Our TV and movies are filled with people trying to bully others using lawyers. Just think of some of the clients in Suits or Better Call Saul. Or who remembers the PG&E lawyers who came after the whistleblower in Erin Brockovich? So I don't have the same stunning looks as Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich, but let me share a real life story of paying lawyers to try and hide the facts right here in East Penn.
I received a 'cease and desist' letter from a lawyer this past summer. Apparently, school board candidate Angelic Schneider hired her to intimidate me from continuing to share information about our East Penn schools-- and the candidates running for school board.
Let me first get the outrageousness of this letter out of the way. The letter accuses me of making two "obviously false" statements:
That Ms. Schneider owns the for-profit school Metro Beauty Academy, and
That Metro Beauty academy was involved in criminal conduct
It's true that I wrote last May about Schneider and husband owning Metro Beauty Academy. My source for this information? Ms. Schneider herself! Ms. Schneider repeatedly boasted of being an owner, often suggesting it qualified her to be a school board member. It's one of the key things she highlights about herself on her own campaign website:
But here's where the story gets interesting-- like the twist in the TV lawyer dramas! The screenshot above was taken in March. If you go to Schneider's same page now, you'll see there is no mention at all of her owning this business. She's also erased a number of videos she once posted in which she repeatedly made the same claim. I'll be honest, I don't know if she was lying then about being an owner, or is lying now in saying she isn't an owner (and hiding all the public evidence of her many claims to being an owner). But either way...well, I think at this point you understand what's going on here.
As for the second accusation in the lawyer letter, concerning criminal conduct at Metro Beauty Academy: Last May I described what the business was up to by quoting directly from an official U.S. Department of Justice press release. Trump-appointed Republican U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain was the one who made the announcement that Metro Beauty Academy:
"knowingly submitted or caused to be submitted claims for federal student financial aid that were false," and in some cases "created fake diplomas for students, or encouraged students to obtain false credentials"
These allegations only came to light when a whistleblower revealed what was going on to law enforcement officials, and Metro Beauty Academy paid $425,000 to settle these allegations in 2020. I never used the word "criminal" to describe these activities, but here again I think you can judge for yourself. The full Department of Justice press release looks like this:
Sadly (and maddeningly) this is where we stand in East Penn today. We have a candidate for school board who is lying -- one way or the other-- and also threatening lawsuits against parents and community members who discuss those lies out in the open. Oh, that's right-- I haven't mentioned an important part of this story yet. Like another plot twist in a TV lawyer drama, I'm not the only one who got this letter. I've heard of at least two others who received one, both of them just regular East Penn moms who have shared basic facts about Schneider with friends and neighbors.
C'mon man. This kind of bullying might make for good television in shows like Suits, but it's BS as a way to try and win an election in real life. Is this the kind of thing we want in East Penn? What's worse, Ms. Schneider is not running for school board alone. She is the leader of a crew that includes Paul Barbehenn, Matt Mull, Kristofer DePaolo, and Lawrence Huyssen. To date, they have all pledged their loyalty to her and her actions through their silence. What does this say about their own character?
Ultimately, the community will vote on November 7 to determine who should lead the East Penn School District. YOUR vote-- and the votes of your friends, colleagues, and neighbors-- will determine if this kind of story is more than just a cheap plot device in TV shows and movies. Your vote will decide whether these kinds of lies and intimidation-by lawyer are going to work in real life, here at home.
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*sigh* I'm sorry to say I had to remove two different comments from this post, both from the same reader. The first was an attack on another candidate that did not address the topic of this post in any way. The other, without providing any evidence, suggested the facts in my post are wrong, alongside some name calling. I switched to the newsletter format precisely to provide a space for reasonable people of good will to have civil discussion about our schools and our community. Comments do NOT have to agree with my point of view, and I know lots of people that disagree with me on lots of things. :) But I do require that comments left here be consistent with the standard of good will and civil discussion. I won't allow my posts to serve as a platform for misinformation, trolling, abusive name-calling, or any of the other things that are all too common on the major social media sites.
Thank you, as usual, for your articulate account and shame on all involved in intimidation.