Q: My name is Sam Rise, and I am a teacher for Federal Way Public Schools. I recently saw an ad in the Mirror for a candidate named Tenya Magruder, running for school board in the position currently held by Luckisha Phillips.

Something I do when I hear about a new candidate is research their political donations, which are public records. I believe that a person’s financial contributions speak volumes about their personal values.

Tenya’s contributions include over $7,500 to Donald Trump’s campaign, not including donations to other conservative groups, but those are not what are concerning to me.

I noticed she had also contributed nearly $1,000 to a candidate named Paul Nehlen, who has (unsuccessfully) run twice for Congress in Wisconsin.

Paul Nehlen is a white supremacist, anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic political candidate. I was horrified when I looked up the things he has said on social media, such as “How I Got Fired: Exposing Jewish power in America has real consequences,” and “if pro-White is White supremacy, what is pro-Jewish?”

He has since been banned from both Twitter and Facebook for his many racist and bigoted statements. Why did Tenya Magruder feel the need to donate such a large sum of money to this candidate?

This is shameful.

FWPS was recently ranked fifth in the nation for diversity. Tenya Magruder is wholly unfit to serve the students in our community, based on her political contributions alone. Stand against hate, and say “no” to Tenya Magruder.

Sam Rise

Federal Way

The Mirror asked Magruder to respond to these claims. Here is her response:

A: “The reason that I did that was he (Paul Nehlen) was [challenging] Paul Ryan in the state of Wisconsin (primary) and I wasn’t pleased with Paul Ryan, is what it was.”

The money Magruder donated to Nehlen was prior to anything said, to her knowledge, that was “off-color,” Magruder explained, noting her opposition to Paul Ryan, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Magruder said she did not support Ryan’s political position and she believes the position of Speaker of the House is important to everybody in the United States.

“You can’t always tell who’s who or what’s what until you start looking at their background,” she said. “Sometimes … you take a chance on something and find out it maybe wasn’t the best move.”