NILES, Mich. — REAL News Michiana has obtained the grant and supporting emails showing two Brandywine teachers purposefully violated school district policy while undermining the current school board when they unilaterally applied for a grant from a radical organization to add politically motivated books into school library circulation. Both of the teachers have been vocal advocates for allowing students to have unfettered access to sexually explicit material in Brandywine school libraries.
RNM has uncovered multiple policies that both of the teachers violated in pursuit of the politically motivated stunt.
THE GRANT
On February 28th, Social Studies Teacher Abilyn Janke, with the assistance of English Teacher Debbie Carew, submitted a grant application to We Need Diverse Books, a radical organization that pushes for the political indoctrination of children in K-12 schools. WNDB states their objective is to inject politically driven books into K-12 schools in political “battleground states.”
Only two weeks before Janke and Carew submitted the grant proposal to WNDB, the Brandywine School Board passed a policy to suspend the addition of new books into circulation until another policy to determine how current books that are deemed sexually explicit and violent would be checked out with parental notification.
Janke mentioned the school board policy as an attempt to ban books in her grant application as she criticized School Board members, parents, conservatives and Christians.
“They (the board members) are aligned with the We the Parents group and the 1776 Project PAC. These are both Conservative Christian groups whose goal is to ‘remove all forms of sexual, racial, political and gender indoctrination from our schools.'” The grant application reads.
EMAILS
On April 20th, WNDB sent an email to Carew notifying her that Brandywine’s grant application had been approved. The email requested Carew keep the news confidential until the organization was prepared to make a public announcement.
On April 23rd, Carew responded to the WNDB email by explaining her political motivations and plans to make members of the school board look like “fools.”
“If they (members of the school board) want to argue about it, then they can do that in an open meeting and make fools of themselves by turning away thousands of dollars of books. Our community will be willing to fight them on this.” Carew wrote.
On May 8th, Carew sent another email to the WNDB representative, boasting about her political activism in the school district and criticizing conservatives.
“Our new school board members seem hellbent on not allowing certain (pornographic) books in our library.” Carew wrote. “Here’s the latest clip taken and used on an ultra-conservative page for Garret Soldano for his ‘Grassroots Army’ nonsense… we have had TONS of outside exposure lately…..so BRING IT.
On June 27th, a representative from WNDB sent an email to teacher Abilyn Janke requesting information about the board and how changes they have made warrant the grant be awarded. This information was to be used in a press release WNDB planned to create.
Jenke responded to the request by lambasting board members, conservatives, parents and Christians again.
On August 15th, a representative from WNDB sent an email to Janke and Carew describing partnering with a reporter from WSJM News to put out a positive news story regarding their efforts and the grant, creating the narrative they wished to put out to the public.
On August 22nd, a representative from WNDB sent Janke and Carew another email raising concerns about the distribution of the books after she learned more about the school board’s policy. Carew responded by requesting a phone call.
“Is there a way to have a phone conversation about this at some time today or tomorrow?” Carew wrote. “This is a multi-layered issue right now.”
On August 24th, a representative from WNDB sent Carew and Janke an email notifying them that the books had been ordered and should start arriving the following day.
During nearly all of this, from February through much of August, the School Board was unaware of the grant or the above communication. This is in direct violation of district policy which states the board is to determine how grants and money are handled.
POLICIES VIOLATED
RNM has discovered multiple policies the two teachers violated. Two of them are described below.
6110 – GRANT FUNDS
It is the objective of the Board of Education to provide equal educational opportunities for all students within the District. Government agencies, as well as foundations, businesses, and individuals, periodically offer both human and material resources to the District that would benefit students and the educational program. Therefore, it is the intent of the Board to consider grant proposals and applications for their potential to enhance educational opportunities, the educational environment, and the physical and mental growth for each student.
The Superintendent shall review new Federal education legislation and prepare proposals for programs s/he deems would be of aid to the students of this District. The Superintendent shall approve each such proposal prior to its submission, and the Board shall approve all grants resulting from such proposals.
7230 – GIFTS, GRANTS, AND BEQUESTS
The Board of Education is duly appreciative of public interest in and good will toward the schools manifested through gifts, grants, and bequests. The Board reserves the right, however, to specify the manner in which gifts are made; to define the type of gift, grant, or bequest which it considers appropriate; and to reject those which it deems inappropriate or unsuitable. If accepted, the Board will attempt to carry out the wishes of the donor.
Gifts, grants, and bequests shall become the property of the Board and will be subject to use by the District as determined by the policies and administrative guidelines applying to all properties, equipment, materials, and funds owned by the Board.
Any equipment purchased by a parent organization for use in the school or at a District-related event shall be submitted to the Board, prior to purchase, so it can determine if the District would incur any liability by its use.
The Board reserves the right to not accept such liability and thus deny the use of the equipment by students or District employees.
Want to keep seeing the news the legacy media just won’t report? REAL News Michiana relies on member subscribers to keep going. As a subscriber, you’ll get an RNM mug and invites to special events. Help us continue to expose corruption and report on the news conservatives care about by subscribing here.
