Mom slapped with restraining order by PTA president suspected of harassment

The president of a Utah school’s parent teacher association filed a restraining order against a mother whom she allegedly harassed.

Jennifer Auwerda, the president of the PTA at Hillcrest Junior High in Murray, Utah filed a temporary civil stalking injunction against April Despain, according to court records obtained by The Lion.

It follows an incident in May when the PTA president allegedly ordered 7 LGBT flags to be “staked into” Despain’s family’s front lawn. Despain publicly posted about the incident, and Auwerda, on social media. 

Despain told The Lion that she and her husband repeatedly told Auwerda to leave her family alone. She then said Auwerda allegedly ignored their requests and “she escalated the harassment from online to in-person by sending Pride flags to our home.” 

The PTA president then replied a social media post from Despain about the LGBT flags. 

“Happy Pride to our favorite Murray Citizen, April Wilde Despain,” Auwerda replied to the video on Facebook, in a screenshot shared by parental rights activist, Nicole Solas. 

But Despain maintains she never visited or sent or sent anything to the home of Auwerda, which might warrant an order. 

The restraining order says Despain should stay away from Auwerda’s “current or future vehicle, job, school, home, premises and property.” 

“For a judge to grant a stalking injunction, Utah’s stalking code includes, ‘delivered an object to property owned… by you, with intent that the object be delivered to you,'” Despain told The Lion, pointing out that it was Auwerda’s actions, not hers, that appear to be addressed by stalking laws. “The PTA president of Murray School District, UT, sent 7 Pride flags to my home address and listed my name as the recipient of these flags.” 

If Despain disobeys the order, “the court may find [her] in contempt,” the injunction warns. She may also be “arrested and prosecuted for the crime of stalking and any other crime [she] may have committed in disobeying this order.” 

The order, which is dated June 29, ends three years after it was served, court records say.  

“Until this PTA president from Murray School District, UT, came to my Facebook page to harass me, I didn’t even know she existed or anything about her,” Despain tells The Lion. “I had never met her or spoken with her, and to this day I still have never met or spoken with her at all, outside the harassment that she initiated against me and my family on social media.” 

Despain said the PTA president had “clearly been stalking” her family, as she allegedly “brought up private, sensitive matters regarding a divorce in my husband’s family,” and apparently tried to use that private information to shame and bully her family. 

“We have an attorney and are responding to the injunction,” Despain says. “We are requesting a hearing to show the facts that were intentionally omitted by the PTA president when she misled the court to believe that she was the victim of stalking when in fact she was the perpetrator.”

Photo: Left, PTA President Jen Auwerda receives volunteer award in May; Right, screenshot of video allegedly showing an attempt to plant Pride flags in April Despain’s yard.