The Coast News INLAND EDITION
.com
VISTA, SAN MARCOS, ESCONDIDO
VOL. 7, N0. 19
SEPT. 16, 2022
Vista High locker room incidents eyed ‘Disturbing’ allegations against football players; head coach put on leave By Laura Place
BOBBIN FOR GRAPE
Jennifer Ewing gives a bobbin lace demonstration at Escondido’s Grape Day Festival on Sept. 10. Thousands turned out at Grape Day Park for the event, which began in 1908 but was last held in 2018. Story on 9. Photo by Samantha Nelson
CSUSM wins grants to expand Arson suspect caught on camera door, and then fleeing STEM outreach to local schools the scene. By Staff
SAN MARCOS — Cal State San Marcos physics professor Ed Price has received two grants that will further his longstanding efforts to increase access to scientific education to students from all backgrounds. The first is a five-year, $1.49 million grant from the National Science Foun- PRICE dation that will extend and expand CSUSM’s Mobile Making program, through which undergraduates in STEM majors are dispatched to local middle schools to deliver science lessons to mostly underrepresented students. The second is a threeyear, $480,000 grant from NASA to create an “aerospace academy” for local high school students, many of them from low-income
backgrounds. Both programs will operate through the Center for Research and Engagement in STEM Education (CRESE), for which Price is the faculty director and co-founder. “Working in our community and working with students to whom these opportunities historically have been denied, that’s something that’s really important to me,” Price said. “And one of the things I love about being at Cal State San Marcos is that we’re in a great position to do something about that.” The NSF grant builds on a similar one that CSUSM received five years ago that established CRESE and the Mobile Making program. The new grant continues the practice of sending STEM ambassadors into local schools to lead science experiments and other TURN TO STEM ON 5
A STILL from video surveillance shows a man setting a fire outside the door of San Marcos View Estates on Aug. 10. The Sheriff’s Department is seeking the public’s assistance to identify the suspect. Courtesy photo By Laura Place
SAN MARCOS — The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is seeking the public’s assistance to identify a man wanted in connection with an arson incident in San Marcos last month. According to the department, the arson
occurred just before midnight on Aug. 10 in the 100 block of South Rancho Santa Fe Road. Surveillance video shows a man wearing a black and white flannel, blue jeans and white shoes approaching the office of San Marcos View Estates and setting a large blaze outside the
The arson/bomb unit of the Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene and is investigating. The fire caused $3,000 worth of damage to the business’s front office, including black burns to the doorway. No one was injured, according to the Sheriff’s Department. Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact the San Diego County Sheriff's Department at 858-565-5200. Residents can also contact Crime Stoppers, which is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone with information that leads to an arrest in the case, via their tip line at 888-5808477. “Someone out there knows the suspect. You might recognize him from his build, clothing or the way he walks,” Sheriff’s officials said.
VISTA — The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and Vista Unified School District have each launched investigations into recent allegations of misconduct by members of the Vista High School football team in the school locker room, with head coach David Bottom on administrative leave for the time being. On Tuesday evening, officials with the Sheriff’s Department and school district shared that they have determined that the incidents did not involve a sexual assault, but that they are continuing their investigations. Vista High School officials first sent a letter to parents on Sept. 7, stating that they had received “deeply disturbing” allegations about misconduct involving football players in the locker room that occurred in late August, just before Labor Day weekend. In addition to a Sheriff’s Department investigation into a possible crime, the district has hired an outside investigator to determine whether the incident is isolated or whether misconduct is an ongoing issue within the football program. “We determined that in addition to the sheriff’s investigation, we are going to look at the entire football program to make sure there was no pervasiveness to this, that it wasn’t an ongoing thing,” Vista High School Principal David Jaffe told parents Monday. In a statement on Tuesday, Superintendent Matthew Doyle said the varsity head football coach will be on leave until the investigation of the football program is complete, with another coach to assume his responsibilities in the meantime. District officials are speaking with students and reviewing video evidence, according to Jaffe. The district’s investigation is expected to be completed by the end of the week. A video circulating on social media, purported to be of the inTURN TO VISTA HIGH ON 18