I was actually horrified by his behavior. By his own admission, he’d sent offensive and blatantly threatening letters as his very first step when he didn’t get what he wanted; twisted the facts to create a “conspiracy” that clearly didn’t exist; and had actually refused a requested face-to-face meeting to resolve the situation. And he posted all this openly, as if he expected people to read this and sympathize with him.

For anyone who may have read his letter and felt concern about the fairness of the district’s child-care policies, I can assure you that any reasonable person who took this man’s bait and read his Web site would have immediately realized that there was no conspiracy to be found there — only an angry and overreactive parent who clearly has never heard the phrase, “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.”

It is entirely possible that Mr. Sheehan and his daughter were not, in fact, treated fairly with regard to their child-care requests. However, this could not be ascertained by his recounting of the sequence of events, especially in light of the fact that, according to his Web site, he was refusing to have contact with anyone other than through e-mail, and all of his e-mails included brazen and highly inappropriate threats.

I noticed that his Web site was taken down as of Thursday morning, so I hope this indicates a move toward resolution.

In the future, I would hope that The Star would do a little research before printing a letter from an individual with a grudge that blatantly besmirches someone’s reputation, with no facts to back it up. The Star’s own posted policies regarding letters to the editor state: “The letters column is not a forum for the airing of private disputes, or to challenge a parking ticket or a government action that pertains to a single individual.” It seems to me that, in this case, this policy was blatantly breached, to the detriment of several school district officials. If you ask me, an apology is in order.

— LeeAnne Clark, Thousand Oaks