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Pushback: School board forced to restore contract it tried to cancel because it hates Christians

School board member Tamillia Valenzuela's official picture
School board member Tamillia Valenzuela’s official
picture, with cat ears, nose ring, and green-dyed hair.

They’re coming for you next: When the school board for the Washington Elementary School District School in the Phoenix area unilaterally canceled a legal contract with Arizona Christian University in March, the university sued [pdf], claiming that the cancellation was solely for religious reasons and was discriminatory and a clear violation of its contract.

The school board has now settled that lawsuit, agreeing to restore the contract while also accepting liability for all legal costs in connection with the suit.

It is important to understand the exact reasons the board voted unanimously to cancel the contract. Under that agreement, which had existed for more than a decade, students from Arizona Christian University would act as free teaching assistants for the district’s elementary schools while getting real world experience in teaching. Their work was determined by the school, and during that time there was never a complaint about them attempting to indoctrinate children into Christianity (even as the queer community now pushes its queer agenda to children in schools continuously).

When the board canceled the contract, it did so by declaring unequivocally the university’s religious affiliation was the problem, not because it had failed in any of its contract obligations. More specifically, at least two members of the school board — proud members of the queer community — expressed strong intolerance with the university’s Christian beliefs, and wanted the contract cancelled for this sole reason. As board member Tamillia Valenzuela said at the February board meeting where the cancellation vote was taken:

I want to know how bringing people from an institution that is ingrained in their values . . . will . . . impact three of your board members who are a part of the LGBTQ community. We have added our pronouns at the dais as a solidarity – let our LGBT community know, that we stand, in making sure that they feel protected. Are we only performing performative solidarity, or are we going to dig deep, and actually look at the partnerships that we’re doing?

…At some point we need to get real with ourselves and take a look at who we’re making legal contracts with and the message that that is sending to our community. Because that makes me feel like I could not be safe in this in this school district. That makes other queer kids, who are already facing attack from our lawmakers that they could not be safe in this community. So I really want us to think hard about who we’re partnering with deep dive and I want to ask the district, “is this school value aligned with what we’re trying to do and making sure that all of our students feel safe?”

The board agreed, and voted to cancel the contract. It did not cite any example of wrong-doing on the part of Arizona Christian or the students it sent to the schools.

While the board has the right in the future to pick and choose who it wished to work with, it did not have the right to cancel the contract for these solely discriminatory reasons. Nor does it have the right to refuse to hire anyone, simply because of their religious belief. Numerous civil rights laws forbid such actions. You cannot discriminate against someone solely because you don’t like their religion. That it settled so quickly by restoring the contract illustrates it recognized the utter illegality of its actions.

I think it is more important to note that the parents of this school district had voted to have at least two out of its five school board members proud members or supporters of the queer community, according their own thumbnail bios on the board webpage. Twenty years ago, when this community had a live-and-let-live attitude, such a position would not have mattered, and in fact no one would have cared.

Today however that queer community is aggressively attempting to teach sexual perversion to other people’s children. These board members make it clear that is their goal, and with the contract cancellation also proved they will not brook even the slightest possibility of opposition.

For the parents to vote for such people is appalling. It indicates either a horrendous ignorance, or a even more terrible desire to join the queer community in indoctrinating young children with sexual perversion.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

10 comments

  • David Ross

    Dressed as an ambush-predator.
    Checks out.

  • Edward

    Robert wrote: “Twenty years ago, when this community had a live-and-let-live attitude, such a position would not have mattered, and in fact no one would have cared. Today however that queer community is aggressively attempting to teach sexual perversion to other people’s children.

    The LGBTQ+/ community has gone from an attitude of wanting acceptance to one in which they demand participation. This is why they teach sexual perversion to children. They want participants. The problem with going after children is that they are far more subject to peer pressure and the desire to go along to get acceptance. I have a nephew who has joined his friends in choosing to be non-binary, with the accompanying pronouns.

    Now they reject anyone else who has other ideas. It is the very definition of bigotry:
    https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bigotry

    noun
    1. stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one’s own.

    2. the actions, beliefs, prejudices, etc., of a bigot.

    They are the very enemy that they complained about only a third of a century ago. They feel that the religious are the intolerant ones, but look who is now unwilling to put up with the others. The various churches accommodate them, but they reject the churches completely. Now that they have taken control of the schools, now that they are the power in the schools, their absolute power has absolutely corrupted them.

  • Richard C. Moeur

    The choices on the ballot last November were Valenzuela, Clayton, and Adams (choose 2), with Adams apparently targeted by activists with defamatory claims. Other than that, there was little available information and effectively zero unbiased media coverage leading up to the election.

    From the numbers, it looked like many voters chose zero or one candidate, but it was enough to get the two farthest-left candidates in office.

    The worst part is district taxpayers will end up footing the bill, not the board members who flagrantly broke the law. And this whole episode has apparently reinforced the support for the board from activists, so expect more candidates of this type in future elections.

    It’s sad, but the district really helped my son go from way behind his peers in kindergarten to gifted in middle school. But when the entire district illegally walked out on every student in May of 2018, we walked away from any further involvement.

  • judd

    “…that makes me feel like I could not be safe in this in this school district. ”

    You’d think it was the Spanish Inquisition.

    Tolerance is not enough.
    Acceptance is not enough.
    Insufficiently enthusiastic celebration will be punished.

  • wayne

    David–
    Har– “dressed as an ambush predator.”
    Good one.

    When somebody offers you free labor in the form of student teachers, you take it and say thank-you on behalf of the taxpayers who pay your salary.

  • James Street

    Notice how these perverts are not doing drag queen story hour in nursing homes.

    Do you understand this is primarily about the children?

  • DJ

    The gay/lesbian community at large does not in any way agree with Washington Elementary’s position. Most have successfully become who they will be, participate socially as they will, and live their lives without concerns that their predecessors had. And most do not adhere to the indoctrination of children. But almost all are afraid to speak out about it. The fear is real and the communication of anti-activism is between close friends and confidants only, even if the subjects are brought up. There is a reason charter schools are big in Arizona. This is one of them.

  • pzatchok

    If I was going to run for their office I would use this action as my main campaign point.

    Their bigotry cost the tax payers thousands in court costs defending their personal bigoted opinions. And if they had their way would cost the taxpayer millions in the future by loosing the free teaching positions provided by the university.
    With such childish attitudes they should never have a position in public office.

  • GWB

    (even as the queer community now pushes its queer agenda to children in schools continuously)
    Because Progressivism is a religion. It’s never been about getting religion out of schools; it’s always been about getting Progressivism into schools. They have been indoctrinating children into Progressivism for 100 years to some degree or another.

    strong intolerance with the university’s Christian beliefs
    Yes, because Progressivism is a heresy whose primary purpose is to displace Christianity. After all, you can’t have your transhuman and hedonistic utopia with those icky Christian morals and belief in a creator god standing in the way.

    Are we only performing performative solidarity
    No, it is real religious belief they are exercising. Sick and perverted, but it is real belief.

    is this school value aligned with what we’re trying to do
    IOW, they aren’t the right religion (one that allows perverts and hedonists free reign, particularly with children). They are using Progressive language (“values”) to try and hide the very religious intent of their actions.

    While the board has the right in the future to pick and choose who it wished to work with
    No, it does not. Federal anti-discrimination law says they absolutely cannot discriminate on the basis of religious belief. And if the school is excluded from any future contract consideration, I hope it sues with an army of lawyers on exactly that basis. An animosity toward one religion is absolutely forbidden. (And putting in something about tolerance for homosexuals is not actually legal, since that is very much a religious belief statement.)

    Today however that queer community is aggressively attempting to teach sexual perversion to other people’s children.
    It’s called evangelism.

    For the parents to vote for such people is appalling.
    Because the voters are likely overwhelmingly Progressive, though many wouldn’t know it as such. Progressivism has been very subtle in twisting language and thought away from Christian values and toward Progressivism. (And they’ve been terribly blatant in some cases, too.) “Tolerance” and “fairness” and “rights” that aren’t.

  • Formerly Virginian

    Every day the alphabet people illustrate how much of a fool I was to think that I (and any functional society) could have a live and let live attitude towards them, as I did for most of my life. I’ve now seen what happens- tolerance leads to them oppressing anyone who tells them their perversion is perverse.

    Our ancestors clearly understood the danger of tolerating such perversion and that was passed down to us in the cultural traditions and laws against it. We were fools to tear up that fence without understanding why it was there and are now reaping the consequences.

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