The politicization of school boards by the far left can be seen across the Capital District.
What voters may not realize is how far left political activists have organized over the past few years to take over school boards in order to inject their activism into public schools and use students to advance their political agenda.
Case in point, BLM/All of Us activist Jamaica Miles was elected to the Schenectady school board last year.
If you are not sure who she is, she and Lexis Figuereo led many of the protests in downtown Saratoga over the past two years. There is video evidence of Jamaica Miles harassing diners at Hattie’s in Saratoga Springs on Sept 27 2020.
More recently Miles is seen in this video participating in a student walkout during the school day over the approved Community Engagement Officer program, a result of concerning trends of increased violence in the schools.
Miles is trying to oust a current school board member running for re-election because she dared to call out Miles’ polarizing actions, so if you live or know any voters in Schenectady and are reading this, our sources tell us that Cathy Lewis and Vivian Parsons are not on the same page with the far-left agenda of Jamaica Miles.
So what does this have to do with Saratoga Schools?
Well, not only has Jamaica Miles and Lexis Figuero led several BLM/All of Us protests in downtown Saratoga Springs, but birds of a feather flock together.
Natalya Lakhtakia has participated in some of these protests, and has even funded one of these leaders for their criminal activity.
This same leader was also invited into Saratoga Schools to speak to students about social activism.
Natalya is running for election to the Saratoga Springs Board of Education on May 17th.
“Follow Leadership:”
Thanks to a Freedom of Information request, Moving Saratoga Forward has obtained the “BLM & Civil Disobedience” presentation* from Damien Ubriaco's English 9 Honors class.
This event violated school board policy on controversial issues because the teacher did not follow the guidelines of the policy.
To our knowledge there have been zero consequences for the teacher as a result of this policy violation. Ubriaco is the same teacher that later exposed his students to sexually explicit material.
We know that John Brueggemann supported this rogue teacher and called parents that raised concerns “bastards.”
BLM/All of Us leaders Chandler Hickenbottom and Lexis Figuereo spoke to 14 & 15yo Saratoga High School students during the school day with the objective of describing specific types of action, risks and what students should expect when participating in a "protest."
This presentation doubled as a recruitment tool and directed participants to wear dark clothing, earplugs, and gas masks, and also emphasized that carrying pepper spray was imperative.
The most troubling part of this presentation is that on the “What to do” slide, it tells students to “Follow leadership”
What did Lexis and Chandler mean by "Follow Leadership?"
Here are some examples of the BLM/All of Us leadership behavior that students are directed to follow: Lexis Figuereo
To Police Officer: "Suck my di#k. Suck my black di#k."
BLM Organizer threatens the city of Saratoga Springs/BLM "protests" in Albany, NY.
As you can see Saratoga BLM defines an insurrection as "an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government."
By their own definition, Jamaica Miles and Lexis Figuero have led insurrections here in Saratoga Springs and beyond, and Natalya Lahtakia supports those insurrections.
Voters should know that a sitting board member who is up for re-election supports these social activists and their insurrectionist behavior.
The biggest takeaway:
If you don’t think that the type of leadership behavior that kids should follow involves the examples we provided, then don’t vote for Natalya Lahtakia or John Brueggemann. They support rogue teachers and insurrectionists.
**Full BLM Presentation to Ubriaco's 9th Grade English Class below**