OAN Deven Berryhill
UPDATED 3:00 PM PT – Monday, March 6, 2023
Arizona Christian University President Len Munsil fired back at the Washington Elementary School Board for their decision to end an 11-year contact calling it “wrong” and “unlawful.”
“The school board’s recent decision to ban ACU students from serving as student teachers was done for one reason only: our university’s commitment to our Christian convictions,” President Munsil said in a statement on Monday to The Christian Post. “That’s wrong, it’s unlawful, and it will only hurt the district’s students.”
During a district council meeting last week, Arizona school board member Tamillia Valenzuela argued before the district council that they should deny a request from ACU to renew the 11-year-long teacher hiring contract. She said that the renewal could have negative effects on “herself and the other two board members who are a part of the LGBTQ community.”
Valenzuela said on camera that she felt that she and the other “queer kids” in her district would be in “personal danger” if they used ACU graduates.
Arizona school board votes to stop hiring teachers from Christian university, argues its beliefs about marriage make people unsafe. pic.twitter.com/b4WzfKSXTg
— Crisis in the Classroom (@CITClassroom) March 5, 2023
President Munsil also stated that ACU has never had any problems with their student teachers and the Arizona school district. He claimed that more than 100 ACU graduates have been placed in full time teaching positions during the 11-year-old partnership.
Munsil pointed out that many administrators in the Washington Elementary School District in Arizona have requested ACU graduates for teaching and administrative positions due to their excellent quality.
“The American Council is committed to pour financial resources into the Washington Elementary School District School Board Race in 2024 to elect competent, balanced, and family-centered leaders who focus on education and not politics,” Tanner DiBella, president and chairman of the American Council said in a tweet. “Religious liberty and freedom of conscience are bedrock American principles. We are exploring our options to defend the rights of our students.”
One school member said they would refuse to hire teachers from Arizona Christian University because it would open up kids to proselytizing. Yes… it would surround kids with educators who value love, kindness, goodness, morality, integrity, and peace.
The American Council is… https://t.co/0BC1JsCy3x pic.twitter.com/UCOKXJ11pw
