What happens when a dedicated teacher decides to stand up against the powerful teachers' union? Stacy Adair, a conservative educator from Colorado, did just that and shares her inspiring story with us. From the initial spark that led her to speak out in 2020 to her deep dive into the union's controversial stances, Stacy unpacks the personal and professional challenges she faced, including incidents of intimidation and backlash. Discover how she has been pushing for a more conservative school board and the awakening among parents and educators.
Hear from a seasoned conservative teacher who gives us an inside look at the post-election dynamics of supporting a school board aligned with traditional values. This chapter highlights the practical hurdles faced in the classroom, from the refusal to enforce mask mandates to the contentious implementation of restorative justice. We discuss the critical need for open lines of communication between teachers and board members and the palpable disconnect between liberal educational philosophies and real-world classroom needs.
Finally, we tackle the broader issues impacting education today, such as the decline in teaching essential skills like math and handwriting. We also explore how political agendas, including the "woke" movement, are shaping classroom policies on pronouns and gender identity. The episode wraps up with a heartfelt appeal for concerned teachers and parents to take action and to remember, "You are not alone."
TCC is THE podcast for conservative teachers, parents, and patriots who believe in free speech, traditional values, and education without indoctrination.
The views and opinions expressed by me are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any employer, school, or school district I have worked with in the past or present.
Thanks for listening to The Conservative Classroom. Teaching the truth. Preserving our values.
What happens when a dedicated teacher decides to stand up against the powerful teachers' union? Stacy Adair, a conservative educator from Colorado, did just that and shares her inspiring story with us. From the initial spark that led her to speak out in 2020 to her deep dive into the union's controversial stances, Stacy unpacks the personal and professional challenges she faced, including incidents of intimidation and backlash. Discover how she has been pushing for a more conservative school board and the awakening among parents and educators.
Hear from a seasoned conservative teacher who gives us an inside look at the post-election dynamics of supporting a school board aligned with traditional values. This chapter highlights the practical hurdles faced in the classroom, from the refusal to enforce mask mandates to the contentious implementation of restorative justice. We discuss the critical need for open lines of communication between teachers and board members and the palpable disconnect between liberal educational philosophies and real-world classroom needs.
Finally, we tackle the broader issues impacting education today, such as the decline in teaching essential skills like math and handwriting. We also explore how political agendas, including the "woke" movement, are shaping classroom policies on pronouns and gender identity. The episode wraps up with a heartfelt appeal for concerned teachers and parents to take action and to remember, "You are not alone."
TCC is THE podcast for conservative teachers, parents, and patriots who believe in free speech, traditional values, and education without indoctrination.
The views and opinions expressed by me are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any employer, school, or school district I have worked with in the past or present.
Thanks for listening to The Conservative Classroom. Teaching the truth. Preserving our values.
How can concerned teachers and parents flip a liberal school board to a more common sense conservative one? If you don't want to knock on doors, can you still get involved campaigning for school board members? And how can a conservative teacher make a difference in a liberal school district? Welcome to T the C conservative C classroom, where we're teaching the truth and preserving our values. I'm your host, Mr. Webb, and I'm glad you're here. This podcast is a haven for conservative educators, parents and patriots like you, who believe in the importance of free speech, traditional values and education without indoctrination. Each week, we dive into issues that are plaguing our education system and keeping you up at night. In each episode, we offer common sense ideas to improve education in our classrooms and communities. You may feel like you're the last conservative educator or parent, but I want you to know that you are not alone. By the way, if you like what you hear today, please share this podcast with a like-minded educator, parent or patriot. Together, we can teach the truth and preserve our values. In today's episode, we're talking to a conservative teacher in a liberal school district. She tells us about why she started speaking out and why she wants to take down the teachers union. Now let's get started. Today I'm excited to welcome a special guest to the conservative classroom Stacy Adair. Stacy is a teacher in Colorado who declared in 2020 that she was going to take down the teachers union. Stacy, thank you for joining us.
Stacy Layne Adair:
You're welcome. It sounds like a crazy thing to say and it is, but I guess I was a little crazy in 2020.
Mr. Webb:
Well, it may have sounded crazy a few years ago, but not so much anymore, because we're hearing more and more of that. To start, I'd like for folks to know a little about you, so tell us about yourself, your background and what it's like to be a conservative teacher in Colorado.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Well, my background is I've taught for 18 years. I became a teacher when I was a little bit older, so I wasn't as easily swayed with some of the nonsense, and I pretty much kept my head down prior to 2020, didn't talk politics at work, just tried to get along with everybody. And then in 2020, when everything happened and the schools were shut down, I started researching. It seemed ridiculous why are we staying shut down? Where is all this coming from? And in my research I realized that the teachers union had emails with the CDC and basically the CDC seemed to be kowtowing to the teachers union, and when I found that out I was pretty livid. So I just continued to do research on the teachers union as things popped up, because then there was CRT, which they were denying they had anything to do with. But then I think it was Charlie Kirk came out with things that they had said at their representative assembly that year, and so I just went on a deep dive on the teachers union and I haven't come up yet.
Mr. Webb:
I think the pandemic opened the eyes of a lot of folks a lot of parents and a lot of teachers that something's not quite right. And I think it did open up the eyes for what the teachers unions were doing yeah, I didn't know how much bad stuff they're doing.
Stacy Layne Adair:
I mean, I still learn. Probably once a week I realize something else bad they're doing.
Mr. Webb:
One of the puzzling things to me is their stance on abortion. Why would a teacher's union even need to take a stance on abortion? What does that have to do with education? I don't know if you knew about that or not, but I know. I was a local president of our local teacher's union a few years ago. Wow.
Mr. Webb:
And I was in the union for one year or one or two years and I was president for one year, for one of those years, and what I saw behind the scenes local level, not too bad. You go up to the regional, state level, national level it just got worse and worse and one of the things I realized was that at the national level they were pro-abortion. They actually had a stance on being pro-abortion. That was one of the many red flags and after my tenure was up, I I didn't just step down as president, but I got completely out of the union yeah, they're pro-palestine from their their 2020 representative assembly.
Stacy Layne Adair:
I took a lot of screenshots of their different things that they were putting forth and that passed, and they were just the craziest thing. You know. Just everything left us that had absolutely nothing to do with education.
Mr. Webb:
Since you took a stand, have you had some pushback from the union?
Stacy Layne Adair:
Yeah, I go to every board meeting. I started a group, a community group, to support our board. We flipped our board in 21 and then we got new people elected again in 23. And so I have a group of people and we support our board and we go to all the board meetings and sometimes we speak and after speaking and saying, you know, teachers don't have to be in the union, they can join the American Association of Educators and how much money they could save. The next day the teachers union newsletter went out and somebody I know in the union said did you read your email? I forwarded you something and so when I read it it was a well-known anti-union shill spoke at the board meeting last night and you know I took that as a badge of honor.
Mr. Webb:
That's awesome.
Stacy Layne Adair:
And then this year we were door knocking right around my school and one of my rear small side car windows got shattered, like with one of those things you shatter windows with, and the guy who's now the current union guy had driven by.
Mr. Webb:
Yeah, I have no proof, but um things like that strange coincidence, if it wasn't him.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Yeah, um, and you know, they know who I am, so that's for sure. But and I'm definitely not well liked by them. But I'm not really obnoxious, I don't attack them personally, I just say things like teachers should have options. Teachers should know what you know they can do, and so it hasn't been too bad yet, other than you know. I mean those two things, but it's tense. You know, I'm not. I'm not like a popular person, by any means.
Mr. Webb:
Just in conservative circles. You were a speaker at Teacher Freedom Summit last year. That was a 2023. That was the first year for the Teacher Freedom Summit and that was a pretty big deal. Are you going to speak at the 2024?
Stacy Layne Adair:
summit panel this time. So I'll get to tell those stories again, really how to stand up to bullying, because you know the thing about it is it's no fun, but we teach kids to stand up to bullies, so how can we not stand up to bullies ourselves? And that's the thing is, we have to do what we say, we believe.
Mr. Webb:
You mentioned a minute ago that you flipped your board. How many seats was it?
Stacy Layne Adair:
So our board has seven seats, and in 2021, we got one, and so it was five, two, and then in 2023, we got four people elected, so now it's six one.
Mr. Webb:
Wow, so how did you do that?
Stacy Layne Adair:
I think the community was paying more attention and we did a lot of door knocking. We had a great um, a great campaign manager, courtney, and um, you know, we didn't know what we were doing and we just did what she told us and, um, we were all. We were truly grassroots. We still are. We don't know what we're doing and, as the leader, I just said I'm going this direction. If you're going this direction, let's go this direction together. I really don't consider myself a leader. I just want us all who are going that direction let's go that way together. And this past this past election 2023, my group knocked over 11,000 doors. Wow, so it was mostly grandparents doing all that door knocking 11,000 some doors.
Mr. Webb:
Wow. So if there's someone out there listening and they're, they're trying to go down that same path, get the grandparents involved. That sounds like a great idea.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Yeah, and don't be discouraged that the parents don't have time to get involved. You know they've got kids and I have had parents show up to board meetings and speak and they'll do that. You know they'll carve out a short period of time. They'll do that. You know they'll carve out a short period of time. But we meet every week in our leadership group and you know, frankly, they should be home with their kids or taking their kids wherever they need to go. So it's the grandparents that are this movement and people say we need to get more parents involved and I say you know what God will bring us? Who needs to be involved?
Mr. Webb:
Right.
Stacy Layne Adair:
And it's turned out to be grandparents.
Mr. Webb:
That's so interesting. I would not have thought about that. I'm really processing that. I think that's an untapped market. I guess I was trying to think of a better way to word that. But if you can't get the parents involved, get the grandparents involved.
Stacy Layne Adair:
That's just how it happened with us. We tried to get parents, but that's who we got was grandparents. And one of the cool things that I realized doing door knocking was I had a couple of people, one older gentleman, he just wanted to help. I don't know if he's in his mid to late seventies. He wanted to help and so he said, well, how about I just drive you around? And I thought, okay, we'll see how that works. And it really worked well.
Stacy Layne Adair:
He was listening to things on his phone podcasts and things and he would drive me where I needed to go and I'd go up and down the street, you know, and then he'd drive me the next spot and it helped me right because he's my, you know, he's my driver and I can pay attention to the doors I need to go to. And he enjoyed it and he was helpful. And I thought you know that's something because school board elections are every two years. They're four year terms, but they're every two years, so they come up quickly. And I thought that's something I'm going to use the next time is tell people, you know, if you want to be a driver, you can be a driver If that sounds good to you and maybe you don't feel like walking up and down hills all day on a Saturday, then you could be a driver.
Mr. Webb:
I think some people that maybe wouldn't feel comfortable knocking on doors, whether they're introverts or whether they just don't want their face out there, I don't know. I'm sure there's lots of reasons. It sounds like being a driver would be a great way to help out without actually knocking on doors and talking to people face to face.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Yeah, and that just occurred to me at the end of this last door knocking season. So you know, we just continue to learn as we go. I think that's what grassroots means. You know, we don't know what we're doing, we're just learning as we go, and we were lucky enough to have a great campaign manager who did know what she was doing and cared about public education. So you know, but we just continue to meet between elections to support our board, because that's very important too.
Stacy Layne Adair:
You think about getting a board elected, but it is a battle once they're on and there's just so many things going on and from needing to hear from me, as a current teacher, what's really happening in the schools and then I have other teachers feeding me information so I connect them with the board or I pass on the information From that aspect of letting the board know what is really happening in the schools, that's important Showing up to board meetings and supporting them, because we have leftist groups that are organized and against them and everything that they try to do. So there's a lot that needs to happen as far as supporting the board once they get on. And if we disagree with them, we disagree in private, not public, because we don't want to hand the leftist a hammer to hit us with.
Mr. Webb:
Great idea. It's also a great idea having a teacher like yourself. Let them know what's going on behind the scenes. How long have you been teaching? Let's talk about you teaching for a little bit 18 years. And have you always been conservative?
Stacy Layne Adair:
Yes, I was never in the teachers union.
Mr. Webb:
So what are some of the challenges that you face as a conservative and as a teacher in Colorado? Well, let me ask first is the area you teach? Is it a liberal area?
Stacy Layne Adair:
I thought it was more conservative than it turns out to be. I think, like a lot of places, we're slowly being pulled to the left. So you know most of my friends who really aren't friends anymore. But you know they were all pretty much Democrats but it didn't matter before COVID, you know we didn't talk politics.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Right, and we still don't talk politics. But they know that I took a stand, so I'm not, you know. I took a stand with the mask. I refused to enforce the mask on children and I got a lawyer through American Association of Educators and he actually suggested that I take a picture of a dirty mask to a school board meeting. And I did. I had several pictures of filthy masks that just showed me that wearing masks wasn't healthy for elementary school children. So I just refused to enforce it. I didn't believe it was my job and I just thought well, you can fire me, but you can't make those words come out of my mouth. So I became unpopular real quick.
Mr. Webb:
So the pictures of dirty masks that students were wearing like student masks. Yeah, yeah that would be eye-opening, I think.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Well, and it was all just ridiculous because, like I said, me and my group had been meeting and trying to figure out how to fight this and we had read all of the local health department return to school guidelines and my school district was stricter than what the health department even required. I don't think that most of those people read the health department guidelines, but the health department guidelines said that elementary school children should not be social distanced because it could cause psychological harm. And yet we still did it.
Mr. Webb:
So what are some things more recently that go on behind the scenes that like when you tell your board members they're kind of shocked to hear they're kind of shocked to hear the behaviors that are happening in schools, the you know, the fifth graders who are wandering around unsupervised.
Stacy Layne Adair:
It's just a it's not a safe situation, I'd say behavior. And I have teachers reaching out to me kind of under the table from across the district telling me what's going on at their school. So then I either try and convince them to call a board member or, if they won't, I ask them if I can share the story with the board member and the board members get right on it and you know things are taken care of. But yeah, these things, these issues that are brought up, they're happening everywhere. These just happen to be incidents that we hear about. So our district is going to focus on discipline the next year. The superintendent is going to focus on discipline and behaviors. But I was listening to something earlier today. This is a problem nationwide Restorative justice.
Mr. Webb:
You know Bingo yes.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Restorative justice. I'm fine with restorative justice. You break it, you restore it, you know to me, that's what restorative justice is.
Mr. Webb:
That's what I was going to say if that's what it was. But you know, often liberals will come up with euphemistic terms that sound good, that don't really mean what it sounds like, and that, to me, is one of those terms. So, restorative justice? So tell the listeners what restorative justice is.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Well, what they say it is. It's very interesting. I was listening I can't to something earlier today and I don't think it was. It might have been Matt Walsh or one of those type guys going through how discipline is everywhere, and they had these liberal administrators talking about restorative justice and how we're teaching the kids to be kind. And an example is I was talking to a counselor and I said well, I had a student steal, some of these blue tickets which are the ones you get for rewards, good behavior.
Stacy Layne Adair:
And the counselor said well, you know, we have to get to the reason why the student steals the tickets they feel like they can't earn them in the right way. We need to help them with that. And I thought no, the kid wants something for nothing.
Mr. Webb:
Right.
Stacy Layne Adair:
That's pretty. You know, historically we're, all you know, simple and that's just somebody wanting something for nothing there, you know, there isn't always like why. Is it the teacher's job to figure out how to convince the students that they can earn these? Now I'll tell you listen, you can earn these, you don't have to steal them. But you're not going to earn them if you steal them. And that's just the kind of nonsense that's coming from the counselors and the school admin and it just feels like over the last few years they've been brainwashed, told so many times you know that they can't suspend kids and that this is the new way, and so we're going to crack down on discipline next year in my district, but I just can't figure out how we're going to unbrainwash these people.
Mr. Webb:
Yeah, that's a good point Unbrainwash the, the students and the teachers and administrators. I'm not sure if that's if you meant all three, but as I'm thinking through that, that's what I'm thinking, because the, the, the students know they can get away with anything. The teachers are are used to this restorative justice and administrators are too, so that might be tough to kind of go back on. You know what I mean.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Well, the teachers know it doesn't work. So I don't care whether you're a far leftist or the furthest right or middle of the road You're upset about if you're a teacher. You're upset about classroom behavior and you're upset that when a kid goes to the office he comes back with a teddy bear and a sticker. So teachers are ready for a change for sure. Admin, I don't know. I don't know how they're going to go and I think a lot of it comes from the counseling, the counseling departments, and I do believe that kids, because I teach small groups all day. So I have kindergarten through fifth, I have all the grade levels and I don't have problems. Now I have smaller groups, I don't have a full classroom but I don't have problems with students.
Stacy Layne Adair:
You know, the first time that person stole the blue tickets, I let the principal know. Well, that wasn't a satisfactory situation to me. I'm not going to give too many details. So the next time that student stole something repeat offense, surprise, surprise I had the student write sentences for me. I will not steal, you know. And it had to be written neatly. And I called the parents and I let them know that this was happening. And you know that I was choosing a positive, what I thought was a positive consequence, right, kind of brainwashed this student into thinking positively, I will not steal.
Stacy Layne Adair:
And it worked fine. And that's what I chose to do, rather than involve any admin. And then I also logged it in the school system, and that's another thing that we found is that teachers aren't encouraged to log these discipline actions. Let's say so. Then, when the district looks at the data, oh, discipline problems have decreased. Yeah, and that's actually what I was listening to earlier from Matt Walsh, exactly what they were saying too. So I was like, yeah, it's a problem nationwide and part of it was that, you know, there was a big push not to suspend kids and so our previous superintendent had a policy called cheeks and seats. Basically, they didn't want anybody suspended, so admin was in a tough position. So I see that, you know, it'll just be interesting to see how we do moving forward.
Mr. Webb:
And, excuse me, I've only been teaching about 10 years. I got started pretty late in life, but I've noticed some changes just over that period of time and I'm guessing this is something that 18 years ago, when you started teaching, this is a problem that you maybe didn't see as much, but what's the biggest change in education that you've noticed since you first started teaching?
Stacy Layne Adair:
We don't teach the basics anymore Foundational skills, math, facts, memorization, print, handwriting. We don't have time. Common Core has such high ideals, they teach as if everybody's a GT student and they don't teach the foundational skills to mastery. And then everybody's all surprised when kids aren't learning at the higher levels, and I'm talking about, you know, third, fourth and fifth grade. Well, because you didn't make sure they memorized their math facts, their addition, in first grade. So that's one of the big changes. And then, of course, the other is behaviors. That seems to really just have happened in the last maybe eight years. And then, well, and all of this woke agenda.
Mr. Webb:
How much of that do you see in your school system?
Stacy Layne Adair:
A lot.
Mr. Webb:
Pronoun usage. Title IX boys going into the girls' locker rooms and all that crazy stuff.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Well, our state law requires somebody to be able to go into the bathroom or locker room that they identify with.
Stacy Layne Adair:
So we have an absolutely insane state in Colorado, so that's a state law.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Districts try and you know, deal with it by offering a third bathroom that you know was an adult bathroom, that they turned into an option for the trans kids and, as far as I know, that's working in most school districts. They give the family the option, but they don't have to choose it. They can choose to say no, I'm a boy and I want to go in, or I'm a girl, even though I'm a boy, and I want to go into the girl's bathroom. Most of the time they take that third option, but they don't have to because of our state law. So that's one thing. Because we're the union, we seem to have the craziest things going on in our district in this city, in my opinion, because the union is, and you had said, with your union, that the local wasn't as bad, but our local is, and our local, eloise from the Freedom Foundation, told me about OpenSecretscom, so I looked up my teacher's union by name and found out that they donated in 2022 to all the far left Democrat candidates.
Mr. Webb:
It's pretty telling, isn't it?
Stacy Layne Adair:
Yeah, and it's very upsetting because one of those people wrote a bill this year it was called the Non-Legal Name Change Bill, where they wanted students to be able to change their name without parental notification, and that was the bill this person wrote from my city that the teachers union donated money to. And you know, I have friends in the teachers union who are Christians, who are conservatives Maybe not both, but one or the other and they don't know this is where their money's going.
Mr. Webb:
Yeah, I suspect there are a lot of folks at the local level that don't have a good grasp on what actually goes on in the teachers' unions, behind the scenes at the higher levels, etc uh, the most recent thing that I'm working on is I started a group of teachers.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Uh, there was a group of us who got together and fought the mask and everything and so kind of solidifying that group of teachers probably about 10 or 12 of us right now and we're called Teachers for Student Achievement and we're also we're trying to organize to have a voice. And we've met once with the superintendent. We're going to meet again with him next week. I'm bringing different teachers to tell him their concerns. So we went in saying, okay, what are your top two system concerns that, if improved, would improve outcomes for students? And so we sat with him and he listened and he took notes and he was happy to talk to teachers who were talking about system problems and not just how much you're going to pay me, what's my raise. You know teacher rights, you know we're teachers who care about students and we want to improve the system. And he listened and he took notes and that was very encouraging.
Mr. Webb:
Yeah, that sounds encouraging. What's the one thing you want the listener to remember, if they don't remember anything else about this episode?
Stacy Layne Adair:
Just start doing something, wherever you live. Just start doing something. I didn't know what I was doing, but just start. Just do something and you'll find other people who want to do something and you'll all move in that direction together. And it's amazing what we've accomplished by, you know, flipping the boards and supporting them, and it was just just by doing something. Take the first step, you know, and see where it leads. There is no wrong way to do it. You're just figuring things out as you go. But you know, without our group, I really don't think that we would have flipped the board and kept the board and then been able to continue to support and encourage the board.
Mr. Webb:
So just do something. I love that, you know. I know most of the listeners are conservative teachers and parents and I always say you are not alone, because I think they need to hear that, I think they need to know and I think I think that's good advice. Just do something and you might just find that there are other folks that feel the same way you do and they might join you in that something. As we wrap things up, stacey, can you share folks where they can connect with you on social media or anything that you want to plug or promote?
Stacy Layne Adair:
Okay, so if anybody wants to get any kind of group started, they can reach out to me on Facebook S-T-A-C-Y, stacy Lane, l-a-y-n-e and I'd be happy to encourage you and just get something started, be happy to support you and, you know, get two or three teachers together and start moving forward and just do something. But I'd be happy to connect with anybody who wanted to just have someone say yeah, you're going in the right direction, keep going.
Mr. Webb:
And I'll put a link to your Facebook in the show notes to make it easy for folks to connect with you. Thank you so much for being on the conservative classroom. It's always refreshing to just have a one-on-one with a fellow teacher, so thank you so much.
Stacy Layne Adair:
Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to hear what's going on. We can make a difference.
Mr. Webb:
That's it for today's episode of the Conservative Classroom. Thank you for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something. If you liked what you heard, please don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Most importantly, share this podcast with a like-minded educator, parent or patriot. You can also connect with us on social media and share your thoughts on today's topic. Give feedback on the podcast or suggest a topic by sending me an email at T heConservativeClassroom@ gmailcom. We'd love to hear from you. If you feel that education without indoctrination and teaching the truth is important to preserve traditional values, then support my efforts to keep the conservative classroom running. I'm a full-time teacher and dad and part-time podcaster. I invest a lot of hours and my own hard-earned money each week to bring you quality content, but I need your help. Check out the links in the show notes and on the website to support the podcast with one-time or recurring monthly donations. Every little bit helps. M You can also visit our merch store to get your own clothing, coffee mugs, stickers, backpacks, book bags and more with the conservative classroom logo or one of our many other conservative slogans, such as age appropriate does not equal banning books. Defund the teachers unions. Keep politics out of the classroom and more. If you want to support common sense and education without pushing your politics, check out our products with the red schoolhouse logo on it. We know it's hard to be openly conservative in some school districts, but your silent show of support may help you find other conservatives in your community and it lets you know that you're doing the right thing. Until next time. This is M r. Webb, reminding you that you are not alone. See you next time on T he C onservative C lassroom. T eaching the truth. P reserving our values.