Who is Dee Perry / A Profile in Courage
Author George Weiss
- Published:
- 2026-05-21
- Retrieved:
- 2026-05-21
Weiss's profile of Board Clerk Dee Perry. Combines biographical material with first-person eyewitness reporting on a recent Thurston School pre-meeting protest, including an account of Perry being surrounded by demonstrators and falling, after which former board member Ketta Brown helped her into the meeting room. Weiss self-identifies as 'a fan of Dee Perry'; posture is board-majority-aligned.
Key points
- May 21, 2026 Substack profile of LBUSD Board Clerk Dee Perry by George Weiss.
- Opens with an eyewitness account of a Thurston School pre-meeting protest sparked by the Glass mutual-separation announcement and the Austin appointment, including Perry's fall after being surrounded by demonstrators and former board member Ketta Brown helping her up.
- Biographical: Perry's connection to Laguna Beach schools 'for more than 50 years'; 35-year LBUSD teaching career (1975-2010) across Thurston Middle School and Aliso, Top of the World, and El Morro elementary schools; foster mother of two and single parent of three; cancer diagnosis prompting early retirement.
- Revisits the December 2018 - March 2019 BB 9100 rotation dispute: 3-1 vote at the December 11, 2018 meeting reinstating Jan Vickers as president (Perry opposed; James Kelly absent); subsequent deletion of the rotation language; the missing video of the December 11 meeting, which the piece quotes resident Emil Monda calling 'chicanery.'
- Revisits the June 2019 vote (4-1, Perry dissenting) forming a subcommittee on confidential matters that excluded Perry following the Bresee email forwarding incident.
- Notes the June 17, 2022 Woman's Club of Laguna Beach 2022 Woman of the Year recognition for Perry (selected by ballot of 135 members).