Christian Right Rampage, or Misguided but Essentially Well-Meaning?

I wrote about this at the beginning of the month.  Why do I care about this issue?  What would you think the national response would be if three school board members took the law into their own hands, and refused to adopt state-mandated language about a person's racial identity because it offended their spiritual and political beliefs?   Well, it nearly happened, except it was language about individual's gender identity.  Read on.

In reference to the Westminster situation, there are at least two explanations going:

1. It is plot by right-wing Christian activists to destroy a school district, following the principles of R.J. Rushdoony and Robert Thoburn, eliminating public schools, through termite tactics and the rousing words of Gary North

2. Judy Ahrens is a well-meaning but misguided individual who doesn't understand the implications of what she is doing; Helena Rutkowski and Blossie Marquez-Woodcock have been captured by her passion for the issue, and are followers.

I personally think it is a blend of both--Ahrens almost certainly has been exposed to the anti-public-school, Thoburnian ideas, but the Educational Alliance isn't as well funded as it used to be.  The two minority school board members, James Reed and Joanne Purcell, are operating with one metaphor--"school needs to be run like a business" while Ahrens, Rutkowski and Marquez-Woodcock are operating in a realm of spiritual heroism.

The other day, I was reviewing some writers on "nonviolent language"--there are several--and read How to Disagree without Being Disagreeable (highly recommended, BTW, by Suzette Haden Elgin.  (How Stuff Works has an excellent outline of Verbal Self Defense).  In HTDWBD, Elgin explores the idea that the metaphor you pick in answer to the prompt, "Life is like a ___________", determines how you perceive conflict, and the language you use to reduce conflict.

In the U.S., the majority of mainstream adult men use football as their perceptual filter, functioning from within the metaphor "Life is a football game." The majority of mainstream adult women, by contrast, use "Life is a traditional schoolroom." This leads to arguments in which the woman insists that the man has lied, the man insists that although what he said was false it was not a lie, the woman leaps to the conclusion that the man has no morals, and the man leaps to the conclusion that the woman has no brains.

When you choose a metaphor you are also choosing its rules, along with the roles and scripts that those rules dictate.

(Read more on metaphor and mediation, another piece men's language, women's language, and Peacetalk 101.

In 1999, California passed a law which extends discrimination and harassment protection to gender issues, and allows each individual to determine his or her own gender identity. That law includes students and staff at public schools. The passage of the law meant that all public school districts were required to examine their discrimination policies, and amend them so that gender issues were addressed in the policies.

California has 1,425 school districts.  Three school board members of one small district are "morally" opposed to adopting the mandated language.  But there is more here than meets the eye.

But first, some background. The school district is small, heavily Hispanic, and poor:

WESTMINSTER SCHOOL DISTRICT AT A GLANCE
Campuses: 17
Enrollment: 10,113
Major racial/ethnic groups: Asian 33%, Latino 38%, White 22.5%
English learners: 42.9%
Students from low-income families: 62%
Yearly budget: About $70 million, including about $9.2 million annually in federal and state money designated for dozens of specific programs. Among them:
• $3.6 million goes to help low-income students, paying for everything from computers to busing.
• $2.2 million goes to provide free or reduced-price meals for low-income students.
• $2.3 million pays for teacher training.

The board has no Latino members and no members who are fluent in Spanish.  Two of the board members, Judy Ahrens and Helena Rutkowski, took campaign contributions from the Education Alliance and other right-wing activist groups.

About a decade ago, a group of Christian Reconstructionists concieved the idea of  taking over school boards so that such awful ideas as evolution would not be taught in California's public schools.  They founded a PAC, the Education Alliance, to capture school boards.

The Chalcedon Institute, to which Ahmanson has contributed over a million dollars, was founded in 1965, perpetuates the Dominionist/Reconstructionist/Kingdom Now beliefs of founder  Rev. Rousas John Rushdoony who was also a member of the CNP. Rushdoony, who died February 8, 2001, is known as the "father of Christian Reconstructionism," which is the  belief that Christians should have dominion over all earthly affairs and nations and the law would be according to Old Testament laws, which includes the death penalty for many infractions.

The Chalcedon credo:

We work to press the claims of historic Christianity as the Biblical pattern of life everywhere. We work for godly cultural change across the entire spectrum of life.

In November, 1994, Howard Ahmanson was the chief financial backer ($40,000) of a pilot project in Orange County which raised $63,221 and gave $61,671 to 36 endorsed candidates for school boards in 15 districts through a PAC known as the Education Alliance. He was joined by John and Donna Crean of Newport Beach, who contributed $10,000.

The ultimate goal [of the Reconstructionists] is the elimination of secular education:

Among the top Reconstructionists in education politics is Robert Thoburn of Fairfax Christian School in Fairfax, Virginia. Thoburn advocates that Christians run for school board, while keeping their own children out of public schools. "Your goal" (once on the board), he declares, "must be to sink the ship." While not every conservative Christian who runs for school board shares this goal, those who do will, as Thoburn advises, probably keep it to themselves. Thoburn's book, The Children Trap, is a widely used sourcebook for Christian Right attacks on public education.

Since the early '90s, California conservatives, many of them part of the Christian right, have mounted campaigns to change public education. They've run candidates for office with mixed success, and they've failed to persuade California voters to approve vouchers for religious and private schools. Activists, such as businessman Mark Bucher, were frustrated by losses they attributed to the power and money of the teachers unions. He and computer engineer Frank Ury co-wrote Prop 226.

So who are these three women who came close to wrecking the Westminster School District?  What are their backgrounds and qualifications?  Who are Helena Rutkowski, Judy Ahrens and Blossie Marquez-Woodcock? 

Helena Rutkowski seems to be a protege of the Educational Alliance, first being elected to the Westminster School District Board in 1996.  I believe her term expires at the end of this year.  She has taken her duties seriously, and was re-elected in 2000 with  27.1% of the vote in 2000 (defeating, by the way, Judy Ahrens).  She graduated  from a demanding course called Masters In Government offered by the California School Boards Association.  I was not able to find a biography for her; according to an article written by Joel Rubin and published in the L.A. Times on March 29, 2004 (caution, LA Times link-rot seems to be rampant):

Polish-born Rutkowski, 66, came to the United States as a child and describes herself as a devout Catholic. An architect's widow who worked part time as a teacher's assistant, she is completing her eighth year on the school board.
[snip]

While she did take her board duties seriously, she also had a little problem keeping her far-right, devout Catholic ideology out of her school board decision making (again from the March 29, 2004 Rubin piece):

In an interview, she described the district teachers union as a "communist" group that is "against any mention of God" and which has infused the district with a decidedly anti-Christian bias.

In 2000, at Rutkowski's urging, the district purchased more library books on various religions to balance what she said was an over-representation of Judaism in the classroom. And during her two terms as trustee, Rutkowski has called repeatedly for spring vacation to be scheduled just before Easter, so Christian students can more easily observe the rites of Holy Week.

"I am not here to promote Christianity or my beliefs," Rutkowski said, "but I will stand up to people when they ignore what I believe."

In 2000, the board had two vacancies and had to appoint two members.  One was Blossie Marquez-Woodcock, who is variously identified as "Blossie Marquez" and "Blossie Woodcock".  Marquez-Woodcock,  identified herself as having a master's in divinity.

Rev. Blossie A. Marquez, M.Div.
P.O. Box 843
Westminister,
CA
92684-0843
# Phone/Fax: 714-891-1934
Fee Range: No Response
Fee Negotiable: No Response
Denominational Affiliation: Non-Denominational

I was unable to determine which institution granted Rev. Marquez's divinity degree, or where she is a candidate for PhD.

The third, and strongest leader, of the group, is    Judy Ahrens.  At some point in the mid-1990s, she became a self-appointed critic of the school district, going to every meeting and questioning the board.  Ahrens, who has an Associate of Art (two-year degree) from a community college, is the widow of an aerospace engineer.  Evidently her knowledge of the public education system came from her son, who she removed from the public schools at the end of 6th grade, and her experience running a  small after school day-care program, which included helping with homework.  I could not determine from published reports why she  She ran for the school board twice before being elected in 2002, and was finally elected in 2003.  She described herself as a devout Lutheran.

Ahrens was very clear on her platform:

Judy said that she, if elected, will try to block the far-left agenda of the gay and lesbian community from getting a foothold in Westminster schools.  Westminster board members are slated to attend a California School Board Administrators convention to be held in Long Beach, Nov. 30-Dec. 2 of this year.  Part of the agenda is the "Gay and Lesbian Inclusive Curriculum" that the Gays plan to bring into local schools.  This clinic is set for Dec. 1,  3:15 to 5:15 p.m.

Another of the critical conferences being promoted at the convention is the topic- "Meeting the Needs of Gay and Lesbian Members of the Education Community," Dec. 1,  10:15 to 11:30 a.m., an over view addressing the needs of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender students, staff, and parents.

According to The League of Women Voters it was a close race, with Woodcock winning by 342 votes and Ahrens winning by 291 votes (defeating the incumbent and a challenger).

Ms. Ahrens does not seem to understand the limitations and demands set upon an elected school board member:

Perhaps the harshest critic has been school board President James Reed: "If you are an advocate of public education, what possible justification could you have for saying this [funding] is not important? They are being bigoted against these protected classes  because they don't like them."

Reed expressed surprise that Marquez-Woodcock and Rutkowski had aligned themselves with Ahrens. Reed depicted Ahrens as an unqualified trustee who has repeatedly violated district policies by arriving unannounced for campus inspections and making public statements on behalf of the district.

"My view is that she is doing everything she can to be disruptive and detrimental to the district," Reed said. "I do not think she should be a board member."

Ahrens dismisses her critics and accuses the district of using the possible funding loss as part of "a campaign of scare tactics" to deceive district parents.

Ahrens previously opposed supporting early childhood education (preschools); opposed the use of district money for severely disabled students (as required by law), and opposed accepting state funding for classroom technology, and opposed the district's drug education program.

Ahrens found a hot issue, though, with the gender language.  She was able to convince Marquez-Woodcock and Rutkowski to threaten the district.  They convened a meeting that may have violated the Brown Act (meaning having a secret, strategic meeting without the other board members) and convened an emergency meeting, at which hey fired the long-time school board attorney, and hired Mark Bucher.

Bucher is co-founder of the Education Alliance, a group that in the late 1990s enjoyed success in getting conservative candidates elected to various Orange County school boards. The alliance has made campaign contributions to Ahrens in the past, according to campaign finance documents filed with the county.

Bucher's group, the Education Alliance, supported Rutkowski and Ahrens in their elections to the board. Bucher founded the group that successfully campaigned for board members who favored back-to-basics education and fought teacher unions. In recent years, many of those board members were not re-elected and the group is now dormant, although there there is another PAC, Family Action, which is a Southern California, anti-abortion, pro-gun group, which is headed by or has ties to Larry Smith, president of MHI Real Estate in Newport Beach, who is a big donor to conservative causes. 

Bucher denied that his hiring had anything to do with political ties.

Yeah, right.  Bucher has parlayed the Educational Alliance background into real money.   Bucher, through the Education Alliance,  had previously worked on the campaigns to elect the "back to basics" board members Martin Jacobson, Linda Davis and Maureen Aschoff.

According to the Orange County Weekly, the Jacobson/Davis/Aschoff team almost succeeded in meeting the Christian Reconstructionist goal of closing public schools:

Board critics consider the most recent proposal another move in the board's ongoing campaign to destroy OC's third-largest school district from the inside....[Rossman] fears the board is trying to undermine traditional public education and replace it with school vouchers and privatization.

In 1999, some students at El Modena High School (in the Orange Unified School District) wanted to start a Gay-Straight Alliance (in existence at hundreds of high schools around the country).  The board refused, which started an expensive lawsuit.

At a board meeting later that month, board member Bill Lewis said, "The Bible says we're all sinners, but this, in my opinion, is asking us to legitimize sin." Board member Linda Davis said, "We know the law is on their side, but our community members don't want it."

Bad move, Ms. Davis.  The law eventually found for the students--but at what monetary cost to the district?

Bucher said he has experience with these matters, specifically in Orange Unified, where he was hired by some school board members that he helped elect. [snip] In 2001, parents and teachers launched a recall election against Martin Jacobson, Linda Davis and Maureen Aschoff.

Mark Bucher
President & Chief Executive Officer
Employers Resource
18001 Irvine Blvd
Suite 101
Tustin, CA 92780-3338
(714) 573-2201
(714) 619-6878 fax
http://employers-resource.com/root2/html/index.html

voted 3-2 to adopt its own policy, claiming that state-mandated protection for transgender students is immoral.

The district's new policy says that the "perception of the alleged victim is not relevant to the determination of 'gender.' ... It is the perception of the alleged discriminator which is relevant."

The policy differs from the one accepted by the other 1,400 districts in the state, said district spokeswoman Trish Montgomery. The majority of Westminster trustees "don't want to give the person the right to define their own sex," she said.

Trustee JoAnn Purcell, who along with board President James Reed has voted consistently against the majority on the issue, said that if O'Connell approves Westminster's new wording, it will "open the door to a lot more problems." She and Reed both want the state to take over the district.

"We're hoping upon hope that Jack O'Connell or Senator Dunn will move as swiftly as possible to do away with the board," she said. "We're concerned about more irresponsible behavior by these three. They're not friends of public school education, and Mrs. Ahrens would probably put us back about 50 years in civil rights."

I am wondering what the people who voted for Ahrens under her back-to-basics banner are regretting their vote. 

More here:

http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/000587.html
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2004/04/beliefs_collidi.html
http://www.chalcedon.edu/
http://www.chalcedon.edu/articles/0402/040216duigon.shtml
http://www.painfullycool.com/shelli/archive/2004_04.html#001179
http://www.casafeschools.org/
http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=89778&section=LOCAL&subsection=LOCAL&year=2004&month=4&day=10

Comments

[liz]

Ms. Frizzle is going to the Women's March, and has a great reflection on the importance of early sex ed teaching here

http://msfrizzle.blogspot.com/2004_04_01_msfrizzle_archive.html#108259121498161786

[liz]

But wait, there's more:
Son plans Documentary April 27, 2004

ORANGE COUNTY
A Film on School Board Fracas by One Who's Close to Subject
Documentary on Westminster's war over gender, bias and religion is being made by the sympathetic son of a criticized trustee.

In Westminster, where a divided school board has incensed residents over the role of religious beliefs in public policy, a budding filmmaker has a unique perspective on the acrimony.

Mark Ahrens, a 19-year-old student at USC, has been recording recent school board meetings with his $2,500 video camera.

For several weeks, a three-member majority in Westminster had refused to adopt a required state antidiscrimination policy that allows students and teachers to define their gender regardless of their biological sex. Ahrens has been there to record every boo, clap, insult and bravo. He wants to turn the footage into a documentary.

If his name sounds familiar, it's because Mark is the son of Judy Ahrens, one of the Westminster School District trustees at the center of the dispute.

His project began on a whim, an antidote to homework. He arrived five minutes before the start of the April 1 school board meeting, for which nearly 1,000 people packed into a stuffy middle school gymnasium.

"I was filming it for records' sake, but then I saw all these people getting angry outside and I thought there was some drama," he said.

The meeting centered on the wording of a law meant to protect students and staff from discrimination.

At the meeting, speaker after speaker castigated the three trustees — Ahrens, Helena Rutkowski and Blossie Marquez-Woodcock — who make up a majority on the five-member board and who refused to adopt the state language because it offended their Christian beliefs. They said the state policy could lead to promotion of a transsexual agenda in the classroom, cross-dressing on campus and boys and girls mixing in school bathrooms.

The speakers said basing the decision on religious views was grossly improper and noted that it put state funding for the cash-strapped district in jeopardy. A handful of supporters applauded the three for sticking to their beliefs.

On April 19, California Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell grudgingly agreed to the board's revised definition in the antidiscrimination policy, which among other provisions, makes clear that the "perception of the alleged victim is not relevant to the determination of 'gender.' "

"It's hard on my mom," Mark Ahrens said. "It hurts because the public has misunderstood her motives."

He has recorded five hours of footage so far. There's no timeline for when the documentary will be completed, but in a 10-step process, Ahrens estimates that the film is at Step Four

"I'm proud to see him use his talents," Judy Ahrens said. "I'm glad he is interested in California education and hope his documentary will make viewers more astute to their local school district issues."

Though his mother is a principal subject, Ahrens says he hopes to keep the film fair and balanced. James Reed, president of the school board and one of the two trustees who wanted to the district to follow the state policy, has agreed to an on-camera interview.

"I'm going to try to show everything I've witnessed," Mark Ahrens said. "I have on tape a lot more negatives than positives, so how can I be biased?"

But attempts at neutrality are not without trial and error.

At the April 1 meeting, Ahrens approached several transgender speakers who addressed the trustees but was denied interviews. He had forgotten to remove a sticker on his shirt: "I Support the Board."

Judy Ahrens said that though her son has unfettered access to both sides, "it will be very challenging for him to be unbiased because he respects my perseverance to stand for the sake of the kids."

Mark Ahrens, whose conservative political leanings mirror his mother's, attended Concordia University in Irvine for three semesters because "my mom was worried about liberal professors implanting their philosophies in their teachings."

Now a sophomore at USC, Ahrens hopes to be accepted by its School of Cinema-Television and eventually produce Hollywood blockbusters.

"When I ask questions in class, I go to him," said USC professor Drew Casper, who teaches Ahrens' film studies class. "He's a very bright student, sits in the front row and [is] very attentive to the film."

Ahrens would like to see his documentary shown on television. Already, he is brainstorming for a title.

With "The Passion of the Christ" playing in theaters, a neighbor suggested "The Passion of Judy Ahrens" or "The Passion of the Three." But Ahrens didn't like the religious connotation. He is considering "Kangaroo Court."

More important, Ahrens said, he would like to see a Hollywood ending. He said he will be there Thursday for a recall rally at Westminster Manor against his mother and Marquez-Woodcock. Rutkowski is not targeted because her term ends in November anyway.

"I'd like to see my mom and [Marquez-Woodcock] survive the recall," Ahrens said. "I'd also like to see other districts change their policy and update it to this one. I'd like to see a shock wave sent out."

[john cummins]

I'm very glad to join the North bunch and call for the immediate Separation of State from School in the elimination of the State, Government run schools, the sooner the better.