How the religious right could take over one Placer County school district this fall
Of the candidates running for three open seats on the five-member board of the Eureka Union School District, which includes elementary and middle schools in Roseville and Granite Bay, three are running as a slate promising to preserve parental rights. But what exactly does that mean?
“Parental rights,” a phrase that has grown in popularity throughout Placer County during the pandemic, is shorthand for opposition to everything from school masking and vaccine requirements to coursework perceived to promote “critical race theory” by dealing with matters of race or diversity. It’s not exactly parental rights so much as it is the supposed right of a subset of parents and others to impose their particular beliefs on a public school system.
“There is a contingent in Placer that feels very strongly that matters around health and safety are a personal decision for parents and students,” said Phil Escamilla, one of the school board candidates running on the slate. “There is a strong movement in support of opposing mandates and supporting individual choice.”
Escamilla is the vice president of academic affairs at William Jessup University, a private Christian college in Rocklin that has been accused of homophobia. Also running on the slate are orthopedic surgeon Robert Jamieson, an outspoken opponent of so-called critical race theory, and district parent Erin Grover, a real estate agent and former daycare operator.
All three candidates have been endorsed by the local Christian advocacy group the American Council, which promotes a “biblical worldview” and collaborates closely with Destiny, Rocklin’s homophobic megachurch. Escamilla, Jamieson and Grover have all also been endorsed by Moms For Liberty Placer County, an anti-mask, anti-vaccination coalition of local parents known to spew misinformation at school board meetings.
Jeff Conklin can attest to the group’s antics. A Eureka Union school board member running for reelection, he has been on the receiving end of impassioned rants by Moms For Liberty members as well as threats from members of the public.
“I never expected to be called a Nazi,” Conklin said. “Never expected to have phone calls at home threatening to kill me or my wife. Never had people follow us. That happens now.”
Asked about his endorsements, Escamilla said he’s “happy” to be backed by the American Council.
“American Council … advocated for candidates that share a particular set of values, and if those values are about parent-teacher rights, the health and safety of kids, and academic excellence, I’m certainly in alignment with those,” Escamilla said in a recent interview.
But those are not the core values of the American Council. According to a recent Bee article, the group aims to register Christian voters and recruit, train and elect Christians to political office, particularly school boards, to push “biblical values.”
Also seeking a spot on the Eureka Union School Board is Navy veteran and former federal prosecutor Jon “J.R.” Parker.
“I’ll be a calm and rational voice on the board,” said Parker, now an attorney in private practice.
Parker said he doesn’t have a “laundry list of items” he wants to accomplish, which is not normally the sort of admission one hears or hopes for from a candidate for office. On the other hand, many voters might prefer a rational and modest school board member to the sort of reactionary activism being promised by the other newcomers.
Even if Parker and Conklin both end up on the board next year, at least one of the open seats will go to Escamilla, Grover or Jamieson. That means Eureka Union parents should be prepared to be vigilant that religious beliefs and conspiracy theories aren’t distorting decisions about their public schools and their children’s education.