THOUSAND OAKS : Election Tampering Alleged at School

An eighth-grader at Colina Intermediate School in Thousand Oaks lost her bid for student body president apparently because her lone rival tampered with election ballots.

Kara Block, 13, recently learned that the election last spring was allegedly rigged by her opponent and a friend, said David Fisher, Kara’s stepfather. The names of the two girls involved were withheld because of their age.

The second girl confessed to Kara last month what had happened, Fisher said. She told Kara that after students cast their votes, she and Kara’s opponent were directed by school officials to pick up the ballots and return them to the main office, Fisher said.

When the girls discovered a handful of blank ballots, they filled them out with the name of Kara’s challenger, who won the election, he said.

Supt. William Seaver would not confirm the allegations, but said he is investigating and will deliver a report to the board within the next two weeks. The term of the current student body president expires at the end of the month.

Fisher said after Kara learned what had happened, she complained to Principal Mike Waters. He said Waters called a conference with the parents of both girls, but apparently took no further action. The girls’ mothers are president and vice president of the Colina Intermediate PTA.

“I think it should have been handled differently,” Fisher said. “This should have been brought to the attention of the whole student body. A good lesson could have come out of it.”

Waters, who Seaver described as an “outstanding principal,” declined to comment.

Kara also did not wish to talk about the incident because she did not want to hurt anyone, said Fisher, who also expressed concern for the two girls involved.

“They were children who were put in a position that they should not have been in and they made a poor choice of judgment,” he said. “I don’t want them to be labeled as cheaters for the rest of their life.”

Fisher said he is more upset that school officials took no action to remedy the situation. As for his daughter, Fisher said all she wants is for the school president to apologize to her.

Another parent, Juan Hovey, whose daughter Miriam is a classmate and friend of Kara, is also steamed at the inaction of school officials. Hovey, who took his complaint to the school board Thursday night, said he felt his daughter and her classmates were cheated out of their vote.

“This is America,” he said. “You don’t do that in America, even in the eighth grade.”