by Elizabeth Troutman | Apr 27, 2024 | Education, News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Students at Arizona State University reportedly held anti-Israel demonstrations on campus Friday.
Videos shared by local free speech advocate Ann Atkinson on X show students yelling “Free, Free, Free Palestine” on the Old Main Lawn, which was covered in tents, signs, and protesters.
Arizona State police handcuffed multiple people amid the protest. Protesters started to form a group in front of Old Main near College Avenue and University Drive on the ASU campus around 9 a.m.
ASU prohibits encampments on property that are outside of university-sanctioned activity.
“Individuals found setting up unapproved encampments will be directed to dismantle them immediately,” an ASU spokesperson told ABC15. “Failure to comply may result in being trespassed from campus and possible arrest. We prioritize the safety and well-being of the campus community and uphold policies to ensure a welcoming environment for everyone.
When police first approached the scene Friday morning and ordered the students to stop protesting, demonstrators chanted, “Hey Hey, ho ho, those damn pigs have got to go.”
Arizona State University joined various universities and other academic groups in issuing a statement in support of Israel in October following the initial Hamas attack, which killed around 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.
“We are horrified and sickened by the brutality and inhumanity of Hamas,” the statement read.
The protestors issued a list of demands asking the university to change its pro-Israel stance.
Demands included asking ASU to issue an official statement condemning the zionist genocide of Palestinians; disclosing all investments made with student money; divesting from companies tied to Israel or complicit in the occupation of Gaza; ending partnerships with groups tied to Israel; providing amnesty for students and faculty disciplined for supporting Palestine; and ending investigations on pro-Palestinian groups.
The protestors demanded that ASU President Michael Crow immediately resign and called for the ASU police to be abolished.
Atkinson suggested that protesters may have wanted to clash with the police.
“Current reporting indicates the protesters did not follow basic rules and are being accused of trespassing,” she said on X. “You would think organizers of a protest like this, which is supported by some ASU faculty and community organizers, and is also set up across the street from the university presidents office, would be smart enough to follow the rules. Perhaps their objective was a conflict with police.”
ASU is one of many schools to face unlawful anti-Israel protests from students.
More than 100 students were arrested last Thursday at Columbia University. Since then hundreds of students have set up similar encampments from California to Massachusetts.
Students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill organized tents, tarps, and air mattresses in a central courtyard, while students at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan set up an encampment Thursday inside the college’s Goldman Center.
Police arrested 36 people Thursday night when hundreds of Ohio State University students, faculty, and community members set up tents outside the student union. Almost 60 were arrested after protests at the University of Texas.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Apr 26, 2024 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Another legislative solution to protect Arizona women and girls was vetoed by the state’s Democrat governor.
This week, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed SB 1182, which would have “mandate[d] a public school provide a reasonable accommodation to a person who is unwilling or unable to use a multioccupancy shower room designated for the person’s sex, [and] provide[d] private cause of action to an individual who is denied a reasonable accommodation or who encounters a person of the opposite sex in a public school multioccupancy shower room as specified” – according to the overview from the Arizona House of Representatives.
In her veto letter, Hobbs was brief in her explanation to Senate President Warren Petersen, writing, “As I have said time and time again, I will not sign legislation that attacks Arizonans.”
Senator John Kavanagh, the bill’s sponsor, was irate about the governor’s action. He stated, “Girls should not be forced to shower with boys in our taxpayer-funded public schools. It’s utterly disgusting that Democrats, who are out-of-touch with reality, continue to push gender neutrality upon our children, endangering their safety and well-being just to politically platform off a small population they pretend to care about. All students, not just transgender kids, deserve to feel safe and deserve to have privacy when they’re naked in a shower. This was a reasonable bill that a majority of Arizonans agree with.”
The longtime northeast valley lawmaker added, “Unfortunately, because of this partisan driven veto by our Governor, our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and neighbors will continue to be subjected to not only embarrassment, but sexual assaults and harassment in the event a boy who’s claiming to be a girl is allowed into their female-only showers. I encourage Arizona parents, women, and girls to reach out to the Governor and our Democrat state lawmakers and demand they respect their privacy rights. Change will only happen if we continue to speak out and push back against these injustices our women and girls continue to endure at the hands of Arizona Democrats.”
When the legislation was considered before the full Senate chamber in February, it passed along partisan lines, 16-13 (with one member not voting). After the proposal was transmitted to the House, it was approved 31-28 (with one vacancy) earlier this month – also along partisan lines. Since it was amended in the House, the bill made its way back over to the Senate for concurrence, receiving a 16-14 green light.
On the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, a representative from the Center for Arizona Policy endorsed the legislation. Representatives from Stand for Children, Arizona Education Association, American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Save Our Schools Arizona, Arizona School Boards Association, Arizona Center for Women’s Advancement, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Council of Jewish Women Arizona, Children’s Action Alliance, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, Stonewall Democrats of Arizona, the City of Tucson, and Human Rights Campaign, signed in to oppose the bill.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Apr 23, 2024 | Education, News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
The largest Christian university in the U.S., Grand Canyon University (GCU), defended itself against “disturbing and defamatory” public comments made by the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
“Mr. Cardona’s inflammatory comments, which are legally and factually incorrect, are so reckless that GCU has no choice but to demand an immediate retraction,” the statement says. “He is either confused, misinformed or does not understand the actions taken by his own agency.”
At the House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Cardona said “we are cracking down not only to shut them down, but to send a message to not prey on students.”
The Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit on behalf of GCU in February due to the Biden administration imposing a $37 million fine on the school. The conservative think tank claims the administration has refused to provide documents that explain why it fined GCU.
“GCU has been asked repeatedly why it believes it is being targeted by federal agencies of the Biden Administration,” the school’s statement reads. “Here’s what we can tell you: Mr. Cardona’s inflammatory comments make very clear the Department of Education’s intentions and their disdain for institutions that do not fit their ideological agenda. What’s also clear is that ED has no lawful grounds to carry out those intentions based on their disingenuous and factually unsupportable allegations.”
The Education Department’s conduct extends normal regulatory activity, the statement says.
“It epitomizes the weaponization of federal agencies’ power against a private Christian university,” according to the statement.
GCU is confident an impartial court of law would exonerate it from the allegations.
“GCU’s intent is to fight these accusations all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary,” the statement says. “The Department of Education’s intent, based on the frivolous nature of its accusations and defamatory statements from ED officials, seems to be to damage the university’s reputation, use its ‘findings’ as a rationale to seek loan forgiveness for students under the borrower’s defense to repayment program and impose unprecedented fines and legal fees. In other words, regardless of the inevitable legal outcomes in GCU’s favor, the process becomes the punishment.”
GCU has more than 118,000 students. The Phoenix university says it will continue to thrive.
“With 118,000 students and growing, GCU is thriving and will continue to thrive. In an industry that is struggling and slow to change, GCU has created a model that has allowed it to freeze tuition on its ground campus for 16 straight years, increase diversity and social mobility by ensuring that higher education is affordable to all socioeconomic classes (over 40% of GCU’s ground campus student body are students of color), maintain lower student loan default rates than the national average and lower student debt levels than other private universities, and produce nearly 30,000 graduates in each of the past three years.”
The statement continued, “If a government-run institution produced those kinds of outcomes, it would be applauded. At the largest private Christian university in the country, it draws unwarranted threats from the Secretary of Education and the ire of the federal government.”
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Apr 22, 2024 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
A bill to help increase transparency for Arizona school board elections was vetoed by the state’s Democrat governor.
On Wednesday, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed SB 1097, which would have “require[d] school district governing board election ballots to include each candidate’s partisan designation as specified beginning January 1, 2025” – according to the purpose from the State Senate.
In her veto letter to Senate President Warren Petersen, Hobbs explained that she had made her decision because the bill “will further the politicization and polarization of Arizona’s school district governing boards whose focus should remain on making the best decisions for students, [and that] partisan politics do not belong in Arizona’s schools.”
Senator Justine Wadsack, the bill’s sponsor, was outraged by the governor’s veto. She released a lengthy statement to call out Hobbs’ action, writing, “In her veto letter, Governor Katie Hobbs stated the school district governing boards’ focus should remain on making the best decisions for students. How can we ensure we’ve elected members that will make the best decisions for students if we don’t know where they stand on important issues? For example, Democrats have voted for things like detrimental mask mandates, extreme social distancing, calling children by different names and pronouns while withholding that information from their parents, and exposing our kids to inappropriate and vulgar content. In the past, we’ve also had Arizona school boards vote to ban educators based on their conservative Christian beliefs. Republican values, on the other hand, lie in protecting our children from harmful mandates, inappropriate content, and woke ideology, while empowering parents to take an active role in their child’s education. By vetoing this bill, Governor Katie Hobbs is conveniently pushing to protect the radical Left ideology infiltrating our schools.”
Wadsack added, “School boards are some of the most important elections we have in our communities. They’re the closest to our children, and our local school boards govern issues that impact the education and well-being of our families. We should be able to access this information without having to dig and deduce.”
On the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, representatives from the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, Opportunity Solutions Project, A For America, and Arizona Department of Education, had signed in to support the proposal. Representatives from Arizona Association of County School Superintendents, Arizona School Administrators, Southern Arizona Leadership Council, Arizona Education Association, and Save Our Schools Arizona, opposed the legislation.
The bill had first passed the Arizona Senate in February with a 16-10 vote (with four members not voting). It then was approved by the Arizona House earlier this month with a 31-28 vote (with one seat vacant).
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Apr 16, 2024 | Education, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
A bill to increase governance on cell phones in public schools was vetoed by Arizona’s Democrat governor.
Last week, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed HB 2793, which would have “require[d] each school district governing board and charter school governing body to prescribe and enforce policies and procedures that govern student access to the internet and limit student use of wireless communications devices during the school day.”
In a statement to House Speaker Ben Toma, Hobbs said, “This legislation establishes an unnecessary mandate for an issue schools are already addressing.”
The sponsor of the proposal, State House Education Committee Chairwoman Beverly Pingerelli, expressed her disappointment over the governor’s action, saying, “There is a growing body of research that clearly links the use of wireless devices like cell phones to increased negative social harms among our youth. Arizona middle and high schools today are flooded with students glued to screens. It’s an epidemic that is impacting everything from teen depression and anxiety, increased childhood obesity, and decreased academic achievement.”
Pingerelli added, “As a former school board member, I believe in local solutions. This is why my legislation called on school boards to develop policies and procedures to limit the use of devices for students. It called for sensible solutions and reasonable exceptions. The goal is to have personal devices ‘away for the day’ so students can engage and learn. Today, schools feel powerless to enforce even mild restrictions. The results are evident on campuses everywhere.”
The bill first passed the State House in February with a 31-28 vote (with one seat vacant). After being transmitted to the State Senate, it passed earlier this month with a 16-13 vote (with one member not voting).
On the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, representatives from the Arizona Association of County School Superintendents, Arizona School Administrators Association, and Arizona School Boards Association endorsed the legislation.
Chairwoman Pingerelli’s press release noted that legislative Democrats opposed her legislation “despite no formal opposition and not one person testifying against the bill.”
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne also weighed in on the news. He said, “Anyone with a minimum of empathy would empathize with teachers who try to teach while students are scrolling on their cell phones. Every instructional method is precious. A teacher should not have to put up with that interference with instruction.”
Horne added, “Cell phones have also become the major way in which students are bullied. It is enough that they get bullied on their cell phones when they’re away from school. It should not be happening while they are in school trying to learn, so that the bullying occurs 24 hours a day. To permit that bullying to go on 24 hours a day shows a lack of empathy for the students.”
The Republican schools’ chief shared the results of a recent poll in the state showing that 62.75% of respondent parents supported the increased regulations on their children’s cell phones in schools.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Apr 16, 2024 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) parents and community members urged greater action from their district during last week’s board meeting after the arrest of a prominent basketball coach for child sex abuse.
The coach, 37-year-old Patrick Battillo, known by his superfan alias, “Mr. ORNG,” was arrested last week for soliciting minors for sexual content. The school where Battillo coached, Peoria High School, had run a background check on him prior to his coming on board.
Parental concerns have been on the rise due to the constant news of other educators arrested for child sex abuse outside the district over the past year, as well as the steady stream of Arizona State Board of Education cases involving sexual misconduct.
Last month, 53-year-old Estevan Carreon with Glendale Union High School District’s Independence High School, was arrested after secretly recording students while they undressed. Over the course of seven months, three female educators in various Buckeye schools were arrested for inappropriate contact with minors: 23-year-old Alyssa Todd, 42-year-old Jessica Kramer, and 24-year-old Diana Pirvu.
In January, 35-year-old Daniel Pineda with Dream City Christian School in Glendale was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a student.
Last week’s extensive community participation with PUSD was due in part to a call to action by SMART Schools, a subsidiary of the conservative activist group Arizona Women of Action. In a press release, the organization urged involvement to increase student safety.
Tamra Farah, SMART Families Network Director, urged the board to find ways to heighten collective vigilance to safeguard the students. Farah reminded the board that another educator, Erin Quigley, had agreed to the suspension of his teaching certification amid allegations of grooming and possibly sexually abusing students.
Rachel Barnett — Littleton Elementary School District board member, Arizona School Board Association (ASBA) Black Alliance Officer, secretary of the NAACP, and former PUSD employee and mother — said that she wasn’t at all surprised by child sex abuse cases coming out of PUSD due to its standard for handling reporting of such cases.
Barnett said that a female senior student at Peoria High School urged her to speak at last week’s meeting. She said that PUSD had a “startling history of covering up abuse,” citing a practice of barring teachers who contact the Department of Child Services (DCS) and law enforcement from testifying in court, let alone admitting they were the ones who reported the abuse to DCS.
“It troubles me to say that I am not at all surprised to hear what’s presently unfolding in this district,” said Barnett.
Barnett further alleged that administrators weren’t notifying parents of the sexual abuse cases. PUSD Board President Becky Proudfit directed several members of the board to follow up with Barnett.
Dr. Tara Armstead, former member of the Arizona Department of Education’s African American Advisory Council and former Litchfield Elementary School District board member, said that background checks weren’t enough to catch predators. Armstead encouraged the board to listen more to the students.
Seak Smith — founder and president of The Mom Army, a child advocacy organization — urged the district to recognize the child sex abuse incidents as part of a greater pandemic.
“We need to understand that predators and pedophiles go where they can have access to children, and we have to do better to safeguard children and protect them from predators,” said Smith.
Mark Del Maestro, a Vietnam War veteran, said that pedophiles like those arrested recently were “Satan’s marionettes.” Del Maestro compared the rising rates of child sex abuse to the rampant molestation in war-torn Vietnam.
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