by Corinne Murdock | Oct 30, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) became the latest to join the trend of school boards and state associations leaving the National School Boards Association (NSBA). The CUSD Governing Board voted on Wednesday to cease their annual payment for “National Connection Fees” under the federation, which amounted to $8,620 for this upcoming year.
Only one board member, Lindsay Love, voted against leaving; board member Lara Bruner abstained from voting. The vote against paying the membership fees earned applause from the public in attendance.
NSBA’s national connection fees come with certain perks like advanced and discounted registration for their annual conference, additional leadership and legal resources, insider knowledge on federal policies and developments, national networks, and the latest news.
The advanced and discounted registration to NSBA’s annual conference is the biggest perk. Attendees have access to the premiere vendors and thought leaders in education. Their upcoming conference next April will be held in San Diego, California.
Board member Jason Olive said that he wasn’t aware of any board members attending the annual conference in recent years. Board President Barb Mozdzen confirmed that nobody to her knowledge had gone to the annual conference in four or five years.
Bruner claimed that being part of NSBA was required to maintain policy revisions from Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA). Mozdzen clarified that NSBA membership wasn’t required to get ASBA policies. Superintendent Franklin Narducci added that ASBA reviews state-legislated policies, but NSBA doesn’t.
“It’s my understanding you can be in one without the other, and that they aren’t mutually inclusive of each other,” said Narducci.
Love questioned why they were leaving the NSBA at all. Olive’s reply prompted laughter.
“Uh – so we don’t have to give them any money,” responded Olive.
At that point, Love cited her involvement with NSBA’s National Black Council (NBC). She insinuated that CUSD wouldn’t have representation in the NSBA if they rescinded their membership.
“So essentially [we] as Chandler have direct access to [NSBA] and we impact national policies just by being at the table,” argued Love.
Love’s remarks were met with stretches of silence from her fellow board members.
Bruner voiced her concern again that their withdrawal from NSBA would jeopardize their membership within ASBA. Mozdzen said that the membership fees weren’t due until January, indicating the council had time to revisit the topic until then.
The NSBA has received negative attention nationwide after sending a letter to President Joe Biden last month, asking him to invoke the PATRIOT Act to investigate parents and community members for potential “domestic terrorism.” Less than a week later, the Biden Administration obliged. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the FBI to investigate those concerns.
Shortly after the letter’s publication, open records requests revealed that the White House collaborated with the NSBA in their drafting of the letter. A day after the report on these records, the NSBA submitted an apology letter to its membership. Unlike their initial letter to Biden, however, the NSBA didn’t publicize this apology letter.
Watch CUSD’s vote on NSBA membership here: https://youtu.be/29uEbCmJKBI?t=16484
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 21, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
The mother and father of a middle school student, Amy and Shawn Souza, filed a statement of allegations against Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) with the Arizona State Board of Education for attempting to hide reportedly politicized curriculum from them and ignoring their opt-out requests. According to emails shared with AZ Free News, PUSD Director of Social Studies Curriculum and Instructional Specialist Jennifer Mundy suggested that the teacher and school in question, 7th grade social studies teacher Holli Trentowski at Sunset Heights Elementary, disguise or manipulate the curriculum on its face so that inquisitive parents like them wouldn’t look too closely. Mundy deferred to Marla Woolsey, the district’s Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction, for final say on the matter.
“[Trentowski’s] titles could be toned down a bit. For example, instead of saying ‘Science behind mob mentality,’ she could say ‘The science behind the KKK’s behavior’ or just put Tuesday’s title on Wednesday as well. I’m assuming that she’s teaching about the Ku Klux Klan on Tuesday and following that up with how it’s possible that people could commit the atrocities they did toward African Americans in the South during Reconstruction (and for a century and a few decades afterwards). If kids are thinking, they’ll [sic] on there [sic] own to take it to what happened this past summer as well as what happened at the Capitol a few weeks ago. Analyzing connections and explaining the multiple causes and effects of events past and present are both standards in social studies. The problem does not lie in what Holli is teaching (assuming I’m correct about the path she’s taking this week).”
According to the Souzas’ complaint, PUSD officials attempted to pull a workaround as soon as the Souzas first began to communicate concerns with them about their daughter’s 7th-grade social studies curriculum. Sunset Heights Elementary Principal Rae Conelley even complained about having to meet with the Souzas to discuss their concerns frequently: she stated that she was “going to lose [her] mind.” Conelley also speculated to Mundy and Woolsey that Trentowski was “baiting” the Souzas with her curriculum. “I am going to lose my mind,” wrote Conelley. “If I am off track in my guidance to [Trentowski] please let me know. I almost feel like she’s baiting them now but I’m the one who’s spending time I don’t have meeting with them.”
The Souzas asserted that Trentowski’s curriculum was “developmentally inappropriate and inherently political.” For a section on work conditions in the early 20th century, one of the assigned resources was a graphic, hour-long documentary by PBS on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. The 1911 tragedy claimed nearly 150 lives, most of whom were young women and girls.
Despite Trentowski promising to give the Souzas’ daughter an alternative text and place to work, she reportedly gave her the disputed assignment and had her complete it.
The entire ordeal caused the Souzas to remove their children from PUSD. Last week, the Souzas appeared before the PUSD governing board to warn parents and confront the board members about their experience. “We hear all the time at these meetings and from district employees that if you don’t like [the curriculum] opt them out,” said Amy. “We have lost all faith in [the] Peoria Unified School District having the best interest of our kids at heart.”
Free to Learn – a nonprofit organization that advocates for parental rights in education and the removal of political agendas from schools – assisted the Souzas in filing their complaint. In a statement, President Alleigh Marré said that the Souzas’ action should empower other parents.
“By shining a light on this incident with their complaint, Amy and Shawn are setting an example for other parents in Arizona and around the country as they pursue a quality education for their children free of activism,” said Marré. “If parents work within the parameters of the school and follow all the rules, they should see results. Instead, what we saw in Peoria was deceit and an intentional push to keep parents in the dark. At Free to Learn, we want to empower these parents and give them a platform to advocate for their children when all else fails.”
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 20, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
The Arizona Secretary of State’s office nominated a Phoenix elementary school teacher, Amanda Delphy, for the national John Lewis Youth Leadership Award, due to her classroom activism. Delphy started a “diversity club” at her school and openly teaches her second grade students social-emotional learning (SEL), activism, and “authentic history” primarily focused on black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). SEL is a framework for interpreting and processing subjects – especially complex ones like history or sexuality – through tools like literature, writing, and art to develop certain social and emotional skills. Oftentimes, SEL serves as a vehicle for propagating tenets of controversial concepts like Critical Race Theory (CRT) and social justice. Ultimately, Delphy didn’t win the award – conservative activist C.J. Pearson did last week.
“Amanda Delphy is a second-grade teacher in the West Valley, where she has focused on empowerment through social-emotional practices, conversations about activism, and authentic history lessons that represent BIPOC individuals as powerful,” read the secretary of state’s nomination.
Delphy regularly posts TikTok videos on how she educates her students to understand certain progressive concepts. Most recently, Delphy described how she teaches her second graders about SEL and equity, how Halloween isn’t “culturally responsive” and that the slang term “savage” – used by kids to describe something or someone considered cool for being bold and unbothered by any consequences – is actually offensive to indigenous people. She’s gained over 14,600 followers for her content.
Delphy teaches second grade at Holiday Park School in the Cartwright School District (CSD). The elementary school’s diversity club launched this semester under Delphy’s suggestion; she announced she will lead the club, and has referred to it jokingly as “indoctrination.” Both the school and the district emphasize that SEL is of equal importance to academics.
Delphy claimed in a September video that equity and SEL education in the classroom were necessary to build “future leaders.” Just the day before posting that video, Delphy posted another video lamenting that her students were “very far below grade level.” She explained that her school received a new math curriculum that she liked, but her team was having trouble implementing it due to the students’ capabilities. As a result, Delphy described how she became “extremely escalated,” “frustrated,” and “overstimulated” from trying to teach math to her students. She said that ended the lesson by sharing those feelings with them.
“I just can’t stress enough to always be vulnerable with your kids when you feel like it’s the right time to do so. I didn’t have to tell my kids how I was feeling. I really didn’t,” said Delphy. “But I wanted to because I wanted them to understand that feelings happen and sometimes negative feelings happen too, and even to people like me, who’s a teacher, right?”
SEL and equity are related to Delphy’s teaching moments on how both Halloween and a favorite slang term for kids, “savage,” are problematic.
In a video posted Tuesday, Delphy explained that she told her students she didn’t decorate for Halloween because she didn’t want those who didn’t celebrate Halloween to “feel unsafe or not welcomed.” She also explained that celebrating Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) could result in “cultural appropriation” that would be disrespectful to Hispanics, but said she couldn’t explain what is or isn’t culturally responsive because she “doesn’t identify as Hispanic, Latino, or Chicano.” This video was a follow-up to a similar one at the end of last month, posted as a “reminder” after she’d seen people decorating for Halloween.
In another video posted earlier this month, Delphy complained that one of her second-grade students called cartoon puppies in a video “savage,” inspiring the entire class to do so as well. She explained how she told her students that they were in a “safe space” and therefore they needed to have “honest conversations” about why they couldn’t say the word “savage” in their “safe space.”
“For those of you who don’t know, I’m half Native American and I actually hate that word. [T]here was a huge mass-murdering of Native and indigenous people, hence the population and culture dying the way that it has, and one of the words that were used to label Natives and indigenous people was ‘savages.’ I understand it’s a cool term now, whatever, but no not over here. Don’t bring that negativity over here,” said Delphy. “I let them know where the word ‘savages’ came from and why it hurts me as a Native person. And I told them that my goal is to create a safe space for everyone, and I just wanted to be honest with them and ask them if they could just not use that word in our safe space.”
Delphy added that this wasn’t her pushing an agenda pertaining to social justice or modern liberalism.
“This didn’t push a ‘social justice, liberal agenda,’ as many of you people call it. This was just me being honest about something that was traumatic to my ancestors and people before me and my people now, and my people in the future,” said Delphy. “Don’t be afraid to have those conversations with your students. My kids are eight years old, and they can understand it!”
Delphy also sells educational resources through “Teachers Pay Teachers,” a collective of supplementary curriculum created and sold by teachers to other educators. One of Delphy’s resources summarizes the origins of Thanksgiving, which she claimed was established as a celebration to thank Native Americans for their kindness to the early settlers. In reality, Thanksgiving had to do with a longstanding tradition expressing gratitude to God – Native Americans just happened to be there for one hosted by the early Plymouth colonists.
“What is Thanksgiving?” read the resource. “It is a Holiday that is the fourth Thursday of every November. It has also been told that the Pilgrims came across a tribe of Native people who taught the pilgrims how to hunt and gather so that they could survive. The story continues that Thanksgiving is meant to represent the large celebration that the Pilgrims held for the Natives to say ‘thank you’.”
In history predating the colonial settlements and long after, thanksgivings were regular celebrations thanking God for His blessings such as a good harvest, health, or military victories; in 1798, the Continental Congress proclaimed a national thanksgiving for the Constitution’s enactment. Thanksgiving Day as known to modern America was first called for by the “Mother of Thanksgiving:” a famed women’s rights activist and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” poet, Sarah Josepha Hale, to unite the nation and ease tensions between the North and South – she had the idea from the annual thanksgivings that her family celebrated. President Abraham Lincoln heeded Hale’s call in 1863 as the Civil War raged on – his proclamation called for a “Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer” to occur the last Thursday of November, with no mention of the Native Americans.
Delphy’s presentation characterized the settlers as callous, selfish people who took advantage of Native Americans. The resource also taught that wearing any traditional Native American items, like headdresses, was disrespectful. Delphy has displayed her prioritization of Native Americans over other races to her students. Last week, she wore a shirt that read “The Future Is Indigenous.”
Other resources sold by Delphy teach about Women’s History Month, Black History Month, Indigenous People’s Day, and Native American Heritage Month.
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 19, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Matt Salmon, a Republican gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Representative for Arizona’s fifth district, asked the Arizona School Board Association (ASBA) to disaffiliate from the National School Board Association (NSBA). His request was prompted by the NSBA’s move against parents protesting and challenging their school boards; the organization asked the Biden Administration in a letter to investigate those parents for “hate group” activity and potential “domestic terrorism.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland complied; he promised that the FBI was on the case.
In his letter to ASBA, Salmon reasoned that ASBA shouldn’t support the NSBA’s attempt to have the Biden Administration intimidate parents by investigating them for domestic terrorism.
“[I]t has become crystal clear to the American people that NSBA’s real problem is with everyday parents who are not okay with what is happening in our classrooms,” wrote Salmon. “The bottom line is that I find NSBA’s antagonistic posturing toward concerned parents to be deeply inappropriate and frankly un-American.”
Salmon also asked the ASBA if they consulted about the NSBA’s letter to President Joe Biden ahead of its submission. If they did, he requested to know if they helped edit it.
“I am proud to stand with each and every parent who cares enough to get into this fight for a brighter future, and I hope that efforts will be made by ASBA to reaffirm support for civic engagement in local school board meetings, which cannot be properly achieved until you sever your partnership with NSBA and the poor judgment of its leaders,” concluded Salmon.
Salmon told ASBA that they wouldn’t be leading the pack when it came to withdrawing from the NSBA, noting that Pennsylvania did so last week. He also cited how both Louisiana and Florida’s state chapters condemned the NSBA’s letter.
“TODAY I wrote a letter urging @AzSBA to take immediate steps to withdraw its affiliation with @NSBAPublicEd,” wrote Salmon. “By attempting to intimidate concerned parents, NSBA has disqualified itself from enjoying the benefits of a formal relationship with Arizona.”
ASBA is no longer the only option for school board members. Last week, a coalition of Arizonans launched an alternative to ASBA: the Arizona Coalition of School Board Members (ACSBM). Unlike ASBA, ACSBM offers membership to parents and community members in addition to school board members, and they claim to offer the same caliber of resources and legislative advocacy that ASBA offers currently.
As of press time, ASBA hasn’t issued a public response to Salmon’s letter.
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 16, 2021 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Arizona State University (ASU), University of Arizona (UArizona), and Northern Arizona University (NAU) will require their employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by December 8. This latest development is due to the Biden Administration’s order for federal contractors and subcontractors to get vaccinated by the hard deadline of December 8. The universities’ mandates will also affect student workers.
The Arizona Board of Regents explained that the three universities have substantial federal contracts that necessitate compliance with the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate.
“The universities have hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts, funding critical research, employment and educational efforts,” stated spokesperson Julie Newberg. “We respect individual opinions regarding the vaccine and will include disability (including medical) and religious accommodations consistent with federal rules.”
UArizona President Dr. Robert Robbins reiterated the reality of their situation in an email to employees: the universities rely heavily on millions of dollars in contracts with the federal government.
“President Biden recently issued an Executive Order that requires institutions that contract with the federal government, such as the University of Arizona, to comply with guidance from the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force,” wrote Robbins. “The University has hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts, funding critical research, employment, and educational efforts, and already has received amended federal contracts that include this requirement.”
Governor Doug Ducey hasn’t issued any statements on the three universities’ mandates as of press time, though he has expressed ardent disapproval for both vaccine and masking mandates, as well as issued orders to curtail these mandates and approved legislation outlawing them.
Per the universities’ latest published reports, ASU has over 17,000 employees, UArizona has over 16,000 employees, and NAU has just under 5,000 employees.
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 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.
