A theocracy in Rocklin: School board president calls for ‘Christ centered’ parents | Opinion

A stunningly inappropriate Facebook post from Rocklin Unified School Board President Julie Leavens Hupp calling for “Christ centered” parents to join the district’s advisory committees is yet another example of the school board’s religious bias and its troubling penchant for blurring the lines between organized religion and a taxpayer-funded school district that should be secular.

It is also symptomatic of Placer County’s ongoing Christian nationalism problem.

Last week, Hupp posted on her official, political figure Facebook page — not her personal account — about work done by the Rocklin Unified School Board to “insist that important decisions (such as new curriculum) involve our parents.” Hupp’s decision to post her plea for Christian parents on her professional Facebook page is especially concerning as it shows that the school board president feels it appropriate to bring her personal religious beliefs into her professional role as an elected official for California’s public school system. California is not a theocracy, and religion does not belong in our government or our classrooms.

“We need as many Christ centered, family focused parents as we can get on those (advisory) committees,” Hupp wrote. “PLEASE take a look and see what you can commit to for the year. Thank you for your love and support! Together, we will keep our children safe and thriving!”

The post has so far generated more than 250 reactions and almost 400 comments — nearly all of which express concern and anger that a public official would blatantly call for the incorporation of Christian belief into the public school system. Neither Hupp nor RUSD spokesman Sundeep Dosanjh responded to requests for comment.

Hupp’s post raises the question of what, exactly, Rocklin’s schoolchildren need to be kept “safe” from. How would a “Christ-centered” education guarantee this? The answer lies in a so-called parental rights movement in Placer County that is less about rights and more about ideology.

Hupp is part of a conservative supermajority on the Rocklin Unified School Board that has championed “parental rights,” a conservative rallying cry “meant to empower a conservative and reactionary minority of parents to dictate education and curriculums to the rest of the community,” writes New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie.

Nationwide, “parental rights” have been used as an excuse to out non-binary and transgender students; censor reading material; remove curriculum about people of color and the LGBTQ+ community; and introduce Christian belief into the classroom.

Locally, the “parental rights” movement in Placer County has been bolstered by a new Christian advocacy group, the American Council, which endorses and funds candidates who align with the group’s core mission of promoting a “biblical worldview.” The American Council, which endorsed Hupp, gave her 2022 campaign for school board $3,000.

Christian nationalism

The American Council is also inextricably linked to Rocklin’s powerful megachurch, Destiny: Rocklin Unified School Board Member Tiffany Saathoff, who has said that the Bible and her Christian beliefs guide her decisions as an elected official as much as the law of the land, is a pastor at Destiny. In addition to the $4,700 Saathoff received from the American Council as part of her school board campaign, she also received $4,900 from Destiny Pastor Greg Fairrington. Locally, Fairrington has aggressively pushed “parental rights,” while also delivering sermons rife with homophobia and transphobia. He also consistently criticizes Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic party from his pulpit.

“Are we afraid of a vaccine, liberal school boards, racial social agendas, (critical race theory), LGBTQ agenda?” Fairrington asked his congregation in August of 2021. “The gender-neutral doctrine, anti-America, radical groups like Black Lives Matter?”

The ties between Destiny and elected officials in Placer County extend beyond the Rocklin Unified School Board. Saathoff, the Destiny pastor, is the chief of staff for California State Assemblyman Joe Patterson, who is pushing a trio of anti-transgender ballot initiatives that would force schools to notify parents if their child uses a different name or pronouns at school, block transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports programs and block transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming medical treatment.

Placer County residents are seeing the proliferation of the “parental rights” movement in our classrooms and the influence it’s having on our elected officials. The movement does not have the best interests of our children at heart — its success has come at the severe detriment of our students of color and LGBTQ+ youth.

Rocklin’s theocracy

Destiny Church, the American Council and its disciples, including Hupp, are flagrant proponents for Christian nationalism. They believe America should be a kind of Christian theocracy, wherein the lines separating church and state — a fundamental American right guaranteed in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment — are nonexistent.

Following widespread backlash against her Facebook post last week, Hupp posted again: “Yes, I asked for Christ loving individuals to join committees. … I also asked for family centered individuals and principle centered, loving people. All faiths and all child loving people are encouraged to sign up. The inclusion of one does not mean the exclusion of others.”

Yet Hupp’s original Facebook post specifically asked for “Christ centered” parents — not parents of all religious beliefs and backgrounds. In saying the quiet part out loud, Hupp revealed her school board’s agenda: religious bias that favors certain students, the antithesis of what an American public school education is supposed to be.

If Hupp wants Christian belief in her school curriculum, she belongs at one of the region’s many private Christian schools, not in Rocklin’s public school system that serves students and families of every faith and belief.

This story was originally published August 30, 2023 at 9:18 AM.