Dallas Observer reports on Accuracy in Media’s investigation into Irving ISD
January 30, 2025
An administrator from the Irving Independent School District resigned this week after a conversation filmed between himself and what appeared to be the prospective parent of a transgender student was posted online, eliciting conservative vitriol and resulting in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott calling for a criminal and civil investigation into the educator.
The video is the latest produced by conservative watchdog group Accuracy in Media. The group’s website claims to use “investigative journalism and cultural activism to expose corruption and hold bad public policy actors accountable.” On the media bias tracking website AllSides, Accuracy in Media is identified as being right-leaning, the most conservative ranking on the scale.
For months, representatives for the group have scheduled meetings with North Texas educators under the guise of parents looking to move to Texas from another state. They express concern over Texas’ various conservative education initiatives, such as the ban on DEI or transgender athletes; unbeknownst to the educators, they are being filmed throughout the conversation.
In the most recently released video, which was reposted by the right-wing X account LibsOfTikTok and has been viewed 720,000 times, the posing parent asks Reny Lizardo, the district’s executive director of Campus Operations, if Irving ISD would allow her transgender daughter to join a girl’s sports team.
…
In 2024, Accuracy in Media collected similar videos in Plano ISD, Mesquite ISD, Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, McKinney ISD, Keller ISD, Saginaw ISD and Coppell ISD. Guillette displays the videos on a mobile billboard that drives around North Texas, exposing what he believes is evidence of a coordinated subversion of Texas’ standards.