A California mother has recently found herself out of a job after she spoke out at her district school board meeting about the adoption of a controversial sex-ed curriculum.
Janet Roberson, a real estate agent and mother of three in the northern California town of Benicia recently attended her school board meeting to voice her concerns about a new curriculum that teaches K-12 students about puberty blockers and gender transitioning, among other concerning aspects. The Benicia Unified School District meeting was uneventful, and she made her comments without incident.
“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.”
Courtesy Janet Roberson
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Wire, Roberson says a couple of days later, a distasteful and slanderous letter to the editor appeared in their local publication, accusing her of being a racist, transphobe, and a Nazi, among other slurs.
“There’s a fellow in town who’s known to write letters to the newspapers and such. And I’ve never met him. He doesn’t know me. He’s never asked me directly my opinion, but I guess he decided that because of what I said, I was a transphobe and a homophobe. And he said I was a racist and kind of extrapolated all these things. I was shocked when I saw that. I almost kind of chuckled because it was so absurd and not true, obviously… And so, for that to then propel what happened next absolutely shocked me.”
Shortly after the letter’s publication, a team member from Compass, the real estate agency Roberson has been selling with since 2020, contacted her to say they had decided to terminate her contract immediately. Having sold over $7 million in property for the company last year alone, Roberson inquired about the reasoning behind the decision.
She was told they were under no obligation to explain their decision.
While large, corporate real estate companies are common across America, it is equally common to keep employees for administrative work and contract with local agents across the nation. Agents spend thousands of their own dollars branding themselves for the company and in return, they enjoy the benefits and sales opportunities that come with being a part of a larger business. It is a typical arrangement in the industry. Roberson says she was “crushed” by the decision.
“I was absolutely crushed. … these are people I really loved working with, respected, I still do. I was absolutely devastated. And then I thought, what am I going to do?”
Courtesy Janet Roberson
The California mother of three began digging for information, and soon discovered that the treasurer of a local Democrat group — Progressive Democrats of Benicia — and member of the activist group Benicia Resists sent the original complaint to Compass. Roberson was able to obtain the original email from Progressive Democrat treasurer Nathalie Christian, who referred to Roberson’s beliefs as “hateful” and accused her of “internalized hate” for black and transgender people.
“It seems unfair to me that Compass, whose DEI policies I have reviewed at length, would be associated with such a hateful person…”
Christian went on to let Compass know she would be publishing an article on the matter in her activist publication by May 1 and asked the agency to provide comment by then.
By May 1, Roberson had been fired.
Compass could not be reached for comment, but in a previous statement to Fox New Digital, the real estate giant pointed to Roberson’s typical independent contractor status as their defense.
“‘[S]he 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,’ the spokesperson said.”
In the past, Roberson has been very vocal in her district about issues like mask mandates and CRT. She established a website as a resource for local parents and residents. She speculates that it may be what prompted the vitriolic responses from the Progressive Democrats of Benicia member and others regarding her peaceful school board appearance last April.
The successful real estate agent tells The Daily Wire she wasn’t sure what to do for herself after being let go. She contacted several lawyers to discuss options around slander and unfair employment practices, but unfortunately anti-SLAPP laws often prevent an independent contractor from availing themselves of the same worker protections W-2 employees have. Even when attorney’s do work for an independent contractor, the costs of litigation are often prohibitive, and Roberson has now lost her main source of income.
As a last resort, the Benicia mother called on her real estate marketing skills to make a video, which she posted to social media last Tuesday. In the video, she recounts her experience as a proud parent and resident of Benicia and the controversy caused by Nathalie Christian and others surrounding her comments at her own school board meeting.
“I’m the mom of an elementary schooler, a middle schooler, and a high schooler,” the site 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.”
📣: California mom breaks silence on losing job for speaking at her children’s school board meeting.
This well-mannered mom spoke at the @BeniciaUSD board meeting, expressing concern the new sex-ed curriculum was teaching 10 year-olds they could choose their own gender.
Within… pic.twitter.com/SbWD2TaHoE
— Jonathan Zachreson (@JZachreson) August 15, 2023
Her story has since gone viral after StudentsFirstCA co-founder Jonathon Zachreson shared the video, which garnered a comment from Elon Musk.
Roberson says she wishes to make it clear that she harbors no resentment towards the school board and has been treated respectfully. The Daily Wire reached out to Benicia Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Damon Wright, who told this publication his school district supports parent input and community “dialogue” and specifically Roberson’s right to participate in that dialogue.
“The Benicia Unified School District provided Ms. Roberson a platform to speak during Public Comment and did not play a role in her employment matter. BUSD remains open to engaging our community in dialogue about our District and program. Our School Board meetings have historically been and will remain a platform for the community to speak to topics during our Public Comment portion of the agenda. While we do not respond to public comment during the meeting, we hear and consider all voices in our decision-making process, and we follow up on questions to our Board or potential issues that may impact our students or staff. As an organization, we do not engage in matters outside the scope of our work. Ms. Roberson is a parent of BUSD students and a member of our community. The District values and solicits her input and input from other community members with a vested interest in our organization.”
Janet Roberson told The Daily Wire she wishes her former real estate agency embraced all diversity, including ideological diversity, and would like to see some accountability from Compass. She feels she deserves at least an explanation from a firm for which she’s made millions of dollars.
“I would love someone to have the courage to stand up and say, ‘I was the decision maker, it was me.’ I mean, if you make a decision to move forward based on whatever their decision-making was, at least stand behind that…someone to come forward and say, ‘yeah, it was my decision.’ And I would love to know why that person didn’t reach out to me and talk to me and hear what my view was.”
Friends of Janet Roberson have launched a GiveSendGo campaign to help with legal expenses should she decide to pursue this further.
Kira Davis is a Conservative and writer who has been working in punditry for almost a dozen years now. She immigrated to the United States from Canada at the age of eighteen. Kira currently resides in California with her husband, two children, and many, many, many insane voters. Follow her @RealKiraDavis
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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