On Tuesday, attorneys for Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee, who is currently a candidate for Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, filed a formal complaint with Attorney General Kris Mayes, requesting an investigation into Teresa Leyba Ruiz for allegedly using public school buildings, personnel and students to produce campaign content in violation of A.R.S. § 15-511.
Yee’s attorney also copied all of Arizona’s fifteen county attorneys regarding what is believed to be frequent misuse of public resources.
The complaint is directed at Ruiz in her capacity as a candidate. It does not allege that any school district employee knowingly authorized her campaign activity on school property.
Arizona law prohibits the use of school district resources, expressly including “personnel,” “facilities” and “buildings,” for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election. The complaint documents that Ruiz has, by her own account on her campaign’s social media pages, visited public schools in all 15 Arizona counties and turned those visits into branded campaign material: photos and videos filmed inside classrooms and hallways, images of Ruiz wearing a campaign button on school property, and posts overlaid with her campaign logo and published to her official candidate accounts. Despite the alleged violations of the Arizona law that prohibits politicizing our classrooms, Ruiz has indicated she has no intention of stopping, and is instead preparing to launch yet another statewide tour built on taxpayer-funded resources.
The complaint cites specific examples, including an August 17th video showing Ruiz entering a school, interacting with students in a full classroom and walking a hallway that captures an elementary school’s name and mascot, and an August 11th photo of Ruiz interrupting a school day with children by promoting herself with a campaign button inside of a taxpayer paid school building during classroom instructional hours.
The filing asks the Attorney General to direct Ruiz to remove the posts, open a full investigation, seek injunctive relief to stop further use of school facilities for campaign purposes, and pursue the civil penalties the statute authorizes of up to $5,000 per violation. Because Attorney General Mayes has publicly endorsed Ruiz in this race, the complaint asks that, if her office determines it has a conflict, the matter be referred immediately to a county attorney, as § 15-511(I) permits.
“Arizona law is clear, and it exists for a good reason. Classrooms belong to students and teachers, not to candidates,” said Treasurer Kimberly Yee. “Parents send their kids to school to learn, and they have every right to expect that the school day will not be turned into a campaign backdrop or a photo shoot. This is a serious violation of the law with significant ethical concerns.”
“The office of Superintendent of Public Instruction exists to protect the integrity of our public schools, and anyone asking Arizonans for that job should be the first person to follow the rules that govern it, not the first to look for an exception,” continued Yee. “We are asking the Attorney General, or a county attorney if her office is conflicted, to enforce the law and get politics out of the classroom.”
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