PHX Reporter

The Young Democrats of Arizona (YDAZ) today came out in support of a local school board member Tamillia Valenzuela, who led an effort to sever ties between the school district and Arizona Christian University due to the university’s “biblically informed values.”

“Arizona Christian University’s religious nature has no place in our state’s public education programs,” according to a press release issued today by the YDAZ. “It must be a top priority to preserve the secular nature of public education in Arizona.’

According to an earlier report in the PHX Reporter, "The Washington Elementary School District (WESD) has voted to end a student teaching internship contract with Arizona Christian University (ACU) over concerns of the university’s 'biblically informed values.'"

That contract had been in place since 2018, and the purpose of the agreement is to secure students of Arizona Christian University to participate in Student Teaching Internships at schools within the District," according to the school board's meeting agenda from February 23, 2022.

The effort to end the contract with ACU was led by school district governing board member Tamillia Valenzuela who, during that February 23rd meeting, said she "has some very concerns (sic) regarding looking at this particular institution."

“When I go to Arizona Christian University's Web site…. you can go on their Web site, like the first page, ‘that above all else, it is to influence people to be biblically minded,” Valenzuela continued. “How does that hold space for people of other faiths? How does that hold space for our members of the LGBT community? How does that hold space for people who think differently and do not have the same beliefs?” 

“At some point, we need to get real with ourselves and take a look at who we're making legal contracts with and the message that that is sending to our community,” she added. “Because that makes me feel I could not be safe in this school district that makes other queer kids who are already facing attack from our lawmakers that they could not be safe in this community.” 

This five year agreement with ACU is now ending, after a motion by Valenzuela to allow the contract to expire was unanimously supported by all five members of the board.

Valenzuela was elected in November 2022 as an at-large member of the WESD governing board, receiving 34.9% of the vote. 

According to her bio on the school district Web site, Valenzuela “is a bilingual, disabled, neurodivergent Queer Black Latina” who “loves a good hot wing (but only with the right ranch) and things that sparkle.” 

In that same bio, she uses the pronouns “(she, her(s), ella)” after her name, and recently published a Facebook photo praising the fact that each member of the WESD board now “has their pronouns at the dais” in the governing board meeting room. 

Valenzuela also wears “mouse ears” during the governing board meetings. 

According to the Young Democrats of Arizona’s Twitter account, the organization is open to, “Democrats under the age of 40 in Arizona.” The current executive director organization is Surprise, Arizona resident Miles Stone Blakley, a recent graduate of the University of Arizona and former president of the University of Arizona Young Democrats.