Newly leaked audio revealed a California school board president criticizing the California Teachers Association (CTA) and calling for more Christians to be involved in the union.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the 12-minute audio recording was leaked by a group called "Voices of Placer County on Sunday."
Voices of Placer County titled the leaked audio clip that was posted on YouTube "RUSD President Julie Hupp caught admitting to political scheming at faith-based gathering." A description for the video noted that the comments were made in March 2023.
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Julie Leavens Hupp, president of the Rocklin Unified School District board, confirmed to the Bee that she made the comments at a meeting of educators and added that the recording was not "authorized."
Hupp’s remarks began by asking the educators who attended the meeting if they thought that CTA "is a force for good."
No one responded to her query.
She said after the silence, "I didn’t think so. If you did think so, I would have disabused you of that notion." She did, however, praise the efforts of local unions because they do "a lot of good things," such as handling "payroll problems, involuntary transfers, and maternity leave." A president of the local union Loomis Teachers Association, Hupp encouraged the attendees to get involved in local unions.
"When I got involved, I did so to change that in my district," Hupp said.
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Hupp explained that when teachers are confronted by parents to address books that they deem inappropriate, their first move is to go to the union for protection.
"'This is not right, I’m doing what I believe is right in my classroom. Go protect me,'" Hupp said, echoing a teacher asking for help.
"I’ve been through every CTA training, I know exactly what happens next. That site rep goes to the union president and says, ‘What do I do, I need to protect this teacher. Parents are yelling at them, crazy people are coming at them. How do I protect them?’"
She said further that the reports go up the chain to the top brass in the union.
Hupp proceeded to explain that a genuine faith-based site rep would sympathize with parents who disagree with content they deem inappropriate. She called for more faith-based and family-centered values to be represented in the school system.
"We need more faith-based site reps," Hupp said. "We need people who listen. It’s coming. It’s been coming for a long time."
Furthermore, Hupp told the crowd of educators at the meeting that she is a member of the CTA Republicans which is a group "inside CTA" that works to "make changes within the organization."
"I can tell you," she said, "It’s hard to even be in the room [at CTA meetings]. It’s very, very gut-wrenching. We have to take breaks and go out into the hallways and breathe."
"We have to set up as many layers as we can to protect our kids–to protect our families and to protect our classrooms," Hupp said, adding that faith-based site reps can be the "first line of defense" in classrooms, school sites, and districts.
Doubling down on her criticisms of CTA, Hupp told the attendees to "request a refund" of the dues that are paid to CTA due to their "political action."
RUSD sent Fox News Digital a statement acknowledging that they saw the comments made by Hupp.
"Rocklin Unified is aware of a video circulating on social media that captured RUSD Board President Julie Hupp’s views. From our understanding, the audio is not discussing her role as an elected RUSD board member."
CTA officials did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
News of Hupp’s comments come after she received backlash for calling on "Christ-centered" parents to get involved in decisions about their kids' curriculum on Facebook.
The RUSD, located in Rocklin, California, presides over 17 schools and 11,405 students.
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