President of Minnesota Teachers’ Union Calling for Anti-ICE Strike Was Accused of Abuse by Adoptive Children

The president of a major Minnesota teachers’ union who is using her influence to agitate against immigration enforcement efforts in the state has a sordid personal and professional history that calls into question her position as an advocate for teachers and students.

The Saint Paul Federation of Educators executive board, led by President Leah VanDassor, sent a letter to union members last week urging them to go on strike to demand that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents leave the state.

The letter, which was sent to the group’s more than 3,500 members, calls on teachers to “choose what side they are on.” The “day of action,” during which teachers are instructed to stay home, is scheduled for Friday.

“Our union has never backed down from challenging and difficult choices. The importance of all of us standing together in community to show our families and our nation that we will hold the line for what is right cannot be understated,” the letter reads.

The union has vowed to disrupt school operations by refusing to show up for work unless the Trump administration pulls ICE out of Minnesota entirely, prosecutors hold the officer who shot Renee Good “accountable,” and Congress cuts off funding to ICE in the upcoming federal budget.

The SPFE executive board comprises dozens of teachers, former educators, or people with backgrounds in education or related fields. Several of those board members have repeatedly engaged in heated public attacks on perceived political enemies. VanDassor, the union president, not only routinely disparages political enemies in harsh, personal terms but has also been accused of abuse by her adopted children, according to a police report from 2007. VanDassor did not respond to a request for comment.

For at least a year now, Saint Paul parents have called for VanDassor’s resignation in response to her political activism and the allegations leveled against her by her children.

In January of last year, right after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, VanDassor published a letter on SPFE stationery promising that SPFE would fight against “authoritarianism.”

“Throughout our history and around the world, people have confronted authoritarian foes by standing with and for each other,” VanDassor wrote. “Now, thanks to the Justices who aided a criminal conspiracy to overthrow an election, it is our turn to face down the authoritarian Republicans ruling our government.”

The letter was posted by a concerned citizen to a Twin City crime watch page, and social media comments flooded in, calling for VanDassor to step down from her post.

“What a twisted view of the truth. Shame on her. How about teaching our children reading writing and arithmetic. Teach children to respect themselves and others. She should be removed. I wouldn’t want her around any children. Pure propaganda,” one commenter wrote.

“Time for her to resign!” said another.

In another letter from November of last year, also drafted on SPFE stationery, VanDassor expresses outrage with ICE and Homeland Security investigations in Saint Paul and criticizes local police for “not come[ing] to protect the children in the home.”

Yet VanDassor failed to protect her own children from sexual abuse in her home and even engaged in physical abuse herself, according to accounts from her children.

According to a police report obtained by Alpha News, one of VanDassor’s children told police in 2007 that VanDassor had kicked and punched her, leaving bruises that were visible to the officer who filed the report. Another of VanDassor’s adopted daughters, Destiny, told Alpha News last year that VanDassor failed to prevent her then-husband, registered sex offender Russ VanDassor, from regularly showing her and her siblings pornography and sexually abusing them. Destiny further alleged that she and her siblings repeatedly informed Leah VanDassor of the abuse and even showed her child pornography they had found in the house — but that she did nothing.

“Leah absolutely knew,” Destiny said. “I told her he was touching me, and she’d always say, ‘Well, did you talk to him about it first?’ But my thing was, why would I talk to him if I’m telling you what he’s doing to me?”

No charges resulted from the 2007 abuse allegations.

VanDassor was a teacher at the time of the alleged abuse, a position that legally required her to report any abuse of a child.

Russ VanDassor was eventually arrested and convicted in 2019 after attempting to sexually assault an eleven-year-old boy in the home he shared with his now ex-wife, Leah VanDassor, who divorced him after his conviction and was never charged with a crime in relation to the abuse. Russ VanDassor had met the boy and his mother at church and invited them to his house.

Mercedes Yarbrough, a Saint Paul Public Schools educator, created a petition calling for VanDassor’s resignation as SPFE president following the abuse allegations.

“Recently, serious concerns have been raised regarding past issues involving current SPFE President Leah VanDassor,” the petition reads. “While we recognize that every individual has a personal history, we also believe that leadership within an organization dedicated to the protection, education, and well-being of children must be held to a consistent and transparent standard — just as educators are.”

National Review reached out to Yarbrough for comment regarding the petition, but she did not respond by the time of publication.

Peggy Cobbins, another member of the SPFE executive board, has also faced allegations of abuse.

Minnesota court documents reveal that Cobbins previously had her foster care license revoked after allegedly striking her foster child with a belt, an allegation Cobbins did not deny.

“In December 2016, Appellant disciplined K.C. with a belt on her buttocks, a discipline she had used with her biological children. On April 27, 2017, Ramsey County Community Human Services (RCCHS) administratively determined that Appellant was responsible for maltreatment of K.C.,” the court document reads. “Appellant did not challenge the maltreatment finding.”

Cobbins’s foster license has since been reinstated.

National Review reached out to SPFE’s executive board as a whole, as well as the individual members who are named in this story, but no one involved responded by the time of publication. Further, the SPFE appears to have taken down the executive board webpage, which had the photos and names of all its members.

Other members of the executive board are outspoken on social media regarding their political biases and history of activism.

Brian Hodge-Rice, another member of the board, posts pride graphics on his Facebook page, as well as a photo of former President Barack Obama with a pride flag behind him. In April 2025, SPFE hosted a “drag queen charity bingo” event for SPFE members. Under the post, Hodge-Rice commented, “What a fun sounding event! Can’t wait!”

Chace Lunning, who is also on the SPFE board, describes himself as a “Teacher and activist” in his X bio.

A contributing writer under the same name publishes articles with Socialistworker.org, the publication for the International Socialist Organization (U.S.). The website is now exclusively an archive, but while it was actively publishing, the platform “was committed to giving a voice to those struggling for a better world, seeking out the stories of struggles of workers and the oppressed that are seldom reported in the mainstream media,” according to the website.

National Review reached out to Lunning to confirm if he is the contributing writer; however, he did not respond to our request for comment. The headlines under the Chance Lunning byline feature Minnesota stories, including “Minneapolis rallies around a bombed mosque,” “Will the racist killers in blue ever be convicted?” and “Minneapolis against the Nazis.”

The radical activism extends beyond the union as well, with Saint Paul Public School board members participating in protests and demonstrations against ICE agents.

Chauntyll Allen, leader of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities and school board member for Saint Paul Public Schools, not only attended the anti-ICE protest at a Minnesota church over the weekend, but also told TMZ that she played a central role in organizing it.

Allen characterized the protest as necessary and compared what her group did to Jesus in comments to the New York Post.

“I grew up in the church and one of the things that I remember about Jesus Christ is that when things weren’t going right in the church, he went in and he flipped tables,” Allen said.

The protest, which is currently under federal investigation, was carried out because protesters believed that the pastor of the Saint Paul church was an ICE agent.

Allen previously weighed in on the allegations against Leah VanDassor, responding to a social media post made by Yarbrough. Allen said she is not responsible for responding to the allegations as SPPS and SPFE are separate entities.

National Review reached out to Saint Paul Public Schools and Allen, requesting a comment on her involvement in the protest, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.