In addition to discussing the testimony of “bit” players as well as “missing” witnesses – witnesses the state planned to call but didn’t – this chapter examines closely the testimony of two witnesses for the state, Kathryn Hrabluk and Elliott Hibbs, who were instrumental in showing that the superintendent’s finding of violation was prejudged and predetermined, revealing that the reasons offered by Horne and Huppenthal were pretextual. While there were not as many fireworks as the testimonies of Horne and Huppenthal, these were critically important in establishing the factual basis, which eventually led to the final ruling.

The MAS court case moved to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and one of the premier First Amendment scholars in the country, Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean, Bolt Hall, UC Berkeley), agreed to do the oral arguments. Meanwhile, back in Tucson, co-founders of the MAS program Sean Arce and Auggie Romero got into a public fight that almost came to blows at the annual NAME (National Association of Multicultural Education) conference with multiple MAS teachers in attendance. Finally, John Huppenthal again found TUSD out of compliance with state law even after the elimination of MAS citing hip-hop legend KRS-One’s lyrics as evidence.

Tom Horne and John Huppenthal, the former state superintendents of public instruction, were central in the elimination of MAS and keepingpressure on TUSD to eliminate any type of race-conscious educational offerings. This chapter details their time on the stand in the federal trial, where each of them unapologetically doubled down on their racist rhetoric, sometimes even diving into moments of absurdity.