PUSD Community Makes a Case for Comprehensive Sex Ed

(because puritanical hang-ups don't keep kids safe)

I really thought I could avoid ever going to another Peoria (PUSD) school board meeting, but when our members pledge to show up to a meeting to combat hate and bigotry, I’m going to be there.

Additionally, we got word from some of our amazing members that some Facebook and Xitter profiles, devoted to misinformation and bigotry, were recruiting haters and bigots to show up to hate and bigot. Their “call to action” was to show up to support Board Member Rooks and former Board Member Hill for no apparent reason, except to maybe further harass the teacher who is suing the district?

These people so rarely make sense, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯…let’s just get started. 

The PUSD meeting this week was important because it was the inaugural meeting for incoming superintendent, Dr. KC Somers. There was a reception beforehand, and rumor has it, the food provided by the culinary students was off the chain. 

I pulled into the district office, and the first thing I noticed was a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) table with a couple of guys who probably think a lot about “tradwives” I’m guessing. I’m sure they’re not single-minded though.

They probably think a lot about cryptocurrency, what their mom is making for dinner tonight, and if they’ll ever have a chance to find the clitoris (see how I said that word and nothing bad happened? Don’t make using accurate vocabulary for genitalia weird).  

Things kicked off with the Pledge and celebrations for the district arts showcase, and there was so much to celebrate! Our public schools do so much with so little, and those of us who’ve spent ANY time in our public schools can find cause to celebrate. This trend of disparaging public schools has grown over the last 15 years or so and it’s by design.

Don’t get me wrong, our public schools are not and have never been perfect, but complaints were usually hyper-local, and handled long before a constituent felt compelled to go to a school board meeting. Nowadays, people show up to speak at board meetings because astroturf political groups and/or churches are telling them to show up. 

This kind of cultivated outrage was pretty obvious at the PUSD meeting last week, since there were so many new faces who were clearly being fed talking points. And not that well, really. 

Can we take a second to talk about evangelical extremists’ sustained outrage? While I was in NOLA last week, my colleagues and I had dinner and discussed this topic. One of them said it’s so clearly related to privilege. These folks have so much time on their hands, that their presence at these meetings is their privilege. Submitting endless public records requests or book reviews is their privilege. Voting against any kind of bond and/or override measures that help others is their privilege. 

All this privilege these bigots possess was on full display last week, when the employee salary schedule was discussed. A few things about PUSD: First, they don’t have any kind of Professional Agreement (PA) or Interest-Based Negotiation (IBN) protocols or policies. Basically, the union members aren’t guaranteed a seat at the table.

Second, PUSD hasn’t been able to pass a bond or override in over a decade. Over and over, during the budget presentation, the presenter brought up how the absence of override funding amounts to about a $4.5 Million deficit in the district. She brought up how difficult it is to compete with neighboring districts, and how things like hiring bus drivers has become more difficult, due to these shortcomings. Add to this the projected loss of 1000 students, and Tom Horne’s decision to refuse federal funding, and PUSD will be making tough decisions.

And gee, I wonder what might possibly contribute to a loss of 1000 students? Might it have something to do with the fact that a former board member encouraged people to remove their kids from PUSD? 

All these factors are causing districts all over the state to make very difficult decisions. Positions will be cut, some will be compressed, class sizes will likely get larger, and children, teachers, and families will get less. Teachers and classified staff will get less pay. Students will get fewer of their needs met. Homeowners will lose value in their homes. Imagine being so addicted to rage that you show up to school district board meetings to hurt your OWN special interests. 

Except this is becoming the New Normal in some places. A few years back, Paradise Valley (PVUSD) ended up paying for the severed contract of their superintendent, Jesse Welsh. When he and his family were being harassed by rabid anti-maskers in 2020, he resigned. The group that pushed him out of the district is named “PVUSD Taxpayers” and their unrelenting targeting of Welsh cost the taxpayers over $400,000. 

Of course, much like the evangelical extremists who are flip-flopping over the Arizona Supreme Court’s most recent decision about the 1864 abortion ban, this group blamed the PVUSD school board. 

I found this whole discussion kind of hard to follow, but eventually, the board voted 3-2 to approve the pay schedule, with Board Members Sorensen and Ewing opposing. The next item was about classified staff (bus drivers, computer techs, classroom aides, etc.) “letters of reasonable assurance” (LORA) being sent out to them. This item passed unanimously. 

Before we get into the Call to the Public portion of this meeting, we need to talk about the news about a Peoria High School (PHS) basketball coach who was recently accused of having inappropriate relationships with the basketball players on his team. The new superintendent, KC Somers mentioned it, and both President Proudfit and Board Member Rooks did too.

Whenever this kind of thing happens, it’s terrible, and it leaves a deep scar on the school and district community. To add insult to injury, this douchebag is something of a local celebrity who dons head-to-toe orange body paint at Suns games and goes by the name of “Mr. ORNG.” 

All this to say that ANYONE in a position of power who tries to coerce sexual favors from a subordinate is a Grade A Piece of Shit, but this added layer makes the accusations against this guy even worse. I’ll wait for Lady Justice to weigh in, but if any of what he’s been accused of is true, I hope he (and his accomplice) pay heavily. 

So finally, we were on to Call to the Public, and President Proudfit announced that since there were so many people signed up to speak, and she wanted to hear everyone’s voice, she was extending past the thirty minute limit. I do appreciate her seemingly earnest attempt to hear all voices, but I sure was hoping she might have just limited speakers to two minutes apiece instead. *Sigh* At least I brought some snacks. 

One thing I will say about President Proudfit is she does a great job conveying her expectations to the crowd. In just a few months, she’s reined in the wackiest conspiracy theorists in the community. She sets the tone at the beginning of meetings, and reminds the audience that she won’t tolerate any outbursts.

So thanks, President Proudfit, for having high expectations of the adults in the room. Kids really do watch these meetings, so demanding good behavior is crucial. 

OK…where was I? 

RIGHT! At the PUSD board meeting public comments. How could I forget?

The first speaker was from a group called “Mom Army.” They seem to be a group that cares about child-sex trafficking. They use a bunch of military graphics and tropes, and talk about how they need more “Mama Bears” to launch “battalions.” Ms. Smith asserted that Child Sex Abuse (CSA) is rampant in our schools and in our state by mentioning a bunch of schools that aren’t in our state, and then said that schools combat accusations of abusive staff by moving teachers around. 

Wait until she hears about churches that do that!

Next up was some election-denying dude who wanted to advertise his law firm website and ended by calling teachers “lunatics” and said “we’re coming after you,” so that felt threatening AF. 

Next up was Rachel Barnett, who is a school board member in a neighboring district as well as the State Secretary for the Arizona NAACP. She spoke about the incident at PHS with the basketball coach, and shared her concern that fear and shame about this incident might perpetuate a cycle of abuse. 

Next up was a veteran who essentially said that people with no gods are pedophiles 👀. He seems nice. 

After him was a woman who shared that she is autistic. She reminded folks that autistic people are more likely to be abused than their neurotypical peers. She also reminded everyone that cisgender men are the group most likely to commit abuse. 

An elderly woman was up next to bring up bathrooms again, shared her support for Rebecca Hill (who stepped down from the governing board last year), and ended by saying that books should also probably be banned. 

Next up was another former school board member and lifelong educator, Dr. Tara Armstead. She advocated for “teaching parents and students how to speak up” and ended by imploring the board to “let students speak.”

And folks, all I could think was: This is why we need medically accurate, age appropriate, comprehensive sex ed (CSE) in all of our schools. Puritanical hang ups that ban any discussions on sexuality end up hurting kids. Like, if we want to keep kids safe in the instance of a fire, we do fire drills. If we want to keep them safe if there’s a school shooting, we do lockdown drills. 

If we want to keep kids safe from sexual predators, we must give them the vocabulary and the social skills they need to identify and call out predatory behavior when they see it. 

By perpetuating gender stereotypes, valuing “alpha male” behavior, and denying CSE to students, these “book ban Barbies” end up actually protecting sexual predators and groomers.

Think about it: If they really cared about protecting all children, they would have embraced the idea of private school staffers having background checks, but they didn’t. Why? 

Because every accusation is a confession.

Also, why is there a push to get rid of social workers and counselors in our schools, when they so frequently are on the front lines in identifying when a child is being abused? 

I know these people hate facts, studies, and science, but when the World Health Organization (WHO), the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM), and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) agree, maybe we should start listening to the experts and stop listening to TPUSA operatives. 

Speaking of, Tiffany Benson was up next to promote “John Heath”’s lawsuit (whoever he is), and welcomed Dr. Somers to the “whirlwind” and then said college degrees are stupid or something? She’s hard to follow. 

One thing is clear, she was downright giddy when she mentioned the “whirlwind,” once again showing everyone that these folks are addicted to rage. Touch grass, Tiffany!

Bishop Anthony Holt, the Arizona State President of the NAACP, was up next to speak about protecting children in the district. There were more members from the AZ Chapter of the NAACP, and one of them, Dr. Pinky Langdon, proudly acknowledged her many degrees (take that, Tiff-Tiff!). She advocated for mental health supports for students. The VP of the NAACP, Sarah Tyree, was up next, and she advocated for a study session about how the district handles abuse. 

A PUSD regular was up next, and managed to bring up the US-Mexico border, so that was weird. Next up was a woman aptly named “Karen” who wanted everyone to know it was her first time at a board meeting. Then she shared with everyone that she supports Heather and someone named “Rachel,” so thanks, Karen?

Bug Lady was up next, and she wanted to make clear that she doesn’t support or protect pedophiles, but then also said she doesn’t want anyone on any campus to ever discuss sex with kids. 

The next speaker, Bill Demski, brought up a New Times magazine article about Heather Rooks and the pending lawsuit from a teacher in the district. It was fun watching Janelle Bowles and Arizona’s own J6 Insurrectionist, CD8 Congressional Hopeful, Fake Elector, Arizona’s Biggest Manbaby AND Mama Fratelli Look Alike, Senator Anthony Kern (R-LD27), 

react to his speech since they weren’t sure where he was going with it. His sister was up next, and oh, who cares, really? 

Honestly. Like, aren’t these ghouls tired of this yet? They got what they wanted with the unbridled voucher expansion, complete lack of oversight in private and/or home schools, and whatever contrived crisis they’ve workshopped at their megachurches. Just because they don’t want kids to be safe or have nice things doesn’t mean they need to bring their brand of extremism to our public schools. 

So do you want to keep our kids safe from sexual predators? Reach out to your local school district and ask them if they offer medically-accurate, age-appropriate CSE.

If they do, thank the district administrators and the board for keeping kids safe. If it’s not offered, find out how you can bring it to the district. These folks like to squawk about “the rampant sexualization of students” but ignore how CSE actually keeps kids safe. Show district administrators the study links listed above, and don’t let the evangelical extremist zealots spout misinformation about CSE. 

The more we stand up to their mis- and dis-information, the more irrelevant their puritanical ideologies will fall by the wayside. Stay vigilant, Secular Fam! And as always, be sure to support the work we do today. 

Oh, and if you want to hear the PUSD candidates weigh in on the separation of religion and government, be sure to register to attend our first candidate forum of 2024, happening tonight at 6PM!