A Georgia private school administrator allegedly agreed to sweep student records to find eligible voters to register in an effort to increase voter turnout for then-Senate candidates Raphael Warnock (D) and Jon Ossoff (D) ahead of the state's runoff election on Jan. 5, 2021.
The Westminster Schools director of enrollment management Marjorie Mitchell said in a Facebook thread that the school would help register students with late birthdays by sweeping student records for eligible voters.
A supporter of Warnock and Ossoff said in a Facebook comment, "We need to get the seniors who will be 18 on Jan 5 registered to vote now! How do we go about that? All hands on deck for Ossoff and Warnock!"
Mitchell agreed to help increase the vote for the two Democratic Senate candidates, responding, "We got the current seniors registered, so we just need to sweep for any late birthdays."
Screenshots of the Facebook comments were obtained by Wokeminster, a parent group associated with the school.
In 2020, a current Westminster administrator agreed to help get out the vote for Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff by "sweeping" student records for eligible voters. Would this behavior be ok under the disclosure teachers must sign? @UndercoverMoth9 @PeachStatePulse pic.twitter.com/Of0k3Xuvid
— Wokeminster (@wokeminsterATL) March 18, 2022
A parent also reportedly said that teachers directly pushed students to vote for Democrats during the students' "advisory" sessions.
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Nonprofit parent group Parents Defending Education slammed Westminster's partisan activity, bringing into question the school's nonprofit status.
"The text message exchange raises concerns about the school’s IRS nonprofit designation, the judgment and priorities of the school’s administrators, and the political climate at the school," Mary Miller, Parents Defending Education's Private School Advocacy Associate, said in a statement to Townhall. "It is inappropriate for schools to access private student records for extracurricular intent, and it is expressly forbidden for them to engage in partisan political activities. Parents want Westminster to stick to its founding mission and focus on academic excellence and Christian-based principles and keep politics out of the classroom."
According to a letter obtained by Wokeminster, there are 16 additional instances reported in which the school engaged in political activity in support of Democrats or in opposition to Republicans.
Among these occurrences include a teacher telling students that voting for former President Donald Trump was "going to the dark side," a teacher saying Trump deserved to die from COVID, an administrator handing out yard signs to faculty promoting then-candidate Joe Biden, a teacher allowing students to wear shirts supporting Biden but a single student who wore a Make America Great Again hat was told that the hat was not permitted and an art teacher instructing students to "Draw your favorite Democrat."
The letter, signed by "a Taxpayer" and sent to the Internal Revenue Service, argues that the 16 incidents qualify the school as an "action organization," violating its tax-exempt status.
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