A bogus candidate “debate” for the Catalina Foothills School Board featured only two Republican-backed candidates, speaking in a room with 350 seats to only 20 people in the audience.
It was an embarrassing flop for the anti-trans, pro-voucher candidates Bart Pemberton and Jennifer Repscher. GOP operative Dan Grossenbach had vigorously promoted the debate in print, on the Web and on social media, but almost no one responded.
It was clear the event was bogus when one of the moderators turned out to be right-wing talk radio announcer Chris Desimone, who spews MAGA propaganda on KVOI radio.
No kids in CFSD schools, but pontificating anyway
Right-wing literature from Action American Majority was set out at the entry, and some local Republican candidates turned up.
The Pima County Republican Party has endorsed Pemberton, an optometrist and Repscher, a realtor. Notably, Pemberton and Repscher have no children in CFSD schools but continue to pontificate about school operations.
The duo repeated tiresome attacks on the tiny number of transgender students at the CFSD schools. Pemberton admitted he could not produce a copy of the district’s “shared facilities policy” – yet he claimed it allows “18-year-old men to shower with 14-year-old girls.”
Repscher claimed, “Maybe the district wants everything to be co-ed.” But when asked by the moderators, neither Pemberton nor Repscher could offer any specific safety incidents involving trans students.
Both complained bitterly that when parents signed a petition for the Board to put transgender children on the agenda, the Board refused. “The school board says it knows better than the parents,” Pemberton said
Call the cops on Mom and Dad!
The moderators asked what school policy should be if a student wishes to use other pronouns but wants the school not to tell abusive parents about it.
Pemberton burst out with:
“If they have a legitimate concern of abusive parents, then they need to go to the police. I think they’re obligated by law to report that. They could notify the police of what’s going on, and then the police, of course, will notify the parents. In the end, the parents have to be notified. And if they’re criminals, then they need to be dealt with. But, in the end, no matter what, the parents have to be notified.”
He made no mention of the safety of a student who called the police on their abusive parents.
Repscher argued that student cell phones must be placed in special bags in the classroom. She even supports a budget override to fund the bags.
Armed guards in the schools
Both candidates supported hiring armed guards – or “SROs” or armed Student Resource Officers” in the schools. “After a review, we say, okay, how many SROs do we need at each school?” Pemberton said, citing an unspecified “big security issue” at Orange Middle Grove. “If all there is a sign that says, ‘this is a gun-free zone,’ there’s got to be more security than that.
He called for hiring a full-time security manager and holding a security town hall. He did not address how adding more guns in schools makes students safer in a school shooting.
School vouchers
Shockingly, both candidates supported ESA (Empowerment Scholarship Account) school vouchers, which are given to wealthy families so they can send their children to private and religious schools. School vouchers cost the state $332 million this year, which was taken away from public school funding.
Pemberton claimed that “ESAs are not hurting schools. ‘People say’ school vouchers are not a problem. Why shouldn’t students be allowed to attend other schools? Repscher said, “Competition with public schools is good. Public schools need to up their game.”
Miscellaneous grievances
Social Emotional Learning (SEL). The candidates ridiculed CFSD’s Social Emotional Learning curriculum, which aims to reduce widespread depression and anxiety among students. SEL has been linked to positive outcomes for students, including fostering emotional intelligence, reducing emotional distress, fostering empathy, developing and maintaining peer relationships, and academic improvement.
Pemberton grumbled, “Are schools for learning for therapy? Are schools health clinics or places of learning?” Repscher added, “Wherever SEL is implemented, student proficiency declines. Students with depression and anxiety have increased, but SEL has not made a difference.
CFSD student test scores. Both candidates claimed the test scores in CFSD are declining, while the opposite seems true. The district is Tucson’s leading educational choice for PreK-12, as evidenced by test scores that exceed state and national averages. The Arizona Department of Education recognized CFSD as one of Arizona’s top-performing school districts, and Niche recognized CFSD as the #1 out of 131 school systems in Arizona from 2015-2022.
Surveys. The candidates objected to CFSD conducting surveys of students and called for them to stop. Repscher said, “Where are the student survey results kept? CFSD should survey parents instead about their top three concerns.”
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.