The Fresno Teachers Association is accusing Fresno Unified School District of fabricating inflammatory quotes allegedly made by union leaders against new Superintendent Misty Her over the last couple of years.
Union leadership posted a rebuttal to a dossier prepared by Fresno Unified’s Communications Department alleging the personal attacks on Her in a post on Medium on Wednesday, calling for an investigation into the district’s senior leadership.
The backstory: Her took over the district as the interim superintendent in the summer of last year after former Superintendent Bob Nelson left for a teaching position at Fresno State.
- The Fresno Unified Board of Trustees initially looked likely to quickly name Her as Nelson’s permanent successor, but calls from the community for a national search stalled Her’s rise to the top. She ultimately got the job last month after over three decades with the district.
Driving the news: Fresno Unified’s allegations against FTA leadership came during a meeting on May 7, where Her gave the union a document titled: Instances of Fresno Teachers Association (FTA) Leadership Targeting Superintendent Misty Her.
- According to the FTA, Her told union leadership that she directed Chief Information Officer Nikki Henry to compile a document showing how she was personally targeted by FTA leadership from August 2023 to May 2025.
- The document included seven news reports, three social media posts and 29 FTA emails claiming to be instances of union leadership targeting Her. All 39 claims attributed a direct quote that the district claimed to be made by FTA leadership.
The other side: The FTA said in its post that all 39 alleged direct quotes are false, saying 23 of the quotes in the document referenced dates on which no emails were sent, 7 quotes attributed to local media outlets do not actually appear in the media reports and three quotes were attributed to FTA social media posts that do not appear.
- Some quotes also referenced Her as superintendent when Nelson was actually still in the role and before Her was appointed as his interim replacement. They also referenced some programs months before they were publicly announced or presented to the board.
- FUSD also appeared to use artificial intelligence to craft its document. Every hyperlink in the document’s digital version ends with “utm_source=chatgpt.com.”
- The FTA posted the digital version of the document with its rebuttal to each alleged quote, which can be viewed here.
Zoom in: Problems with the document are evident on the very first allegation, which included an alleged quote from FTA President Manuel Bonilla to ABC30 in a May 1 story about district bylaw changes. It accuses Bonilla of saying, “These changes are a blatant power grab. They silence board members, and effectively put unchecked power in the hands of the superintendent. That’s dangerous for any district, especially one as large as ours.” That story (linked here) does not actually include that quote.
- Fresno Unified’s second allegation cites another ABC30 article on April 26. ABC30 did not publish an article on April 26 regarding Fresno Unified. Articles published by the station the previous two days did not include the alleged quote.
- Another Fresno Unified allegation cites a GV Wire article from February 21. The document accused Bonilla of saying, “Eliminating a program that directly supported our most vulnerable students is reckless. Superintendent Her is turning her back on equity.” No such quote appears in the article.
What we’re watching: The FTA is calling for an independent investigation into Fresno Unified’s senior management and any other officials who were involved with the creation or promotion of the document, calling for all responsible to be placed on administration leave for the duration of the investigation.
- The FTA also wants to see any person in a position of authority who failed to verify the validity of the document should be subject to disciplinary review and termination if they acted with negligence or misconduct.
- The FTA is also requesting that FUSD provide the union with all source materials, internal communications and any generative AI prompts and outputs used in the creation of the document.
What they’re saying: “This issue is about more than a collection of false quotes. This document reflects a pattern of the culture of fear, retaliation, misinformation, and a lack of accountability at the highest levels of district leadership,” FTA said in its post. “This document is deeply troubling – and it gets worse at every level.”
- The FTA said that even if the quotes were real and not fabricated, they would still not constitute a personal attack against Her.
- “Superintendent Her accepted the document at face value and presented it during an official meeting without verifying its content – even though a simple click of the first link alone would have revealed issues with its credibility,” the FTA said. “This demands accountability at the highest levels of the district.”
