GUSD PARENTS VOICES
Extremist social media account co-founded by Ani Torosyan and Aneta Krpekyan. Missing an apostrophe.
About
GUSD Parents [sic] Voices
Co-founded by Ani Torosyan and Aneta Krpekyan to harass teachers, district staff, parents, and even students.
GUSD Parents Voices, or GPV, was first created as a Facebook group and served as an unofficial forum for district parents and families to share information and discuss issues. During the 2020 pandemic it became clear that the moderators of the page held pandemic-skeptic, anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine views. While the group began with a diverse representation of GUSD families, eventually those who questioned conspiratorial content or posted fact-checks of misinformation were removed from the group by admin.
Throughout 2020-21, GPV leaders Ani Torosyan and Aneta Krpekyan made repeated appearances at GUSD board meetings, demanding an end to school closures, rejecting vaccine requirements, calling teachers lazy, and attacking the union, sometimes with the support of others from the Facebook group.
When Jordan Henry arrived in Glendale in Spring 2021 he attempted to post his anti-CRT propaganda in every parent group page he could access, including starting his own "anti-crt" group. Most rejected his obviously false claims, but GPV quickly became a forum for daily posts of mis- and disinformation, many shared from or duplicated in the "anti-crt" group. Soon, members of GPV shifted their focus from anti-vax/anti-pandemic safety concerns and began echoing Henry's manufactured talking points about critical race theory, marxism, and communist indoctrination.
In the fall of 2021 and accelerating into the spring of 2022, Jordan's and GPV's focus shifted again, from CRT to hateful misinformation about the LGBTQ+ community and all curriculum related to diversity and inclusion. At around this time, led by Jordan, the group began their strategy of using Public Records Act requests to fish for information from which they could create fear and panic. Emails and other materials began to circulate in the Facebook group, frequently naming and attacking individual administrators, board members, and educators. One teacher, Tammy Tiber, was falsely accused of showing inappropriate content in her 3rd grade class, leading to harassment, death threats, and extremists calling her home phone.
GUSD Parents [sic] Voices, continued
Jordan Henry began his campaign for city council in spring 2022 and his malicious posting slowed, replaced by more extreme posts and attacks posted more frequently by GPV regulars such as Aneta Krpekyan, Maro Yacoubian, Denise Soto, and Ani Torosyan. When Jordan lost his race, coming in 7th out of 8 candidates (losing to Socialist Karen Kwak and 5 others), activity in GPV slowed for a time, but continued to feature persistent anti-LGBTQ+, anti-union, conspiratorial content alongside posts recruiting for various homeschool programs.
In early 2023, Jordan Henry and GPV began to aggressively post and direct their content to the viral network of right-wing reactionary social media influencers (including LibsofTikTok, Gays Against Groomers, Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh and others) escalating their rhetoric and expanding their district targets. They added an instagram page with the handle @gusd_parents_voices and began posting there more heavily than on Facebook, allowing them to begin to network with extremist groups from other areas and to further amplify sharing of misinformation and calls to in-person action that began to define the LOKA movement and right-wing extremism more broadly.
Through the spring of 2023 Henry and GPV attacked teachers and administrators while attempting to rally supporters to their cause. On April 18, their largest group yet appeared at a crowded GUSD board meeting. Many GPV members carried matching signs and some wore matching shirts. Jordan Henry sat with 5th grade teacher Ray Shelton who carried a sign featuring a swastika. GPV members were rowdy, frequently disrupted the meeting, made disparaging comments about teachers and parents present and filmed speakers, later posting videos to social media (including of minor students). PragerU's Director of Outreach Jill Simonian spoke during public comment despite not having children in the district and a PragerU media team was seen interviewing GPV supporters.. That meeting set the tone for the remainder of the spring, with each one becoming more volatile and attracting more extremist participants.
By the time of the violent protests at GUSD on June 6th and June 20th, GPV essentially became subsumed into the larger LOKA movement, participating in the same Leadership Institute and CA Policy center trainings and events and building connections to larger far-right organizations including TPUSA, Moms for America, PragerU, and others. GPV social media primarily recycled content shared virally across the dense, but small, "parents rights" network, interspersed with defamatory posts about local educators, parents, and LGBTQ+ community members.
In the fall of 2023, GPV leaders Jordan Henry and Aneta Krpekyan announced their campaigns for GUSD Trustee areas A and E. Despite significant financial support from LOKA members and sympathizers outside Glendale, and despite the endorsement and resources provided by CA Policy center, both candidates were defeated in the March 5th local election.
Video
GUSD Parents Voices
June 6, 2023
Violent extremist rally against LGBTQ+ inclusion in GUSD (began at GUSD offices, migrated to Glendale City Council.
