pArEnTaL RiGhTs for me but not for thee...
...forced religious indoctrination in PUSD (part 2)
Sometimes when things are really dark, the universe provides a bright light to remind us of our shared humanity. At a time when the leaders in our nation at every level of government seem to relish in the dehumanization of the most marginalized groups in society, glimmers of hope are important.
In Part I of this update, I shared that the Peoria (PUSD) board majority is pushing to revamp the district’s social workers’ job description and policy. They claim it is because of anecdotal legal concerns even though no formal complaints have been filed. They get a lot of their policy ideas from Astroturf organizations like Moms for Liberty. These proposals have nothing to do with best practices and everything to do with Christian nationalistic ideologies and pushing the Project 2025 agenda.
During the nearly-two-hour study session, experts in the district provided answers to every question posed by the board. Despite the sustained attacks to the district, coming from sitting board members, the social workers, counselors, and department heads in PUSD publicly dispelled their mis/disinformation and dropped copious amounts of knowledge.
This policy will probably be back on the agenda in the coming weeks, Secular Fam, so stay tuned.
Since 2020, school board meetings across the country have become battlegrounds. Angry about masking and quarantine policies, conspiracy theorists decided that their Facebook University degree in epidemiology qualified them to make the medical decisions for everyone in their communities.
Astroturf pArEnTaL RiGhTs groups began cranking out one-pagers and conducted trainings for these QAnon Qarens, and they began filing public records requests to overwhelm staff and deplete budgets.
Before even winning a seat on the board, President Rooks and her failed running mate cost PUSD about $300,000. In the last two years, her votes and her self-serving decision to indoctrinate children by reciting scripture have cost the district an additional $450,000. Heather Rooks believes that she is in a holy war, and that these costs are justified. Also, it’s not costing her a dime since the law firm representing her is doing it pro bono. She, and most of these evangelical extremist board members act as shills for their corporate, Astroturf overlords.
Their blind faith and inability to discern truth from fiction have spun them into rabid missionaries for terrible education policies designed to dismantle public schools from within. These organizations do not want an educated citizenry - they want a brainwashed citizenry that they can easily control. Evangelical extremists have been conditioned to obey their religious leaders, so they make perfect disciples to help a handful of very powerful and wealthy people amass even more power and wealth.
They either don’t know or don’t care that they are just pawns in a game being controlled by billionaires.
Their children and grandchildren will be left in the dust when the oligarchs achieve their goals, but it will be too late by then to say “we told you so.”
But let’s get back to that glimmer of hope, shall we?
The regular PUSD board meeting agenda on February 13, 2025 was absurdly packed. It’s almost like when people elect a bunch of know-nothing know-it-alls, progress comes to a screeching halt and decisions are made based on myopic ideology rather than best practices and expertise.
The audience at this meeting was also packed. At this particular meeting, the approval of a new principal at Peoria High School was on the agenda. Attendees were greeted by the cheer squad, and there were dozens of parents, children, staff, boosters, and alumni donned in the PHS colors, green and gold.
There were a few public commenters who spoke. One of them was a teacher who shared that she requested public records about the topic of bathrooms, and the response was that there has not been one formal complaint about this topic. Think about how much time, money, and staff hours have been spent on solving a problem that doesn’t exist.
That’s because they’ve got us fighting culture wars when we should be fighting class wars.
Next was board member comments, and as promised, President Rooks read scripture again. After losing her case last month, she announced that she would appeal to the 9th Circuit Court, and that she would go back to reading scripture. She made good on her promise, and she did it in a room filled with about 20 children in the audience.
The woman who ran on a pArEnTaL RiGhTs platform stripped the parents and guardians of every child in that room of their parental rights. She’s also perfectly happy with spending those same parents’ taxpayer dollars on her quest for attention.
This stunt exposed her hypocrisy faster than Felon 47 exposes himself at a Miss Teen USA pageant. The only parents she cares about are the ones that are part of her fanclub. She showed everyone in attendance and those watching online that she’s willing to cost the district even more money than she already has. She and two of her colleagues are pushing to retain different legal counsel while she has an active case moving through the courts, and if that isn’t a blatant conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.
I watched the audience as President Rooks read Matthew 6:34, and the general vibe was confusion. I’ve seen this look before, at a meeting in 2023, when someone in the audience asked me if she was “at a school board meeting or a church sermon.” Mrs. Rooks’s constant need for attention just pissed me off because the spotlight shouldn’t be on her deeply unserious publicity stunts.
The spotlight should be on tireless public servants like the new principal at PHS, Sammy Chagolla. All those parents who had their parental rights stripped by Mrs. Rooks, and the students in attendance that she attempted to indoctrinate with her myopic zealotry put the spotlight squarely back on the man of the hour, Mr. Chagolla.
Last year, he stepped up as the interim principal after a coach was accused of having inappropriate contact with his students. One-by-one, students, teachers, parents, and retirees came up to the lectern to sing the praises of Mr. Chagolla. He is an alumnus of PHS and has spent his entire career in the district. One speaker shared her excitement about hiring the first Latino principal at a school that serves mostly Latino students. There was a lot of talk about Mr. Chagolla dressing up in an elf costume and his appearance on a Wheaties box.
More importantly, public commenters focused on his attention to the students, families, and staff in the PHS community. Most of the board joined the public commenters and lavished praise on Mr. Chagolla, though Janelle Bowles decided to spend her time talking about his ethnicity rather than his accomplishments (I thought these folks were “color blind”).
Mr. Chagolla gave a tearful speech, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. After he spoke, I turned around and said to the students behind me, “he makes me want to go back to high school, and I never thought I’d say that!” They responded with emphatic nods and one said, “yes, he’s awesome.”
Folks, that’s the magic of public education. There are countless caring adults who dedicate their lives to children and making their communities better. They devote their lives to a profession that basically throws peanuts at them instead of paying them competitive salaries. Now, a bunch of nefarious actors are also implementing policies and laws that put targets on the backs of educators and are contributing to the teacher retention crisis in our state and in our country.
Astroturf organizations made up of billionaires and Christian nationalists have convinced very gullible and deeply unserious people to fight their manufactured culture wars so they can privatize education and profit from it. At least three of those people sit on the PUSD board, and eagerly swallow the propaganda being fed to them.
And now that most of the social media “newsfeeds” of many Americans are controlled by a handful of billionaire technocrats, the likelihood they’ll encounter accurate, factual information is even smaller. It’s up to all of us to speak truth to power.
The next agenda item highlighted the ignorance (again) of the evangelical extremists on the PUSD board. An instructional coach in the district is conducting a study about gender differences in assessment outcomes. Folks with simple minds have been trained by Astroturf organizations to focus on certain words and phrases (SEL, DEI, CRT, “gender,” “equity,” “consent,” etc.) and challenge any initiative or agenda items that may contain those words and phrases without context.
This PUSD educator was asking for a basic approval of a study that would help educators see trends in test-taking in the district, but because they don’t understand how parental consent works, and that gender, in this case, has nothing to do with trans issues, two members voted no. Well, one voted no and the other voted “undecided” which isn’t a thing. It was dumb.
I remember the days when board meetings were focused on the business of the district. It seems those days are over in PUSD.
When boards actually work with their superintendent and administration to drill down the unique needs of the communities they serve, the outcomes can be a thing of beauty. Remember, public education is not some Hunger Games situation where the wealthiest get their needs met while the rest of us proles just hover for scraps. BUT! That’s what they’re trying to create: an education system that only serves the wealthiest and most powerful citizens.
I mean, just look at the voucher situation here in Arizona.
Since these folks love putting technocrats and their 19-25-year-old BigBalls minions in charge, and they apparently intend on allowing AI to run government agencies, let’s let Google AI explain private school vouchers to the broligarch fandom:
“As of January 27, 2025, there were 85,198 students enrolled in Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, notes Common Sense Institute. The program's cost has increased significantly in recent years. [1, 2, 3]
Enrollment and cost [3]
The program's cost is projected to increase to $822 million by the end of the current fiscal year. [3]
The program's cost in 2022–23 was $587.5 million, which was a 211% increase over the previous year. [2]
The program's cost in 2023–24 is projected to be at least $708.5 million. [2]
Voucher usage [4]
Vouchers are used disproportionately by wealthier families.
75% of vouchers go to families in zip codes with median incomes above Arizona's average.
Only 5% of voucher recipients are from the zip codes in the lowest quartile of median incomes.
Program impact [5]
The program uses 11.3% of Arizona's K-12 budget, despite only serving 6.3% of Arizona's student population.
The program redirects taxpayer funding from local public schools to private schools.
Generative AI is experimental.
[1] https://www.commonsenseinstituteus.org/arizona/research/education/esas-in-arizona-q1-2025
[2] https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/understanding-cost-universal-vouchers-report
[4] https://www.sosaznetwork.org/2025/arizonas-universal-esa-vouchers-are-welfare-for-the-wealthy/
[5] https://www.sosaznetwork.org/2024/1-in-10-k-12-dollars-funding-vouchers-in-az/
Not all images can be exported from Search.”
Thanks, AI. LOLSOB.
Secular Fam, we could ask AI to generate answers for all these deeply unserious elected officials or (and I’m leaning towards this answer) we could all just open our fucking eyes and ears and call them out every chance we get.
They intend to keep hacking away at the mental health supports that the students currently have access to in PUSD. The majority of this board also seems giddy over the discriminatory executive orders coming from the White House, so I expect them to dismantle any program that goes against their evangelical ideologies.
I encourage any readers out there who are in PUSD to become watchdogs. Send emails to the board, Superintendent Somers, and the board’s administrative assistant:
The next PUSD meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 27th, 2025. President Rooks has asked for a first read on the district’s Title IX policy as it relates to the Project 2025 changes being pushed by the Broligarchy.
Stand up for your public school community. If your district is without cult members, pitch in to help in places like PUSD, DVUSD, or Dysart. If you need some guidance, fill out our volunteer form, and we’ll help get engage. We also have a bunch of other volunteer opportunities this spring and summer, and our annual Secular Day at the Capitol is happening on March 6th, 2025.
Also, our Secular Speaker Series, aka “Rage Fridays,” happens almost every Friday at noon via Zoom, so sign up for that if you aren’t already. And as always, we exist because of the generosity of our donors, so consider becoming a member of our cause today.
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