(Headline USA) A California teachers union allegedly spied on parents who pushed for the state’s public schools to reopen during the pandemic, according to emails published by the New York Post.
The emails, obtained through a public records request, show the California Teachers Association hired a researcher to conduct opposition research on San Diego parents who had successfully sued the state to reopen schools in March 2021.
The union was hoping to uncover “some of the ideological leanings of groups that are funding the reopen lawsuits,” an email said.
“We have been collecting information and would be very happy to share/collaborate,” one of the union officials said in an email to opposition researcher Ann Swinburn. “May be please include another parent or two who have been monitoring and helping collect this information?”
At one point, Swinburn appeared to speculate that parent groups fighting to reopen California schools were being funded by right-wing groups.
In one Twitter post, for example, Swinburn shared a tweet that claimed the “sudden interest in school boards is not an organic grassroots movement of angry parents,” but is an “effort orchestrated by seasoned right-wing political operatives.”
The CTA researcher’s tweets are protected now, but older ones are available via an internet archive. Like these from Apr 1 & Oct 15 2021.
She seems convinced it was right-wing dark money instead a parents just wanting their kids in school & w/ normalcy. https://t.co/kpYBZETnCq pic.twitter.com/TlJEHfjyvZ
— Reopen California Schools (@ReopenCASchools) September 6, 2022
Another email shows a principal within the San Dieguito Union High School District was involved in the opposition research.
When union officials realized his involvement could be discovered in the process of the reopening lawsuit, someone suggested he delete the emails in which he was included.
🚨 BOMBSHELL 🚨
Newly PRA’d emails show @WeAreCTA conducted opposition research on school reopening parent groups during the school shutdowns in CA.
Then after a principal was accidentally CC’d, the “damage control” was asking him to illegally delete the email.
1/🧵 pic.twitter.com/uwbtdYnkpl
— Reopen California Schools (@ReopenCASchools) September 5, 2022
Allison Stratton, one of the founders of Parents Association, filed the public records request to obtain the emails because she suspected the school district was working with teachers union officials to spy on parents.
“We already suspected (it) because we see the same people show up at every school board meeting saying the same things, echoing what the union is saying. So, it’s not a surprise,” Stratton said. “They were working as hard as they could against parents who wanted school reopened.”
