UPDATE FROM RIA: on June 16, after we published this story, Dee Beattie sent a statement to New West Anchor affirming she was behind the ‘@alfromnw’ Twitter account.

I have chosen to keep the rest of the story as is for context, and am creating a separate link to gather all the new details that have since emerged. You can find the updated story here.

That being said, the piece below makes reference to inappropriate comments made via the ‘@alfromnw’ burner account, and speaks of the allegations before Ms. Beattie affirmed them.

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A parent based in New Westminster has taken to Twitter to allege in a thread that a school board trustee has been harassing her through what is commonly known as a burner account.

Now, New West Schools has confirmed it is looking into those claims.

School trustee Dee Beattie, who was elected under the Community First banner in October 2022, and was endorsed by groups like the New West and District Labour Council and BC Building Trades, is alleged by Sarah Siegel—whose real name is Sarah Arboleda—to be behind a now-deleted account that sent offensive tweets.

Arboleda’s thread, which identifies the alleged Twitter burner account as Allan Whitterstone (@alfromnw), was posted on the evening of Wednesday, June 14, and named Beattie—whose full name is Dolores Anita Beattie—in the multi-tweet post.

“From our perspective—me and my husband—Twitter is Twitter, so having a random person say things to you is par for the course. And then it became this increasing thing of, ‘Why is this one random, seemingly older gentleman… so hooked on school board politics?’” Arboleda explains. She and her partner James Plett are no strangers to the school board realm—both have voiced concerns about a number of board of education issues, including word that New West’s Downtown neighbourhood would be losing dozens of daycare spaces.

“It wasn’t every day I was logging on to the Wayback Machine to figure this out, but it was more, ‘what’s going on here,’ little by little [with] this Allan stuff,” she notes, saying it was something that built up each time the account tweeted at her.

As an example, on Dec. 13, 2022, Arboleda tweeted about attending a New West school board meeting.

In response, @alfromnw tweeted to Arboleda: “Oh yes, the privilege of having daycare, but I need to travel 2 miles on a bus and it will ruin my life. Those parents should try living in Syria [and] then we can talk about hardship.”

Arboleda also points to examples of harassment not related to the school board, but to the trades. Plett is a worker in the trades.

“[Allan]…states that all tradesmen (like my husband) bully women,” Arboleda says in another tweet, adding a screengrab from the @alfromnw account, referring to an interaction where Plett wanted clarity on when the school board’s meeting agendas would be published.

A few days after Plett’s tweet—on Feb. 2, 2023—the @alfromnw account tweeted, “sounds like you have a stick stuck somewhere and you need to attack women who you feel wronged you. Grow up. Who cares when they get there (sic) package? Typical tradesman bully behaviour against women.”

‘Rabbit hole moment’

Arboleda claims in her thread that the @alfromnw account—during an interaction about the aforementioned daycare issue—posted a screenshot of a bus route between Qayqayt Elementary and one of the new daycare locations, F.W. Howay Elementary.

She also made note of a third point on the map screenshot that shows a blue dot in the Sapperton area. In Google searches, such dots can sometimes appear to mark the searcher’s current location. “Unfortunately for [Dee Beattie], that location matched her address exactly,” Arboleda writes in her Twitter thread.

Arboleda explained that, through other tweets, she was able to figure out that @alfromnw’s previous handle was @blueowlterrace, and that googling “@blueowlterrace” led to an account that used the nickname “Deelightful.”

“Eventually that one piece of location data I’d tweeted about from the Google Maps screenshot, I’d seen it a few months after [Allan] tweeted it, and I had this moment of being like, ‘Hey, wait a second.’

Arboleda went online to the City of New Westminster’s election profiles, found the declaration papers for Beattie, and noted she’d provided a Sapperton address.

“If you want to talk about your rabbit hole moment, that was definitely the point where suddenly the pieces fit into place.”

Who is Dee Beattie?

According to the City of New Westminster’s most recent election candidate profile, Beattie was voted onto school board in 2018. The Sapperton resident spent 25 years working as an education assistant.

“[Beattie] understands the pressures of the system to grow and adapt to meet the needs of students, and a priority to overcome barriers to learn in our changing world is what Dee has demonstrated and is committed to. Dee is actively researching and advocating opportunities to provide more before/after childcare opportunities for New West families,” the profile states.

Beattie also serves as the school liaison for New Westminster Secondary School and Skwo:wech Elementary. She is also a member of both the Anti-Racism Advisory and the Aboriginal Education committees.

This is the second issue to have recently hit the New West school board: Trustee Gurveen Dhaliwal, who began her most recent term as chair last October, stepped away from the leadership role. A special prosecutor is looking into whether Dhaliwal should be charged in connection with an incident related to last October’s election.

“On May 4, 2023, Mr. John M. Gordon KC was appointed special prosecutor in relation to an investigation of an election candidate, Ms. Gurveen Dhaliwal, who was ultimately elected as a member of the Board of Education for New Westminster Schools, for being present at a voting place as a scrutineer. On May 1, 2023, Ms. Dhaliwal was appointed as a ministerial advisor to the Minister of Health,” the BC Prosecution’s statement reads. 

As of deadline, Dhaliwal is still on the school board, but Maya Russell is now chair.

‘[Beattie] has vehemently denied any personal involvement’

Upon notification about the allegations, New West Anchor reached out to the New West and District Labour Council, New West Schools, Community First, and Beattie to request an interview and/or a statement.

On Thursday afternoon, New West Schools shared a statement with The Anchor, in which it noted it was looking into the allegations.

“The claim made by a local parent is suggesting that Trustee Beattie has been using a fake Twitter account to make inappropriate comments about or towards members of our wider school community. Our Board takes these matters very seriously and we have immediately started an investigation,” reads the statement, which was signed off by now-chair Maya Russell.

“Our Trustee Code of Conduct includes our commitment to ensuring that all members of the Board, in all Board-related matters, conduct themselves with proper decorum and respect for others. That’s something we’re committed to in all of our work, including through our online interactions with members of our school communities,” it goes on to say.

“We will provide an update when we have more information.”

Community First chair Cheryl Greenhalgh says that she, Beattie, and Community First hope this situation can be cleared up as soon as possible.

“Community First takes allegations of bullying very seriously. [Beattie] has vehemently denied any personal involvement in the @alfromnw twitter account. We are working to try and identify the individual responsible for that account and ask them to come forward in a timely manner,” notes Greenhalgh.

“From an emotional standpoint,” says Arboleda, “I’ve gotta be honest with you, I’m really angry, and I’m really sad and frustrated, and tired. Often, on a very, very basic level, often what ‘Allan’ was doing was laughing at us for being upset about [the daycare issue]… not just moving this daycare, but we had a difficult choice to make.”

Arboleda recounts the discussions she had with Plett about what their daycare situation would look like and how their family would be impacted.

“Do I quadruple my commute? Or do I uproot my kid from loving educators to a new environment that maybe isn’t going to work as well?” Arboleda adds, noting that she was also worried about the educators who took care of the children—who would also have to change their commute.

“[This Twitter account] felt like a betrayal.”

Arboleda has filed a complaint with New West Schools.

As for Community First’s response to the claims, Arboleda says she still has questions.

“Even [if Allan is not a real person], why would ‘Allan’ delete his… account if they’re being misidentified?”

When The Anchor asked Arboleda whether this instance involving “Allan” would deter her from speaking out about her concerns, she noted this particular case wasn’t the be-all-end-all catalyst.

“We have felt unwelcome at these meetings… it won’t deter me, but if I’m perfectly honest, I’m concerned about the reception I will receive on Tuesday.”

The next school board meeting is scheduled for June 20 at 7pm.