Salem-Keizer School Board candidates openly court christofascists

Two conservative candidates huddle with local group eager to permeate public schools with extremist religious ideology

Local extremist group SK We Stand Together is hosting two “conservative” school board candidates on Monday, February 20.

The event is slated to take place at building operated by Salem-Keizer School District.

The theme of this meet & greet? Well, that’s where it gets a little confusing.

The two candidates invited - Satya Chandragiri and Casity Troutt - are meant to answer questions from the group (of which Troutt is a founding member). But the suggested topics on the event flyer seem weirdly focused on one particular person and one particular incident.

Failed school board candidate Mike Slagle is fighting for his right…to take pictures of children without their permission

Slagle, who ran for Salem-Keizer School Board in 2021 and lost, filed a complaint with Salem-Keizer officials about an incident he claims occurred at a School Board meeting on August 9, 2022.

By his own account, Slagle - who has no children in Salem-Keizer schools - showed up at a school board meeting and started taking pictures of children that were attending the meeting to have their voices heard. Those students took issue with Slagle’s unwanted attention and the night was marked by two groups verbally sparring before, during, and after the meeting.

According to the district report on the incident, on one side, members of Latinos Unidos Siempre Youth (LUS Youth) - a non-profit, student group focused on immigrant communities in the Salem area. On the other side were adult members of SK We Stand - a christofascist group of adults founded by a pack of failed school board candidates, many of which actually have no children in the district.

After the turbulent meeting, the School Board decided to again return to meetings held without an audience, with virtual access for the public. Until the two sides could agree to peacefully coexist in the same space, Board leadership decided to err on the side of public safety.

Slagle has since filed a complaint with the school district, claiming the student group “verbally harassed, called racially-motivated names, and threatened” him.

His complaint was reviewed by the district. They produced a report. From the Salem Reporter:

And then the report and investigation was reviewed by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. They agreed with the district, and found the investigation sufficient.

Slagle, however, was not satisfied. He appealed the outcome of the report to the district, and Salem-Keizer Superintendent Christine Perry decided there was no reason to repeatedly review the findings of the investigation, as the outcome wouldn’t be any different.

Slagle’s only channel for continued grievance was the School Board itself - a process he rejected unless the district accommodate his conspiracy theory that School Board leadership would be unable to be impartial. Slagle suggested, without any proof, that board leaders have some type of connection to LUS Youth that would influence their decision-making process.

Absent a special process to cater to his feelings, Slagle has abandoned pursuing his complaint at the district level and appears to have taken his weird campaign to state education officials - a move he admitted to the Salem Reporter is unlikely to produce different results.

Chandragiri supports Slagle’s continued fight to take pictures of kids without their permission

Chandragiri issued a statement suggesting Slagle’s complaint was valid, and the unusual deviation from normal procedure based purely on a conspiracy theory was a good thing.

In his statement, Chandragiri also suggested Slagle and christofascists with SK We Stand Together were suffering under “systemic oppression” - language typically used to define racism, but in this case applied to a group of mostly white adults who routinely target vulnerable student populations.

“There is no doubt that Mr. Slagle diligently followed all that was asked of him to pursue the steps prescribed by our policy. Yet it appears to me, that the steps our board and the district has taken to prevent a just resolution of his grievances is an example of systemic oppression that is unfair and meant to crush any semblance of justice or fairness.”

Why would two School Board candidates meet with a group espousing abhorrent views that threaten the integrity of our school district?

SK We Stand Together has a well-documented history of promoting anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry and making wild claims about public schools, educators, teacher’s unions and any school board member that doesn’t subscribe to their corrupt, faith-fueled ideologies.

Here’s a recent sampling of what this group posts publicly on their Facebook page. Underlining and highlighting added for emphasis:

And that’s just from this year…

So what is the actual point of this meet & greet?

According to materials from SK We Stand Together, the event seems to be an airing of Slagle’s grievances, along with the usual claims that School Board leadership is deliberately excluding parents from being involved - a common tactic used by anti-public education groups like SK We Stand.

While it’s surprising that the event is being held in a Salem-Keizer School District facility, it appears that community groups can apply to use certain spaces.

It sounds like it’s open to the public, though. If anyone feels like attending on Monday morning at 10 a.m., it’s at the Salem-Keizer School District Support Services Center at 2575 Commercial Street SE in Salem.