If elected Superintendent of Public Instruction this November, David Olson could impact the lives of every school-aged child in the state of Washington and command nearly half the state budget. Though he earned the Washington State GOP’s endorsement, the retired Navy diver and welder is not well-known outside Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula, where he’s served on the local school board for nearly 11 years.
He certainly wasn’t a top contender in the race, where his challengers out-fundraised him several times over. Before the primary election, a match-up between incumbent Superintendent Chris Reykdal and moderate liberal Reid Saaris seemed far more likely. But Saaris faltered, earning just 23 percent of the vote. He finished third behind Olson (who earned 31 percent) and Reykdal (who earned 39 percent), creating a general election race between a conservative and a progressive.
But the director of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is nonpartisan, so voters won’t see either candidate’s political preference or party on the ballot, and they might not know what a conservative stink bomb Olson could be for the state’s schools.
To tick off a few of those bombs: Local parents said Olson is cozy with his local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a far-right parents group that opposes inclusive policies and lessons on race, gender, and sexuality in school; he helped the Peninsula School District push away critical race theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training and then bragged about it while parents and students complained of racism and discrimination in his district; and he said that America would be “saved” if every four-year university went bankrupt so that students entered the trades instead. A critic of what he sees as administrative overreach from the state, Olson said he would restore control to local school districts on “day one,” but he told a conservative podcaster he’d defund any school that allowed its students to protest the war in Gaza, which he conflated with supporting Hamas.
Olson did not respond to requests for comment.
Marginalized Kids Have a Lot to Lose
The Superintendent of Public Instruction leads the office responsible for overseeing public education in Washington. The agency allocates funding to every school in the state, greasing the wheels that educate more than one million students each year. The Superintendent also has statutory authority over what kids learn and when they learn it. The Legislature can always step in to address any changes, but they would need a whole session to implement less comprehensive statutes.
Olson's perceived indifference to district problems with racism and homophobia worried more than a dozen students, parents, community members, and former teachers who spoke to The Stranger. If his actions at the state level mirror those in their community, they said marginalized kids in Washington have a lot to lose.
Kate Bitz, a trainer and organizer with the civil rights and anti-bigotry group Western States Strategies, said Olson presents himself as a reasonable politician, but his comments on school policy and his relationships with Moms for Liberty have left families questioning his “commitment to serving his whole community.”
“Especially when we see students speaking out about their experiences, that clearly shows that Olson’s attempts to cut down complex conversations about race and gender are not helping the environment in the schools,” Bitz said. “It may even be leading to increased harm for marginalized kids.”
Standing at the Washington State Republican Convention in Spokane this April, Olson recalled the “big, proud” moment his school board banned “critical race theory,” DEI training, and all those “horrible, socially divisive programs that tell our children to be divisive and that they’re oppressive and victims.”
His statement refers to a vote in 2021, when then-President Olson and the Peninsula School District board unanimously adopted a resolution to continue not teaching critical race theory, or CRT, in response to a Washington bill that did not compel them to teach it. From public statements, it’s clear that Olson buys the right-wing line that critical race theory—a graduate-level theory of systemic racism that emerged from legal circles in the 1970s—is a pernicious attempt to seed white guilt in the minds of America’s K-12 school children.
Karin Ashabraner, a retired school teacher and former president of the Peninsula Education Association teacher’s union, said Olson leaned conservative during his first race in 2013, which prompted her to withdraw a personal endorsement for his candidacy, and that the pandemic had pushed him farther to the right. Before setting his sights on critical race theory, Olson opposed the state’s mask mandate and supported an early return to school. “He is definitely going farther down the right than maybe anybody should,” Ashabraner said.
The week before that vote on a resolution making clear the district did not and would not teach CRT, Olson had taken heat from conservative parents in a school choice group for defending the importance of the equity and inclusion programs that he now denigrates on the campaign trail. At the time, the district told the Tacoma News Tribune that any fears of the resolution hampering diversity and inclusion efforts were overblown, and that it would not affect the work of a 50-member Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee. But three former members of that committee told The Stranger that the district restructured the committee and removed them without warning.
Connie FitzPatrick, the Democrat who challenged Republican State House Rep. Jesse Young in the 26th Legislative District in 2018, served on the committee and seethed when Olson mentioned banning DEI during his convention speech. A leader in the local chapter of Indivisible, a progressive action group, FitzPatrick has been encouraging people in her community to attend school board meetings and watch Olson more closely. “It’s time that we need to all stand up and say that we deserve better. This is not okay,” she said.
Homophobic and Racist Bullying
A number of community members have already been watching. In the last year, parents and students have persistently complained to the board about homophobic and racist bullying. Here are a few complaints Olson has heard:
- In January, James McCourt of Gig Harbor High School’s Black Student Union, testified at a board meeting that Black students, who made up less than one percent of the student body, were treated differently because they were Black. He said some people called Black students slurs and told offensive jokes to their faces. McCourt said the district should teach students about racism in “age-appropriate ways” to address the problem, and if the board wasn’t willing to commit to any curriculum change, then it should at least bring in Black speakers to talk to students about race.
- In February of this year, Justin Vautrin testified that his elementary-aged daughter was disciplined for telling a classmate she’d kissed another girl. He said the student she told later punched and threatened to kill her. According to files reviewed by the Tacoma News Tribune, the district opened multiple investigations, all of which concluded that she hadn’t technically been harassed, intimidated, or bullied under district policy, and the school had taken action on its own, a position the board maintained in a letter to Vautrin.
- In April, Camri Clawson, a junior at Peninsula High School this fall, told the board she heard people use n-word and slurs for gay people daily at school.
Two incidents of racist bullying in the district in 2023 made local news. That January, the district called in a third-party investigator after students reported that a player on the Gig Harbor High School girl’s basketball team called a player on the Peninsula High School team the n-word. Some students told the investigator they heard the slur, others did not. The report was inconclusive, and no one was disciplined. In December of last year, middle-schoolers in Gig Harbor pushed and punched a 12-year-old Asian student on the bus. The boy said his bullies told him it “must suck to be Asian,” but Kopachuck Middle School told his mother, April Nelick, they could not corroborate his statement. Nelick told KIRO 7 that officials stopped answering her emails after some initial back-and-forth.
Aria Messer began attending meetings last fall after her eighth-grade son was bullied for coming out as bisexual. She felt queer kids went unheard, and the district mantra of inspiring and empowering “every child, every day” was “baloney, at least from sitting board members.”
“Never once have I heard David Olson say anything to acknowledge the things that are happening, or to ask for clarification, to seek reparation,” Messer said. “There’s been no movement other than apathy and ignorance to anything that’s been brought to his attention.”
In June, Messer’s son, Ryan Jr., testified at a board meeting that he planned not to attend Gig Harbor High School the next year out of “genuine fear” for how others would treat him there. He asked the board, “Are you willing to acknowledge that someone is so afraid of discrimination they’re willing to go to another school just to be away from hate speech and bigotry?”
Maybe not. At an April board meeting, after staff presented a survey that found a “discouraging” lack of belonging at Peninsula High School, Olson suggested that the low numbers he’s seen over the years may be explained by overly broad questions, students deliberately lying to “screw with the survey,” or that “car accidents” or arguments with their parents may have swayed their answers. He asked two student representatives at the meeting if they’d answered “100% truthful.”
“Maybe they dread lunch, or whatever,” he said. “Does that make up for the whole answer?”
Over the phone, Peninsula high school junior Clawson said Olson has “blatantly” disregarded her concerns and the concerns of others who have testified. “He clearly shows no concern for students,” she said. “I’ve taken issue with the way David Olson would center his obvious political bias and opinions over listening with curiosity to the words of students.”
The Bad Guys
Frustrated parents like Messer said Olson caters not to them but to conservatives like the Moms for Liberty members who attend school board meetings. Several community members confirmed that Olson has talked to those members before and after meetings.
Last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center classified Moms for Liberty as an extremist group. In a recent interview with the Center Square, a conservative publication, Olson said parents concerned about trans-inclusive policies around pronouns and sports participation could join their local chapter. Pierce County Moms for Liberty Chair Sarah Garriott and Vice Chair Marc Nance did not respond to requests for interviews. Since November of 2022, shortly after Garriott was appointed chair, she has spoken during public comment at least 11 times, railing against government overreach, racial justice teachings in schools, and the state’s sex comprehensive education policy. In a meeting last August, she spread falsehoods about transgender children.
“Asking a developing child for their pronouns who does not offer them is not showing respect–it’s introducing confusion,” she said. “It's the first step that can ultimately lead to sterilization and body mutilation.”
In May, Olson also attended an “Unequivocal Truth” seminar, said one attendee, who shared a photo of Olson at the event. Presented by One Washington and the Leadership Institute, an organization that trains conservative activists, the talk featured the swimmer Riley Gaines, a prominent activist who opposes transgender women competing in women’s sports, and Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice. Olson has come out in opposition to trans students playing on teams that align with their gender identities, a long-standing policy in Washington state supported by the OSPI.
Last month, the anti-gay Puyallup pastor Dennis Cummins, who has advanced the groomer conspiracy theory that queer people are recruiting children, interviewed Olson about the OSPI race for his YouTube channel, ExperienceChurch.tv. In one sermon, Cummins framed politics as a spiritual fight against “manipulators” and “false prophets,” like former Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and “state leaders” in Washington. Cummins said these leaders knew “the rainbow religion is not real” and used gender-affirming care for minors, which he referred to as child mutilation, to gain power and control.
Ironically, if anyone in the Peninsula School District needed DEI training, Olson would count as a prime candidate. Last year, he approached a former Gig Harbor High School student who was running a booth at a Native education event at Swift Water Elementary. The student, who requested anonymity, said Olson asked him what tribe he was a part of. When he said he was Apache, Olson replied, “Oh, those are the bad guys.” After an awkward silence, he added, “... In the movies. In the movies, I mean.”
The conversation continued. “Do you guys ever wear the …” Olson paused, searching for the right word, “... I’m not going to say costumes. Regalia?” The student said Olson then looked around, as if searching for a reaction, and said, “See, I didn’t say costumes.” Another student, standing with him at the booth, confirmed the story.
After Olson left, the student said all he could do was laugh at the bluntness of Olson’s “clueless” comments, but he experienced real frustration during his years at Gig Harbor High School. He said it felt like students had to “scream” at a defensive administration to get anything done.
“[Olson’s] not someone that should be in any office,” the student said. “I don’t want someone to be in charge who struggles to even understand students in his own district. I don’t want him in charge of everybody if he can’t even have constructive conversations with his own students … It would feel like a step backwards.”
How Close Are We to Taking a Step Backwards?
Probably not that close.
Seattle-based political consultant Ben Anderstone said the August primary results already show people voting along ideological lines.
In the most Democratic precincts in the state, Olson earned less than 10 percent of the vote, but he earned 57 percent of the vote in Republican-leaning precincts. While Saaris gained support from wealthy voters and while Reykdal performed better with younger renters, their support came overwhelmingly from Democrats in blue areas. Anderstone said Olson would need to scoop up at least half of Saaris’s solidly Democratic, college-educated voters. With his socially conservative track record, Olson ultimately has the “short side of the culture war stick in Washington state.”
“Maybe they’re really mad at Reykdal as an incumbent, but they would really have to be voting against their traditional ideological type to give Olson what he needs to win,” he said.
Reykdal said that he takes any opponent seriously, and that there’s a good chance that Republicans will put more energy behind a state race where their candidate can hide behind a nonpartisan label.
In a down-ballot statewide race, he said hard cash is not the deciding factor (he has outraised Olson three to one), and that they’re working to educate voters on Olson’s values.
“Who attacks Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, who is sincere around equity?” he said, adding that Olson’s statements on bankrupting universities was “extremist talk.”
Shasti Conrad, chair of the Washington State Democrats, said in a statement that the party was taking the OPSI election seriously and working to turn out the vote for Reykdal. They plan to shine a spotlight on Olson’s “abysmal record” of pandemic protections for students and his plans to gut public schools at the expense of charters.
“Chris Reykdal has led OSPI with great success and we cannot change captains mid-stream,” she said. “Reykdal has earned another term and we are excited to support him.”
