Tag: public schools

Mesa High School student barred from wearing military stole at graduation

A graduation controversy is unfolding at Arizona’s largest school district, Mesa Public Schools. School leaders won’t allow a senior at Mesa High School who is enlisted in the National Guard to wear a military stole at graduation on Thursday.

Daniela Rascon-Rivas earned the stole when she enlisted in the Arizona National Guard. “It would show my classmates that I am enlisted in the Army and that I am fighting for them, keeping our country safe from foreign and domestic enemies,” she says.

Rascon-Rivas says a Mesa High School administrator brought her down to the office last week to explain the district policy against wearing the stole at graduation. “I was disheartened. I was disappointed,” she says. “I felt betrayed.”

Mesa High sent Arizona’s Family a statement, reading in part, “Mesa High absolutely encourages families to bring their student’s stoles for photos and celebrations after the event.”

“I see no point in wearing it afterward,” Rascon-Rivas says. “The point of me wearing these stoles and cords is so that my classmates can see what I have accomplished and the accolades I have collected.”

Her father is also expressing disappointment. “When I got notice that she cannot wear the stole, that broke my heart,” says Jose Rascon.

Rascon-Rivas started a petition that’s gotten the attention of school board member Rachel Walden. “You get that one shot where you go up and grab your diploma and you do the handshake for the photo,” Walden says. “If she has her National Guard stole on, that’s going to make the night more meaningful for her. I think there’s no reason she shouldn’t be able to do that.”

Walden thinks the superintendent should step in and order the school administration to allow the military stoles on Thursday. “If they have to pull rank, then that’s what needs to be done,” she says. “Then we can address it permanently going forward by writing it into policy, if my colleagues on the board agree with that, we can pass a vote to update our policy.”

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Washington State Dems vote against informing parents about sexual assault of a child by a school employee

In a move that has sparked fierce backlash from Republican lawmakers and parental rights organizations, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed House Bill 1296 into law on Tuesday, effectively dismantling key provisions of Initiative 2081—a voter-backed parental rights initiative supported by over 454,000 Washingtonians.

HB 1296, sponsored and passed by the Democratic majority in the Legislature, revises the parental rights measure that was enacted with bipartisan support just one year ago. The original initiative outlined 15 rights for parents of public school students, including the right to be notified of academic, medical, safety, and law enforcement matters involving their children, and the right to access educational and medical records.

Critics say the new legislation guts the core of Initiative 2081. Among the most controversial changes:

  • Schools can delay parents from receiving information about their students and entirely removes access for parents receiving medical and mental health records. 
  • The bill removes the requirement to notify parents when their child receives medical services from government employees in schools. 
  • It allows government employees up to two days to notify parents that their child was the victim of a crime or sexual assault in school. 
  • The bill creates significant legal and bureaucratic hurdles for parents seeking to hold schools accountable when rights under I-2081 are violated.
  • The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is granted expanded authority to penalize school districts that fail to comply with its directives.

The bill passed along party lines, with every Republican legislator voting against it. Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn), a vocal opponent of HB 1296, denounced the measure as a “slap in the face to democracy” and criticized Democrats for overturning a measure they had previously supported. “We have seen a stunning amount of sexual misconduct and sexual assaults by educators in our schools just in the last year,” Couture said. He proposed an amendment that would have required immediate parental notification if a student was sexually abused by a school employee—an amendment Democrats voted down.

Let’s Go Washington, the citizen-led group that spearheaded the original initiative, issued a sharp rebuke following the bill’s signing. Founder Brian Heywood said in a statement to The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI, “This is a direct assault on parents and a damnation of Governor Ferguson’s claim to be a moderate for Washingtonians.” Heywood emphasized the group’s commitment to repealing the new law, stating, “We will do everything in our power to reverse this gutting of the Parental Rights Bill.”

The legislation has also drawn national attention. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called the changes “utterly insane,” while former President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social, claiming, “Washington State Democrats voted not to inform parents if a child is sexually abused by a school employee.” Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk also shared the news, amplifying conservative criticism.

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Oklahoma Schools to Teach Issue of Democratic Voter Fraud — Students Will Analyze 2020 Election Anomalies

Students in Oklahoma will soon be educated about the issue of Democratic voter fraud.

Under the direction of state School Supernintendent Ryan Walters, schools in Oklahoma must analyze the results of the 2020 presidential and the statistical anomalies that it presented.

According to one textbook, students will be asked to “identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results by looking at graphs and other information, including the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

The Gateway Pundit has led the way on exposing the 2020 election fraud, with countless analyses of the statistical impossibilities that took place on election night and (temporarily) allowed the Biden regime to deny President Trump a second term in office.

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Report: Judge Allows Iowa to Keep Restricting Gender Identity Teaching in Schools

A federal judge said Thursday that Iowa can continue to restrict teaching on gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary schools, per a report.

The restrictions affect children through sixth grade but the state must permit non-mandatory programs related to those issues, according to the Associated Press (AP). The outlet said it was a split decision by U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher.

He recently temporarily blocked part of the law that would bar school libraries from keeping books on their shelves that depict sexual acts. In response, the state requested the decision be overturned.

The AP article continued:

Republican majorities in the Iowa House and Senate passed the law in 2023, intending to reinforce what they consider to be age-appropriate education in kindergarten through 12th grades. It’s been a back-and-forth battle in the courts in the two years since. The provisions of the law that are being challenged were temporarily blocked by Locher in December 2023, just before they became enforceable. That decision was overturned in August by the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, meaning the law has been enforceable for most of the current school year.

Locher’s recent split decision partially sided with an LGBTQ advocacy group who, along with some educators and students, sued Iowa over the issue.

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Now woke schools teach pupils that Stonehenge was built by black people… while Waterloo and Trafalgar go untaught

Children are being taught that Stonehenge was built by black people and the Roman Emperor Nero married a trans woman as woke narratives increasingly infiltrate schools, according to an education think-tank.

They are also being told – in pro-transgender resources – that genital mutilation of slaves was a form of ‘gender transition’.

But landmark British victories such as those at Waterloo and Trafalgar go largely untaught – with as few as one in ten pupils learning about them.

A Policy Exchange investigation has warned that schools have ‘taken it too far’ as they adapt history curriculums in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.

The prestigious centre-Right unit found that George Floyd’s death in 2020 led to schools hastily including material about ethnic minorities to appear ‘anti-racist’.

Former history teacher and chairman of Campaign for Real Education Chris McGovern said it was ‘clear that the subject has been captured by the Left’.

The report added that some resources, such as the book Brilliant Black British History, push ‘contested narratives’ – such as black people building Stonehenge.

The book is marketed as ‘a must-have in any school library’ but its claim that early black Britons built the world-famous Neolithic stone circle is ‘hotly contested and outside mainstream historical thinking’ yet ‘presented as fact’, according to the think-tank.

While in some cases these initiatives have a ‘positive effect’, such as exposing pupils to ‘wider world history’, the report flagged serious concerns about replacing facts with biased narratives.

It warned: ‘In too many cases this process has gone too far, leading to the teaching of radical and contested interpretations of the past as fact, or with anecdotes of interesting lives replacing a deeper understanding of the core drivers of history.’

One resource, from the Classical Association’s ‘Queering the Past’ project, claims the Roman Emperor Nero married a trans woman called Sporus but omits the fact that they probably underwent a forced castration rather than consensual gender reassignment. 

It comes as the Government conducts its curriculum review to ‘reflect the issues and diversities of our society’ – which the report says may be unnecessary as schools already do it.

Backed by former education secretaries Lord Blunkett and Nadhim Zahawi, it also calls for pupils to be impartially given a better overview of British history.

A Classical Association spokesman said its teaching resources were ‘complicated and nuanced’ where ‘more than one interpretation is possible’.

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘The curriculum and assessment review is considering how to ensure young people have access to a broad and balanced curriculum.’

Meanwhile, Mr McGovern warned history is ‘seen as a vehicle for undermining and destroying British national identity’.

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Minneapolis ‘nonbinary’ leftist educator arrested on child sex crime charges after citizen sting

A radical nonbinary leftist educator has been arrested on child sex crime charges in Minneapolis. Preston Palmer, 35, an anti-police activist, was booked into Hennepin County Jail on Wednesday without bail. He has been charged with pornographic work involving minors, according to records.

Palmer, a third-grade substitute teacher at Sullivan STEAM school in Minneapolis, was busted during an undercover child sex sting conducted by citizen “child predator hunter” Alex Rosen. Palmer arrived at Brackett Park with the intention to meet a 13-year-old boy for sex, along with his father, according to Rosen, who claimed Palmer came with a flash drive that included more than 4,000 child pornographic images.

Palmer arranged the encounter with the person he believed was a minor boy, corresponding with him via text messages. However, the boy was Rosen posing as a 13-year-old child. After Palmer arrived at the park, Rosen confronted him and reported Palmer to authorities, resulting in the Minneapolis Park Police taking him into custody.

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Far Left Arizona Gov Katie Hobbs Vetoes Bill Requiring Public Schools to Include Instruction on the Gulf of America

Democrat Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed a Republican bill on Tuesday that would require public high schools to adhere to President Trump’s “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” executive order by including geography and instruction on the Gulf of America.

HB 2700 would add geography education in the State Board of Education’s high school social studies academic standards and require academic standards for geography to include instruction on the Gulf of America.

The far-left Democrat Governor doesn’t want students to have a comprehensive education on geography and current events, though.

Hobbs provided no reason for her veto in a letter to Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro, but did take a personal jab at Republicans in the state legislature for what she perceives as a refusal to “work together.”

Hobbs sent the following letter to Montenegro on Tuesday:

Speaker Montenegro,

Today, I vetoed House Bill 2700. Arizonans want us to work together to lower costs, secure the border, create jobs, and protect publie education. Instead of joining with me to do that, this Legislature has chosen to attempt to dictate how teachers refer to geographic features. I encourage you to refocus your time and energy on solving real problems for Arizonans.

In total, Hobbs reportedly vetoed 48 bills on Monday and Tuesday, and she is now five vetoes short of setting a new record.

It can be recalled that Hobbs broke the record for the most bills vetoed in a single session of the state legislature during her first year in office in 2023. Leftwing outlets dubbed her the “Veto Queen,” celebrating her stand against Republicans who represent a majority of Arizona. This is her only accomplishment as governor.

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Citizen journalist, who took his life after school district threatened him, vindicated in court

Citizen journalist Shawn McBreairty didn’t live to see his legal victory against a Maine school district for threatening to sue him for criticizing its alleged suppression of female student protests against a gender identity restroom policy, committing suicide two days after receiving what his lawyer called a “bogus” legal threat letter from a party’s lawyer.

But by granting summary judgment to McBreairty’s widow, Patricia, on behalf of his estate, and denying it to Brewer School Department and Superintendent Gregg Palmer, U.S. District Judge Lance Walker’s ruling is heartening McBreairty’s friends and allies in the parental rights movement and First Amendment law community.

The district’s anti-hazing, bullying and workplace bullying policies, implementing state law, did not apply to McBreairty or “oblige, compel, or justify the conduct by the Brewer School Department and its legal counsel that gave rise to this civil action,” Walker wrote.

He also mocked defendants’ argument that the legal threat letter sent by its “retained counsel” did not constitute “municipal action,” which “makes no sense” unless they are “toying with the notion” that law firm Drummond Woodsum – whose website opens with a land acknowledgment to indigenous people –”acted at their own direction.”

Nothing gave the district or its counsel “license to threaten litigation whenever someone unaffiliated with the public schools speaks critically about a matter of public interest occurring in the schools and, in the process, identifies students or staff and criticizes them,” the blistering ruling by the President Trump nominee says.

“I’ve never cried over a win before … [sic] but I’ve never fought a case to ensure that my friend’s legacy was that of a winner,” lawyer Marc Randazza, a First Amendment legend with a colorful client list who has represented McBreairty in four cases involving school districts, wrote on X. “Shawn, I miss you bro.”

He prevailed for McBreairty in a 2022 lawsuit against Regional School Unit 22, which paid him $40,000 for banning McBreairty from school board meetings based on his criticism of sexualized books in the school library, particularly one that Breairty repeatedly said featured “hardcore anal sex.”

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied McBreairty standing last year, however, when he sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against RSU 22’s ban on “complaints or allegations” against school employees at school board meetings.

Randazza told Just the News Friday it’s been a “bittersweet couple of days” but he’s getting ready for trial on McBreairty’s claims that the Brewer district violated his civil rights under federal Section 1983 and the comparable provision under the Maine Constitution.

He’s seeking damages before the “politically diverse population” of Portland. “Sometimes it’s a lot more fun to have one of these things in front of a jury.”

The Center for American Liberty sponsored McBreairty’s lawsuit before its founder, Republican superlawyer Harmeet Dhillon, became assistant attorney general for civil rights in the second Trump administration. “His widow fought on and today she, Shawn, and we all won as the First Amendment prevailed,” Dhillon wrote on X.

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‘Beyond belief’: Trans athlete records students inside locker room, now all hell breaks loose

Virginia Republicans Gov. Glenn Youngkin and state Attorney General Jason Miyares launched an investigation into Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Tuesday after several male students expressed discomfort with a female student using the boys’ locker room.

The district reportedly opened a Title IX investigation into the three boys attending Stone Bridge High School, questioning whether they perpetrated sexual harassment by complaining about the girl’s presence, according to ABC7 News.

The girl, who had allegedly used the boys locker room several times before, also purportedly filmed “the reaction of male students” during the incident, per to the AG’s press release.

“It’s deeply concerning to read reports of yet another incident in Loudoun County schools where members of the opposite sex are violating the privacy of students in locker rooms,” Youngkin said.

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A law that helped convert Indigenous people is now used to get churches near—and on—school grounds

Earlier this year, a small school district just north of Tucson made an unusual decision: It would allow the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build a complex on public school district grounds where students could be released from class to worship.

But the project quickly unraveled. A few weeks later, the Vail Unified School District reversed course, saying the church canceled the contract after local media reports and secular groups criticized the plan. Still, the construction of religious buildings near schools for the temporary release of students to practice their faith has become a growing concern of church-state separation advocates, who argue it violates legal requirements that keep public schools secular.

In Arizona and several other states, ‘release time’ for religious instruction is not only legal—it’s common.

State law allows students to be excused from school during the day to participate in religious instruction off campus. In the case of LDS students, these classes often include lifestyle lessons. They are typically held in buildings just outside campus boundaries, sometimes only a few hundred feet away.

Religious conservatives have pushed to expand release-time programs nationwide, arguing there is no need to separate religion from daily education. Here, such programs are only growing more popular.

Arizona’s history with religious release time

More than a dozen states currently require school districts to adopt release-time policies.

Most recently, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, signed a bill in February mandating school districts create a release-time policy after two districts rescinded theirs. Previously, Ohio law didn’t require districts to offer the program. The new law, known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, also bans discussions of sexuality or gender identity before fourth grade.

The Guardian reported that the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, designated an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has helped draft model legislation for states to expand release-time programs. This gives parents more authority over their children’s ‘moral and religious’ upbringing, often limiting exposure to diverse communities and families.

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