Tag: education

Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Inept Republicans, Lauren Boebert, Separation of Church and State

Lauren Boebert doesn’t understand what “wanton killing” is

by Anne Landman • September 19, 2022 • 2 Comments

Everybody is talking about how, while reading a passage from the Bible, Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert mixed up “wanton” and “wonton,” jokingly admitting that she didn’t understand what “wanton killing” was.

Remember that point in the Club 20 debate between Boebert and her opponent Adam Frisch, where Frisch asked Boebert why she didn’t attend the Club 20 Steak Fry, an event to honor the candidates participating in the debates?

Boebert answered Frisch by curtly saying, “Dinners aren’t my thing.”

What she didn’t want people to know was that she wasn’t at the steak fry that night because she was across the state in Woodland Park, preaching at the Truth and Liberty Coalition’s “From Vision to Victory” conference at Charis Bible College, hosted by faith healer Andrew Wommack.

D-51 School Board members attend seminar in how to fight equity and inclusion policies

by Anne Landman • August 31, 2022 • 9 Comments

“Stand for the Constitution,” the right wing extremist Mesa County group that endorsed and defended Tina Peters, also endorsed and promoted Angela Lema, Andrea Haitz and Will Jones for School Board. All three candidates ran as a far right wing extremist slate. Now two of them are getting training in how to battle policies that aim to help all children feel welcome and accepted at D-51 schools.

The Colorado Times Recorder is reporting that D-51 School Board President Andrea Haitz and D-51 Board Member Angela Lema attended a seminar at a Grand Junction hotel on August 26 called “Save Our Schools,” put on by Heritage Action for America, an affiliate of the right wing Heritage Foundation. The seminar taught people how to fight equity and inclusion policies in schools and provided resources to help them.

What are equity and inclusion policies, anyway?

Lauren Boebert votes against bill to reauthorize U.S. to combat international human sex trafficking

by Anne Landman • July 27, 2022 • 5 Comments

House Rep. Lauren Boebert (L), with her former campaign manager, Sherronna Bishop.

On July 26, 2022 Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert voted against the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022 HR 6552, which continues funding the Department of State and Department of Justice to combat human sex trafficking internationally through fiscal year 2026.

The law has been in place since 2020.

The bill sailed through the House on a vote of 401 to 20. The 20 who voted against it were all Republicans and included Ken Buck of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Louis Gohmert (R-TX).

D-51 School Board President Andrea Haitz belonged to anti-transgender Facebook group

by Anne Landman • May 14, 2022 • 15 Comments

Screenshot of members of the transphobic Facebook group, Reboot 2022, taken on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, after which time her name was removed.

A May 13, 2022 Daily Sentinel article discussed the outrage District 51 School Board President Andrea Haitz’s recent anti-transgender social media posts generated among people in the valley.

In her own defense, Haitz told the Sentinel she didn’t mean the memes to be hurtful, and that she “has gay and lesbian friends.” Haitz said the “memes had been misunderstood” because “people don’t always understand satire,” and said that people “made up what they thought I meant by it.”

But people didn’t make up anything, and they most definitely did not misinterpret the intent of Haitz’s posts.

How do we know?

Woman makes Q-Anon style threat against Telluride School Board

by Anne Landman • March 23, 2022 • 40 Comments

Gabriella Moorman’s letter to the Telluride Board of Education and Superintendent

Taking a leaf from the QAnon playbook of turning school boards into battlegrounds for unhinged conservative politics, a woman named Gabriella Moorman threatened individual members of the Telluride School District board in San Miguel County as a way to rail against district policies that guided masking during the pandemic, sex education, Critical Race Theory (which is not taught in K-12 schools) and other practices and policies the school board has taken in the past.

Moorman wrote to board members that “you could lose your house, your cars, your job, your retirement, etc., if you DO NOT PAY ATTENTION. You are inviolation of multiple State, Federal and International laws … and you could be facing time in FEDERAL PRISON for your actions if you do not cease and desist.”

Angry crowd faces down School Board at their meeting Monday, 2/7

by Anne Landman • February 8, 2022 • 3 Comments

Screenshot of the packed, angry but well-behaved crowd that faced down the new School Board President Andrea Haitz and the other new school board members Monday night, 2/7/22, as they made moves toward possibly firing district administrators. The screenshot is from a video taken at the beginning of the meeting, before the Board went into executive session to discuss the employment contracts of Superintendent Diana Sirko, Assistant Superintendent Brian Hill and the Director of Equity and Inclusion, Tracy Gallegos. An equal number of people were outside. A student in front is holding a sign that says “Don’t make me use my INSIDE VOICE!”

Andrea Haitz, Angela Lema, Conservatives, Dangerous Republicans, Education, Ethics, Pandemic, politics, Willie Jones

Looks like District 51’s conservative school board majority is getting ready to fire Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent and Director of Equity & Inclusion

by Anne Landman • February 6, 2022 • 19 Comments

Meeting agenda quietly put up on the School Board’s website on short notice announcing a special meeting the next day to discuss employment contracts of the Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent and Director of Equity and Inclusion

The District 51 School Board’s new conservative majority — Andrea Haitz, Angela Lema and Willie Jones — appear to be getting ready to fire School District Superintendent, Diana Sirko, Assistant Superintendent Brian Hill and Tracy Gallegos, the District’s Director of Equity and Inclusion, who was hired into that position in July, 2021.

The three Board members gave short notice about a special meeting to be held on Monday, February 5 at 5:00 p.m. discuss these three employees’ contracts with attorneys they just hired in January to serve as their own representatives: David Price and Tammy Eret of Hoskin, Farina and Kampf.

The Board members produced the agenda on Saturday evening, 2/5/22, and then quietly slipped it onto the School Board’s meeting website (pdf) on Sunday evening, 2/6/21.

Central High unveils new Warrior logo, replacing racist Indian-head logo from last century

by Anne Landman • January 4, 2022 • 6 Comments

After months of deliberating ideas for an updated logo, Central High School finally unveiled its new logo today, January 4, 2022, replacing the outdated and embarrassingly racist Indian head symbol the school has had since 1947.

Some CMU staff upset by University President John Marshall wearing what appeared to be a doctoral robe

by Anne Landman • December 19, 2021 • 9 Comments

CMU President John Marshall at the December, 2021 graduation ceremony

Some Colorado Mesa University (CMU) instructors who have doctorate degrees were upset to see CMU President John Marshall at the December graduation ceremony wearing what looked like the type of graduation robe worn only by doctoral students upon their graduation.

It was an easy mistake to make.

New conservative school board members violate CO Open Meetings Law, make decisions in secret

by Anne Landman • December 17, 2021 • 13 Comments

Newly-elected D-51 School Board member Andrea Haitz promised transparency, but is violating open meetings laws and attempting to enact policy without public comment. At about 4:43 into the meeting video, after a suggestion that the Board could get more information about potential law firms to hire, Haitz says “There’s a certain point where you can get too much information.”

It took no time at all for the newly sworn-in District 51 School Board members to violate Colorado’s Open Meetings Law (pdf), violate their campaign promises of transparency, and indicate their willingness to spend excessive taxpayer funds for no clear reason, and they did it all in one breathtaking move they sprang on everyone a full four hours into their first board meeting December 14.

New voter guide from the Best Slope Leadership Project explains the issues and candidates in the Nov. 2, 2021 election

by Anne Landman • October 22, 2021 • 3 Comments

The home page of the Best Slope Leadership Project’s 2021 Voter Guide

A new local organization called Best Slope Leadership Project has a plain language voter guide to help Mesa County citizens decide how to vote in the upcoming November 2, 2021 election. The guide explains the state-wide ballot measures, local propositions and District 51 School Board races, and gives easy-to-understand rationales for recommended votes.

On its website, BestSlopeLeadership.org, the Project describes the local group “Stand for the Constitution,” which is backing a bloc of three candidates for school board. this way:

AnneLandmanBlog Voter Guide for ballot measures for Nov. 2, 2021 election

by Anne Landman • October 18, 2021 • 10 Comments

Are you wondering how to vote in the Mesa County Coordinated Election on Tuesday, November 2, 2021? Are you sweating about where you’re going to find the time to research all the state and local ballot measures?

Relax.

I’ve done the work for you.

AnneLandmanBlog has read and researched the ballot measures, looked into who is behind getting them on the ballot, who backs them, who supports them, what their motives are and what each measure would change.

The state ballot measures are fairly complicated this election, but I did my best to distill them down to their essence to save readers time.

Based on what I found, here are my summaries and recommended votes:

My Pillow Guy appears with Sherronna Bishop at Garfield County School District RE-2 Board Meeting

by Anne Landman • October 17, 2021 • 2 Comments

Mike Lindell appears alongside election conspiracy theorist/anti-mask activist/Tina Peters defender Sherronna Bishop at a Wednesday, Oct. 13 Garfield County RE-2 School Board meeting held via Zoom

In a bizarre scene, “My Pillow guy” Mike Lindell made a cameo appearance alongside Rifle election conspiracist and Tina Peters defender Sherronna Bishop at a Zoomed Garfield County School District RE-2 Board Meeting on October 13.

Bishop appears about three minutes into the meeting, speaking during the public comment period and accusing School Board members of abusing children by “forcing medical devices on them.” She condemns the Board for how her “kid had to wear a mask to his homecoming dance” and how the students were “interrupted” by an adult at the dance who reminded students how to correctly wear their masks. Bishop accused the school board of “assaulting and abusing” children by having them wear masks for protection at school amid the pandemic.

After a member of the school board warns Bishop she has 30 seconds left to speak, a man wearing a shirt and tie moves into the frame with Bishop. He then bends down to where viewers can see his face, and it was the clear the man is Mike Lindell. One of the school board members can be heard in the background saying “Jesse, turn it off!”

As Bishop ends her comments, Lindell starts weighing in with the District RE-2 School Board, saying “There’s more science than you guys even know of” about masking, and “[inaudible] suicide and addiction…”

The school board then cuts the couple off, and lets a student present know that it is her turn to speak.
Video of the meeting is below:

Education, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Extremism, Grand Junction Chamber, Mesa County Republican Party, politics, Weird Grand Junction Stuff

Mesa County GOP, G.J. Area Chamber of Commerce and “Stand for the Constitution” all endorse candidate for School Board who works at a strip club

by Anne Landman • October 9, 2021 • 10 Comments

Note: Some graphics in this article may not be suitable for children.

The Daily Sentinel called Fantasy a “gentlemen’s club.” It’s actually a strip club.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel confirmed what was first revealed in this blog September 22, that District C School Board candidate and youth football coach Will Jones is employed by Fantasy strip club, which the Sentinel euphemistically referred to as a “gentleman’s club.”

“Stand for the Constitution,” an extreme right wing group, supports Angela Lema, Andrea Haitz and Will Jones for School Board. The three are running as a politically far right wing extremist slate.

That’s like calling the 24 Road Adult Emporium a “library.”

An actual gentleman’s club is a private social club set up for aristocratic males, featuring amenities like a dining room, parlors for reading, gaming and socializing, a bar, billiards, etc.

Fantasy is not that.

It’s a strip club, and one that’s had some questionable incidents.

Far right wing slate of school board candidates gin up anger and spread misunderstanding to raise funds

by Anne Landman • October 6, 2021 • 7 Comments

“Stand for the Constitution” supports Angela Lema, Andrea Haitz and Will Jones for School Board. They are ginning up hatred against the U.S. Department of Justice to try to raise funds for their campaign. The three are running as a far right wing extremist slate.

The three far-right wing candidates for District 51 School Board backed by the extremist group “Stand for the Constitution” — Angela Lema, Willie Jones and Andrea Haitz — together sent out a fundraising email today, titled “It’s Time to Get Politics Out of the Classroom,” aimed at generating anger towards the U.S. Department of Justice to raise money to help get them onto the school board.

The email’s subject line screams:

“The DOJ is coming after parents!”

Daily Sentinel & Mesa County Public Health Department appear to take steps to shield CMU from criticism

by Anne Landman • September 15, 2021 • 2 Comments

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel and Mesa County Public Health Department appear to be shielding Colorado Mesa University from public criticism over its handling of the Coronavirus pandemic by minimizing and obscuring information about Covid outbreaks and how the school is handling cases.

Buried towards the end of an article in today’s Sentinel about Covid cases in area schools was a reference to a situation in which a CMU student who was sick with Covid-19 and quarantined in Piñon Hall failed to get any food delivered for two days. The paper referred to the situation as “one minor communications issue” and made it sound like the student was to blame, along with a single poster in the dorm.

CMU President John Marshall’s spin on the Israeli study matches TheGatewayPundit’s spin on the same study

by Anne Landman • September 8, 2021 • 6 Comments

The information CMU President John Marshall promoted in an email about an un-peer-reviewed Israeli study, and the key information that he left out, match that of the right wing conspiracy website TheGatewayPundit.com (Photo: Twitter @maverickprez)

On August 27, 2021, the conspiracy website TheGatewayPundit.com posted an article strongly promoting a “new study out of Israel” that touted natural immunity against Covid-19 over the immunity provided by vaccines. The Gateway Pundit article headline said people who have recovered from COVID-19 have more protection against the virus than people who’ve only been vaccinated. The study the website pointed to as the source of this information was the very same un-peer reviewed Israeli preprint on MedRxIv.org with a warning label that CMU President John Marshall pointed to as the basis for his August 30 “Campus Safety” email to staff promoting the protective value of natural immunity to Covid-19.

Mesa County residents freaked out by CMU’s semester-kickoff superspreader event

by Anne Landman • August 21, 2021 • 10 Comments

CMU’s held its freshman orientation semester kickoff event in an indoor gym without taking any coronavirus precautions, like masking or physical distancing.

No masks, no physical distancing, lots of open-mouths and yelling among the younger crowd, the age range currently being most infected with the more dangerous delta variant of Covid-19

Mesa County residents are horrified by photos Colorado Mesa University (CMU) gleefully posted on it’s Facebook page yesterday showing the school held a jam-packed, high-energy indoor semester-kickoff event without taking any coronavirus precautions.

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