I am a busy mom of 4 wonderful children and a wife of a hard working husband. I had the best memories of watching each of my children experience their 1st year of school in the Peoria Unified School District (PUSD). Their teachers were kind, engaging and overall the same experience I had in PUSD growing up. My husband and I had the great memories at Frontier Elementary and Sunrise Mountain High School.
Something in the schools changed in January 2021. I noticed a shift in my two older children’s content in the classrooms. My oldest had said he felt uncomfortable one day after watching the Presidential Inauguration in class. I had no clue that both my 2nd grader and 4th grader had a classroom activity that involved the viewing of the inauguration. I reached out to their teachers who have always been very helpful. I was surprised by the reason for the inauguration being shown in class. I was told by my 4th grader’s teacher that “the team” decided to change the lesson plan from Martin Luther King Jr. week to the viewing of the Inauguration as a “teachable moment” – although the same could not be said of the 2016 inauguration. This is where I began my journey into figuring out what was going on in the District.
I began reaching out to other parents for information and attending Governing Board Meetings. I wanted to know if there were other parents going through similar situations. And of course there was.
I started learning about parental rights under Arizona Revised Statutes and how they applied in the schools. I worked together with a support group of parents. Together we formed a parent Facebook group so we could stay in touch and have meetings to share what we learned. We started going through governing board agendas and seeing what was being voted through. We wanted to learn more about how the process works, how much power came from the Board and how much the Board really knew about what administration is putting into our kid’s education.
One thing I noticed was how little effort the Peoria Unified School District puts into helping parents and the community understand the whole governing board process such as the adoption of district policies, requesting public records and more.
For example, I learned curriculum resource materials are only allowed to be viewed at the district office. We need better access and more effort by the District to make materials /curriculum proposed for Board approval available especially now that so much of the curricula and supplemental materials are digital.
With help from a few people on the outside who knew how things worked, I learned how to request public records on professional Teacher development programs and communication emails in the District that included curriculum.
I talked with other parents about the curriculum and the ideas that were being taught to their kids in the upper grade levels. I learned that topics such as discrimination throughout American history is being taught with black lives matter; George Floyd, mob mentality, CNN news resource in classroom assignments and students knowing their teachers political affiliation was all showing up in middle school classes. During all my years as a student in the Peoria Unified School District – K-12 – I never knew any of my teachers’ political affiliations.
I started to learn more about Critical Race Theory and the idea behind diversity, equity and inclusion.
As a parent with two children with disabilities on Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s) that affect their everyday lives I thought the inclusion idea was great. But the diversity, equity and inclusion that I had researched was twisted and not actually for children with disabilities.
I didn’t want any curriculum or program teaching my children that they were privileged based on their race. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to teach a child that their skin color determines who they are in life. My mother and grandparents always taught me to reach for my goals and work hard for my future. America has always taught that anyone can succeed in this country.
I started reading through the different items on the April 5th board meeting agenda. Once I started looking at the supplemental material vendor lists of three contracts under the Consent Agenda I reached out to our group. We worked together to figure out what was on each vendor website.
The content for some of the vendors was not easily accessed without subscription; some vendors had their message of the same concept of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and more. The ones that really stood out were Cengage, Gale, Savvas Learning Company (formerly Pearson Publishing known for Common Core) and Everfi . These are just a few of the vendors which are all part of the SAVE consortium contract on the Consent Agenda. Topics on these websites included Social justice, gender identity book titles for all grade levels, Culturally Responsive Learning, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, LGBTQ even for younger grades like kindergarten and more.
One of the vendors, Everfi, has a description of Diversity Foundations for High school that introduces learners to key concepts of identity, bias, power, privilege and oppression. In that lesson learners explore the concepts of power, privilege, oppression, discrimination and racism.
The real shocker was the day of the board meeting when I was able to access the Peoria Public Library’s database list. Of course Gale Academic One File, the vendor listed on the SAVE Contract, was listed. I clicked on the link and was taken to the actual website where I had to type in the barcode of the library card.
From there I typed in a title provided by the contact from Colorado (who had the same situation with Gale and Cengage Company in their child’s district) called Abuse Porn: Reading Reactions to Boys Halfway House. The article was very descriptive on an adult website for boys and at the bottom of the article I saw the sources listed with 4 blue links. The 1st link took me off the Gale website and directly to a gay pornographic webpage. To say I was shocked is an understatement.
I had in four days discovered controversial topics, hidden content and links to pornographic websites off of one contract the District wanted to purchase for their teachers to use in our children’s classrooms. The curriculum department explained that the district had to choose curriculum that matched changes to the AZ State Standards. When they began their “process” they turned to a preapproved contract complied by Mesa Public School District for the SAVE Consortium so that the work was done for them and would be a “cheaper” process.
My questions are why is no one else in the district curriculum department checking through these vendor websites before bringing them to the Board for approval and into our children’s classrooms?
How could the Superintendent Reynolds and his staff in the Curriculum Department fail our children and our trust by not researching EVERY single vendor listed on that contract?
Why would the district not want to invest in the time and money searching for outstanding and appropriate resources for our kids learning?
This contract was on the Consent Agenda for approval of the Board without discussion and only as a financial expenditure with no information being provided by the curriculum department about the content.
I am grateful to James T. Harris for having me on his radio show so other parents could hear what is going on. These same parents came to the standing room only board meeting to voice their disapproval of the content of these supplemental materials and the associated websites.
It reminded me of America and how strong it can be when we come together. I spoke at the board meeting and talked about my findings of links to porn websites from the supplemental vendor resources.
Thankfully, board member and Representative Beverly Pingerelli (R LD21), with support of board member Rebecca Hill, motioned to table all three contracts and have the curriculum team bring forward exactly which vendors they wanted to use in the schools. The board all voted in favor of this idea and Beverly Pingerelli asked to allow the parents to view the content of each vendor.
There’s nothing better than sending your child off to school for their first day. These are moments you cherish for a lifetime. You trust the teacher. You trust the principal. You just trust. Then all the sudden the trust is gone and you’re left with fighting those you trusted. Those you trusted to educate your child.
Wednesday, the House passed a bill requiring schools to have parents’ written consent before teaching Sex Education to students. Rather than having parents opt their children out of Sex Ed curriculum, this legislation requires schools to have parents opt in their children.
The bill passed along party lines, with only one Democratic representative abstaining their vote: State Representative Denise “Mitzi” Epstein (D-Tempe).
Summarily, the bill prohibits schools from providing Sex Ed to any students below the fifth grade – including education on AIDS and HIV. It would also require schools to make all Sex Ed curriculum available for parental review two weeks in advance, at minimum.
Under the bill, schools may or may not choose to implement a Sex Ed curriculum. If they do, the bill would simply require them to prioritize parental consent and communication, and those schools would have the option for state-level health or education officials to review the materials. It would also require that AIDS and HIV education be grade-level appropriate, promote abstinence, discourage drug use, and dispel myths of HIV transmission.
The legislation also requires that all committee meetings to develop, adopt, revise, or update Sex Ed courses be open to the public. Additionally, all materials must be made available and two public hearings must occur at least 60 days prior to any approval of materials.
Both Arizona House and Senate Democrats tweeted against the passage of the bill.
“This bill is a huge step back from the progress Arizona made in 2019 when we removed barriers for LGBTQ+ representation in schools. This bill makes all HIV/AIDS instruction opt-in, labeling this important education as taboo & only available via a permission slip,” wrote the Arizona Senate Democrats.
This bill is a huge step back from the progress Arizona made in 2019 when we removed barriers for LGBTQ+ representation in schools. This bill makes all HIV/AIDS instruction opt-in, labeling this important education as taboo & only available via permission slip
— Arizona Senate Democrats (@AZSenateDems) April 14, 2021
Neither the House or Senate GOP or the bill’s sponsor, State Senator Nancy Barto (R-Phoenix), published remarks on social media regarding the passage of this bill. Barto did tell reporters in an emailed statement that this served as a victory for parents’ rights.
“Parents should not have to worry about what schools are teaching their children about human sexuality,” stated Barto. “Too often parents learn after the fact that explicit or controversial materials were presented without their knowledge or consent.”
As AZ Free News reported previously, the Senate passed the bill early last month. Testimonies presented during committee hearings relayed a variety of issues. These included schools telling children that sex education classes are mandatory, refusing to share curriculum materials with parents, or circumventing parental notification on certain materials like “Genderbread.”
The legislation will now heads to Governor Doug Ducey. If signed into law as written, schools would have until December 15 of this year to comply.
The Arizona School Board Association condemned the bill’s passage as an effort to “undermine the authority of school boards. However, nothing in the bill prohibits school boards from approving curriculum. It merely sets a grade-level requirement and provides parents with an opportunity to exercise their authority over their own children.
ASBA opposes SB1456 as a tremendous overreach into the school board’s authority to establish curriculum it deems appropriate for the school community and urges Gov. Ducey to veto this bill. Read our full statement below. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/VCOCNX90Fh
Corinne Murdock is a contributing reporter for AZ Free News. In her free time, she works on her books and podcasts. Follow her on Twitter, @CorinneMurdock or email tips to corinnejournalist@gmail.com.
Arizona voters are asking lawmakers to lead on Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs), and their voices just got louder.
The state’s ESA program—which allows families to use a portion of the state dollars allotted for their children to pay for private tuition, tutors, and other teaching tools—has transformed thousands of lives both before and during the pandemic. For years, the testimonies of parents have been nothing short of remarkable:
As one mother put it this past year to members of the State Board of Education, “ESA saved my son from a path that would have compromised him on a systemic level…”
From another mom: “I am a parent of three children on ESA, but I also have a master’s degree in elementary education, and ESA has saved the educational lives of my three children…. We have tried public, private, and charter schools… [and] my child was able to meet some of her IEP [Individualized Education Program] goals in four months that no school had helped her to achieve in four years.”
And from a mother in rural Arizona: “I want all to know that this ESA option to educate my children truly saved my family; my oldest has significant disabilities and she attended our public school through her ninth grade year… So many years were spent advocating and begging and pleading for her to be educated, and more importantly, even wanted… ESA has opened up our world to educational opportunities never to be found in the public school setting…”
Now, Arizona lawmakers are on the cusp of extending this same opportunity to thousands more children via SB 1452, which would provide ESA eligibility to low-income and veteran families.
Right now, only special needs students and select other groups, such as children whose parents are on active duty or were killed in the line of service, are eligible to participate in the program. But as Gaby Friedman of the Torah Day School testified to lawmakers in March 2021, the impact of ESAs on kids at her school has shown the need to give the same opportunity to even more families:
“Maya (not her real name) is six, comes from a low-income family, and is disabled…Maya is eligible for the ESA because she is a special needs disabled student…What I thought her story shows is that an ESA works for an individual child…Maya is not the only one with unique needs. There’s many parents out there… and their children aren’t getting the education that they want. Those children might be not disabled…but they need more than what they’re getting. And that’s why this bill is so important.”
Arizona voters increasingly agree.
Multiple recent polls have found overwhelming bipartisan support across Arizona for increasing access to ESAs. Now, a new Goldwater Institute poll has again found massive support among both rural and metropolitan regions of the state. The poll, which was conducted in March and April 2021 across three separate legislative districts (LD4, LD13, and LD25), found that over two-thirds of all respondents, including 70% of Democrats, 67% of Independents, and 71% of Republicans, voiced support for extending program eligibility to all low-income students in Arizona. In contrast, out of the overall sample (N=641), just 21% of voters opposed increasing ESA eligibility.
Conducted March 29– April 6, 2021. N=641. Margin of error <6%. Results above exclude respondents who identified their political affiliation as “Other.”
Union organizers and district superintendents may have the bigger megaphone and messaging apparatus, but our education system ultimately exists to serve Arizona students and their families. Especially in the wake of COVID-19 and the academic disruption unleashed by public school shutdowns over the past year, that truth seems increasingly clear to voters. May it be equally clear to Arizona’s policymakers.
This article was published by the in defense of liberty blog on April 14, 2021, and is reproduced with permission from the Goldwater Institute
On March 25 Health Canada issued a memo regarding the safety of face masks that contain graphene or bio-based graphene.
Graphene is exfoliated graphite to a very small layer of nanoscopically thin flakes of hexagonally-arranged carbon atoms
Bio-based graphene is derived from biowaste.
Production of Carbon Nanotubes out of graphene are very similar to asbestos fibers and the inhalation of graphene nanotubes is detrimental to a person’s health.
The memo sent by Health Canada to Canadian Provincial and Territorial Ministries of Health read, in part :
“Health Canada has conducted a preliminary risk assessment which identified a potential for early pulmonary toxicity associated with the inhalation of nanoform graphene. To date, Health Canada has not received data to support the safety and efficacy of face masks containing nanoform graphene.” They went on to say, “As such, and in the absence of manufacturer’s evidence to support the safe and effective use of nanoform graphene coated masks, Health Canada considers the risk of these medical devices to be unacceptable.”
More on graphene:
A sheet of graphene of one atom in thickness is rolled into a tube. This creates a single-walled carbon nanotube. Layers of these graphene sheets can be rolled in order to create multi-walled carbon nanotubes, which have slightly different properties.
Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene are considered harmful and may cause a serious cancer called Malignant Mesothelioma.
You may remember that Malignant Mesothelioma is usually caused by asbestos. I unfortunately know this quite well, because it was this terrible and mean cancer that killed my mother in 2002.
A study titled, “Mesothelioma: Identical Routes to Malignancy from Asbestos and Carbon Nanotubes” published in Nov 2019 says in its abstract:
“Exposure of laboratory mice to carbon nanotubes mimics exposure to asbestos, from initial and chronic inflammation, through loss of the same tumour-suppressor pathways and eventual sporadic development of malignant mesothelioma. Fibres of a similar nature may pose significant health risks to humans.”
I would like to repeat the warning from Health Canada once again –
“As such, and in the absence of manufacturer’s evidence to support the safe and effective use of nanoform graphene coated masks, Health Canada considers the risk of these medical devices to be unacceptable.”
Let us re-evaluate where we have arrived as a society, where we force medical measures on the masses in the name of fear. Any medical action, from one as simple as donning a mask to one so invasive as forcing an experimental, non-FDA approved substance such as the mRNA vaccine, must never be compulsory. The human body is sovereign, and not one person has the right to force a medical action on another, especially when risk is involved.
Most importantly, we are forcing school children to breathe through these masks, at school and during exercise, without addressing the issue of graphene and its potential dangers. Those who cannot wear a mask are still being forced in the school system. Parents should be the decision-makers when it comes to their child’s health.
Therefore, I am calling on the Governor to address this shocking development regarding graphene-coated masks. I implore him to immediately rescind Executive order 2021-04 that requires school children in public and charter schools to wear them, without exemption. I am emphatically calling on Doug Ducey to immediately begin an education campaign regarding the potential dangers of these masks, and to respect parent’s rights to make this decision for their child.
A group of enthusiastic parents, kids, and politicos rallied in front of the Arizona State Capitol on Monday to send a message to Governor Doug Ducey: #Letthechildrenbreathe. The rally, organized by Arizona Stands United, was part of a campaign to eliminate mandatory masks in K-12 schools.
Approximately 100 maskless and smiling attendees listened as young person after young person explained the difficulties of wearing masks in the classrooms.
The rally preceded the delivery of over 10,000 signatures in support of their cause to the Governor’s Office.
Organizers hope the governor will rescind Executive Order 2020.51 which requires masks to be worn by students in traditional and charter public schools.
Jenny Jackson, president of Arizona Stands United, says the group was first made aware of the difficulties kids were experiencing by a member of the group’s Education Committee. The group agreed to take on the cause as part of its commitment to end the current state-of-emergency and what they call “COVID tyranny.”
The “COVID tyranny” has even caused small children to wear masks while participating in P.E. outdoors.
Chloe, a fourth grader, said “Wearing masks makes it hard to breath. I have friends who have asthma and I get scared when they run and start having trouble breathing. I’d feel better if we didn’t have to wear them.”
Parents report children coming home exhausted due to what they believe is a lack of oxygen due to mask wearing.
Jackson says it is unfair that adults have a choice to wear a mask now or not, but kids are given no choice in the matter. It makes it especially egregious, say supporters because there is ample evidence to show that COVID is little threat to otherwise healthy children, they are no longer considered super spreaders, and at this point, most classroom teachers have been vaccinated against the disease.
While the wearing of masks has become a norm across the world as we strive to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the debate over their efficacy continues. Parents and teachers, who doubt the need for masks, are heeding the words of Robert Frost: “Freedom lies in being bold.” To that end they are uniting to end the mask mandates in classrooms.
Members of Arizona Stands United will be holding a rally at the Capitol on Monday afternoon after presenting Governor Doug Ducey with petitions bearing the signatures of over 10,000 Arizona who want children to have a choice.
The group, whose slogan is #LetTheChildrenBreathe, believe that due to the fact that the vast majority of teachers have been vaccinated, there is no justification for forcing children to wear masks.
The debate concerning wearing masks in schools has spurred heated discussions, and caused awkward, and even disturbing situations. Some teachers have been forced to call security on students who defy school mask policy.
The issue raises serious questions, not the least of which is how will the education system embrace choice and freedom for minors?
