![]() ![]() In one email, Bangert tells Axselle, the board’s Beaverdam District representative, that he received his message and “will review promptly and revert.” Later that night, Bangert sends another email asking Axselle if they could speak the next day. (Email provided to 8News by Hanover schools after Freedom of Information Act request) 7 email to Ryan Bangert, senior counsel and vice president of legal strategy at ADF. 7-8 - is the only one between a school board member and an ADF employee in the records shared with 8News. The email exchange between Axselle and Bangert - seven emails in total from Feb. “Thank you in advance for your assistance with this matter,” Axselle writes to Bangert in one of two sentences not blacked out. ![]() Hanover schools spokesperson Chris Whitley said the email and an attachment Axselle sent were redacted because they included “attorney-client material,” showing that Axselle had formally reached out to ADF a month before the board’s narrow vote to start considering the organization’s legal advice. Most of the email, including its subject line, was blacked out by the district when we received the email through a FOIA request. Records show that Hanover School Board member John Axselle first emailed Bangert at Alliance Defending Freedom on Feb. The Southern Poverty Law Center declined to comment on Bangert’s statement. He also called the Southern Poverty Law Center “partisan” and “scandal-ridden,” claiming it has presented “false claims and gross mischaracterizations,” citing reports critical of its “hate map” and a federal judge’s opinion in 2019 that argued the list doesn’t “depend upon objective data or evidence.” Supreme Court advocates that has worked “to preserve the fundamental freedoms of speech and religion for all Americans.” Ryan Bangert, senior counsel and vice president of legal strategy at ADF, strongly disputed SPLC’s designation and said ADF is one of the U.S.’s most respected and successful U.S. Hanover school board requests advice from conservative legal group on LGBTQ student policy ![]() What is ADF and its link to Hanover’s school board?Īlliance Defending Freedom is a conservative Christian legal advocacy and training organization based in Arizona seeking to secure “generational wins that change the law and culture,” according to its website. The emails do not account for possible phone calls, text messages or other communications between the board and organization. 21, 2021.Īlthough key details in the conversations were largely redacted – blacked out – by the school district, the emails shed some light on how the board and Alliance Defending Freedom came together. On March 16, 8News filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all of the county’s school board members’ emails concerning ADF since Nov. (WRIC) – Emails obtained by 8News show that a Hanover County School Board member reached out to a top legal strategist for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) a week before he tried to set a meeting between the board and the organization.Ī month later, the school board approved a plan to have ADF, which some have classified as an “anti-LGBTQ hate group,” review the district’s policy regarding the treatment of LGBTQ students. ![]()
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