Arizona State Representative John Gillette (R-LD30) shared a post on Wednesday containing images and video footage taken at Dobson High School from Turning Point Action Field Representative Angel Guess. The images and video footage depicted Black Lives Matter (BLM) and pro-LGBTQ material in the classroom.
In her post, Guess wrote, “Attention Mesa Residents, mothers, fathers… this is what your taxpayer dollars pay for.. School starts tomorrow [at Dobson High] and YOUR kids are walking into this. Video from today!”
🚨 🚨Attention Mesa Residents, mothers, fathers.. this is what your tax payer dollars pay for..
School starts tomorrow @DobsonHigh and YOUR kids are walking into this. Video from today!@mpsaz Mesa Public School District is this what parents subscribe to when they sign your… pic.twitter.com/WtVEQOjUZR
She continued, “Mesa Public School District is this what parents subscribe to when they sign your enrollment agreement? Not my child! Who agrees?”
Sharing the post, Representative Gillette declared it to be “Another advertisement for the Arizona ESA voucher program.”
Another advertisement for the Arizona ESA voucher program. Govt schools can't understand why their student count keeps falling. Woke indoctrination, DEI, and poor academic results are destroying government schools. https://t.co/eBSTgoCRDX
— Rep. John Gillette AZ House LD30 (@AzRepGillette) July 31, 2025
“Govt schools can’t understand why their student count keeps falling. Woke indoctrination, DEI, and poor academic results are destroying government schools,” Gillette added.
The post to X has since garnered the attention of former Republican Congressional candidate Josh Barnett, who observed, “This is why school choice is so important and allowing Private/charter schools to prosper.”
Senior Advisor for the U.S. Agency for Global Media Kari Lake excoriated the district, writing, “Stop radicalizing our children! Cut all taxpayer funding to woke public schools. Our kids deserve better.”
As previously reported by AZ Free News, Dobson High School has a history of alignment with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts such as the “No Place For Hate” (NPFH) program of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of Arizona, which named Dobson as an NPFH school in 2022.
As recently as July 18th, Arizona Women of Action posted a thread on X, making serious allegations that “There are explicit books in MPS libraries. High schools. Middle schools. Even ELEMENTARY schools.”
🚨🚨🚨 ATTENTION Mesa Public Schools Residents
There are explicit books in MPS libraries. High schools. Middle schools. Even ELEMENTARY schools.
Watch these videos, then please follow the call to action at the end.
— Arizona Women of Action (@azwomenofaction) July 18, 2025
The texts reportedly include: “Push” by Sapphire, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison (which both detail sexual abuse), “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins, which has been removed from schools in 13 states for references to drug use, sexual abuse, and suicide, and “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher, which is available in elementary schools and has been challenged in dozens of school districts for its sexually explicit content and discussion of suicide.
“End Apartheid” and “Abolish Israel,” were scrawled in crudely drawn letters beneath the Star of David adorning the oldest Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Tucson earlier this week. The synagogue was founded in 1948 in the wake of the Holocaust by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement under Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The rabbi himself had fled Germany during the rise of the Nazi Third Reich in 1933. The Chabad’s website states that it is “the Southern Arizona headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, considered to be the most dynamic force in Jewish life today.”
Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ06) expressed his disgust in a post to X on Tuesday sharing news that the Chabad Tucson-Young Israel Synagogue was vandalized with anti-semitic, anti-Israel graffiti.
In his post, Ciscomani wrote, “I am disgusted by this antisemitic act against the Chabad Tucson-Young Israel Synagogue. Jewish residents in Tucson deserve to feel safe in their own communities and places of worship. I strongly and unequivocally condemn this despicable act.”
I am disgusted by this antisemitic act against the Chabad Tucson-Young Israel Synagogue.
Jewish residents in Tucson deserve to feel safe in their own communities and places of worship. I strongly and unequivocally condemn this despicable act.https://t.co/7svxUgsEe2
— Congressman Juan Ciscomani (@RepCiscomani) April 23, 2025
Democrat State Rep. Alma Hernandez also condemned the act in a post to X writing, “Outraged to hear from my good friend Rabbi @YehudaCeitlin who showed up to his shul this morning at Chabad of Tucson to see this hateful vandalism on his wall. Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism, period and this hate is NOT welcomed in Tucson! I will continue to stand with my Jewish community. This is a synagogue NOT a political office. Shameful that its 2025 and we keep seeing this vile targeting of the Jewish community.”
Outraged to hear from my good friend Rabbi @YehudaCeitlin who showed up to his shul this morning at Chabad of Tucson to see this hateful vandalism on his wall. Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism, period ⬇️ and this hate is NOT welcomed in Tucson! I will continue to stand with my Jewish… pic.twitter.com/v1jM3RdDsK
— (((Rep.Alma Hernandez))) (@almaforarizona) April 22, 2025
According to KGUN, Monday’s incident represents the second time that the Chabad Center in Tucson has been vandalized in the past four years with a 2021 incident finding a Nazi Swastika and an anti-semitic slur painted on the building’s entrance. Rabbi Yehuda Ceitlin of Chabad Tucson confirmed this in a post to X writing, “This is the second time in 3 years that a Chabad Jewish center in Tucson is being vandalized with antisemitic graffiti. This hate must stop!”
Reporting from KVOA stated that the Tucson Police Department is investigating the incident as a hate crime. Speaking to KVOA reporters Rabbi Ceitlin said, “It just shows the person who has done this, or people who have done this we don’t know who is responsible, wants to intimidate the Jewish people and we will not be intimidated,” he added, “[Hate], It’s part of the Jewish story, Jewish history.”
Vile antisemitic graffiti was scrawled across Arizona’s first Orthodox synagogue, built in 1948 and now part of Chabad Tucson.
The incident has drawn notice internationally as well with Member of the Israeli Knesset Michal Cotler-Wunsh commenting online, “Below the Jewish Star of David – a call to abolish the Jewish nation state. A graphic demonstration of the normalization of a ‘modern’ lethal strain of an ancient ever-mutating hate, unleashed in response to the worst attack of Jews since the Holocaust, ‘justified’ by decades of peddled ‘modern-day’ blood libel of hijacked & weaponized institutions & terms like racism, apartheid, genocide…entrusted & coined to ensure that ‘Never Again.’ The writing is on the wall…of Chabad Tucson too.”
Below the Jewish Star of David – a call to abolish 🇮🇱 the Jewish nation state.
A graphic demonstration of the normalization of a ‘modern’ lethal strain of an ancient ever-mutating hate, unleashed in response to the worst attack of Jews since the Holocaust, ‘justified’ by… pic.twitter.com/oLXntJavSK
— מיכל קוטלר-וונש | Michal Cotler-Wunsh (@CotlerWunsh) April 23, 2025
In a post responding to the incident, the Anti-Defamation League of Arizona issued a statement from Deputy Regional Director Sarah Kader who said, “Seeing news of yet another incident of vile anti-Semitic vandalism on a place of worship for Jews, on the same day as the release of ADL’s annual audit of anti-Semitic incidents, which showed a 23% increase of anti-Semitic vandalism in Arizona, is truly heartbreaking. We will never stop fighting against such hateful acts.”
Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of Arizona recognized 24 K-12 schools throughout the state as “No Place For Hate” (NPFH) participants.
There are four required steps to qualifying as a NPFH school: register, create a NPFH committee, sign the NPFH Pledge, and complete at least three school-wide NPFH activities. An additional recommended step for schools concerns engaging in “A World of Difference” anti-bias and allyship workshops.
Despite the ADL’s commitment to diversity and inclusivity, NPFH campaigns may alienate certain classes of students and educators — such as Christians.
According to the ADL, a valid NPFH committee “include[s] students, staff, administrators, and family members that reflect the diversity of the school community.” They are tasked with identifying bias and bullying within their school and host activities to right those identified wrongs.
Variations of the required pledge exist, and they usually differ between elementary and middle or high schools. For elementary schools, one form of the pledge reads as follows:
I promise to do my best to treat everyone fairly. I promise to do my best to be kind to everyone — even if they are not like me. If I see someone being hurt or bullied, I will tell a teacher. Everyone should be able to feel safe and happy in school. I want our school to be No Place for Hate.
Most versions of the pledge for middle and high schools include more social justice concepts. One example is reproduced below:
I will seek to gain understanding of those who are different from myself. I will speak out against prejudice and discrimination. I will reach out to support those who are targets of hate. I will promote respect for people and help foster a prejudice-free school. I believe that one person can make a difference — no person can be an ‘innocent’ bystander when it comes to opposing hate. I recognize that respecting individual dignity and promoting inter-group harmony are the responsibilities of all students.
And another:
I pledge from this day forward to do my best to combat prejudice and to stop those who, because of hate or ignorance, would hurt anyone or violate their civil rights. I will try at all times to be aware of my own biases and seek to gain understanding of those who I perceive as being different from myself. I will speak out against all forms of prejudice and discrimination. I will reach out to support those who are targets of hate. I will think about specific ways my community members can promote respect for people and create a prejudice free zone. I firmly believe that one person can make a difference and that no person can be an “innocent” bystander when it comes to opposing hate. I recognize that respecting individual dignity, achieving equality and promoting intergroup harmony are the responsibilities of all people. By signing this pledge, I commit myself to creating a respectful community.
Valid NPFH activities that count toward the three needed to qualify the school must be preapproved by the national ADL and tackle bias, prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, social justice, inclusion, diversity, name-calling, or bullying.
The World of Difference workshops include programs for students titled “Becoming An Ally: Interrupting Name Calling and Bullying,” “Peer Leadership,” “Peer Training,” and “General Anti-Bias Training.” For the most part, each workshop engages in concepts like prejudice, bigotry, diversity, inclusivity, and equity.
Those steps are required, but there are a plethora of other activities and workshops offered to educators and students vying for NPFH recognition. In June and July, the ADL is hosting a month-long “anti-bias” course for teachers to learn how to eliminate bias while making “equitable and inclusive classrooms.”
The 24 Arizona schools certified as NPFH schools were: C.I. Waggoner Elementary, Desert Meadows, Eagle Ridge Elementary School, Emerson School, Horizon Honors Elementary School, Whittier Elementary, Kyrene de las Manitas, Kyrene del Cielo, Kino Junior High School, Cocopah Middle School, Cooley Middle School, Desert Canyon Middle School, Greenway Middle School, Shea Middle School, Vista Verde Middle School, Dobson High School, Higley High School, Mountain View High School, North High School, Red Mountain High School, Verrado High School, Trailside Performing Arts Academy, New Way Academy, and Rancho Solano Preparatory School.
Centennial Middle School received an honorable mention.
The 24 schools will receive a customized banner designating them as a NPFH school for this year.
Cocopah Middle School’s principal required teachers to attend a training on supporting and affirming LGBTQ+ lifestyles in children, and where they established a Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) Club that won an award for coercing the district to allow students to replace their given, or “deadname,” with a preferred name matching their gender identity. GSAs may also stand for Gay-Straight Alliance.
There are over 1,800 schools nationwide who qualify as NPFH.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
