More than a dozen Shasta school board candidates have been endorsed by Moms for Liberty
The candidates are running for a range of school boards, including the Shasta County Office of Education. Shasta Scout unpacks what a Moms for Liberty endorsement means and why it matters.
On Oct. 2, Anderson City Council member and former Anderson Union High School District Board member Darin Hale released a slate of endorsements for Shasta County school boards.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Hale wrote on Facebook, “Shasta County is proud to announce your 2026 Countywide School Board Candidate Lineup. The largest school board endorsement campaign in county history.”
The posting tagged the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national advocacy group with a focus on “parental rights,” a term that reflects its opposition to inclusion books and policies that affirm the identities of gay and transgender children.
Hale said in his post that local candidates had gone through a “rigorous process of questions and interviews” to gain the endorsement.
“They have all stood before crowds of people and spoke clearly why they chose to run for their local school board,” Hale said. “Each candidate has also shown their commitment to help our kids succeed, support educators, and uphold the rights of the parents by signing the M4L Parent Pledge.”
The pledge, which has also been signed by a number of national political figures, includes a commitment to “honor the fundamental rights of parents” to “direct the education, medical care, and moral upbringing of their children,” something the Constitution already safeguards. M4L supporters also pledge to advance policies that “defend against governmental overreach.”
According to Hale, the process of choosing which candidates would receive the endorsements of Shasta’s local chapter of M4L involved a months-long process. He thanked the other members of the local chapter’s executive board, which he said included Authur Gorman, Katie Gorman, Leslie Sawyer, Michele Tyson, and Jackie LaBarbera. He also encouraged readers of his post to consider running for school boards in order to “take back our [school] boards 1 SEAT AT A TIME.”
Hale served on the board of the Anderson Union High School District in 2024, where he worked with fellow former AUHSD board member Jackie LaBarbera to file a “parental rights” lawsuit against the state. The suit aimed to reverse the SAFETY Act, a state law that prohibits school districts from requiring staff to automatically notify parents when a child asks to be referred to by a different name or pronouns at school.
Last fall, Hale faced pushback when he released an AI-generated campaign video for his now-failed run for state assembly showing himself throwing a teacher from a window. He told a reporter at the time that the video represented his frustration with “woke ideology being forced on our kids in the classroom.”
Other executive committee members of the local chapter of M4L have also made headlines related to their roles in education.
LaBarbera has sat on the AUHSD Board since 2022. In 2023, she was also elected to sit on the SCOE Board, prompting pushback from community members over her dual roles. She stepped down from AUHSD just last month after facing a second threatened lawsuit over continuing to hold both seats.
Sawyer is a political activist associated with Mountain Top Media. She was also a plaintiff in AUHSD’s suit against the state over parental rights despite not having any children attending school in the district at the time.
Read on to learn more about the candidates being endorsed for a number of different school districts across Shasta.
Shasta County Office of Education
For SCOE’s Board, Shasta’s chapter of Moms for Liberty has endorsed Moms for Liberty executive committee members Gorman and Tyson, along with incumbent board member Teresa Roberts.
Gorman, who’s sat on SCOE since 2022, is a father, youth sports volunteer and registered nurse who describes his priorities as academic excellence, parental partnership and accountability. He faced public calls for censure after intentionally misgendering a parent when she spoke during public comment at a board meeting. That parent, Bobbie Simpson, went on to win her race for a position on the Gateway Unified School Board, becoming the first openly transgender person to serve on a school board in California. Gorman has also pushed to pass policies that contradict state law, including one related to access to menstrual products.
Roberts is a local mother and business person with a “passion for troubled youth” who has sat on the SCOE Board with Gorman since 2022. During a recent public comment at a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting, Roberts said she’s taught her boys was to “watch out for the girls, because they can be the most vindictive, backstabbing, vicious creatures.”
Tyson is an election activist who was hired by Shasta Registrar of Voters’ Clint Curtis and is currently Shasta’s poll worker coordinator. Her platform includes a focus on parental rights, safe schools and responsible spending.
Anderson Union High School District
For AUHSD, the local chapter of Moms for Liberty is endorsing Dan Scoville, Hellen Meade and Charley Hawkins.
Scoville is the leader of the Cottonwood Militia. Along with other militia members, he runs an annual summer camp for boys.
Meade is the owner of Event Execs, a business-oriented event planning company.
Hawkins’ Facebook page describes him as a digital creator.
Gateway Unified School District
For the Gateway Unified School District, the local chapter of Moms for Liberty is endorsing Linda Glass and Camille King.
Glass is a retired art teacher and an election activist. In a March comment to Shasta supervisors, Glass referred to an anonymous lawsuit over Measure B as “an attempted lynching by a covert traitor.”
King is a local mother who has worked in retail management. In a previous candidate interview with Shasta Scout, she said that her kids attend private schools due to her concerns about state policies, calling herself a “person of conviction.”
Happy Valley Union School District
For the Happy Valley Union School District, Moms for Liberty is endorsing Steven Joseph and John Hartman.
Joseph is a Happy Valley parent with deep family roots in the school district. “My dad attended the elementary school the first year it was opened on Palm Avenue in 1954,” he said in a social media post. “I graduated from Happy Valley Elementary School, as did my kids. Now three of my grandkids are students there.”
Hartman is a Happy Valley parent, running on a platform of protecting parental rights and student safety.
Red Bluff Elementary School District
For the Red Bluff Union Elementary School District, Shasta’s branch of Moms for Liberty is endorsing Josei Barnard De Alvarez, an educational advocate with a bachelor’s from California State University, Chico.
Pacheco Union School District
For the Pacheco Union School District, the local branch of Moms for Liberty is endorsing William Woodbury.
Bella Vista Elementary School District
For the Bella Vista Elementary School District, the local branch of Moms for Liberty is endorsing Paul Goedecke, the owner of Key Consulting.
Redding Area School District
For the Redding Area School District, the local branch of Moms for Liberty is endorsing Sanny Ong, a local entrepreneur with roots in teaching, according to her website.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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For future elections: If possible, this information would be helpful to have earlier in the process than the day before ballots are due. The Moms for Liberty aspect is a key deciding factor, and these school board candidates can be hard to research since they often fly under the radar. A lot of us voted early this year and had to guess, ask around, or leave these races blank.
K: We hear you and will work on it.
Annelise: You folks have done outstanding work this election cycle. I have lived in Redding for 44 years and can honestly say this is the best local election information I can remember. Proof of the pudding is the howls of the tinfoil hat set over your reporting. Many thanks.
Selah
Norcal Gary: Hearing that we’re providing strong local information means a tremendous amount to me and my team. Thank you.
Already turned in my ballot, so this would have been handy info a few days ago. No matter, I managed to avoid voting for any of them. The M4L extremists are the zebra mussels of the political scene. The sooner they’re cleaned out, the better.
Selah
Thanks for the primer on who not to vote for. I dropped off my ballot more than a week ago but managed to avoid every name Hale mentioned that was on it.
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If you’ve never seen that AI-generated campaign video, you should take a look. It’s among the most chicken-shit things I’ve ever seen. He depicts himself as a jacked-up dude throwing a frail female teacher out of an upper-story classroom window, likely to her death. He defends it as just a metaphor. Regardless, it argues for might-makes-right violence as the arbiter of political disagreements.
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Whether it’s the fantasy of a muscle-bound AI version of yourself throwing a small woman head-first out of a building to her death, or the reality of the Jan 6 rioters outnumbering the Capital Police 100+ to 1, or pointing a gun at an unarmed person over a petty disagreement, or showing up at a protest comprised mostly of senior citizens wearing leather fighting gloves, these pathetic cowards make sure every fight is asymmetrical.
They also keep up the chicken shit with smears, gaslighting (I did not touch you), imbecilic convoluted monologues, etc. Brain-damaged by nature, in the way of being jealous and hateful. Even the dummies of this kind scheme.
The rightward versions are getting their asses handed to them tonight. Good. Hopefully the lefty versions are kept out of things. We’ve squandered enough time.
“Moms For Liberty are for liberty like the “Freedom Coalition” was for freedom…
When you report your one sided negative review of patriot candidates, who believe in the constitution, you are already showing that you are not a professional journalist who presents ALL of facts to let the public make up their own mind.
Lindia, you don’t give your full name, but perhaps you are associated with the Moms For Liberty group, or the Republican Party Central Committee, and perhaps you want dialogue? Again, my questions are:
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Why would we want representatives of an organization with well-documented ties to defending or providing platforms for people and material associated with Holocaust denial, with documented participation in and endorsement of Nazi, white-nationalist, and anti-Semitic activities, and with documented ties to pro-slavery revisionist history, to take over Shasta County Schools? I say Moms for Liberty want to control our schools to indoctrinate and normalize kids to Putin-Trumpist-style fascism.
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Linda, did you know that, like Trump and his family and administration, some senior Moms for Liberty officials have well-documented connections to international political networks tied to Putin-aligned organizations and individuals? Do you know polling shows 45% of Americans believe Donald Trump sympathizes more with Russia than with Ukraine (Reuters/Ipsos, March 2025), and 59% of Americans say he is aligned with Putin (Pew Research, April 2025)? Is that what you want to teach our kids in schools? you want the United States to be ruled by Putin-style governance?
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Why would we want representatives of an organization with deep, well-documented ties to Christian white nationalists, that opposes LGBTQ and women’s equality, that includes well-documented election deniers who publicly promoted false claims about election fraud or the legitimacy of certified election results, and that includes leaders who are anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists and have ties and working relationships with January 6 participants, Proud Boys members, Oath Keepers, and other extremist organizations and militias, to take over Shasta County schools? Again, I say to indoctrinate and normalize kids to Trumpist-style fascism.
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Like Nazis, little to none of the above is patriotic, and some of it is unconstitutional. If you need a list of well-documented, reputable sources, I can send one.
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I think that Moms For Liberty sees Shasat County as low-hanging fruit, ready for Trumpian-Bannon-Moms For Liberty indoctrination.
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If you or any of the Moms For Liberty group want to debate in a public forum, please, by all means, bring it on; let’s do it; bring Gorman, bring your best! Spouting off in SCBOS Meetings or behind the keyboard is one thing, but it takes money to buy beer. Again, we don’t live in a militia compound; we live in Shasta County, California, United States of America.
Your hyper-defensiveness is telling, Linda Glass. Nothing in the article could be viewed as a negative characterization unless you’re admitting that many of the positions advocated by you “patriots” are inherently noxious. Were you misquoted regarding your “…attempted lynching by a covert traitor…” comment? Taken out of context?
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You said: “…let the public make up their own mind.” News flash: Members of the public get to make up their own minds regardless of what’s posted on Shasta Scout. Nobody at Shasta Scout is compelling either of us to do anything. If you think important facts are missing from the article, you are free to use the comments section to enlighten us, rather than just piss and moan about how unfairly life treats you.
“Patriot” candidates?
THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT SAY “Single out children, parents, and teachers in public schools and vilify and exclude them from those same institutions of learning.” WE the People” NOT “Only the People I agree with”. Shame on M4L for using our Constitution to promote hate, division, exclusion and a twisted sense of moral superiority. I have a gay child. As a MOM who actually believes in our Constitution, M4L are not patriots, they’re Bigots.
Preach sister.
Selah
“Patriots?” Lmao
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I would call them the complete opposite of true patriots.
Probably time to get new Reynolds Wrap for your haberdashery collection.
Selah
And I thought my mother was a WHAKKK JOB!!!
Who besides Mike Gallagher for county board district 5 is Bethel?
Shasta Scout, thanks for the important article. Since it’s voting day, remember Steve Bannon, an early supporter who helped grow and promote Moms For Liberty and also told Trump to order the military to occupy polling places, seize ballots, and, if necessary, prevent election results from being certified or implemented. Although most of us voted before this important article, the “why it matters” remains very important, and the question is:
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1. Why would we want representatives of an organization with deep, well-documented ties to defending or providing platforms for people and material associated with Holocaust denial, with documented participation in and endorsement of Nazi, white-nationalist, and anti-Semitic activities, and with documented ties to pro-slavery revisionist history, to take over Shasta County Schools?
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2. Unless you live in an extremist militia compound in Idaho, why would you want representatives of an organization with deep, well-documented ties to Christian white nationalists, that opposes LGBTQ and women’s equality, that includes documented election deniers who publicly promoted false claims about election fraud or the legitimacy of certified election results, and that includes leaders who are anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists and have ties and working relationships with January 6 participants, Proud Boys members, Oath Keepers, and other extremist organizations and militias, to take over Shasta County schools? We don’t live in a militia compound; we live in Shasta County, California, United States of America.
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Although he was not a founder of Moms for Liberty, he enthusiastically helped promote and expand the organization early on, encouraging viewers and members to establish local chapters. He has repeatedly described taking control of school boards as an extreme far-right political strategy.
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Moms for Liberty is a political org that uses education to indoctrinate children into its social-political platform of documented racism, sexism, white Christofascism, and Trumpian wannabe-fascism. Do we really need an org like Moms for Liberty, molding schoolchildren into ignorant, racist, sexist, and violent proud boys and girls, into the New Trumpian Brown Shirts?