As Jail Sentence Nears, Mother Remains Proud

Jennifer Majuta is a successful businesswoman, author of several children’s books, wife, and mother of two. On Monday morning at 10:30AM, she will be in jail.

In early 2020, the world was much different than it is now. After living in Colorado for 6 years, Majuta and her husband Damien decided it would be best if they returned to Sahuarita, Arizona to be closer to family. Like many Americans, their plans were soon complicated by COVID. “We wanted to go where our kids had friends, families we knew,” Majuta explained in a phone interview in late May, “Unfortunately COVID hit and kind of turned everybody's world upside down.”

In the face of uncertainty, she and her family pushed forward. They built a home, settled into the community, and attempted to adjust to the new normal. As public schools struggled to provide effective education online, Majuta made the decision to enroll her children in a digital preparatory program through Arizona State University. In late summer 2021, the family decided it would be better for the children to return to in-person education, so they enrolled at Walden Grove High School.

Due to “sincerely-held, religious beliefs” the Majutas had chosen not to take the COVID vaccine. Both Jennifer and her husband held positions as federal contractors where mandates threatened their ability to provide for the family. Filling out exemption forms and trying to find ways to resist the coercion became a full time job, and there was constant anxiety as to what the future would hold. It was during this time that she says her children became “victims of an arbitrary and discriminatory contact tracing/quarantine policy” which was created by Pima County, and implemented by the Sahuarita Unified School District. She says if she had known what she knows now, she would have just kept them in the ASU Digital program.

On August 12, Jennifer says Walden Grove High School Athletic Director Barry Cromer called both she and her husband to inform them that their daughter was prohibited from returning to school, because she had potentially been exposed to someone who had tested positive for COVID-19. Her husband returned the call and was told that the school was simply following the Pima County Health Mandate, before being directed to contact District Nurse Jeanine Sarnaki, who was apparently unavailable. He left a message for Nurse Sarnaki before going to the school, in-person, where he had a conversation with the now-retired principal, Teresa Hill. Principal Hill reiterated that the school was only following Pima County’s mandate, and declined any further discussion. In a dedicated effort to get answers, Mr. Majuta went to the Sahuarita Unified School District office and spoke with Assistant Superintendent Scott Downs. He was once again told that the decision was in accordance with Pima County Health Policy, and no remedy or recourse was offered.

According to Arizona Revised Statutes Title 36-789, any isolation or quarantine order during a state-of-emergency requires an “individualized written directive” that must be brought before a judge within 10 days. Furthermore, an individual who finds themselves to be the subject of a written directive is given the right to a hearing, along with court-appointed counsel to contest the matter, if they so choose. According to the Majutas, at no point that afternoon were they asked any questions, offered Due Process, or even given the option for their daughter to fill out a student complaint form.

Mrs. Majuta says later that evening, her husband texted their neighbor and “friendly acquaintance” Sue Nowland-wife to the Chief of Police John Nowland to “give him a heads-up” that they would be back at the school the next day, in an attempt to resolve the issue. Having notified the police chief, the school, and the district superintendent of their plan, she says they had no expectation that anything should go awry.

She says when they arrived at the school the next morning, they were immediately allowed entry without have to show identification or signing in, but the principal refused to meet with them or “use her professional expertise” to find a solution. According to Mrs. Majuta, she and her husband were kept waiting for over 3 hours while the police went back and forth between the lobby and Principal Hill’s office. After hours of getting nowhere, the failure to communicate came to a head.

According to a report by KOLD News 13 on August 13, the Sahuarita Police Department said, “the group met briefly with WGHS principal Teresa Hill, who asked them to leave the school property. The group refused to leave, even after police arrived and tried to mediate a solution.” Publicly posted video shows a protracted yet civil argument between police officers and the family, regarding law enforcement’s order to leave the premises. After much discussion, and repeated opportunities to leave on their own accord, the Majutas and their daughter were arrested peacefully. Others who were present chose to leave without further incident. “Unfortunately, we did not know what else to do and felt backed into a corner,” Jennifer explained, “We were peaceful, but refused to leave and we were ultimately arrested for trespass including one of our minor children.” She says they were then taken in for processing and cited accordingly, before being driven back to the school parking lot and released. The charge against their daughter was dropped shortly afterward.

Over the next 8 months Jennifer and Damien Majuta became intimately acquainted with the complete lack of speed in the criminal justice system. While waiting for adjudication of their case, they were required to email the school principal any time they were planning to pick up their children. Mrs. Majuta says the purpose was to paint them as “violent criminals who must announce their presence on campus.” Eventually, the process led to a 3-day bench trial before Sahuarita Municipal Judge Maria Avilez that found them both guilty of the Class-3 Misdemeanor. They were each sentenced to 5 days in jail and a $300 fine. They were also required to take an as-yet-unspecified class and write formal letters of apology to both the school and the district.

As Jennifer Majuta prepares to serve her time, she continues to voice frustration with how a number of things have transpired, and the manner in which the school handled her concerns remains at the forefront: “Obviously we had no clue what we were doing,” she explained, “I think when you feel as parents that you have no options, you don't know where else to go. Nobody gave us options at the time. Nobody told us, ‘Hey, there has a complaint form.’ Nobody said, ‘Come back and I will clear my time for 20 minutes.’ I mean, they knew we were coming the night before.

She also expressed frustration with the criminal justice system, while trying to find the silver lining in what sometimes seems like a losing battle. “This whole eight months, nine months has been a process. It's been a learning experience,” she says, “We've learned so much about our rights. We’ve grown a lot as a family, kind of becoming more aware of things that are going on in the world, in schools, in government, but at the same time, it's also discouraging because I have written letters to everybody, and so far nothing has really come of it. Most disturbing of all is that we have come to find out that the Pima County Health Department and the Sahuarita Unified School District did not even follow the legal process.”

Regardless of the consequences, the mother of two is proud of what she did: “I said, you know what, at least I can go to my grave knowing that I stood up, you know, and, and maybe it didn't turn out the way we thought or we wanted, but I did. And I would protect my children, with my life.”

StopHate has reached out to various officials from Sahuarita and will update as necessary.

Shawn Bradley Witzemann (TMI)