(This article is provided in the public interest in exercise of our first amendment right to freedom of the press and accountability for those who mishandle public resources)
“We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.” – D&C 121
The lessons we learn from observing this nonsense in a school system are the same lessons for dealing with any kind of government bureaucracy when they’re trying to claim authority that they don’t actually have.
Attacking Families in the Public Schools
Defending Utah gets contacted by multiple families every year who report the public school system is refusing to honor their parental rights and sometimes we’re able to help remedy the situation.
Recently, My Tech High has been reported to us as the latest to deny parental rights and gaslight families into cooperating.
As you read through this one parents’ experience, we’ll show you through the whole mess that this comes down to one common lie we believe that is the most common excuse to take away your power. We’ll also give you an opportunity to make a difference at the bottom of this article.
Many in the independent education and home school communities feel like My Tech High has been a way to get the “benefits” of tax payer funded education while still homeschooling or avoiding many problems the public school system brings upon families. But perhaps this story paints a clear picture that My Tech High does not feel accountable to parents, ignoring the fact that parents are the rightful tax-payer-owners of the public school system, including taxpayer funded My Tech High.
Other wise Utahans have feared that “in between” programs like My Tech High or publicly funded vouchers are a way to actually control those that are trying to cut strings with the public school system that lies to parents about vaccination requirements or forces their children into uncomfortable situations without parents’ knowledge or many other shocking things that continue to be exposed in public schools on a regular basis.
Your Rights as a Parent
In 2017 Defending Utah exposed how controlled-opposition in the liberty movementchanged the wording of Utah code to make parents feel like they could no longer opt out of immunization requirements without being forced to go through the health department and be subjected to propaganda that contains inaccurate medical information and shames parents for not believing in it, among other things. They even were forcing parents to legally admit in writing that they’re harming their children until our 2017 expose forced the health department to stop this practice. Despite this language change, the fundamental right for parents to opt out of anything in the public school system has always remained supreme.
Let us state for the record that Defending Utah has assisted hundreds of parents since 2017 to opt out through claiming their rights directly, and dozens of schools (public, charter, private, etc) have accepted notices from parents who create their own legally valid opt-out forms at home. On occasion the forms are finally accepted only after the schools create conflict with the parents first. Read through our latest update on the fundamental rightsyou have to do this that cannot be taken away without your consent.
Your opt out rights are inalienable and written into the state and national constitutions. The rights discussed here are even directly legislated into Utah code. You cannot be rightfully compelled to jump through hoops that violate your conscience or privacy or any other right, in order for you to claim your right to opt out of forced toxic “medical treatment”. But remember that even if this were to be removed from the Utah code, the right of parents to not participate in any aspect of public schools would still remain supreme.
The Latest Allegations Against My Tech High – Can You Spot any Big Lies?
Like countless other parents that have succeeded already at opting out directly (skipping the health department’s nonsense), this past June one parent that contacted us was instead denied their right to opt out by My Tech High and threatened to have their child not participate in the program that the public has already paid for.
Submitted chat threads that we received (My Tech High does not have a phone number to call a real person) from the parent show that My Tech High refused to answer the parent’s questions. Instead of addressing their issue, you can see a pattern of avoiding the questions and gaslighting. Defending Utah contacted My Tech High asking our own questions that would help us clear up why they were doing this and hopefully identify a misunderstanding. Unfortunately, they treated our questions with the same avoidance, refusing to address the issue themselves, and instead deferred to a vaguely described time frame in the future where they could avoid having to address the problem today, as if they were incapable of making their own decisions. Is this incompetence or willful denial because they believed they had authority to steamroll this parent’s rights?
So we see, that they seem to be effectively denying the right of the public (who funds My Tech High through property taxes) to use the very government that they pay for. This could happen to anybody, and when left unaccountable, it will happen to more parents. This is why shining a public light on this type of situation is so important.
Here’s the evidence and run down where we can all learn how to recognize tyranny
1. After this parent uploaded their lawful exemption form (which they created themselves) to My Tech High multiples times, My Tech High refuses to accept it because they wanted to compel the student and parent to waive their other rights in order to claim their opt-out right. The parent then tries to teach My Tech High about their responsibility, what Utah Code actually says, and what the constitution says. As you can see, the parent continually requests to escalate the issue with legal counsel or anybody, and My Tech High refuses to provide any path forward. This amounts to a deprivation of the parent’s right to petition for redress as the parent ends up with nobody who claims accountability for making the decision to deprive them of their rights. (Utah Constitution, Article 1 Section 1)
2. Amy from My Tech High tries to send the parent to where they must waive their other rights in order to claim the opt-out right. Defending Utah gave a full break-down in this previous article as to why this is a major problem and especially that in the end the health department doesn’t even provide their own form to comply with the very law they’re claiming to stand on. But putting that aside, just because the health department is required by law to create a “form”, that law does not restrict a parent that is a member of this republic from providing their own “form” that reasonably provides notice of their opt out.
3. The parent continues to explain to My Tech High how the parent has complied with the law and how My Tech High is now violating the law. Amy and others at My Tech High will continue to ignore the repeated requests to provide a legal or escalation contact that can resolve the issue directly with the parent.
4. As the parent continues to repeat the request for an escalation and/or legal contact, Amy’s tactic is now to claim to want to help, but acting as if her hands are tied by creating a no-win situation for the parent through providing an arbitrary, non-specific date as to when she can give the parent a path for redress of their grievance. The biggest irony to notice here is that My Tech High has all the authority they need to accept the parent’s opt out form. This is a dramatically frivolous use of public funds.
5. The parent calls Amy out on how she is avoiding being helpful. Further doubling down on the deprivation of the parent’s right to petition for redress. (Utah Constitution, Article 1 Section 1)
6. Another administrator of public funds at My Tech High, Tricia, also pushed the same issue, but also included a threat to completely deny the parent use of the public resources that they are stewards over.
7. Yet another steward of public funds, Tracey, shows the same run-around behavior. After the parent explained similar points and asked the same questions to hold My Tech High accountable, we see Tracey completely ignore addressing any of the parent’s points and blatantly shuts down the conversation so My Tech High doesn’t have to deal with it. The claim that somebody else is helping the parent is dishonest, because we’ve seen the evidence that nobody at My Tech High is actually answering the questions or providing the path forward for redress of grievances.
8. A couple weeks later, Amy continues to pass responsibility for the deprivation of rights onto someone else
9. The parent tries to take the opportunity to once again retrieve the contact information which the parent reported to us was still never provided
10. Perhaps there’s a misunderstanding? Defending Utah took the key points from this evidence and sought to give My Tech High a chance to either answer the concerns directly, or show a good faith misunderstanding as they correct this abuse of public resources and remedy the parent’s grievance. Here’s the email we sent to My Tech High.
11. Finally, My Tech High’s ultimate response is to completely deny all accountability, and boldly claim that they are being forced by somebody else to behave this way. Even adding another vague reference to a future date when they finally have “clarity”, at that point they’ll finally be able to know “what is required”.
My Tech High has all the power to protect your rights
In My Tech High’s final message to Defending Utah, we can see their incompetence on full display to us. This statement can logically only be either a bold faced lie or a witness to the gross ignorance and incompetence of My Tech High in understanding our republican form of government. Their whole process is based on the fact that “Somebody else told us”. They act as if they’re not capable of making their own decisions, and so they claim that they are compelled by some other force. This is not the way republican-form government works. In our free republic, the people claim their rights and any agent of government has the power to ensure that those rights are honored within their specific stewardship. This is exactly the power granted to all public officials in Article 4, Section 10 of the Utah Constitution. That’s why each individual with any stewardship in government is required to take an oath to the highest law. The constitution is above all legislation and administrative rules, granting power to anyone who takes such oath to act in support of any case where a fundamental right is being violated.
Passing the Buck – The Most Common Tactic
The most common tactic of tyranny is passing the buck. They can violate your rights all day if somebody else is the problem, because you have nobody to petition for redress of your grievance. Learning to recognize this tactic is key for a free people to not stand for such behavior. You must always seek to identify whose actions are depriving you of your rights, and you’ll know you’re getting played when it’s impossible to identify the decision maker.
In 2017 we reported on a very detailed investigation where the system was forced to face up to doing this. The director of the Utah Health Department conceded and admitted that the state has no power to tell any school of any kind, how to accept immunization opt outs. All that talk of “local control” we hear? It’s true, each school can make it’s own decision on your rights, especially the choice to accept any exemption notice that you give them. None of them are forced to violate your rights. The passing-the-buck game is how parents rights are so often violated so that you stop being such a nuisance and wanting to claim your rights.
Here’s a screenshot of the email from the state, admitting to this. They do nothing more than provide “consultation”, they have no administrative role in how the schools operate “in this matter” (the matter of immunization opt outs or parental rights of any kind)
Do you feel that Utah Government at any level should not deny rights?
If so, we invite you to:
1. Share this article
2. Contact My Tech High at their publicly available communications points, and tell them how you feel and what you think the right thing would be for them to do
Phone: (Unknown)
Fax: (801) 228-2493
Email: admin@mytechhigh.com
Email: help@mytechhigh.com
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