School Board President Under Police Investigation Is Fired
Scottsdale Unified School District Board President Jan-Michael Greenburg is under police investigation for compiling a dossier on district parents who object to CRT curriculum and COVID-19 restrictions such as forced masking. Greenburg allegedly had 47 parents privately investigated, and included in his dossier photos of eight and 10-year-old students along with their parents' Social Security numbers, property records, divorce decrees, and other personal data.
On November 12, Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, covered the breaking story on the Charlie Kirk Show, which is widely viewed online and through social media. He explained that the dossier was stored on a private Google Drive and that parents were catalogued "with different labels and in different folders" based on the type of issue the parent had with the school district.
Kirk described, for example, that one folder was labeled "Anti-mask Lunatics," another was called "Press Conference Psychos," and another identified parents who oppose CRT.
"This is going to be the next Loudoun County," Kirk predicted, comparing the Scottsdale USD to the scandal-ridden school district in Virginia.
Kirk said Greenburg labeled one parent "anti-Semitic" because she had criticized George Soros, and that this parent had some sort of "back and forth" with Greenburg over the complaint. The exchange, presumably via email, ended with Greenburg inadvertently including a link to his private Google account. "She had the wherewithal or the wisdom to actually go see what he had in the private Google account," Kirk continued, which led to her discovery of the dossier.
On November 14, The Blaze reported that Scottsdale police were investigating the matter, and explained that "news of the dossier broke last week after Greenburg reportedly shared it with a parent by accident." The Blaze quoted a statement by the Scottsdale Police Department confirming that "the agency is aware of the allegations against Scottsdale Unified School District President Jann-Michael Greenburg," and that it is "conducting an investigation into the matter and will report [the] findings once it is complete."
The Associated Press and the Arizona Republic have also carried the story. According to the Republic, Greenburg's Google drive "included screenshots of Facebook conversations parents had about their opposition to topics such as critical race theory and COVID-19 mask mandates. It also included emails sent to school board members calling for Greenburg's resignation, photos and videos of parents protesting the school district, and screenshots of parents' Facebook profiles that indicated their support for former President Donald Trump."
The Republic also published snippets of Superintendent Scott Menzel's letter to parents in the wake of the allegations, which stated that "the dossier was ‘allegedly created and maintained' in Google Drive folders by Mark Greenburg and shared by his son,
SUSD Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg." Mendel wrote: "We want to determine if school resources were used inappropriately." His letter emphasized that the district "did not create, maintain or have control over the dossier... I want to stress, again, that no Governing Board member has unfettered access to student records." He added that "such documents are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act."
Scottsdale resident Charlie Kirk, who resides in the district and has testified at SUSD board meetings, is not convinced. "The Scottsdale Unified School District has lied throughout this entire process," he said during his November 12 broadcast. Of the current school board members, led by Greenburg, he observed: "They all have to go." He encouraged parents to "keep up the drumbeat" for change.
"Is your local school board spying on you?" he asked rhetorically. "Isn't it interesting how these left-wing collectivists and anti-parent activists can't help themselves but to spy on dissidents? What other dossiers exist that we don't know about? The FBI and the Department of Justice should be investigating people [who are] compiling pictures of eight and 10-year-olds because they don't like that their parents complain at [school board] meetings. We are going to recall this guy; his time is done. We are not going to put up with this."
Parents posted responses online to Kirk's show with some telling comments and questions. A few examples include:
- "Where does a school board member get the money to pay for private investigators?" "Did they use taxpayer funds?"
- "Parents could reasonably construe this behavior [as] an effort to intimidate and harass them. Where is the DOJ and FBI? Are they going to investigate the Scottsdale School Board President for domestic terrorism?"
- "Thank you, Charlie, for putting out facts and names; that board needs to be cleared out. How can parents allow this to stand? Keep fighting and replace them all. If you can't take them out, take your kids OUT of the sick public schools."
On November 16, the Scottsdale Unified School District Board responded to calls for Greenburg's ouster and voted to remove him from his post and electing an interim president. Time will tell if Greenburg's fellow board members will suffer the same fate as angry parents respond to the scandal.
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