Mesa teacher suing board member, others alleging defamation

Tami Staas has taught at Summit Academy Elementary in Mesa Public Schools for over eight years.

Now, she is suing recently elected MPS Boardmember Sharon Benson and other individuals for defamation, alleging the defendants accused her of indoctrinating and grooming students.

According to the lawsuit filed Oct. 25 in Maricopa County Superior Court, Staas is seeking compensatory, presumed and punitive damages from the defendants, as well as other various costs and reliefs as allowed by the law.

Along with her job as a teacher, Staas is the president of the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization, a community resource group for parents of transgender children.

Staas has two transgender children, according to her LinkedIn profile.

According to the lawsuit filings, Staas was asked in 2022 by the Arizona Board of Education to participate in a podcast themed around creating a safe and inclusive classroom environment for students, including LGBTQ+ students.

MPS began receiving complaints about Staas following her appearance on the podcast, according to the lawsuit, which pointed out that she never received any complaints beforehand during her time teaching at Summit Academy Elementary. According to the lawsuit, MPS investigated and found there was no basis for any complaints about inappropriate behavior from Staas.

Peggy McClain, one of the defendants in the lawsuit, published an article on her blog “Not In Our Schools” that the lawsuit claims defamed Staas and painted her in a false light. The lawsuit also claims that McClain’s website targets individuals and businesses that support LGBTQ+ issues, including transgender individuals.

According to the lawsuit, the article, published on June 30, 2024, accused Staas of “sexually grooming” students and influencing them to “accept their twisted view of sex,” and cited Staas’ podcast appearance as evidence. The article claimed Staas’ role as the president of the Arizona Trans Youth and Parent Organization made her a danger to children, according to the lawsuit.

“The support group Tami Staas runs only perpetuates the harm to not only her child, but to all the children she comes in contact with as she sexually confuses them,” McClain wrote in her article, which was quoted by the lawsuit. “Her group will continue to grow until these kids realize the harm the adults did to them and the sick medical transition is shut down.”

The lawsuit claims statements made in McClain’s article are false and defamatory and imply that Staas violated Arizona law through grooming children, which the lawsuit says she has never done.

“Readers would have understood the term ‘grooming’ to mean that Tami was exploiting children to build their trust so that she could engage in sexual activity with that student,” the lawsuit states. “Tami does not, and has never, built a trusting relationship to exploit any person for any sexual activity, let alone her students.”

According to the lawsuit, the article caught the attention of MPS Boardmember Benson, who left a comment on the article in support of McClain.

On July 4, 2024, Benson sent an email to the MPS governing board that the lawsuit alleges defamed Staas.

“A third grade Mesa teacher who works at Summit Academy explains how she subtly indoctrinates her students, entirely inappropriate,” Benson wrote in the email, referencing Staas’ podcast appearance. The lawsuit alleged that this statement falsely claims Staas indoctrinates and engages in inappropriate behavior with students.

Benson should have filed a report with the police, child protective services or the Arizona State Board of Education if she believed the students were truly in danger, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged Benson and other defendants knew their accusations were false and purposefully misrepresented statements made by Staas in order to paint her in a false light.

“Ms. Benson did not file a report with the police department, child protective services or the Arizona Board of Education,” the lawsuit said. “That is because Ms. Benson knew there was no validity to any of her accusations at the time she was making the accusation.”

According to the lawsuit, MPS conducted a thorough investigation and cleared Staas of any possible wrongdoing that was alleged. Additionally, the lawsuit says that MPS had notified McClain, Benson and Tamra Farah, member of conservative advocacy group Arizona Women of Action, about the findings of their investigation.

The lawsuit claimed that despite being informed, the defendants would continue to publish articles accusing Staas of inappropriate conduct.

McClain posted multiple articles in August 2024 accusing Staas of sexually grooming students and indoctrinating students into LGBTQ+ ideology by introducing pronouns and pride flags into her classrooms among other things. Farah published an article reiterating many of the claims made by McClain and advocating for harsh punishment for “sexual groomers.”

Former MPS board candidate Chris Hamlet, another defendant in the lawsuit, would repost and republish many of these articles to help them reach a wider audience, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit also claims Benson and the other defendants would do the same thing.

Staas is suing all defendants on three counts, according to the lawsuit documentation. The first count is defamation. The lawsuit argues that the accusations leveled against Staas are not only false, but were done so knowingly by the defendants in an attempt to damage her reputation and integrity.

“Defendants published, through various statements, insinuations, implications and innuendos to third person accusing Tami of ‘grooming’ children, being a damager to children, attempting to indoctrinate children and violating state law,” the lawsuit reads. “...All such statements, insinuations, implications and innuendos were published by defendants with actual malice and a deliberate indifference or recklessness as to the truth...for the specific purpose of damaging Tami’s good name, standing and reputation in the community.”

The second count is false light. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants knowingly painted Staas in a false light with their accusations and continued to promote and publicize their accusations even after they were investigated and rejected.

“When defendants represented to others that Tami was a threat to children, including her own children, defendants acted with reckless disregard for the truth and gave publicity to information placing Tami in a false light,” the lawsuit reads.

The third count is intentional infliction of emotional distress. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants aimed to destroy the career and reputation of Staas, and that the continued accusations caused Staas serious emotional distress.

“Defendants’ actions have caused Tami considerable emotional distress, including: feelings of isolation, fear, rage, bouts of crying, inability to sleep, paranoia, anxiety, heart palpitations and suicidal ideations,” the lawsuit said.

The Mesa Independent attempted to reach representatives for Staas, McClain, Benson, Farah, and Hamlet for comment, but did not receive any comments as of the time of this article’s publication.