School board member who once championed book bans now faces death threats for changing her mind

A former far-right Texas school board member who promised to stop pro-LGBTQ+ “indoctrination” in her local school district is now speaking out against “extremist” members of her own Republican Party who are hellbent on banning books, defunding schools, and electing ultra-right members to school boards. She has received death threats for opposing the party’s efforts.

Courtney Gore — a self-described “small town, conservative Christian values,” Republican patriot and activist who co-hosts a right-wing online talk show — ran a successful far-right campaign to get elected to the board of Granbury Independent School District (GISD) in Texas. Right-wing media had repeatedly told her about “inappropriate” teachings in public schools, and she wanted to help end it.

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“Over the years our American Education System has been hijacked by Leftists looking to indoctrinate our kids into the ‘progressive’ way of thinking, and yes, they’ve tried to do this in Granbury ISD,” Gore wrote in a September 2021 Facebook post, two months before her election onto the board. “I cannot sit by and watch their twisted worldview infiltrate Granbury ISD.”

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However, once she won the seat, she looked over hundreds of pages of GISD lesson plans for evidence of critical race theory (CRT), LGBTQ+ indoctrination, and social-emotional learning, something that Christian conservatives say encourages kids to question gender roles and prioritize feelings over Biblical teachings.

She found no evidence of these things. Instead, she thought the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a good human,” she told The Texas Tribune.

When she shared her findings with “hard-liners” who had encouraged her to run for the school board, she said they were indifferent and dismissive because “it didn’t fit the narrative that they were trying to push.”

She now feels that she was used as part of statewide Republican efforts to weaken support of public schools and lay the groundwork for a voucher system that would give taxpayer funds to public schools while allowing them to avoid government oversight and reject any students with impunity.

“I’m over the political agenda, hypocrisy bs,” Gore wrote in a spring 2022 social media post. “I took part in it myself. I refuse to participate in it any longer. It’s not serving our party. We have to do better.”

Political consultant Nate Criswell asked her to run for the board. He ran the campaigns for her and Melanie Graft, another board candidate who tried to remove LGBTQ+ books from the county library’s children’s section. Criswell noted that the nearby Southlake school district had recently installed similarly minded school board members, using churches as a way to help their campaigns.

“When you put in the minds of parents that there is an agenda to indoctrinate their children… and the only answer is to get conservative Christian people elected to the school board, it’s a very powerful message.”

Soon after Gore was elected, GISD administrators removed 130 library books after Matt Krause, a Republican representative from Fort Worth, published a list of 850 titles that allegedly pushed CRT and LGBTQ+ views. In an audio recording, GISD Superintendent Jeremy Glenn expressed concern to librarians about LGBTQ+ books in particular, including ones that had no sexual content.

The Department of Education is currently investigating whether the books’ removal violated federal civil rights laws prohibiting sex-based discrimination.

A volunteer review committee of parents and district employees recommended returning all the removed books back to the shelves. Gore agreed with their recommendation. But others wanted GISD to remove even more books and said that the district was allowing kids to view “pornography.”

Criswell then called for the ouster of another school board member who also agreed with the committee’s recommendation. In a June 2022 video, he said, “We’ve had other people elected in recent elections that just haven’t lived up to the expectations.”

In a June 8, 2022 Facebook post, she responded, “I refuse to be someone’s puppet. I refuse to be told what to do, what to say or how to vote. I refuse to participate in any agenda that will dismantle or abolish public education.”

Then, during one school board meeting, Nate Criswell’s grandfather, Cliff Criswell, spoke while wearing a black handgun in a leather holster — something that is a third-degree felony under state law. Cliff Criswell said board members were allowing pornography in school libraries and stifling dissent.

“We have profile sheets [on all the GISD board members]” he reportedly shouted. “We know what you do. We know where you live.”

Gore said she was shocked and immediately started calling family members.

“My grandmother was home with our children,” she said in an interview. “My brother came over and slept on my front porch to make sure nobody showed up at our house in the middle of the night. I mean, my kids were terrified after that.”

Later that night, she wrote on Facebook, “Tonight, threats were made against me, every board member (except one) and our superintendent. We were individually called out by name, told we had profile sheets made on each of us and that we would be dealt with accordingly. THIS IS NOT OK. I take threats against myself and my family seriously, especially with all of the violence in today’s world. Will we be dealing with school board shootings next?!? WE MUST DO BETTER!”

She later wrote, “Extremism is the problem.” In response, GISD posted signs prohibiting firearms and hired additional officers to attend board meetings that discuss potentially controversial topics.

“That was the moment I saw how crazy it was, how unhinged it had become and how far some people were willing to go to prove their points,” Gore said.

Gore has since continued to speak out against far-right “extremism” in her Republican party, saying that the party’s attempts to “abolish public education” in favor of school vouchers will “harm children.”

She and local Republicans have formed a group opposing her political party’s “ultra-right,” saying it is more interested in “administering purity tests” and stoking divisive politics rather than helping the community.

“I feel like if I don’t speak out, then I’m complicit. I refuse to be complicit in something that’s going to hurt children,” she said.

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