At the end of the May 9, 2022 Moore County Board of Education meeting, David Hensley used his time for board member comments to give an impassioned speech assuring MCS employees that no member of the BoEd was engaged in a war on educators. He accused “leftists” in Moore County of making the whole thing up to scare teachers and parents and turn people against the BoEd.
The thing is, Hensley knew he was lying when he gave that pretty little speech. Hensley knew there was a war on educators in Moore County and he knew BoEd members were actively participating in it.
It’s not surprising to me that Hensley would lie. At this point, I am really only surprised by him on the rare occasion when he tells the truth. I was mildly surprised when it came to light that not only did David Hensley know about the war on teachers and lie about it, he is actually helping to FUND it through donations to Education First Alliance.
Education First Alliance is a federal PAC founded by Sloan Rachmuth. It began as a “grassroots” group advocating for in-person learning when public schools were shut down during the Covid pandemic. Once schools reopened, they turned their attention to CRT. Later they moved on to removing resources for LBGTQ+ students from our schools and accusing any teacher, school employee, or community member who resisted their bigotry of “pedophilia” and “grooming.”
Emily Grace Rainey is a member of the Board of Education First Alliance.
In April of 2020, EFA began asking its followers on social media to find and report the names and workplaces of any teacher they found to be “liberal.” Rachmuth offered to pay informers to join education groups to gather intelligence on individual teachers and report back to her.
At the same time, Emily Grace Rainey began asking the members of her group “Moore County Citizens for Freedom” and other Moore County social media groups to send her the names of MOORE COUNTY teachers who are “progressive.” She wanted to know their names and the schools for which they worked. She announced she was compiling a list of these “liberal” teachers to identify and expose them. Examples of the behavior Ms. Rainey targeted as being worthy of “exposure” include using pronouns in email signatures or using a gingerbread man worksheet.
It didn’t take long for teachers (on both the state level due to Rachmuth’s list, and in MoCo due to Rainey’s) to become victims of vicious online and, in some instances, in person attacks. Some teachers had complaints filed with their districts accusing them of being “groomers” based on nothing but their name being mentioned in the comments of one of Rainey or Rachmuth's posts. Teachers were doxed and harassed outside their places of employment. Things got so bad that an entire support group was created to help the victims of EFA’s unrelenting harassment.
Here in Moore County, Rachmuth was invited by Steve Woodward and other leaders in the Moore County Republican Party to conduct a “boot camp” to “inspire” the public to “go to war” on “leftists” educators. That boot camp was attended by sitting BoEd members Philip Holmes and Robert Levy. Levy commented on one of Rainey’s social media accusations against a teacher that he would “look into it.” A MCS teacher was threatened with the need to “have a will ready” by one of Rainey’s followers. A MCS teacher was targeted for harassment for having a rainbow in her classroom. It went on and on.
Yet, in spite of all this, Hensley claimed at the May MCS Board of Education meeting that there was no war on educators in Moore County - certainly not one being waged by BoEd members.
Public records show that on April 4, 2022, David Hensley gave a $250.00 donation to Education First Alliance. On May 3, 2022, (well after EFA declared war on teachers and began publicly harassing and doxing them) Hensley gave EFA another $250.00. On June 1, 2022 Hensley gave another - you guessed it - $250.00 to EFA. For three months, at the first of every month, Hensley has donated $250 to EFA. It seems as if this may be some kind of ongoing monthly pledge.
The June donation is particularly interesting to me. In May, after the primary election, Hensley and Rainey had a very public spat. Hensley accused Rainey of “fucking” Moore County by endorsing Ben Moss over Jamie Boles in the Republican primary for NC House District 52. He was so angry that he publicly outed the closely guarded secret that Rainey is the person behind “Moore Families for Quality Education.” He repeatedly demanded she explain why she had used the “credibility” of MFQE to help Moss get elected. When Rainey refused to answer and accused Hensley of “spiraling out of control,” he accused her of using PSYOPS techniques to gaslight. The whole thing got pretty heated. But I guess Hensley calmed down between the primary and June 1 - because he gave his usual $250 donation to EFA - where Rainey is a Board member.
Oh, what a tangled web. But the bottom line is simple:
David Hensley knows there is a war on educators in Moore County. He knows BoEd members are participating in it. And public records prove that David Hensley is helping to fund it.
***Commentary by Cheryl Christy. Cheryl can be reached at moorevoicesnc@gmail.com
