The Enemy Within

More Like Benedict Arnold

The booster club of a school named after a great American patriot promotes right-wing groups that seek to dismantle public education.

“One if by land, two if by sea”

- Henry Longfellow

As Los Angeles slogged through the depths of the COVID-19 crisis last spring, parents struggled through the challenges of getting the most out of online classes. Seeing the need for information about parent resources, room parents at Paul Revere Charter Middle School and Magnet Center sent out the following message from the PRIDE Booster Club board to their mailing lists:

Dear Parents,

Over the past few years, various organizations have arisen to try to give a more focused voice to LAUSD parents. In the interest of keeping you informed about broader activity that LAUSD parents may be interested in, we are providing you with a non-exhaustive list of those organizations below:

1) California Students United (CSU)

2) LA School Uprising

3) Open Schools CA

4) Reopen California Schools

5) Speak Up United Parents

6) Students First Coalition of Los Angeles

7) United Parents Los Angeles (UPLA)

Best,

PRIDE Board

As a non-profit organization with ties to the school district, PRIDE is supposed to be non-partisan. Yet, all seven of the organizations that they introduced to their parents were dedicated to immediately reopening school campuses despite the risk to BIPOC communities and teachers in high-risk groups during a public health crisis. Additionally, the groups are primarily focused on privatizing public education and other right-wing ideals such as:

• Cal Students United is a group of parents who sued the LAUSD in an attempt to force the district to not only open school campuses but to eliminate many safety measures including testing of students and social distancing. In a recent Zoom that CS United hosted for Nick Melvoin, they also pushed the lie that…