West Michigan Far Right Watch: Forest Hills for JUST Education

In today’s edition of West Michigan Far Right Watch, I want to share with you information about a group known as Forest Hills for JUST Education.

Don’t let the name fool you, because Forest Hills for JUST Education is a Political Action Committee (PAC), which embraces far right principles, specifically as it relates to Forest Hills Public School District. Forest Hills for JUST Education was formed in 2021 as a direct response to the COVID crisis and how it impacted public education. 

Some of the people involved with Forest Hills for JUST Education were part of the effort to target the Kent County Health Department in 2021, which was timed with a far right conference held in Grand Rapids and a Press Conference held by the group Moms for America.

Forest Hills for JUST Education has a website that is worth looking at, which includes information on some of their organizing work, along with their core principles. Not surprising some of their core values are opposition to Critical Race Theory and DEI practices, along with support for parental choice to oppose student masking and support for censorship of educational material that their ideology deems inappropriate. 

Campaign Financing for Far Right Candidates

The primary work of Forest Hills for JUST Education of course has been to raise money to support candidates for school board, candidates that they have vetted so as to embrace their organization values. 

If you look at the Kent County Clerk’s election page, specifically around campaign financing, you can see that beginning in 2021 they filed asa Political Action Committee. You can also see that they raised over $28,000 for candidates during the 2022 Election cycle. If you look at the 10/26 campaign finance filing for the group, you will see that a Trinity Health Medical Group physician named Vinayak Manohar contributed the bulk of the money they raised, by contributing $20,248.01. 

A great deal of the money the group raised in 2022 went to support four candidates – Cribbs, DeBoer, Lee and Donovan, but only DeBoer won a seat on the Board of Education in 2022.  Forest Hills for JUST Education is continuing to raise money for the upcoming 2024 Election cycle and will be backing Robert Cribbs, who ran in 2022 as well.

The treasurer for Forest Hills for JUST Education is Thomas R. Nemcek. Interestingly enough, Nemcek is also listed as the treasurer for the GOP’s Kent County Executive Committee. This connection seems to make it more likely that the Forest Hills for JUST Education is not a rogue group within the local GOP, but integral to their mission. 

Far Right Fundraising

Lastly, it is worth noting that the group Forest Hills for JUST Education is hosting a fundraising event this Saturday, April 27th, at Notos in Cascade. According to the group’s Facebook page, the fundraising event will feature 3 speakers, all of which were accused of being part of the plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer. The Facebook event description says:

You are invited to hear the shocking firsthand account of 3 men wrongfully accused in the Whitmer kidnapping hoax of 2020. Learn about what concerned parents of school children and these 3 men have in common. And be a part of the solution!

It is rather instructive to see that the group Forest Hills for JUST Education is hosting a fundraiser featuring Michael Null, William Null and Eric Molitor. Now, to be clear, all 3 of these men were cleared in the charges of attempted kidnapping of Gov. Whitmer, but the the Null brothers were part of the far right protests at the Lansing State Capitol in 2020, one of them was at the American Patriot Council anti-lockdown protest in Grand Rapids in May of 2020, plus they were at the protests to defend the racist Civil War statue in Allendale that took place in the summer and fall of 2020.

The fact that the group Forest Hills for JUST Education are hosting Michael Null, William Null and Eric Molitor should make it clear that they embrace the the far right ideology of armed insurgency to defend White Supremacy, which challenges government policies that they don’t agree with. GRIID will be following this group leading up to the 2024 Election to see what other activities they are involved in, who is contributing to their Political Action Committee and which candidates they are backing.