Michael Volpe Investigates Update: An Interview with Joanna Rivera

Joanna updates on her case and how a second child is struggling with gender dysphoria.

Michael Volpe

Mar 03, 2023

A troubling flyer which was being promoted by the Marin School in Northern California

I’m back with Joanna Rivera.

I did Joanna’s story in December, as part of my series on Big Tech executives; check out my interview with Doc Washburn, where we talk about Joanna’s story and more.

Here is part of that December article.

Joanna’s ex-husband, David Hillard, is a former executive at Cisco who now works for Brandle. He misused protective orders to effectively kidnap both their children.
Here is where David seems to have gotten preferential treatment from the courts.
First, both got domestic violence restraining orders on each other and then the judge, Sheila Lichtblau, ordered that the two revert back to a Virginia child custody agreement, which granted David approximately 75% of the child custody time.
“He weaponized the restraining order,” Joanna told me.
By this, he simply refused to return one daughter for her scheduled custody time.
With a restraining order in place, Joanna could not go to his home, or she would be arrested.
David, Joanna tells me, was also monitoring all his oldest daughter’s electronics so there was no way for Joanna to communicate with her one daughter.
All the while, he was telling her- through a court messaging application called Our Family Wizard- that the oldest daughter did not want to see her.

That oldest daughter is now transitioning into “non-binary”, Joanna told me.

In this update, Joanna has since learned that her youngest daughter- who she hasn’t seen for six months- now believes she is asexual.

This may be part of a pattern at the school: The Marin School, which the two girls were court ordered to attend. Here is part of their website.

Creativity is encouraged and embraced at all levels of the learning process, in the classrooms and across disciplines. The Marin School teachers are empowered to teach, and students are free to learn in surprising, sometimes unorthodox, yet thoroughly effective ways. We celebrate project-based learning and STEM programming, including integrative use of coding and hands-on tools in our Fab Lab and coding classes.

Underneath the surface, Joanna has learned that the school is pushing an LGBT agenda on students.

First, she learned that the school stopped using men’s and women’s bathrooms, choosing instead to use gender neutral bathrooms.

Second, they replaced the American flag with a pride flag.

The Marin School promoting their pride flag on Instagram

The Marin School even promotes gay Lego’s on their social media.

Concerned with what was happening to her youngest daughter, Joanna reached out to the school in early February.

Initially, she was told that all information had to go through her ex-husband, David Hillard.

I reached out to Hillard and his divorce attorney, Matthew Mani, but received no response.

Then, the school said that she was allowed to have access to her daughter’s school records.

Those records showed she had seventeen absences in the last six months.

The school also agreed to hold a virtual conference with Joanna and the staff.

After that, the school stopped responding.

She’s been given no more information.

I reached out to Ben Griggs, the Head of Marin School.

Griggs stated, “Thanks for your email. I'm sorry but I can't discuss anything having to do with our students.”

I didn’t merely ask him about Joanna’s daughter. I asked him to comment on the specific flyer at the top which stated, “calling all gender expansive middle schoolers.”

Griggs did not provide further comment, but Joanna told me that the post in question had been removed from Marin School’s Instagram account after our email exchange.

That flyer, which promotes a study for a new transgender school, had an email for more information (laine.schlezinger@gmail.com). I reached out to the email but received no response.

At the end of the interview, Joanna’s husband, Jerry, added that he believes that there are many people- doctors, lawyers, and others- who are making money pushing this LGBTQ agenda on kids.

The flyer which stated, “calling all gender expansive middle schoolers” is for trans formative schools, which is new private school that promotes the transgender agenda. On their website, they are currently running a funding drive which will match up to $150,000.