People have woken up to the fundamentalist Christian right take over. When these people first stormed the school boards and town councils they claimed they represented the people, the community and everyone was fed up with the liberal woke modern age. They claimed everyone wanted to return to 1950 strict gender roles and stereotypes. Now their lies are being exposed. Only they wanted that, and they are a small minority that do not represent their communities or the will of the people. Still, it looks like one of the hyper religious sleeper candidates did get elected, but not enough of them to take over the board. Keep up the good work of keeping fundamentalist from taking over the country as a Christian Taliban. Hugs. Scottie
Preliminary results from Tuesday’s election shows Childs’ ‘traditional side’ platform failed to sway enough voters to his cause
Matthew Childs, who campaigned on a conservative stance, lost his bid for a school board seat. (Rachel Mipro/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — St. Marys Mayor Matthew Childs, who previously attempted to ban LGBTQ books from the city’s public library, lost on his school board bid.
Tuesday’s election saw several candidates from the religion-dominated area attempt to win school board seats on the USD 321 Kaw Valley School Board.
The district, which oversees Rossville and St. Marys public schools, spreads across several counties. Election officials in Shawnee, Pottawatomie and Jackson counties worked together to calculate the final results for the board’s open seats, leading to some initial confusion over the final results.
Elias Espinoza and Jodi Porter were elected to the board. Porter, up against Childs, won the position with 53% of the vote to Childs’ 47%, garnering 1,425 votes to Childs’ 1,281 votes. Childs did not immediately respond to Reflector inquiries.
All of the November election results are unofficial until a final canvass on Nov. 14.
“We are in a culture war which is increasingly threatening the welfare of children especially,” Childs said in a September candidate profile by the Times of Pottawatomie County. “I am unapologetically on the ‘conservative’ or traditional side of this war. Along with many like-minded parents, I am morally obligated to defend our children from physical and moral harm insofar as I can.”
Childs is part of the St. Marys’ governing body, a five-person city commission, and a heavily religious group that attends the Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX. SSPX is a strict religious sect that broke away from the Catholic church. Commissioners have previously said their views and governing decisions are influenced by their religious affiliation.
Childs is perhaps best known for formulating a “morals clause” for the city’s public library lease. The clause asked that the library not carry, encourage or accept any sexual, racial or “socially divisive” material that supported critical race theory or LGBTQ people.
Though the library was allowed to continue operating in their location following massive public outcry, Childs has continued to speak against LGBTQ material in the library.
“We don’t want transgender books in the library. … The elephant in the room is that we don’t want the library to be promoting certain types of material,” Childs said in a July commission meeting.
Porter campaigned on teacher recruitment and keeping cell phones out of the classroom setting.
“I want all those looking for teaching positions to have a desire to come here,” Porter said in her candidate profile.
Preliminary results show Espinoza won against his opponent school board member Adrienne Olejnik, with 1,258 to 1,153 votes respectively. Reflector attempts to contact Espinoza were unsuccessful, but Espinoza is thought to have SSPX connections. A flyer for the St. Marys Academy and College lists him as a point of contact. Olejnik declined to comment publicly on the race.
Espinoza and Childs were endorsed by the Kansans for Life PAC, which sent out mailers in favor of the two ahead of the election. The mailers alleged Olejnik had donated to “leftist causes” and that Olejnik would not “take a stand against drag queen story hours.”
Incumbent candidates Michelle Martin and Kimberly Gillum returned to their board seats unopposed.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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4 thoughts on “Kansas mayor who tried to rid city library of LGBTQ books loses school board race”
That’s how our elections went, too. One got on the school board, but of the 5 RWers who ran, she was the least worst of them, and she is college-educated, too. If she does try to go off, she’ll be way outnumbered. I look for her to be converted to doing actual school board service. One of the RWers running for city council got on, but she’ll be outnumbered, too, if she tries anything inappropriate. We got an excellent mayor, and the rest of the seats on the council and school board are also filled with excellent, service-minded people. Lots of places here went like that. Here’s hoping everyone’s elections went as well!
“many like-minded parents”
Be careful of that phrase Mr Childs.
There are “many like-minded parents” who want stricter gun controls.
There are “many like-minded parents” who are not religious
There are “many like-minded parents” who love their children for who they are and want them to grow in an open free society.
There are “many like-minded parents” who are able to quote ‘Life Liberty and the Pursuit’ of happiness at you
Hello Roger. Yes, Yes, Yes. As a historian you might be familiar with Nixon and his “silent majority” play where he kept going on TV claiming to have a huge silent majority that supported him. It was a lie and he lost. But then the fundamentalist TV preachers took up the mantel and created the idea of a religious majority. Again it was a lie, but they pushed the idea hard. And now these churches use their members to overwhelm normally sleepy school board member elections, and then they go on purges claiming everyone agrees with them. They are a minority inside a minority. Yet they claim to speak and some sure sound like they believe they do represent entire communities, all the people. But they do not! Yet as soon as you argue against them, you are assaulting their religious freedom, to hell with the personal freedom of the people they attack to live their lives openly, happily, as who they are as LGBTQIA people. Hugs. Scottie
What we have been witnessing is a playbook move by a minority group. You might say a classic playbook move.
Being of an hard-core motivation and set of beliefs these people will devote a great deal of their lives to their cause. They of course believe in it. Their intensity will lock into the discontents, concerns and fears of others, who will in turn be caught in the wave of emotion and belief the story. These folk will also bring their additions to the narrative, as long as the additions fit in.
Then as you have pointed out comes the infiltration into places of administration, and of course there will be politicians who complete belief in the cause might be sketchy, but they see an opportunity. Pundits and commentators seeking to widen their public base join in.
This is ages old, you might say thousands; centuries at least. Only these days social media has the movement growing exponentially; into this mix of course there will be Hate and Intolerance; these factors can eventually be a driving force, although there will be others, deeper ones which have little concern for the activists as individuals, only as fodder.
It can be hard to stop them; in the case of the USA the only true starting point is by solid, consistent and determined resistance at the ballot box, and through the court system, which despite the biases of the Supreme Court is not uniform throughout the entirety.
Footnote:
This is can be a subtle and manipulative method. How many folk who march in dedicated and motivated outrage at the IDF’s actions in Gaza realise there are two players far removed from their own views who are benefitting:
1. Iranian Intelligence Services and Revolutionary Guard who back Hamas and by the laws of the playbook will have their own embedded within the activist groups in the West. An ideal opportunity to badly damage Israel. The folk being used unaware they are being used to be a regime which persecutes women, violently and pity help any LGBTQIA that falls into their hands.
2. The extremist government of Israel and the rent a thugs they can summon up from amongst the settler communities. These can play the Anti-Semitism cards over and over to circle the wagons, and of course can call on the End of Times Christians who will be scurrying (yet again) through the Book of Revelations as I write .
An old, bitter and ethically bankrupt game is being played out again Scottie. Different stage. Different players.
Take care, look after yourselves.
Look to your heart, soul and being for the final decision.
All our best wishes
Roger & Sheila.
Scottie's Playtime 
That’s how our elections went, too. One got on the school board, but of the 5 RWers who ran, she was the least worst of them, and she is college-educated, too. If she does try to go off, she’ll be way outnumbered. I look for her to be converted to doing actual school board service. One of the RWers running for city council got on, but she’ll be outnumbered, too, if she tries anything inappropriate. We got an excellent mayor, and the rest of the seats on the council and school board are also filled with excellent, service-minded people. Lots of places here went like that. Here’s hoping everyone’s elections went as well!
LikeLiked by 1 person
“many like-minded parents”
Be careful of that phrase Mr Childs.
There are “many like-minded parents” who want stricter gun controls.
There are “many like-minded parents” who are not religious
There are “many like-minded parents” who love their children for who they are and want them to grow in an open free society.
There are “many like-minded parents” who are able to quote ‘Life Liberty and the Pursuit’ of happiness at you
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Roger. Yes, Yes, Yes. As a historian you might be familiar with Nixon and his “silent majority” play where he kept going on TV claiming to have a huge silent majority that supported him. It was a lie and he lost. But then the fundamentalist TV preachers took up the mantel and created the idea of a religious majority. Again it was a lie, but they pushed the idea hard. And now these churches use their members to overwhelm normally sleepy school board member elections, and then they go on purges claiming everyone agrees with them. They are a minority inside a minority. Yet they claim to speak and some sure sound like they believe they do represent entire communities, all the people. But they do not! Yet as soon as you argue against them, you are assaulting their religious freedom, to hell with the personal freedom of the people they attack to live their lives openly, happily, as who they are as LGBTQIA people. Hugs. Scottie
LikeLiked by 1 person
What we have been witnessing is a playbook move by a minority group. You might say a classic playbook move.
Being of an hard-core motivation and set of beliefs these people will devote a great deal of their lives to their cause. They of course believe in it. Their intensity will lock into the discontents, concerns and fears of others, who will in turn be caught in the wave of emotion and belief the story. These folk will also bring their additions to the narrative, as long as the additions fit in.
Then as you have pointed out comes the infiltration into places of administration, and of course there will be politicians who complete belief in the cause might be sketchy, but they see an opportunity. Pundits and commentators seeking to widen their public base join in.
This is ages old, you might say thousands; centuries at least. Only these days social media has the movement growing exponentially; into this mix of course there will be Hate and Intolerance; these factors can eventually be a driving force, although there will be others, deeper ones which have little concern for the activists as individuals, only as fodder.
It can be hard to stop them; in the case of the USA the only true starting point is by solid, consistent and determined resistance at the ballot box, and through the court system, which despite the biases of the Supreme Court is not uniform throughout the entirety.
Footnote:
This is can be a subtle and manipulative method. How many folk who march in dedicated and motivated outrage at the IDF’s actions in Gaza realise there are two players far removed from their own views who are benefitting:
1. Iranian Intelligence Services and Revolutionary Guard who back Hamas and by the laws of the playbook will have their own embedded within the activist groups in the West. An ideal opportunity to badly damage Israel. The folk being used unaware they are being used to be a regime which persecutes women, violently and pity help any LGBTQIA that falls into their hands.
2. The extremist government of Israel and the rent a thugs they can summon up from amongst the settler communities. These can play the Anti-Semitism cards over and over to circle the wagons, and of course can call on the End of Times Christians who will be scurrying (yet again) through the Book of Revelations as I write .
An old, bitter and ethically bankrupt game is being played out again Scottie. Different stage. Different players.
Take care, look after yourselves.
Look to your heart, soul and being for the final decision.
All our best wishes
Roger & Sheila.
LikeLiked by 1 person