June 25, 2023 • 8 mins
George Dzhabroyan has two children who attend Saticoy Elementary School in North Hollywood, California. George tells us about organizing a protest at the school on the day an assembly was scheduled to celebrate Pride Month. He says parents are worried about what they call a sneaky inclusion of LGBTQ+ lifestyle into the curriculum, including reading a book to the school that talks about same sex marriage.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Talk about that day that the protestbroke out, what started that protest and
what is it that you and yourparent fellow parents are worried about. So,
Steve, we had requested to well, we organized the protest for it
to be around eight o'clock after studentsenter school, so we don't bother them
(00:21):
in their entry or frightened them inany way, shape or form. But
once we were there, we weregreeted by what looked like two different groups.
There were LGBTQ supporters, which weremaybe roughly about ten or fifteen people.
The second group was would look likemembers of ANTIFA, and those were
(00:46):
the potential hostile, antagonizing group thatkind of provoked a couple of scuffles to
break out. We were absolutely notanticipating to have anyone from MTIFA members show
up there because absolutely has nothing todo with them, neither does it have
with the LGBTQ people. We wereprotesting against LAUSD. What happened and what
(01:15):
is it you were protesting? Imean, what was the purpose of the
protest? So your purpose of theprotest was lack of transparency. We had
to find out the curriculum the assemblyon our own without having any knowledge of
it. After we had knowledge ofit, we wanted to opt out from
the assembly, which was basically anintroduction to LGBTQ, which we are absolutely
(01:41):
against. We we think that it'sa parent's choice when that's introduced to their
children at what stage in their lifeat you know how much they their age
has a lot to do with it, in our opinion, so we felt
that it was not the right timefor that to be a to elementary students.
(02:01):
So when we asked to have anoption to opt out of this assembly,
we were never given one. Sowe tried to go through them number
of number of times. Unfortunately wewere unsuccessful. Once the once it actually
broke out and people were just findingout obviously, but there were more parents
(02:23):
adding on and it became it becamea movement where everyone was kind of joining
because they obviously didn't want their childrento attend either. And once we had
some traction where we had some mediacoverage, we were threatening to protest because
obviously they just didn't want to hearus out. That's when after media coverage
(02:46):
then they came to us and said, you know, we'll give you a
religious exemption, and we of coursehad trouble with that as well, because
we don't believe that this is areligious matter as much as it is.
I can see that point of viewas well. There's morals and there's a
lot of other religions besides Christianity thatdon't believe that this should be taught to
(03:07):
elementary students. So it's more ofmorals than anything else. We think.
Did you have any success did theother than the violence and the unexpected results
of that day? Did you asa parent group have any success with the
district? Not that we can seeso far, So this issue is far
(03:29):
from being resolved. It had happenedat am, not such a advantageous time
because schools were closing. So wehaven't gotten too much feedback from the board
yet. We have a lot ofquestions that have not been answered yet,
and we're still on the waiting termsto see what exactly is that they're going
(03:53):
to propose to us, because obviouslynext year they're adding more and more curriculums
of the LGBT agenda and it's justgoing to create more crashes and more clashes
than what they're anticipating. Well,what do you think's at play here?
Then, George I? Mean,what do you think the real purpose of
(04:14):
the district? Because when I talkto others that are pro the pro curriculum,
if you will, the pro alternativelifestyle curriculum, they say that there
are kids that are either afraid togo to their parents with their concerns,
or they're going through some sort ofa problem or a challenge or things like
that, and they feel like thatthe school needs to be a place for
them to learn that if they sochoose. What do you say to that?
(04:38):
I completely disagree, because as aresponsible parent, I see the trouble
that my child faces before the schoolcan see it, and as a responsible
parent, I need to address iton a basis of basically like a one
on one thing with my child insteadof a whole introduction to five six hundred
(05:00):
students that have absolutely no interest orwhatsoever in that curriculum. When all academy
is failing so miserably, for thisto be an agenda is completely irresponsible.
So at this point, what happensnext? You say you're in kind of
a holding pattern. The school boardpresident Jackie Goldberg said at a school board
(05:25):
meeting that she says that that youfolks all had options and that you didn't
exercise those options. You know,that was completely misrepresented by miss s Goolberg.
I don't know if she has thefull details or if she's misrepresenting this
on her own, but those options, that religious exemption was not given to
(05:48):
us until we had media coverage thatwe're protesting, so that is definitely misrepresented.
Steve. It is unfortunate that thisis happening, but there's numerous trails
that no option was given to usuntil we took extreme measures to protest.
(06:10):
That was not our first option,that was our last resort. And what
about your kids, George, Imean, how do you kids feel about
all of this and how are theyprocessing it? How are you working with
them to process all this So interestingyou say that, Steve, because one
of the biggest emotional moments for mewas after coming home from the protest,
(06:35):
seeing my children rather scared and saying, you know, we were watching the
news. We saw people that wantedto hurt you guys, and we don't
understand why they want to hurt you. And if they want to hurt you,
why is it the school that wantsto teach us about this? Those
(06:57):
people were threatening you guys, andthey look like they wanted to hurt you,
so unfortunately, I mean, thatwas a very emotional moment for me.
I didn't have the right response becausethe people that were representing the opposing
side, those Antifa members, theyare I don't believe they're the correct representation
(07:21):
of what's being protested, but unfortunatelywe were faced with them and they were
rather terrifying for kids. Well,George, I really appreciate your time and
thank you for making yourself available tous, and thanks for giving us your
(07:42):
view of the events. Thank youso much for shining light on this matter
as it is very much as importantto everyone in California, not only sati
Quoi parents, because this is amuch bigger issue than just a Setiquai family.
Thanks again for your time. Absolutely, Thank you so much. Steve,
take care of now mine. Hesaid, She Said? They Said.
(08:05):
Is a production of the KFI NewsDepartment for iHeartMedia, Los Angeles and
is produced by Steve Gregory and JacobGonzalez. The associate producer is Nick Pagliocchini
and the field engineer is Tony Sorrentino.
Talk about that day that the protestbroke out, what started that protest and
what is it that you and yourparent fellow parents are worried about. So,
Steve, we had requested to well, we organized the protest for it
to be around eight o'clock after studentsenter school, so we don't bother them
(00:21):
in their entry or frightened them inany way, shape or form. But
once we were there, we weregreeted by what looked like two different groups.
There were LGBTQ supporters, which weremaybe roughly about ten or fifteen people.
The second group was would look likemembers of ANTIFA, and those were
(00:46):
the potential hostile, antagonizing group thatkind of provoked a couple of scuffles to
break out. We were absolutely notanticipating to have anyone from MTIFA members show
up there because absolutely has nothing todo with them, neither does it have
with the LGBTQ people. We wereprotesting against LAUSD. What happened and what
(01:15):
is it you were protesting? Imean, what was the purpose of the
protest? So your purpose of theprotest was lack of transparency. We had
to find out the curriculum the assemblyon our own without having any knowledge of
it. After we had knowledge ofit, we wanted to opt out from
the assembly, which was basically anintroduction to LGBTQ, which we are absolutely
(01:41):
against. We we think that it'sa parent's choice when that's introduced to their
children at what stage in their lifeat you know how much they their age
has a lot to do with it, in our opinion, so we felt
that it was not the right timefor that to be a to elementary students.
(02:01):
So when we asked to have anoption to opt out of this assembly,
we were never given one. Sowe tried to go through them number
of number of times. Unfortunately wewere unsuccessful. Once the once it actually
broke out and people were just findingout obviously, but there were more parents
(02:23):
adding on and it became it becamea movement where everyone was kind of joining
because they obviously didn't want their childrento attend either. And once we had
some traction where we had some mediacoverage, we were threatening to protest because
obviously they just didn't want to hearus out. That's when after media coverage
(02:46):
then they came to us and said, you know, we'll give you a
religious exemption, and we of coursehad trouble with that as well, because
we don't believe that this is areligious matter as much as it is.
I can see that point of viewas well. There's morals and there's a
lot of other religions besides Christianity thatdon't believe that this should be taught to
(03:07):
elementary students. So it's more ofmorals than anything else. We think.
Did you have any success did theother than the violence and the unexpected results
of that day? Did you asa parent group have any success with the
district? Not that we can seeso far, So this issue is far
(03:29):
from being resolved. It had happenedat am, not such a advantageous time
because schools were closing. So wehaven't gotten too much feedback from the board
yet. We have a lot ofquestions that have not been answered yet,
and we're still on the waiting termsto see what exactly is that they're going
(03:53):
to propose to us, because obviouslynext year they're adding more and more curriculums
of the LGBT agenda and it's justgoing to create more crashes and more clashes
than what they're anticipating. Well,what do you think's at play here?
Then, George I? Mean,what do you think the real purpose of
(04:14):
the district? Because when I talkto others that are pro the pro curriculum,
if you will, the pro alternativelifestyle curriculum, they say that there
are kids that are either afraid togo to their parents with their concerns,
or they're going through some sort ofa problem or a challenge or things like
that, and they feel like thatthe school needs to be a place for
them to learn that if they sochoose. What do you say to that?
(04:38):
I completely disagree, because as aresponsible parent, I see the trouble
that my child faces before the schoolcan see it, and as a responsible
parent, I need to address iton a basis of basically like a one
on one thing with my child insteadof a whole introduction to five six hundred
(05:00):
students that have absolutely no interest orwhatsoever in that curriculum. When all academy
is failing so miserably, for thisto be an agenda is completely irresponsible.
So at this point, what happensnext? You say you're in kind of
a holding pattern. The school boardpresident Jackie Goldberg said at a school board
(05:25):
meeting that she says that that youfolks all had options and that you didn't
exercise those options. You know,that was completely misrepresented by miss s Goolberg.
I don't know if she has thefull details or if she's misrepresenting this
on her own, but those options, that religious exemption was not given to
(05:48):
us until we had media coverage thatwe're protesting, so that is definitely misrepresented.
Steve. It is unfortunate that thisis happening, but there's numerous trails
that no option was given to usuntil we took extreme measures to protest.
(06:10):
That was not our first option,that was our last resort. And what
about your kids, George, Imean, how do you kids feel about
all of this and how are theyprocessing it? How are you working with
them to process all this So interestingyou say that, Steve, because one
of the biggest emotional moments for mewas after coming home from the protest,
(06:35):
seeing my children rather scared and saying, you know, we were watching the
news. We saw people that wantedto hurt you guys, and we don't
understand why they want to hurt you. And if they want to hurt you,
why is it the school that wantsto teach us about this? Those
(06:57):
people were threatening you guys, andthey look like they wanted to hurt you,
so unfortunately, I mean, thatwas a very emotional moment for me.
I didn't have the right response becausethe people that were representing the opposing
side, those Antifa members, theyare I don't believe they're the correct representation
(07:21):
of what's being protested, but unfortunatelywe were faced with them and they were
rather terrifying for kids. Well,George, I really appreciate your time and
thank you for making yourself available tous, and thanks for giving us your
(07:42):
view of the events. Thank youso much for shining light on this matter
as it is very much as importantto everyone in California, not only sati
Quoi parents, because this is amuch bigger issue than just a Setiquai family.
Thanks again for your time. Absolutely, Thank you so much. Steve,
take care of now mine. Hesaid, She Said? They Said.
(08:05):
Is a production of the KFI NewsDepartment for iHeartMedia, Los Angeles and
is produced by Steve Gregory and JacobGonzalez. The associate producer is Nick Pagliocchini
and the field engineer is Tony Sorrentino.
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