BHUSD Watch: A Post-Launch FAQ
Pictured: BHUSD Watch HQ when a new Board meeting agenda drops.
Well, it’s certainly been a wild first couple of weeks for our humble little website.
To begin, thank you to everyone who shared our piece on the BHUSD Board’s shameful August output. The reception has been overwhelmingly positive, and (according to our whisper network) appears to have gotten our work into the right hands. Naturally, that development set off alarm bells for some of Beverly Hills’ entrenched power brokers, as well as supporters of the Board members we portrayed in a less-than-flattering manner. We’ve seen the rampant speculation about this website’s provenance, who’s behind it, and what our aims are. This post is dedicated to setting the record straight.
Well, mostly.
Q1: What Is The Purpose Of This Website?
We have a lovely mission statement linked in our main navigation menu. You can’t miss it!
Q2: Who is Behind BHUSD Watch?
We are parents who live in Beverly Hills and have children enrolled in BHUSD.
Beyond that, what does it matter?
Yes, we have seen the entreaties for us to emerge from anonymity. We are aware that many people within the city, both supporters and detractors of our work, are keen for us to put names and faces to our advocacy. We remain unconvinced that doing so is necessary or wise at this time. Anonymous advocacy has a storied history in the United States, and we place ourselves firmly within that tradition. As reflected in our mission statement, we do not believe in the “trust me, bro” school of argument. Therefore, our identities add nothing to what we publish and are irrelevant to our purposes.
“Every piece of reporting will be backed by cold hard receipts — documents, screen captures, video clips — that serve to substantiate the facts proffered and conclusions reached. Where opinions are given, they will be fully informed by the relevant evidence, and readers can decide for themselves if two plus two equals four.”
We do not want people reading (much less believing) BHUSD Watch because of who we are. Too much of Beverly Hills’ local politics is personality-based and network-driven as it is.
What we offer is a transparent clearinghouse for structured evidence and argument. The arguments will only be as good as the evidence supporting them, and that evidence will not — or, at least, should not — be deemed more or less compelling based on the presence of any particular byline. We will not be using “lived experience” or unique personal knowlege to justify the positions we take. If you review the receipts we gather and present across BHUSD Watch , you will have all the information you need to come to your own conclusions.
We simply hope that they will align with our own.
Q3: Okay, But What Are You Afraid Of?
In short? Retaliation.
As a general rule, this website will avoid freestanding attacks against Board members (meaning attacks disconnected from specific acts undertaken by those Board members). However, we cannot assume the Board members being scrutinized will appreciate that they signed up for this scrutiny. We have even less faith in their most ardent supporters, at least some of whom have begun witch hunts to ferret out our identities with pledges of reprisal.
We are not under the illusion that we can or will stay anonymous forever. If and when we are outed, we will continue to stand by every word published. But if we don’t need our names to make these arguments, nobody else needs our names, nor our children’s names, to rebut them. We invite our detractors to register bhusdwatchwatch.com and have at it.
Q4: Are Any Board Members “Off Limits”?
The BHUSD Board has five elected members. None are infallible or beyond reproach. However, we do not see ourselves as beholden to some sort of bastardized Fairness Doctrine wherein each Board member must receive the same level of criticism. Our intention is to call balls and strikes irrespective of who is up to bat. If any Board member acts in a manner that we believe is antithetical to the best interests of Beverly Hills, we will make it known.
With that said, our “bias” is front and center in our mission statement. The current Board is not populated with equal opportunity offenders. Two of them, with the occasional misstep, have maintained a largely unobjectionable tenure and conducted themselves with dignity. The three others, however, have misstepped so hard and with such frequency that it’s a wonder their femurs haven’t burst out of their legs and rocketed off into the sky.
BHUSD Watch was founded in large part because there was no central repository of information to easily explain just how stark the divide between these two camps is. As a result, we expect the vast majority of our coverage will be focused on the Board’s problem children. If their ranks swell, it will unfortunately mean the problem has gotten worse.
Q5: Are You Profiting Off This Website?
Unlike a certain Board member, we’re not trying to turn our advocacy for BHUSD into a profit center. This website is a hobby. Our writers have full-time jobs and enough spare income to pay hosting costs. We have no interest in taking on advertisers or sponsors. If you ever see us pushing online casinos or minting NFTs, it means we’ve been hacked.
That said, let us know if you’d like a merch store. Maybe some BHUSD Watch pennants?***
*** DISCLAIMER: Do not fly them on BHUSD grounds. Board policy and all.
Q6: How Often Will You Be Posting?
As noted earlier, this website is a hobby, and our writers have full-time jobs outside of BHUSD Watch. Given the in-depth nature of our work and refusal to employ an army of clankers, this means our posting schedule may be slightly sporadic. However, we currently aim to publish at least one major investigatory piece every month, with shorter pieces pushed out as current events may warrant. At time of writing, we have four articles in various stages of completion.
(If you have any fun ideas for future articles, hit the tip line.)
Q7: Aren’t You Worried About Libelslander?
While it would admittedly be very funny if any of our writing provoked litigation, we make extremely clear that everything written on BHUSD Watch is simply opinion based upon disclosed facts. If you don’t agree with our opinions, that’s perfectly fine, but we’re not implying knowledge of anything beyond the facts we’ve disclosed, and we feel confident any competent court would agree with that assessment. If anyone from BHUSD would like to try their luck at a LOLsuit regardless, we’re fully prepared to greet them with a nice firm SLAPP.
Q8: How Can I Make Sure I Don’t Miss a Post?
Q9: Can I Share Feedback With You?
Sure! We can be reached at tips@bhusdwatch.com. But keep it clean, folks.
Q10: Why Is There a Superfluous 10th Question?
Ten just felt like a nice even number to end on.
Here’s a reward for making it to the bottom of the page: