Arizona police have begun an investigation into allegations against a school board president who is allegedly keeping a dossier on anti-critical race theory and anti-mask mandate parents.
On Saturday, officials with the Scottsdale Police Department said they were looking into Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) President Jann-Michael Greenburg, who is believed to be keeping such a dossier against outspoken parents who have criticized the school's policies.
"We are conducting an investigation into the matter and will report our findings once it is complete," the Arizona police said in a short statement, as reported by the New York Post. The allegations sprung after Superintendent Scott Menzel confirmed on Friday that Greenburg, who is an attorney and business executive, had mistakenly shared the Google drive folder containing information about the parents.
AP News reported that the dossier, including photos, personal finances, divorce decrees, property records, and even Social Security numbers of the parents, was allegedly made by Greenburg's father, but that he had helped maintain it. Police are now looking into whether school resources were used in the establishment of the dossier on certain parents in the school district. Menzel said that the school district itself was not involved in the dossier and that student records or any information on the kids were not included in the database.
The dossier was discovered when Greenburg sent a link to the Google Drive to parent Kim Stafford by mistake. Stafford noticed that the link in the screenshot attached to Greenburg's email and shared it with other parents. The folder was found to have information on up to 50 parents in the school district, with some folders labeled "SUSD Wackos," "Anti Mask Lunatics," and "Press Conference Psychos."
According to the police statement, "The information it contains appears to be largely from public documents, and parents are rightly upset that certain data, photography and video has been collected and shared." The police assured that the Scottsdale Unified School District staff would "report any suspicious behavior, such as taking photographs of parents, staff or students, on or adjacent to school property, to the appropriate security or law enforcement agency."
Since the dossier on anti-CRT parents has been publicized, hundreds of parents and community members in the school district have signed a petition demanding Greenburg to resign from the board.
In the past few months, school boards have become ground zero for parents to fight back against school districts that push critical race theory, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and other measures in public schools. Dubbed the "culture wars," the battle to keep CRT outside classrooms has ravaged across different states in the U.S. And the parents are winning.
NBC News reported earlier this year that the New York-based political action committee The 1776 Project PAC raised over $437,880 in contributions to help support conservative school board candidates, most of which eventually won. The group said that the candidates they supported have won 44 of 58 races, including school districts in Colorado, New Jersey and Virginia.
Meanwhile, the Florida-based Moms for Liberty, which has 145 chapters across 32 states, have backed Republican Republican Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, who made the fight against critical race theory a key campaign issue in his race for the governor's seat, which he eventually won.
"This movement started in our own backyards, in our school districts and will continue to grow all the way up the ballot," Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice said in an email. "Parents are going to right this ship and this election was only the beginning. 2022 will be the year of the parent at the ballot box."
