I was elected to the Litchfield Elementary School District (LESD) Governing Board in November 2020. Within three months I realized I had stepped into a horror movie. The school district was already infected with critical race theory and ignored laws, as the Arizona Atty. Gen. found in their August 13, 2021 closing letter, that the LESD governing board had violated open meeting laws.
I am beginning my second year, and have learned that the real problem isn’t a misguided governing board. It is the administration of the district, which runs LESD like a Third World banana republic. There is no such thing as the truth, and anyone trying to speak it is punished, fired, or intimidated until they shut up or quit.
Last year an allegation of misconduct at the White Tanks Learning Center by two teachers occurred. The entire administration staff was immediately terminated. Most of all of them had absolutely no idea why they were terminated. Nor do I, as a board member, who has repeatedly asked Superintendent Gunning for an explanation. For Gunning, the problem was solved, by purging from the school district anyone who could shed light on the situation, and it didn’t matter how many lives were destroyed in the process.
A similar situation happened in the Transportation Department. The highly professional and well liked Transportation Supervisor’s concerns were repeatedly ignored, and when he went to the superintendent, he was told they were turning over the situation to the LESD attorney. He quit, fearing how it would be dealt with.
In my case, the superintendent and the attorney realized I was an existential threat to their free reign with their $88 million per year budget while ignoring the public’s concerns. They fabricated a fraud to slander me, to make me appear to be a crazy person, who despite being repeatedly warned that he was breaking the law continued to break it in a public meeting. It worked. They took away my First Amendment rights to communicate, as board member, what they were hiding. They took away your First Amendment rights to hear what was actually being done with your tax dollar. The fraud continued for months with clever schemes to keep me from speaking and appear to be a rude idiot. Three people filed complaints about me with the Arizona Attorney General, based on their fraud. Parents who were organizing to hold the district accountable were terrified that they too would be destroyed with defamation in the same way, so they disappeared.
Fraud is a serious crime when it is used to for a significant benefit. It is a second-degree felony. They used it to continue to pushing toxic ideology on your kids and ignoring their duty to successfully teach them the three RRR’s and how to think.
As a citizen I have a duty to report a serious crime and I have done so. I also plan to sue LESD in Federal Court for violating my First Amendment rights and in civil court for defamation. I asked myself, if I don’t do this, where does this leave the other 97,000 schools in our country?
Can a school system continue to use their massive power and funds to act beyond the color of their authority to falsely defame a person who volunteered to be a school board member?
What will stop schools everywhere from stealing taxpayer money to teach CRT instead of the three Rs?
Who will run, or can afford to run for school board, and can stand up to this banana republic behavior?
Who will speak out, considering that if they hit a nerve, they could reasonably expect the same defamation that LESD has perfected on me?
How will the public ever know the degree to which schools are being hijacked by partisans who want to brainwash children with toxic ideology?