Lodi Unified trustees receive strange mail

Early February is the time of year when many people begin receiving valentines in the mail from a few friends or family members.

However, one member of the Lodi Unified School District Board of Education was concerned this week when she received several pieces of red mail at her Morada home.

“I don’t know many people that would send me a valentine,” board vice president Susan Macfarlane said Friday.

Macfarlane received more than five red envelopes in her mailbox, that looked like the size of typical greeting cards, she said. Some had return addresses on them, and some did not. Not recognizing the addresses, she decided not to open them and left the parcels outside.

The next day, there was a new stack of them near her front door.

Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Macfarlane called board president Ron Freitas — a member of the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office — for advice. She learned that not only had Freitas received similar pieces of mail, but all seven board members had as well.

Some opened the mail, some did not, Macfarlane said. Freitas told her that if she was uneasy about receiving the envelopes, that she should report it to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.

“We got a call about some suspicious envelopes a board member received, and possibly contained a powdery substance,” said Officer Sandra Mendez, spokeswoman for the Sheriff ’s Office. “So Stockton Fire Department and our bomb squad responded, and it was determined they were glitter bombs meant to surprise, rather than harm.”

Macfarlane said she only wanted to make a report with the Sheriff ’s Office, but was told the agency takes these kinds of incidents very seriously.

While she has heard on social media that the mail was

“only glitter and she should get over it,” she said she did not find it funny.

“Valentines are supposed to convey a sense of fondness, caring and compassion,” Macfarlane said. “I don’t think these did that. This was not hate mail. I don’t think this was the proper way to get a point across though.”

Macfarlane would not confirm what the messages inside said, but said they implied the senders were unhappy.

“If someone is unhappy with us, or with something, there are better ways to air their grievances,” Macfarlane said. “They can speak at a board meeting, they can call me, or send me an email.”

Michelle Orgon, president of the Lodi Education Association, said her members send board members correspondences through the postal service every year around this time, whether they are postcards or letters.

While she was not aware of what each LEA member included in the Valentine’s Day correspondences, she said the intent has never been to cause distress or harm.

Orgon said the correspondences were a way to let LEA members tell board members how teachers were frustrated with not receiving a cost of living adjustment, or that they worried about the lack of a COVID-19 safety plan at each school site.

“We’ve done a letter and postcard campaign in the past,” Orgon said. “We have never, nor would we ever, endorse anything that would cause harm to anyone. We don’t encourage our teachers to work in that manner either.”

The Sheriff’s Office determined no harm was intended, Mendez said, and did not think there was enough cause to continue an investigation.