Members of the Battle Ground Education Association flocked to a Battle Ground School Board meeting last week to speak in favor of reinstating a teacher who the BGEA President says was terminated due to comments regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk in September.
When following up on clarifying claims made by the teachers union president in public comment, Battle Ground Public Schools Communications Manager Amanda Richter stated in an email, "The district cannot respond to your questions as we continue to follow a process that cannot be jeopardized by providing specific information at this time."
However, Richter added, "unfortunately, the information circulating is incomplete."
Incomplete information even includes BGEA President Mary Mendoza-Haensel’s claims that social studies teacher Amanda Gonzales had been terminated prior to the Monday, Oct. 13, board meeting.
Richter said on Thursday, Oct. 16, that Gonzales remains on administrative leave.
“There is a lot of mis- or incomplete information that’s circulating,” BGPS Superintendent Shelly Whitten said after public comment on Oct. 13. “But because it’s ongoing and because it’s a legal matter regarding personnel, we really can’t speak to it. We need to wait for the process to play fully out.”
Mendoza-Haensel said one of Gonzales' students sent a text message to his mother stating that Gonzales had called Kirk a Nazi between classes. That text circulated on social media, creating public backlash. Mendoza-Haensel said it led to death threats aimed at Gonzales.
The social media post claimed that she laughed at students about Charlie Kirk’s death and said, “I have no sympathy for Nazis,” according to the Sept. 11 Facebook post by Tyler Long, host of “Unmasked,” a Christian podcast.
The story is different between the two sides as Mendoza-Haensel is claiming that Gonzales was terminated while the school district’s stance is that Gonzales is on administrative leave.
Mendoza-Haensel said a meeting with BGPS human resources took place on Sept. 30 where Gonzales was asked to either resign or be terminated. However, BGPS did say that Gonzales remains on administrative leave.
“I know they’re telling people apparently that she was not terminated, she’s on leave,” Mendoza-Haensel said. “They sat down with me and with Amanda (Gonzales) and asked her if she could either resign or she could accept the termination because the board wanted her terminated. Which was very surprising for me to hear … I told them I needed time to talk with her to make the right decision. So we came back and let them know that we were not going to resign, but that we were going to appeal termination for a hearing and so that is where we are.”
Gonzales is being represented by a lawyer through the Washington Education Association, according to Mendoza-Haensel.
As an appeal is underway by Gonzales, the district cannot speak to the matter, but Mendoza-Haensel wishes the school district would have said a little more earlier on, especially after the students recanted what Gonzales had said, according to Mendoza-Haensel.
“I wish they would have come out to say that the student admitted, because they admitted to me that what the students said was basically not why they were terminating her,” Mendoza-Haensel said. “That they wanted to terminate her over the public response. … That’s what we were told basically in the meeting, that it’s more about the public response, not that statement, because that statement was proven to be false.”
With Mendoza-Haensel’s side of the situation claiming the students recanted their statement and that Gonzales is terminated as the school district states circulating information is not complete, Mendoza-Haensel is warning other teachers as president of the union.
She said a lot of teachers have said they’re afraid to share their opinions because they do not want to be terminated.
“That’s our scary part, because it’s just the climate of this current, sort of culture,” Mendoza-Haensel said. “I said that to our teachers. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Republican or Democrat or somewhere in the middle, it’s so tense right now.”
Mendoza-Haensel added that it is important for the community to trust the due process of the situation and to support all educators.
“We are not safe as teachers if someone tells a lie about us and goes online and character assassinates us,” said Cookie Sinclair, a teacher and Gonzales’ cousin, during public comment.
