A mother in California, who claimed that she was fired from her job after speaking out about education curriculum at her local school board meeting, told Fox News in an interview that she has been unfairly branded as racist, homophobic and transphobic by members of her community in letters sent to her employer and printed in local news outlets.
On April 20, Janet Roberson spoke at a Benicia Unified School District (BUSD) meeting, expressing concerns about the district’s sexual education curriculum that she said taught “gender confusion, not gender clarification,” as 10-year-old students were being told they could choose their own gender and receive puberty blockers.
She said teaching “vulnerable children that lifetime dependence on medical care is a viable option is completely unacceptable and evil.”
“Children are being asked to identify their pronouns and this is now part of the ten-year-old curriculum,” Roberson said of the curriculum. “This forces a gender discussion beyond the scope of the state requirements and complicates an already overburdened classroom environment.
“We are alarmed that gender identity is now being discussed in math classes,” she added. “This takes time from core learning and does not benefit the students who are in our community. Teaching kids that there isn’t standard or truth and that you can believe anything that you want to believe is not scientifically accurate or medically correct. For example, the notion that a girl can decide to be a boy, or a boy can decide to be a girl is not true and should not be taught.”
Roberson told Fox News that she agreed that Americans should have the freedom to choose what they want to do, “but when it comes to children and what’s being taught in public schools to children, I do think we have to have some limits on that.” Since then, she has created a website and accompanying video to tell her story, which has garnered traction on social media.
“I’m the mom of an elementary schooler, a middle schooler, and a high schooler,” the website reads. “On April 20, I spoke at a school board meeting to express my concerns about the inappropriate new sex-ed curriculum being taught to 10 and 12 year olds. Then the bullies in town began a campaign to destroy me.”
It wasn’t long before a letter to the editor was published in the Benecia Times-Herald. A retired public educator and failed city council candidate named William “Billy” Innes called Roberson’s speech a “bigoted diatribe” and likened her beliefs posted on her website and Facebook page as “racist, homophobic, transphobic” with “anti-COVID safety, and anti-COVID vaccine writings, along with content that favors Eugenics.”
Innes went so far as to compare Roberson’s beliefs to those of doctors who worked in concentration camps during World War II, suggesting that as a local realtor, Roberson’s “unapologetic bigotry might well affect a marginalized person’s ability to purchase a home, contingent upon whether or not that buyer passes Janet Roberson’s racial/sexual purity test.”
Innes states his hope that “these spiritual sons and daughters of Hitler are but a small-minded and small-numbered minority within the city of Benicia,” and concludes the letter by saying, “Welcome to the new civil war.”
Innes had previously submitted a letter to the editor entitled “The spectre of Jan. 6 comes to Benicia.”
Roberson told Fox News that she was not contacted by the news outlet, but independently responded to Innes’ letter and clarified that she is opposed to: “1) 10-year-olds being asked to identify their pronouns 2) teaching children that boys can be girls and girls can be boys 3) teaching 10-year-olds that they can receive puberty blockers to prevent adolescent development 4) teaching 12-year-olds about oral and anal sex.”
On May 1, 10 days after speaking at the school board meeting, Robertson was notified by her real estate agency, Compass, that she was no longer authorized to do business with them. The company clarified that it had nothing to do with her business success at the company and stated they did not need to tell her why they had “decided to part ways.”
Nathalie Christian, the treasurer for the Progressive Democrats of Benicia, claimed to be a story development coordinator for The Benicia Independent and asked the company for a comment on Roberson’s “conduct” and the “incendiary language” that she used to further her “agenda” that Christian described as “anti-equity, anti-trans, anti-Black, and anti-choice.”
“The public deserves to know how Compass can reign in someone’s internalized hate for transgender kids and equity-seeking Black Americans (and especially Black children) so Compass clients can have a fair and decent experience when buying and selling property. I shudder,” she concluded in her letter.
Compass had stated that Robertson was not an employee, but an independent contractor with the agency.
“This person was not an employee of Compass – she was an independent contractor who worked on an agent team, and the decision to disassociate her license was made at the request of her team leader in late April 2023,” Compass told Fox News Digital in a statement.
Roberson said she was “absolutely shocked” when she read the statement and said it was “not at all” what she was told.
“Most real estate agents are independent contractors, and most real estate contracts are written to show that anyone can end the contract at any time for any reason,” and her local manager told her it was ultimately a corporate decision, Roberson said.
“To see corporate now throw the local team under the bus and say, ‘Oh, it’s not us’ … because I’m sure they’re trying to distance themselves from all of this … but obviously nobody there stood up and said, ‘Hey, we want to keep Janet, she’s great and by the way, she’s a mom who spoke at a school board meeting and moms at school board meetings shouldn’t be fired for what they say.”
Additionally, Kathy Kerridge, the chair of the Progressive Democrats of Benicia, said the group had “nothing to do with Janet’s firing” as an organization, but acknowledged that a letter was written by one of its members to her employer, maintaining that it did not represent the group.
“As an organization, we did not write any letters or contact her employer,” the statement said. “The letter that was written to a local paper was not written by a member. A letter to her employer was written by a member, but under her own name. We do not require our members to seek club approval before exercising their free speech rights and we do not control our members’ activities.”
“The Progressive Democrats of Benicia do firmly support LGBTQ+ rights and recently had a speaker about the current threats and attacks on that community,” the statement continued. “The resident’s website promotes the views of the American College of Pediatrics, which has been labelled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. As a club, we believe people need to know the truth, and the truth is we had nothing to do with the resident’s firing. But we wish she would not promote hate groups on her website.”
Roberson said the statement was “baloney.”
“I’m not surprised at all that they are now trying to distance themselves from this,” she said. “Of course, the progressive Democrats are going to say, ‘Oh, no, this wasn’t us, it was just our treasurer,’ but everyone is connected to them.”
Roberson said that because of anti-strategic lawsuits against public participation laws in California, she is unable to protect herself or go after those who have damaged her career because their words are considered political rhetoric.
“I think ultimately my goal is to inspire other parents to speak up,” she said.
“I think we should be tolerant and inclusive and that includes listening to other people who might believe differently than we do,” she added. “It’s been tremendously stressful, absolutely devastating to my family … Hopefully people will be inspired to just be courageous and strong and supportive of each other. And it’ll inspire parents to stand up for their children and come together as a community to not let cancel culture happen to anyone else.”
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