A Mesa High School teacher was placed on leave following an allegation that he dressed up as the devil and chanted “Hail Satan” over his students on Wednesday.
Math teacher Jesse Ruiz, donned in a red shirt and devil horns, allegedly held a pitchfork over his students’ heads and said “Hail Satan.” One student who reportedly took offense to the behavior asked for Ruiz to stop, but Ruiz reportedly refused.
That student’s father, Chris Hamlet — a former Mesa School Board candidate — posted a picture of the incident on X (formerly Twitter).
In a complaint filed with MPS, Hamlet said that Ruiz held the pitchfork over his son’s head and repeated “Hail Satan” even after his son pushed away the pitchfork and asked for the behavior to stop. Hamlet further claimed that Ruiz also “pointed the pitchfork” in his son’s face.
Hamlet also reported that his son also previously endured “an inappropriate conversation” with Ruiz in which the teacher accused his son of homophobia.
“My CHRISTIAN son told [Ruiz] several times not to do that to him and even attempted to push the pitchfork away from his head, but this teacher continued on and did it anyways,” said Hamlet. “This teacher also had an inappropriate conversation with my son and another student a few weeks back and called my son homophobic, because this teacher, is in fact, a homosexual.”
HAIL SATAN IN MESA PUBLIC SCHOOLS, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Mesa Public Schools is hypersexualizing, indoctrinating, and grooming our children at every turn!!
Just a few short hours ago, one of the 10th grade geometry teachers at Mesa High School wore horns and a pitchfork to school… pic.twitter.com/ICYedNLprD
AZ Free News reached out to Mesa Public Schools (MPS) about the matter. A spokesperson informed us that MPS Human Resources began an investigation on Thursday morning after receiving notification of the incident on Wednesday evening. They also informed us that Ruiz was placed on paid administrative leave pending the result of their investigation.
We also reached out to Ruiz for comment on the matter. He didn’t respond by press time.
Ruiz was honored last year as a Pay Tribute to a Teacher winner for KTAR News, earning a $2,500 prize for his creativity in facilitating student learning at his former MPS school, Skyline High School.
“[S]preading the word of physics and math, you know, I know it’s not everyone’s favorite subject, but I love it so much,” said Ruiz. “I think my bubbly personality kind of helps with that.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Biden administration has set its sights on the largest private Christian university in the nation: Arizona’s Grand Canyon University (GCU).
For over half a decade the Department of Education (ED) has denied GCU’s IRS-granted nonprofit status. After GCU pushed back with legal action, the Biden administration responded with the full force of bureaucracy: a multi-agency attack to discredit and impose hefty fines on the university.
GCU President Brian Mueller told AZ Free News that ED’s rejection of a university’s IRS designation was new and unprecedented. Mueller maintained that ED offered “inapplicable criteria” for the denial.
The president couldn’t say with certainty whether the true cause of the ED targeting had to do with religious or political differences, but didn’t rule out the possibility.
“It’s obviously something other than the facts at hand,” said Mueller. “Is it because we have 30,000 graduates on an annual basis, where they’re studying from a Christian worldview?”
Although GCU is open about its Christian foundation and teachings, it doesn’t require its students to sign a statement of faith. Mueller estimated that 30 percent of incoming students don’t identify as Christians.
“We’re not a church, we’re a university,” said Mueller. “There’s free speech here. That’s one of the attractive things about us.”
GCU’s ethical positions do put it at odds with the federal government: GCU believes that God created the world and that truth comes from Him; that full personhood begins at the moment of conception and ceases at natural death; and that only the union between a man and a woman qualifies as a marriage.
“Resistance to the state is only appropriate when the state requires disobedience to the commands of God,” states GCU’s position on religious liberty. “Christian faith is a personal matter but the implications of faith in Christ should not and cannot remain private. Anyone who follows Christ in truth should strive to live in the way that Christ lived both in private and in public.”
In a public statement, GCU speculated that the targeting was due to ideological differences between their institution and the federal bureaucracy. GCU offers an education from a Christian worldview to its 30,000-odd graduates annually, though students aren’t required to sign a statement of faith. This year, the university brought in another 26,000 on-campus students and 92,000 online students.
“[W]e believe these agenda-driven actions are unprecedented against a regionally accredited 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit university and GCU categorically denies the claims being brought forth, which lack merit and illustrate extreme government overreach in what we believe is an attempt to harm a university to which individuals in these agencies are ideologically opposed,” said GCU.
ED has rejected GCU’s nonprofit status by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for over five years now. The IRS granted GCU its nonprofit status in July 2018; it took ED until November 2019 to deny the IRS classification, despite 26 other governmental, accrediting, and official entities accepting the nonprofit status including: the Arizona Corporation Commission, Arizona Private Postsecondary Board, Higher Learning Commission (HLC), and the NCAA.
ED maintains that since GCU’s majority revenues go to its former owner — Grand Canyon Education (GCE), a for-profit entity — that it doesn’t qualify as a nonprofit. GCU said that the revenues given to GCE were for education services at fair market value, as reported in investigations by two independent accounting and finance firms shared with the Biden administration.
After GCU spent over a year attempting to resolve the ED denial, it sued the agency in February 2021. The timeline indicates that the lawsuit spurred a coordinated effort between ED, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to target GCU. Several months later, ED launched a multi-year, off-site review of GCU.
Then, in October 2021, the FTC named GCU as one of 70 for-profit institutions on which it would exercise a decades-dormant punitive power: the Penalty Offense Authority (POA). The FTC alleged GCU, among others, to be a “bad actor” engaging in “unfair or deceptive” practices regarding “false promises” of graduate job and earning prospects. Each violation incurs civil penalties of up to about $50,000 (about $43,800 in 2021).
In that October 2021 announcement, the FTC declared their action was a “resurrection” of the POA, in which they would coordinate with ED and VA; the last time the FTC exercised the POA was in 1978.
Under the POA, the FTC may seek civil penalties if it can prove that its target was aware that certain conduct was unfair or deceptive, and that the FTC had previously issued a written decision on the conduct in question.
The three agencies began their investigations into GCU in 2022: the FTC in May, ED in June (regarding doctoral degrees), and VA in October.
One of FTC’s main accusations was that GCU had a disproportionate number of students who defaulted on federal student loans; GCU responded that its students have a lower loan default rate than the national average at nonprofit universities. FTC also accused Grand Canyon Education, GCU’s education services provider, with making inappropriate cold calls to prospective students. GCU maintained that GCE only reaches out to students who contacted them with interest first, never cold calls.
ED alleged that GCU conveyed substantial misrepresentation regarding its doctoral degree cost. In response, GCU cited the recent federal district and appellate rulings in Young v. GCU, which denied similar claims, and their last Higher Learning Commission (HLC) report declaring robust and transparent financial information practices.
“Their recruitment and marketing materials are clear and transparent, and financial information presented to students throughout the student lifecycle is robust,” said HLC. “The information and resources provided are robust and thorough, providing prospective students a clear picture of their academic and financial path toward a degree at GCU.”
GCU also cited its public calculator for the estimated costs for a 60-credit doctoral program and any potential continuation courses needed to complete a doctoral dissertation. ED requires universities to provide cost of attendance estimates for first year in college to first-year, first-time students, and only for undergraduate programs. GCU also reported that it goes beyond that, providing direct cost estimates for each year of the program of the study and for all its degree programs.
ED also disputed that an online student’s posting of a bio on the first day of class didn’t qualify as “academic-related activity.” GCU countered that ED’s Office of General Counsel told GCU in a 2012 written statement that such postings met that requirement, and that no accrediting bodies, nor ED, have questioned that practice previously, including ED’s last program review in 2014, which made no mention of the practice as problematic.
ED claimed that a 2011 rule change preempted the general counsel’s 2012 email to the university. It required GCU to review all student files from July 2014 to June 2021.
Under VA authority, the Arizona Veterans Services State Approving Agency (AZ SAA) told GCU that its advertising on cybersecurity demand was “erroneous, deceptive, or misleading.” Specifically, the AZ SAA took issue with describing cybersecurity experts as being “in high demand” and that all companies “need cybersecurity.”
GCU said that once it refuted the claim, AZ SAA accepted their refutations as true. GCU claimed that the AZ SAA was pressured by the VA to carry out a different type of audit in order to find fault with GCU’s advertising language regarding cybersecurity.
“It is our belief the SAA was unduly influenced by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, in conjunction with other federal agencies, to conduct and carry out a risk-based audit in this manner rather than the audits it has performed in the past in which the University has received stellar reviews,” said GCU.
GCU says it has spent thousands of man hours and millions of dollars in legal fees to fulfill the Biden administration’s requests. It noted that these ongoing costs and potential fines threaten to upend its 15-year freeze on tuition — a major factor for its growth and, as a result, exposure of a Christian worldview-based education to more Americans.
“[B]ecause GCU, like almost all private universities, is dependent on tuition as a primary revenue stream and does not receive state funding like state universities, the university may be forced to raise tuition if the legal fees or fines associated with these actions continue to escalate,” stated the university. “We are, in essence, trying to protect our students from this government overreach.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The Arizona State Board of Education is welcoming a new member.
On Monday, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs appointed Anna Tovar to the State Board of Education.
Tovar is a current member of the Arizona Corporation Commission. She previously served on the Tolleson City Council, including as Vice Mayor before being elected as Mayor. Tovar also served for several years in the Arizona Legislature, where she quickly ascended to leadership for the Democrat Party in both chambers.
“I have been a champion of the public school system my entire career. I started out as a kindergarten teacher in the Tolleson Elementary School District and I believe strong public schools are critical for the future of Arizona,” said Anna Tovar. “I thank Governor Hobbs for the opportunity to serve on the State Board of Education. I am excited to get to work for our students, parents, and educators.”
“Anna’s perspective as an educator and dedicated public servant makes her the ideal person to join the State Board of Education,” said Governor Katie Hobbs. “With her leadership and experience as an educator and mentor, I’m confident that the Board will be well positioned to protect public education and ensure every Arizona student has the tools they need to thrive.”
A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Education told AZ Free News, “Superintendent Horne is looking forward to having a productive working relationship with Board Member Tovar.”
As the Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, Horne is a member of the eleven-person State Board of Education. Other members include Dr. Daniel P. Corr (President), Katherine Haley (Vice President), Jason S. Catanese, Dr. Jacqui Clay, Jennifer Clark, Dr. Scott Hagerman, Julia Meyerson, Karla Phillips-Krivickas, and Dr. Robert C. Robbins.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) failed to pass a gender-neutral bathroom policy during its special meeting on Tuesday night.
The board tied 2-2 in their vote on the policy, which would have established single-stall, gender-neutral bathrooms or provided designated employee restrooms for students unwilling or unable to use a multi-occupancy restroom. The bathroom policy came about after allegations that some SUSD schools were allowing restroom access based on gender identity and not biological gender.
Board member Amy Carney and Vice President Carine Werner voted for the policy, while board members Libby Hart-Wells and Zach Lindsay voted against it. Board President Julie Cieniawski wasn’t present at the meeting, so she didn’t vote.
Hart-Wells said that the “how” and “why” of the policy were problematic: the cost and the implementation. Hart-Wells said that available district data proved that site administrators were already handling the .001 percent of student requests for bathroom accommodations.
In closing, Hart-Wells indicated that some parents were the greater danger to children, but didn’t expand further.
“The proposal puts forth a bastardization of parent’s rights at the very expense of the very students’ rights that this proposal purports to support. The operational reality of this proposal can — whether intended or not — put some children in harm’s way. And yes, tragically, that harm can come from the home,” said Hart-Wells. “This proposal, in my view, does not represent healthy governance.”
Werner responded that supportive parents have indicated to her that it was about the children, not about the adults.
Werner requested the new policy. The proposed financial impact would’ve been about $70,000 total: five restrooms per school, with each restroom estimated to cost $500 each.
“I’m certain that kids’ academic achievement is affected when they feel like they can’t use the restroom,” said Werner.
Some parent and community activists expressed grievance over the rejection of the policy.
The SUSD bathroom accommodation policy failed in a 2-2 vote last night, with Hart-Wells claiming that involving parents hurts students' rights and puts children in harm's way. https://t.co/WcALn8dCfvpic.twitter.com/bMQiIWvNJY
— Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity (@ScottsdaleUnite) October 25, 2023
Over the summer, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation similar to SUSD’s failed policy. The bill, SB1040, would have required students to have the option to access a single-occupancy or employee restroom or changing facility.
Hobbs declared that such accommodations were discrimination against LGBTQ+-identifying minors.
“SB 1040 is yet another discriminatory act against LGBTQ+ youth passed by the majority at the state legislature. [I] will veto every bill that aims to attack and harm children,” said Hobbs.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The nation’s second-largest teachers union, American Federation for Teachers (AFT), awarded its Arizona chapter an undisclosed cut of $1 million to end school choice and fight climate change in classrooms last Friday.
The AFT funding was part of its Powerful Partnerships Institute (PPI) initiative Real Solutions for Kids and Communities campaign, which aims to boost grassroots efforts that “rejects the culture wars and the toxic attacks against teachers” while making “real solutions for kids.” AFT PPI issued $1 million total in funds to 38 AFT state and local affiliates.
“The Arizona Federation of Teachers will work with partners in immigrant and Latinx [sic] communities to increase culturally relevant books and curricula in classrooms,” stated the AFT Arizona initiative snapshot. “Together, they will push back against the privatization of public education through vouchers and charters [sic] schools.”
In April, BASIS Tucson North became the first charter school in the state to unionize with AFT. They declared themselves a branch of AFT Arizona: the Arizona Federation of Teachers Arizona Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (AFT-AZACTS).
In a press release, AFT noted that this year’s funds would also go toward “tackl[ing] climate readiness in school buildings” to make them safer for learning. AFT President Randi Weingarten rejected the notion that student success hinged on prevailing culture war issues, calling proponents “extremists” that haven’t offered solutions.
“It’s these programs—not book bans, censoring history and demonizing teachers—that will help young people succeed. As extremists try to divide Americans, attempting to destroy public schools and the opportunity that brings, we know that public schools unite us—it’s why 90 percent of parents send their children to public school,” said Weingarten. “The ruthless and brutal attacks on teachers and schools are in clear contrast to the reality that educators work every day to help students get and stay on track and thrive. While we are promoting and investing in real solutions, the other side hasn’t offered a single suggestion to meet the needs of kids or families.”
This $1 million made up the second year of the PPI funding initiative.
The AFT Arizona president, Ralph Quintana, has consistently opposed the state’s school choice program over the years. In a 2019 statement expressing dissatisfaction with the state legislature’s funding for public education, Quintana said that low funding to public education was the only reason that the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program was a preferred option for parents.
“We must stop the flow of public tax dollars to the privatization of education around the country,” said Quintana. “Perhaps, if ALL state leaders were actually properly funding our public schools there would be NO NEED for ESA vouchers.”
AFT-AZ Pres. Ralph Quintana said in a statement, “We must stop the flow of public tax dollars to the privatization of education around the country. Perhaps, if ALL state leaders were actually properly funding our public schools there would be NO NEED for ESA vouchers.”
Arizona’s Republican legislative leaders continue to come to the unwavering aid of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) Program.
After the ESA program sustained another political attack from Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs, House Speaker Ben Toma released a statement in support of the landmark school choice expansion for the state. Toma said, “Governor Hobbs continues to blast the ESA program as unsustainable and exceeding estimates. Neither are true. We remind the Governor that she leads the entire state of Arizona, and if she seeks changes to the ESA program, she ought to propose serious policies, not tweet vague threats. The State Legislature has yet to see any policy proposals from her office. Arizona will continue to responsibly fund students, not systems.”
Arizona’s K-12 Budget Is Right on Track: "Governor Hobbs continues to blast the ESA program as unsustainable and exceeding estimates. Neither are true," said Speaker Ben Toma. "We remind the Governor that she… pic.twitter.com/eNlnXwz2db
According to the Speaker’s press release, “the Department of Education reported on October 4 that the budget is currently on pace to have a year-end surplus of roughly $77 million,” adding that “the budget estimate of 68,000 total users (in the ESA program) is within 1% of the current program enrollment.”
The Speaker’s defense of ESAs came soon after Hobbs unleashed another attack against it, claiming that the program “threatens to decimate our state’s budget.” In a post on the platform “X,” Governor Hobbs stated, “The school voucher program is unaccountable and unsustainable. It does not save taxpayers money, and it does not provide a better education for Arizona students…I call on Superintendent Horne, Speaker Toma, and President Petersen to join with bipartisan leaders to pass accountability and transparency measures, and bring an end to this wasteful, runaway spending.”
The school voucher program threatens to decimate our state’s budget.
I call on Superintendent Horne, Speaker Toma, and President Petersen to join with bipartisan leaders to bring accountability to the school voucher program and end the wasteful, runaway spending. pic.twitter.com/6pvsovlWBO
Horne and Petersen also took time to respond to the governor’s assertions, pushing back against her allegations and supporting the integrity of the program. Horne said, “The Governor’s calculation is in error. She is counting the $7,200 paid for each ESA student without offsetting the $13,000 paid per student that would otherwise be spent for that student to attend a public school. The overall numbers bear this out as the expenditures for all public-school spending, including the ESA program are $72 million below budget.”
Petersen added, “Arizona families want choices for their children’s education. ESAs are one of many choices the Legislature is prioritizing. The fact is, we budgeted for the 68,000 kids currently enrolled and have responsibly planned for incremental spending increases for this program in the years to come, as we do with a variety of other programs in our overall budget. We’re always open to improving our state’s programs, but for the sake of Arizona families who want to choose the best educational settings to meet their children’s needs, ESAs are here to stay.”
Since failing to address ESA changes in the state’s budget, which was passed earlier this year, Governor Hobbs has increased her political volleys against the program, joining allies who were enraged at her perceived capitulation to Republican lawmakers. As a new legislative session nears, Hobbs and her staff will likely be more focused on exacting some concessions when the next round of budget negotiations resume in 2024. Ultimately, Arizona voters will have a significant role in determining the direction of the state’s ESA program, whether by changes to the political party make-up of the legislature or through a yet-to-be-filed ballot initiative.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
