Video: Deer Valley school board member gives Nazi salute at meeting

At the end of Deer Valley Unified School District’s governing board meeting Tuesday night, a longtime board member gave a Nazi salute, punctuating it with the word “heil.” A colleague is now calling for her censure.

Far-right board member Kim Fisher is under fire for the Nazi gesture she performed after a spat with board president Paul Carver over the scheduling of a board work study session. With her bag already in her lap at the tail end of the more-than-two-hour-long meeting, Fisher wanted to move an upcoming work-study session from Tuesday to Saturday, arguing that community members couldn’t make the current date. Carver shut her down, arguing that “everything wants things, but nobody gives specifics” before adjourning the meeting following some back and forth.

Seemingly in protest of Carver, Fisher raised her right arm with a flattened hand at a 45-degree angle from her shoulder before saying “heil, heil,” in the direction of Carver, a fellow Republican. The gesture initially sparked little visible reaction from the board’s six other members, as little discussion continued before the members began to pack up their things. 

In a Facebook Live video filmed after the meeting, Fischer called Carver a “dictator” several times, adding that he was “horrible, beyond horrible” and that the “board is not functional anymore.” Fisher didn’t apologize for her Nazi salute; instead, she doubled down because Carver was “behaving like a dictator” and “all I could think of was Hitler, so I said, ‘Heil’ or whatever, ” she said in the video. Fisher did not respond to a request for comment from Phoenix New Times.

In a statement on Thursday morning, fellow Deer Valley board member Stephanie Simacek, who was sitting right next to Fisher at the time of the salute, called for the “immediate censure” of Fisher over what Simacek said was antisemitic behavior. 

“What happened in that room was not a joke,” Simacek wrote. “It was not a political statement or an expression of frustration. It was a deliberate invocation of one of the most evil ideologies in human history on display in a building where our children come to learn.

“This is what antisemitism looks like when people get comfortable. This is what hatred looks like when it finds a seat at the table.”

In a phone interview with New Times, Carver said Fisher’s behavior “borders on hate crime.” He said that he doesn’t know if she’s an antisemite or if “she just hates people,” noting that she’s attacked his religious beliefs before.

“This is a line that should have never been crossed,” Carver said. “I don’t know where her head was at.” 

The Deer Valley board oversees 42 schools and more than 32,000 students throughout north Phoenix, Glendale, Peoria, Anthem, New River and Queen Creek, according to the district’s website. Fisher initially joined the board in 2014. Her current term ends in January 2029. 

In a statement, the Deer Valley School District wrote that it does “not condone, support, or endorse gestures or language associated with hate, discrimination, intimidation or violence of any form.” It added that “as an elected official, Mrs. Fisher speaks and acts independently. Her views and actions do not reflect those of the district.”

Simacek, a Democrat who also serves in the Arizona House of Representatives, told New Times in a phone interview that she expects a potential recall effort or attempt to oust Fisher from the board, though she acknowledged that would be “extremely difficult” to accomplish. Simacek called Fisher’s actions “above and beyond inappropriate,” adding that there’s “absolutely no reason for her to be referring to him as a dictator.” 

“She’s completely blown that out of proportion. There’s no excuse for her behavior,” Simack said, adding that she didn’t speak to Fisher after the meeting as “the best thing I’ve found with her is to not engage.” 

Similarly, Carver told New Times that “the unfortunate part is that it didn’t surprise me because she says and does the most outlandish and ridiculous things at the drop of a hat all the time,” he said. “We didn’t engage because to engage Mrs. Fisher just gives fuel to the fire.” 

None of the other board members responded to requests for comment. 

This isn’t the first time Fisher has made headlines. In 2017, she got herself into hot water after calling a teacher an “Anti-American Trump-hating troll” and using profanity against him on social media. Fisher didn’t back down and stood by her actions in that incident.