Durango School Board candidate Pearl Stegner deleted a blog expressing strong views about the district’s inclusion efforts shortly before confirming her school board candidacy.
The blog, titled The Average Pearl, remains accessible through web archives, with the most recent post dated mid-February.
In a Feb. 7 post, Stegner described being involved in “Durango school drama” with the Board of Education. The post included screenshots of email correspondences between herself and the board, in which Stegner said she was “deeply disturbed” by the district’s January 2025 Board Resolution 25-002, which sanctioned Black Lives Matter and pride flags in classrooms after a previous ban.
The same post said “the other side” – meaning those who supported the pride and Black Lives Matter flags being displayed in classrooms – is “heavily influenced by a selfish, nasty agenda that destroys kids.”
Stegner wrote that teen suicide rates are directly related to “the phony agenda to be inclusive,” and expressed being in agreement with Parents Defending Education founder Nicki Neily, who described Diversity, Equity and Inclusion “never being about ‘equity’ (but) about enforcing ideological conformity and institutionalizing discrimination.”
The last post published on the blog before it was deleted said “kids who desire human attention fall for the transgenderism lie with no hope of getting out apart from LGBTQ activists who tell them this is it, this is the plan for their life,” and that “Every advocacy group is a sorry excuse for Jesus.”
In a sentiment directed at the district’s students and children on the whole, Stegner wrote, “God did not make a mistake when He created you.”
In an email to The Durango Herald, Stegner confirmed the blog belonged to her but did not say why she deleted it before running for the school board.
“I write from my own life perspective,” she said. “Finding Truth through faith in Jesus Christ helped me escape major depression and anxiety, and this is what I chronicled in my writing, mostly for my own children to read someday.”
Stegner repeated similar sentiments to those shared in her blog.
“Let me be clear: the inclusion efforts of this past year reflect a child-inappropriate agenda that forces students – children – to adopt a singular perspective of human sexuality that is biased, irrelevant to learning, and poses potential harm to their mental health,” she said.
Stegner directed the Herald’s attention to a Facebook post by her District C opponent Rick Petersen, who is seeking reelection.
The post published by Petersen on Sept. 22 included a strongly worded message to voters about opponents “hiding their true colors” and a link to the web archive of Stegner’s blog.
“This should be a nonpartisan race with only the best outcomes for our district and our student(s) in mind, but unfortunately our Board has become the target of those who wish to instill their conservative agenda into the school board’s work,” Petersen wrote in the post.
“Once again the tactic of my opponent trying to hide their true colors is being used. The greatest example of this is that their personal Facebook page, where they have spent the last year being very vocal in opposition to our support of all students, along with their Conservative Christian blog, have both unsurprisingly disappeared from the internet just two days before our petitions to be on the ballot were due,” he wrote.
Stegner accused her opponent of leading a smear campaign.
“It was wrong for my opponent to stir up hate and dissent of me as a person,” she said. “It was worse of him to insinuate Christians, or conservatives, or different perspectives do not belong in public schools.”
Stegner responded to Petersen’s post on Instagram, in which she described having disabled her Facebook page and blog to protect her family’s privacy. In the Instagram post, she said she also wanted to protect Petersen from “those seeking to dredge up poor publicity.”
Specifically, she said some of the communications between her and the board featured on the blog could reflect poorly on her opponent.
Petersen said he discovered the blog on Aug. 27 while trying to learn more about Stegner as a potential opponent and was “frankly shocked” at the content.
He said Stegner’s blog and Facebook page were scrubbed just days before school board eligibility petitions were due, and that he felt it was imperative the Durango School District be aware of the views and beliefs expressed by Stegner.
“It was not my intent to smear her, but to ensure that the voters have all the truthful information regarding the candidates,” Petersen told the Herald. “I guess the difference between a smear campaign and sharing extremely relevant information with the voters is in the eye of the beholder. I believe the views and beliefs she expressed regarding public education specifically in this school district are directly pertinent to this campaign.”
The views that shocked Petersen most were those critical of community members who came to an October 2024 school board meeting in support of the district sanctioning pride and Black Lives Matter flags in classrooms – not those related to Stegner being Christian or conservative, he said.
“I believe strongly that no one who refers to any of our students as ‘a room full of rainbow flags and weirdos,’ as she did in her blog when referencing the students and supporters who came out to our board meeting in support of our LGBTQIA+ and students of color, has the appropriate demeanor for the school board,” he said.
Petersen was referring to a Jan. 28 blog post on The Average Pearl.
Petersen said all candidates have a responsibility to be upfront about their beliefs and values, and is unsure why Stegner seemingly did not want potential supporters to be aware of her views.
“(Transparency) allows the community to effectively evaluate (candidates) when making their decision as to who to vote for,” he said. “That would allow for the majority of voters to elect the candidate that most closely and truly aligns with their values and views. When any candidate tries to withhold their true views from the voting citizens, they do our community and our Democratic process a disservice. Whether I'm running in an election or not, I will always actively oppose this practice.”
Stegner said her deleted blog and the views she expressed are “far outside the purview of the board,” and that the focus of the district at this time should be on helping students excel academically, supporting teachers in the classroom and encouraging parents to act as partners.
“Our students are at school to learn, to develop academic and critical thinking skills,” she said. “Let’s stop hijacking their learning.”
On the Web
To access The Average Pearl web archive, visit https://web.archive.org/web/20250224162407/theaveragepearl.com/
To view the Sept. 22 Facebook post by Petersen, visit https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GKLtiKfJZ/
To view Stegner’s response on Instagram, visit @pearl4durangoschools on Instagram.com
epond@durangoherald.com
