CA Teachers Union spied on parents who wanted schools to reopen during pandemic
SARA CARTER.com | September 8, 2022
Emails reveal a California teachers union spied on parents and attempted to find their “ideological” leanings who were fighting to reopen schools during the pandemic. Emails have surfaced which reveal the union was “conducting opposition research on parent groups fighting for schools to reopen during the height of the COVID pandemic” reports the New York Post.
The emails, obtained through a public records request, show the union was seeking to uncover “some of the ideological leaning of groups that are funding the reopen lawsuits.”
The New York Post reports:
The California Teachers Association (CTA) employed a researcher who emailed a parent arm of the local union in April 2021, hoping to dig up information on the motives of San Diego County parents who had successfully sued the state to reopen schools a month earlier…
The researcher, Ann Swinburn, appeared to at least speculate that the parent groups suing for California schools to reopen were funded by right-wing political groups and big money interests, according to archived tweets she shared.
A candidate for California superintendent of public instruction condemned the revelations in a statement to Fox News.
“Conducting opposition research is a common practice in political campaigns. But to have the teachers’ union dedicate personnel to politically target moms and dads protecting their own children and expressing their First Amendment rights is both startling and disgusting,” Lance Christensen told Fox News.
