More than a dozen Shasta school board candidates have been endorsed by Moms for Liberty

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 in school of 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 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 Authur Gorman and Michele 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, Bobbie Simpson, when she spoke during public comment at a board meeting. She 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. 

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