The Union Mafia vs. Common Sense: A Victory for Parents at a Capistrano Unified School District Board Meeting

Unions and Activists Resort to Ugly Smears, But Community Members Stand Up

The way unions and their activists stack school board meetings, it’s a wonder that Nathan, a San Juan Hills High School senior, could get up at a Capistrano Unified School District board meeting on April 24, and in one minute crystallize a cancer that has eaten away at American society for decades:

"Any trustee who deliberately takes such a quote out of context to falsely smear a colleague as a racist is betraying that trust and manipulating the situation for political gain."

The topic was a book the board had earlier approved 7-0 called “James,” a book filled with the N-word. The issue, however, is deeper. Union power over our schools is now challenged. And they’re resorting to ugly, false smears, just like always, only now they’re being called out.

The Problem

Within the context of discussions on the book at the March board meeting, a Capistrano Unified board member, Judy Bullockus, quoted a line from the board-approved book. No one was shocked or appalled. There were no gasps in the crowd. It was simply a discussion about the book and its contents.

But after the meeting, union-controlled board members, Krista Castellanos and Gary Pritchard, twisted the context of the discussion and accused Bullockus of using a racial slur. They created a crisis out of nothing. They publicly dramatized the “pain” caused by their colleague’s reading of the passage – and this is out of a book all of them approved – setting off a districtwide firestorm that on April 24 culminated with numerous calls for Castellanos and Pritchard to resign.

The Union's Response

And the shock – the utter shock – that emanated from the unions and their hard-left activists surged forth, bearing all that hatred and cliched victimhood about the “pain” or “harm” the reading did to the “community.”

They organized a bunch of manipulated kids and activist adults to converge on the April board meeting with speeches to attack Judy Bullockus and to call for her resignation. They showed up early in order to grab up all the speakers’ cards and dominate the meeting. They brought divisive protest signs that should never be part of school board meetings.

One said, “You have to be a ‘B’ word to say the ‘N’ word.”

A Turning Point

But for once, the union mafia was outsmarted. Dozens of Capistrano-area speakers showed up even earlier than the union organizers, and they rose to defend common-sense education and denounce those seeking to weaponize the incident for political gain.

Just like Nathan said:

"When a trustee uses the N-word while discussing a book, it is clearly within an educational context, not as a slur. … Our educators and fellow students know the difference between quoting literature and using hateful language."

A Victory for Parents

Nathan, and several other students who shared equally common sense sentiments, give us hope.

We have witnessed countless board meetings at which union activists run roughshod over innocent community members and trustees while seeking to force their angry agenda and alternative worldview onto innocent children in our schools. They’ve been bullying for decades, and tragically, they’ve made a ton of progress.

So it was good to see honest community members come out in force, and we hope more will join them.

The Future of Education

Community members should not have to show up hours early and battle their way through a meeting just to be heard. Parents deserve better than to be treated like they're somehow less valid or important than the teachers and administrators who are supposed to represent them.

A better system would prioritize listening, transparency, and collaboration – not division, drama, and control.