Police Investigating Higley Teacher Over Book Assignment

Charles Villafranca, a parent in the Higley Unified School District, is trying to get high school English teacher Brittany O'Neill fired. Why? Because O'Neill included a book Villafranca didn't like on a non-required reading list for his son's elective college-level class.

You read that right: Rather than simply having his student read a different book or pulling him from the class, Villafranca filed a criminal complaint. This week, the Gilbert Police Department confirmed that they are, indeed, investigating O'Neill.

Villafranca says O'Neill violated a law that prevents public schools from providing students with sexually explicit material unless it's for educational purposes and they get parental consent. We suspect he's referring to HB2495, a bill written by fake elector and troll farm owner Jake Hoffman. Since the AZGOP passed this bill in 2022, school districts, libraries, administrators, and teachers have been dealing with book banning attempts and accusations of "grooming." 

The book in the Higley case appears to be Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing, winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award, American Book Award, Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature, National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, and a  New York Times’ “100 Notable Books of 2016."

Again - is anyone actually surprised that educators are fleeing Arizona?

Need a Reading Recommendation?

In honor of all the teachers and librarians out there doing the lord™'s own work, we wanted to offer some reading recommendations. 

A great place to start? Our Secular Library! Here, you'll find a range of books to spark your interests, including many books by presenters from our Secular Speaker Series such as Kate Cohen, Jeff Sharlet, Cait West, Kathrine Stewart, Chrissy Stroop, and many more. 

Coming up in the next few weeks, we're excited to hear from Kathleen Wellman, author of Hijacking History: How the Christian Right Teaches History and Tia Levings, author of A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy.

We'll continue our banned book theme with a presentation by Kate DeMeester-Lane, a Pima County librarian who's committed to ensuring underrepresented communities can share their stories. 

And if you're so moved, you can donate banned books from Secular AZ's wish list! We'll use these books at our table at the Tucson Festival of Books next year. 

This Week in Weird (Racist Hatred)

In an effort to rile their base and garner election support, right-wing extremist politicians have gone all-in on vile racism and vitriol toward immigrants. Of course, after years of screeching about tHe CaRaVaN every time bad polling numbers drop, no one should be surprised by any of this. 

But Republican rhetoric is growing ever more extreme and sparking violence. Repeated lies villainizing Haitian immigrants in Ohio have led to bomb threats shutting down schools and public facilities. A Haitian group has since filed criminal charges against Vance and Trump.

Yesterday, Louisiana GOP Rep Clay Higgins posted the following racist screed on his social media account:  “Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters. These thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.”

The post has since been deleted, but not because of any pushback from Higgins' fellow Republicans, who actually shielded the Representative from censure. (House Speaker Mike Johnson in fact brought up prayer and  redemption when defending Higgins.)

So how have Arizona GOP elected officials reacted to the racism? Unfortunately, definitely not by following their own holy book's admonitions about immigrants, like Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.’ Then all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ (Deuteronomy 27:19) or I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matthew 25:35).

Guess they just don't like the parts of the bible that aren't politically expedient.

School Board Shenanigans

Comic Walter Masterson was back in Arizona this week, this time speaking at the governing board meeting for the Scottsdale Unified School District. As he correctly notes, Arizona is certainly ground zero for religious extremists, conspiracy theorists, rabid MAGAs, anti-LGBTQ bigots, and white supremacists advocating for "parental choice." 

While, of course, it's fun to have a chuckle at Masterson's masterful trolling of the Hitler-praising, sex-scandal-having Moms for Liberty, it's sad that so many school boards have been infiltrated by culture warriors. These unserious actors simply don't have Arizona students' best interests at heart, but rather seem to be working to tear down our state's public school system.

To help you make informed decisions in upcoming school board elections, Secular AZ hosts candidate forums. The next one is coming up on Monday, September 30.

We'll welcome candidates running for seats on the Catalina Foothills School District Board. All candidates were invited to attend, all will be asked the same questions, and all will have the same amount of time to answer about issues pertaining to church:state separation. We hope you'll join us and bring YOUR questions for the candidates.