David Mobley

David Mobley, principal of Desert Trails Elementary School, receives signed petitions from parents. He said the conflict among parents has filtered to the students, who have begun fighting as well.(Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times / January 12, 2012)

Julie Rodriguez wanted improvement — but not a wholesale change of staff — at her children's school in the High Desert community of Adelanto. So late last year she signed what she thought was a petition, circulated by parents she considered friends, for more programs and better teachers.

But she learned that what she actually signed was a petition to convert Desert Trails Elementary School into a charter campus, a change she says she had specifically told