Tinfoil Hats and Bad Behavior (Part 1)

Peoria Unified School District Board is back, baby!

Well, well, well, Secular Fam! I just finished up last week’s Substack, and here I am working on another. On a Saturday. Why, you may wonder? Well, because not only have school board meetings started back up this week, but the Arizona Legislature is back in session. 

Since the tone and level of decorum at the Capitol and in most school board meetings across the state leaves MUCH to be desired and frequently includes religious indoctrination and hate speech, this time of year can be triggering. 

School governing boards across the state use the first meeting of the year to reorganize and elect new leadership. While most of the boards I regularly focus on for this Substack elected experienced leaders with a proven track record of good boardsmanship and support for public schools, there was one that made a notably strange choice for leadership. 

So put on your helmets, Secular Fam, because this Peoria (PUSD) board recap is going to make you want to bash your head against a wall. 

The meeting started as most do, and most of the weekly cast of characters were in the PUSD audience that night: Angry Homemade T-shirt Granny, Tiff-Tiff, Envelope Lady, Candidate Dude Who Doesn’t Can’t Decide What His Name Is,

Bug Lady, and of course, J6 Insurrectionist, CD8 Congressional Hopeful, Fake Elector, Arizona’s Biggest Manbaby AND Mama Fratelli Look Alike, Senator Anthony Kern. 

Once the board and superintendent gave their reports, we were on to board reorganization. Remember that school board members are volunteers, and that even if one acts as President/Chair or VP/Clerk, there is no extra pay. Being the president requires more of a time commitment, but one of the advantages is that you can decide what goes on the agenda. 

When I was a school board president, I referred to the district’s strategic plan, mission, and vision to guide what should or should not go on an agenda. Many districts will explicitly reference the goals of the strategic plan on their agenda to justify an item’s placement on the agenda. 

Remember how in Deer Valley (DVUSD) the former board president and VP would put the same inane nonsense on the agenda for months at a time in 2023? Yeah, that’s because they didn’t refer to the strategic plan of the district and (as far as I can tell) have no idea how local governance works. Thank goodness that DVUSD elected new leadership and the other two deeply unserious board members are OUT of leadership. Scottsdale (SUSD) did the same with the former board VP. 

I didn’t attend the study session that took place before the PUSD board meeting, but I heard that President David Sandoval, Clerk Heather Rooks, and Board Member Melissa Ewing all put in for leadership roles. First up to talk about why they should be president was none other than Heather Rooks.

The bio on her Xitter account says “God first” and a general rule of thumb when people lead with these words is that they are usually the most hateful “Christians.” She’s absolutely OBSESSED with Riley Gaines and many of her posts focus on the genitalia of other people. It’s weird.  

She told some story about some lady who cares about children and has built relationships with stakeholders. This lady is apparently concerned about the safety of students, listens to staff, and acts as a voice to the community. She said this woman demanded decorum from audience members, and I was DYING to know who she was talking about and then I realized that she was talking about herself. Aw. Bless her heart. 

It was a weird time and place to share fairy tales, but she used to share her biblical fairy tales on the regular so I guess this is normal for her. The gut buster though, was when she said she’s “all in for the parents and children in the district.” 

You know, the district she’s currently SUING?? Hilarious, girl. 

Next, Board Member Melissa Ewing (an actual educator) gave her reasons for wanting to lead the district. And finally, President David Sandoval gave his reasons for wanting to keep the presidency. 

After this, we were all subjected to the rantings of the tinfoil hat brigade, and it was just as you would expect. One after the other spoke in favor of Christian nationalism, bigotry, and bullying students, parents, and staff.

There were a couple of people who spoke against Board Member Rooks, citing her lack of professionalism, social media smear campaigns (including one against a current STUDENT in the district), and her love for litigation as reasons why she’s not fit to lead the district.

They also cited how her unfounded public records requests cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars before she even got elected. Never mind her encouraging parents to pull their kids out of PUSD or her disdain for the accurate history of PUSD (remember the video that included the multicultural history of the district?). 

I used to wonder how these board members can do this stuff that hurts their district and their community, but now I think I understand. 

These evangelical extremists have convinced themselves that they are on a mission from their god to rid the world of wickedness. They believe that their definition of morals is the only one that matters. These are folks who call themselves “pro-life” but let’s break down their “pro-life morals:” 

They believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion are bad things. 

They believe it’s OK to exploit unhoused people on their social media. 

They believe that teaching an accurate history of the world is “indoctrination.” 

They believe that children are born sinners and need to be broken with abusive techniques like “blanket training.”

They believe that parents are always right, even when they’re wrong. 

They believe that it’s AOK to force children to give birth when they’re raped or molested. 

They believe that members of the LGBTQ community are “sinful and offensive to God” (but, like, ummm, didn’t God make them?). 

They believe that domestic abusers have a Constitutional right to have firearms. 

They believe that we should do away with no-fault divorce. 

They believe that women are inherently inferior to men and should be subservient and obedient.

Pro-life? No. 

Pro-power. Pro-control. Pro-cruelty. 

Is it any wonder that nearly every year, we see a growing number of people rejecting fundamentalism in the US? 

Now, when I look at this picture and I consider their “moral compass,” it makes sense why elected evangelical extremists would want to block bills that mandate clergy to report child sex abuse (CSA). It makes sense that they block bills that mandate private school employees to have fingerprint clearance cards. It makes sense that they want to remove social workers from schools. It makes sense that they want to block Comprehensive Sex Ed (CSE) from being taught in schools. It makes sense that they want zero accountability from parents who homeschool. 

Most fundamentalist extremists don’t think of their children as independent human beings who should be lovingly guided through life; they think of them as inherently sinful creatures, meant to be controlled at every turn. If you’ve watched as many documentaries or read as many books as I have about religious indoctrination and cults, you wouldn’t be able to view Christian (or any other) fundamentalism as anything but child abuse. 

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m tired of these very loud fundamentalists creating policies for my community. I’ll be respectful of your faith until you try to shove it down my throat. 

OK. Where were we? Oh yes, I remember. 

The newest board member, Becky Proudfit, asked Rooks about her lawsuit against the district and if she’d like to respond to those who spoke against her. Rooks then accused people in attendance of targeting her and sharing her personal information online, and seemed to insinuate that this justifies her personal attacks on parents, students, teachers, and others. 

Melissa Ewing responded to these accusations saying that she never shared any personal information about Heather Rooks that wasn’t available to the general public (board candidates have to share personal information when they file which makes it pretty easy for folks to find them). She also said that people from Rooks’ Facebook page accused Ms. Ewing of being a “danger to children,” and tried to get her fired from her substitute teaching position.

At this point, President Sandoval called a five-minute recess, and I was grateful for the break. 

This meeting was so long and so important that I’m going to have to break it into two parts. I think the work we do here is vital to exposing what happens when fundamental extremists get into elected office.

If you’ve been reading these updates for free, that is on purpose. We made the decision to keep these free to everyone because these extremists need to be exposed.

But less than 2% of our subscribers pay to support our work, and it’s a lot of work. We’ll continue to keep it free, but I draw the line at 2-parter updates.

So for those of you who have paid subscriptions to this Substack, the second part will come to you later today. For those of you who haven’t yet paid, you’ll still receive our regular, singular updates, but c’mon! What are you waiting for? Show your support for the work we do, and subscribe today.