![\"Fresno](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788991208_45_Thomas_Arax.jpg\" "\\"Fresno")
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Fresno Unified School Board member Keisha Thomas, left, with former Bullard High football coach Donnie Arax, right, in a composite photo.<\/p>\n
ERIC PAUL ZAMORA<\/p>\n
ezamora@fresnobee.com<\/p>\n
The Fresno Unified school board meets in closed session Wednesday to discuss the defamation lawsuit against Trustee Keshia Thomas.<\/p>\n
While the agenda does not reveal exactly what will be discussed, past public comments from the district indicate the board may discuss whether to keep paying her personal legal bills.<\/p>\n
The district and Thomas are defendants in a defamation lawsuit by former Bullard High School football coach Don Arax. In a 2022 podcast, Thomas alleged Arax used a racial slur against her son years ago at a football camp. Arax denied the allegation and filed a lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Here are key takeawaysMediation last week in front of retired California Supreme Court Justice Carlos R. Moreno failed to produce a settlement, clearing the way for a Dec. 7 trial<\/a>.The district filed a motion asking for an early judgment in the case, which could excuse them from the lawsuit. A hearing is set for Oct. 7.Fresno Unified has spent roughly $370,000 defending the district and Thomas \u2014 $235,330 for the district and $134,421 for Thomas personally through June 9 \u2014 with trustees signaling they may reconsider covering her personal legal costs<\/a>.Thomas\u2019 son, Albert Alford Jr., filed a sworn declaration July 27 stating former Bullard High football coach Don Arax never used a racial slur against him and that at age 14 he told his mother a version of events that \u201cwasn\u2019t true.\u201d<\/a>Thomas issued a formal apology to Arax and his family<\/a> on Aug. 18 after the Fresno Teachers Association called for her resignation, but she has refused to step down or exit her Nov. 3 City Council race against Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula.Thomas made the accusation on a 2022 GV Wire podcast, saying Arax used a slur against her middle-school-age son at a 2013 football camp; Arax denied it, left Bullard and sued for defamation<\/a>.Fresno County Superior Court Judge Kristi Culver Kapetan denied Thomas\u2019 motion to be dismissed in July, noting inconsistencies in her 2025 deposition that could raise issues at trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n This story was originally published September 9, 2026 at 1:36 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno Unified School Board member Keisha Thomas, left, with former Bullard High football coach Donnie Arax, right, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-458647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}