By Alexander Lomax
There’s a unique kind of embarrassment that comes with being a Scottsdale resident when your school district makes national news—and it’s not for academic excellence.
Victor Michael Bobbett, Scottsdale Unified’s art director since 2018, was arrested in late January for allegedly attempting to smuggle four people into the U.S. for $12,000. According to federal court documents, he saw cash on someone’s Snapchat story, asked how they made it, and was recruited to transport undocumented individuals from near the border to Phoenix. He got lost driving in circles before Tohono O’odham police pulled him over: water bottles and blankets in his trunk, an admission on his lips.
The whole thing reads like a cautionary tale about social media and desperation. What drives someone with a stable job, an award-winning career in school public relations, and nearly eight years at a well-regarded district to risk it all for quick money? Financial stress? Poor judgment? A fundamental misunderstanding of consequences? We may never fully know. But for those of us who send our kids to SUSD schools, who voted on levies and attended board meetings, it stings.
The school board’s decision to accept his resignation rather than terminate him raised eyebrows. Board members expressed discomfort, but the district’s counsel pushed for the resignation to sever ties immediately; pragmatic perhaps, but unsatisfying for those seeking accountability.
Here’s what I want my fellow Scottsdalians to remember: this doesn’t define our schools. Bobbett worked in communications, not classrooms. He created graphics and marketing materials; important work, but he wasn’t shaping curriculum or teaching children. The district followed proper hiring procedures with clean background checks.
Our teachers are still showing up every day. Our students are still learning, competing, creating. Scottsdale Unified remains a district with strong academics, dedicated staff, and invested families. One individual’s catastrophic lapse in judgment, shocking as it is, doesn’t erase that.
Still, it’s a reminder that we need to stay vigilant, keep asking questions, and hold our institutions accountable. Our kids deserve better than to see their district’s name attached to a federal smuggling case.
But they also deserve to walk into schools that are still excellent tomorrow.