by Sepi Homayoun | Dec 7, 2023 | Opinion
By Sepi Homayoun |
I was born and raised in Iran and experienced the upheaval of the Revolution firsthand, escaping with my family at the age of 12. Having witnessed the atrocities of conflict in the Middle East, the events of October 7th are particularly chilling. The current rise of antisemitism, echoing dark moments from history, is a terrifying time for our Jewish brothers and sisters worldwide.
I arrived in the United States during a period when Iranians faced a ban, making it challenging to secure status in this country. While some perceived it as discrimination, my family viewed it as our responsibility to demonstrate our commitment to the chosen country of migration. America exercised caution while vetting migrants from the Middle East, which given the geopolitical context, made sense to me. As a 14-year-old Muslim kid, I keenly observed the freedoms extended to me as a newcomer. I was given ample opportunities to succeed, experiencing minimal discrimination at school. Many reached out to assist our family in integrating into our new society, fostering a deep appreciation for this country and its citizens. I recognized that the same nation that imposed restrictions on Iranians also provided every opportunity for us to thrive.
It goes without saying that religious discrimination or violence of any kind is reprehensible. Recently, I spoke to the attendees at a local Jewish Temple regarding the alarming antisemitism crisis on our college campuses and the depth of their fear. The stories shared were deeply unsettling, evoking a sense of shock that transported me back to age 14 again.
Regardless of political affiliation, we can all agree that every child deserves to feel safe at school, including our Jewish children. Sadly, a Chandler School Board Member, Patti Serrano, does not appear to feel that same way. Serrano’s sponsorship of an event at ASU featuring Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12) raises concerns about her judgment as a non-partisan school board member. Tlaib, a member of Congress recently censured for her antisemitic rallying cry, was invited to ASU, adding fuel to the fire of antisemitism prevalent on many campuses. This was on the heels of Jewish students at ASU having to be escorted back to their residence by campus police due to death threats and rock throwing at an ASU student government meeting. How can our Jewish children feel safe at school knowing there is an elected official in charge of their schools that is willing to take such a clear stance against them? Serrano is undoubtedly allowed to exercise her First Amendment rights and speak her mind. However, in her capacity as a non-partisan school board member representing all children, not just non-Jewish children, is it wise?
While politics can be messy, it’s crucial not to stand by in silence. We, as a community in Chandler, must stand in solidarity with our Jewish community members. Calling for accountability, urging Patti Serrano’s resignation, and actively supporting the safety of ALL children in our schools are essential steps. Let us use our voices and get involved to ensure EVERY child, regardless of their background, feels secure at school.
Sepi Homayoun is a resident of Chandler and a concerned citizen and mother.
by Corinne Murdock | Nov 26, 2023 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Just as with the rest of the activist community, school board members are taking sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) Governing Board member Patti Serrano helped organize the appearance of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12), the only Palestinian-American in Congress, scheduled for last Friday at Arizona State University (ASU). The event has since been canceled. In an email obtained by AZ Free News, Serrano notified Arizona Palestine Network subscribers of the Tlaib event.
Serrano sent the email in her capacity as the East Valley coordinator for Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and as a co-sponsor of Tlaib’s “Palestine is an American Issue.”
The bottom of Serrano’s email identified other affiliated groups behind the canceled event: Arizona Palestine Network; Palestine Community Center of Arizona; Council on American Islamic Relations of Arizona; Jewish Voice for Peace – Tucson; Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP) at ASU; Arizona Palestinian Solidarity Alliance; Arizona Democratic Party Progressive Council; National Lawyers Guild at ASU; Central Arizona National Lawyers Guild Attorney Chapter; and Middle Eastern Law Students Association at ASU.
Since ASU rejected Tlaib’s appearance on campus, student and community activists convened to protest, claiming freedom of speech was denied. In a statement, ASU said that the event was organized by groups not affiliated with the university and outside university policies and procedures, and therefore not permissible.
“Organizers of events using ASU facilities must be properly registered with ASU and must meet all university requirements for crowd management, parking, security, and insurance. In addition, the events must be produced in a way which minimizes disruption to academic and other activities on campus,” said ASU. “The event featuring Congresswoman Tlaib was planned and produced by groups not affiliated with ASU and was organized outside of ASU policies and procedures. Accordingly, that event will not take place today on the ASU Tempe campus.”
Tlaib didn’t issue any public statements following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. Only after Israel issued a response to Hamas in Gaza did Tlaib call upon the Biden administration to advocate for a cease-fire. Tlaib also introduced a resolution facilitating a cease-fire.
Tlaib was censured for her repeated endorsement of the controversial slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” largely understood to be a call for the eradication of Israel from the land.
In addition to PDA, Serrano also served as an academic research project director for ASU.
Upon becoming a CUSD governing board member earlier this year, Serrano took her oath of office not on the Bible but on “Life is a Banquet,” a book containing the sexual awakening and explicit fantasies of a fictional 17-year-old and his peers, written by ASU Professor and Drag Story Hour Arizona co-founder David Boyles.
Serrano has led a number of widely-reported protests against elected leaders to advocate for various progressive issues over the years.
In 2021, Serrano was one of the activists that rallied, marched, and sat in on the office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) to demand an end to the filibuster.
In 2020, Serrano helped organize a protest outside the Arizona Republican Party headquarters demanding greater government action to counter COVID-19, such as mask mandates.
In 2018, Serrano went to former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake’s Washington, D.C. office to demand he oppose the confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, based on the sexual assault allegations.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Tiffany Benson | Oct 10, 2023 | Opinion
By Tiffany Benson |
Depravity abounds in Arizona’s public education system. From Buckeye, to Phoenix, to Tucson—and many school districts in between—the Valley is infested with radical board members, sleazy administrators, and predatory educators. All of these are working overtime to usurp parental rights and corrupt the next generation.
When creating the following list, I took into consideration cases of child sexual exploitation, race- and gender-based curricula, dangerous bathroom policies and failing test scores. Readers are cautioned against ranking these districts from “worst” to “best.” The list is purely based on the volume and severity of complaints I’ve personally investigated—seven is a very modest number!
Without further ado, here is my top seven list of Arizona’s worst school districts:
1. Mesa Public Schools. In 2015, MPS adopted a secret transgender support plan to aid in the social and sexual transition of minor students without parental knowledge. Shout out to Board Member Rachel Walden for exposing the plan. In the summer of 2023, a majority of the board, led by President Marcie Hutchinson, approved contracts for an unvetted suicide prevention program as well as Brain Solutions—a network of psychiatric clinics that appear to have no medical physicians on staff. In an alleged attempt to bypass public discussion, Hutchinson violated Open Meeting Law 7.7.5 by arranging both contracts under the Consent Agenda. Parents are in danger of losing their children to the LGBTQ+ agenda that’s overtaking this district.
2. Washington Elementary School District. In an unprecedented display of bigotry and lawlessness, WESD board members voted 5-0 to terminate student-teacher contracts with Arizona Christian University (ACU). Despite an 11-year, incident-free partnership with the college, Board Member Tamillia Valenzuela—a cat ear-wearing individual who spurns the Pledge of Allegiance—motioned to cancel ACU due to the organization’s stance on traditional marriage. Valenzuela and her vile counterpart, Board Member Nikkie Whaley, also spontaneously erupt into racist rants against their colleagues, including the night Whaley was unseated from the presidency. While the fully reinstated student-teacher contracts offer a degree of hope, past and present board members have resolved to highlight and celebrate alternative sexualities in prepubescent children. Therefore, WESD remains an unsafe and morally corrupt district.
3. Tucson Unified School District. TUSD is an unforgivable case of sexual perversion and abuse that should send every loving parent over the edge. Notwithstanding one Tucson Magnet High School (TMHS) counselor who organized the first student-led drag show on campus—and was later arrested for sexually assaulting a minor—Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo sought legal advice from Michael Areinoff to host a second event in April 2023. Another counselor and drag show organizer, “Sunday” Hamilton, serves as the point of contact for TMHS’s Q Space club. Board President Ravi Shah, who referred to drag shows as “art,” bragged about attending with his minor children and encouraged community support in the exploitation of gender confused students. Meanwhile, TUSD students are testing below 40% proficiency in math and reading across all grade levels.
4. Catalina Foothills School District. Sadly, this entire board of education, led by President Eileen Jackson, continually proves to be anti-parent, anti-student safety, and anti-common sense. In matters of sex and gender, CFSD has side-stepped parental rights at least since 2021, and in March 2023, Jackson banned all bathroom policy discussions from future agendas. One month later, several concerned CFSD citizens were locked out of the board meeting as radical activists occupied at half capacity to protest the permanent, binary reality of human sexuality. CFSD educators also feel at liberty to bypass parental consent and privately discuss gender ideologies with minor students. Shout out to the Center for Excellence in Public Schools for standing firm amid the onslaught of debauchery in this district.
5. Scottsdale Unified School District. SUSD is a never-ending nightmare of agenda-driven, moral violations. From covert gender-identity student clubs to hidden pronoun surveys, students are constantly bombarded with perversion and secular humanism. Superintendent Scott Menzel—who infamously called white people “problematic”—is the mastermind behind the leftist ideologies and corruption that appear as a recurring theme on the Scottsdale Unites media page. Board President Julie Cieniawski and Board Member Libby Hart-Wells are known to display a lack of decorum as they bully, interrupt, and chastise their colleagues…and anyone else they can’t control. What a shame that Scottsdale’s next generation is being raised by wolves.
6. Chandler Unified School District. During the CUSD board meeting on July 12, 2023, the CFO’s report revealed a steady decline of student enrollments, prompting Board Member Kurt Rohrs to ask:“Why don’t parents want to send their kids to our schools?” The superintendent astutely pointed to parental choice while Board President Jason Olive—in an apparent case of narcissism and willful ignorance—stated: “It sounds like there’s a lot of parents who just don’t know any better…” Perhaps Olive slept through CUSD employees encouraging minors to attend gender utopia workshops, and the district’s alleged cover up of a teacher who reportedly sexually assaulted multiple students. Of course, only the best school district promotes immorality and graduates half its students without basic math and reading skills.
7. Peoria Unified School District. This anti-parental rights district is the epitome of corruption and subversion. Since my last op-ed, interim Superintendent Kevin Molino is now overseeing plans for a third bathroom—an open concept, transgender-friendly facility that offers biological females no protection. Rather than announce the plan, Molino is conducting private meetings with select parents, administrators, and constituents (my meeting with him was a waste of time). Molino acts as if he’s listening but assures community members there’s “nothing he can do” to help during his short-term appointment. Well, at least he’s not lying. Meanwhile, the biological boy—with unrestricted access to female spaces on campus—allegedly assaulted a fellow student. Most parents also don’t know that Chief Student Service Officer Jason Nuttall is researching how to effectively profile children and report data to the federal government via MTSS (“multi-tiered system of support”).
Honorable mention: One-n-ten. While this technically isn’t a school district (yet), One-n-ten is the parent organization of the “Queer Blended Learning Center” in Phoenix. With a mission to “provide LGBTQ and Straight Allied Youth a welcoming and safe space to earn their high school diploma,” QBLC now accepts ESA vouchers to cover tuition for gender-confused middle school students. When One-n-ten hosted sex and gender spring break activities this year, teachers and counselors in Chandler Unified School District gladly made recommendations. At best this is moral kidnapping, at worst our tax dollars are financing the emotional, mental, and sexual exploitation of minors.
Whether readers agree or disagree with my picks on this list, it’s obvious that district representatives and government employees are coming after our children. As long as parents and fearful teachers remain ignorant and silent, mayhem and perversion will increase its presence and influence across the Valley. It’s time to wake up, pay attention, show up, and speak at board meetings. Don’t stop asking questions. Never go silent. Confront the perpetrators and issues that threaten your child’s safety and well-being on school grounds.
Finally, where alternative and private education options exist, every parent is without excuse for not exploring them to the fullest extent.
For nearly two decades, Tiffany Benson’s creative writing pursuits have surpassed all other interests. When she’s not investigating the Kennedy assassination and other conspiracy theories, she enjoys journaling and contributing to her blog Bigviewsmallwindow.com. Join her and other engaged citizens at WestValleyParentsUniting.com.
by Joseph Yang | Sep 25, 2023 | Opinion
By Joseph Yang |
Earlier this year on July 20th, a small group of moms and residents gathered together for the first time at the Chandler City Council meeting. They simply wanted to share their thoughts on some of the books in the Chandler Public Library system that they found while at the library with their kids.
One of the books brought by Chandler Unified School District candidate Carley Morgan was It’s Perfectly Normal, a picture book labeled “Juvenile”—meaning for kids. The book contains images of nude men, women, and children. It also explains in detail how sex happens including talking about “When the penis enters the vagina, the wall to the vagina stretches open and around the penis.” Carley’s son Riley, a 13-year-old also spoke about how no one wants to have these “awkward” conversations with their children before they are ready to. Parenting should always be in the hands of the parents and not the library.
Andrew Adams, the Chair of Republican Legislative District 14, also spoke saying his 1-year-old daughter was with him and if someone showed his daughter the images in these books, they would be dealing with him “personally.”
On the night of September 19, 2023, many concerned citizens, parents, and residents gathered together again to express their dismay for the books that were found in the juvenile section of the libraries.
Some of the same citizens at the previous council meeting came out yet again—this time to speak to a seven-person board appointed by the Mayor and Council called the Library Board. The President of the Board, Beth Brizel, a former City Council candidate, said “I have taken notes and will definitely discuss with library staff on the possibility of this.”
The citizens who spoke were loud and clear while talking to this board. The first speaker Aubrey Savela, who is with Turning Point Action, read from the book What’s Going on Down There? On page 116 of that book, what is especially concerning is a question that is prompted by a young man, “If I get my girlfriend pregnant can I make her get an abortion even if she doesn’t want to?” Should public libraries really be used to promote getting an abortion in such a way to innocent and unsuspecting minors?
Another speaker, Jenine Cortes, who is a mother of four and is also running to serve the Chandler Unified School District board, told the board that she used to “live in the library” with her kids when her oldest child was younger. But now, she fears bringing her children to the library because they might go to the wrong shelf and find pornographic materials.
These books not only contain graphic words, but they also include graphic illustrations: pictures of women bending over to see themselves in the mirror, a penis entering the anus, and many other graphic images that have no place in the juvenile section of a public library!
Carley and Andrew also discussed how they both sat down with the Library Manager named Rachele. They shared that they asked Rachele what kind of content filters there are on the library’s computers in the youth section. According to Carley and Andrew, Rachele replied that “there are none” because the library does not want to “restrict access of their patrons.” But this is highly concerning, especially given the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case United States v. American Library Association, which stated that libraries that implement software for content filtration is NOT a violation of the Constitution.
To wrap up the night, the Library Board watched footage of the City Council meeting which drove the parents’ points home again! Now, the board needs to make the right decision before its next meeting in November to ensure that kids don’t get unfettered access to pornography in public libraries.
Joseph Yang is a young community leader and grassroots activist. He currently runs a community organization and serves on the Chandler Police Review Panel. Joseph is the Founder of the East Valley Young Republicans and current assistant state advisor for the TeenAge Republicans. He hosts a show called “The Conservative Seoul Show” that you can find here.
by Corinne Murdock | May 8, 2023 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
State Rep. Jennifer Pawlik (D-LD13) announced on Tuesday that she won’t be seeking re-election. This means the district may experience a fresh slate of leadership come November 2024.
Pawlik stated that she needed to go in a different direction with her political career. Pawlik has also worked as a Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) teacher.
“It’s time to take my leadership and service in a new direction and to open the door for new candidates to run in this district,” said Pawlik.
District 13 incorporates Chandler, Sun Lakes, and Gilbert. Pawlik was elected to the legislature in 2019, defeating the mother of State Sen. J.D. Mesnard (D-LD13) for the seat.
That same district recently experienced another, different loss with the expulsion of their other state representative, Liz Harris. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is looking for a replacement for Harris.
The seat will likely be one of the more competitive ones heading into the 2024 election, a significant turning point for a closely-divided legislature where Republicans hold a bare majority. Pawlik was the first Democrat elected to the district.
Less than 24 hours after Pawlik’s announcement, former Republican state representative Jeff Weninger filed a statement of interest for reclaiming the seat. Another listed as running for a District 17 seat is Julie Willoughby, another Republican who filed last month and ran last year.
Pawlik earned 35 percent of the vote (47,166 votes); Harris, 32 percent (43,829); and Willoughby 32 percent as well (43,559). Pawlik ran uncontested in the Democratic primary last year.
Prior to Pawlik, the district was held by former Republican legislator Joanne Osborne and current Republican State Rep. Tim Dunn (R-LD25).
During her time in the legislature, Pawlik has only had one bill codified: HB2639 last year, declaring May to be Asian American/Pacific Islander Month.
Pawlik co-sponsored 14 bills that were codified, mainly relating to mental health and racial equity efforts. The co-sponsored bills signed into law were: HB2570 in 2019, establishing a study committee on murdered indigenous women; HB2646 in 2019, allowing Arizona Commerce Authority to review Rural E-Connectivity Pilot Program applicants; HB2672 in 2019, cracking down on “party house” short-term rentals; SB1468 in 2019, requiring the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System Administration to make suicide awareness and prevention training available and requiring educators to include suicide awareness and prevention training; SB1446 in 2020, requiring student ID cards to include contact information for suicide prevention resources, crisis centers, or emotional support services; SB1445 in 2020, requiring instruction on suicide awareness and prevention to be included in school counselor and social worker training programs; HB2098 in 2021, establishing reporting requirements for law enforcement agencies receiving reports of missing, kidnapped, or runaway children; HB2241 in 2021, requiring information about the Holocaust and other genocides to be taught at least twice between grades 7 and 12; HB2705 in 2021, allowing students belonging to a Native American tribe to wear their traditional tribal regalia or objects of cultural significance at a graduation ceremony; HB2787 in 2021, modifying criteria for an agency determination of whether a person’s criminal record disqualifies a person for a license, permit, certificate, or other state recognition; SB1097 in 2021, allowing students absent for experiencing behavioral or mental health issues to have an excused absence; SB1376 in 2021, includes mental health instruction in the health education course of study and competency requirements adopted by the State Board of Education; HB2083 in 2022, requiring the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to cover the costs of up to 10 annual program hours of diabetes self-management training if prescribed by a primary care physician; and HB2309 in 2022, requiring a police officer to read juveniles their Miranda rights prior to questioning them in temporary custody.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
