Elementary Student Says Scottsdale Teacher Harassed Him Over Family’s Conservative Beliefs

Elementary Student Says Scottsdale Teacher Harassed Him Over Family’s Conservative Beliefs

by | Oct 26, 2025 | Education, News

By Staff Reporter |

An elementary school student testified that his former teacher harassed him over his family’s conservative beliefs.

The young boy brought his complaints to the attention of the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) at their most recent board meeting.

The little boy accused SUSD teacher Donna Javinett (Anasazi Elementary School) of coordinating with one of his neighbors to target himself and his family for their “extremist” beliefs in recent years. 

The boy referenced a court case that resulted in a restraining order against his neighbor; during a hearing, the neighbor disclosed email correspondence with Javinett documenting their collusion against the boy. 

“This teacher created a hostile school environment for kids like me when she didn’t like their parents. She would yell at me in the hallway and hurry me along. I also caught her filming me one day. She claimed she was filming for field day but the event was over and her phone was pointing right at me. At the same time, a neighbor on my street was also filming me while I was outside my home. It was creepy and I felt unsafe. It became so bad that my family had to get a restraining order against my neighbor. At court is when the neighbor revealed a personal email from Mrs. Javinett to my teacher not to my neighbor thanking my neighbor for protecting teachers against extremists. This is when I found out that Mrs. Javinett and my neighbor were working together.”

Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity, an activist group of SUSD community members and parents, obtained the referenced email. Javinett wrote an email thanking the neighbor, a retired educator by the name of “Ellen,” to thank her for her actions.

“I want to thank you for defending Scottsdale teachers against extremists who have nothing better to do than harass teachers, administrators, board members, and the superintendent on social media. We have been called groomers, rapists, and people who want nothing more than to indoctrinate children. You have defended us every step of the way. I know you are a retired educator who is still involved with many of our wonderful students in Scottsdale and I hope you know how much your support is appreciated.” 

Javinett first came into the public eye for her Facebook comments responding to the assassination of Turning Point CEO and president Charlie Kirk.

Javinett argued with community members and parents on social media over whether Kirk was partially at fault for his assassination. 

“Yes hate leads to violence and unfortunately Charlie Kirk in sided [sic] violence. He was nothing more than an ugly bigot,” said Javinett. “Kirk’s hatred of trans, LGBTQ, black people, and women is out there. I don’t have to defend the fact that I don’t respect hatred and bigotry.”

Javinett also accused Kirk of being a white nationalist. 

“He was disgusting. He was in [sic] white nationalist. He disparaged marginalized communities. He thought that men should control women. You should be embarrassed that you support him,” said Javinett. “It makes me sad that you all try to indoctrinate kids with this right wing Christian bulls**t.”

The little boy asked the SUSD governing board why Javinett was allowed to continue teaching given her comments and past behavior. 

“She’s the reason why we and others left Anasazi,” said the boy. 

Javinett previously sustained criticisms for supporting an all-encompassing social and emotional learning approach to education.

Last fall, Javinett donated nearly $1,000 to the campaign of progressive SUSD board member Donna Lewis. 

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Parents, Students Struggle As Educators Wreak Havoc With Schedules, Learning Environments

Parents, Students Struggle As Educators Wreak Havoc With Schedules, Learning Environments

by | Jan 18, 2021 | Education, News

School age children and their parents are facing multiple issues and making difficult decisions as schools officials, school board members, and teachers’ unions wreak havoc with their schedules and learning environments. As a result, many students are falling behind and many parents are struggling to keep up with all of it.

It seems every week, the news is filled with headlines related to school openings, school closings, and teacher “sick outs.” Rarely do we hear from the families that are affected by the decisions reflected in the headlines.

Those families are facing the hard choice of keeping their jobs to support their families or losing their jobs to stay home and teach their children. Many parents are feeling hopeless and see themselves in a lose-lose situation, especially single parents.

Parents are also getting frustrated at the lack of consistency. While school unions claim its unsafe to return to in person school, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Fauci doesn’t agree.

“The default position should be to try as best as possible within reason to keep the children in school or to get them back to school.” Stated the controversial but always overly cautious Fauci, “If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not really very big at all, not like one would have suspected.”

So why then are schools not opening? Many teachers are refusing to go back into the classroom and with the pre-existing teacher shortage already in high demand its putting school district administrators, parents and students in a rough position.

Mother, and Tucson Realtor ©, Melissa Velazquez, is staying positive. “Trying to motivate teenagers to stay on track with Zoom calls and submitting assignments on time is a full-time job,” said Velaquez. “Thankfully, as a Realtor ©, I can work from home when I’m not with clients. I don’t know how families are managing when parents need to work full time out of the home.”

While parents are trying to be positive and agreeable, the schools are providing little support. According to Melissa, the teachers seem to be more lenient when it comes to assignment deadlines, but that is about it. outside of that. Melissa, like countless other parents, is certain her kids aren’t learning as much as they usually would if they were in school.

Katie, a single mom, had to make a very difficult choice. Without her kids in school, she would have had to pay for daycare, paying out more than she earned in the collapsing service industry.

Katie has decided on homeschooling for now, saying she felt like the pandemic was being treated as more of a political issue then a community safety issue.

According to care.com childcare cost averaged $215 a week in 2019, or $10,320 annually. Paying for a nanny is averaged $565 a week in 2019, or $27,120 annually. Creating an impossible situation for parents that need to work outside of their household.

After school programs have also been placed on hold during the pandemic making it even more stressful on parents and creating a negative effect on children’s mental health.

According to teachersforopenschools.com, “students are experiencing many increased risks: up to 14 months of learning loss; food insecurity rates have doubled from 18% to 35%; emergency department visits related to mental health have increased 24 percent for children aged 5-11 and have spike 31 percent among adolescents aged 12-17.”

Instead of the focus being on providing the best and safest education to students, schools seem comfortable leaving many unanswered questions while keeping school doors closed.