{"id":355373,"date":"2026-06-30T05:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/355373\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T05:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T05:36:20","slug":"a-democratic-texas-education-board-member-alleges-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/355373\/","title":{"rendered":"A Democratic Texas education board member alleges harassment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A State Board of Education member is threatening to sue colleagues after tensions over how to teach history and Bible stories in public schools spilled over onto social media.<\/p>\n

Democrat Marisa B. P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz sent cease-and-desist letters to GOP board members Julie Pickren and Brandon Hall last week after they called<\/a> her<\/a> a \u201cMarxist<\/a>\u201d who does not view America as \u201cexceptional\u201d and blamed her for \u201cgender confusion, parent\u2019s rights being trampled on, indoctrination over education, and boys in girls sports & restrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two Republicans\u2019 statements \u201ccaused or may foreseeably cause substantial personal, professional, and reputational harm,\u201d P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz\u2019s letter states, noting that the posts could encourage harassment from others.<\/p>\n

\u201cNevertheless, you have continued this conduct yourself in a way that is not only unprofessional and uncalled for but that appears intended to incite harm and violence,\u201d her letter reads. <\/p>\n

If the two fail to stop what she described as harassment, the San Antonio Democrat said she is prepared to pursue \u201call available legal remedies.\u201d <\/p>\n

Neither Pickren nor Hall has stopped their criticism. They described P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz\u2019s claims as \u201cmeritless\u201d and an attack on political speech. <\/p>\n

\"\"SBOE member Julie Pickren, R-Pearland, at the State Board of Education meeting in Austin on Friday. Leila Saidane<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a cost to serving in state office, and there\u2019s a cost for serving children, unfortunately, now that it has become so polarizing,\u201d Pickren said. \u201cThat goes with the territory. You have to have a thick skin to serve as a Texas elected official.\u201d <\/p>\n

Hall defended his actions, saying his North Texas constituents \u201celected me with more than 500,000 votes to fight the Marxist critical theory agenda shared by you and the Democrat Party, and I intend to continue doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dispute between the members materialized as the majority-Republican State Board of Education rewrote Texas\u2019 K-8 social studies lessons and passed a mandatory reading list for millions of public school children that includes Bible passages.<\/p>\n

Conservative leaders and activists champion the new lessons, which they view as \u201cthe final battle\u201d in a push to rid Texas schools of instruction they say paints America in a negative light and trains students to hate the country.<\/p>\n

Democrats, teachers and historians point to the whitewashing of American history, an overemphasis on Christianity, and factual errors as reasons why the new lessons will fail the state\u2019s students. <\/p>\n

Democrats found allies among several of the 10 Republican board members in pushing for some changes they hoped would make the lessons more inclusive of people of color and non-Christians. However, the members farthest to the political right used social media to gather support for history and reading lessons that depict America and Christianity as exceptional compared to other countries and religions. <\/p>\n

During the meetings, those members \u2014 including Pickren and Hall \u2014 voted against suggestions that sought to expand upon dark aspects of U.S. history, such as race-based slavery and segregation. <\/p>\n

\"BoardBoard members debate and vote on amendments during the Friday State Board of Education meeting in Austin. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n

The adopted lessons mention such historical events, but critics argue that they lack the same depth given to America\u2019s perceived bright spots. Meanwhile, Republicans like Pickren and Hall prioritized opposing the suggestions from Democrats seeking improvements. <\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz, who has served on the board since 2013, sent her letters to fellow board members on June 23. <\/p>\n

Pickren\u2019s lawyer \u2014 Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain<\/a> \u2014 wrote in a response letter to P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz, \u201cOnly a Marxist \u2014 or someone who thinks like one \u2014 would attempt to use lawfare to muzzle their political opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pickren told The Texas Tribune it was never her intent to involve lawyers in a dispute involving another board member. \u201cI was forced into this,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

Hall called P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz\u2019s accusations of bullying and harassment \u201cridiculous,\u201d saying his criticism of her focused on why he disagrees with her perspective on how the state should teach social studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no validity to that whatsoever,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should be professional, and we should be civil. But my voters also expect me politically to push back, and this back and forth between Marisa P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz and I has never \u2014 on my side \u2014 has never gone personal.\u201d <\/p>\n

P\u00e9rez-D\u00edaz said she is used to civil disagreements with other members during her time on the board. But name-calling and social media bullying can lead to threats or worse, she said, tearing up. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy tears are not tears of fear or hurt. They don\u2019t do anything to me. It doesn\u2019t hurt me. I don\u2019t care. They\u2019re not people who matter to me,\u201d she added. \u201cBut what does matter to me? We can\u2019t do the right thing by kids because our focus is not where it needs to be. And that\u2019s what this was about. I knew a letter like that wasn\u2019t gonna get anywhere with people who don\u2019t care to learn or who don\u2019t care to hear.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[163,1563,11538,2914,27,29,28,11362,6748],"class_list":["post-355373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-education","tag-public-education","tag-state-agencies","tag-state-board-of-education","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-public-schools","tag-well-b-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}