National Education Association Promotes Gender Transition Guide For Children Following Election

National Education Association Promotes Gender Transition Guide For Children Following Election

By Staff Reporter |

The National Education Association (NEA), a teachers’ union and the nation’s largest labor union, has continued its promotion of gender transitions for children.

NEA posted the guide by Advocates for Youth on Transgender Day of Remembrance last week. The guide was published last year. 

The guide claims that humans are “assigned” their sex at birth based on reproductive traits (genitalia, chromosomes, and hormones), and that while everyone has a gender identity, only some align with their reproductive traits. The guide claims that children inherently know their gender identity as young as 18 months to three years. 

Parents, per the guide, shouldn’t be the sole decision-makers about their children. Those parents that rely on information conflicting with or opposing transgender ideology are relying on “misinformation and falsehoods.” Instead, parents should accept information which affirms transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive youth (TNGE).

“Parents have everything they need to begin the journey of supporting their TNGE children,” said the guide. “When making decisions for their children, many parents search for information and resources to support their efforts, but some of what is readily available is misinformation and falsehoods. Parents who are interested in seeking out additional help to support their TNGE children are encouraged to do so.”

As for the role of educators, the guide says that they should “proactively teach the entire school community about gender identity, gender expansiveness, and celebrate LGBTQ history and culture.”

The guide also says that schools should affirm students in their gender identity by using their chosen name and preferred pronouns, regardless of their legal name; ensure students have unencumbered access to their preferred gender-specific facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms; and ensure students may participate in their preferred gender-specific extracurricular activities and athletics.

Per the guide, those who oppose transgender ideology, especially in children, qualify as “extremists” who put out disinformation. 

The guide puts out a number of other contested claims, such as: puberty blockers are lifesaving, not harmful; LGBTQ ideologies contribute to healthy diversity; transgenderism isn’t a mental illness; 

The NEA affiliate in Arizona — the Arizona Education Association (AEA) — has over 22,000 school employees as members (in addition to teachers, their members include librarians, custodians, cafeteria workers, and counselors).

Like the NEA, AEA has actively worked to foster transgenderism and advance other LGBTQ+ ideologies in minors. 

AEA successfully advocated for the repeal of the 28-year-old “no promo homo” law prohibiting the discussion of homosexuality during HIV/AIDS instruction in schools. The law prohibited discussion that “promotes a homosexual lifestyle,” “portrays homosexuality as a positive alternative lifestyle,” and “suggests that some methods of sex are safe methods of homosexual sex.”

AEA also fought against legislative efforts to require the use of bathrooms based on biological sex, and prohibiting access based on gender identity. 

The union also supported gender transitions for children as young as preschoolers, promoting a parent in 2017 who transitioned his four-year-old son into his “daughter.”

AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.

Tolleson Union High School District Busted For ‘Taxpayer-Funded Vacation At A Four-Star Resort’

Tolleson Union High School District Busted For ‘Taxpayer-Funded Vacation At A Four-Star Resort’

By Matthew Holloway |

The Goldwater Institute released a report on Tuesday detailing the shocking expenditures of the Tolleson Union High School District (TUHSD). According to the report, the district has blown a total of $76,969 “on what amounted to luxury vacations for school board members and administrators,” per public records obtained by Goldwater.

In the space of two days, the board reportedly shelled out $42,000 in hotel costs, $22,000 of which was for the catering. And this was all for just thirty people. The math works out to a brutal $700 per person, per day.

Christopher Thomas, Goldwater’s director of legal strategy for education policy, told AZFamily, “Those are monies that could have been spent on teacher salaries and educational programs for students.”

According to Goldwater, despite the public access requirements of the state of Arizona’s Open Meetings Law, these “Board and Administrator Retreats,” which act as long-form working meetings, are essentially hidden from the taxpayer. Furthermore, Goldwater reported that, “As a result of the noted board member absences, many of the meetings held during the $42,000 retreat in 2024 lacked even a board quorum (a majority of the five-member board), meaning that under the law, these were not lawful meetings of the board at all.”

Thomas explained that the retreats, “lacked transparency that’s required by the Open Meeting Law.”

Matters of great public interest were reportedly decided at these retreats, including strategies for improving student participation and graduation rates, student attendance rates and test scores, and budget priorities and academic goals, all away from public and parental oversight.

The costs revealed did not include transportation or the hourly pay of those involved, as many of them were effectively “clocked-in” during these “retreats.”

TUHSD reportedly indulged board members and administrators at two four star resorts in 2023 and 2024: the JW Marriott Starr Pass in Tucson and the Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock. Notably, Goldwater observed that although records pertaining to these expenses were requested in July, they weren’t released until the middle of November… after new bond and a budget overrides were approved by Tolleson Union voters and a member of the governing board was safely re-elected.  

At the JW Marriott Starr Pass in Tucson for the board’s two-day 2023 Board/Administrator Retreat, TUHSD reportedly paid $33,969 to the resort, which included $22,061 on catering. In 2024, the three day retreat at Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock ran up a tab of $42,154 for 36 people.

“The leaders in this school district do not fundamentally understand that they are working with public dollars, and that every one of those public dollars has got to be spent in a way that gives the maximum benefit to the taxpayer and accomplishes their educational mission,” Thomas said.

Comparatively, as Goldwater Institute and AZ Free News previously reported, the Creighton Elementary School District’s Governing Board and Administrative Team attended a three-day, $4,000-per-person “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) conference at a Napa Valley wine country resort in July, which also drew heavy criticism of district leaders.

Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.

Chandler High School Alum Joins Lawsuit Over Biological Male Volleyball Player

Chandler High School Alum Joins Lawsuit Over Biological Male Volleyball Player

By Matthew Holloway |

A Chandler High School alum and co-captain of Utah State University women’s volleyball team, Kaylie Ray, has reportedly joined a lawsuit with others players from the University of Wyoming, San Jose State University (SJSU), the University of Nevada, and Boise State University.

The group is suing the Mountain West Conference (MWC) and its commissioner, claiming that the conference compelled them to compete with a biological male ‘transgender’ athlete, “stealth-edited its rules to stifle their free speech,” and violated the federal Title IX law.

According to Cowboy State Daily, the lawsuit comes after a San Jose University student, Blaire Fleming, was added to the team as an outside hitter. Fleming, a biological male, is now ranked as the top hitter on the team.

The outlet reported that four schools, in addition to the University of Wyoming, have canceled matches against the SJSU team after outcry from players and university community members expressing concerns over fairness and safety of the female players.

In the text of the lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that the conference drafted a new rule “hastily,” to mark the cancellations as forfeited losses.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote, “The burgeoning controversy, which Commissioner Nevarez apparently believed could lead women’s volleyball players and teams to exercise their constitutional rights to protest and boycott, caused the commissioner and her staff to hastily draft and post on the MWC website a policy designed to penalize First Amendment protests supporting the rights of women’s volleyball players in the MWC.”

They add, “This new MWC policy was clearly intended to chill and suppress the free speech rights of women athletes in the MWC.” 

The players are represented by Attorney Bill Bock and the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), who filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for Colorado. Bock told reporters in a statement, “The NCAA, Mountain West Conference, university presidents and college athletic directors around the country are failing women. Because the administrators don’t have the courage to do their jobs, we must ask the federal courts to do their jobs for them.”

Teammates of the ‘transgender’ player are also claiming SJSU defrauded them because they joined the school and the team without prior knowledge that they would be playing with, boarding at times, and competing for scholarships against a biological  male. The plaintiffs also argue that their rights under the First 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were violated, the right to bodily privacy, discrimination, retaliation, and viewpoint discrimination among others.

Fleming became the subject of national attention in October when he spiked the ball during a match, striking SDSU junior Keira Herron in the face with brutal force and knocking the player to the floor. “Keira Herron has some pink in her hair and her face is starting to look like she’s matching that as obviously she took the contact,” a broadcast announcer said in the now viral video.

In the complaint, a player named Brooke Slusser “estimates that Fleming’s spikes were traveling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball.” The complaint goes on to explain that, “The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves.”

Women’s sports activist and college swimmer Riley Gaines shared video of Fleming’s spike in a post to X, writing, “Male player from San Jose State @SanJoseStateVB, Blaire Fleming, leads his team to victory against Iowa @IowaVolleyball. Look how high he jumps. Look at the speed of the ball. Not only is this unfair, it’s dangerous.”

Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.

ASU Professor: University Canceled Its Only Course On Christianity For The Spring Of 2025

ASU Professor: University Canceled Its Only Course On Christianity For The Spring Of 2025

By Matthew Holloway |

Dr. Owen Anderson of Arizona State University (ASU) reported earlier this week that an examination of the ASU course catalog for the Spring 2025 semester shows that the school does not offer any classes on Christianity. Although the website itself does list Anderson’s REL 270 course, he reports that it “didn’t have enough enrollment, so it was canceled.” He added, “Religious Studies blocked its general education requirements, so students would not be helped toward graduation.”

A course on the New Testament of the Bible is offered, however, it is an online course, which curiously does not require the Bible as a required text. Instead, it requires  “How To Read the Bible,” by liberation theologian Harvey Cox, the 95-year-old former Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School. According to U.S. Catholic, “Liberation theology is a social and political movement within the church that attempts to interpret the gospel of Jesus Christ through the lived experiences of oppressed people.”

In Cox’s text he wrote, “There is scarcely one figure in the entire Hebrew scripture we would want our children to emulate.”

In the same work, he also is quoted writing, “The dominant ethos of the twenty-first century consists of an intermingling of the sacred and the secular.”

Anderson added that the university contrasts this by offering seven different courses on magic and witchcraft.

In a post to X, Anderson said, “ASU has canceled its only Religious Studies course on Christianity for the Spring of 2025. You will find all of the other world’s religions taught at ASU, as well as a healthy representation of classes about witchcraft. ASU currently has more events about the benefits of witchcraft than it has courses on Christianity. What is going on? Why would any Christians want to study a humanities topic at ASU when this is how they are treated…”

In his post to Substack, Anderson noted that although Christianity is taught in the coursework of other classes, “Christianity does not get a dedicated class the way Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Witchcraft do.”

The tenured professor argued that parents and students both need the ability to provide input on how the university’s schedule is built: “Parents and students, you need to know how the schedule is built and what classes you are filtered toward. It is a false choice. They give you the appearance of free will. ‘Do you want Buddhism or Witchcraft?’ Either way, you’ll be learning what they want, and you will not be represented.”

Responding to a commenter on X who was disappointed in the university’s decision, Dr. Anderson advised, “This one is done. But you can write an email to the Dean of the Religious studies department. I always recommend that such interactions be respectful.”

Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.

Scottsdale School District Stops Using X, Cites Lack Of Family-Friendly Environment

Scottsdale School District Stops Using X, Cites Lack Of Family-Friendly Environment

By Staff Reporter |

Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) will no longer be using X to stay engaged with the community, with the given reason being a lack of a “family-friendly” environment. 

SUSD made the announcement last week, also alluding to board policy necessitating their ceasing the use of X. The district will remain on Facebook and Instagram instead. 

“In line with board policy IJNDB and our commitment to safety, SUSD schools are stepping away from X to prioritize family-friendly engagement,” said SUSD. “For updates, find us on Facebook, Instagram, or visit http://susd.org. Let’s stay connected in spaces that uphold our values.”

IJNDB refers to policy on the use of technology resources in instruction. Per that policy, the district implements technology protections against visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or content which may be discerned as harmful to minors.

Yet, the district allows children access to sexually explicit books and content in its libraries and classrooms.

In stepping away from the use of X, the district also remarked that X failed to align with its values. In addition to protections for sexually explicit materials, SUSD holds values such as transgenderism in minors, social emotional learning, and critical race theory.

SUSD made their announcement a week after Election Day, when Donald Trump won the presidency and Republicans secured a trifecta.

Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter (now X) for the express purpose of preserving and supporting free speech following the 2020 election. During that election, the silencing of certain right-wing voices occurred under social media platforms such as Twitter and Big Tech companies. 

SUSD lost nearly 500 students over the course of this past year, amounting to millions in lost revenue. The auditor general has scored the district as “high risk” due to its continued decline in enrollment. Enrollment has declined 10 percent under the tenure of SUSD Superintendent Scott Menzel, and reports have emerged of record staff turnover. 

Additionally, SUSD spending on classrooms and teachers have hit another historical low for this school year: 54 percent versus nearly 64 percent from 20 years ago, just over the lowest fiscal year (2017, which amounted to 53 percent). 

Parent watchdog group Scottsdale Unites for Education Integrity said the nine percent decrease signified a $40 million redirection of funds from academic achievement. 

Menzel also enjoyed a pay raise earlier this semester despite falling short of academic performance goals: achievements in math, English-Language Arts (ELA), and science fell below desired outcomes. Over 8,000 students weren’t proficient in ELA, over 9,000 weren’t proficient in math, and over 12,000 weren’t proficient in science. 

The only goals which Menzel accomplished were nonacademic, and they amounted to less than half of the goals set: increases in attendance rates, student participation in extracurricular and cocurricular activities, and certified staff retention; an establishment of a baseline for work-based learning opportunities and hours completed using Major Clarity; and production of a decision-making matrix and at least one proposal for action by June.

AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.

Federal Court Rules Government Unlawfully Denied GCU Nonprofit Status

Federal Court Rules Government Unlawfully Denied GCU Nonprofit Status

By Staff Reporter |

The federal government unlawfully denied Grand Canyon University (GCU) its nonprofit status, per a new federal court ruling.

Last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Grand Canyon University v. Miguel Cardona that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) was wrong to refuse the Christian university their nonprofit status.

Circuit Judge Daniel Collins reversed the summary judgment by District Court Judge Susan Bolton favoring ED. Collins remanded GCU’s nonprofit status back to ED for review. 

ED had determined that GCU’s organizing documents satisfied the IRS organizational test’s requirements; however, ED denied GCU when it came to the operational test. ED determined that GCU’s primary activities and its stream of revenue both didn’t benefit the university. Collins disagreed. 

Collins ruled that ED had invoked the wrong legal standards, going beyond the Higher Education Act (HEA) requirements to impose exceeding IRS regulations. Rather, Collins ruled that HEA standards only require ED to determine whether GCU was owned and operated by a nonprofit corporation and whether GCU satisfied the no-inurement requirement. 

“The Department invoked the wrong legal standards by relying on IRS regulations that impose requirements that go well beyond the HEA’s requirements and instead implement a portion of § 501(c)(3) that has no counterpart in the definition of the term ‘nonprofit’ set forth in HEA § 103(13),” ruled Collins. 

The inurement requirement allows nonprofits to buy from for-profit companies at fair market value.

GCU has been battling with ED over its nonprofit status since 2019, when ED denied the IRS status granted to GCU. GCU had historically been a nonprofit school, save a stint in the early 2000s when the university went for-profit to avoid bankruptcy.

After GCU sued ED in 2021 over the denial, ED launched a coordinated investigation with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Veterans Affairs for unfair or deceptive practices. 

Last year, ED levied a $38 million fine against GCU. 

GCU maintained that ED targeted them over their ideological differences, since they are a Christian university. 

Bob Romantic, GCU executive director of the office of communications and public relations, said in a press release that the nonprofit status would allow GCU to thrive more than it has been able to under a for-profit status. 

“While the university remains exceedingly proud of what it achieved during its short stint as a for-profit institution, building up GCU from the brink of bankruptcy into the largest Christian university in the country, nonprofit status best allows the university to accomplish its goals around research, grant writing, development, being full members of the NCAA, etc.,” said Romantic. “Today’s decision is a long-awaited correction to the Department’s unlawful application of a standard that improperly denied GCU of its nonprofit status, and we are hopeful for a quick affirmation of the university as a nonprofit institution.”

President-elect Donald Trump pledged to dismantle ED “very early” in his administration in a campaign video last year, citing America’s high spending and poor student outcomes compared to other nations.

“[We’re] sending all education and education work and needs back to the states. We want them to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it. You can’t do worse,” said Trump. “We’re going to end education coming out of Washington, D.C., we’re going to close it up, all those buildings all over the place, and yeah people that, in many cases, hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the states.” 

AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.