District keeps tabs on dissenting parents

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif., July 11 (UPI) -- A California school district has been keeping detailed information on parents and teachers involved in a recall effort, the Orange County Register reports.

The effort to oust the board in the Capistrano Unified School District failed when election officials said that recall proponents had not obtained enough valid signatures.

But officials are still concerned about it. The newspaper said that documents show lists of schools attended by the children of recall supporters.

David Smollar, who resigned as chief of communications in May, said that Superintendent James Fleming ordered him to withhold spreadsheets with data on the recall when parents made a freedom of information request.

Fleming described Smollar as "disgruntled."

"This is Nixonish," said Kevin Murphy of San Juan Capistrano, a parent who spearheaded the recall. "This is little kids. There's not even a situation where anybody on the planet could not think this is unbelievably wrong."