Choosing God Over Government: Standing Up to Bullies and Pushing Back Against a 'Woke’ World with Public School Teacher Jessica Tapia

Real Life presents the Jack Kibs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Hey everybody, you're gonna want to stay tuned to this upcoming broadcast of Real Life podcasting. It's going to be something that is going to be reaching right into your home, your life, and your child's life. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackkibs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Kibs. Hey, welcome to this episode of Real Life and we have something truly today that I believe that if you are willing to listen and to spread the word regarding what you're about to hear, to someone you know in the public school system and you might be saying, well that's everybody. Well, that may be true. So spread the word. Here's the deal. Today, I have with me Jessica Tapia and she is a public school teacher. For six years, she's been a public school teacher. She has her master's degree in education. She has experienced a challenging upbringing to say the least. She is a woman that I would think people would want to emulate and get behind and support because she's a success story. She has taken what we would say in biblical terms ashes and has turned them into beauty. Her life matters. Her faith matters. She's a woman of faith and she has taken a stand and she's done that in the public school system, but that has become unacceptable. And so she has recently lost her job as a public school teacher for her faith in California, but her story is not limited to California. This is happening in school districts all across the United States. So you need to tune in. You need to give extra attention because I do believe that you're going to derive courage from her testimony and you might even get some direction as to what you should do mom and dad or what you should do principal or teacher regarding the dynamics of what's happening with us assault on our public school system. So Jessica, welcome. Thank you. It's an honor to have you here. And so just tell us about yourself. I mean, I mentioned a few things, but let us know who you are and we'll talk about what's happening and then really frankly, what you're going to be doing about it. Yes. Well, first of all, thank you for having me. I told my husband immediately after I was fired and I put a little post out on my Instagram to start sharing with the world. And then I started receiving the media requests and I looked at him and I was like, the first thing I want to do is talk to my pastor. So I've done a few other interviews, but I'm so happy to finally be sitting with you. So who I am, I'm obviously a follower of Christ. I'm a wife and a mother of three. I went to California Baptist University, got a couple degrees there. My teaching credential, which is so interesting to me looking back now that I went to a private Christian college to receive my teaching credential. And then now I'm in this position where as a Christian public school teacher, I've been removed from my position for standing in the truth of the Lord and of the Bible. So that's interesting to me, but everything for a reason, I truly have peace even though this is like a lot of people look at this and they're so sorry for me and I want to tell people don't be. I really believe that like God is doing something with this and I'm not sorry. I don't want you to be sorry. I want you to just come alongside me in so many have and just, you know, stand up and together like let's make change because we all see and know that it needs to happen. We truly are the majority. We just can't be silent anymore. That's so true. So so true. So again, how long have you been a teacher? So six years and this whole thing went down at the very end of my six year of teaching literally two days before summer vacation. So tell us about, um, tell us about what I guess what I'm asking, what's the day in the life of a public school teacher? Walk us through that for those of us who don't know. What will I encounter as a public school teacher for the year? What am I going to be facing in the system? So I, this past year, I had just moved to the high school level. I actually had moved to the high school that I attended and that I met my husband at and the high school where I was very, very influenced by my coaches. One of my coaches actually invited me to her Bible study. She is now my mother-in-law. Oh my gosh. So a lot of history there. Yeah. It was incredible to go back and hopefully, you know, have that same influence on on my students that my coaches and teachers had on me. And um, but it's different. It was different going back, um, just dark and heavy. It's one of those things where you just walk on campus and you feel the culture. As a person, you can feel as believers, we know that even walking into a store or a city or wherever, you can sense that there's something up. Right. And so that's the sense, but to be more, I guess, descriptive, just you compare to what you know and what you've been through. So when I was there as, you know, a student, um, for example, you know, dress code, you know, a girl wouldn't dare to wear a spaghetti strap. But now I'm walking around and there's students in what look to be bras. Actually, yes, we've seen that and you are correct. And it seems that no one's saying anything. So then you don't feel that you can say anything and we're all just going along with it and it's just getting worse. So it was definitely not what I, things have gotten to a point, I think, culturally and morally, at least speaking for the school that I was at, um, to where I didn't feel like I could even teach anymore. I didn't feel like the students were even wanting me to teach or open to me teaching. They were just like in their own world. So they would, so look, I mean, I'm old enough to be your dad. When I was in school, attention was demanded. If you didn't pay attention, you paid the price. Uh, you learned or you repeated a class until you got it right. You weren't going to advance to the next grade until you, until you got it down. There was no, just go with the flow thing. Uh, my goodness, back in my day, we actually got spanked in school. Um, and so what I'm saying is this, um, people who, uh, how could that happen? That's terrible. I'm not going to get into that part of it. I'm not sure at the time I agreed with it. But the point was, um, we were producing people who were way smarter and disciplined in all areas. By the way, it's not just, it's not just, can you read the book? It's, do you have over the school year? Did you develop character? So, um, it's my understanding that in the public school system, there's a great level of, of dish respect. I don't have to, I don't need to do this. What's this for? You, you know, who are you to tell me? Um, and yeah, the, the immorality, um, the, the, the attack that has been levied against you, walk us through that. Why? Why did they have an issue? And what have they said to you? How do they communicate that to you? Yeah. So it all started, um, like I said, literally a couple days before summer break, um, of last year. So at the end of May of last year, I noticed that students had found me on social media because I was getting some really awful comments and it didn't normally get comments like that from students or from who you don't know. I didn't know at first when I read the comments. I was like, private page. It's my Instagram page. I had recently made it public, um, to share about a business that I had started and to share with. It's not the school. No, it doesn't even say that I'm a teacher on there. It doesn't say where I teach. It's my private personal where I share my beliefs, my opinions and my Christian religion. Um, students decided to look me up for whatever reason. I don't know. Maybe they were looking me up to see my kids that I talk about to see my horse that I talk about. I don't know, but they found something they didn't like. Um, specifically, it was a video. I was out shopping one day and just seeing all of the pride clothing and this time, I was very shocked to find that they're now making this stuff for toddlers and babies. Yes. Like 12 month. Yeah. Pratt. And so I was sharing that, you know, bringing awareness of that to to other moms. And, um, specifically, like in my caption said, I, I think this is wrong. A three year old cannot wrap their mind around what pride is. Why are we making? Yeah. Completely normal comments because this is America. And you have your first amendment, right? Sharing my opinion or to sharing my opinion and, well, the right students found that. Um, and they air dropped that video across campus and of course made it into a phobic thing and made it into a hate thing. Um, and I was just blocking and deleting as I was receiving comments from students because I don't, you know, I'm a teacher. I don't want them on my page. They shouldn't be there. Um, and I didn't want any trouble. Well, after I had deleted one of the comments, they came back and said too late, we've sent this into the district. So this is intimidation and bullying now. So the, uh, the woke world that says bullying is terrible. They're masters at bullying. And the woke world that says, uh, don't criticize me. You have to accept me. They cannot, they can't accept anybody that's outside of their lane. And their lane is very, very petite or very narrow. Um, and I'll just throw this in there. It's because they're extremely fragile. Um, they bent, they break when they bend, they, they have no ability to cope. And eventually they're going to have to go into the real world, which they will not make it. They, they will fail because they haven't learned how to debate. They haven't learned how to cope. Uh, they, they are the same equivalency to what you used to see at Toys R Us when they were in business of a, of a three year old or a five year old screaming and slapping their mother in the toy aisle because they wanted that toy and mommy said no. And so, um, the remarkable thing is that you're exercising your first amendment constitutional rights and everything about what you're doing is private, but, um, they went and made it, um, a, a public thing in the sense that you can't do this. You, how dare you? Right. As a, as a teacher, I should not have stated my opinions. And that amazing. So as a, on your private page, you are a mom, you are a, an equestrian, a gal with the horse and you're living your life and they, they, they insert what they're imposing upon you then is these are the rules of the school or the administration. And we're imposing that upon your, your private social media platform. 24, 7, not so not just when you're at work. We are holding you to this at all times if you're going to be a teacher. So do other teachers know this is going on? Yes. Yes, they are. They're coming aware of it because of my story getting out. Good. So after, um, those videos and also several posts, this is what, this is a really confirmed that this is spiritual warfare for me, um, totally facing spiritual warfare, like I've never faced it before. At least to my recognition was when I was brought into the school district for the first meeting and they presented me with what students had found on the various things on social media. They sent into the district at the back of this packet of papers which had several allegations. So essentially students found things they didn't like on my social media and then use those to craft allegations against me as a teacher. A couple of them being that I broadcast sermons to my classes. And I've just looked at the district personnel and I was like, I'm going to be so honest with you. This is the only thing I can think of that this allegation would be made upon. I'm a PE teacher on Mondays. We go to the track and they have a mile to do and that's the one day I let them listen to a podcast or music of their choosing and I do the same. But I don't put in headphones like they do because I need to be vigilant. But I put on oh no or worship music or you know something of my choosing. You don't want to hear what they put on the students. And it's just loud enough in my pocket. It's not blaring. It's not being broadcast. It's just loud enough so I can hear it as I walk around and watch my students. And so interesting too because I've had several students as they walk by comment like, oh I love that song or what church do you go to? And it's you know kind of been great to strike up conversation with some of my students. But then all of a sudden the students found my social media and found my other opinions and beliefs and went to work crafting allegations against me. And anyways what I was starting to get at the back of that packet was printouts of screenshots the students sent into the district. Several of them were Bible verses I posted on my Instagram and I'm just thinking are they really using Bible verses to back like these allegations against me? Yeah because the Bible is so dangerous and evil you know. Yes. Yes. And how could we have such a thing? You know it's amazing to me what you're describing and it's said because what I'm going to say it the young the young people are not going to understand what I'm going to say because they've never been taught is you are literally describing these kids as being brown shirts. These are the brown shirts of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. Brown shirts were children who were taught by the system to turn people in. Wow. They're called brown shirts. So I'm just going to call them brown shirts. Normally these kids would normally be more concerned about their acne or their hair. That was me. That was me. Or are they going to pass or they are they I'm not going to make the team. What is really bizarre to what you're saying is these are kids who are little police officers which makes them brown shirts that I can't imagine that happening unless what happened to the brown shirts of the 40s 1940s they were groomed by adults. They were told so to speak I'm exaggerating right now but we'll give you a donut or we'll give you a candy or a piece of chocolate. If you tell us if you hear people saying these things and they turn people in and so it's amazing because we're living in this this moment. So the only way to stop this you've probably seen this on on the P.E. field or in the classrooms but the only way to stop what we're talking about is for good people to punch back and you say I can't believe a pastor just said that well you need to get used to it because in 1st Corinthians 106 I'm sorry 2nd Corinthians 106 the Bible tells us that by our obedience to Christ we punish disobedience which means we're to do the right thing and if that right thing causes evil to be exposed that's the whole point. So what I want to say about Jessica is that she's courageous, she's strong, she knows not only her biblical calling, she's exposing evil but she's also exercising her first amendment rights. In America she has that right to do exactly what she's doing technically, technically those brown shirt little punks do not have the right to do what they're doing. They've been groomed by a social structure that is a form of communalism, communism and that's what's happening and so teachers you need to stand up you need to do what Jessica's doing. In fact Jessica what are you doing? Yes so after that first meeting that I kind of described the allegations and the Bible verse printouts and all of that I responded to all of those vocally and then they took some time to process what I voiced based on the allegations and then essentially decided what they were going to do with me called me in for a second meeting and basically told me I'm lucky to still have a job what I had done was so serious and wrong. Okay that's intimidation but keep going. And it was it felt really awful to hear that from these district personnel because before all this they respected me they adored me I've done so much for the district I think I was a student there, straight A student there, athlete, lifeguard, sub coach all the things but because of this one finding it was like I saw their whole vision of me just flip and it's like a mask switched on their career. Yeah and it was instantly like even if you are calling me back I don't I wouldn't even feel comfortable coming back you clearly like don't like me anymore. Yeah it's not so well I'm sorry to put words in your mouth but if I were your attorney for example I would say something to the effect of if they invited you back they they previously already made it clear that your views are not welcome and what we are as human beings is our views and so the environment is not a free environment. Hi Jessica welcome back but you're not free. Right. Hi welcome back but you cannot express your personal views and you cannot be an American. You cannot exercise the constitution and you've got to be woke if you want to keep your job. So all of these things are actually illegal for that to be imposed upon you but Yes and that's exactly what happened in the second meeting they said I was lucky to have my job back I was barely allowed to come back here are the directives you need to follow and we're going to be watching you closely for 45 days for change of behavior and that right away change of behavior I've behaved the same way for six years of teaching I have nothing to change so you're not going to find any change of behavior there and then the directives were affirmation for me of what I was already feeling in my soul about the whole situation so first a directive that I knew well I can't and won't do that is I need to refer to students by their preferred pronoun and gender and in the meeting I wasn't voicing to them nope not doing that no I was just internalizing all of it as they spoke their directives over me for returning that Monday the second allegation was I was to refrain from speaking to students about God or the Bible that's illegal that really hurt my soul so I'm sorry I keep interrupting you but it's because I find your this is incredibly fascinating so you are to hold to the social construct that we are inventing you will do as we say and you should be so lucky that we're going to be so nice to you to allow you to come back but we are going to dictate your life and we are going to scrub this God thing out of your life when most people don't even realize that the public school system was founded by three guys one of them happened to be in a guy by the name of Thomas Jefferson Benjamin Rush was was another one and I think John Adams is in there but whoever the third guy is is a real big hitter and their their founding of the public school system was based on this there are people homeschooling their kids in colonial America and some of them are not teaching them the Bible so we're going to create the public school system and the Bible will be the preeminent textbook as well as the McGuffee reader these will be the foundations of the public school system because some kids are not getting a biblical worldview that's Thomas Jefferson friends go look that up and now our system has divorced itself from God and you are in this machine that is godless and what's interesting about what they're telling you to do they're actually doing what they claim nobody's allowed to do and that is you got to stay out of politics you got to stay out of politics what they're doing is pure politics okay and their political agenda is you will submit which is actually tyrannical and so you were fired yes so after receiving those directives so those were the the two that I previously voiced those were the two instantly like inside I knew I'm not complying with those and they also vocally in that second meeting with the presentation of directives vocally told me that I had to lie to parents if a student came to me with a preferred gender or pronoun that info had to be withheld from parents for the sake of the student's privacy and I was so taken back by that that I looked at the assistant superintendent in the eyes and I said are you asking me to lie to parents and they said yes it's the law it's for the student's privacy so that's a subversion of parental authority they told you to lie and I said we're talking about the well-being information regarding the well-being of a child and they said yeah exactly you don't you don't understand there's some students where when their parents find out they kick them out of the house it's known to first of all that may or may not be true I have no input on that I have no knowledge of that but that's not their concern their concern is math right geography let's leave home at home yeah yeah exactly so I'm assuming now our system and by the way those of you listen do you think this is a California issue to national issue somebody just told me last night oh we're moving to we're moving to Tennessee we're moving to Nashville where we don't have these we're getting out of California we're moving to Nashville and it was so bizarre because I told the guy said well that's funny about four days ago I just talked to somebody who moved to Nashville and they were talking about how insanely woke their school system is and it was worse than California so the point is it's a national this is a national battle and by the way we want to make this a national battle we want Jessica to be an encouragement to you the Bible tells us and in Joshua chapter one uh God tells Joshua over and over again and just one chapter be strong and of good courage do not be afraid for I'm with you wherever you go he keeps telling Joshua that Joshua the great first general of the Israeli forces God has to keep telling them be strong and of good courage don't be afraid why because Joshua was prone to be discouraged and to be afraid God doesn't waste his breath and so all of you who are in the public school system we've got to figure out unless there's maybe there's something out there right now forming but there's got to be some form of an alliance that maybe Jessica can invent and take it national right take it nationally to have it be like you know almost the the national school teachers reporting center where you bring your Jessica story and let's get these incredible agencies that will represent you in court for free there's there's the Pacific Justice Institute there's advocates for faith and freedom there's the alliance uh for for defending alliance defending freedom fund there's there's uh liberty counsel there's so many that are waiting to hear but listen we're gonna lose our system uh to what I was alluding to early and I didn't finish this I guess is you're gonna be bullied until you stand up to the bully this is human psychology a bully will push a kid around all school year long until that kid we've all watched movies like this haven't we sand lot movies like this where the kid finally gets fed up and punches the bully in the nose and then from that time on the bully leaves the guy alone every boy knows this by the way every every first grade boy knows that you punch the bully in the nose and then the rest of the school years fine well there's a lot of people now who are school teachers and or administrators that are just nothing but overgrown bullies and they're intimidating you know you have a bully on your hands when they threaten and intimidate you in our nation right now you can punch them back by legal means if you're a Christian get friends praying read your Bible read the book of Joshua read the book of Proverbs at the same time get on the phone and get a very very strong attorney and what you do is you do what Paul the Apostle did you exercise your Roman rights Paul exercised his Roman rights when he as a Roman citizen was attacked he said I appeal to Caesar only a Roman citizen could do that and listen the authorities in cesarea they were bound to then file documents sending Paul to Rome they had to that was the law Paul used the law of the Roman Empire to advance his cause and Paul went to Rome and you need to do the same thing you need to know hey wait a minute I'm a school teacher this is my life this is my love I'm being told that I cannot have a Bible on my desk oh yeah you can it's your constitutional right they're threatened to sue me or they just fired me or they're telling me this or they're telling me that there needs to be some form of place for you to go to so this is so vitally important we need to I'm so sorry we need to wrap this up but tell us where you're at what are you doing now tell us about going forward and what you hope to see happen yeah so just really quick before that the third meeting was after I took three months of stress leave to figure out what I was going to do next regarding the directives new in my heart and soul I wasn't going to comply with several of them do I resign or do I as you stated you know stand up to the beast yep and I actually for most of the months was planning to resign had half of a resignation letter written in for some reason could never get around to finishing it and it was I was so stressed out one day and I was telling my mother-in-law I just I need to finish this letter like I have three little ones so I was never able to sit down and type and she just was like just there's probably a reason that you haven't been able to finish it just trust and then maybe I just started praying and then maybe a day or two after that had a divine appointment of a phone call with a couple in Washington that I had only connected with through Instagram got very close to the wife because of her faith and they spoke over me I really want to say prophesied over me and they they gave me the answer that I was praying for asking God do I resign or do I vocalize to the district that I won't comply with these things I'm ready to come back to work but here's what I won't do and they said don't resign you keep standing up to resign would have been to quit and sad to say there's been a lot of really good people that I know that they didn't come and ask they didn't come and get prayer they came and told me I quit and I just kind of cringe when I hear that because I love what Winston Churchill said he said it's always too soon to quit you know and so we're so proud of you how do is there anything that we you so you're going to court yeah yes we're still waiting for the right to sue letter which was new for me I didn't know that you had to have a right to sue but we're waiting for that from EEOC and then from there we will begin litigating in the Riverside County Court and for now just you know spreading the story far and wide and I already see many parents I believe waking up to what's really happening in in the school system I have hundreds of messages from teachers that are either have shared their very inspired by what I've done or they've shared with me that they were in a similar position and resigned which makes me sad but and then I actually have several teachers that are going through this with me like currently having to make the decision and so I'm encouraging them to stand up is there a do you have a what how do people reach out to us is it I know it's all happening so fast are you ready for that do you have that on my Instagram is where I keep everyone up today yeah it's my Instagram name is just underscore saying so it's J-E-S-S underscore S-A-Y-I-N-N-N just saying okay we'll make sure that that's that appears and people get that really quick you have been bombarded with media you I'm not exactly sure when this podcast is going to drop but probably by that time you will that have been on numerous news and radio interviews and all but one of them will be Tucker Carlson yes that's set for the 27th I believe that's Monday 27th of February this is huge because he has the largest viewing audience so just think about that millions of people are going to hear this and I pray I pray that out of the millions that there is at least a million or 500,000 school teachers that are going to say you know what wow I need to defend what I love and here's the here's the thing when good people abandon the public square or when good people just shut down evil fills that void evil rushes in it's just the way evil works when light goes out darkness comes if you notice that when you turn off your light and your room darkness comes it's ended amazing when you turn the light switch on where does darkness darkness go I mean think about it because light itself is a physical structure I mean these are photons that actually fill up a room where did darkness go and by you standing you are dispelling the darkness and I want to talk to every Christian or at least good teacher that's out there you have to be a Christian to be a good teacher if you love the kids and you love teaching and this is going on to you or if it's or it will happen to you you need to stand you need to stand because these are the days evil advances like the thug on the on the campus who's pushing people around and we have got to figure out as God honoring Bible believing submitted committed Christians how to exercise as Paul did his freedoms for the cause of Christ and so I want everyone to be praying for Jessica please this is a prayer request that you would pray for her that you would stay and in tune with what's happening and follow we'll do a follow-up podcast as time progresses but I just really want to just pray that your legal counsel is absolutely lie and hearted your legal counsel must be like a dog on a bone so as they say a relentless and so we pray for your legal counsel we pray for you we pray for these poor kids who are being manipulated by frankly people that I have just about zero respect for these people who manipulate kids to spy and to promote their godless agenda there should be shame written all over them but you know the way that we must come back this is to stand in the truth and to exercise our freedoms while we have them and so we're impressed and I just I'm so grateful for you and I just know that God is going to use this he will never waste the opportunity to glorify his name through a yielded child of his and that's who you are we love you we're with you and so I am just absolutely so so grateful so you guys stay tuned this has been powerful my goodness I just this is no pun intended but this is real life what Jessica's talking about and and it's it's amazing and so it's it's time for you and I to live out what it is that we believe in and it is time for real life and it's exactly what Jessica's doing so listen as always we're asking you please you want to help us I keep us from getting canceled things like that this is how it works um that we need you to hit that subscribe button we need you to do that if you want to give us a review um look I'm going to live without you doing that but here's the way the world works if you hit the subscribe button or if you give us a review it helps the algorithm and then the machines that read this stuff uh actually move us up in this world of ours and it's the way it is sorry but it's the way it is so please subscribe it's all free stay with us we're going to be bringing you more and more information about not only Jessica's story but um just the progress of how we stand until the Lord comes back we stand in our faith and as always you guys can always go to jackhibbs.com for so much more so listen Jessica thank you so much it's an honor it's an honor to my honor thank you it's got to us now this jackhibbs podcast as well as all the broadcasts out reach opportunities are listener supported will you consider partnering with us through a special gift go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected