As a Weston Ranch parent Alison Ordner was stunned when she believed was slandered, threatened and cyber-bullied when she tried to raise a concern. 

But it was who she claims she was pushed around by that really shocked the one-time Manteca Unified school board candidate and mother of four. 

Board trustee Ashley Drain. 

Just minutes after former Manteca Unified trustee and Stockton City Councilman Dale Fritchen picked apart Drain for comments she publicly made on her social media account, Ordner spoke out against what she said was an organized smear campaign that started when she took up a position that was in contrast with one that Drain represented. 

The experience troubled Ordner to the point that she requested that that the board “take action” and that Drain “cease and desist” immediately. 

When Drain tried to speak up to address the accusations she was hushed first by Manteca Unified Superintendent Jason Messer, who sits next to her on the dais, and then by Board President Deborah Romero who told her that it was a “legal” issue. 

Romero then looked at Ordner and said that she was sorry. 

Fritchen, who represented Weston Ranch during his tenure on the board, took issue with Drain’s comments about the district as a whole and some of the employees that work within it – comments, he said, that are counter-productive to the overall mission of creating an environment that’s best for the students. 

And he was armed with specific examples. 

While others have had broad spectrum complaints about Drain that have been voiced in the past, Fritchen pinpointed specific statements that she has posted on social media sites such as Facebook that slammed the very schools and the very staff members he said served his children well during their tenure as Manteca Unified students. And while he ran out of time, Fritchen said that he’s already preparing to request documents that further reveal internal communications and the way that Drain operates as a board member – shedding light on the Ordner saga and others since she has taken her oath of office. 

The packed room, which featured a standing-room only crowd, erupted into applause when he finished his five-minutes at the lectern. While at any other meeting he would typically be able to request more time to speak, the sheer number of people in attendance forced Romero to keep every speaker to the five-minute limit.