Gold Country Media: You are propaganda and it’s sad
Gold Country Media's coverage of Rocklin teachers’ actions concerning parents right to know what is going on with their children has been horrid. Their reporting has read more like an activist newsletter and has not provided any coverage of any other angle than that LGBTQ people are oppressed, and that local school boards’ are taking transgender rights away and endangering kids with every decision they make.
Gold Country Media's portrayal of the Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ's “innovative youth drag show”, sold to the Placer Community via the Church’s mission "The Landing Spot” has been uniformly upbeat and supportive of their efforts. For three years, this fundraiser event featured high school boys donning dresses and performing burlesque routines for cash tips from a public audience. Horrifically, the Landing Spot and its church sponsor, Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ, were allowed to come onto 10 placer high school campuses and recruit boys to dance at the event- and that the boys were not required to have a signed parent’s permission slip to leave their school to go and dance at the event.
Adding insult to injury, and not mentioned by Gold Country Media, was the fact that students were recruited through high school wellness centers that were supposed to help kids discuss and work through issues. Students were recruited to dance and were not required to have a parent’s permission to attend an off-campus event. Parents expect to be informed if their kids are taking part in off campus events. Yet, Gold Country Media omitted these details, perhaps fearing they'd spoil the narrative.
Gold Country Media’s coverage defended this spectacle, glossing over the fact that having minors dance, in sexually suggestive outfits for cash tips, is sexual exploitation.
The Gold Country Media’s Editor Carol Feineman attacked Project Veritas for pointing out that the event existed and that the church had found used condoms in the church showers.
https://goldcountrymedia.com/news/272711/we-need-the-landing-spot-but-not-project-veritas/
In addition to the paper’s editor, Gold Country Media continued to attack members of the community who thought the Landing Spot’s fundraiser was bad for children. Gold Country provided 10 plus articles like the one that Veronica Catlin wrote that pushed the concept that having children dance on stage in sexy outfits as a fundraiser was a great idea. One such article written by Ms. Catlin and published by Gold Country Media asserted that Project Veritas was lying about the event’s nature and purpose, which was to have boys learn about their sexual identity by dressing in sexy women’s clothes and dancing on a stage, in front of a public audience, for cash tips.
Local LGBTQ leader responds to Project Veritas Video: https://goldcountrymedia.com/news/272694/local-lgbtq-youth-group-leader-responds-to-project-veritas-video/
Gold Country Media did not seek to share other thoughts on this issue from the community which was grossly negligent. As members of the community collected their thoughts on the Landing Spot event, Rocklin Unified School District and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District chose to support the idea that parents have the right to know all issues that are discussed between a school and their child.
School District Boards passed board policies to protect parents rights’, and in doing so, they were attacked by Gold Country Media, and many local schoolteachers, for passing policies that required schools to be open about all discussions. One example of these attacks was written by Hayley Repetti and published by Gold Country Media. Her article asserts that the Rocklin Unified School District was rightfully attacked in court by the State of California. https://goldcountrymedia.com/news/299442/rusd-sued-by-the-state-over-parent-notification-policy/
Gold Country Media and their reporter, Repetti, neglected to include any review of Federal laws or Federal legal precedent. Several legal firms challenged the State of California and had ample legal precedent that clearly protected the school boards’ actions. One example of the Federal legal issues that prevent schools from hiding any communications between a school and child was prepared by The Thomas More Society and can be found here: https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/news/open-letter-responding-to-california-attorney-generals-misleading-schools-guidance. The choice not to review other thoughts was more than sad — they were vapid and slanted. Gold Country Media’s position, as articulated by her article, was clearly written to be propaganda for schoolteachers who felt that they should control discussions about a child’s sexuality.
Parental Notification: What parents wanted
Within Placer County, the idea that boys would leave school, without a parent’s signature, to perform a drag show in front of an audience for cash tips, was the first but not the only skirmish over parental rights. In an attempt to react to parental concerns, Rocklin Unified School District and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District school boards, adopted policies requiring parental notification when a student decides to switch names or genders, in school records.
Most people saw the policy as reasonable. Teachers did not hold that opinion.
Rocklin Teacher’s Union President Travis Mougeotte, and Dry Creek Joint Elementary School Teacher’s Union President Mona Dearco and teachers from these school districts, attacked their respective boards via legal and media maneuvers that were right out of the Antifa playbook. Darkly, children from both schools are either entirely or significantly younger than 6th grade.
While Dry Creek’s teachers, and their leader, Mona Dearco were bold, they basically followed the plans that Travis Mougeotte and the Rocklin Unified School District teachers created.
Mougeotte and the Rocklin teachers were reckless and mean. Mougeotte and the Rocklin teachers advertised themselves as student protectors and as guardians of student privacy. The Rocklin teachers launched contract disputes and media assault fighting the board to keep parents in the dark about their own children. The Rocklin teachers were not having a policy disagreement with their board, their actions were a calculated move to undermine parental authority.
Video of Rocklin Teacher, Travis Mougeotte, attacking Rocklin Unified School Board: https://rumble.com/v3ht210-rocklin-unified-school-board-meeting-962023-rta-president-travis.html?e9s=src_v1_upp
Video of Dry Creek Joint Elementary School teacher, Mona Dearco, attacking Dry Creek School Board: https://rumble.com/v3v11f8-dry-creek-joint-union-school-district-teachers-union-president-mona-de-arco.html?e9s=src_v1_upp
Gold Country Media and Teachers Broke Community Trust
Rocklin Unified School District teachers chose to support Mougeotte's antics, driving a wedge between Rocklin schools and the community they serve. Teachers spearheaded an assault on the RUSD board via the California Public Employment Relations Board, arguing that informing parents about their child's gender transition breached the teachers' labor contract.
This logic was twisted and evil. No one should work to create a gap between a child and their parent. Teachers who get paid to teach a parent's child should never try to create gaps between a parent and their child.
The notion that parents should be kept in the dark about their child is evil and foolish. What does a teacher do when teachers create a gulf between a parent and a child, and that child grows into the next grade? Will the next teacher continue to support the child? Realistically 90% of all kids, just like kids from inner city schools who don’t get teacher support, will fall into a gap and become unreachable. This action, by teachers is unforgivable.
Teachers and COVID: Further destruction of community trust
Rocklin teachers supported a choice to fight over having kids return to school when it was clear that teachers and kids were not at risk to be harmed by COVID. The same teachers chose to fight—via California contract disputes—the idea that they would have to disclose to parents any counseling that could lead a child to change gender. The teachers should have fought their union. All Rocklin teachers should have stood up.
Instead- the teachers chose to inflame emotions and fight the needs of parents and kids. Local ABC news station pushed the teachers’ grievances: https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/rocklin/grievance-filed-against-rocklin-unified-school-district-by-teachers-association/103-dd89c951-f3ce-4768-9613-620637a245a9
Both the schoolteachers and Gold Country Media Chose to Fight School Parents: Do they understand what happened in the November 2024 election?
Gold Country Media renounced its journalistic duties and failed to provide any other opinions on these issues. Local teachers attacked parents and the school board concerning covid and parents’ rights and neither provided any empathy to the parents’ valid concerns.
Instead of seeking to:
- Understand the parents’ needs (returning kids to school),
- Understand the parents’ fears about having their kids secretly taken off campus to dress sexily and dance for a live audience
- Research legitimate Federal legal arguments surrounding parental notification such as the federal ruling in Mirabelli and West v. Escondido Union School District (https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/california/casdce/3:2023cv00768/757886/42/0.pdf)
The teachers and Gold Country Media attacked our community.
Many parents and students in Rocklin Unified’s community urged teachers and Gold Country Media to delay confrontations over (a) reopening schools during COVID-19, and (b) removing parents rights. Many members of the community advocated for patience as the the 2024 election would clarify federal policies.
However, teachers and the media chose to escalate tensions, prioritizing immediate attacks over empathetic discussion. The teachers’ actions betrayed the community’s trust. By ignoring calls for empathy, teachers have alienated the very families who fund schools and have now jeopardized federal support under the new presidential administration.
The Result of Irrational attacks: School Districts re-elect pro-parent school board members
The recent Rocklin school board election was a spectacle that destroyed our community.
Teachers’ candidates fought for board seats with the fervor of Roman gladiators in the arena they were fighting to kill. The best measure of the teachers’ candidates was their own words (https://rumble.com/v3ht210-rocklin-unified-school-board-meeting-962023-rta-president-travis.html?e9s=src_v1_upp) and the amount of money that they collected and spent to win.
In Trustee Area 1, incumbent Julie Hupp defended her seat against challenger Price Johnson. Hupp secured 3,663 votes (57.18%), while Johnson garnered 2,743 votes (42.82%).
In Trustee Area 3, the contest between Rachelle Price and Jen Brookover was equally intense. Price emerged victorious with 3,936 votes (56.75%), while Brookover trailed with 3,000 votes (43.25%).
The California Teachers Association (CTA) funneled nearly $60,000 into the Rocklin School Board races for Area 1 and Area 3. While the teachers donated $60,000, they helped raise roughly another $60,000 to spend on these two school board races. The $120,000 that was raised for the liberal candidates for Rocklin School District Board races for Area 1 and Area 3 was about three times more than what was raised in the last school board election.
This is an insane and dangerous amount of money, collected and spent to allow teachers to take away parents’ rights to know what their child is being counseled about.
Final Thoughts
Teachers and Travis Mougeotte were deranged and deceptive in their attacks on Rocklin school parents. Teachers and Travis Mougeotte choice to loudly advocate for parental exclusion makes them irredeemable.
The energy local teachers expended in battling the community could have been used to build trust instead. Now we are in a broken community where their actions have destroyed Rocklin’s educational landscape, broken teacher-parent relationships, and sown unreconcilable discord.
A Call to Action
Parents and community members should be outraged and contact their leaders.
PEACEFUL but loud is what we ask. No threats- but it’s ok to call them dumb.
- Gold Country Media:
- John Love, Publisher – General Manager
- Phone: (916) 774-7939
- Email: johnl@goldcountrymedia.com
- Bill Poindexter, Editor
- Phone: (530) 852-0256
- Email: billp@goldcountrymedia.com
- John Love, Publisher – General Manager
- Rocklin Unified School District:
- Phone: (916) 624-2428
- The teacher leading the transgender rights effort, Travis Mougeotte:
- Email: tmougeotte@rocklinusd.org
The Rocklin Chamber of Commerce, who chose to support Price Johnson
Call or email: (916) 624-2548 info@rocklinchamber.com
YOU CAN ALSO call and thank the following groups who fought for parents rights:
Thank them- they are:
- Placer County Republican Central Committee President Wright, Vice President Murry both fought hard in this election – email them here: placergopchair@gmail.com
- Northern California Republican Vice Chair L. Wallace was instrumental in this effort- you can contact her here: pcrccsecretary@gmail.com
- Assemblyman Joe Patterson: You can call his office 916-435-0501