by Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity | Oct 1, 2024 | Opinion
By Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity |
In a heated board meeting on September 10, 2024, Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) Board President Libby Hart-Wells declared that a “supermajority” of parents are against removing certain library books with explicit adult content. This bold statement was a direct response to a letter sent to the board on July 31, 2024, by 13 concerned organizations, with backing from former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas.
The letter spotlighted several books in SUSD libraries rated 4 (Not for Minors) or 5 (Aberrant Content) by BookLooks.org. Among these was “PUSH” by Sapphire, available at Arcadia High School. “PUSH” is notorious for its explicit content and frequent use of strong language. The book’s movie adaptation is rated R, which would be banned in SUSD classrooms under current board policy.
An excerpt from “PUSH” vividly describes incest and sexual abuse, sparking outrage among parents and community members who question its suitability for school libraries. Critics argue that Hart-Wells’ stance is at odds with Arizona laws and SUSD policies, which prohibit providing harmful materials to minors and emphasize parental rights in education.
In response to Hart-Wells’ claim, the X account @ALegalProcess posted:
“If she has a “supermajority” of Scottsdale parents that approve of “Daddy…slap my face, pump my pussy…orgasm in me, call me Fat Mama…my pussy popping like grease…” Then we’re done here. ESAs for everyone.” – ALegalProcess
Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) 13-3506 and 13-3501 strictly regulate the distribution of harmful items to minors, while A.R.S. 1-602 and 15-711 grant parents significant control over their children’s upbringing and sex education. Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Island Trees Union Free School No. 26 vs. Pico supports the removal of books from school libraries for non-discriminatory reasons, such as vulgarity or educational unsuitability.
SUSD’s own policy IJL requires that library materials enrich the curriculum and uphold ethical standards, adding another layer of complexity to the board president’s controversial position.
SUSD has previously removed the books “Milk and Honey” and “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” due to their mature sexual content.
SUSD school board candidate Mike Sharkey appears to be part of Hart-Wells’ “supermajority” that supports providing children with inappropriate content. Sharkey launched his campaign on LinkedIn, criticizing parents who advocate for educationally valuable books in school libraries, divisively labeling removal as “book bans.”
In addition to publicly influencing the district’s library book review process, Hart-Wells also interfered with a district committee by repeatedly emailing them to remove “navel” from the list of body parts that children must cover at school.
Outgoing SUSD board president Hart-Wells has not clarified her recent actions; however, critics see the push to allow sexualized clothing and for the availability of hypersexual and vulgar books in school libraries as a concern that parents should be aware of. “This is why it is so important that parents know what their school board candidates stand for,” said an SUSD parent who requested to remain anonymous for concern of retaliation.
Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity is a coalition of Scottsdale Unified parents, teachers & community members committed to academic success for every student.
by Matthew Holloway | Aug 10, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has brought a lawsuit against Southwest Key, a non-profit organization based in Texas operating eight shelters for illegal immigrant children in Arizona. In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleges that the firm, through its employees, “has engaged in a pattern or practice of sexual abuse and harassment of the unaccompanied children.”
As reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, Southwest Key has profited greatly from operating the shelters through lucrative federal government grants in excess of $5.6 billion paid out from the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement since 2003. The lawsuit from the DOJ is rooted in the company’s alleged violation of the Fair Housing Act.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas alleges that from 2015 through at least 2023, several Southwest Key employees “subjected children in their care to severe or pervasive sexual harassment that has included, among other things, sexual contact and inappropriate touching, solicitation of sex acts, solicitation of nude photos, entreaties for inappropriate relationships and sexual comments.”
The lawsuit charges Southwest Key with taking insufficient action to protect the children it was contracted to care for and furthermore failed to follow federal requirements for the prevention, detection, and reporting of abuse despite the Office of Refugee Relocation reportedly issuing several corrective actions against them.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the release, “Sexual harassment of children in residential shelters, where a child should be safe and secure, is abusive, dehumanizing and unlawful. Sexual abuse of children is a crisis that we can’t ignore or turn a blind eye to. This lawsuit seeks relief for children who have been abused and harmed, and meaningful reforms to ensure no child in these shelters is ever subjected to sexual abuse again.”
U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani of the Southern District of Texas wrote, “In search of the American Dream, children often endure perilous journeys on their migration north to the southern border. The sexual harassment alleged in the complaint would destroy any child’s sense of safety turning what was an American Dream into a nightmare.”
“We look forward to working together with the Civil Rights Division (CRD) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas (WDTX) to provide justice for the victims who allegedly suffered harm in Southwest Key’s shelters.”
As noted by the Arizona Daily Independent, the outlet has reported on Southwest Key for more than ten years with cofounder and longtime contributor Loretta Hunnicutt citing her concerns publicly in reports and in meetings with public officials as early as 2014. Per the ADI, these efforts were met with “indifference or outright contempt for the minors.”
The ADI recapped the lengthy reports implicating Southwest Key writing in part:
- “Hunnicutt met with former Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas in 2015 to ask that Southwest Key be directed to remove the fencing around their shelters in accordance with ORR policy, which prohibits fencing around the places where refugees reside. Fenced in by an organization paid billions to house them, America’s youngest refugees have had no escape. Douglas declined.”
- “In December 2015, the Arizona Daily Independent reported on former Southwest Key employee whistleblowers who testified to running a corrupt, prison-like environment.”
- “In response, then-Arizona State Rep. Bob Thorpe, who chaired the House Federalism, Property Rights and Public Policy Committee, called for an investigation into the Southwest Key facilities under contract by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).”
Sources within the company gave the ADI several startling reports as well telling the outlet:
- “Children were viewed as commodities.”
- “Under the constant directive of keeping costs down, staff were directed to ignore children’s complaints of hunger.”
- Furthermore, they were “to give the children only a quarter-sized dollop of soap for bathing.”
- Staff were also instructed to “give one child’s underwear to be reused for another.”
Through the lawsuit, the Department of Justice is seeking to exact monetary damages from Southwest Key in order to compensate the children victimized in the shelter and obtain a court order compelling Southwest Key to take the necessary steps to avoid future abuse.
The DOJ has requested that anyone who believe that they may have been victims of sexual harassment or abuse at Southwest Key shelters or who has information that may be relevant to this case, please contact the Justice Department’s housing discrimination tip line at 1-833-591-0291.
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.
by azfreenews1 | Jun 20, 2021 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
An insulting comment emailed from the principal of a Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) elementary school to another employee in which she called some parents “whackos” and criticized the district board’s handling of a meeting has been called out by a former Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Diane Douglas called on PUSD Superintendent Dr. Jason Reynolds to publicly address “the overt and covert contempt which has been and continues to be expressed towards the community” by Tonja Neve, who is principal of the Desert Valley Elementary School in Glendale until June 30.
“That board meeting was ridiculous,” Neve wrote on Feb. 1 to Jennifer Mundy, an administrator of another district school. “”I’m sick of us giving these whackos a platform to spread propaganda without making any correction statements.” Neve was referring to about one dozen parents who addressed the board about Critical Race Theory.
Another email between Neve and Mundy that day shows the principal believed the administration “has some control to quiet those pushy voices.” She also provided information about a court case which reinforced the power of principals to set boundaries in parent-school communication.
Douglas directed her comments at Reynolds in an opinion published last week in the American Daily Independent. But she was not merely relying on her experience from 2015 to 2018 in a state executive office where she was responsible for ensuring the accurate and lawful distribution of nearly $6 billion in education funding.
In her comments, Douglas points out she has an even bigger reason for speaking up, having been elected as a member of the PUSD board from 2005 to 2012, serving as board president in 2008 and 2009.
Douglas’ letter was prompted by PUSD’s release of some of Neve’s emails in response to a public records request. There was also the fact the school’s American flag was displayed inverted on June 14 – Flag Day.
“As if an employee of a government school, funded by taxpayer dollars, referring to the parents and citizens who pay her salary as ‘whackos’ was not bad enough, now there is the displaying of an inverted American flag,” Douglas noted to Reynolds. “Such utter disrespect to our country and the very citizens she is hired to serve would be disgraceful on any day. But that such a stunt occurred on June 14th Flag Day –the day we honor and commemorate the adoption of the American Flag– makes it all the more inexcusable and unforgivable.”
Douglas added that “the only saving grace is that school is out of session and the students weren’t witness to such blatant disrespect of our flag by an entity of the very government it represents.”
Neve’s contract with PUSD expires June 30 after which she will move her family to take a principal position at an elementary school in New Hampshire. Earlier this month she issued a statement about her emails.
“My comments were unprofessional and I apologize for that,” Neve said. “My comments were in regards to audience members who were coming to our board and calling teachers out by name and misconstruing and devaluing the hard work they do. My comment was made in the heat of the moment and in defense of my profession and colleagues.”
But Neve’s departure should not be the end of issue, Douglas told Reynolds.
“With all due respect, in my humble opinion, the Board and the PUSD community are entitled to an explanation as to how administration intends to handle such incidents of disrespect toward the community going forward,” she wrote.
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