The Wilson County Board of Education (WCBOE) Ethics Committee in Tennessee dismissed most of the complaints from nine parents and community members against retired Marine Joe Padilla, who won his Zone 4 seat in August along with three other conservative Republicans.
One speaker at the ethics committee meeting held Thursday evening, accused Padilla of posting to his Facebook account that he disagrees with transgender hormone drugs and surgeries for minors, claiming such a post constitutes “propping up right-wing talking points.”
Erin Moore read her prepared complaint at Wilson County Board of Education Ethics Committee Meeting:
On October 17, Mr. Padilla posted on his official board Facebook page, “I will never support any medical procedures that have not been fully researched to know what long-term side effects might be.”
These personal opinions were stated in conjunction with a biased personal update from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare decisions regarding gender-affirming care and a letter from the Tennessee attorney general to Attorney General Merrick Garland that intentionally misrepresents the requests of several medical groups for Garland to investigate threats of violence and slander [unintelligible] children’s healthcare providers. By posting on his official Wilson County School Board Facebook page that he is against gender-affirming treatments and painting them as experimental, he is propping up right-wing talking points and an anti-transgender agenda. Personal medical decisions taking place outside of school grounds are not something in which the board has ever been involved, nor should they ever be involved. This post was extremely inappropriate in that it used his public board position and platform to further a partisan agenda and target a specific student community.
Similarly, Sarah Moore complained that Padilla engaged in partisan politics on his Facebook page by congratulating Governor Bill Lee (R-TN), U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN), Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR), and other Republicans on their election victories.
In @WilsonK12Tn, we have a school board member specifically targeting our GLSEN club. Same guy who wants safe space stickers gone. He is trying to erase our LGBT kids. @momsforsj @TheTNHoller @VoteGloriaJ @WKRN @PFLAGNashville https://t.co/xoyU0pw9Ez
— Sarah Moore (@shmoore75) February 4, 2023
In an interview with The Tennessee Star Monday, Padilla explained most of the individuals who filed ethics complaints against him are “local parents” who “have some kind of tie or interest in promotion of LGBTQ and everything that’s against me as a conservative.”
Another individual claimed Padilla threatened him on Facebook and later filed a police report against him. No charges, however, were brought against Padilla, and the ethics complaint was dismissed.
Padilla said he believes the individuals who filed the complaints against him had been organizing to contrive their grievances even before he got elected.
The one ethics complaint against Padilla that was referred to be heard before the school board in March, for possible public censure, was that made by Melissa Prince, Green Hill High School’s Gay, Lesbian, Straight, Education Network (GLSEN) faculty sponsor, as indicated on the Wilson County Schools Green Hill website.
Prince complained Padilla shared a photo of her classroom to a media outlet without her permission.
A Facebook post on the account of Green Hill High School shows Prince’s name aside her classroom door containing multiple LGBTQ flags, banners, and other paraphernalia attached to it:
Prince was also mentioned as the faculty advisor for the GLSEN group by The Tennessean in 2015 as well.
According to Padilla, the photo he used is “a screenshot” of that same photo.
“So, this photo came from and is still on Green Hill High Schools official Facebook page,” he explained to The Tennessee Star. “Anybody can access this. She said I don’t even know where they got it from. She wanted to paint the picture that I’ve been to the school, I took the picture, and I gave it to the news reporter and I didn’t.”
Padilla’s older child graduated from one of the high schools in the district in 2020, while his younger son had been attending Green Hill High School, but transferred to a private Christian school after Joe Biden began threatening mandated COVID vaccines.
“That was a big issue with the election,” he noted. “Everyone wanted to say, ‘Your son doesn’t even go to our school; he goes to a private school.’”
“And then I just thank God I took him out because if my son was at a public school right now, do you know the scrutiny and the stuff he’d be going through because of this?” he said.
Padilla said he believes the school board, rather than principals and teachers, should decide whether LGBTQ flags, banners, “safe space” stickers, and other signs are placed in classrooms, and that these items should be placed in one space so that those students who want to look at them can do so on a voluntary basis:
When you have a kid come in and sit and look at that every day, I mean, these parents and these children they don’t want to be doxxed because that affects their grades, that affects them playing sports. So, they come to me with these pictures. I try to do something. And then the director says, “Well, no one’s complained about it.” Well, obviously no one’s complained about it. I’ve had teachers tell me that they’re being judged because they won’t put a sticker on their door. And if they say “no,” then they’re homophobic, or they don’t support trans. And if they say “yes,” now they have to put something on there. So, they’re in a conflict.
“My thing is every classroom should be a ‘safe space,’” Padilla said. “Every teacher should be safe. We shouldn’t have to designate, ‘Hey, this is a safe space.”
Padilla added one of the main issues with flooding classrooms with LGBTQ flags and banners is that they are promoted and provided by political activist organization GLSEN.
“They fought against and lobbied against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and they are against SROs [student resource officers] in our classrooms,” he said. “On their entire website it gives you directions on how to how to get things into the schools. They have campaigns where they see who can get the most teachers to put the stickers on their doors.”
“And I have a problem with GLSEN because that is a special interest group,” Padilla asserted.
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Joe Padilla” by Joseph A Padilla.
Go forth Mr. Padilla, you have our full support. You are exactly what is needed in the position.
I agree with Mr Padilla 100% LBGTQ is not a topic that needs to be included in our children’s school curriculum. Leave the sex BS away from schools. I’m sick of their bullying & attention getting efforts. They make everyone uncomfortable. Kids have a lot to learn to help them be productive citizens. This nonsense can wait until they are adults if they wish to learn about it. I really don’t like the idea that these Bullies should be trusted with children period
Its actually an excellent strategy….. i congratulate liberals on it and wish conservatives would play by the same rules…..
Make elections non partisan for school board is the only way liberals get elected ….. if they were actually hones about who they were and what they wanted to do …… they wouldn’t have a chance of election in a red state.
There is hardly a more intensely partisan organization then the teachers union….. which really adds to the brilliance of running as a non partisan with financial backing and organizing help from an openly highly partisan community….. i really admire their ability to “nudge” the system…… their word not mine!!
Let me get this straight. A complaint was made because he doesn’t support the mutilation of minors due to his stance that there are no long-term studies supporting the idea that these gender reassignment surgeries have any positive affect on mental health? That they actually do more harm than good? Where is the lie here? I personally commend Mr. Padilla for having the courage to state the obvious. Although it’s clear that the personal cost in doing so is very high, we all should be just as willing to step up to defend our young people from this government inflicted social contagion. Not denying that SOME people experience this, but shouldn’t we be asking ourselves why incidents of “gender dysphoria” have skyrocketed over the past few years? Perhaps it starts with something as seemingly innocent as like groups like GLSEN, who encourage young people to lie to their parents.
I encourage viewers to read this article written by a whistleblower who worked for four years as a case manager at a gender reassignment clinic. This person is also part of the LGBTQ community, and doesn’t quite fit the “right wing talking points” narrative. Important perspective to consider.
https://www.thefp.com/p/i-thought-i-was-saving-trans-kids
I sat through this “hearing”. Once it was determined that the ethics policy, noted by the Tennessee School Board Assoc. was only established to address financial misappropriation, this entire hearing should have been called off. If a new policy needed to be written then fine. But to put both Mr. Padilla, his family, and members of this community through a 5+ hr hearing regarding disputes of opinion was ridiculous. You cannot be tried for a thoughtcrime, yet, in these United States. It just proves ALL levels of government are lacking courageous leadership!
The militant left trying to ruin an innocent man’s life once again. Wanting to protect kids shouldn’t be political. What the story left out is this teacher was not notifying parents that their kids was attending her club during class room time which is required by the district. This GLSEN club is known for telling kids to keep it secret, not let their parents know. I think it’s the teacher that needs to be investigated not the school board member exposing it.
?He has the right to express his beliefs!