Michelle Petersen was sitting in her home office a few days before the November election when her computer began blowing up with urgent messages.
The PTA president and political novice was running for a seat on the San Ramon Valley school board in this affluent slice of the east Bay Area. Supporters wanted to alert her: A report was circulating — on social media and an email blast to elected officials throughout the county — that Petersen had lost her firefighting job over a phony disability claim.
That's not true. Petersen retired, voluntarily, after her son was born.
