10 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY february 9-15, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com news For over 200 years, ships at sea have used colorful flags to communicate with passing vessels or a nearby shoreline. Monterey City Manager Hans Uslar flew his own flag to the cruise ship industry, signaling his belief the city should stop providing shore services to disembarking passengers. Uslar says the $1.5 million the visits generate annually aren’t worth it in the face of a possible environmental “Black Swan” disaster that could shut down the city’s hospitality industry. Uslar’s concern over the presence of cruise ships in the ecologically sensitive Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary grew as the city was coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns that crippled local hotels and visitor-serving businesses, costing the city millions in tax revenues. “This is not a risk we should take anymore,” Uslar remembers thinking. He weighed the estimated annual economic benefit of $1.5 million brought in through cruise ship passengers visiting against the potential of hundreds of millions in damages to the city should the hospitality industry shut down for an extended period. In a report to the Monterey City Council in January, he asked for the authority to end providing shore services—the cost of which is reimbursed by the cruise ship companies— which include following required U.S. Department of Homeland Security procedures for checking passengers as they disembark for a few hours. His request drew an immediate response from Cruise Lines International Association President and CEO Kelly Craighead. “Our cruise line members set a high bar for themselves, and they attest to follow policies for practices related [to] shipboard Signal Flag Fear of ecological disaster prompts Monterey City Council to end cruise ship services. By Pam Marino Tuesday, Feb. 7 was chilly for an outdoor meeting, but that did not deter dozens of parents from attending a 9am discussion of the board of the Carmel Unified School District. Many remarked upon the cold while most of the meeting took place behind closed doors, with just one item on the day’s agenda: a discussion about a personnel matter. The board unanimously voted in closed session to remove Jon Lyons as principal of Carmel High School by the end of the 2022-23 school year. He remains employed by the district, but has been on leave since Dec. 16. He will be reassigned to a different position pending the outcome of an external investigation, in which two investigators are looking into accusations of the mishandling of complaints related to alleged misconduct, one looking at staff, one at students. “This internal investigation uncovered behavior that is detrimental to the safety of Carmel High students and staff,” CUSD Superintendent Ted Knight wrote in a letter to the campus community after the board meeting. With a subsequent external investigation still ongoing, details remain sparse. The initial investigation was forwarded to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, the District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department. In 2021, the school newspaper The Sandpiper reported that dozens of former and current students shared allegations of sexual assault and harassment on social media, and that many students felt their allegations were overlooked. Itzél Rios-Ellis, a 2020 graduate, sparked a conversation on sexual abuse and harassment when she shared her story on Instagram while she was a sophomore at Carmel High, and encouraged others to do the same. “Carmel Unified has, unfortunately, been plagued with a longstanding, systemic issue of failure in both the reporting and investigation of employee, student and community complaints involving sexual harassment,” Knight, who is also CUSD’s Title IX coordinator and civil rights compliance officer, wrote in his letter. “I was asked to come in here and fix this and put processes in place,” Knight says in an interview. “What I’ve uncovered is years of neglect, years of systemic failure. I am not going to allow it to continue. “I think that’s making some people uncomfortable; they would rather defame me.” That’s where what looks like a personnel matter detours into broader divisions in the CUSD community. About 20 parents spoke to the board, mostly in support of keeping Lyons; some claim Lyons is facing retaliation for proper handling of student and staff complaints. Several parents are calling upon the board to terminate Knight. A sheriff’s deputy was called at the end of the meeting to ask people to leave. Knight says he is in the process of looking for an attorney to represent him, for potential defamation and also for his own employment at CUSD. The district is no stranger to turnover: Knight was hired in 2021, the sixth superintendent in six years. Lyons also attended the meeting on Feb. 7 and sat in the first row, stone-faced and wearing a gray blazer. He says he is disappointed by the board’s decision and doesn’t know what he will do next. “I’m worried about my own children,” Lyons says of his kids, who are current CUSD students. Jon Lyons attends a Feb. 7 meeting of the Carmel Unified School District board regarding his employment status. He served as CHS principal from 2019 to 2022. School Blues Carmel High School principal removed from his position, amid uproar from parents. By Celia Jiménez Cruise ship visits increased in Monterey Bay between 2018 and 2019. Some used skiffs to deliver passengers to Fisherman’s Wharf, where city staff followed federal check-in procedures. “What I’ve uncovered is years of systemic failure.” Daniel Dreifuss nic coury signal continued on page 12
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