
Phoenix – The fallout continues from a recent report that the Chandler Unified School District school board colluded with law enforcement to gather information on parent groups and limit their participation in meetings. The scandal even prompted former Congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Matt Salmon to show up at Thursday’s meeting of the Board.
Given that district officials reveal in emails that they hope to limit public participation, it was no surprise that Salmon’s address to the Board was limited to one minute, and his mic feed was cut abruptly at the one-minute mark.
In an interview on KFYI’s James T. Harris show, Mark Spencer of Judicial Watch explained why his organization, like Salmon and others, are alarmed by the situation and why the watchdog group is suing the district for public records.
Spencer, a former law enforcement officer and expert in the area, told Harris, ‘When the Chandler Police management allows the district to utilize them (officers) to promote a political agenda – certainly a liberal political agenda – and to run amok of public meeting laws and public records laws. That is problematic to say the least.”
Spencer told Harris that the police “would normally be concerned about child molesters, criminal gangs, drug dealers, but James when reasonable tax paying citizens were concerned about the education of their children had become the bad guys clearly the priorities of the district and police management have run afoul and run amok.”
“What is alarming, is in an email that we received after we had to file a lawsuit to gain compliance from the district,” began Spencer, who then explained that one district official said she hoped the tactics employed against parents result in lower turnout.
Salmon, citing the Daily Caller which broke the story, said he was “deeply disturbed to read news reports today suggesting that CUSD was engaged in the surveillance of Arizona parents who were concerned about mask mandates and Critical Race Theory.”
While he did have a brief opportunity to commend the Chandler School Board for taking steps to distance itself from the National School Boards Association, his microphone was cut off before he had the opportunity to call on the board to explain their collusion with the Chandler Police Department.
“It is a dangerous precedent when the government takes action against parents for standing up for their kids, especially when the direction is coming from Washington,” said Salmon in a statement he issued after the meeting.
“Although one Republican candidate in this race endorsed Merrick Garland, the architect of this intimidation strategy, it will not be allowed under my watch as Governor,” said Salmon referring to his opponent Kari Lake, who when as a news anchor, sang the praises of Garland and donated to President Obama’s campaign.
According to the Daily Caller, “The Chandler Unified School District’s (CUSD) Director of School Safety was in communication with Sergeant Greg Howarth, a Chandler police officer, in April and May, as parents were protesting mandatory masking in schools, according to emails obtained by the blog “Not in our Schools.”
“Howarth was tasked with aggregating intelligence on local concerned parent groups, all of whom are adamantly opposed to Critical Race Theory-inspired curriculum being taught in the district,” reported the Daily Caller.