At Tuesday’s council meeting, Prattville residents affiliated with Clean Up Alabama, which began as Clean Up Prattville, pleaded with the council that their solutions were a “common sense” approach to inappropriate materials for minors.
But the local goals are just one part of a three-prong plan that Clean Up Alabama has to push the issue across the state, according to meeting minutes included in an email to subscribers.
The minutes detailed the group’s local goals, as well as its goals with the Alabama Public Library Service, primarily to dissociate from the American Library Association. Gov. Kay Ivey has sent a letter to APLS Director Dr. Nancy Pack expressing concerns that closely follow Clean-Up Alabama’s push over LGBTQ materials in library spaces intended for minors.
But the meeting also included three state legislative goals, which go much further than simply severing any ties with the ALA or asking librarians to move books to an adult section.
Here’s what the group plans to do:
1. “Amend the Anti-Obscenity Law that exempts public libraries from criminal punishment when it comes to the distribution of material harmful to minors.”
Under Section 13A-12-200.5 of the Code of Alabama, it is a misdemeanor “for any person to knowingly or recklessly distribute to a minor, possess with intent to distribute to a minor, or offer or agree to distribute to a minor any material which is harmful to minors.” The section does not classify which level of misdemeanor that would be, but the charge would carry a fine of up to $10,000 and up to one year in county jail.
Currently, “material harmful to minors” is defined under the code to mean:
“a. The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the material, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest of minors; and
“b. Material that depicts or describes sexual conduct [this will come into play later], breast nudity or genital nudity, in a way which is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors; and
“c. A reasonable person would find that the material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.”
However, Section 13A-12-200.10 specifically exempts “libraries and their employees or agents” from the criminal provisions of the act.
On Aug. 16, Clean Up Alabama posted on X (formerly Twitter) that this rule could allow public libraries to give sex toys to children without criminal punishment.
“Did you know that Alabama library employees can legally display sex toys, and possibly give them to kids without prosecution?” The post says.
At this time, APR has not heard any reports of any public libraries displaying sex toys for adults or children.
2. “Possibly add the libraries onto current law passed pertaining to woke ideologies in schools; and increase from 5th grade to 12th grade like Florida was able to do”
This appears to be in reference to Alabama’s version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which Alabama passed in the 2022 session in a bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle. The bill originally only dealt with school bathrooms, requiring students to use the bathroom that aligned with their birth sex.
In a last-minute amendment by Sen Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, the bill suddenly became much more, barring instructors from leading “classroom discussion or classroom instruction regarding sexual orientation or gender identity in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
In the last session, Rep. Mack Butler, R-Gadsden, filed a bill to expand that to the eighth grade.
While Clean-Up Alabama suggests extending that to public libraries, it is not clear what that language would be and whether it would apply to the content of books or instructional programs held at the library,
3. “Considering HB401 that never made it out of committee and assure the language in it matches the harmful materials we have found in the libraries and that it includes public libraries.”
HB401 drew a lot of attention last session as it would have prohibited drag performances in public spaces where minors may be present—and some argued the language was so vague it could have applied to any transgender person in a public space.
The bill led to a massive pushback from the LGBTQ community with a march of hundreds on the state capitol.
Stadthagen has vowed to bring the bill back in the next session, and in the same conversation, praised Clean Up Prattville’s fight against LGBTQ books in the library.
Without an understanding of how that law was written, one might be confused exactly what Clean Up Alabama’s plan is to co-opt libraries into the law.
The way HB401 was written, it added drag performances into the definition of “sexual conduct,” which itself is a term included in the definition of “harmful to minors.” (Re-read that section earlier in this article to see how it plays into the code).
When Clean up Alabama says they want to ensure the language “matches the harmful materials we have found in the libraries,” it seems apparent that they mean adding LGBTQ+ content to the definition of “sexual conduct,” thereby changing the meaning of the definition of “harmful to minors” to include LGBTQ+ content.
If Clean Up Alabama were to succeed in these goals, the combination could result in librarians facing up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000 just for having a book like “The Pronoun Book” on the shelf.
Under the current law, the first prong of the three-prong definition of material harmful to minors would rule out books like The Pronoun Book from ever being considered “harmful to minors,” as the word “prurient” is defined as “marked by or arousing an immoderate or unwholesome interest or desire.” But HB401 as it was written last year would break apart those three prongs; instead of requiring content to meet all three elements to qualify as “harmful to minors,” the law would only require the content to meet any one of the three prongs.
Might the plan gain support?
At least four state representatives have been supportive of Clean Up Alabama publicly in some manner: Rep. Susan Dubose, R-Hoover, has begun beating the drum for the group’s goal to keep the ALA from influencing Alabama libraries in any way. Fellow first-term state representatives Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, and Bill Lamb, R-Tuscaloosa, joined Dubose in support of the group as it listed its grievances at last month’s meeting of the APLS.
Stadthagen, as aforementioned, has given his stamp of approval to the efforts of the group.
Ernie Yarbrough, R-Trinity, worked in the last session with DJ Parten, a member of Clean Up Alabama, who wrote the failed legislation that would have allowed abortive women to be charged with homicide.
And Ivey’s letter to Pack references the Prattville books challenged by the group, although her letter shares concern about APLS policies and nothing comparable to this state legislative plan.
Finding information about homosexuality from a public library saved my life. I was eight years old and the only help a librarian gave me was to teach me how to use the main card catalog. I told her I wanted to look up dinosaurs. Librarians are so gullible when you mention dinosaurs…
This dinosaur learned (when he was going to SF State in the 60’s) that the 4th floor library men’s room was generally like a gay men’s meet and greet most evenings. But since it was in a library everyone kept it quiet.
Correct, you’d think there would be some sort of pushback from the opposition party aka the Dems on these bills coming forward. Where are they? Even AL dems are silent.
We have no clear message on this? On jailing librarians? No opposite group to the Moms for Liberty group? How about Moms for Libraries? NOTHING from our party?????
These fascists will continue to move forward when there is no opposition to their authoritarian rule.
They desperately need us to disappear. Without their power of the closet they have come to realize they don’t control the narrative any longer. I remember when I was young knowing that two men could be thrown in jail for doing stuff. (I didn’t know what stuff was, but why should a child know these things) I also knew that there was a place where some boys were sent when they couldn’t stop acting like a sissy. I knew where it was and I knew that ECT was involved. They have lost an enormous amount of power and they see their own children rejecting their hate and their religion. So they are having a temper tantrum because that’s all they know.
That’s the end result they want. But it’s a slippery slope, and on the way, they will want to jail anyone who advocates for homosexuality, which will then be interpreted as anyone who merely mentions it, and that will include any media mention of LBGTs. Eventually, they will want a complete prohibition on the certain words, such as gay, lesbian, and will prohibit anyone from stating that they are so. They want it back like the 1950s, when it was not just a taboo, but a criminal sanction.
I’ll answer it anyway: It’s a white supremacist theocratically-aligned autocracy, imposed by a small minority of citizens with power far in excess of what their numbers normally would allow in a democratic republic.
I am posting this because of the comments. At the end of the comments you will see what I and Ali have been saying, if gender can not be discussed then teachers can not be addressed as Mr. or Mrs or Miss. Also how to explain what bathrooms kids are required to use without discussing gender? Then also if sexual orientation can not be discussed and same sex couples can not be mentioned, why doesn’t that also mean that opposite sex couples shouldn’t be mentioned? Hugs
Manatee County officials have removed “Christian, the Hugging Lion” by Justin Richardson, a 32-page children’s book about two men who raise a lion named Christian in a London apartment. When Christian becomes too big, the two men release the lion into the wild in Africa. When the men go to visit Christian in Africa, they find that he remembers them. The book is based on a true story.
The district cited The Parental Rights in Education Act as the reason for removing the book from district libraries. The Parental Rights in Education Act has a line prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms. While the two men, John and Ace, lived together in London and raised Christian the lion, it is never explicitly said in the book whether the two men were in a relationship.
The documentary is about 45 minutes long, if you’ve got time it’s really sweet.
(Edit: This is just a clip of the background to the story and the happy ending. The full documentary is on YouTube if you search “A Lion called Christian”.)
You know, the one profound thing that YouTube did for me very early on was to intro me to human-animal bonding that I never knew existed. It’s not just domesticated animals we’ve had bonds with. It’s a massive variety of animals!!
I hate to remind them that there is another book where the hero was parading around his home country with his 12 male companions, sleeping and eating together. Oh yes, Jesus and his 12 apostles. living and sleeping together for years. So, lets remove the bible too. And any books about monks living in a monastery together… men living together… have to go. And even books about priests in a rectory in a parish…. The sound of music… nuns living together in the convent. Or Downton Abbey… They had male servants sleeping in the servants quarters.
Here’s a rule of thumb… If you are banning books, you’re on the wrong side of history.
Didn’t he also at one time say that if he was going to run for President, he’d run as a Republican because Republicans are so stupid they’d believe anything you told them?
Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act prohibits the discussion of gender identity in classrooms? Great. Using their corkscrew logic, teachers must be addressed by their first names only, never by their honorific like “Mr.” or “Mrs.” or “Miss.” or, god forbid, “Ms.” And of course we must remove any book that contains an honorific, or dares to mention a husband and wife, or grandma and grandpa.
Yes, you can’t really explain to Steve why he can’t used the Girls bathroom, or Sally why she can’t use the boys bathroom, or question why Mark is wearing a skirt to school. All those require discussing gender identity.
And, as was mentioned, straight is a sexual orientation so any books with a married man and woman have to be removed too. Or any book that mention boy or girl or man or woman, because everyone has a gender identity (just like everyone has a preferred pronoun).
SCOTUS has ruled that the 2nd amendment is virtually unrestricted. If so, then the 1st amendment should be as well. Banned book authors should file a class action lawsuit and make the same arguments the NRA has made.
A small group of very vocal motivated fundamentalist religious right wing bigots who want desperately to return to 1950 are filing all these book challenges. Again notice the damage one of the main complainers wrote. “Damaged souls”! They don’t care about the rights of other parents, just forcing their religious moral views on everyone. These are public schools, not private Christian schools, but in Florida the fundamental religious bigots have taken over ruling as a majority when they are really a minority. Hugs.
Here are five books removed from schools and the reasons why they were taken off the shelves.
The Florida Department of Education released a list of all the books removed from school library shelves last year, and some of the titles might be surprising.
In total, Florida saw 386 book removals from 1,218 total objections last year, according to the list. Clay County had by far the most removals with 177 books removed. Martin County removed the second most books in the state with 98 books removed, followed by Manatee County in third with 25 books removed.
Books like “And Tango Makes Three,” Toni Morisson’s “The Bluest Eye,” and “Push” by Sapphire have made headlines for their removal, as parents have objected to their content for violating the Parental Rights in Education act, also known as “Don’t Say Gay,” or for containing material that is considered “sexual content” under House Bill 1069.
But also removed from school libraries, according to the list, are a book about a mammal from Asia and one of the most famous artists of all time.
Here are five books removed from schools and the reasons why they were taken off the shelves:
Ready Player One
“Ready Player One” was removed from all Clay County School District libraries, according to a spreadsheet from the district, after it was reviewed by a committee of parents, librarians and principals.
The science fiction novel by Ernest Cline, published in 2011, was removed from K-12 shelves for mentioning prostitution, drugs and using profane language, according to the request form.
The book’s film adaptation, released in 2018 and rated PG-13, was directed by Steven Spielberg and nominated for an Academy Award.
The requester, a man affiliated with “No Left Turn in Education,” wrote his reasoning for flagging the book was to “PROTECT CHILDREN!! (sic)”
The requester said the book included “victimhood=CRT,” on page 320; prostitution references; drugs and pills on page 270; and profanity, including the F-word.
Under the question for what the requester believes will be the result of a student reading the material, the man wrote “Damaged Souls.”
Christian, the Hugging Lion
Manatee County officials also removed “Christian, the Hugging Lion” by Justin Richardson, a 32-page children’s book about two men who raise a lion named Christian in a London apartment. When Christian becomes too big, the two men release the lion into the wild in Africa. When the men go to visit Christian in Africa, they find that he remembers them. The book is based on a true story.
The district cited The Parental Rights in Education Act as the reason for removing the book from district libraries. The Parental Rights in Education Act has a line prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms.
While the two men, John and Ace, lived together in London and raised Christian the lion, it is never explicitly said in the book whether the two men were in a relationship.
The authors of “Christian, the Hugging Lion” were also the authors of “And Tango Makes Three”, a children’s book about two male penguins raising a family. The authors are already suing Florida and a county school in federal court over restrictions on the book.
Manatee County district officials removed the book from libraries citing Florida Statute 847.012, titled “Obscenity,” and involves the sale or distribution of harmful materials to minors.
Tallahassee Classical School, a charter school in the Leon County School District, was dropped from being a Hillsdale College-affiliated campus after news of the principal’s ousting went viral.
“To set the record straight: This drama around teaching Michelangelo’s ‘David’ sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become a distraction from, and a parody of, the actual aims of classical education. Of course, Hillsdale’s K-12 art curriculum includes Michelangelo’s ‘David’ and other works of art that depict the human form,” Hillsdale stated in a press release.
Manatee County removed the book from district libraries, citing Florida Statute 1006.40(3)(d). However, section (3)(d) does not appear to exist under Florida Statute 1006.40, which is titled “Purchase of instructional materials.”
When asked for clarity and for a full copy of the objection, Manatee County did not respond in time for publication.
Will we ever grow organs?
Florida Virtual School removed a National Geographic article called “Will we ever grow organs?” from a digital anatomy and physiology course, according to a FLVS spokesperson.
The request to remove the article came from a teacher who teaches the course in a school that licenses the class from FLVS.
The teacher raised concerns about the doctor profiled in the article, Paolo Macchiarini. Macchiarini was sentenced to two years and six months in prison this past June after he was found guilty of gross assault.
While the 2012 article touts Macchiarini’s work building windpipes out of stem cells, a Swedish court said the surgeon “acted with criminal intent” by transplanting trachea into three patients, who all died when the implants failed, between 2011 and 2012.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to remove the article referenced from the new version of the course,” said FLVS spokesperson Hailey Fitch.
Great to see the decent accepting people fighting back against the red state haters, the anti-LGBTQIA jerks, the ones trying to remove anyone who is not cis straight gender role conforming from public view and society. We need more of this open fighting back. Hugs
The law is a direct rebuke to national efforts to erase LGBTQ+ identities from schools.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is about to sign a law that would forbid schools from banning LGBTQ+-inclusive books. The law also requires schools to have trained staff to help queer kids and reiterates protections against forcibly outing LGBTQ+ students to their possibly unsupportive parents.
The law, known as Assembly Bill 1078, is a direct rebuke to anti-LGBTQ+ book-bans, “don’t say gay” laws, and other nationwide efforts to discriminate against queer students. Newsom has long opposed anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in education and other areas. Once signed, AB 1078 will go into immediate effect.
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California just became the first U.S. state to establish Transgender History Month
“I believe that as Californians our strongest defense against the anti-trans agenda is just to tell the truth.”
“California is the true freedom state: a place where families — not political fanatics — have the freedom to decide what’s right for them,” Newsom wrote in a Twitter post announcing his intention to sign the law, known as Assembly Bill 1078. “With the passage of legislation to ban book bans & ensure all students have textbooks, our state’s Family Agenda is now even stronger.”
The law prohibits “the governing board of a school district, a county board of education, or the governing body of a charter school” from “refusing to approve or prohibiting the use” of any book on the basis of an individual’s or group’s diverse racial or cultural characteristics. Any school that bans such books could lose state funding. Existing state law requires social sciences classes to include contributions of diverse groups, including, among others, LGBTQ+ Americans and members of other ethnic and cultural groups.
“Restricting access to classroom and library materials because they feature LGBTQ people or were written by LGBTQ authors discriminates against LGBTQ people and constitutes censorship in violation of California law and policy,” the law states. “Similarly, efforts to categorically exclude topics related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics, or of present or historical discrimination based on protected characteristics, from school library collections, curricula, or classroom discussions constitute censorship that violates California law and policy.”
Additionally, the law reminds state officials and agencies that they have the authority to enforce federal and state laws protecting students from unlawful discrimination and harassment that create an inequitable learning environment.
This reminder is likely connected to three California school districts — the Murrieta Valley, Orange, and Chino Valley Unified School Districts — which recently passed policies forcing educators to out trans and nonbinary students to their parents. California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) filed a lawsuit against the Chino Valley United School District, and a judge blocked its policy from going into effect.
The law also reiterates that schools may offer “peer support or affinity clubs and organizations, safe spaces for LGBTQ or other at-promise pupils, counseling services, staff who have received anti-bias or other training aimed at supporting these pupils or who serve as designated support to these pupils, health and other curriculum materials that are inclusive of, and relevant to, these pupils, [as well as] online training” and complaint procedures developed to assist LGBTQ+ students with their learning experiences.
Right-wing groups have said that anti-LGBTQ+ educational policies are needed to prevent schools from “secretly” encouraging students to change genders without their parents’ knowledge or to stop the “indoctrination” of “gender ideology” onto students. These policies are often promoted by anti-LGBTQ+ groups who also oppose the expansion of queer civil rights in other non-educational areas of public and private life.
Notice this is the test backed by fundamentalist Christians, home school parents who don’t want any questions that might be based on books and ideas they don’t allow their kids to read that public schools did … until now, and it is the favorite among the hard right wing that wants to deny real history and science. It is the test of choice by home school parents, fundamentalist Christians, and ideologues who want a skewed version of history. As one board member said, the test scores have not been verified to be an accurate measure of how well-educated a student is compared to the well researched SAT and ACT. I will post some comments from Joe My God after this article. Hugs
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at an event in August. Photo: Megan Varner/Getty Images
Florida’s public universities will now permit the Classic Learning Test in admissions, offering a conservative-backed alternative to the SAT and ACT.
Why it matters: Florida is now the first state university system in the country to allow for the Classic Learning Test (CLT), which has gained recent popularity among the state’s Christian and charter schools.
The classical education model — not to be confused with “classics” or “classical humanities” — focuses on a return to “core values” and the “centrality of the Western tradition.”
Driving the news: The Florida state university system’s board of governors on Friday approved the test for use in undergraduate admissions.
“The system is pleased to add the CLT to reach a wider variety of students from different educational backgrounds.Not intimidated by controversy or critics, our focus is on the success of our students, and the State of Florida,” the State University System of Florida said in a statement Friday.
“Because we reject the status quo, today’s decision means we are better serving students by giving them an opportunity to showcase their academic potential and paving the path to higher education,” they added.
Of note: University of Florida professor Amanda Phalin was the only board member who opposed the approval of the Classic Learning Test during Friday’s meeting.
She said she wasn’t opposed to the use of the CLT overall but “the use of it at this time” because of a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating it is “of the same quality as the ACT and the SAT.”
Phalin clarified that her opposition did not stem from the test’s “focus,” “its content,” or “its creators.”
“I’m simply concerned because the test’s reliability and validity have not been independently demonstrated or verified,” Phalin said.
The big picture: Over 200 colleges across the U.S. accept the Classic Learning Test, which launched in 2015, according to Florida’s university system. It’s gained recent momentum in Florida charter schools and private Christian schools.
Homeschooling families and co-op groups have also used the test.
Flashback: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law in May that makes students “eligible to earn Bright Futures Scholarships with CLT scores,” per the test’s official website.
DeSantis‘ office and the Florida Department of Education did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.
He’s is destroying FL universities. That must be his plan. What does he think is going to happen? Well, this might allow unqualified persons (bible thumpers) to access jobs they have no right to have. I’m thinking FL civil services being taken over. If you have not had to pleasure of working under an unqualified evangelical, let me tell you: it is soul crushing and very nearly killed me
“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
(Bolding is motherfucking mine.)
Even if, as PolitiFact writes, “critical thinking” here refers to a specific relabeling of “outcome-based education” (which, as they note, takes many different forms), the platform plank still glorifies “fixed beliefs” and “parental authority” above true education.
Problem is that the real working world will not settle for “Jesus did it” as an acceptable answer. Is it any wonder that current interest to attend Florida colleges have dropped 30%?
It’s been a few years decades since I took the ACT but I don’t remember any of it being woke or socialist or anti-Western or any other kind of nonsense. I’d bet the folks who approved this are heavily invested in it monetarily.
No, but you aren’t a right wing nutjob. The SAT allegedly (they never reveal how they structure the test) draws its vocabulary words from literature and current news. (So, words you would need to know to understand what you are reading.) If you stick to right wing news and avoid certain books commonly on HS and college reading lists, you are unlikely to know those words and won’t do as well on the test. That’s the bias they are worried about.
Home schooling advocates tout their higher test scores but there are two problems with that claim: 1) they often spend far more time on SAT test prep than public school students would get and 2) the students unlikely to do well on such tests just don’t take them. So the numbers are distorted. This is also true of the state mandated tests.
Thanks to Ali for the link. This continuing assault on education by the right is an attack on democracy itself. The right doesn’t want a thinking public, they want obedient followers and soldiers who will do as told by the rulers. Notice the funding for these right wing sites comes from the ultrarich right that wants either a theocracy or a fascist dictatorship. With them in charge, of course. If you go to the link you will see several more stories of the right ring billionaires pushing the hard right idology. Hugs
PragerU is not accredited but has become a key tool in pushing false claims to youngsters – and raked in $200m from 2018 to 2022
Dennis Prager, the conservative talkshow host and founder of the Prager University Foundation, which is not an accredited education organization. Characters in PragerU’s videos downplay the horrors of slavery and make false claims about the climate crisis. Composite: Guardian Photo Composite/Getty Images/PragerU
A rightwing media outlet promoting climate-crisis denialism and other “anti-woke” staples to young students and adults via social media has become a fundraising Goliath, raking in close to $200m from 2018 to 2022 with big checks from top conservative donors, tax records reveal.
Founded in 2009 by the conservative talkshow host Dennis Prager, the eponymous Prager University Foundation is not an accredited education organization. But via online media its PragerU Kids division has become a key tool in spreading false claims to young people with short videos aimed at undercutting widely accepted science that climate crisis disasters are accelerating due, largely, to fossil-fuel usage.
PragerU’s influence in pushing false narratives about climate change and other far-right shibboleths such as airbrushing the brutal reality of American slavery gained ground when the Florida board of education in July gave the green light to using its videos and other materials in classrooms, a move that PragerU is trying to capitalize on in Texas and other states. On Tuesday, Oklahoma’s school system also approved the use of PragerU’s materials.
But some of PragerU’s expansion plans ran into trouble in August, when it was condemned by Texas education officials for announcing prematurely that Texas schools had approved the usage of its advocacy materials, generating new scrutiny and criticism of PragerU’s operations.
Prager’s website trumpets its mission and its niche in the conservative ecosystem.
“PragerU is the world’s leading conservative non-profit, focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.”
That sweeping mission has been fueled by big conservative money and slick marketing, and has led to PragerU’s rising influence on the right.
Among PragerU’s leading financiers are the oil and gas fracking billionaire brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, who have ponied up at least $8m over the past decade, according to Texas financial records.
Other top conservative donors to PragerU, which styles itself as alternative to the “dominant leftwing ideology in culture, media and education”, include the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the National Christian Charitable Foundation and the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation.
Tax records also reveal that PragerU has flourished financially in recent years as the Prager University Foundation raised $196m from 2018 through 2022. That growth is underscored by revenues rising from $17.9m in 2018 to $65.1m in 2022.
Prager’s chief executive, Marissa Streit, whose biography on LinkedIn says she once served in Israeli military intelligence, boasts on its website: “PragerU is redefining how people think about media and education. We produce edutainment – an intersection of education and entertainment. Our content is essential to shaping culture and preserving American ideals.”
Streit’s vision of “edutainment” seems to be reflected in PragerU cartoons and videos, including one about Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America, in which Columbus tries to downplay the horrors of slavery.
“Slavery is as old as time, and has taken place in every corner of the world, even amongst the people I just left. Being taken as a slave is better than being killed,” the cartoon Columbus said. “I don’t see the problem.”
Other PragerU videos about the climate crisis make various false claims: they depict solar and wind power as environmentally dangerous, liken environmental activists to Nazis and claim recent record-breaking heat is just part of the natural weather cycle.
But the edutainment being peddled by PragerU has drawn widespread criticism from academic experts and watchdog groups, who fault its videos and teaching materials for children on the climate crisis, slavery and other issues as erroneous, and unworthy of state approval for classroom usage.
Betsy DeVos and her husband, Dick DeVos Jr, in Washington in 2017. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images ——————————————————- “Prager University is not a university,” said Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard professor of the history of science and the co-author of Merchants of Doubt. “By their own self-description, they are an advocacy group promoting conservative viewpoints on various political, economic and sociological topics.
“It is completely inappropriate for any state to grant them any influence, much less authority. over educational matters.
“For an American state government to authorize misleading, false and overtly biased materials for use in classrooms really crosses the Rubicon. It’s a new and alarming low.”
Other academics express related concerns.
“PragerU may be able to take advantage of overworked teachers in the classroom who are under time crunches to prepare climate-change lessons for their students, and therefore might turn to these inaccurate videos,” said Max Boykoff, an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado.
Boykoff added that boosting public funding of education could help “keep such unsafe and menacing weapons out of the classroom”.
PragerU did not respond to a Guardian request to talk to Streit or Prager.
Critics notwithstanding, Prager, speaking at a Moms for Liberty conference in Philadelphia this summer, was blunt about PragerU’s goals, boasting that “we bring doctrines to children”, adding: “What is the bad of our indoctrination?”
Similarly, in a PragerU promotional video, Prager said: “We are in the mind-changing business, and few groups can say that.”
PragerU annual reports tout its success in spreading conservative doctrines to young people and adults. According to its most recent annual report, PragerU “edutainment” videos scored more than 1.2bn views in 2022 and over 7bn since its launch in 2009.
Until recently, PragerU content and its fight against what it labels the “woke agenda” depended mainly on Facebook and YouTube, but that is poised to expand with PragerU’s access to Florida classrooms, and other states potentially opening their classrooms too.
To keep growing its audience and operations, PragerU’s website showcases several ambitious fundraising programs. In September, PragerU is hosting a “founders’ retreat” in Nashville that seems geared to wooing more checks from major donors who give at least $100,000 a year.
The event is slated to be “an exclusive three-day experience with our innermost circle of supporters”, and will feature Dennis Prager, the conservative Daily Wire’s editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro, and other Daily Wire “personalities”. The event is “open to Donor Club members at the founders level (total annual giving of $100k or more)”.
Like PragerU, the Daily Wire has benefited mightily from billionaire and evangelical preacher Farris Wilks, who gave it $4.7m in 2015 to launch its operations. Wilks remains a co-owner.
PragerU’s fundraising and marketing success in spreading its climate crisis denialism and other misinformation is alarming watchdog groups.
“Prager U plays a significant role spreading well-packaged propaganda about numerous issues, including attacks on efforts to mitigate climate change, through promoting the disinformation peddled by notorious climate-change deniers, and more,” said Lisa Graves, executive director of the progressive watchdog group True North Research. “ It has always targeted younger adults, but in recent years it has added a massive program targeting children with its slick and deceptive videos.”
Other environmental advocates raised broader concerns.
“The danger of the Prager climate misinformation is how quickly it can spread in this era where a lot of people, including children, are being trained not to trust media sources or scientists,” said Kert Davies, who leads investigations at the Center for Climate Integrity. “That it would be in schools as curriculum is even scarier.
“The Prager YouTube library on climate change features a who’s who of career climate deniers and discredited contrarians. These folks will never admit they are wrong, and never change their minds no matter the weight of scientific evidence.”
Davies added: “Prager climate disinformation is dangerously out of step with reality. It is being disseminated just as the global consensus on the climate crisis grows stronger, as extreme weather events seemingly try to outdo each other.”
More broadly, Oreskes sees the spread of PragerU advocacy materials into Florida classrooms and possibly other states as harmful to educational values.
She said: “Every student has a basic right to an education that, as much as possible, is truthful, and, as much as humanly possible, objective. This is the opposite.”
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Notice the threats and intimidation. Also notice the overwhelming presence of the fundamentalist religious right. This again is making sure that there is no positive representation of the LGBTQIA in schools or the public square. Why should kids be taught tolerance and acceptance of the very people these bigots hate? Why should LGBTQIA kids see positive role models and representations of themselves, see acceptance of themselves from the adults in charge of their daily lives? And why should the tolerant and accepting of the LGBTQIA parents be allowed a say because a minority of violent loud haters demand kids be taught to hate, target, and bully LGBTQIA kids. Why should those same LGBTQIA kids be allowed to feel good about themselves rather than deeply ashamed of who they are as the anti-LGBTQIA haters demand? I am sick of this minority take over. Lucky for my sanity there has started to be a large amount of push back in Florida and around the country, with teachers, Libraries, and towns fighting back and refusing to bow down to the threats unless they remove all LGBTQIA representation from public and society. Hugs
Following a prolonged debate, the Miami-Dade County Public School Board has voted against officially recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month within the district. The contentious decision, passed by a 5-3 vote, comes in the wake of the controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law that was signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis last year.
The debate over Initiative H-11, which sought to acknowledge October as LGBTQ History Month within Miami-Dade County Public Schools, drew a large crowd of concerned citizens to the board’s weekly meeting. Emotions ran high as over 100 people signed up for the public comment section as they expressed both support and opposition to the proposal.
A few people spoke about the presence of the Proud Boys at the meeting as an intimidation factor. Some of those who spoke agreed with the Parental Rights in Education law, labeled by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, who said the designation felt like indoctrination.
Myra Jordan, a parent, said, “Leave my kids alone. You understand that? You want freedom? Have freedom at home.” Last year, a majority of the board also voted against against the designation.
I encourage you to watch both video reports below.
The gangs all here — we have Proud Boys, Moms for Liberty, book banners and all the usual suspect far-right extremists outside the Miami school board @MDCPS right now campaigning against LGBTQ History Month.
First up, we have we have book Miami banner, Proud Boys supporter and Elders of Zion poster Daily Salinas. She claimed she’s not part of M4L but her posting for selfies begs to differ.
The M4L caucus is one stand by! Maylin Villalonga (white shirt back to camera), Eulalia Jimenez (arrow), QAnon flat earther Isabella Rodriguez #RedPillBabe (jean jacket), book banner Daily Salinas (glasses) and realtor Lourdes Galban. 3/ pic.twitter.com/eWVCbN1YUt
Also spotted outside the school board is Palm Beach, FL lawyer Cory Strolla who operates as Strolla Law.
Last year he attended the Hialeah Proud Boys rally in support of white supremacist Rubio canvasser Christopher Monzon. Yikes! 6/ pic.twitter.com/FMjkJ9VFVv
Among the seven Proud Boys who showed up, most of whom had to be imported from hours away, is president & discount rack Liver King “Miami Lex” and his flag boy wearing the sun glasses. 7/ pic.twitter.com/n7zSrIjAGP
Next up for the Proud Boys we have Micheal Anderson aka “Wolf Blitzkrieg” of Jacksonville, FL, believed to be a current or former DOD employee working at FRCSE, Fleet Readiness Center Southeast.
Would you trust this pro-insurrection extremist handling military secrets? 8/ pic.twitter.com/dKusWxzTWT
Mr. Buckeyes mask Proud Boy is one we’ve seen before in front of the school board but he really doesn’t need it because we already have his full face here. 9/ pic.twitter.com/SBjCuCp45T
We said “we will soon learn who she is” and just like that we did.
Looks like Miami Moms for Liberty hasn’t recruited a new member after all. Instead they brought Catalina Stubbe, director of M4L Hispanic outreach staffer, former Miss World Colombia + washed up actress. 11/ https://t.co/mcCrjhyPWFpic.twitter.com/5fZvdWtv4E
And there’s still more people to name at the Miami school board @MDCPS opposing LGBTQ History Month!
Once again, let’s meet Herbert Silver, an 80+ year old geriatric Proud Boy who is now using a walker. He’s long been a fixture at their rallies, events and socials. 15/ pic.twitter.com/nXZHATmEQH
Next up at the Miami school board against LGBTQ History Month we have a gem of a video about a looming “communist takeover” & dangerous “Fa-del regime.” 😂
Meet QAnon conspiracy blogger running Patriots Perspective & Miami Commission District 2 candidate Christi Tasker. 17/ pic.twitter.com/gv9jDilfr3
And once again, let’s say hello to far-right activist Maylin Villalonga.
A failed candidate for Hialeah city council, she’s known for doing a podcast interview with Lourdes Galban inside the personal studio of Enrique Tarrio with him as the producer (2nd pic, bottom right) 21/ pic.twitter.com/wM2MoMaZvs
In light of the post earlier about the presidential libraries, I think this is a taste of what fascism in America would look like: If you step out of line, it won’t be uniformed officers banging on your door at midnight, but paramilitary thugs harassing and attacking you and a flood of anonymous death threats that the police won’t bother investigating.
Prominent members of Moms for Liberty have close ties to the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, QAnon and white Christian nationalists. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio once boasted that Moms for Liberty is “the gestapo with vaginas.”
I’m afraid I’m going there with US friends in February. They are New Englanders against fascism as much as I am. I will piss off as many fascists as I can, be as liberal and European as I can and tell as many Republicans to go fuck themselves as I can.
They all have guns, no license or permit required to carry now. You can assume that any christofascist you piss off has a gun in their waistband and is likely to turn red, pull it out and gun you and yours down in cold blood.
Well last time there I was threatened by a gang of marching right wingers, who came on the scene after the Pride Parade. I had yelled at them to go fuck themselves. that seemed to have annoyed them. But yes, this time I will be more careful; it is a scary place, I saw that.
Back into the closet we go. Exactly where they want us. I for one will not tolerate it. Granted I don’t reside in Floriduh and will never step foot in that state for the rest of my natural life, but I’ve fought too hard to just let these fanatics win the battle. And it is a battle. Between right and wrong and this is just wrong on so many levels. We cannot cower. That’s exactly what they want. No, we have to persevere. Keep spreading love, not hate and keep working on making this society one where all can live freely.
While your point is taken, it is not the totality of Floridians. We should not simply run away, but instead continue to be visible, and vocal and vigilant.
People on here have seem to forgotten that Anita Bryant successfully petitioned the Miami Dade schools against gay teachers. This is just more of the same. Where are the pie throwing machines?
One of its former directors, Bridget Ziegler, is married to the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. DeSantis recently appointed Ziegler to a commission overseeing Disney’s Orlando theme parks amid a battle between the Florida governor and Disney over the state’s law banning classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Moms For Liberty is not the grassroots organization they claim to be.
Seriously more attempts to push fundamentalist Christian ideas, moral values, and hates on every public school kid. The program was developed by a person with degrees in politics but none in education, in a Christian college that the right wants to make the model for all PUBLIC schools. A person who describes himself as a fox in the hen house. Florida is doing this. This is entirely driven to push a false narrative of a Christian nation founded by religious figures who disliked slavery among some of the lies. It is about putting religion and the greatness of the US as a priority rather than facts. Remember this is being driven by a minority with the goal of forcing their world view on the majority and to allow that fundamentalist religious minority to rule over the secular majority. Plus look at the money spent, that is pure corruption, a big money giveaway to a religious person pushing a fundamentalist religious agenda. Hugs
Last Monday, the Pennridge School Board, located outside of Philadelphia, imposed a new social studies curriculum that will require teachers to incorporate lessons from the 1776 Curriculum, a controversial K-12 course of study developed by Hillsdale College, a private Christian institution that promotes right-wing ideologies.
The curriculum was developed in part by Jordan Adams, an educational consultant with no experience developing curricula for public schools. Adams launched his company, Vermilion Education, in March 2023. The Pennridge School Board hired Adams in April, paying $125 per hour for his services. The contract includes no limit on the number of hours, no specific deliverables, and no termination date.
Adams holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hillsdale College and a master’s in humanities from another private conservative school, the University of Dallas. He does not hold any degrees in education. After graduating, Adams returned to Hillsdale College as an employee, where he promoted the 1776 Curriculum. On July 1, in a private presentation to Moms for Liberty, a far-right organization that pushes for changes in educational policy, Adams described himself as a “fox..in the henhouse.” He bragged that “the right people are freaking out” about his contract with Pennridge Schools. As of a few months ago, Adams had no other public school clients.
Although Adams does not have the qualifications to write curriculum, it was revealed during a Pennridge School Board meeting on August 21 that Adams independently wrote aspects of the new social studies curricula.
Adams’ proposed curriculum faced opposition from several members of the Pennridge School Board and the district’s own academic experts. Jenna Vitale, the K-12 social studies supervisor, cited concerns in a recent school board meeting about the “age-appropriateness of the elementary curriculum [developed by Adams], highlighting… the lack of the appropriate history background for incoming fourth and fifth graders and the elimination of 19th century U.S. history from the secondary social studies curriculum.” Vitale also cited concerns about Adams’ proposal to shift the third-grade curriculum from a focus on Native Americans to “Colonial America.”
The 1776 Curriculum, created in response to the New York Times’ 1619 project, claims that it is an accurate and unbiased curriculum that “seeks to tell the entire grand narrative of the American story.” Hillsdale’s curriculum, however, includes inaccuracies and skewed interpretations of America’s history.
For example, the Hillsdale curriculum repeatedly suggests that America’s Founding Fathers had deep reservations about slavery. The ninth grade Pennridge curriculum will require a Hillsdale lesson that encourages students to “[c]onsider also that even among the southern founders who supported slavery or held slaves, several leading founders expressed regret and fear of divine retribution for slavery in America, such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington.” The curriculum states that, “Some freed their slaves as well, such as George Washington.” The same wording is also included in the required Hillsdale lesson for fourth graders.
A required Hillsdale lesson for Pennridge School District third graders covers the “history of slavery in world history.” The lesson encourages teachers to downplay the prevalence of slavery in America, instead emphasizing slavery in other parts of the world. “Overall, of the nearly 11 million Africans who survived being brought to the Western Hemisphere, around 3 percent, or about 350,000, were brought to the North American continent, with the rest of all Africans taken to other colonies in the Caribbean and South America,” the lesson states.
The 1776 Curriculum has garnered criticism from academic experts. “What [Hillsdale has] done is they’ve simply left stuff out in an attempt to shape a vision of patriotism,” James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, told NBC News. “What they also are trying to do is replace an approach to teaching that teaches students how to think with an approach that teaches the students what to think.”
During a meeting earlier this month, Pennridge School Board member Jonathan Russell asked why the Hillsdale curriculum was listed as “required” for teachers when the proposed inclusion of Hillsdale lessons was originally pitched as an additional resource. Vitale said that Adams told her other board members “asked him to say that it was required.”
By a 5-4 vote, the Pennridge School Board voted to impose the new ninth grade curriculum this year. The vote occurred on the first day of school, giving the teachers little to no time to prepare lessons based on the new guidelines. Vitale stated that she was “very nervous” about teachers not having enough time to prepare lessons based on the new curriculum. (The School Board voted to implement the new first through fifth grade curriculum beginning in the fall of 2024).
Hillsdale’s revisionist history
The 1776 Curriculum spends considerable time on the meaning behind the statement in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” A lesson now required for Pennridge School District ninth graders instructs teachers to pose the question of whether “women and slaves were included in this understanding of equality.” At the time, women did not have the right to vote, had limited property rights, and married women could not earn their own income. Nevertheless, the Hillsdale lesson argues that “the Founders meant that men and women share equally in human dignity and in possession of natural rights or freedoms that are simply part of being human.”
The lesson claims that, despite the limitation on women’s rights, “[w]hat was unique to America was the right to vote at all and then the relatively rapid rate at which the right to vote was expanded to” women. This statement, however, is misleading. According to Pew Research Center, in 1893, New Zealand granted women the right to vote, and “[a]t least 19 other countries also did so prior to the U.S. passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.” The 1776 Curriculum also creates justifications for not granting women the right to vote, insinuating that it was logical to only give the franchise to men, as they are the ones who “would be called to give their lives up for their country” and “had a high personal stake in what the country did regarding various policies, including going to war.”
For fifth grade, the new curriculum includes a Hillsdale lesson on the Civil War that argues that many Southerners believed the Civil War was about “states’ rights” rather than “preserv[ing] the institution of slavery.” The required Hillsdale lesson states that “[t]he majority of Southerners were not slaveholders and while fighting for their states would preserve slavery, many common Southerners fought for the argument of states’ rights rather than to preserve the institution of slavery.”
Again a fundamentalist religious group think only their beliefs are correct and they need to force that belief on everyone no matter what. No matter the religion other people might have, these people feel the right to force their god on your children. Regardless of your desire to raise your child in a manner that is open and accepting of the differences in others, these people demand the right to teach your child to be a closed-minded bigot. It is scary how these people reject democracy and co-existing but instead think that religious freedom gives them the right to oppress others, require the entire PUBLIC school system be run like their church following their church doctrines. One thing in the article that makes no sense to me. A teacher said she couldn’t be a christian and use a childs prefered pronouns. Why? I read the bible, I went to church a few years. No where did god say you shall not use him instead of her, you shall not call Billy she if he asks you do, you shall not cally Sally they or them. The bible never demanded you call Sally she / her and Billy he / him. These people are creating a biblical comand, a biblical sin where none was and ifgnoring the real shalls and shall nots. Hugs
From fights over LGBT rights to prayer at school board meetings, Chino Valley public schools have become ground zero for the culture wars.
Kate Briquelet
Senior Reporter
Decca Muldowney
Reporter-Researcher
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Outside the California State Capitol last month, a fitness trainer turned school board president fired up the crowd at a parental rights rally, telling them they were all fighters in “a spiritual battle” for their kids and must answer the call from God.
Sonja Shaw, who was elected to the Chino Valley Unified School District board of education last November with an assist from a local megachurch and its Christian nationalist pastor, didn’t equivocate in naming the enemy: state Democratic officials who are challenging her right-leaning policies—and drafting laws that hinder book bans and protect teachers from harassment.
“Today we stand here and declare in his almighty name that it’s only a matter of time before we take your seats and we be a God-fearing example to the nation, how God is using California to lead the way,” Shaw crowed, adding, “We already know who has won this battle. You will be removed in Jesus’s name! You, Satan, are losing.”
Now Shaw is in the national spotlight in wake of her Chino school board passing codes that ban pride flags in classrooms and force educators to inform parents if their children identify as transgender—the first such policy to be passed in the state.
This summer, Shaw’s school board meetings, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles, became chaotic spectacles, ones that attracted the Proud Boys and other right-wing extremists and pitted them against students and parents protesting what they’re calling anti-LGBTQ practices that endanger children. When California superintendent of schools Tony Thurmond appeared at the July meeting in opposition, Shaw unceremoniously silenced him.
Weeks after state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a civil rights probe into Shaw’s “gender disclosure” policy, his office sued the school board. Bonta said the policy violates the California constitution and state law, and would cause LGBTQ+ students, “mental, emotional, psychological and potential physical harm,” according to a press release.
Other right-leaning school boards across the state have followed Chino Valley Unified’s lead. Shortly before filing suit against the Chino board, Bonta issued statements denouncing the Anderson Union High School District, Temecula Valley Unified and Murrieta Valley Unified school boards’ decisions to pursue “copycat” anti-trans policies.
Sonja Shaw listens to speakers in front of the state Capitol on bills related to LGBTQ school curriculum in Sacramento.
Wally Skalij/Los Angles Times
“These students are currently under threat of being outed to their parents against their will, and many fear that the District’s policy will force them to make a choice: either ‘walk back’ their constitutionally and statutorily protected rights to gender identity and gender expression, or face the risk of emotional, physical, and psychological harm,” Bonta said.
To concerned observers in Chino, Shaw’s tack is not unlike what’s happening at school boards across the country, with brawls over curriculum, social emotional learning, and the banning of books that focus on race and LGBTQ issues. Extremist groups like Moms for Liberty have spawned a mainstream narrative that public schools are “indoctrinating” children with “woke” ideology and into believing they’re a different gender.
But in Chino Valley, the school board’s new direction appears to be spurred on by a man behind the curtain: Shaw’s megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs.
Indeed, three of the board’s five members belong to his church, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.
At the Sacramento rally, Hibbs boasted of his congregation’s work in electing Shaw. Calling her a “true modern-day Deborah,” Hibbs said the soccer mom “heeded the call to run for the school board” and that “when churches get involved and get informed, people vote.”
God, Hibbs said, installed Shaw into her position.
“Get on your knees every night,” Shaw told the crowd. “All day I talk to him. People probably think I’m crazy, but I’m really just talking to God all day.” After reciting a Bible verse, she added, “I have looked demons straight in the eye and with God’s authority rebuked them back to hell where they belong.
“You can do that too, trust me.”
Residents have long raised alarms about the school board’s religious bent. And Pastor Hibbs and members of his megachurch congregation appear to be more involved than ever in Chino’s public schools.
Last week, in an interview with right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk, Hibbs said that he brought the policy language to the school board after Republican state Assemblyman Bill Essayli’s “parental notification” legislation died without a hearing.
“He came back thinking he was defeated,” Hibbs said. “What we did is that we read his bill and we took the verbiage from that bill and then introduced it to our unified school district school board and they voted and adopted the verbiage.
“Guess what happened?” Hibbs continued. “We found out something, Charlie, that the most powerful politics is local…”
Hibbs then turned to Bonta’s lawsuit against the board, saying, “We’re going to take that on, we’re going to make sure that this goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
The pastor, who hasn’t returned messages left by The Daily Beast, wasn’t shy about his fight on the school board’s behalf.
Before he signed off, Hibbs told Kirk that children are “groomed” into trans ideology in the classroom and that schools want to “castrate your children” and “mutilate them.”
Ahead of the parental notification vote in July, Hibbs also urged people to flock to the fiery board meeting. “We’re asking people to show up by the thousands,” he said in a video announcement on the church’s Facebook page. “Please make it a priority.”
A supporter of Chino Valley school board’s policy to require schools to ‘out’ students to parents if they ask to be identified by a gender not listed on their birth certificate.
David McNew/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Calvary Chapel has boasted on social media of collecting tens of thousands of ballots for state and local candidates endorsed by Hibbs. The church’s ballot collection, a practice it’s engaged in for years, is conducted with help from Hibbs’ political organization Real Impact.
A teacher in another district—who alleges she was fired for refusing to follow her school’s gender identity protocols—heeded Hibbs’ call. “I could no longer be both a Christian and a public school teacher,” she said at the board meeting. “Then I remembered what Pastor Jack Hibbs taught me, that the word of God says… that being a coward is a sin.”
Still, Shaw claims that neither she nor the school board follow Hibbs’ orders. “Absolutely not. No one has a direct line to Pastor Jack Hibbs. Pastor Jack has never said, ‘Hey, guys, I want you to bring this policy forward.’ Never ever did he do any of that,” she told The Daily Beast. She added, however, that she couldn’t speak on Hibbs’ involvement with the board of education prior to her election.
The mother of two daughters—a freshman and junior in high school—Shaw was a Bible study leader at another church before joining Hibbs’ Calvary Chapel Chino Hills about two years ago.
Last September, Shaw told the San Bernardino Sun that she wasn’t running for election on the behalf of the 10,000-member Calvary Chapel. “They keep calling me ‘the church’s choice.’ I’ve never met Pastor Jack (Hibbs). I’ve never been brought up on stage,” she said.
One month later, however, Hibbs introduced her at the pulpit, telling his Sunday service that “she’s truly going up against the machine” before leading a prayer for her victory. Shaw bowed her head as Hibbs lifted a hand in the air and declared, “She has decided, Lord, to take on the woke-ism that is attacking our children.”
“I think Chino Valley is a cautionary tale.”
Hibbs has emboldened supporters to fight progressive education bills and prop up Christian candidates. In his sermons, he has tearfully prayed on stage for Donald Trump to win the 2020 election, said COVID-19 vaccines would lead people into accepting “the mark of the beast,” and called “transgenderism” a “sexually perverted cult” and “an anti-God, anti-Christ plan of none other than Satan himself.”
On education, he’s claimed that he and his acolytes are “trying to rescue kids from a system that is sexualizing them,” that kids “come out of school questioning their gender but they don’t even know how to do simple math” and “are being raped by the public school system.”
Hibbs has also taken aim at California’s abortion protections, describing them as “Infanticidal Death Policies,” in a document circulated to his congregation in October 2022, just before Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s re-election.
“If God does not intervene in this upcoming election through His people, which has always been his MO, and, if Newsom has his way, then this will certainly be proof that judgment has begun in California if not the United States,” the document reads. It ends by encouraging followers to return their ballots to the church.
“We should be able to stand against the school board,” Hibbs said in May. “We should be able to stand against some teacher that is molesting your child—if not physically, in their minds.”
In July, Hibbs delivered a skewed history lesson claiming that some founding fathers “inherited” slaves but actually cared for them. “Before you call them rich white guys who were slave owners,” Hibbs preached, “you need to finish the sentence: They were rich white guys who were slave owners who clothed, fed, and in many cases took very good care of their slaves while at the same time juggling two worlds…”
The megachurch has also tried to meddle in Chino Valley public school classes and teachings. Calvary Chapel members once funded textbooks for an elective course in two public high schools on the Bible as history and literature and tried to alter rules for sex education curriculum.
The church also runs a Christian “Released Time” program, where public school students can duck out of class for weekly one-hour Bible lessons held in buses outfitted with tables and chairs. This program had a table at the district’s back-to-school night, and a volunteer in a Calvary Chapel Chino Hills T-shirt handed out candy and Bible coloring books.
Chino Valley Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Norm Enfield, left, and President Sonja Shaw, right, listen to a speaker during a board meeting ahead of the board’s vote to requiring schools to notify parents if their child changes their pronouns.
Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images
“This is a national movement and it’s intentional,” former school board president Christina Gagnier told The Daily Beast. “I think Chino Valley is a cautionary tale.”
District parent Glory Ciccarelli condemned Hibbs’ words on slavery at the August board meeting, urging Black parents to leave his church and “wake up and realize that what our ancestors went through is slowly getting phased out of the curriculum to the point where our kids will eventually be taught that literal slaveholders were nice guys…”
Ciccarelli told The Daily Beast that her biggest issue with Chino Valley leadership is “the apathy they have for the Black kids in the district,” and that the board needs professional development training relating to race and culture and diversity in hiring.
But she believes that Hibbs’ influence over certain board members could derail any progress in the district. In addition to Shaw, two other school board members—James Na and Andrew Cruz—are also members of Calvary Chapel.
“Cruz and Na are quite literally acolytes of Jack Hibbs at this point,” Ciccarelli said. “In my opinion, everything they say and believe as it relates to the school board is basically something they have heard from him.”
Hibbs, she added, “reminds me of Jim Jones with the way he is so easily able to control so many people at the same time.”
At the July board meeting that attracted far-right extremists like the Proud Boys, some local parents pushed back against the church’s connections to the school board.
“Madam President, board, cabinet, and staff,” quipped one father of a queer child, “I didn’t know I came to church tonight. I thought it was a board meeting.”
So many citizens had signed up to speak, waiting in a line outside in 100-degree weather, that the board cut the public comment period from three minutes to one minute per person.
Lisa Greathouse, a local mom and former school board candidate, defended teachers against claims they were “indoctrinating” and “grooming” kids. “Make no mistake,” Greathouse told the auditorium, “what this board is pushing through now is just the tip of the iceberg. They are taking their cue from their megachurch…”
Outbursts from hecklers interrupted the proceeding, which had a heavy police and security presence. Speakers from out of town and from Calvary Chapel preached about God and the Devil, facing off with parents and students who warned Shaw and her board they would have blood on their hands should the “outing” policy pass.
One moment in particular was so explosive it made headlines: Shaw excoriated Tony Thurmond, California’s state superintendent of schools, who’d asked her to reconsider the policy about notifying parents if their children identified as trans. He said it might run afoul of student privacy laws and jeopardize kids who “may not be in homes where they can be safe.”
“It seriously feels like I’m in some sort of weird dystopia.”
Thurmond wasn’t finished with his remarks, but Shaw cut him off for time like she did anyone else. “Tony Thurmond,” she seethed, “I appreciate you being here, tremendously. But here’s the problem: We’re here because of people like you. You’re in Sacramento proposing things that pervert children!”
After Thurmond tried to continue, Shaw yelled into her mic that she wouldn’t let him “blackmail” or “bully” her district. Video of the scene showed Thurmond exchanging words with a group of cops before walking away.
In a statement, Thurmond told The Daily Beast that a group of concerned students contacted him about Shaw’s proposal, and he rearranged his schedule to be there. “Let’s be clear about these policies—a small group of anti-LGBTQ+ politicians like Ms. Shaw believe they have the right to dictate when and how students and their families talk about their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Thurmond said. “They are trying to turn our public school educators—who are already overworked and underpaid—into the gender police.”
“Choosing when to come out and to whom is a deeply personal decision that LGBTQ+ young people have the right to make for themselves.”
Ashlee Peters, the parent of a child in the district, watched the scene unfold. “As an educator and as a mom, you just sit there and go, ‘I can’t believe this is happening in my community,’” said Peters, who has been a public school teacher for 22 years.
Peters was also in line when far-right activist Bryce Henson, who also goes by Ben Richards, walked around trying to bait people into reacting on camera. “He would come up to you and be like, ‘I just want to talk to you, why can’t we just have a conversation about this?’” It was a sneak preview of the testimony to come.
Inside, people proselytized and spewed hatred, calling LGBTQ people “terrorists” and warning “demons are after our children.” Richards called transgender, Black Lives Matter and Juneteenth flags flying outside his San Diego school district a symbol of “systemic radical leftist indoctrination.” One mother ended her speech with, “As Jason Aldean would say, ‘Well, try that in a small town.’”
Chino Valley School board president Sonja Shaw told the crowd in Sacramento, “We already know who has won this battle. You will be removed in Jesus’s name! You, Satan, are losing.”
Wally Skalij/Los Angles Times
When it was her turn, Peters warned that the “outing” policy would “create a hostile environment” for LGBTQIA+ students and that the board’s “reckless pursuit of personal agendas” could bring about “expensive lawsuits.”
The atmosphere was so tense that security escorted a person out who put hands on someone else, Peters said. “It seriously feels like I’m in some sort of weird dystopia,” Peters told The Daily Beast. “I don’t know how this happened because it does not feel real.”
Peters believes that what’s unfolding in Chino Valley Unified is a wake-up call to monitor school board elections. “I just didn’t think it was going to happen in my community because I live in California,” she said. “I feel relatively safe living in a blue state—that religion wasn’t going to suddenly take over my public school system, and it has.”
Even though the involvement of Hibbs and his megachuch in local public schools has been center stage in Chino Valley this year, it’s a battle that’s been brewing for at least a decade. Back in 2014, the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents in Chino Valley over prayers and Bible readings at school board meetings, arguing these practices “constituted an establishment of religion in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”
The prayers and Bible verses were being led by Calvary Chapel members James Na and Andrew Cruz, who were elected to the school board in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
According to the prayer lawsuit, Na once told spectators of a school board meeting that their “lives begin in the hospital and end in the church, and urged everyone who does not know Jesus Christ to go and find Him.” In 2013, Na sent out a letter to school district “family member[s]” that referred to Hibbs with an excerpt from “Pastor Jack’s Christmas story.”
“The community is going to rise and create a war chest to help you,” Hibbs told the board in 2016 in the midst of the legal battle, though a crowdfunding drive affiliated with the church apparently never delivered. A school board spokesperson previously said that funding was intended to bring the case to the Supreme Court.
“The devil always loses.”
A federal judge ultimately ruled in the parents’ favor, and the board lost its Ninth Circuit appeal, leaving the district with $282,000 in legal bills.
This apparently hasn’t stopped Cruz’s Christian commentary. In April, he went on a rant wherein he said that if he were governor, he’d mandate citizens be trained in firearms and that, “I do love one man, I really love this man, and that is Jesus Christ. It’s in my head.”
Since his election, Cruz has especially ignited parents’ ire and weathered calls to resign as a result of his offensive remarks and chemtrail conspiracy theories. In 2015, Cruz said mothers who don’t vaccinate their kids are wrongfully vilified while “illegal aliens” bring infectious disease to America. In 2018, Cruz infamously said that “it wasn’t Hitler that was bad, it was the people that follow the laws and the agenda” while discussing “parents rights.”
That year, Na and Cruz (and Hibbs) proposed that parents have the ability to opt kids out of sex-ed discussions on gender identity, sexual orientation, and discrimination—and for schools to notify parents when a transgender student uses a locker room or shower. Those measures failed.
Na is also not without controversy. Aside from his religious musings at the board, he’s also been accused of trying to recruit at least one student to Calvary Chapel.
At a June board meeting, a statement was read on behalf of Esther Kim, who was the panel’s student representative in the 2021-2022 school year. “In sophomore year, I met Mr. Na through a personal phone call where his school board role and my school were acknowledged,” Kim said. “During an unrelated conversation, he attempted to persuade me to go to his church.”
Chino Valley Unified School District President Sonja Shaw receives a high five from clerk Andrew Cruz, not pictured, as board member James Na, right, looks on during a board meeting at Don Lugo High School in Chino on Thursday night July 20, 2023.
MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images
In November 2021, Kim mobilized classmates to oppose Cruz and Na’s attempt to ban trans students from using the bathrooms of their identified gender. Cruz additionally proposed requiring trans students to “have psychological counseling for a minimum of 6 months to ensure” they’re trans and a doctor’s letter showing the student is receiving hormonal therapy.
Kim remembers that Na had compared the fight to protect transgender people to choosing between saving a man and an “endangered species.” “The students came out feeling attacked, downcast,” Kim told The Daily Beast. “They lost hope in their school board.”
In May of last year, Kim stood up to Na’s proposed resolution against Assembly Bill 2223, which shields women who have lost or ended pregnancies from prosecution. Calvary Chapel members, including a prayer-reciting Shaw, showed up to the meeting after Hibbs encouraged “a thousand or two” people to support Na’s proposal. Na rationalized this non-education motion, telling the room that “the devil always loses” and abortion would lead to lower enrollment and thus a loss of funding. For his part, Cruz warned of a future where women are paid to have babies, who would be “ripped up” for their organs.
When it was her turn to speak, Kim said Na’s abortion proposal had no place at a school board. “My peers and I have time to time been disappointed by the actions of some of our board members to the point where we’re no longer surprised by these nonsensical resolutions,” she said. Some audience members booed, and then-president Gagnier reminded them that Kim was a student and to be “respectful.”
Na also publicly lashed out at the teen, declaring, “This is a perfect example of why you need to talk to your children. This is an appointment for us to see and hear what happens when you leave them alone with the wrong people.” He then suggested Kim was “brainwashed.”
What’s happening in Chino Valley, Kim says, is just one example of a religious “national movement that has been carefully orchestrated for a very long time.”
“We are finally seeing it surface, first in the form of attacks on marginalized communities, religion in politics, who knows what next,” Kim told The Daily Beast.
At last month’s rally at the state Capitol, Shaw shared that she grew up in a home without much parental involvement. Her mother was a heroin addict who died when she was young. Her father was from another country (Israel, she told The Daily Beast) and worked seven days a week.
Shaw was a frequent commenter at school board meetings during COVID-19 shutdowns, voicing opposition to Critical Race Theory and mask mandates via her group Parent Advocacy of Chino Valley. Sometimes she was hostile to the board, yelling and interrupting proceedings, according to footage. Calling herself “The Parent’s Voice” in campaign materials, she narrowly won election to the board by 317 votes thanks to door-knocking volunteers, Hibbs’ blessing, and a $50,000 donation from Charlie and Sherry Reynoso, who own a hardware company.
Jon Monroe, another newly-elected board member who’s voted in line with Cruz, Na, and Shaw, also received $50,000 from the couple.
In a phone call with The Daily Beast, Reynoso confirmed he is a member of Calvary Chapel but insisted he hadn’t heard about the school board race at church. Instead, he and Monroe coach high school sports together, and he thinks highly of him. “I just wanted to support them,” Reynoso said. “I just like Jon a lot. Jon is a good guy, he’s just a solid human being.”
“These actions show that we’re not worth protecting. They want us dead.”
Shaw says she decided to run for office after a local GOP operative approached her and urged someone in her parents’ group to vie for the open seat.
Her opponent was then-board president Gagnier, a technology lawyer and adjunct professor who has been featured as a legal expert on TV and in print. After Gagnier lost, she co-founded Our Schools USA with a former teacher in the district, Kristi Hirst, to combat misinformation and counter Moms for Liberty (M4L) and their ilk.
Our Schools has spent the last year spotlighting Shaw’s actions pre- and post- election, sharing footage of her yelling at Gagnier and board members; her speeches at political events as school board president; and her apparent collaborations with far-right agitators.
During an April board meeting, Shaw invited a director with Gays Against Groomers—a right-wing group aligned with M4L that calls gender-affirming care for minors “indoctrination” and “mutilation”—to lead the pledge of allegiance. She had also passed a resolution backing Assemblyman Essayli’s bill 1314, which would have required schools to tell parents if their child “is identifying at school as a gender that does not align with [their] sex on their birth certificate.”
When Essayli’s bill failed to get any traction, Shaw proposed a policy of her own. It immediately drew outrage from LGBTQ residents and allies, who said a significant percentage of trans kids feel safe at school but not at home.
Chino High School valedictorian Daniel Mora, who is gay, spoke in opposition.
“I can’t believe this is happening in my community,” said one Chino parent who has been a public school teacher for 22 years.
David McNew/Getty Images
Mora told the Daily Beast that he feels the policy “has nothing to do with parental rights” but “everything to do with outing trans kids because they don’t think people can be trans.” Mora points to the July board meeting, when Cruz called being transgender “a dismantling of our humanity” and “mental illness.” “We are saving children,” Cruz added. “Because we’re losing a lot of them. It is a death culture from the left.”
“I really don’t understand these types of policies,” Mora told us. “The majority of the people who live in Chino do not agree with this. Most people who speak at the meetings in support of these policies are outsiders. They’re outsiders invited by Sonja and the school board.” After Mora spoke at the board in June to oppose Shaw’s flag ban policy, someone yelled, “Your parents should be in jail!” in a moment captured on camera.
Max Ibarra, a transgender student who has fought the board’s anti-trans politics since 2021, told The Daily Beast that they know of several students who wanted to use new names and pronouns this year but will now stay in the closet. Ibarra says they came out last year and so the “outing” provision doesn’t apply to them.
“What they’re doing is dangerous,” Ibarra said of the board. “It’s a direct target on trans kids’ lives in the district, and they don’t care about that.” Shaw, Ibarra says, is pushing “trans panic” and “allows the members of her board to say horrible things.” Instead of stopping Cruz for publicly declaring trans was a “mental illness,” Shaw booted a student who yelled in protest at his comments, Ibarra said.
Speakers at board meetings routinely target the trans movement as an “evil ideology,” Ibarra said, making students feel unsafe. Ibarra makes sure they have a “buddy system” at meetings and someone to escort them back to their car.
Of the current board, Ibarra said, “They can say that they support every student all they want but actions speak louder than words. These actions show that we’re not worth protecting. They want us dead.”
Despite warnings about trans students’ mental health and safety, Shaw and fellow board member Monroe argue their policy ultimately protects kids by involving their parents.
Asked about arguments that some trans kids could face emotional, verbal, or physical abuse from guardians, Monroe said, “Those parents are in the minority.”
A person holds a sign in opposition to a policy that the Chino Valley school board passed in July that requires schools to notify parents if their child comes out as transgender.
David McNew/Getty Images
“The majority of the parents want what’s best for their kid,” he told The Daily Beast. “And so when you’re trying to enact policy, I’m going to go with the side that has the most benefit. That’s where I think the difference is going to be.”
Once a high school baseball coach and resource officer in the district, Monroe said that he expected pushback on the new rule. But he was surprised that local elected officials have declined the board’s invitation to talk in person—and by a flood of hate mail calling him “transphobic” and a “Nazi.”
“From the smallest local politics to the national stage, we’ve lost the ability to sit down and talk to somebody with a different ideology than our own,” Monroe added.
Recently, his secretary purchased tickets for himself and Shaw to attend a local Planned Parenthood event where Thurmond was featured as speaker. But an hour later, he says, their tickets were canceled. “I just find it very odd that I can’t go into an event of somebody that may have some different views than I do,” Monroe said.
“I don’t always think that I’m right,” he added. “As I was telling one couple, I have questions about our policy too. You can’t see the future and what happens.”
Cruz and Na didn’t return messages left by The Daily Beast
Don Bridge, elected in 2020 and the only member voting against Shaw’s handiwork, told us, “The pride flag banning and parental rights notification resolutions by our district is definitely anti-LGBTQ.”
Asked what it’s like to be the lone dissenter, Bridge said in an email: “It’s not that bad because I know I’m doing the right thing in standing up and advocating for ALL students.”
“I am worried because, as I used to teach my government students, the next election is always the most important. That occurs next year, in November 2024 when 3 seats will be up for election,” he wrote, adding that another Shaw ally could result in a “5-0 conservative board,” a future that an opposition group is working to prevent.
Andi Johnston, a school district spokesperson, said that the parental notification policy is aimed at student safety.
“The Parent Notification policy does protect transgender students by requiring staff to notify CPS/law enforcement if the student believes they are in danger or have been abused, injured, or neglected due to their parent or guardian knowing of their preferred gender identity,” Johnston added in a written statement, emphasis hers. “In these circumstances, CVUSD staff will not notify parents or guardians, but rather, wait for the appropriate agencies to complete their investigations regarding the concerns shared by the student.”
She said that while Bonta, Our Schools, and other organizations have called the policy dangerous, the district’s past and current practices “solidify staff’s priority to provide all students with a safe and positive educational experience.”
Sonja Shaw says critics have her wrong. According to her detractors, she’s a Moms for Liberty member or following their playbook, she’s affiliated with the Proud Boys and other extremists, and she’s a transphobic bigot following the agenda of Pastor Jack Hibbs.
In an interview, Shaw said she didn’t know much about M4L or the Proud Boys. “Some people have no intention other than trying to find something to make you look bad, right? That’s what I learned about the media,” she said. While she signed M4L’s candidate pledge, she says she’s not a member or otherwise involved with the group. Shaw has also claimed she didn’t know what the GOP was until she ran for office, and that her fight transcends party politics.
“If you actually look at my background, it’s not to come in and throw policies around,” Shaw told The Daily Beast. “It’s because there’s actually meaning to these things.”
Still, her targets are California Democrats and she calls Bonta, Thurmond and Newsom “a political cartel”; her policies lean decidedly Republican; and she’s a repeat guest on Fox News and the One America News Network.
A man wears an evangelical t-shirt and holds a banner in support of a policy that the Chino Valley school board is meeting to vote on which would require school staff to “out” students to their parents.
David McNew/Getty Images
After Bonta sued the district, Shaw called the legal action “another ploy to stop all the districts around California from adopting a common sense legal policy.” She told The Daily Beast, “Parents have a constitutional right in the upbringing of their children. Period. Bring it.”
Shaw is in the middle of a media tour of sorts, as she speaks at state hearings and political events. On Aug. 14, she spoke at a press conference co-organized by Freedom Angels, which is helmed by gun-toting anti-vaxxer survivalist moms. The rally targeted California bills that would limit book bans and make threatening or harassing a school employee a misdemeanor. (One intention behind the latter bill is to protect teachers from extremists.)
In mid-September, she is scheduled to speak at the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington, DC, organized by the Family Research Council, an evangelical nonprofit designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This lineup also includes Hibbs, former president Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former vice president Mike Pence, and other boldfaced conservative names. The director of Hibbs’ Real Impact will lead a breakout session on how “individuals and churches can engage in ‘ballot harvesting.’”
Bonta and Thurmond have previously issued warning letters to the district when Na and Cruz proposed anti-trans policies. Shaw seems to welcome her place in their crosshairs.
According to Shaw, before Bonta’s office sued the district, his lawyers subpoenaed her school board emails for words like “woke,” “trans” and “hate” as part of its civil rights inquiry. “You’re making our staff spend hours looking for certain things that aren’t even there,” Shaw told us. “If you actually looked at my emails, I’m called the C-word. I’m called the B-word. My life is threatened, my kids are threatened.” She added, “and that’s ignored?”
Police recently arrested a 52-year-old Berkeley woman for allegedly threatening Shaw, who told media outlets a caller to the district warned they’d murder and “dismember” her.
Shaw routinely shares her hate mail on Instagram but insists that she’s received an outpouring of support, too, including from people in other countries.
“We have an opportunity to show the nation now because they’re all watching us,” Shaw told us. “If we can show that we can come together despite whatever people want to label us, I think just for the success of our children, that can be a really cool and beautiful thing.”
“Can you imagine what we can do together if we actually listen to each other?” she said.
Not everyone feels Shaw’s proclamations of unity are genuine. Citizens have taken to the podium to accuse Shaw of online bullying and having spies snap photos of teachers in schools.
Karen Reyes, one of Don Lugo High School’s intervention counselors, has accused Shaw of fomenting “hysteria” around a proposal to build a private office in her school’s wellness center, a place where students take mental health breaks. In public comments and on social media, Shaw has claimed this room could become a Planned Parenthood clinic. It resulted in the local chamber of commerce canceling a partnership to fundraise for the project.
Reyes told The Daily Beast that Shaw’s fear mongering led to people calling her and other counselors “pedophiles” and “groomers” and demanding they put cameras in the center. “It just feels like manufacturing crises for a larger agenda,” Reyes said.
At the board’s June meeting, another woman held up a poster printed with a photograph of a Don Lugo counselor’s office. The image was taken through a window and showed a rainbow flag and poster that read “What you say in here stays in here,” before listing exceptions such as abuse or self-harm. Someone snapped the photo for Shaw, who circulated it on Instagram. “You abused your power as a school board member to dox a district employee,” the speaker told Shaw, before claiming she was “instigating a community to attack this office and counselor on social media.”
Kelly McClister, another local mom, claimed that some parents “have been subjected to bullying and insults” by board members. She said that she filed a police report in December 2022 because Shaw posted her photo with her children to her social media account “for the purpose, I think, of calling me names.” And that Cruz, instead of responding to her emailed concerns, only replied that she was a “strange bird.”
The Daily Beast obtained a copy of a Chino Police Department report indicating McClister wanted to document the “newly elected CVUSD official” who had been “talking badly about” her on Instagram. McClister told police she worried Shaw’s adherents would appear at her home.
McClister, a lifelong Chino Valley resident, told The Daily Beast that one of the biggest reasons she moved her kids from public to private schools was Calvary Chapel’s “overreach,” especially after one of its “Released Time” volunteers approached her son outside of school.
She says she’s emailed the board over the years expressing concerns about combination classes and other issues, but Na and Cruz “have never responded.” But after Shaw took office, she emailed the board again about what she calls Shaw’s “unprofessional” social media posts with spelling and grammatical errors and shared concerns that an “under-educated” person was board president.
Shaw didn’t reply. Instead she tagged McClister in an Instagram story. “I show people when people call me names, and say bad things about me,” Shaw told us, insisting that she crossed out McClister’s name in her post.
“Because I think it’s important for people to see what we’re dealing with too,” Shaw added. “Because when you have all this hate by people who say that we’re hating, I think it’s ironic, right?”
From Shaw’s perspective, the last iteration of the board didn’t listen to parents, “exited” them from schools with vaccine and mask rules, and enabled an air of secrecy. She said that when she spoke to people on the campaign trail, secrecy was the No. 1 issue.
“You would hear over and over stories where parents would say, ‘I found out for about six months, my child was being bullied, the schools knew, there was a record, but I was never notified.’ You heard stuff about kids wanting to possibly commit suicide … and it was alarming that they found out that the school or the teacher knew and never notified them.”
The opposition from Thurmond and Bonta has only strengthened her resolve.
“We’re not going to back down. We’re not going to step down. Our board majority was voted in for a reason,” Shaw said, “and we’re going to make sure that reason is carried out.”
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