by Corinne Murdock | Oct 12, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
About two weeks ago, an incident occurred on Arizona State University’s (ASU) Tempe campus in which a group of activist students drove two students out of a study room. The two students happened to be displaying gear that could be construed as more conservative or Republican: a Bass Pro hat, a “Police Lives Matter” sticker, a Chick-fil-A cup, and a “Did Not Vote for Biden” t-shirt. Behind the camera were the activist students – members of the Multicultural Solidarity Coalition (MSC), a group that had been advocating for a multicultural space for years – who essentially wanted to maintain a “safe space” for people of color which they called their “multicultural center.”
AZ Free News looked further into this incident. We discovered several key facts: for one, the “multicultural center” wasn’t established officially at the time of the incident. This was discoverable in subsequent statements and interviews from MSC members involved in the incident.
Additionally, AZ Free News learned that there are several inconsistencies with one of the key activists behind the viral video: graduate student Sarra Tekola.
Multicultural Center Wasn’t Established Officially
In an interview with Civic Cipher about a week after the incident, Tekola asserted multiple times that the two male students “didn’t know what the space was.”
Two of the other female students involved in the incident were also interviewed: Mastaani Qureshi, a history and justice studies undergraduate, alum liaison for the leadership sorority Omega Phi Alpha and co-president of ASU’s Women’s Coalition; and Miriam “Mimi” Araya, a Black Lives Matter (BLM) Phoenix policy minister, vice president of ASU’s Black Graduate Student Association, and doctoral student in justice studies in the School of Social Transformation. The pair concurred with Tekola’s assessment that the two students didn’t know they were in a place designated as a multicultural center.
Tekola also admitted that there were no official staff members, rules, aesthetics, or formal governance associated with the space. She blamed ASU officials for not properly outfitting and identifying the space as a multicultural center.
“This space only just opened up at the beginning of September,” said Tekola. “At that point, [I] became aware [that these students] must’ve not even known what this space is – that’s on ASU, that’s not on them. […] So these students didn’t know what the space was.”
Tekola and her activist group, the Multicultural Solidarity Coalition (MSC) said in their official statement in response to the incident that the multicultural center hadn’t been fully launched.
“We have been working toward this goal [to establish a multicultural center] since 2016 and, as of 2020, we have been coordinating with ASU administrators to establish a multicultural center. The multicultural center is currently housed in one room on campus that was opened this semester and has not yet been fully launched,” wrote MSC. (emphasis added)
Yet, Tekola’s characterization that the space opened up at the beginning of September appears to carry its own inconsistencies. ASU’s newspaper, The State Press, indicated in a September 11 article that the center hadn’t launched. They reported that no further updates were provided in a meeting on the center and other social justice initiatives the day before, though Senior Vice President for Educational Outreach and Student Services James Rund had told the paper in August that the center would be running at some point that semester.
Tekola conflicting herself isn’t out of character for the PhD candidate. It appears that she, Qureshi, and Araya told Civic Cipher that they’d foregone “opportunities to respond via other media outlets.” However, Tekola interviewed with The Arizona Republic on or prior to September 29.
Inconsistencies of that caliber are more frequent than not in Tekola’s life.
Tekola Goes By Multiple Versions of Her Name
This PhD candidate has multiple variations of her first and last name. AZ Free News has found the following name variations associated with this individual: her first name has been cited as Zarra, Sarra, or Zahara, and her last name has been either Teacola or Tekola. At times, Tekola has dropped her last name and gone by “Zarra” only.
According to ASU, her graduate school profile knew her as “Sarra Tekola.” That profile was last archived on Friday. By Monday, the page was removed.
Tekola’s Instagram profile used to be @zebratekola, but she made it private after the incident. Tekola even attempted to claim it wasn’t her, despite screenshots of her original profile and a shoutout linking to her profile from “Scary Movie” film series actress Regina Hall.
Now, Tekola has another Instagram profile called @sarratekola, likely created on Monday judging by the first post on the page. As of press time, her Twitter profile is still active, though it’s now private – @zebra425.
Finally, on her Facebook profile page, @zahara.teacola, and a GoFundMe for her arrest connected with multiple BLM protests, Tekola refers to herself as “Zahara Teacola.” The latest public post on that page occurred April 22, 2020, where she reposted something that’s since been removed claiming that the Kardashians were in blackface. Tekola asked if people decided that the Kardashians’ alleged blackface was okay because they “sleep with black men.”
At times, Tekola has opted to not give her name at all. In May, BLM Phoenix posted an interview of Tekola discussing her arrest last October for obstruction of a public thoroughfare and tampering with physical evidence (CR2020-130075). Those charges were later dismissed without prejudice.
Claims She’s a First-Generation College Student, and Father Was a ‘Climate Change Refugee’
Tekola has claimed repeatedly that she is a first-generation college student, and that her father was a “climate change refugee.” She claims that latter assertion inspires much of her work.
However, as first reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, Tekola is the daughter of Ethiopian refugee Fasil and Susan Tekola. Fasil attended an Ethiopian college prior to fleeing the violent communist revolution of the ’70s. Up until around 2016, Susan was a registered nurse and union member that advocated for socialized medicine. According to the Washington Department of Health, Susan had her credentials suspended in 2016 for “neglecting to respond to charges of being unable to practice with reasonable skill and safety due to concerns related to mental health issues.”
Susan wasn’t Fasil’s first wife – he told The Grist that he married an American woman named Debby to gain citizenship. Prior to their marriage, Debby was an English teacher that he’d met in Kenya and began dating.
The history of Tekola’s parents challenges her previous claims that she is a first-generation college student. Fasil had attended university while in Kenya. It’s likely Susan attended even more college: the state of Washington currently has required all registered nurses to have a bachelor’s degree.
Fasil also wasn’t a “climate refugee” as Tekola has claimed repeatedly. According to The Grist, he fled the violence in Ethiopia, not the drought. Fasil first fled to Nairobi, Kenya, then Israel, then Greece, before reaching Sweden. There, the Swedish government denied Fasil’s asylum application, deporting him back to Kenya. While in Kenya, Fasil studied wildlife range management in college for a year, before taking a job with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Before his world was thrown into turmoil, Fasil Tekola lived a comfortable life in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. Born into a wealthy family, his father a colonel, he was one of only a few kids who drove their own cars to school.
The communists rounded up Fasil Fasil and “men of all ages, targeting the educated and wealthy, and gunned them down. Known today as the Red Terror, the genocide claimed more than 10,000 lives in Addis Ababa alone.
Tekola was 19 years old. He and other students were rounded up and jailed. But because his father was a well-known community leader and had left the military in the years preceding the war, he was later released. Two of his friends were not so lucky. After hearing about their murders, Tekola and a friend decided to flee the country.
Their escape began a journey that would send Tekola bouncing across the world in search of asylum. After years of traveling, he’d end up literally a half a world away in Seattle.
Tekola is also far from a victim of oppressive systems and circumstances, claims under which she’s aligned herself in her activism. The PhD candidate grew up in Maple Valley, Washington. According to census information, the median value of a house there from 2015 to 2019 was over $414,000, while median income in 2019 sat over $57,000. As Arizona Daily Independent noted, the median income in Tempe, Arizona, is just over $30,200.
Tekola also claimed in a poem she wrote that she was homeschooled growing up, but said her mother felt she was too naive about the “real world.” Due to that belief, Tekola recounted, her mother placed her in a private Christian school. Tekola said her main contentions with the school were the uniforms, authority figures, mean girls, and how easy the schoolwork was, so her parents put her in a public school.
Here’s what else we could discover about Tekola:
PhD Dissertation Proposes Decolonization as a Climate Change Solution
Tekola’s PhD dissertation suggests that decolonization is a solution for climate change, according to her profile on Academia.
“[Tekola’s] dissertation works on the social side of climate change focusing on creating the cultural change Western society needs to successfully implement climate solutions,” read the profile. “She is investigating the connections between climate change and colonization, and how the colonial trauma Western countries have affects our ability to address climate change today and what we can do to change this dynamic.”
Tekol further suggested on her profile with Happy Lab ASU, a collaborative project of ASU School of Sustainability Students, that the dissolution of Western society would solve climate change:
“My dissertation research focuses on identifying the social causes of climate change as affected by colonization.Specifically, I consider how the colonial mentality still prevalent in Western society, which promotes individualism, consumerism, egotism and hegemony, prevents us from the just transition required to address climate change. I am conducting action research, seeing what happens when Western consumers build relationships of solidarity with the people directly affected by their consumption. Right now we are working with the Black Mesa community who is being displaced from their traditional lands due to coal that is used to pump water to our city. My work is about creating the cultural change needed to successfully implement climate solutions, experimenting with decolonization as a climate solution.”
ASU couldn’t confirm or deny whether Tekola would be finishing her PhD candidacy due to the privacy rights of students, according to ASU spokesman Jerry Gonzalez.
Co-Founded Black Lives Matter Phoenix, Admitted as Ford Foundation Fellow
Tekola co-founded the Phoenix chapter of BLM, and serves as the “co-minister of activism.” Like most of the other BLM protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death, peaceful BLM protests in Phoenix devolved into violence and looting last May. An estimated millions in damage resulted from rioters descending on Scottsdale Fashion Square. BLM Phoenix issued a statement after the riots that they were not involved.
In the past, Tekola’s activism has included her work as an advisor for the Hive Fund, a climate change and gender justice activist organization; a board member for the Rowan Institute, a climate change activist organization; and a director for the Reclaiming STEM Institute, an advocacy organization for diversity in scientific leadership and policy.
Tekola was also the co-founder of Women of Color Speak Out, a group focused on making environmental activism accessible to people of color. That group lasted from 2015 to 2019. According to a pop-up notice that appears on the homepage, the activists parted ways due to ideological differences. None of the founders that AZ Free News contacted responded to our inquiries by press time.
Finally, Tekola was awarded the prestigious far-left Ford Foundation Fellowship in 2018 for a predoctoral expertise in “geography.” Factors considered for a predoctoral fellowship award include the applicant being a minority and focusing their studies or research on diversity and underrepresented communities. The current award sits at $27,000 for three years, exclusive Ford Fellows conference access, and exclusive Ford Fellows networking opportunities.
At the time of press, ASU hasn’t issued any further statements about the incident, or whether any of the students involved will face any penalties.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 9, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
In March, the Arizona Department of Education’s (ADE) Social Studies newsletter advertised grant funds for teachers who would implement the 1619 Project. The Pulitzer Center offered a $5,000 grant to 40 educators; applications were due in March. The 1619 Project is an exercise of critical race theory, which holds that race is a socially-constructed idea created by white people to exploit and suppress anyone who isn’t white, and that all social, political, and economic institutions in this country were created by and operate on racism.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper series was debunked by historians roundly and subsequently edited significantly without any editor’s notes from its publisher, The New York Times. The initial goal of the project was to “reframe the country’s history” by establishing the year 1619 as the United States’s “true founding,” while focusing “the consequences of slavery and contributions of black Americans” as the lens through which to view past and present American society.
Parent and co-founder of West Valley Parents Uniting, Heather Rooks, resurfaced ADE’s newsletter promoting 1619 Project grant funds.
“Social Studies Newsletter back from January 2021, Arizona Department of Education to the Peoria Unified School District,” wrote Rooks. “Pulitzer Center offering grants to teachers to help implement the 1619 project ? So @azedschools is clearly using incentives to push CRT is AZ schools!”
In February, ADE’s Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion also suggested that the 1619 Project podcast was an appropriate educator resource for Black History Month.
In a statement to AZ Free News, Rooks questioned how ADE could be trusted with educating Arizona’s students if they promoted such unacademic materials. She urged parents to up their vigilance.
The Arizona Department of Education sends out newsletters to school districts across the valley. You would think the Department would have resources to help students with loss of learning. But instead, there’s a newsletter from January 2021 showing a promotion from Pulitzer Center giving out grant money to teachers who implement the 1619 project in their classrooms. I am a parent who wants the best education not only for my children, but for all children in Peoria Unified School District. Finding this newsletter through public records in emails of the curriculum team with the Peoria Unified School District was incredibly sad and shocking to say the least. If we can’t trust The Arizona Department of Education, how do we trust the Districts? Parents need to be aware of these newsletters coming to school districts from the Arizona Department of Education. Offering incentives to push Critical Race Theory into schools is completely wrong. West Valley Parents Uniting stands for transparency for parents and academics for students. Apparently the Arizona Department of Education doesn’t stand for Truth.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 6, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Governor Doug Ducey refused to heed the Biden Administration’s warning that two of his programs rewarding mask-free schooling couldn’t be using federal COVID-19 relief funds. Almost immediately after receiving the Department of Treasury’s (USDT) request to pull back his programs, Ducey issued a public statement that he would continue to defend parents’ choice. He also questioned why President Joe Biden opposes programs designed to help children who fell behind due to COVID-19 measures such as school shutdowns, mask mandates, forced quarantines, and distanced learning.
“Here in Arizona, we trust families to make decisions that are best for their children. It’s clear that President Biden doesn’t feel the same. He’s focused on taking power away from American families by issuing restrictive and dictatorial mandates for his own political gain. After the many challenges of last year, it should be our top priority to get our kids caught up. That’s exactly what this program does — it gives families in need the opportunity to access critical educational resources. Why is the president against that?”
American Federation for Children’s Arizona State Director, Steve Smith, asserted that he stood by Ducey’s response. He pointed out that public schools with mask mandates have access to an overwhelming majority of the federal relief funds; essentially, Ducey’s two programs are a drop in the funds bucket.
“I applaud Governor Ducey for doing all he can to provide more education options for Arizona families through this unprecedented time. It is alarming that anyone, especially elected officials whose responsibility it is to advocate for Arizonans, would not only oppose these options but then actively lobby the federal government to take these resources away from families,” said Smith. “It’s all the more frustrating considering the fact that 97 percent of the $190 billion in federal relief funds have gone to public schools that in many cases, are still sitting on it.”
Ducey’s response addressed a letter issued Tuesday by USDT Deputy Secretary Adewale Adeyemo. He told Ducey it wasn’t permissible to use federal relief funds for either the $10 million school voucher program that covers $7,000 of tuition or other educational costs at schools without mask mandates, or the $163 million grant program in which only schools without mask mandates are applicable for the grant funds.
“The purpose of the [Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds] SLFRF funds is to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the COVID-19 public health emergency, including by supporting efforts to stop the spread of the virus. A program or service that imposes conditions on participation or acceptance of the service that would undermine efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19 or discourage compliance with evidence-based solutions for stopping the spread of COVID-19 is not a permissible use of SLFRF funds.”
Adeyemo warned Ducey that he had a 30-day deadline to respond with proposals for remediation. Otherwise, USDT said it would recoup the funds.
Prior to his appointment, Adeyemo worked within the high ranks of BlackRock: the world’s largest and arguably most powerful multinational investment management corporation. Adeyemo served as senior advisor and chief of staff to CEO Larry Fink.
USDT began investigating Ducey’s programs at the request of Representative Greg Stanton (D-AZ-09) in mid-August. Stanton wrote to USDT Secretary Janet Yellen to issue an opinion on the programs.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 6, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Arizona parents promptly pushed back against the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) announcement Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Attorney’s Offices would investigate the trend of protests against school boards and other staff. The DOJ indicated that it would create a task force to accomplish this goal.
In a memorandum, Garland cited a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against public school staff nationwide. Garland explained that the FBI and law enforcement leaders would brainstorm reporting mechanisms and strategies to address violence, threats of violence, harassment, intimidation against public school staff. Nowhere in either the announcement or letter did the DOJ or Garland call those responsible for the purported spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats, “domestic terrorists.”
“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values. Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to work without fear for their safety,” wrote Garland. “The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate.”
A coalition of moms, West Valley Parents Uniting, said it was hypocritical for Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Biden Administration to highlight parents as a national threat while largely ignoring the rising rates of violent crime, human trafficking, and migrant encounters. Founders Heather Rooks and Devon Updegraff-Day submitted a joint statement to AZ Free News in response to the DOJ announcement.
“Administrators, school board members, and teachers are not the victims. The children are the victims! They have always been the victims; our children have been used as pawns for twisted political games for decades and parents have finally had enough […] The Biden Administration can issue warnings to parents and threaten legal recourse all they want; parents will never be made silent! Parents have the right and will always have the right to speak out against ANYTHING they deem inappropriate or detrimental to their child’s well-being; that is what being a parent is all about. The Biden Administration needs to get their tail out from between their legs and fight against real threats in America and stop trying to create distractions. Criminal conduct behavior is widespread, but one of the few places where it is not occurring is at school board meetings!”
While some issued formal statements, others opted to issue a prompt response on Twitter.
Pam Kirby, Republican Party of Arizona and Latinos for Trump Advisory Board Member, promised to continue rallying at school board meetings.
https://twitter.com/PamKirby/status/1445230750702321666
Another user accused the DOJ of pandering to teachers’ unions.
“Wow, all it took was one poorly drafted complaint letter from a teachers union, and DOJ responds. Without evidence. Just repeats what it has been told. We [see] who you work for.”
https://twitter.com/ALegalProcess/status/1445162013798191113
Yet another user claimed it was hypocritical of Democrats to crack down on parents at school board meetings but condone the behavior of illegal immigrants and activists who chased and filmed Senator Kyrsten Sinema into a bathroom.
“While leftists in office applaud those that chased, harassed [and] recorded a female elected official in a bathroom, they call parents using the normal channels of public meetings ‘radical extremists’ and accuse them of ‘infiltrating’ open meetings.”
https://twitter.com/ThatParentP4P/status/1445098787194621963
The Biden Administration’s DOJ hasn’t issued any similar statements to other, more organized movements like the local Antifa-aligned groups, whose members have exhibited repeat patterns of actively threatening and engaging in violence.
Opposition to the DOJ’s announcement even came from some school officials. One vocal advocate for affording full transparency to parents, Litchfield Elementary School District (LESD) Board Member Jeremy Hoenack, told AZ Free News that he was disappointed with the DOJ’s response.
“It’s highly disturbing that the President’s Administration seems to think that parents don’t count,” said Hoenack.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco defended the DOJ’s initiative before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The committee hearing itself wasn’t focused on the DOJ announcement, but Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) insisted that Monaco answer for it.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Oct 2, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
2021 marks the ten-year anniversary of education savings accounts (ESAs) in Arizona. The state’s ESA policy, formally known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, was established in 2011. As of this year, nearly a quarter of Arizona children are eligible for an ESA. The legislature has consistently fought to increase that rate – especially during this past legislative session.
The push for ESAs began with the Goldwater Institute. Their efforts led to the passage of SB1553, the first ESA policy in Arizona history. In a report, the Goldwater Institute highlighted three major factors that contributed to the ESA program’s success. The increasing demand for ESAs, financial benefits, and continued improvements all reportedly allowed the ESA program to grow.
Not only has the ESA program grown – supplemental resources have grown, too. The Goldwater Institute partnered with EdChoice to produce an interactive map to allow families to navigate their educational options. The map informs parents of state and local eligibility zones, the grade awarded each public school, and private school options. It also offers the location, contact information, grade range, tuition and fees for private schools.
The Goldwater Institute and EdChoice also released an informational packet discussing the track record, controversies, and details of the ESA program.
The ESA program has received significant pushback over the years. Activist groups like Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSA) view the ESA program as a drain on public school funding, which they claim is especially harmful for low-income families and in rural areas that already struggle with low funding.
However, research shows that per-pupil funding has increased by over $1,600 since the ESA program was put in place. This information was collected from reports by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE).
In 2018, voters were presented with the option to expand ESAs as legislated in SB1431 with a ballot initiative, Proposition 305. It was the biggest move to expand the ESA program: if passed, all students would be eligible for ESAs. Over 64 percent of Arizonans voted against it.
Legislators attempted to pass SB1452 this year, which would’ve opened up ESAs to low-income families – but it stalled in the House after Senate passage. The House later shot down a budget provision attempting to revive the bill. Three Republican Representatives joined their Democratic colleagues to kill it: Michelle Udall (R-Mesa), Joel John (R-Buckeye), and Joanne Osborne (R-Goodyear).
This past year, the legislature passed laws enhancing the ESA program.
These laws reduced the waiting period for ESA applicants, dropped a punitive measure forcing parents to effectively pay twice for unapproved items, rescinded the ADE’s authority to prematurely enact punitive measures against parents, allowed online attendance to count toward time spent in a public school, allowed families to supplement their insurance coverage for special needs therapies, and reduced the processing time for applicants from 45 to 30 days.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Sep 28, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
On Monday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper ruled that many laws passed within the recent budget were unconstitutional. Cooper stated that the legislation violated the single subject rule of the Arizona Constitution. The case, Arizona School Boards Association Inc., et al., v. State of Arizona, et al. (CV2021-012741) had a total of 15 plaintiffs. In all, Cooper’s ruling impacted a variety of budget-related bills, or BRBs: HB2898, SB1824, SB1825, and struck down SB1819 in its entirety.
“Subject and title of bills[:] Section 13. Every act shall embrace but one subject and matters properly connected therewith, which subject shall be expressed in the title; but if any subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be expressed in the title, such an act shall be void only as to so much thereof as shall not be embraced in the title.” (emphasis added)
In a copy of the opinion obtained by 12 News, Cooper asserted that Section 13 was made with the intent to prevent “logrolling”: inserting a multiplicity of subjects into one bill in order to push a vote through. The judge supported her claim with Arizona Supreme Court precedent. In explaining her decision to strike down all of SB1819, a sweeping bill that expanded voter registration, modified ballot security requirements, removed the secretary of state’s legal authority over election laws, established an election integrity fund, limited the length of public health emergencies, and created a special committee to audit the voter rolls, among other things.
“No matter how liberally one construes the concept of ‘subject’ for the single subject rule, the array of provisions are in no way related to nor connected with each other or to an identifiable ‘budget procedure.’ The bill is classic logrolling – a medley of special interests cobbled together to force a vote for all or none,” wrote Cooper. “In this case, the State’s view would allow the Legislature to re-define ‘budget reconciliation’ to mean anything it chooses. Going forward, the Legislature could add any policy or regulatory provision to a BRB, regardless of whether the measure was necessary to implement the budget, without notice to the public. The State’s idea of ‘subject’ is not and cannot be the law.” (emphasis added)
Cooper also asserted that the bills in question weren’t in compliance with the state constitution’s requirement that bill titles clearly reflect the content of the legislation.
In striking down the entirety of SB1819, Cooper explained that prior court decisions don’t allow for severability to salvage portions of the bill.
“When an act violates the single subject rule, the whole act fails,” stated Cooper.
Whereas for the other bills, Cooper explained that the certain provisions banning mask, vaccine, and testing mandates; critical race theory education; and vaccine passports weren’t reflected in the bill titles. Therefore, they were invalid.
As AZ Free News reported last week, the main plaintiff in the case, Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA), recently hosted a law conference where photos showed attendees maskless and not social distancing, though spokespersons informed us that masks were required. ASBA also told us they encouraged some attendees to take off masks momentarily and group together for pictures.
The mask mandate ban would’ve gone into effect on Wednesday.
Governor Doug Ducey’s spokesperson characterized the ruling as “judicial overreach.” The governor’s office promised that they would challenge the ruling.
“We are still reviewing the ruling, but this decision is clearly an example of judicial overreach. Arizona’s state government operates with three branches, and it’s the duty and authority of only the legislative branch to organize itself and to make laws,” stated Ducey’s spokesman. “Unfortunately, today’s decision is the result of a rogue judge interfering with the authority and processes of another branch of government. Further action will be taken to challenge this ruling and ensure separation of powers is maintained.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
