Redlands Unified School District, and parents of children in the school district, have been the target of extremist groups within the last year. Their October 2022 school board meeting was of particular interest to extremist. It attracted hundreds of people, including far-right extremist groups like the Proud Boys, LEXIT, Gays Against Groomers (GAG) and other White supremacist groups . A large portion of attendees were parents who were in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
RUSD became a target after a community event unrelated to RUSD, that took place in downtown Redlands on October 8, 2022 happened to have a drag queen perform. This sparked a chain reaction of fake outrage that began and was perpetuated by failed RUSD School Board Candidate Erin Stepien.
The October RUSD School Board meeting was full of drama, and many of the far right radical extremists who were in attendance were brought there by Erin Stepien and her campaign. This video shows just a snippet of the events that took place that night. Sylvie Araujo, a violent member of LEXIT, can be seen aggressively taunting a Redlands school parent. Araujo doesn’t have any children in the RUSD. In fact, not one of the extremists, including Stepien herself, has ANY children in the RUSD.
Erin Stepien was recruited to run for RUSD trustee as a puppet candidate by far right local groups like Redlands Tea Party Patriots and San Bernadino County Patriots. Stepien’s campaign focused on culture war issues like CRT, Vaccines and masks, and anti-LGBTQi recognition within schools.
The attention Stepien brought to Redlands did not end after the October school board meeting. Gays Against Groomers extremist member Frank Rodriguez took a personal interest in terrorizing Redlands inhabitants, claiming he was going to run for city council and verbally attacking the Redlands parents group Safe Redlands Schools.
Safe Redlands Schools was formed in response to attempted far right school board infiltration, and is a “community of antifascist parents organizing for student and community safety against attacks by anti-lgbtq+ white supremacist bad actors emboldened by the Trump era to destabilize our public schools.”
In December, a Redlands City Council meeting was bombarded with some of the same characters seen in October, like Proud Boy Louis Flores and GAG members Mario Estrada and Frank Rodriguez. Jennifer Stillwell from Mom Army and a few random larpers also joined. The meeting was used by extremists to push anti-transgender rhetoric.
December Redlands City Council meeting. Frank Rodriguez threatens an RUSD parent with information about where she lives. Video courtesy @Skyspider_
An advertisment put out by republican latino organization LEXIT, calling for extremists to show up to the the October 2022 RUSD School Board meeting.
Looking Ahead for RUSD
Erin Stepien lost her election, and for now the RUSD Board of Education is composed of moderates who respect the values and the will of the majority of parents in the RUSD. This school district is unique, in that it is one of the few being targeted that does not have a large church or Christian nationalist influencer behind the efforts. What it does have is large donors like Dale Broome, who is a prominent member of the Redlands Tea Party Patriots. It is reported that he donated a whopping 400,000 to an anti- public education group called Californians for School Choice, and also helped fund Erin Stepien’s campaign. A new election cycle will begin soon for the 2024 school board positions, and S.C.E.W. will be in touch with local activists to report on it.