A parent at Laurelwood Elementary School has filed charges of assault after a confrontation with a group of individuals handing out flyers outside of the school. It happened on Friday, Aug. 18.
According to the Santa Clara Police Department (SCPD), the group Informed Parents of Silicon Valley (IPSV) was handing flyers out to parents as they walked their children to class. The IPSV members were standing on a public sidewalk on Teal Drive.
An SCPD spokesperson say one of the parents passing by picked up an extra box of flyers belonging to IPSV and walked it onto the campus. One of the members of IPSV followed the parent onto campus and asked that the parent give the box back. That’s when a struggle over the box ensued.
The parent told SCPD officers the IPSV member bit her on the arm and that she wanted to press charges. The IPSV member was cited for assault and battery and released at the scene. An SCPD spokesperson says the case was handed over to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to determine if the IPSV member will face charges.
A witness who asked to remain nameless wrote to The Weekly and said that members of the IPSV group told one staff member that school test scores were going down because the school teaches gender inclusivity. The witness says at least one staff member was called a vile name.
The Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) issued a letter to parents on Monday to address IPSV pamphlet distributions. The district says that the group is expected to continue leafleting at SCUSD school sites during morning drop-off for the next few weeks.
The letter clearly states that this group is in no way affiliated with the school district.
“We want to be clear that this group is not affiliated with Santa Clara Unified School District or our partner associations in any way,” wrote District Superintendent Dr. Gary Waddell in a letter to parents signed by himself and the members SCUSD’s Board of Trustees. “Parents, guardians, and other community members have no obligation to engage with the group or accept their flyers, including not rolling down car windows.”
The District says that under the right to free speech, it cannot stop groups from distributing leaflets on public sidewalks. SCUSD has encouraged staff to maintain professionalism, even when IPSV members have become verbally “aggressive.”
The District says IPSV has, at times, been disruptive including unsolicited approaching and stopping of parents/caregivers driving or walking their kids to school.
“As a district, we are deeply concerned about the impact of the group’s behavior on students’ right to access a free public education, on the sense of safety our students’ should experience in their learning environments, and on the sense of safety our staff should experience in their work environments,” read the letter.
“We respect any group’s right to free speech and encourage the peaceful exercise of that right, mutual respect, and professionalism at all times. However, the reported escalating harassment by IPSV members and their actions on Friday crossed a line of constitutionally-protected free speech,” continued the letter.
The District says Friday’s events have led it to seek any legal remedies to “protect the safety and rights of our children, families, and staff.” Until a solution is found, the District Office has started sending administrators and staff to campuses where the IPSV members are leafleting.
IPSV’s website says it is a nonprofit organization focused on “a family values based, child centered curriculum.”
According to IPSV’s website: “We humbly and respectfully speak truth to power. We seek measures that protect our children and grandchildren. We work to bring into the light of day the divisive teachings of Critical Race Theory and Comprehensive Sexuality Education in our schools.”
IPSV’s web site lists a mailbox at a UPS store as their mailing address, 4750 Almaden Expressway Suite 124-346, San Jose, CA 95118 and using their EIN, Guidestar lists their main address (redacted) Larry and Shelley Pegram appear to be the owners of that property. Larry is a former San Jose police officer and mid-70’s San Jose City Council Member who last ran for San Jose City Council in 2010 losing to Donald Rocha 63-37%. http://www.smartvoter.org/2010/11/02/ca/scl/vote/pegram_l/bio.html
An investigative reporter should go knock on their door and ask specifically what school is teaching CRT?
Note from the Editor: We have redacted the second address listed in this post. Please do not include the home addresses in comments.
All the schools are implementing critical theory, which basically involves usurping education to institute political ideologies unto children. Critical Race Theory is just one tentacle, there’s also Queer Theory and Gender Theory. These all serve to create undermine an existing system of power (in America’s case, capitalism and democracy) for an egalitarian/equitable/socialist/marxist/communist/authoritarian one. Because that’s what marxism is, its totalitarian and oppressive in nature, just ask those who have lived in a marxist country. Venenzuala, China, Russia, Cuba, etc. Teaching Black people they’re victims and encouraging them to overthrow the oppressive regime if democracy, capitalism and meritocracy is CRT. Comprehensive Sex Education is just a euphemism to teach perversion to our children (Queer Theory). There’s nothing good in telling kinder gardeners all the perverted ways to have intercourse. Sex and children should NEVER be in the same sentence. And nothing good can come from teaching feminism to young girls either (Gender Theory).
“Let’s be clear: critical race theory is not taught in elementary schools or high schools. It’s a method of examination taught in law school and college that helps analyze whether systemic racism exists — and, in particular, whether it has an effect on law and public policy,” – Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/critical-race-theory-teachers-union-honest-history/
wow. i don’t have kids and i don’t know what Gender Theory is but I do know what Feminism is. do tell, please: what is this “nothing good” that can come from it?
I’m pretty sure Rachel is a troll. She’s everywhere.
This is one of those deeply uniformed comments that shows a total lack of understanding of what Critical Race Theory is AND what’s actually part of the curriculum for elementary school kids. Makes you wonder why people feel the need to express their opinions about things they haven’t taken the time to understand.
I studied CRT in law school, where you have students with the academic foundation to understand the concept. It’s not something you can teach kids in elementary school. How do I know? Because I also have kids attending SCUSD elementary schools, where they are learning basic reading, math and science. The irrational fear that they are also learning about systemic discrimination in American law and policy, and presuming that would be a bad thing in the first place, is comical. I’m pretty sure an in-depth discussion of why criminal penalties for crack are more severe than for cocaine, or why the US institutes immigration preferences that favor applicants from wealthy, White countries, isn’t a key part of 5th grade social sciences.
That said, in a country founded on the principle that all men are equal (just not women – and btw it’s totally fine to kill off the Natives and enslave Black and Brown folks), and where racial, ethnic, and gender inequities still persist, it’s probably a conversation we should be having in schools.
DJ, you sound like a poster child for the equivalent of the CRT you pretend to decry. It’s not okay to teach CRT in grade school, just teach the same thing w/o the label? How about teaching the basics, which is lacking these days.
This “informed” parents group is yet another feeble attempt to play sleight of hand with nebulous terms that nobody really seems to understand. I challenge you to go look at their website and make sense of the arguments they make. They just assert that your local school district is indoctrinating your children with these two “theories” and then make the nebulous connection that that must explain the bad test scores.
There’s no correlation to test scores, and absolutely no transparency on where they get their statistics (I’ve seen different numbers than what they’re publishing, so already they are suspect), and of course no critical discussion about possible other root causes of test scores being what they are. There are many questions to ask critically if you want to actually understand, including:
1. Were test scores higher or lower before now? If they were higher, when did they fall? What is the trend?
2. What other root causes may be contributing to test score results (again, assuming the trend is falling)?
3. What solutions have already been implemented, and what metrics are being recorded to track the results of the solutions underway?
These are just a few of the very basic questions that any serious look at such an important topic should be asking, but of course the truth is much simpler: this “organization” has no interest in actually making any change to improve a single child’s life – they want to use kids as political pawns to move money around. If I had to guess, I’d say it has more to do with charter schools and religion than test scores and fear of LGBTQ or CRT, neither of which are actually taught in SCUSD schools (my child is currently attending).
Rachel is regurgitating Faux News talking points that have no basis in reality. It is sad that the Republican propaganda machine is inspiring people to turn against their neighbors with these hateful lies just to keep their voters scared and angry enough to keep voting R.
Agreed. Feminism is a good thing in my book. Not so for Christian Nationalists who preach that the woman should be submissive to the man.
Rachel’s claims are pretty lunatic that this is marxism. Doubt she knows what marxism is.
The group that is most eager to move to authoritarianism these days are the Christian Nationalist, where the “Informed Parents of Silicon Valley” neatly fit in.