student newspaper, the "Lariat", ran an editorial in the same issue of the paper in which they criticized the FA's taking out of the ad. 

I would like to have a copy of the minutes of the meetings at which the taking out of the ad was discussed and decided upon, and a copy of the minutes of the meetings in which the decision not to pay the student newspaper for the ad was discussed and decided upon. I wish to see how such important decisions are made in our Faculty Association. 

It is clear that we have a crisis of the first magnitude in our SCCDFA. Consequently, I am asking that the leadership immediately request of the CTA leadership crisis funds for an outside, independent assessment of the SCCDFA. 

In summary: (1) a new-member packet for Ron Albright (2) a copy of the most current bylaws which govern our SCCDFA mailed to or placed in the school mailboxes of all Saddleback and IVC faculty members (3) a copy to Ron Albright of the minutes of all meetings in which discussions were held and decisions were taken concerning: a) the "Taxpayer Alert" flyer of the "Taxpayers For Responsible Education" (ID# 942285); b) the full page ad placed in the Lariat by the FA in November; c) the decision not to pay the student newspaper for the ad because of some persons' displeasure with the student editorial in the same issue of the paper. 

 Thank you in advance for your cooperation, 

 —Ron Albright, Professor, Saddleback College (714) 582-xxxx 

 cc: Kathy Sprowles, President CTA Diane Fernandez-Lisi, CTA Diane Crowe, Manager Region #4, CTA John Allen, Professor, Saddleback College 

1/30/97 

Saddleback College Lariat, front page: Trustees allegedly violate Brown Act 

By KEVIN ZACHARY HESSEL - EDITOR IN CHIEF 

In a battle waging between the Saddleback Community College District Board of Trustees and the academic senates of Saddleback and Irvine Valley colleges, the senates have accused the trustees of violating multiple laws and codes during the closed session of their Dec. 16, 1996 meeting. According to letters issued by both academic senate presidents, the trustees discussed and voted upon inappropriate matters during the closed session. "It was reported to us by a confidential source that the board discussed and voted on our reassigned time," said Katherine Clark, IVC Academic Senate president. "They are clearly in violation of the law." The board announced at its regular meeting Jan. 27 that it did indeed reach a 4-2 vote Dec. 16 which stripped members of the IVC and Saddleback academic senates of their reassigned time. The board confirmed this decision by approving it in public session Jan. 27. However, because of the nature of the issues discussed, the senates claim the board violated the Ralph M. Brown Act. "There are quite a few violations here," said Robert Cosgrove, Saddleback Academic Senate president. "Because this was a discussion of budgetary matters, they could only discuss this in public.".... 

1/30/97 

Saddleback College Lariat Letters: 

Union's leadership embarrassing [BAUER] 

Roy Bauer 

By any reasonable standard, the conduct of the Faculty Association—or at least its leadership—during the recent election campaign was shameful and embarrassing. Among the FA's more sordid tactics was its use of the now-notorious "same-sex marriage" mailer. The mailer, which targeted South County Republicans, was a transparent effort to exploit ignorance and homophobia. 

FA leaders seem willing to concede this. During an FA-sponsored event January 10, FA President Sherry Miller-White, who approved the mailer, acknowledged it was "homophobic." ("It was too homophobic for me," she said.) On other occasions, Miller-White and her colleagues have seemed to say that the FA did indeed resort to distasteful tactics, though only out of "desperation." (See, for instance, the FA's December newsletter.) 

One might therefore suppose that apologies—and even resignations—are in order. But none are forthcoming. Indeed, on Jan. 10, a defiant Miller-White defended the "same-sex" mailer on the grounds that "life as we know it" (a phrase that seemed to refer to the relatively high-salaried life enjoyed by faculty of this district) was threatened. It was threatened, evidently, by a slate of trustee candidates who—Good Lord!—seemed unwilling to put faculty salaries above all other concerns. 

Miller-White's reasoning was breathtaking: Her decision to approve admittedly vile campaign material, she seemed to say, is not deserving of condemnation because the union's goals were important and because sleazy tactics were necessary for the victory of FA-sponsored candidates. That is, "the end justifies the means." 

Yikes! 

During the same event, when repeatedly confronted with the charge that FA leadership behaved unethically, Vice President Sharon MacMillan responded by asserting that the FA's opponents behaved unethically too. Her reasoning, then, is as follows: "Our unethical behavior should not be condemned because some of our opponents also behaved unethically." Wow. 

This pattern of gutter moralizing was already apparent months ago, when Miller-White and others sought to shield themselves from blame for the mailer by implying that responsibility lay, not with the FA, but with the professional firm it hired to compose and distribute it! 

Here, the reasoning is as follows: "Though composing and distributing vile campaign literature is wrong, paying someone else to compose and distribute vile campaign literature is not wrong." Geez. 

An FA member might well ask herself: Ought we to retain union leaders who demonstrate the moral IQ of a turnip? And: Given the union's pattern of conduct, is it surprising that some faculty refuse to join? 

 Roy Bauer is a philosophy instructor at Saddleback College. 

[Note: soon, Bauer, of IVC, joined the FA and sought to join with others in reforming the union.] 

Harriett Walther's so-called legacy [by the FA's Anthony Garcia]

Judging by strident cris de coeur uttered in the Lariat by a fistful of vitriolic malcontents, one might assume the Faculty Association is about to be run out of town or that Joan of Arc has been reincarnated as Harriett Walther. Neither is true: The Association is still here and Harriett Walther is still Harriett Walther. 

The conflict fought in the "Opinion Section" of the Nov. 21 issue of the Lariat, pitting the voice of teacher against teacher, is not the specious moral issue (obfuscated by Roy Bauer's ramblings and peripatetic logic found in the same Lariat issue), but a battle for power, a battle between IVC and Saddleback to determine an advantage in District-wide issues, between special interest groups and the faculty at large, who do not support their issues. 

Letters reflecting the "Walther platform" in the aforementioned issue of the Lariat-tainting their specious presumption of morality with scurrilous, debasing and less-than-forthright attacks on newly elected board members-accused the Association of being self-serving. The footnote to that, which should have been included, however, is that the core of the Association comprises Saddleback's finest teachers. 

That in this election Harriett Walther and the Association were pitted against each other is no surprise: Harriett Walther has for 19 years proven neither a friend nor a supporter of the majority of Saddleback faculty. Her involvement was her last act of revenge. While on the board, Walther built her political base around those bearing a grudge against the establishment or around those lobbying for special (but not popular) interests. For her own political ambitions, she supported Women's Studies despite its academic anemia; lent a Machiavellian ear to the issue of same-sex domestic benefits (while denying well-deserved benefits to part-time faculty) despite their insidious potential costs and potential for abuse; championed the North Campus over Saddleback despite its penchant to usurp an inordinate and grossly unfair portion of the district's budget; pandered to consultants with whom she had an association; and supported those teachers who "escaped" their share of teaching duties by immersing themselves in questionable tasks referred euphemistically as "release time." 

Her departure reminds me of the phrase, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God, I'm free at last!" When I think of her political ragtail constituency, I'm reminded of the fitting line of David Denby, "...filled with sycophants, toadies, hangers-on, and other moths looking for the flame." 

 Anthony Garcia is an English instructor at Saddleback College. 

[Garcia is a long-time FA crony. Recently, he was involved in the Anne Cox/Clasby "slapping" episode.]

1/30/97 

Saddleback College Lariat, 1/30/97 [graphic?] 

Mr. McLendon never missed a chance to defend union leadership

2/13/97 Saddleback College Lariat

?

10/24/97

Two articles in the OC Jewish Heritage 

From the Oct. 24 edition:

 

1. Supporters of Frogue pack meeting of college board 

By Stan Brin 

     Opponents of controversial South Orange County Community College District president Steven Frogue found themselves all but locked out of Monday night's monthly board meeting after a group of roughly 30 boisterous Frogue supporters arrived early and took the board room's limited seating. 

     Members of the group described themselves as followers of Willis Carto's "Liberty Lobby," identified more than 30 years ago as a neo-nazi organization. 

     Roughly 100 persons, most of them Frogue opponents, listened to the proceedings on a loudspeaker installed in the courtyard of the Saddleback College library, Many complained that the seats inside the board room were occupied long before the meeting began. 

     Opponents are organizing a recall petition drive, inspired by Frogue's attempt to promote a college seminar that would promote anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. 

     One after the other, the neo-nazis came to the microphone and accused the board minority and the Anti-Defamation League of trying to deprive Frogue of his civil rights and to cover up an alleged ADL Mossad plot to kill President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 

     "I'm tired of a thought police running things," James X. Kennedy, a Frogue supporter, told the board. "And the Mossad did kill Kennedy!" 

     Four speakers with Muslim names praised Frogue and attacked the ADL "I am deeply disturbed by threats by Jewish organizations, the ADL and the JDL, to 'take him out,'" one of them said. 

     ADL volunteer Phil Brustein replied that "there is no civil right to spend tax money or student fees on an ideologically motivated project." 

     The neo-nazi group loudly cheered one another’s speeches and interrupted those who disagreed with them. Board president Frogue, in charge of maintaining order, did not attempt to quiet his supporters. One of his supporters installed a video camera in a section reserved for the press and taped the comments of Frogue opponents. 

     A Frogue supporter, board member John Williams, a Republican, called the objections of Frogue's opponents irrelevant to his job of board president. One speaker, Saddleback College Prof. Glenn Roevenmore [sic, but I like it], suggested that support and opposition for Frogue had nothing to do with his nazi ties but from his backing of one side in an internal, nonpartisan administrative struggle. 

     The single item on the agenda, a motion to remove Frogue as president, failed by an expected three-to-four vote with Frogue himself casting the deciding vote. 

     Following the meeting, Frogue closeted himself at the end of a hallway with five members of the neo-nazi group, causing one opponent to comment that "now we know how they got all the seats....” 

     When a reporter pointed to the neo-nazis surrounding the board president, Dorothy Fortune, a member of the Orange County Democratic Central Committee as well as a Frogue supporter, appeared startled. She recovered and said that Frogue's personal politics were irrelevant to the job of running the college district. 

2. Official recall petition says Steven Frogue is ‘disgraced’ 

     The following is the text of the petition being circulated urging that a recall election be held to remove Steven Frogue from his position on the South Orange County Community College District board: 

     To the Honorable Board of the South Orange County Community College District: 

     Pursuant to the California Constitution and Californian election laws, we the undersigned registered and qualified electors of the South Orange County Community College District of Orange County respectfully state that we seek the recall and removal of STEVEN J.FROGUE holding office of Trustee of the Governing Board of the South Orange County Community College District of Orange County California. 

     We demand an election of a successor to that office.... 

     The grounds for the recall are as follows: 

 • found guilty on two counts of violating the California Open Meeting Law by Judge William McDonald of the Orange County Superior Court.... 

 • openly opposed, in writing, shared governance, a governance structure mandated by state laws....   

 • disgraced nationally the District and its colleges by proposing and approving his own course, a JFK assassination course "giving legitimacy to bigoted ravings with no balance from opposing points of view." 

 • attacked, insulted and ignored—in pub1ic meetings of the Board of Trustees--students faculty, staff and members of the community.... 

 • deliberately circumvented—in the IVC Presidential hiring—the Board of Trustees’ published hiring policy.... 

 • received a no-confidence vote of 72.5 per cent of the Irvine Valley College faculty.... 

     In his reply, Frogue did not address the issues raised by the supporters of the recall, but concluded: “Petition is a waste of taxpayer money. Please don't sign it!"

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