This is part 21 in a series examining education in the United States.

When it comes to education policy, the Biden administration is making the radicalism of the Obama years look mild by comparison.

The goal is to ultimately replace parents with bureaucrats and “experts” to facilitate the indoctrination of America’s youth. That transformation is accelerating.

Not only are the education system and America’s children being weaponized against America, federal law enforcement is now being weaponized against parents who speak out about it.

If left unchecked, catastrophe awaits. However, the more monstrous the federally directed abuses in schools become, the more outraged Americans join the fight.

The future of the nation is literally on the line in this issue. The outcome of the battle between who will raise children—government or parents—will determine the fate of America.

Parents, Get Out of the Way

The attitude toward parents in Washington has long been hostile. Hillary Clinton famously claimed in 1996 that it “takes a village” to raise children. What she really meant, of course, was a government village.

In fact, during the Obama years, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan publicly called for some children to be in government “boarding schools” 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Others should remain in school, including “after school programming,” for 12 to 14 hours each day, he declared.

A policy document (pdf) drafted by the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services called for home visits by government officials and argued that parents could be “equal partners” with government in the rearing of their children.

But as fringe as those totalitarian views may sound to normal people, the extremism has now been taken to a whole new level under the current administration.

When Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona if parents should be the “primary stakeholder” in the education of their children, it would have been easy to spit one’s coffee on the floor.

“Stakeholder”?! What?

Of course, parents should never be viewed as mere “stakeholders” in the education of their children, “primary” or otherwise. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, “stakeholder” is defined as “one that has a stake in an enterprise” or “one who is involved in or affected by a course of action.”

To call a mother or father a “stakeholder” in one of the most important facets of their child’s life is like calling a pilot of a private plane a “stakeholder” in whether his plane will land successfully or not. Technically it’s true. But it’s an outrage nonetheless.

Mothers and fathers should be in charge of their children’s education—not bystanders or “stakeholders.” This has been the case in virtually every human society for millennia. It’s also what the Bible clearly prescribes.

But the Biden administration, by contrast, does not believe parents should have any say in the “education” of children.

Cardona could not even bring himself to concede that parents should be the “primary stakeholders” in their children’s education.

“I believe parents are important stakeholders,” Cardona responded to Braun’s question, adding that “educators” also “have a role in determining educational programming.”

Indeed. That’s a nice way of saying: Parents, get out of the way, the Biden administration and its “experts” know better what and how your child should learn. More on that later.

Democrat Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAullife, who wisely sent his children to private school, famously put it this way in a debate in September: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Targeting Concerned Parents as ‘Terrorists’

As if matters could not get any worse, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, responding to an outrageous letter from the National Association of School Boards (NASB) painting concerned parents as possible “domestic terrorists,” decided to sic the FBI on moms and dads.

Among other concerns, Garland cited (pdf) “harassment” and “intimidation” by parents against the people brainwashing their kids with critical race theory (CRT), Marxist ideology, gender confusion, hyper-sexualized propaganda, and more. No examples of actual, legitimate threats were cited.

One of the examples of the supposed “threat” cited by the NASB was Scott Smith. What sort of dangerous domestic terrorist was Smith? Well, he was arrested for “disorderly conduct” while trying to tell the school board about his daughter being allegedly sodomized by a male pretending to be a girl in the girls’ restroom under the federally supported “transgender” dictates on bathrooms.

The other examples are equally outlandish: a ticket for “trespassing,” a nasty letter, a “Nazi salute” to protest mandatory face masks, somebody describing the school board as “Marxist,” and similar horrors requiring the might of the federal beast.

This is, of course, not about actual threats or violence, however. It’s naked intimidation of parents who are struggling to make their voices heard.

It’s also the political weaponization of federal law-enforcement in a way that’s unprecedented in American history. In fact, most parallels involve totalitarian dictatorships rather than civilized and free societies.

Fortunately, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state and local leaders are working to protect children in their jurisdictions from this outrageous abuse by the Biden administration. But it’s not enough to stop the freight train of evil being pumped into local schools by Washington.

The irony of treating desperate moms and dads as terrorists after pretending not to see months on end of actual domestic terrorism from rioters and looters burning down major American cities and even police precincts defies belief. Welcome to the “new normal.”

Even the former assistant director of intelligence for the FBI, Kevin Brock, has warned that the FBI should ignore Garland’s Orwellian directive.

After sparking a firestorm of criticism and alarming Americans across the political spectrum—and after being rebuked by state and local school boards nationwide—the NASB reluctantly apologized.

But nobody with a brain believes for a second that the education establishment would not sic the FBI and Homeland Security on angry parents if it thought it could get away with it.

Targeting State and Local Leaders, Too

Not long before announcing that the FBI and the Department of Justice would be employed to bully and intimidate parents, the Biden administration announced “civil rights” investigations into state leaders that refused to force children to wear masks at school against their parents’ wishes.

The threat, made by Cardona, invoked the communist understanding of “rights” to claim that everyone has a “right” to a government “education.” As such, states that do not force all children to wear face masks are somehow violating the supposed “rights” of some children to an education.

Yes, seriously. This is the so-called logic of the people who have usurped control over “educating” your children for you.

When Florida and other states sought to limit the ability of local school boards to force masks on children against their parents’ wishes, the Biden administration also vowed to send COVID stimulus money to local officials who defied their state government and state law.

Before that, the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a video urging children confused about their gender to report their local communities to the feds if government schools did not fully bow down to the “transgenderism” madness being pushed on America from D.C. and Hollywood.

The video, which featured transgender Health and Human Services bigwig Dr. Rachel Levine and senior officials from the Department of Education and the DOJ, gave multiple websites for children to get the feds involved in protecting their “rights” to use opposite-sex bathrooms, play on opposite-sex sports teams, and more.

The message was clear: Trust Biden, not your family or your community. And if anyone interferes with your supposed “right” to shower or relieve yourself or wrestle with members of the opposite sex, team Biden will unleash the fury of the weaponized federal machine.

So far there has been no federal intervention to protect the rights of Scott Smith’s daughter, though.

The Biden Agenda: CRT

At the top of Biden’s “education” agenda is using the education system to further divide parents and children, as well as the nation, while weaponizing impressionable youngsters in the war against their own country and its institutions.

Earlier this year, for example, the Department of Education proposed a “regulation” to inject even more Marxist race-mongering and CRT into public schools nationwide.

Under the scheme, the feds are bribing schools with “grants” and “incentives” paid with U.S. taxpayer money.

Among other elements, the administrative edict creates “American History and Civics Education programs” designed to radically change the teaching of history and civics. Between statements on “systemic racism” and “anti-racist practices,” the nature of the changes being sought is easy to discern.

Indeed, the Department of Education actually cited the debunked “1619 Project,” a fake history narrative addressed in part 17 of this series, as one of the inspirations for the effort.

The New York Times’ propaganda version of history, which has been ridiculed even by left-wing historians for its errors, turns U.S. history on its head. It paints the first nation in history founded on the premise that all are created equal—the first nation where abolition of slavery took root—into a uniquely evil nation with racism and slavery supposedly in its very “DNA.”

Also cited by the Education Department for the proposed regulation was the work of Ibram X. Kendi, one of the premier proponents of CRT and author of books such as “Anti-Racist Baby.”

Among other ideas, Kendi advocates a “Department of Antiracism” that would serve as an unelected racial dictatorship with power to overturn any law or rule it dislikes.

To qualify for the Education Department funding, state and local “education” officials would have to incorporate the administration’s extremist ideologies into the classroom—evil ideologies that divide children by “race” for sinister purposes while teaching a twisted (and false) version of American history and government.

Almost 40 U.S. senators and tens of thousands of citizens in official comments blasted the scheme’s overtly anti-American extremism.

Only after that massive outcry did the administration backtrack even slightly and remove some of the most outrageous language and references. But the somewhat scaled-back rule was still implemented, and the vision remains clear despite the attempted obfuscation.

To illustrate just how committed the administration is to this poison, in early October they appointed political activist Precious McKesson to a senior post at the Education Department. McKesson is a strong advocate of CRT, and she even recently expressed her support for teaching all children about the alleged “systemic racism” of America.

Ironically, perhaps, Garland’s son-in-law’s company reportedly supports CRT teaching in government schools, sparking concerns about a potential conflict of interest in the decision to sic the feds on parents.

The O’Biden Agenda: Centralize and Get Them Young!

The proposed $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” abomination that Biden and congressional Democrats are trying to ram through Congress without the support of a single Republican is packed with “education” gimmicks, too. If approved, the descent into collective madness will accelerate.

One of the major schemes Biden and his handlers are trying to get through, this time with the “Reconciliation” bill, is a $200 billion program for universal pre-kindergarten. The goal: Get all of America’s children into government indoctrination programs even earlier.

Under the proposed plan, which may be rammed through Congress on a partisan vote with no filibusters allowed, all children in America ages 3 and 4 would receive federally directed, tax-funded “pre-K” through government schools.

None of this should be surprising. During the Obama years, the same warped view of “education” and parents reigned in Washington and throughout the monstrosity improperly referred to as the nation’s “public education” system.

Common Core, for example, was used to cement national standards into place using bullying and bribes from the stimulus slush fund.

And lest anyone think this was actually about “improving” education, the federal government funded a study showing “significant negative effects” on grade 4 reading after the standards were put in place. Less than one third of the victims of government school at grade 8 are proficient in core subjects, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals.

But academic achievement was never really the goal. Under Obama and Common Core, parents and elected school boards were out, while D.C. bureaucrats and special-interest groups funded by billionaire profiteers were in.

The plan succeeded wildly, with parents nationwide unable to help their children with “Common Core” math while states and school districts struggle for breathing room in the straitjacket of the national standards.

Also under Obama, federally funded so-called Full-Service Community Schools revealed perhaps the most brazen attempt to sideline parents in American history. These federally backed institutions, which are now scattered across the nation, promise to handle the dental health, mental health, nutritional needs, and much more for every child in their “care.”

It would be more honest to refer to these institutions as “parental replacement centers,” but of course those behind the agenda would never be so honest.

As explored in part 10 of this series, this federal usurpation of authority over families and schools accelerated rapidly under Obama. It’s now reaching a climax under Biden. And it has resulted in the absolute decimation of whatever may have once been decent in America’s disastrous “education” system.

From the 1960s’ Supreme Court opinions imposing humanism and ousting Christianity to the federal funding that eventually paved the way for control over standards and so much else, Washington’s influence over schools has been toxic from the start.

Under Obama and now Biden, the globalization of the indoctrination system described in part 9 of this series also came out of the closet, with Obama’s Education Secretary referring to the U.N. education agency as his “global partner” in the process.

Indeed, Common Core’s own architects and proponents bragged that the controversial standards were aligned with “international standards” even as training for “global citizenship” became ubiquitous.

This is about more than the government simply brainwashing your children. This is about removing you from the picture almost entirely so that the forces of wickedness, perversion, and tyranny can poison your children’s minds and souls unimpeded by pesky parents.

As this series has documented extensively, this was always the goal of the “education” establishment going back to the Utopian and even socialist architects of the system: communist Robert Owen, collectivist Utopian Horace Mann, and socialist–humanist luminary John Dewey.

Obviously, attending school board meetings to express concerns is not a viable strategy for protecting children. In fact, it may even lead to harassment and intimidation from the politicized and disgraced FBI. It may be worth doing, but it will not save your children.

While it’s critical for parents to be involved and for state and local government to resist the Biden administration’s escalating attacks, the only true long-term solution is an exodus from the government’s indoctrination system.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/pushing-parents-out-biden-administration-further-weaponizes-education_4052344.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Well, that took long enough.

In late September, conservative parents and voters discovered what the NSBA is. It wasn’t a pleasant introduction:

The National School Boards Association penned a letter to President Joe Biden in which the educators group asked “for federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation.”

This sounds pretty dire until you realize the letter was talking, in large part, about parents revolting at school board meetings over radical curriculums that included elements of critical race theory and overreaches such as mask mandates.

Over 100 parents and children gathered outside Riverside Unified’s School Board Meeting on Oct. 21 in protest. #Riverside #vaccine #mandate #Californiahttps://t.co/GirCzcvuHB

— KVCR (@EmpireKVCR) October 23, 2021

Biden’s Delaware Summer House Gets $455K Upgrade Billed to the US Taxpayer

In the letter, the NSBA accused parents of “spreading misinformation” and asserted, without evidence, that “extremist hate organizations” were “inciting chaos” at contentious school board meetings.

And then the kicker: This activity “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

In a matter of days, Attorney General Merrick Garland snapped to attention and sent out a memorandum promising the FBI would hold meetings with school officials nationwide to “facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response.”Is public education getting too woke?Yes No
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This quickly soured on both ends — particularly the NSBA’s assertion that parent activists were involved in “domestic terrorism.” Things got worse on Thursday when the Washington Free Beacon reported that emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show the NSBA’s president and CEO collaborated with the White House before the letter was sent — and that it was released without the approval of the NSBA’s board.

On Friday, the NSBA finally issued a mea culpa for its woke behavior, according to the Washington Examiner.

“On behalf of the NSBA, we regret and apologize for the letter. To be clear, the safety of school board members, other public school officials and educators, and students is our top priority, and there remains important work to be done on this issue,” the letter stated.

“We apologize also for the strain and stress this situation has caused you and your organizations.”

Breaking: In the wake of yesterday’s @FreeBeacon report, National School Board Association announces “we regret and apologize for the letter” to Biden admin characterizing concerned parents as potentially domestic terrorists pic.twitter.com/3RBufvWqAN

— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) October 23, 2021

Content Warning: What They’re Showing Schoolchildren Is So Disgusting the Law Requires It to Be Blurred on Television

“As we’ve reiterated since the letter was sent, we deeply value not only the work of local school boards that make important contributions within our communities, but also the voices of parents, who should and must continue to be heard when it comes to decisions about their children’s education, health, and safety,” the letter continued.

And, of course, what belated apology would be complete without this line?: “We are going to do better going forward.”

“Doing better” is apparently defined as “a formal review of our processes and procedures,” as well as “specific improvements” regarding “coordination and consultation among our staff, and our members across the country.”

This will apparently stop the NSBA from implying parents who love their children are engaged in “domestic terrorism.” It’s also worth noting that the memorandum does not address the specific inflammatory language and positions of the group’s Sept. 29 letter to the White House, nor does it discuss the prior coordination with the White House.

Also unaddressed is the questions Garland faced over the letter — and the Department of Justice’s subsequent memorandum, issued just days after the NSBA’s missive — during his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last week.

“Three weeks ago, the National School Board Association writes President Biden asking him to involve the FBI in local school board matters. Five days later, the attorney general of the United States does just that, does exactly what a political organization asks to be done,” Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan said.

“Republicans on this committee have sent the attorney general 13 letters in the last six months,” he added. “Eight of the letters, we’ve got nothing — they just gave us the finger.” Other letters took weeks to merit a response, Jordan said. But it was merely days before Garland promised the NSBA “open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting.”

“A snitch line on parents started five days after a left-wing political organization asked for it,” Jordan said. “If that’s not political, I don’t know what is.

BREAKING: Ohio Rep. @Jim_Jordan let loose on Attorney General Merrick Garland at Thursday’s hearing: “Folks all around the country, they tell me, for the first time they are afraid of their government” pic.twitter.com/9aWjNCnohU

— Newsmax (@newsmax) October 21, 2021

None of this was mentioned in the NSBA’s apology. Just a sanitized “mistakes were made“-ish retraction of an inflammatory letter which, by all appearances, spurred the Department of Justice and the FBI to treat American parents as if they were domestic terrorist threats for caring about their children’s education.

It certainly took long enough. And after all that, the apology was neither public nor specific. Meanwhile, it appears the FBI still remains mobilized against the chimerical threat the NSBA railed against.

Some mea culpa.

On Oct. 7, Sofia stepped off of the school bus with a mask, wet from her saliva, tied to her head with a thin, nylon string

A Florida father is accusing educators at his daughter’s elementary school of forcing his daughter with Down syndrome to wear a mask by tying it to her head for about six weeks.

Jeffery Steele’s daughter, Sofia Steele, is nonverbal and has an enlarged tongue. On Oct. 7, Sofia stepped off of the school bus with a mask, wet from her saliva, tied to her head with a thin, nylon string, Steele told Fox News Digital, but she did not leave for school with a mask on that day or any day prior.

Sofia has an individual education plan (IEP), and educators are supposed to inform parents of any changes made to their children’s IEPs, Steele said. But the school never informed him or his wife that they were going to require Sofia to wear a mask, and no one asked the parents for their consent in tying it to her face during school.

Steele emphasized that his daughter breathes through her mouth and cannot speak, so wearing a mask is dangerous for her health in more ways than one.

A Florida father is accusing educators at his daughter’s elementary school of forcing his daughter with Down syndrome to wear a mask by tying it to her head for about six weeks. (Credit: Jeffrey Steele)

Ocean Breeze Elementary School in Indian Harbour Beach implemented its own mask mandate in September in defiance of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ efforts to ban schools from requiring children to wear masks.

CDC BOSS WALENSKY SAYS SCHOOLS SHOULD KEEP MASK MANDATES EVEN IF KIDS ARE VACCINATED

“The student was given a medical mask exemption as soon as the mother made the request to school leadership,” Brevard Public Schools Chief Strategic Communications Officer Russell Bruhn said in a statement. “The school district is investigating and is in the process of gathering all the facts. BPS strives to ensure each student has the best educational experience possible and will continue in that effort.”

Steele went to the school on Oct. 12 with the service officer assigned to the school to demand answers. He waited several days to voice his concerns because he needed to “take some time” to collect himself, he said. It was at that meeting that school personnel allegedly admitted to Steele that they had been tying Sofia’s mask to her face or holding it in place with hair clips for about six weeks without her parents’ consent.

FLORIDA’S NEW SURGEON GENERAL: DATA DOES NOT SUPPORT MASK MANDATES IN SCHOOL

The father noted that Sofia had never come home with a mask on prior to Oct. 7, so he speculates that school personnel had been taking it off before sending her home on the bus.

“I was just flabbergasted,” Steele said.

Ocean Breeze Elementary School (Google Maps)

The school had previously informed Sofia’s parents that she had been removing her shoes at school. Steele and his wife contacted Ocean Breeze around that time because they “saw big behavior changes in Sofia at home.”

“We wanted to work with the school — we were working with her IEP — because we were getting notes all the time about Sofia’s behavior at school,” Steele said. “This was concerning to us because we were seeing the same sort of negative behavior at home, and we told them that. We still did not know there was a mask on her face at this time.”

LOUDOUN COUNTY EMAIL REVEALS SUPERINTENDENT NOTIFIED SCHOOL BOARD ON DAY OF ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULT

Steele has hired an attorney and is pulling his daughter out of Ocean Breeze.

“We don’t want her to be a spectacle,” the father said. Sofia’s parents have also set up a fundraiser for their daughter on GiveSendGo called “Sofia’s rights.”

DeSantis and Republican Florida Rep. Randy Fine highlighted Sofia’s story on Wednesday, and Fine is considering introducing legislation during a special session that would increase penalties for people who force children to wear masks without their parents’ consent.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“This is already criminal. I…plan to introduce legislation to increase the penalty,” Fine told Fox News. “…We’re going to be having a special session in Tallahassee, and I expect that we’ll pass a law in Sofia’s honor that puts people like Brevard Heart school board members who did this to Sofia in prison for a very long time.”

Fine added that he was “sick” when he heard Steele’s story about his daughter.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-educators-tied-mask-student-face

Not long before the pandemic, the Irish state television, RTE, contacted me to ask whether I was prepared to speak about a different kind of epidemic, that of gender dysphoria and sex-change. I was reluctant to do so because the subject, though undoubtedly socially important and very topical, was not one that interested me particularly. In fact, I tended to avert my mind from it.

The people from the RTE persuaded me that it was my public duty to appear on the programme that they were making. They had found many professors of paediatrics, medicine, psychiatry, and psychology who did not think that the Trans Movement was a force for good, to put it mildly, but none was willing to speak out in public against it. They did not want to ruin their own careers or be the object of mass obloquy: the thirst for martyrdom is not common.

I recognized that my reluctance was tinged with fear (and therefore also with cowardice). It was with trepidation that I agreed, and I was reasonably circumspect in what I said in front of the camera.

If you wanted to understand the sudden increase in the phenomenon, I said, you were better off studying the history of fashion—Chanel, say, or Balenciaga—than anything else.

There were fashions in psychiatric conditions that come and go. Hysterical paralyses of limbs were once very common but are now rare (though they still did occur).

In the 1990s, multiple personalities were fashionable, so much so that the fifth edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual” of the American Psychiatric Association quoted a survey suggesting that multiple personality affected up to 1.5 per cent of the population—a figure I found intrinsically absurd. As the Duke of Wellington said to the man who approached him and said “Mr Jones, I believe?”, “If you can believe that you can believe anything.”

The point is that patterns of behavior to which psychiatric labels are fixed wax and wane over time. I expected that the present craze would eventually evaporate—though it would probably be replaced by another.

I have no idea whether or not my contribution was used (I have sometimes given lengthy interviews only to find that they were not broadcast, or cut to ten seconds), but the most important or significant question about the whole episode, however, was not whether I was right or wrong in my characterization and prognosis of the Trans Movement, but the state of fear that the RTE people had described, which led to them scraping the barrel to find someone, in this case me, to say something even mildly critical of the movement. What they described, in effect, was the development of a totalitarian atmosphere in intellectual life.

Of course, we should not exaggerate. We do not yet fear the midnight knock on the door, and no one (as far as I know) has been killed for expressing unorthodox ideas on this subject.

People nevertheless fear for their careers and even their livelihoods. Followers of movements like the Trans Movement have no hesitation in calling for the dismissal of people who attract their wrath by disagreeing publicly with them. So-called transphobia is not irrational fear of people who want to change their sex, but fear of retribution by the movement that makes such people their cause (who may not be the same people).

Trans-sexualism is not the only subject on which it is now dangerous for one’s career or livelihood to express ideas that dissent from the current “progressive” moral orthodoxy. This explains the view of the journalist, Douglas Murray, that only those with no institutional affiliation, private or public, who are able independently to earn their livings, can now speak their minds on many subjects.

There are several asymmetrical wars currently going on in the intellectual sphere. On the one side are guerrilla monomaniacs with a cause, for whom the subject of their monomania is all-important, and the promotion of which is the meaning of their lives; on the other, normal people for whom that particular subject is merely one thing among many others.

In this situation, the monomaniacs have the advantage of fanaticism. Like Batista’s army in Cuba, normal people melt away in the face of fanatical attack, because they do not care enough, or are not prescient enough, to defend their position—though they may later come to regret not having done so.

What is particularly alarming about the totalitarian temper that is developing in western society is that it does not originate from the government but is a genuine expression of the thirst for power of a portion of the population, that part of it—the intelligentsia—that seemingly would have most to lose if the drive to totalitarianism were successful.

Individuals may have discovered to their cost that even merely intellectual revolutions tend to devour their young, today’s radicals often becoming tomorrow’s reactionaries hated in the eyes of a new generation of radicals that is ever on the lookout for new worlds to destroy, but young radicals never think that they will grow old: they always think that theirs is the last word in truth and justice.

Tolerance—a word that in the mouth of such radicals comes to mean the forced or coerced approval of what was formerly transgressive—is not natural to mankind. It is far more natural to want to suppress what one finds disgusting or does not want to hear. Our instinct is to turn away from views that are not our own, from evidence that might undermine our most cherished opinions, and even to dislike those who cite such evidence.

In other words, tolerance is an intellectual and moral achievement, an act of self-control rather than the expression of an instinct. No doubt some people by temperament find such self-control easier than others (I don’t find it easy myself), but there is a dictator lurking in many, perhaps most, of us, at least in those of us who take an interest in public affairs.

Suffice it to say that we are not living in a golden age of the kind of self-control necessary for a tolerant society in which diversity of opinion is taken in good spirit. And the so-called social media, which allow us to pour out our bile incontinently the moment we feel the inclination to do so, only compounds the problem.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-trans-movement-and-the-dictator-lurking-within-us_4065936.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

When we were kids, our parents had to watch out to make sure we weren’t exposed to filth on television. Now, apparently, television has to ensure our parents aren’t exposed to the filth their kids are seeing in school.

That’s at least the situation in Virginia — ground zero for educational unpleasantness at the moment, where progressive educators are aghast that parents apparently think they have some say in what their kids are exposed to at school, no matter how objectionable or dissipated it might be.

The educators have an ally in Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate this year and a former governor of the Old Dominion. During his time as governor, McAuliffe vetoed a bill that would have allowed parents to remove sexually explicit books from Virginia schools.

During the final gubernatorial debate last month with Republican Glenn Youngkin, McAuliffe vigorously defended his policies on education.

“I’m not gonna let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions,” McAuliffe told Youngkin. “I stopped the bill that I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Terry McAuliffe: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” pic.twitter.com/rs6pSWZw79

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) October 19, 2021

Most of the coverage regarding McAuliffe’s remark during the debate centered on the battles surrounding curricula that include elements of critical race theory, a controversial far-left school of thought that argues both the United States and Western civilization were founded on systemic racism.

That’s a rabbit hole for another day, but there’s a creepier side to McAuliffe’s remark, given another front in Virginia’s education battles: Pornographic materials that are either part of the curriculum or available to children.

Do parents deserve a greater voice in their kids’ education?

Take the book “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe. As a recent ad from conservative group Independent Women’s Voice noted, the material in the book is so graphic that “TV rules say adults can’t see this, but VA schools think it’s fine for kids.”

The scene from the graphic novel shows a character, who is apparently a girl who identifies as a boy,  in a library exchanging sexual texts with someone. The text had to be redacted and the images blurred because even TV — home to “The Jerry Springer Show,” “Jersey Shore,” “The Real Housewives of [Insert City Here]” and “My Mother the Car” — still has some standards.  An unexpurgated version of the ad is available IWV website — and, if you must know, the conversation revolves around a sex toy and several sex acts.

“This is the most turned on I’ve been in my life. I am DYING,” the girl says.

On the next page, one of the aforementioned sex acts is demonstrated — and needed to be blurred out, natch. Apparently, the girl doesn’t like it, saying that it “was MUCH HOTTER when it was only in my imagination.”

“Let’s try something else,” she says, to which her lover says, “Of course.”

Not Just Virginia: Poll Delivers Devastating News to Blue State Dem Governor

This is all deliberately vague because, well, you’re not reading Teen Vogue. The ad — including the uncensored version — can be seen here. Be forewarned: You’ll likely wish this all remained vague.

However, it’s important because, when he was governor, McAuliffe vetoed a 2016 bill that would have allowed parents to block their children from accessing or being taught sexually explicit material.

“McAuliffe (D) said a state law is ‘unnecessary’ because the Virginia Board of Education is considering changing state policy to accommodate parents’ concerns,” The Washington Post reported at the time.

“School boards are best positioned to ensure that our students are exposed to those appropriate literary and artistic works that will expand students’ horizons and enrich their learning experiences,” McAuliffe said at the time.

This includes “Gender Queer,” which was one of two books a Virginia mom was able to check out of her kids’ high school in Fairfax, Virginia. She went viral after she confronted the school board about the availability of the material.

“Both of these books include pedophilia,” Stacy Langton told the board, according to a Fox News from Sept. 24. “Sex between men and boys … One book describes a fourth-grade boy performing oral sex on an adult male. The other book has detailed illustrations of a man having sex with a boy.”

When she began reading from the books, one of the school board members interrupted her with this immortal line: “There are children in the audience here.” I’d recommend laughing at the irony as opposed to crying over the rank depravity, if only because the latter is unbecoming.

WARNING: The following video contains graphic language that some viewers will find offensive.

So apparently, that “changing state policy to accommodate parents’ concerns” part turned out swimmingly in the intervening five years.

And now, the Democrats are looking to elect a man who says, “I’m not gonna let parents come into schools and actually take books out and make their own decisions.” This, presumably, includes “Gender Queer.”

This is why it would behoove parents to elect candidates who allow them to make the decision to take porn out of their child’s library.

According to the FCC, “Federal law prohibits obscene, indecent and profane content from being broadcast on the radio or TV.” The FCC acknowledges that what constitutes “obscene,” “indecent” or “profane” is subjective, but even in 2021, there are few sane adults who would argue that the scene depicted in the Kobabe work doesn’t fill the bill — and then some.

If they can’t show it on TV, schools shouldn’t be showing it to kids, either.

If your child is enrolled in a public school, you might want to check what books he or she is reading.

These days, you can never be sure what kind of content might be available at public schools.

For instance, one pornographic book — “Gender Queer: A Memoir” — continues to pop up in school libraries all over the country.

Written by cartoonist Maia Kobabe, the book contains cartoon-style pornographic images, including those depicting minors engaging in sex acts.

It appears that we now know who was responsible for the book’s wide dissemination.

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Two prominent national school library organizations have promoted the book as essential reading material for minors.

It is likely that school libraries across the country are purchasing the book based on these recommendations.

The first organization, the School Library Journal, is the self-described “premiere publication for librarians and information specialists who work with children and teens.”

The Journal describes “Gender Queer” as a memory that “will resonate with teens.”

Should public schools promote transgender ideology?

“It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand,” the organization’s review reads.

The second organization to promote “Gender Queer” is the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

YALSA went as far as giving “Gender Queer” the “Alex Award,” an honor given to books that have “special appeal to young adults ages 12 through 18.”

“Kobabe’s path to understanding eir gender and sexuality comes into beautiful focus in this graphic memoir, expressively illustrated with retro colors and simple lines. Readers will recognize a kindred spirit in Kobabe and/or gain insight into what it’s like to identify outside of the cisgender/heterosexual ‘norm,’” YALSA said in its review.

One of the first reports of “Gender Queer” appearing in schools dates back to Sept. 23.

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During a school board meeting held that day in Fairfax County, Virginia, a mother — Stacy Langton — brought printouts of the book’s pornographic contents and read portions of the book out loud, shocking many of those present.

The Fairfax school board chair, Stella Pekarsky, defended the district’s inclusion of the book, saying it was only available to “high school students.”

Weeks later, another mother — Nicole Solas — found the book at Rhode Island’s North Kingstown High School.

On Oct. 2, Solas tweeted out a picture of the book showcased at the school’s library, along with pictures of its pornographic contents.

In a subsequent tweet, Solas added that she would be submitting the pictures to law enforcement officials.

Schools in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina have also reportedly included the pornographic book in their student libraries.

North Carolina Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson spoke out against the book on Oct. 9.

“There’s no reason anybody, anywhere in America should be telling children about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. Yes, I called it filth,” he said.

“As you look at these photos, I challenge you to describe them as anything other than filth.”

There are two ways to be subjected to the preposterous awkwardness of elementary sex education: sitting through it and then sitting through the school meetings at which it’s discussed.

I’ve managed to experience both. Between fifth and 12th grades, I wasted hours of my life watching laughable videos on human sexuality and listening to teachers preach the gospel of permissiveness: As long as it was consensual and legal, it was OK and you were perfectly fine. Seriously. Don’t judge and don’t consider yourself judged, either by your parents or by any higher power. You’re doing great, really.

Then, for a brief period in high school, I attended some of the meetings where this curriculum was discussed. Parents, you may not be surprised to learn, weren’t thrilled about this. On perhaps the most sensitive topic a parent has to deal with, liberal value judgments were being imparted by educators who decided they got to act in the place of parents because kids might not otherwise get this message at home. This being the pre-YouTube days, things didn’t get performatively shouty, but the mood was tense — for good reason.

Those were different times, though, and the permissiveness being discussed — the mechanics of the coital act, how to get birth control, homosexuality — seems positively quaint nowadays, at least by the standards of the school that podcaster and former Fox News host Megyn Kelly sends her kids to. There, 8-year-old boys get to discuss taking puberty blockers, getting castrated and becoming women.

On Wednesday’s show, Kelly had middle school teacher Ramona Bessinger on. The Providence, Rhode Island, teacher was suspended earlier this month over an alleged lapse in safety protocol on her part, according to Legal Insurrection.

However, given the fact Bessinger has been an ardent critic of critical race theory and other left-wing pedagogy in Providence’s curriculum, this seemed like little more than a flimsy pretext to remove a fly in the ointment.

The Providence School District is calling me in Wednesday for my show-trial. “Pre-disciplinary hearing”. They do not like teachers that expose them. ⁦@Renny920⁩ ⁦@AInfanteGreen⁩ ⁦@Nicoletta0602⁩ ⁦@re_schools⁩ ⁦@CBHeresy⁩ pic.twitter.com/X88MXB2DPE

— Ramona Bessinger (@RamonaBessinger) October 11, 2021

During her interview with Kelly, Bessinger said Providence had gotten caught up in “this whole push to embrace any child who wants to be pansexual, transsexual, multisexual, who the heck knows?”

Do children need to be taught this in sex education programs?

“As a teacher, I’m not interested in talking to children about their sexual preference, especially at the age of 12,” Bessinger said, adding she felt the school was encouraging impressionable children to take on identities they wouldn’t otherwise consider.

“Developmentally, middle school children want to fit in — more so than probably elementary or secondary” school children, Bessinger said.

“And so they’re preying on that psychological phase that kids go through. They want to fit in, and if they feel it’s going to please an adult, they may even pick a pronoun so that that adult applauds them.”

If you think things are bad in Providence, though, wait until you hear what’s apparently happening in Kelly’s kids’ school — which she said “was one of the top all-boys schools … one of the top schools in the country” and which she chose “because it was … more traditional, it wasn’t this far left.”

Kelly said her third-graders were subjected to an “experimental transgender education program,” which they found out about after she and her husband “went to parent-teacher night.”

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“And we were sitting there, and one of our fellow parents — a man — raised his hand and said, ‘Why did my son come home’ — these are third-graders, 8- and 9-year-olds — ‘my son come home and ask if it’s true that he can take a pill to prevent puberty, and then, when he turns 18, can have his penis chopped off if he wants to become a woman?’”

“We were all like, ‘What? Say what?’” Kelly said.

“Trust me, we were angry, and the teacher acknowledged it. She didn’t deny it. She said, ‘Because we take the conversation where the boys want to take it’ — and of course, we were like, that’s bull, no 8-year-old was asking that question.”

Kelly added that discussing these topics with children just hopelessly confuses them — and she’s right. Are we to be shocked, though? That’s not a bug in the system. It’s a feature.

We live in the era of Drag Queen Story Time. In Washington state, an elementary school featured a book for LGBT pride month this year in which an underage character who received “top surgery” — the removal of breast tissue from women who identify as men to appear more masculine — appeared on the cover.

And if your public school district doesn’t play along, expect to pay. In a back-to-school message in August, the Biden administration’s Kristen Clarke, the Department of Justice’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, told transgender students they could file a lawsuit if their school was (among other things) stopping them from “receiving the supportive and life-saving care you may need.”

Talking to 8-year-olds about castration is supposedly part of the new awkwardness students and parents have to navigate, all thanks to educators with an agenda who think their values are better than yours — and want to make a mark on impressionable children. If you don’t believe the slippery slope is real, wake up.

Another “creepy Joe” moment was caught on camera.

The latest incident happened at Brookland Middle School.

While Jill Biden was speaking, Joe Biden appeared to be wandering around,

He then suddenly started following a young black male student.

Then Biden put his hands on the boy’s shoulder’s.

It almost appeared as though Biden was massaging the minor.

Some people online said it looked like “groping.”

Then Biden suddenly wandered off.

Was this another creepy Joe moment?

Watch the video below and decide for yourself!

Creepily follows the kid, gropes him, then wanders off. pic.twitter.com/yMdwjXgO7N

— Red Walrus (@_RedWalrus_) September 12, 2021

Here are close-ups of the middle school student.

Many observers say that the young man looks uncomfortable as Joe Biden begins touching him.

This isn’t the first time that Biden has been caught touching minors.

You may have seen the recent story of young kids “tricking” Biden.

You see, there was an incident where several kids were wearing pro-Trump clothes and had their pictures taken with Biden.

Biden didn’t realize they were Trump supporters who were making fun of him.

Well…

One of the girls is clearly underage, and Biden is seen putting his hand around her waist and grabbing her tightly in the photo.

See below:

And of course, if there’s the famous incident of an 8 year old with Biden.

You can watch the full video on YouTube:

So…

That raises the question:

Was Biden simply being friendly with this young man?

Or was it another Creepy Joe incident?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!

The National School Boards Association (NSBA) has apologized to its members on Friday for a letter that was previously sent to the Biden administration in which the school board group compared parents accused of trying to intimidate educators to domestic terrorists.

In a memo issued to NSBA members, the board said that “on behalf of NSBA, we regret and apologize for the letter,” which was sent on Sept. 29, urging President Joe Biden to take action to stop what it described as “threats and acts of violence” against school boards, teachers, and others involved in the public education sphere.

“There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter,” the NSBA wrote. “We should have had a better process in place to allow for consultation on a communication of this significance. We apologize also for the strain and stress this situation has caused you and your organizations.”

It added that the NSBA deeply values “not only the work of local school boards that make important contributions within our communities, but also the voices of parents, who should and must continue to be heard when it comes to decisions about their children’s education, health, and safety.”

???????????? https://t.co/rJpvV086mo

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) October 23, 2021

The memo comes as school board organizations in at least 20 states distanced themselves from the NSBA, citing disagreement over the way it has characterized concerned parents. Some have quit or moved to leave the NSBA.

The NSBA’s initial controversial Sept. 29 letter (pdf) claimed that some clashes between school board members and parents over issues such as masking policies, the critical race theory, among others, should be equivalent to parents engaging in “a form of domestic terrorism.”

“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the organization wrote.

Emails (pdf) obtained by Parents Defending Education last week disclosed that the NSBA was in touch with the White House and others in the administration before the release of the letter.

“In talks over the last several weeks with White House staff, they requested additional information on some of the specific threats,” Chip Slaven, the NSBA’s interim executive director and CEO, wrote in an email to NSBA board members just hours after the letter was released to the public.

Most of the incidents the board included related to parents vigorously pushing back on controversial teachings or material and not incidents where any laws appeared to be broken.

Several incidents did ultimately lead to arrests at school board meetings, including a father in Loudoun County, Virginia, who was upset his daughter had been raped and school officials allegedly acted to cover it up.

Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum several days after the NSBA’s letter, ordering federal officials to crack down on parents accused of threatening violence or trying to intimidate educators.

Garland, testifying to Congress in Washington, said he learned about the letter by reading about it in the news and had not been told by the White House to issue the memo. He said he was certain the White House communicated its concerns about the letter to his department and that that would be “perfectly appropriate.”

On Oct. 21, Garland denied claims that the U.S. Justice Department would label parents as domestic terrorists, and parents who take issue with school board policies will not be investigated.

“The Justice Department supports and defends the First Amendment right of parents to complain as vociferously as they wish about the education of their children, about the curriculum taught in the schools,” Garland said, the New York Post reported. “That is not what the memorandum is about at all, nor does it use the words ‘domestic terrorism’ or ‘Patriot Act.’”

Jim Green, the executive director of Oregon’s School Boards Association, said in a statement on social media the board appreciates NSBA’s apology over the controversial letter that was issued to the Biden administration.

“We appreciate NSBA’s apology over some of the languages in the organization’s appeal for protecting the safety of school board members,” Green wrote. “That doesn’t mean the underlying issue—keeping volunteer school board members safe from threats and violence—isn’t important. It is.”

“But NSBA recognized that the wording it used alienated many parents, our vital partners in public schools. It’s my hope with this apology that the national organization can learn from the experience and move on.”

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

From NTD News

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/nsba-apologizes-to-members-over-letter-comparing-parents-to-domestic-terrorists_4064824.html?utm_source=News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-10-23-3&mktids=e434c7c98af422b7709077803a056f47&est=UBx0BOk31ULGzGC6ZH3bBwFUKqu4QOdqN%2FrhUbUx2APdGJQyD7qfGuYQNyCBp1X1PA%3D%3D

In the United States, a sharp rise in the number of children identifying as transgender has alarmed some parents. As these numbers rapidly grow, three mothers share the warning signs of transgender indoctrination.

The Child Transgender Numbers Explosion

A study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics released in May 2020 showed nearly 10 percent of high school students in just one school district identified as gender-diverse. That 10 percent figure is far higher than past estimates, such as a 2017 government survey of U.S. high school students, in which only 1.8 percent said they identified as transgender. While some studies suggest the higher rate of suicide and attempted suicide among transgender children is related to non-affirmation, other research shows that the higher rate of suicide and attempted suicide among adolescents with gender dysphoria is more related to their know history of other psychiatric diagnoses and self-reported emotional and behavioral problems. While the study called The Trevor Project—widely cited by those who push the affirmation-only approach to avoid self-harm—does show that a significant number of transgender youth admit the heavy use of drugs and alcohol, the study did not explore or provide any statistics regarding the preexistence of other psychiatric diagnoses or self-reported emotional and behavioral problems among the participants.

The Social/Mental Vulnerabilities 

While each of the three families in this story come from different backgrounds and live in different states, each of their newly self-identified transgender children have some things very much in common. They are all in the same age group, they are all socially awkward, and all have been diagnosed with some form of social or psychological disorder.

Vera Lindner of Los Angeles, California, told The Epoch Times “the trans bomb was dropped,” into her world a year ago when her daughter was 14 years old. Her daughter, now 15, had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and Attention Deficit Disorder. She suffers from depression, anxiety, insulin resistance, and obesity. Her daughter was also diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Dee, of Clover, South Carolina has a 17-year-old daughter who was indoctrinated at the age of 15. Her daughter has been diagnosed with pre-adoption trauma.

A concerned mom in Augusta, Georgia, who is a single parent, spoke to The Epoch Times under the condition of anonymity using the pseudonym Mary. She said her son made his transgender announcement in November 2020. While not formally diagnosed with any specific disorder, she “had him tested when he was younger for being on the [autism] spectrum and he fell in the gray zone.”

“They could not say yes or no,” Mary added. “He has always been a bit socially awkward and quirky.”

How it Began

Another commonality is the way each child was drawn down the transgender path. It all began with online connections who introduced them to the transgender world through various social media groups.

The trans-transformation of Vera’s daughter started when she began identifying as a lesbian and started watching a lot of YouTube videos like “What do lesbians look like?” and “Who is the ‘most lesbian’ from among this line-up?” Then came the “unrequited love for a butch-lesbian girl who was the first one to self-identify as a ‘trans-boy.’”

“This individual was the ring-leader, very aggressive,” Vera explained. “Also, very tech-savvy.” The “trans-boy” set up multiple Discord groups for the group her daughter had been introduced to, with channels such as “vent,” “general,” “art,” “LGBT” and specifically, “NSFW” where they were posting male nudes and pornography for each other to watch.

According to the Urban Dictionary, “NSFW” is “internet slang” for “Not Safe For Work” or “Not Safe For Wife” and is “used for a fandom of some sort when people want to discuss and share the sexual and porno side of the fandom.”

“At the same time,” Vera added, “they all got into TikTok and Instagram and started watching trans-related content—vile, stupid narcissistic young adults posting rotten material on these platforms.”

The subject matter of these posts centered around such things as, “you are trans if you…,” “you have been playing a role of a girl all along but you are not a girl,” and posed questions like “do you feel like a girl?”

For Dee’s daughter, everything started when “a friend who had decided she was trans a year before took her down the proverbial hole and taught her what to wear” and exposed her to lesbian pornography.

Through the social media platforms Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok, her daughter watched videos  about “trans-men” and “how to get testosterone.”

As with Vera’s and Dee’s daughters, Mary’s son spent hours on social media sites consuming hard-core, graphic pornography sent to him by his new, online trans peer group that evades parental controls by classifying the content “cartoons.”

The Drastic Transformation

By the time Vera’s daughter was in eighth grade she “was so hyper-fixated on LGBT that she was incapable of speaking about anything else besides LGBT” and she “cycled through orientations of lesbian, pan, queer, until finally she dropped the trans bomb shortly after turning 14.” Soon after, she “cut her hair, started wearing boys’ clothes, bought men’s underwear” and “demanded a binder.” She also wanted to get a “supplement from Amazon for increasing testosterone,” which she refused to purchase for her, and to see a “gender doctor,” which she refused to take her to.

Where Dee’s daughter had once been a “happy, seemingly well-adjusted and mature,” child who “excelled academically, she quickly became “disobedient, contentious, contemptuous and untruthful.”

Where she once appeared as a normal teen-aged girl, she now “presents as a boy wearing dark colors, hoodies, and occasionally wears a binder” and she has “Cut off her beautiful hair and tries to pass with a man bun.”

Mary said she was shocked at her son’s trans declaration as there was “no prior behavior that would indicate any of this.”

As with Vera’s daughter, Mary’s son became “obsessed with talking about trans issues.” She said “all talks revolved around it,” and “he demanded puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.”

Mary said the transformation of her son started after he “found friends who were also declaring non-binary and transgender status and they began providing him with “their old girl clothes.” He quickly went from “cautiously” wearing a skirt to “full-on cross-dressing” and he “became noticeably irritable and rude,” a characteristic she said was “extremely out of character” for her son. During one manic episode, she said her son began screaming at her to look at him to recognize that he is “a girl now.”

“It was very disturbing and frightening,” she said.

The Fight to Reclaim Their Children

Because her daughter was “going through a mental breakdown upon dropping the trans bomb,” Vera and her husband decided not to take away her electronic devices. To mitigate the destructive influence of social media, they did purge her accounts of all transgendered contacts. They also stopped sending their daughter to her therapist, who had started “casually talking about testosterone and encouraging transition.”

Her daughter’s PCOS is being managed with meds and she has a daily regimen of light exercise. She has started tenth grade in a charter school and is making new friends. Still, the therapy that has had the most positive impact on her daughter has been volunteering on family farms.

“She adores animals,” Vera said, “so we adopted two kittens in addition to the dog we brought with us. Being around animals and kind people has helped her rebuild her self-esteem. We also go for walks daily. Her depression is much better, definitely in remission. So is the eating disorder. Here, she is connecting with real humans and hearing their real-life stories.”

For Dee—because “there’s too much being shared at high school at lunch and during breaks”—parental monitoring of her social media accounts, a summer job, increased volunteer work to get her off social media, and new social circles has had only marginal improvements on her daughter’s behavior. But she isn’t giving up.

Fearful and overwhelmed by the sudden changes in her son, the decision was made by Mary to send her son to stay with his father. During those next three weeks, she began to dig into his online history and many changes have been made. Since her son’s return from his father’s home, she has taken away his electronic devices and has three layers of parental control on his phone. She uses Circle and Bark apps to monitor the phone’s screen-time and frequently checks with her internet provider for controls they provide. Despite her efforts, she said her son still manages to find “a lot of gender-bending in obscure corners of the internet.”

“His attitude is slightly better,” she said. “I have taken him to a new therapist that is not affirming. I am not sure how much that has helped so far though. The previous therapist was terrible and made things go from bad to violent with the blind affirmation model.

Their Greatest Fears

Vera fears that her daughter will be taken by Child Protective Services because she is “not affirming,” She also fears that her daughter will be influenced by her friends to take hormones or worse, to have irrevocable surgeries. “She has made tremendous progress in healing her mental illnesses and I don’t want her to slip back,” Vera said.

Dee also fears that her daughter will “medicalize and embark on a course of surgery that will cause irreparable damage to her body.”

“And I fear she will latch onto her ‘glitter’ family and become estranged from us,” she confessed.

Mary in Georgia also fears that her son “will begin medicalization when he turns 18” and that “he will ruin his body and his life in search for happiness that is promised to him” but “will only result in his ruination mentally and physically.”

“He will become a forever patient of the pharmaceutical and medical industry and dwindle his dating pool down to nothing and he will be alone,” she grieved.

Who’s to Blame?

Although a self-described “lifelong” liberal Democrat, Vera blames former President Barack Obama “who got bought with the millionaire transvestites’ money” and the liberals “who parrot trans slogans” and “allowed this ideology to infiltrate so deeply the American society and families.”

She blames the “friends who dragged” her daughter into the trans world, and the school lockdowns that left home-bound, isolated children “hanging on their phones all day long to be immersed into this cult.”

“And I blame myself,” she confessed, “for not doing deep reading on this whole trans-thing years ago. I immersed myself only after she dropped on us the trans-bomb, unexpectedly.”

Dee also blames “the friend who dragged” her daughter into this, “and social media, which uses algorithms to shove the trans-agenda into her online world.” She also blames her daughter’s three therapists, “all of whom affirmed her and treated her like a special unicorn.”

Primarily, Mary blames the tech industry.

“They know the danger this technology poses to our mental health and the influence it has especially on young vulnerable people,” she said. “I blame them for not having stronger walls against pornography when kids can easily click an ‘over 18’ button.”

She also blames the pharmaceutical and medical industry who “blindly affirm this and push drugs and surgeries on kids” and therapists who use suicide statistics to pressure them into affirming their child’s irrational decisions yet give no thought to the idea that the child may deeply regret those choices and “take their life after the transition.”

New Paths Require Wise Feet

“To all despondent parents who just got blindsided by this,” two mothers offer some advice.

Vera: “Read as much literature as possible, both affirmative and also trans-critical. Be familiar with the propaganda and lies so you can rebuff them. Nothing substitutes for knowledge and information.”

Mary: “Cut off electronics/online activity, be vigilant about parental controls and monitoring. Be cautious and not confrontational and keep communication lines open and encourage critical thinking.  Give them as much love as possible but also be firm as the parent. Get them outdoors and back in nature and into the world like through volunteering, extracurricular activities, if they’re old enough getting a job.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/parents-warn-of-their-children-being-subjected-to-transgender-indoctrination_4055029.html?utm_source=News&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-10-23-3&mktids=e434c7c98af422b7709077803a056f47&est=dqfEsyY6Ou52zv1D2KXyHsDCd42jJ9ZMBz%2BGy%2FSy3hYY%2FYGSswoNrXhs1Pk4lGBd%2Fg%3D%3D

Law excusing school officials from reporting crimes becomes political liability ahead of elections

A law passed by Virginia Democrats last year that exempts public school officials from reporting certain sexual crimes to the police has become a political liability ahead of November’s statewide elections.

In the wake of two high-profile sexual assault cases in Loudoun County Public Schools, one concerning an alleged rape in a high school bathroom, Republican candidates are hammering Democratic incumbents, including Gov. Ralph Northam, for passing and signing House Bill 257. The law excuses school officials from reporting instances of sexual battery and other violent offenses that do not meet the threshold of a felony to the police.

Republican Nick Clemente is running to unseat Democratic state delegate Wendy Gooditis, who cast the tie-breaking vote on House Bill 257. Clemente called Gooditis’s vote “reckless” and said he hoped voters will hold Democrats responsible for fostering an unsafe school environment.

“While the attacks that occurred in Loudoun County Public Schools were felonies that still required reporting, Gooditis’s reckless vote sent a message to victims that their being groped, molested, or abused isn’t as important as it was a couple years ago and tells potential predators that consequences have diminished,” Clemente told the Washington Free Beacon. “They are trying to deny, deflect, and hide from this dangerous bill, but voters are intelligent and will hold them accountable.”

Education-related issues, from pandemic school closures to progressive racial and gender ideology in the classroom, became a top priority for candidates this election cycle. The rape and assault cases in Loudoun County further ignited Republican candidates just weeks before the November elections, where they hope to take back control of the Virginia General Assembly and governorship.

Mike Mullin, the bill’s sponsor, and six of his Democratic colleagues who cosponsored the bill did not respond to requests for comment regarding the law and the cases in Loudoun County schools.

Jordan Gray, a Republican who’s running against Mullin, called on the delegate to resign in a statement on Oct. 20.

“As a teacher, I’m shocked and horrified by the news coming from the Loudoun County school system. This form of abuse must not go unchecked, which is why I am calling on Delegate Mullin’s resignation for his sponsorship of H.B. 257,” Gray said. “He must answer for his failures and resign immediately.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin called for an investigation into the Loudoun County school board. At a rally on Tuesday, Youngkin also blamed Virginia’s Democratic attorney general Mark Herring for failing to launch his own investigation into the district.

House Bill 257 was thrown back into the spotlight after the Daily Wire broke the story on the Loudoun County assaults on Oct. 11. The Daily Wire initially reported that officials at Stone Bridge High School, where the first victim was allegedly raped, called police not to investigate the allegations but to handle the alleged victim’s father, who made a scene at the school.

Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office records reported by Jesse Singal, however, revealed that the police were initially dispatched to investigate the assault. Those reports align with district superintendent Scott Ziegler’s email to school board members on the day of the assault, which noted that the school called for additional officers after the victim’s father “caused a disruption by using threatening and profane language.”

The father was arrested during a school board meeting in June after speaking out against the district’s transgender bathroom policies. Those policies were approved in August.

The boy accused of rape was arrested in July, according to NBC 4 Washington, but was released while investigators processed a DNA rape kit. He was transferred to Broad Run High School, where he allegedly sexually assaulted another student in a classroom. In a statement to the Free Beacon, Loudoun County school officials said they would not comment further on the case.

https://freebeacon.com/elections/virginia-dems-lax-school-crime-bill-under-fire-amid-rape-scandal/

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio did not allow House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler’s claim to go unchallenged that the Justice Department became a lawless, political agency due to former President Donald Trump, asking, “Are you kidding me?”

“For four years, the democratic institutions that you have sworn to protect, first as a judge, now as attorney general, were deeply undermined by the former president and his political enablers,” Nadler told Attorney General Merrick Garland prior to the top federal law enforcement officer’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

“During that time, the Trump administration leveraged the department to protect the president and his friends and to punish his enemies, both real and imagined,” the New York Democrat said.

Nadler accused Trump of summoning the nation’s law enforcement officers following November’s election and demanding “they use the full power of the federal government to install him for another term.”

The Democrat told Garland his task is “unenviable … because you must build back everything [the Department of Justice] lost under the last administration. Its self-confidence, its reputation in the eyes of the American people and an institutional respect for our Constitution and the rule of law.”

Former NYPD Chief Calls Big Brian Laundrie Development ‘Very Strange,’ Suggests ‘Something Is Amiss’

Jordan, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, responded to Nadler’s opening statement by saying, “The chairman just said the Trump DOJ was political and went after their opponents. Are you kidding me?”

First, the congressman argued that Garland is overseeing a politically driven DOJ, pointing to a memorandum the attorney general put out earlier this month regarding “threats” against school officials from parents who are concerned about what their children are being taught.

“Three weeks ago the National School Board Administration writes President Biden asking him to involve the FBI in local school board matters,” Jordan said. “Five days later, the attorney general of the United States does just that. Does exactly what a political organization asked to be done.”

Do you think the DOJ is political under Biden?

Jordan contrasted that rapid movement by the attorney general with the slow response to 13 letters he and his congressional colleagues have sent to the DOJ, for which they sometimes wait weeks or months.

“Eight of the letters, we’ve got nothing,” the congressman said. “They just gave us the finger and said, ‘We’re not going to get back to you.’”

But what Jordan called a “snitch line” to report unruly parents was set up “five days after a left-wing political organization asked for it.”

“Think about this, the same FBI that Mr. Garland is directing to open dedicated lines of communication for reporting on parents just a few years ago spied on four American citizens associated with President Trump’s campaign,” the representative said.

Americans have had enough. pic.twitter.com/SFlYQFiFOR

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) October 21, 2021

Top House Republicans Demand Nadler Take This Action on Biden Border Crisis ‘Immediately’

“The Clinton campaign hired Perkins Coie, who hired Fusion GPS, who hired Christophe Steele who put a bunch of garbage together, gave it to the FBI. They used that as the basis to open up an investigation into a presidential campaign,” Jordan continued.

He further noted that a federal grand jury last month indicted Michael A. Sussmann, an attorney who worked at Perkins Coie, for allegedly passing false information to then-FBI general counsel Jim Baker alleging covert communications between the Trump campaign and Russians.

Jordan also pointed out, “A few weeks ago, the [inspector general] at the Department of Justice released a report that found that the FBI made over 200 errors, omissions and lies in just 29 randomly selected FISA applications.”

Last month, USA Today reported that the IG “faulted the FBI for ‘widespread’ errors in its applications for surveillance authority, concluding that the bureau failed to provide supporting documentation for sensitive wiretap requests.”

“Building on a 2019 examination of the FBI’s surveillance of a former Trump aide [Carter Page], Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that the bureau did not include adequate support for 183 surveillance applications between 2015 and 2020 following a review of more than 7,000 such requests,” it said.

Multiple FBI and DOJ officials prominently discussed in text messages of those serving in the FBI’s Russia probe of the Trump campaign have been forced out or left the agencies, Politico reported.

Those include former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired; former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe; Comey’s chief of staff, James Rybicki; Baker; FBI agent Peter Strzok; FBI lawyer Lisa Page; and Bruce Ohr, who was associate deputy attorney general.

Bringing his remarks back to the present, Jordan contended that citizens’ constitutional rights have been under assault by the government and that “Americans are afraid.”

“They tell me for the first time, they fear their government,” he said. “And frankly I think it’s obvious why. Every single liberty we enjoy under the First Amendment has been assaulted over the last year.”

However, Jordan argued Garland’s memo was a turning point.

“I don’t think the good people of this great country are going to cower and hide. I think your memo, Mr. Attorney General, was the last straw,” he said. “I think it was the catalyst for a great awakening that is just getting started.”

Jordan concluded, “Americans are pushing back because Americans value freedom.”

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a curriculum that incorporates critical race theory’s (CRT) ideas should not be taught to schoolchildren, because it sends the wrong message to young children—that one race is less than the other.

“But if I could take a moment to talk about the whole issue of critical race theory and what is and is not being taught,” Rice said during an interview on “The View” Wednesday. “One of the worries that I have about the way that we’re talking about race is that it either seems so big that somehow white people now have to feel guilty for everything that happened in the past—I don’t think that’s very productive—or black people have to feel disempowered by race.”

One of “The View” hosts, Sunny Hostin, countered Rice’s comment by saying that those who oppose CRT don’t want real history being taught in schools.

“People want to hide history … that is exactly what we are seeing is this rollback of history. Parents don’t want children to hear about the real history,” said Hostin.

Opponents of CRT say they want all of the history of the United States taught including the history of slavery and segregation, but they do not want the divisive concepts like systemic racism, white supremacy, and sexually explicit education being taught to their children.

Those who are opposed to CRT also say the teaching materials being used in schools are rooted in the Marxist theory of class struggle, but with a particular focus on race. Proponents of CRT see racism in every aspect of the American public and private life and seek to dismantle American institutions—such as the Constitution and legal system—which they claim to be inherently and irredeemably racist.

While schools have for years been quietly infusing CRT into their curriculums, it wasn’t until last year, when lockdowns were enacted in response to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, that parents were able to see what their children were being taught. Since then, parents have been increasingly stepping forward to oppose CRT due to its racially divisive and anti-American concepts.

In the last year, parents across the nation have been voicing their opposition to this type of curriculum during school board meetings. Rice also stressed that parents should have a say in what is taught to their children.

“Parents ought to be involved in their children’s education. Their children are in school seven hours, that’s a very formative period. … they’re actually homeschooling them in increasing numbers, and I think that’s a signal,” said Rice.

Professor Rice said that she lived through the injustices of the segregated South but her parents taught her that she could overcome her circumstances and that she was not a victim.

“I couldn’t go to a movie theater or to a restaurant with my parents. I went to segregated schools, but we moved to Denver. My parents never thought I was going to grow up in a world without prejudice, but they also told me, ‘that’s somebody else’s problem, not yours.’ You’re going to overcome it, and you are going to be anything you want to be, and that’s the message that I think we ought to be sending the kids,” said Rice.

She said the way race is being taught in schools disempowers black children and vilifies white children.

Asra Nomani of Virginia, the VP of strategy and investigation with Parents Defending Education gave examples of how CRT vilifies white students. She cited a book called “Not My Idea” during a recent interview with NTD TV’s “The Nation Speaks.”

“This is a book that has been read to children in elementary schools from Philadelphia to Texas. And one of the really critical ideas here is this one, that whiteness is a bad idea, and the picture then is of the devil, and what has happened then is that white people have signed a contract with the devil that ends up with stolen land, stolen riches, and special favors.” Nomani said.

Rice said she is opposed to teaching children that white students are bad, as Nomani pointed out.

“I would like black kids to be completely empowered to know that they are beautiful in their blackness, but in order to do that, I don’t have to make white kids feel bad for being white. So somehow, this is a conversation that has gone in the wrong direction,” said Rice. “It goes back to how we teach the history. We teach the good and we teach the bad of history. But what we don’t do is make seven- and ten-year-olds feel that they are somehow bad people because of the color of their skin. We’ve been through that and we don’t need to do that again.”

Rice was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up while the South was racially segregated. She was the first female black secretary of state and the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor

https://www.theepochtimes.com/condoleezza-rice-denounces-critical-race-theory-curriculums-being-taught-in-schools_4061703.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Parents opposed to critical race theory-based indoctrination in public schools should be treated as adversaries, teachers in Washington State have been told by their labor union.

Critical race theory (CRT) holds, among other things, that white people are inherently racist and calls for engaging in racial discrimination in the name of combating it. Leftists claim CRT promotes racial equality by highlighting the harm they claim white people have done to society.

An Oct. 19 report by the Olympia, Washington-based Freedom Foundation states the largest union in the Evergreen State, the Washington Education Association (WEA), representing 100,000 teachers and support staff in Washington’s K-12 system, is “one of the biggest forces for transforming taxpayer-funded government schools into indoctrination and recruitment centers for leftist activism.”

WEA is affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA), the largest U.S. teachers’ union with a membership of 3 million. The Freedom Foundation previously documented how NEA, which claims structural racism is part and parcel of the American experience, and favors radical causes such as defunding the police and reparations for descendants of slaves, strongly supports CRT “as a way to advance a far-left political agenda under the guise of fighting racism.”

The new report, by Maxford Nelsen, the Freedom Foundation’s director of labor policy, finds that WEA is just as steeped in the neo-Marxist CRT ideology as the NEA is.

The WEA “just completely bought into and is advocating for this toxic ideology of critical race theory in our public schools,” Nelsen told The Epoch Times in an interview.

CRT itself, “in its purest form, is absolutely antithetical to American ideals,” he said.

Critical race theory teaches that “we are all defined by our racial identity, and that that dominates all other aspects of our lives,” Nelsen said. “And so based on your racial identity, you are either an oppressor or you are being oppressed.”

Unions like WEA and NEA are “essentially seeking to turn back the clock and return us to the dark days, where people are, are defined by race. And it’s all in the service of advancing their Marxist worldview and progressive agenda.”

To beat back CRT, the public, families, and taxpayers “need to realize that one of the main driving forces for this toxic ideology is the teachers’ unions. And their ability to push back against parent advocacy stems from the level of control that too many states have granted them over the public education system. That is absolutely an issue that needs to be addressed and reformed.”

Moreover, teachers’ unions play a “fundamental role” in the “intransigence of school boards. They’re the puppet masters behind the scenes,” Nelsen said.

Much of the time “there is no daylight between school boards and unions, because the board has often been captured, and is dominated by either former union officials or current union officials, or at the very least people who have been elected with union backing, and are not willing to cross the union’s interests, because they’re on the same page ideologically.”

Nelsen’s report states that in August, WEA published a guidebook for members titled, “Teaching Truth: Tips for Teachers in a Tumultuous Time.” WEA makes it clear in the booklet that teachers know what is best for students and that concerned parents should be viewed as ideological opponents to be resisted and not taken seriously.

One of the more notable instances cited in the report of a Washington State teacher being dismissive of parents came in January when Scott Wilson, former president of the Pasco Association of Educators, spurred parent outrage when he criticized a school district’s plan to begin re-opening schools.

Wilson said opening schools was “supporting white privilege” and that parents supporting in-person schooling out of concern for their socially isolated children was “ignorant and another expression of white privilege.”

“Recent broad-ranging attacks on how we teach and what we teach has created confusion about how we can safely continue teaching accurate and updated curricula,” the union document continues advising WEA members.

At the same time, teachers are reassured that they are “protected” and “cannot be disciplined” for teaching officially “prescribed curricula,” which they have “broad leeway” to carry out, “whether that’s by choosing which books to read or by selecting which units on which to spend more or less time.” The only limit the union acknowledges is that “educators should not teach curricula that are explicitly prohibited by their administration.”

If a school district has banned the teaching of CRT, WEA members are advised to engage in spin, stressing that critical race theory is only “taught in universities and law schools,” while K-12 educators merely “teach age-appropriate lessons that help our students understand and communicate across differences and portray a holistic and accurate picture of our nation’s history.”

David Randall, research director for the National Association of Scholars, said the WEA has it all wrong.

The union “misunderstands the point at issue,” he told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

“What must be barred, above all, is the application of Critical Race Theory in the classroom–which is immoral and prohibited racist behavior. Parents have the right to prevent politicized teaching–and even more to prevent politicized (racist) behavior. Teachers, of course, should treat parents as their friends and their employers, and defer to their principled judgment in all matters of public concern.”

Meanwhile, Nelsen suggested in the interview that banning instruction in CRT, an ideology that is hard to describe with legal precision, is easier said than done.

Several states are considering legislation that attempts to ban CRT in public schools, but it’s “fundamentally difficult, though, to try and craft a legislative response … that would truly ensure that the teaching of these concepts as truths does not take place.”

“Just saying the words, ‘we banned critical race theory in the school district or the state,’ I don’t think are sufficient to prevent the concepts and the curriculum from making its way into classrooms,” he said.

Besides, the WEA doesn’t care what parents think, Nelsen said in the interview.

The union “adopted an adversarial posture towards parents and families,” he said, and “apparently has taken upon itself to twist the public education system into an indoctrination process to inculcate in these students the types of values that WEA thinks are important—families be damned.”

The Freedom Foundation report states WEA advises members they “do not singlehandedly need to justify or defend the curricula” and “do not have to reply” to parental emails “asking questions about what exactly we are teaching regarding equity, anti-racism, LGBTQ inclusion, sexual health education, and more.”

WEA won’t even admit that parents have sincere concerns about what their children are being taught, dismissing them as tools of “corporate interests” who seek to “undermine public education” by “inciting paranoia among families.”

If a teacher feels “threatened by activists,” the WEA suggests the teacher should report the parents to school administration “and to the police,” according to Nelsen’s report.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to Julie Popper, WEA’s media relations director, but she had not responded as of press time.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/teachers-union-tells-members-to-treat-complaining-parents-as-enemies-report_4059419.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

A North Carolina parent seeks to prohibit “medical tribalism” in schools after his child reported school officials differentiating between the vaccinated and unvaccinated students.

Chad Slotta spoke of two reported incidents to The Epoch Times: one in which his child recorded a Wake County school principal advising students over the intercom to get vaccinated, and the other in which a teacher had asked for a show of hands of who has had the COVID-19 vaccine and who hasn’t.

Slotta read the principal’s quote from what was recorded at a Wake County School Board meeting on Sept. 7: “I spent the last three or four days on the phone all day talking with students and parents who were forced into quarantine.  If you are not vaccinated, I encourage you to seek out a vaccine if you are able to get one.”

In the meeting, Slotta asked the board to issue directives to all school officials that medical recommendations, including those regarding taking specific medications, remain between the parent and the child.

“If I have to sign a waiver that says my child is allowed to take an Ibuprofen, certainly I should have the say on if my child gets the vaccine,” Slotta said.

He also asked that the board issue a directive precluding teachers from inquiring about a student’s vaccination status, or any other private medical information.

“I advocate for a student’s right to privacy and secondly a parent’s exclusive and inviolable right to make all medical decisions and recommendations for their children without the influence or interference of a school official,” Slotta told the board.  “Children rightly listen to and obey the authority figures in their lives. This administrator overstepped their authority in an unwise and an unethical manner.”

Transgressed Lines

A line of demarcation has been transgressed, Slotta said.

“It really concerned me,” he said. “I was very clear. I said I wasn’t there to argue for or against the wisdom of any vaccine, mask, or any other medical decision related to the current pandemic.  I was specifically addressing a parent’s right to make those medical recommendations and decisions for their children.”

There could be numerous reasons why parents aren’t allowing their kids to get the vaccine, he said.

Vested Interest

One of the Wake County school system’s sources on COVID-19 policy is the ABC Science Collaborative (pdf), coordinated by Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), a government agency that also has what NIH Director Francis Collins said in 2020 was a “particular stake in the intellectual property” of the Moderna vaccine.

The NIH is currently under criticism for its funding of gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the first outbreak of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus occurred.

“You’ve got the NIH with a financial interest in the Moderna vaccine funding the ABC Science Collaborative, which is coming into school districts promoting vaccine mandates,” Slotta said.  “That doesn’t mean that their advice is necessarily bad. What it does mean to me is that this information should be shared with parents.  It should be pointed out that the school districts are listening to organizations who happen to be funded by people who have a vested interest in the vaccines.”

When this information is not disclosed, “it sadly creates doubt,” Slotta said.

“I think that’s something that we are seeing in our culture,” he said. “There is a mishandling with the rollout of this information that may be unnecessarily creating doubt where it might not need to be.”

Slotta emphasized that he and his family are not anti-vaccine, however, he said the money trails running through the COVID-19 vaccine narrative “are concerning.”

‘Creating Tension’

“Now you have a school administrator telling students to go get vaccinated, and that may very well put a child against their mom or dad at home in terms of creating tension,” Slotta said.

Just by having a show of hands, the “blatant violation of students’ right to privacy” can lead to dividing students into groups, pitting them against not just their parents, but against one another, Slotta said.

“We must never divide students into groups of any kind,” Slotta said.  “We must never allow medical tribalism or any other form of tribalism to be taught or to take hold in our schools.”

While tribalism is festering in many areas of the country, Slotta said, it’s not the way to raise children.

“We are teaching the future leadership of this country, and we will certainly reap from the seeds that we are sowing, so I hope, as it relates to tribalism on a number of levels, that we make wise decisions here,” Slotta said.

Wake County School District Response

When reached for comment, the communications director for the Wake County School system said the school district doesn’t ask for the COVID-19 vaccination status of its students and has no plans to do so.

In accordance with North Carolina law, however, the school district is required to collect other vaccination information, such as measles, mumps, and rubella.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/north-carolina-parent-seeks-to-halt-medical-tribalism-in-schools_4061305.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton introduced a bill on Thursday that would prevent schools from aiding and concealing a student’s “gender transition” from parents.

The bill, called the Empower Parents to Protect Their Kids Act, seeks to stop federally funded K-12 schools from facilitating a student’s “gender transition” without parental knowledge.

“Schools should never be allowed to impose radical, harmful ideologies on children — especially without parents’ knowledge and consent,” Cotton said in a news release announcing the legislation.

“My bill will protect students and ensure that parents are in control of their children’s education. Schools must remain institutions of education, not indoctrination camps where minors are manipulated and brainwashed,” he added.

Schools shouldn’t impose radical, harmful ideologies on children—especially without parents’ knowledge and consent. My bill will protect students and ensure that parents are in control of their children’s education.https://t.co/xfhbrTTiEz

— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) October 21, 2021

NIH Confirms It Funded Wuhan Gain-of-Function Research, Now Fauci Could Spend 5 Years in Jail

“Without parental knowledge or consent, schools are facilitating ‘social gender transitions’ by changing the names and pronouns of children in school, or even allowing children to change which sex-segregated facilities they use, such as dormitories for overnight field trips,” the bill reads.

The legislation would require schools to receive parental consent before affirming a student’s “gender transition.”Should schools be allowed to conceal a student’s “gender transition” from parents?

In addition, schools could not “facilitate, encourage, or coerce students to withhold information from their parents regarding the student’s gender transition or the student’s purported gender identity, where the student’s purported gender identity is incongruous with biological sex.”

The bill would also make it illegal for schools to “pressure or coerce the parents of students, or students themselves, to proceed with any treatment or intervention to affirm the student’s purported gender identity.”

In New Jersey, state policy regarding students’ “gender identity” excludes parental consent.

“A school district shall accept a student’s asserted gender identity; parental consent is not required,” the state’s guidance on transgender students reads.

“Further, a student need not meet any threshold diagnosis or treatment requirements to have his or her gender identity recognized and respected by the district, school or school personnel.

“Nor is a legal or court-ordered name change required. There is no affirmative duty for any school district personnel to notify a student’s parent or guardian of the student’s gender identity or expression.”

Christian Employers Sue Biden Administration Over Rule that Would Force Them to Pay for Sex Changes

A similar policy was enacted in Madison, Wisconsin, before being changed following a lawsuit.

“It should go without saying that school district staff should be honest with parents, especially when it comes to critical matters concerning their children, but we are pleased that the court has issued an order now requiring it,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Roger Brooks said in a statement last year.

“As this case moves forward, we will continue to argue for our clients’ legitimate concern over the Madison Metropolitan School District’s policy of deceiving parents and excluding them from profound decisions involving the wellbeing of their own children.”

A House Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland got testy when the top Republican and Democrat got into a heated exchange.

It happened on Thursday when Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan started when he objected to the Biden Administration’s plan to have the IRS monitor the bank accounts of Americans, and then he told committee chair, New York Rep. Jerry Nadler that he had a video to present.

But Democrat Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean objected to the video because Republicans did not follow the “48 hour rule” which would have them submit the video for approval 48 hours in advance of showing it.

When Rep. Jordan attempted to appeal the objection Nadler shut him down saying “That’s out of order. This is not debatable.”

“What’s out of order is there is no rule that requires a 48-hour notice, that’s what out of order,” Jordan hit back.

“There is such a rule,” the New York Democrat asserted.

The two argued back and forth when another member, likely a Republican, said “Mr. Chairman, what are you afraid of?”

“It’s a video about parents at school board meetings,” Jordan said, growing mor agitated. “Moms and dads speaking at school board meetings. And you guys aren’t going to let us play it?”

“Mr. Chairman, obviously you’re not going to let us play it and obviously you’re going to censor us, which is sort of the conduct of the left today it seems and Democrats today it seems,” Jordan responded.

WATCH: Fight breaks out between Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Jim Jordan during a House Judiciary hearing when Nadler sustains an objection to a video Jordan wanted to be played to AG Merrick Garland. pic.twitter.com/j06MPlJduV

— The Hill (@thehill) October 21, 2021

But the video was shared on Twitter by the House Judiciary GOP.

This is the video of parents at school board meetings that @RepJerryNadler refused to let us play at today’s Judiciary Committee hearing.

Why does the Left feel so threatened by brave American parents? pic.twitter.com/GvJlkWoJa2

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) October 21, 2021

“Judiciary Democrats are censoring @Jim_Jordan from showing a video of American moms and dads. Classic Democrats. Afraid of the American people and truth,” Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert said on Twitter.

Judiciary Democrats are censoring @Jim_Jordan from showing a video of American moms and dads.

Classic Democrats. Afraid of the American people and truth.

— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) October 21, 2021

The video was designed as a response to the attorney general’s Orwellian directive to the FBI and United States attorneys to investigate parents at school board meetings who object to their children wearing masks in schools and who oppose Critical Race Theory being taught as possible “domestic terrorists.”

“Citing an increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools, today Attorney General Merrick B. Garland directed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to meet in the next 30 days with federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement leaders to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend. These sessions will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment and response by law enforcement,” the press release said.

“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” Garland said. “Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”

“According to the Attorney General’s memorandum, the Justice Department will launch a series of additional efforts in the coming days designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel. Those efforts are expected to include the creation of a task force, consisting of representatives from the department’s Criminal Division, National Security Division, Civil Rights Division, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the Community Relations Service and the Office of Justice Programs, to determine how federal enforcement tools can be used to prosecute these crimes, and ways to assist state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement where threats of violence may not constitute federal crimes,” the directive said.

“The Justice Department will also create specialized training and guidance for local school boards and school administrators. This training will help school board members and other potential victims understand the type of behavior that constitutes threats, how to report threatening conduct to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and how to capture and preserve evidence of threatening conduct to aid in the investigation and prosecution of these crimes,” it said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that he had not sought, and would not seek, ethics review from the Department of Justice over his son-in-law’s alleged ties to the promotion of Critical Race Theory (CRT)

The issue arose because of a report that Garland’s son-in-law, Alexander “Xan” Tanner, had promoted tenets of CRT through his educational data firm, while Garland was cracking down on parents objecting to CRT at recent school board meetings.

As Breitbart News noted earlier this month, citing Becker News:

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s son-in-law is a co-founder of an educational data mining company that promotes the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT), a report at Becker News observed Wednesday.

The report noting Garland’s family ties to CRT comes in the wake of the attorney general’s memorandum directing the FBI to mobilize against parents who oppose CRT and mask mandates in K-12 schools and speak out about their concerns.

Panorama produces data mining surveys for schools, including “equity and inclusion surveys” and conducts “professional development” training in the areas of equity and inclusion for teachers and administrators.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) questioned Garland about whether he had sought ethics review from counsel within the Department of Jusice. Garland indicated that he had not, and would not, because it was not required. Later, under questioning from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Garland reiterated that he had acted within Department of Justice rules.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/10/21/watch-merrick-garland-did-not-will-not-seek-ethics-review-over-alleged-family-ties-to-critical-race-theory/

A group of parents from Michigan and Virginia has sued Attorney General Merrick Garland, alleging his recent order on investigating threats against educators misuses his office’s powers.

Garland, a Biden nominee, on Oct. 4 in a memorandum directed the FBI and U.S. attorneys to draw up plans to target parents who threaten violence or attempt to intimidate educators.

The order came after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) asked the Biden administration to respond due to what it described as acts of “domestic terrorism” against school boards, referring to protests during school board meetings over contentious teachings.

The new suit (pdf) says Garland is effectively wielding federal law enforcement resources “to silence parents and other private citizens who publicly object to and oppose the divisive, harmful, immoral, and racist policies of the ‘progressive’ left that are being implemented by school boards and school officials in public school districts throughout the United States.”

The parents are based in Saline, Michigan, and Loudoun County, Virginia, two areas that have seen heightened backlash in recent months. In Virginia, for instance, many parents opposed a rule that teachers must use a person’s preferred pronouns or face discipline.

“You’ve got the attorney general who’s weaponizing his power, his office to suppress the speech of concerned citizens—parents who are speaking out at public school boards about some of these inane policies like promotion of critical race theory ideology, which teaches the kids to be racist,” Robert Muise, an attorney with the American Freedom Law Center, which is representing the parents, told The Epoch Times.

The Department of Justice has not responded to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit or criticism of the order, which has led to over a dozen state school boards removing themselves or mulling withdrawal from the NSBA.

Lisa Monaco, the department’s second-in-command, defended the policy before Congress earlier this month, asserting it was aimed at making sure law enforcement from the local to federal level was aware of how to report threats and in communication on how to address threats and violence.

“While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views,” Garland wrote in his order.

The plaintiff parents, though, say the policy amounts to “a direct threat and warning to parents and private citizens across the United States, including Plaintiffs, that the Department of Justice and its FBI will be investigating you and monitoring what you say at these school board meetings so be careful about what you say and how you say it, thereby chilling such expression.”

That violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, they argue.

The suit also noted that there are accusations of a conflict of interest because Garland’s son-in-law, Alexander Tanner, is the co-founder and president of Panorama Education, which sells materials and conducts surveys for school districts across the country, including some that appear to have elements of critical race theory.

“He’s got a stake in this, a personal stake in this, through his family members,” Muise said.

Panorama Education declined to comment beyond pointing The Epoch Times to its website, where it disputes allegations it’s linked to critical race theory.

The suit was filed in federal court in Washington. It asks the court to permanently enjoin Garland’s order.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/michigan-and-virginia-parents-sue-ag-garland-over-order-to-investigate-violent-threats-against-teachers-school-boards_4059416.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

I get it. Terry McAuliffe is not a particularly happy man right now.

After all, this was supposed to be easy. Because of its odd-year state elections, Virginia’s gubernatorial race is one of the first referendums on how voters feel regarding the last presidential cycle. Furthermore, because of the growth of the Washington, D.C., suburbs and other liberal areas of the state, pundits have increasingly been saying that the Old Dominion has moved solidly into the blue column.

Moreover, McAuliffe is a fixture in Virginia state politics and the Democratic Party. He was Bill Clinton’s fundraising bag-man back during the 1990s, served as the head of the Democratic National Committee and was Virginia’s governor from 2014 to 2018. (The state doesn’t allow governors to serve consecutive terms.)

And yet, it hasn’t been easy. Polls have shown McAuliffe neck-and-neck with Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin; as of Wednesday morning, the RealClearPolitics polling average has Youngkin within 2.2 points of McAuliffe, 49.5 percent for the Democrat and 47.3 percent for the Republican. The Cook Political Report now rates the race as a “toss-up,” a move from “leans Democratic.”

McAuliffe is a pro’s pro, though. You don’t end up with Terry’s resumé if you can’t handle a little pressure.

The 7 Blood-Boiling Items Hidden Inside Biden’s $3.5 Trillion Socialist Wish List

You buckle down and smile a bit more broadly. You kiss a few more babies and shake a few more hands — or whatever the socially distanced version of those two unctuous archetypes of insincere campaigning happen to be.

You hit the trail before the sun rises and don’t stop until the 11 p.m. local news fades into the “Tonight Show.”

Most importantly, you never let ’em see you sweat.

Or you abruptly end a 20-minute TV interview 10 minutes into it, telling the reporter he “should have asked better questions early on.” Whichever works.

Do you believe Terry McAuliffe will win the Virginia gubernatorial election?

According to the Washington Examiner, WJLA-TV gave both McAuliffe and Youngkin 20 minutes to talk about how they would lead Virginia were they elected next month. The sit-downs with reporter Nick Minock happened on Oct. 13 and 14, respectively; the interviews were posted on their website and on YouTube.

So, how’d it go? First off, it’s never good when a local news station has to air this disclaimer:

WOAH… pic.twitter.com/etuaciYVr6

— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) October 19, 2021

Now, there’s some question about how planned McAuliffe’s early departure was.

Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams Threaten the Tax-Exempt Status of 300 Churches

WJLA said on their website that McAuliffe’s campaign only agreed to a 10-minute interview in a text message with Minock. That said, the last two sets of questions were uncomfortable ones for McAuliffe — and they also just so happened to be when his campaign staffer interrupted him.

The first question had to do with crime, during which Minock pointed out Youngkin “said that the murder rate went up 43 percent when you were governor and the rape rate went up every single year when you were governor. What would you do differently in your second term to address violent crime and decrease violent crime in the commonwealth?”

McAuliffe responded that Virginia had “the lowest crime rate of any major state in the United States of America” during his tenure — which doesn’t mean crime didn’t go up, mind you, and which doesn’t point to McAuliffe as the cause of that low crime rate. (Also, what is a minor state, just out of curiosity?)

When asked how much he would invest in public safety, McAuliffe responded, “I don’t want to go through all the numbers we are dealing with.” Translation: No clue.

Minock then transitioned vaccines and vaccine mandates, which started off fine enough but quickly degenerated to McAuliffe firing off rambling denunciations of Youngkin as “an anti-vaxxer” and “a Donald Trump right-wing agenda” supporter who would “ban abortions.”

“Your viewers should be very clear on this,” McAuliffe said.

“He wants to ban abortions here in Virginia. He says election integrity is the number one issue. No, it isn’t. Health care, COVID, education, job creation.”

That’s when one of his staffers interjected and noted that “we are already over time.”

“Alright, we are over. That’s it. That’s it,” McAuliffe said. “Hey I gave you extra time. C’mon, man. You should have asked better questions early on. You should have asked questions your viewers care about.”

Nailed the landing. Beautiful.

I understand one has a lot of demands on one’s time when running for governor, but a 20-minute spot on D.C. local news for a Clintonista that ran the state in the not-so-distant-past shouldn’t be like a tooth extraction.

Not only could he not spare the extra 10 minutes, McAuliffe ended the interview with an unfocused rant about about abortion, Donald Trump and job creation, then told the reporter he should have asked better questions at the beginning. Given the scattershot attack at the end, one gets the notion McAuliffe simply wanted prompts that would have allowed him to transition into that rant much earlier.

And in case you’re wondering, Minock didn’t ask bad or unfair questions, to the extent he had time to ask many at all.

The reporter’s first line of questioning had to do with McAuliffe’s now-infamous remark that “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what to teach” during the final gubernatorial debate, whether he misspoke and what role he would play as governor in mandating what schools teach.

His next line of questioning addressed the various school board controversies in Virginia — in particular in Loudoun County — and whether he agreed with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memorandum indicating the Department of Justice would get more involved with these contentious school board hearings.

Then came crime, then came vaccines and then it was time for McAuliffe to skedaddle — but not before firing off that strange and insulting peroration, as if Minock’s performance had been insulting or unprofessional.

No, Terry McAuliffe may not be a happy man right now, particularly when he looks at the polls.

With Hindenburg performances like this, however, he has only himself to blame.

PITTSBURGH—Twenty years ago, Paul Carson said he never would have hesitated to speak out at a school board meeting about any issue affecting his children’s education.

But one day, that changed. “I just don’t do it,” Carson told me. A physician who practices medicine in an urban Pittsburgh hospital, Carson said it has nothing to do with his being 20 years older. “It has everything to do with the culture we are navigating.”

Anyone, he said, can take a video of what you say, edit it to his or her advantage, then post it on social media. Or they can just simply claim on social media that you are racist or extremist because you express an opinion outside the sensitivities of the cultural curators who define what is acceptable and what is not in our country.

When Carson used a media platform in discussions about school district issues, as he did last year when the children in the Pittsburgh public schools went for months without in-person education, he said he had to be “profoundly cautious” in expressing his views.

School board meetings have been around forever, and they have always had the potential to become raucous. I remember attending them with my mother as a teenager, then as a mother myself when my children were young. I also had to attend a few as a reporter for the local newspaper I worked for at the time. Emotions often ran high, as they should when children’s welfare is involved. Good parents never lose sight of the fact that the people who educate their children spend more of the day with them in a classroom setting than parents themselves do. Emotions also ran high when new buildings were proposed, which always eventually meant higher taxes.

I have often told young reporters that if they want to see firsthand the most important political process in the U.S. system, they should turn off cable news, get off the iPhone, turn their eyes away from Washington and cover a local school board meeting.

No one should accept threats or physical violence at a school board meeting or anywhere else. But such conduct is fortunately rare. The question today is, can we trust our government to distinguish between the actual threat of violence and the passionate expression of viewpoints by parents?

That question became a reality this week when Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo suggesting a nationwide federal crackdown on parents at school board meetings. And the answer from parents like Carson is, “Absolutely not.”

Garland made his decision under pressure from the National School Boards Association. Its interim director responded by saying Garland’s memo sends a “strong message to individuals with violent intent who are focused on causing chaos, disrupting our public schools, and driving wedges between school boards and the parents, students, and communities they serve.”

Freedom is messy. Our discussions about things that matter to us, such as our children, are chaotic, disruptive and, yes, divisive. They drive wedges—that’s a feature, not a bug.

In the past few months, parents across the country have become frustrated with extremist curriculum choices that their school boards are making. In response, they have done what Americans have done for generations—show up at school board meetings to voice their concerns.

In many cases, their concerns cross traditional political, racial, and socioeconomic lines and are at odds with the Biden administration.

Garland is now using the FBI against parents on the grounds that school board members feel threatened. But what does “threatened” look like? Is it someone yelling at you? Disagreeing with you? Holding an opposing opinion? Who is defining those threats?

This memo wasn’t just designed to target those who would commit violence. It was also clearly designed to stop regular people with real concerns from voicing those concerns because of the fear anything they say will deem them a domestic terrorist, which would destroy their personal, community, and professional lives.

It is downright chilling to think that there are parents out there who are worried that they are going to end up on a government list or under some type of government scrutiny if they decide to go into a school board meeting to give a public comment on an issue.

Eighty years ago, dairy farmer Jim Edgerton stood up at a town hall meeting in his hometown of Arlington, Vermont, to voice his disagreement with the town councilors’ decision to build a new school. Edgerton was the only person at the meeting or in town who objected to the proposed building.

His opposition was mostly unremarkable, but he held his ground, nonetheless. No one would have known about it had not Norman Rockwell, a newcomer in town, been there.

As he watched Edgerton exercise his freedom of speech, the famous illustrator of Americana could not stop thinking about the State of the Union address President Franklin D. Roosevelt had delivered on Jan. 6, 1941, in which he warned that the values and liberties the public took for granted were under attack. Rockwell would go on to illustrate that moment, making Roosevelt’s words relatable by depicting them in use in small-town America.

It is inconceivable that the federal government today wants to squash that freedom through vague rules and intimidation. Garland seems to be making the calculation that the Jim Edgertons of this world will cower under the concern the government is watching them.

In the beginning, maybe they will. But in the long run, the air of intimidation probably won’t last. There comes a point when those feeling the threat go from being on the fringe of society to being the majority.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/school-board-meetings-show-only-that-freedom-is-messy_4058742.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Dispatch records from the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office suggest that a school administrator and school resource officer (SRO) did not act urgently to involve police specialists in a reported rape on May 28 at Stone Bridge High School.

At 1:33 pm, the SRO — who works full-time at the school handling routine matters but officially works for the sheriff’s office — radioed that he “was briefed by assistant principal of a student that has made allegations of being possibly raped or touched unwanted by another student a couple of hours ago. Investigating at this time and parents are and have been notified at this time by admin.”

It is unclear whether the assistant principal learned of the rape “a couple of hours ago,” or whether the alleged rape occurred then and the administrator did not learn of it until some later time period.

The SRO then “investigated” for nearly an hour without calling for outside police officers.

At 2:21, 2:28, and 2:30, three calls for police are finally placed — one requesting a supervisor, one requesting “another unit,” and one noted as “upset parent.” Given that these calls came in a nine-minute window well after officials first learned of the rape, it seems likely that the impetus for all three was the “upset parent.

That is, after all, what Principal Tim Flynn told the community in an email at 4:48 pm:

Good evening Stone Bridge families this [sic] is Stone Bridge Principal Tim Flynn. There was an incident in the main office area today that required the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office to dispatch deputies to Stone Bridge. The incident was confined to the main office and the entrance area to the school. There was no threat to the safety of the student body. The incident was witnessed by a small number of students who were meeting with staff adjacent to the main office. Counseling services and the services of our Unified Mental Health Team are available for any student who may need to talk about today’s incident. Students might have noticed Sheriff’s Office personnel on campus and I wanted to let you know that something out of the ordinary happened at school today. The safety of our students and staff is the top priority of Loudoun County Public Schools.

Scott Smith, the parent of the victim, previously told The Daily Wire that he was aghast to find the incident being handled only by people who worked at the school full-time — with the SRO seeming to take direction from the principal — rather than a team of police officers one would expect to find processing a major crime scene. There were no outside police or medics at the scene when he arrived, he said. He became irate.

He said that police responded to deal with complaints about him making a scene in the office, not to the rape allegations. Once on the scene, he said, the team of police eventually became persuaded that what had occurred was a serious incident that required their attention, and escorted his family to the hospital where a rape kit was administered.

Smith said he did not believe a rape kit would have been administered based on the laid-back way administrators and the SRO appeared to be handling it on their own. The county’s prosecutor later said that the case relied on DNA evidence, suggesting that if a rape kit had not been conducted that day, no substantiated rape would have likely been added to Stone Bridge’s books.

Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office dispatch logs

In addition to Principal Flynn’s email which made no mention of a rape, Loudoun’s superintendent, Scott Zeigler, went on to tell the school board at a June 22 board meeting that he had no record of sexual assaults in bathrooms. The school system also reported on required statistics to the state of Virginia that it had zero sexual assault incidents in the school that year.

Zeigler later said he misunderstood the question in the school board meeting, and apologized for an “error” in reporting to the state.

The sheriff’s office previously told The Daily Wire there were no 911 calls from the school, but has now produced “dispatch” logs that include radio calls.

The calls also show that at 7:21 pm, the FBI called and “asked about the incident at Stone Bridge HS,” which was “found through prior calls.” Once the agent was advised that “it was a sexual assault investigation,” the agent said it “would not require their help.”

Smith was arrested at a June 22 school board meeting where he became angry again after Zeigler’s misleading statement. That arrest led to Smith being included in a letter, by the National School Boards Association, that talked about angry attendees at school board meetings, as well as a response by Attorney General Merrick Garland that suggested the FBI could have a hand in dealing with such matters.

The suspect in the alleged rape was transferred to a different school, where he was arrested for an alleged in-classroom sexual assault on another girl October 6.

Want more exclusive Daily Wire investigations? Become a member.

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https://www.dailywire.com/news/records-suggest-loudoun-sent-team-of-police-to-deal-with-upset-parent-not-alleged-rape-of-student?itm_source=parsely-api&utm_source=cnemail&utm_medium=email

“This is gonna be the biggest change to immigration policy in my lifetime. It’s being done without anybody knowing what’s going on about it,” says Aaron Stevenson.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insider who blew the whistle on transnational cartels exploiting U.S. immigration loopholes to carry out child sex trafficking operations has gone public.

Aaron Stevenson, an Intelligence Research Specialist for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), explained to Project Veritas how the Biden administration is fundamentally overhauling America’s immigration protocols to the benefit of the sex traffickers with zero oversight.

“This is gonna be the biggest change to immigration policy in my lifetime. It’s being done without anybody knowing what’s going on about it and there’s been no coverage for the American people to know what’s going on,” Stevenson said. “There’s no brakes on the car.”

Stevenson was referring to the new shift in policy that would enable fee-funded USCIS to adjudicate alien asylum claims rather than immigration judges.

“USCIS is fee-funded. All of its operations, all of its cover, overhead, everything is based on the fees filed by aliens when they just,” he explained.

“That leaves very little accountability to the public when this kind of operation exists. And when you couple that with giving adjudicative authority away from an immigration judge to an asylum officer, you’re removing any type of public pressure that they could apply on policies they’re creating.”

Stevenson added the new policy shift is “going to be a rubber stamp of immediately getting ‘credible fear’ or ‘reasonable fear’ to be able to say in the country” and get immediately processed for defensive asylum.

“That’s going to exist very quickly. Also, their path to citizenship, within a year of getting defensive asylum, they can adjust their status to a lawful current resident (LCR). Three years from there, they can apply to be naturalized to a U.S. citizen,” he said.

“So, it’s fast-tracking, and that’s the only thing that this looking to consider in the actual rule proposal. It’s looking to make it quicker. That’s it. They don’t want to backlog. It’s not over until the alien wins.”

Stevenson had come forward to Project Veritas in August – his identity hidden at the time – to blow the whistle on these “reasonable fear” loopholes that sex traffickers exploit to stay in the United States.

“Once [a migrant gang member] makes the declaration of, ‘My life is in danger and I may be harmed if I return home,’ they’re taken off the [Transnational Organized Crime] watchlist. That makes it a giant loophole,” Stevenson had said.

Twitter: @WhiteIsTheFury
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On the Oct 7th Hannity show Donald Trump unloaded on the Biden administration. One clip in particular was quickly censored off the web which was Trump blaming Central American countries for dumping their prison populations on our southern border.

https://www.infowars.com/posts/dhs-insider-who-exposed-cartel-sex-traffickers-exploiting-reasonable-fear-migrant-asylum-loophole-goes-public/

Mental health professionals are no substitute for the police, city lawmakers learn

The Alexandria, Va., public school system learned a quick lesson in cause and effect: Fewer cops means more crime.

In May, driven by concerns of the “school to prison pipeline,” the lawmakers voted to remove police from Alexandria’s public schools. Last week, local lawmakers convened an emergency session and voted to reinstate armed school resource officers, at least until the end of the year, after a student brought a loaded gun into Alexandria City High School.

Those who attended the city council meeting to debate bringing back the cops on campus recounted horrifying stories. One student shared a video of her brother getting beaten in the middle of the school day. He ended up in the hospital and is now scared to return to class.

“He said that he’s actually really scared to die,” the student said of her brother. “He’s thought about even bringing pepper spray in school because he just feels that it’s a need.”

Alexandria is a microcosm of what is transpiring nationwide. Schools around the country face a crisis of on-campus violence, with a September survey indicating that threats of violence between students surged 104 percent in the 2020-2021 school year. The rise coincides with school districts across the country, including in major cities such as Los Angeles, voting to remove police from schools.

A year ago many parents were begging schools to open their doors. Now they’re begging left-wing lawmakers to let their kids actually learn without fear of violence. Back to basics.

Such is a familiar pattern for the left. Only after confronted with the grim reality of their pro-crime policies do they finally relent and drop the academic jargon about how cops are somehow responsible for violence.

The decision to remove police from schools came from the top. President Joe Biden ran on ending “the school to prison pipeline“—an activist mantra that really means he’s willing to sacrifice the safety and wellbeing of public school students to coddle thugs and criminals who express little interest in learning. And he assured us that doubling the number of “mental health professionals” would serve as a better deterrent for violence than simply enforcing the law.

The president—and his acolytes in Alexandria—are wrong, and starting with next month’s gubernatorial race in Virginia, voters must decide whether they’re willing to trade the safety of our children for idealistic liberal policy proposals.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/democrats-learn-a-lesson-on-school-safety-in-virginia/

A coalition of 17 state attorneys general is demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice immediately rescind a recent memo they say would “chill lawful dissent by parents voiced during local school board meetings.”

The DOJ memo, which has been the center of much criticism since its Oct 4 release, directs the FBI to work with state and local governments to address an alleged “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against teachers and school leaders. It came shortly after National School Boards Association (NSBA) urged the Biden administration to invoke counter-terrorism laws to handle “angry mobs” of parents seeking to hold school officials accountable for the teaching of the Marxist critical race theory and for imposing COVID-19 restrictions on their children.

In a letter (pdf) sent on Monday to President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland, the chief legal officers argued that the memo doesn’t appear to be based on facts, but on a flawed NSBA narrative, which described disruptions at school board meetings as violent threats akin to “domestic terrorism.”

“The vast majority of incidents that NSBA cites involved disruptive and disorderly conduct rather than threats,” the letter reads. “In fact, in no known instance, has there been anything like the burning, looting, police assaults, vandalism and other criminal activity that occurred in the summer of 2020.”

The letter was referring to riots involving anarcho-communist group Antifa and Marxist group Black Lives Matter.

“Actual threats and violence towards school administrators, board members, teachers, or staff are rare,” the attorneys general noted, adding that there are already sufficient criminal and civil remedies available, without the need for FBI to intervene in “what is a quintessential local issue.”

The attorneys general further stated that the DOJ memo “is likely intimidating to parents,” who in many cases are, for the first time, exercising their First Amendment right to speak in a public forum.

“We as a country should celebrate their participation in our system of self-government, not silence them by accusing them of ‘domestic terrorism’ and threaten them with the prospect of the FBI knocking on their door to investigate their activities,” they added.

The letter was written by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, and co-signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

The letter comes as school board organizations in at least a dozen states distance themselves from the NSBA, citing disagreement over the way it characterized concerned parents. School boards in Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, have released statements opposing the NSBA letter to the Biden administration or Garland’s memo or both.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/17-state-ags-demand-doj-cease-attempt-to-silence-parents-at-school-board-meetings_4055506.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mb-2021-10-19&mktids=20531d34ef6623de9f28c4ac5de04d42&est=MXNescXAhp8HjCgmzkO7biTS%2FbYM%2BPZIeIGdxXw%2B1zbdVmqZmf5M6e1T%2F7290KwAxA%3D%3D

Internal communications show staffers privately complaining about overtures from Catholic school officials

The Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) shut out religious groups from a controversial curriculum development process, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The original draft of the agency’s sex education standards included plans to teach elementary school students about gender identity and transgender hormone therapy. Internal emails obtained by a concerned parent show the NDE added a Planned Parenthood ally to the 28-member advisory team for the standards, while it excluded input from religious education groups. The documents show NDE employees were privately aggravated that Jeremy Ekeler, the associate director of education policy at the Nebraska Catholic Conference, wanted to be included in the curriculum process because they suspected he would be critical of their approach.

“Jeremy is coming on pretty strong,” one NDE employee emailed with a frowning face symbol.

“I know. I really think they want to advocate for abstinence only education as well as gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.; but that is only my assumption,” another employee responded.

Ekeler, a former principal at a Nebraska Catholic school, was able to schedule a Zoom meeting with the NDE after inquiring three times about the development process. Ekeler said the NDE told him in August 2020 that the advisory team was already full—a claim he said in hindsight feels like a cop-out.

“To know that a tax-funded state entity boxed out the beliefs of such a huge portion of our population is sadly ironic,” Ekeler told the Free Beacon. “The NDE has preached inclusion and diversity through this whole thing and then they excluded anybody who doesn’t fit with their agenda.”

Ekeler vouched for three Catholic experts with relevant experience to be on the advisory team, which the NDE told him was handpicked with no formal application process. Two told the Free Beacon the NDE never reached out. The third did not respond. Planned Parenthood activists, however, had no trouble getting access to policymakers.

Internal emails show that Deborah Neary, a state board of education member, pressured the NDE to include Lisa Schulze, a Friends of Planned Parenthood board member and former Planned Parenthood employee, in the curriculum draft process. “I am very disappointed that none of the folks that I recommended to participate in the Nebraska Department of Education Standard Writing Team were selected,” Neary said in an email. Schulze and two other activists—the executive director of OutNebraska and a local professor dedicated to the “intersection of sexuality and social justice”—requested by Neary were eventually added to the advisory team, which provided feedback on the standards to the writing team.

The NDE did not respond to questions on how it selected the advisory team. The agency has denied any influence from activists in drawing up the standards.

The first draft of the health standards, published in March, detailed a curriculum to teach gender identity in first grade, transgender hormone therapy in fifth grade, oral and anal sex in seventh grade, and abortion in eighth grade. Fr. Sean Kilcawley is a Nebraska priest who is certified as a Pastoral Sexual Addiction Practitioner Supervisor. Ekeler recommended him to be on the standards advisory team, but Kilcawley never heard from the NDE. Kilcawley said the radical nature of the sex education standards can be attributed at least in part to the fact that there was no Christian representation in the drafting process.

“Young people are going to be googling the content they are learning in class,” he told the Free Beacon. “So if they’re teaching about overt sexual actions in class it can lead to more pornography exposure, which leads to compulsive sexual behavior, which has led to an uptick on child to child sexual abuse.”

The original Nebraska sex education curriculum proposed in March was nearly identical to the 2020 National Sexuality Education Standards. These national standards are a collaboration between three deep-pocketed progressive advocacy groups: the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), Advocates for Youth, and Answer. SIECUS and Advocates for Youth have raked millions annually from the CDC and abortion-focused nonprofits for decades, a Free Beacon review of 990 forms found.

All three of the national sex education groups have ties to the Nebraska curriculum process. Schulze worked for Answer at the University of Rutgers. Emails show Neary scheduled a meeting between NDE members and a policy director at SIECUS. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation has given $20 million to Advocates for Youth since 2008. Warren Buffett, the billionaire progressive philanthropist who heads the foundation, is an Omaha native. The Women’s Fund for Omaha, where Schulze works as an education and training manager, owns $12 million worth of stock in Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway.

Neither Schulze nor Neary responded to requests for comment.

The state’s board of education in September suspended the health standards after months of pushback from parents. Ekeler compared the dispute between parents and the school system to the battle of David and Goliath.

“Two things happen before David casts the stone with the sling,” Ekeler told the Free Beacon. “First he’s made aware of the battle and then, in one of my favorite Bible verses, he ran to the giant. Our parents, once they were made aware, ran to the battle—and I don’t think they’re going anywhere.”

https://freebeacon.com/campus/nebraska-department-of-education-excluded-religious-groups-from-sex-ed-curriculum-team/

Attorney General Merrick Garland has now repeatedly and clearly demonstrated his intention to tow the party line, as it drifts inexorably from Constitutional principles and the Bill of Rights—in lieu of serving as an independent and objective enforcer of federal law.

He first exposed his partisan contempt for objective facts in a speech given back on June 15. There he stated that “In the FBI’s view, the top domestic violent extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocate for the superiority of the white race.” Not Antifa. Not BLM.

As FBI field agents are well aware, the domestic threat posed by white supremacists was successfully dissipated in the ‘80s and ‘90s, largely as a result of high-risk large-scale undercover operations targeting the Aryan Nations and other white militia organizations. Garland’s speech parroted statements made in congressional testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray on Sept. 17, 2020, wherein much the same conclusory statements were made, unsupported by data, reflecting Democrat talking points rather than independent determinations based on articulated facts.

Garland’s and Wray’s statements have lent credibility to the newly expanded definition of white supremacy to include all those who disagree with progressive policies—the moral justification thus being created for repressive tactics directed at eliminating dissent. And—significantly—at ostracizing dissenters.

Garland has now taken another step in the politicization of the Department of Justice, by categorizing parents disturbed by progressive indoctrination of their children as domestic terrorists. And the FBI, whose resources are already overtaxed—approximately 10,000 special agents to protect a nation of 330,000,000 plus—has been directed to investigate this imminent threat to national security.

In his Oct. 4 memorandum to the FBI Director, Garland warns parents that “in the coming days, the Department [of Justice] will announce a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”

Missing in the memo is any clue as to the federal jurisdiction that might justify the FBI’s involvement in what appears to be in essence the suppression of opposing views—suppression of the expression of opinions which are contrary to the views propagated by individuals and institutions currently wielding the reins of power. Garland’s misuse of the government’s overwhelming power—proscribed by the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights—is barred precisely because the Framers anticipated such abuse of power, and went to great lengths to prevent it.

The assault on the Bill of Rights appears to be coordinated and nearly overwhelming in nature.

From the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, denied to the Jan. 6 unarmed Capitol Hill trespassers, to the utilization of tech companies as proxies to circumvent First Amendment limitations on government action, the onslaught has many fronts.

Apple is now monitoring and reviewing the images maintained by millions of customers on the cell phones that it sells. Ostensibly a measure to identify pedophiles, this is realistically a first step to monitor the public at large—actions by a powerful corporation that would be clearly illegal if conducted by the government without a warrant.

The right to a fair trial by a jury of one’s peers—the Sixth Amendment—was effectively eviscerated by the Biden administration’s declaration that mounted Customs and Border Protection officers were guilty of whipping illegal Haitian immigrants prior to any formal charges being brought

The administration’s disregard for free speech rights of millions of federal employees is evidenced by the White House’s list of prohibited words and phrases—a list that altogether too many corporate entities are quick to incorporate into their own private sector cultures.

Thus the Government achieves its proscribed goal of controlling speech through indirect means. And as is, or should be, self-evident, controlling permissible language is the first step toward controlling permissible thought.

An assault on property rights—heretofore secured by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments’ due process clauses—has utilized the back door of COVID-19 to justify regulation of small businesses, circumventing the legislative process, and severely restricting the exercise of business decisions by small entrepreneurs.

Civil rights have been curtailed by the insidious substitution of equity for equality—and by the insertion of critical race theory in lieu of the content of character theory of Martin Luther King.

The constitutional right to “security of person,” guaranteed in Article Three, along with the pursuit of happiness , as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, are being subtly undermined by the defund the police movement. How can happiness be pursued in an insecure, crime-ridden environment?

Rather, the assault on law-enforcement authorities has been ramped up. In the military, police, and in the Department of Homeland Security, witch-hunts are underway, with the search for dissenting opinion—mislabeled as a search for white supremacist conspirators—being encouraged and pursued by the media and left-wing think tanks. And the failure to provide secure borders undermines security on a number of levels, from the entry of violent criminals to the propagation of the dreaded virus.

Diversity of opinion is being routed out, and replaced by unquestioning obedience and propagation of dogma. How can the First Amendment’s freedom of religion be pursued when church and synagogue doors are barred whenever lock-downs are declared, while the doors to taverns remain open?

Powerful political leaders on the left—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton—continually question the relevance of the Constitution, while enthusiastically supporting movements, such as the 1619 rewriting of American history, questioning the Framers’ relevance in the modern age.

The Second Amendment’s right to bear arms has been under constant attack from the Democrat Party. The attempt to place David Chipman, one of its most fervent opponents as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms proved beyond the pale, even for middle of the road supporters of firearm bans. However, individuals such as Mark and Patricia McCloskey of St. Louis, who have exercised their Second Amendment rights in the defense of their security and their property, have been ridiculed by the media and prosecuted by local authorities.

The elephant in the room regarding blatant disregard of our precious rights is of course COVID-19. The Biden administration, as well as state executive officers, have used the pandemic to justify the sweeping away the right to privacy that justice William Douglas interpreted into the Constitution, as emanating from the “penumbra of rights“ that the founding document enshrined as guarantees for future generations.

These privacy rights have for years been used to justify the legalization of abortion as part of a woman’s “right to choose.” Yet these privacy rights and the right to choose are disregarded entirely when it comes to the right to choose as to whether or not a medical product is to be injected into one’s body.

Although members of the military have historically been bound by certain limitations on their ability to communicate personal views, the imprisonment of Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller subsequent to his statements dissenting from disastrous decisions made by general command officers with regard to Afghanistan, is chilling indeed.

The move, in addition to being clearly intended to send a message to others in the military who might be so inclined, is additionally another step in the administration program to suppress and eliminate dissenting voices in the military and federal agencies.

To further enforce the message, Marine officials are also investigating Lance Corporal Hunter Clark for having consented to appear at the podium with non-candidate Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday, Sept. 25. Clark received national attention after rescuing an infant in the course of the chaotic evaluation at Kabul airport in Afghanistan.

What we are witnessing is a purge.

The true purpose of using vaccination mandates to fire employees from schools, civil service positions, hospitals, airlines, law enforcement, has nothing to do with COVID-19 and everything to do with disenfranchisement and diminution of our previously inalienable rights. The purpose is to weed out dissent.

It is the next step, following and building upon the redefinition of white supremacy to include any who disagrees with the party line, anyone who dissents. Just as the labeling of angry parents as domestic terrorists is simply a subterfuge to weed out dissent. It is a campaign to disempower, to eliminate those with dissenting ideas, ideas that diverge from authorized, “correct” thought. Those who could pose a threat to the power elite.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/a-purge-is-starting-with-the-bill-of-rights_4048928.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

So long to “truth, justice and the American way.”

Instead, Superman will now be seeking “a better tomorrow” as “America” is wiped away by DC Comics, which announced the change in a statement on Saturday.

“Superman’s new motto of ‘Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow’ will better reflect the global storylines that we are telling across DC and to honor the character’s incredible legacy of over 80 years of building a better world,” said DC Chief Creative Officer and Publisher Jim Lee.

“Superman has long been a symbol of hope who inspires people from around the world, and it is that optimism and hope that powers him forward with this new mission statement.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “American Way” phrase began in 1940, debuting on a radio series called “The Adventures of Superman.”

The motto continued in the TV version of Superman that was crafted in the 1950s, but it was not universally used in the various versions of the superhero that came in the 1960s, according to Yahoo.

When Superman hit the big screen in a 1978 movie starring Christopher Reeve, the motto returned.

Many objected to the change.

DC Comics decide it’s time for Superman’s motto to “evolve”, so they ditch “American” from it. His motto changes from “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” to “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow”. And just like that, we lose a little bit more of our childhood. pic.twitter.com/yEfA9xr0y3

— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) October 17, 2021

This is how you say you hate America without saying you hate America. https://t.co/0AFawMhsiF

— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) October 17, 2021

DC Comics removing ‘the American way’ from Superman slogan: report,
American Way is being canceled right before our eyes https://t.co/aZpaOJBVpQ

— Patriots United!!!🇺🇸🙏🏻🇨🇱!!! (@MichaelDilmore) October 17, 2021

First a token bi Superman and now DC completely abandons the ‘American Way’ for Superman’s motto.

Though lets be honest, modern woke comics stopped caring about ‘Truth and Justice’ a long time ago as well.
They rather endorse riots and division instead. https://t.co/ADT8xr6P3A

— Spooky Juno Maxwell 🎃 (@Goddess_Maxwell) October 16, 2021

Ron DeSantis Triggers Leftists by Issuing the Perfect Columbus Day Proclamation

LOL. No. No matter the amount of anti-American ideology that plagues @DCComics and @warnerbros, Superman will ALWAYS represent Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Shame on you @JimLee https://t.co/joqdA2OBR3

— André Hutchens (@ac_hutchens) October 16, 2021

Are you tired of ‘woke’ changes that ruin everything?

D.C. Comics jolted Superman fandom earlier this month when it announced that Jon Kent, the son of Superman, would be portrayed as bisexual in a separate story line, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Tom Taylor, who wrote the tale of the bisexual superhero, said the time was right for the character, according to Variety.

“I’ve always said everyone needs heroes and everyone deserves to see themselves in their heroes, and I’m very grateful DC and Warner Bros. share this idea,” Taylor said.

“Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics,” he said.

It’s another day ending in “Y,” so there’s more upside-down, crazy stuff from the left.

As in — let’s all be Holocaust deniers.

That’s what Gina Peddy last week told Texas teachers in a school district near Fort Worth.

Peddy, an executive director of curriculum for Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, was training teachers on how to stock their classroom libraries in light of new legislation requiring schools to present varied viewpoints on controversial subjects, according to the Southlake podcast of NBC News Digital.

The details are contained in Texas Senate Bill 3, set to go into effect in December, and in House Bill 3979, which went into effect last month. The laws require the teaching of essentially traditional civics in Texas schools. They allow teachers to opt out of addressing controversial subjects, but if they choose controversy, they must present a balanced viewpoint.

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That’s where Peddy decided that, somehow, the Holocaust is controversial. Peddy, in effect, said there’s more than one viewpoint to genocide.

“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said, as she was secretly recorded, with the recording given to NBC. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust that you have one that has an opposing … that has other perspectives.”

Right.

Does Peddy really believe there’s more than one viewpoint on whether or not the Holocaust was justified? Or was she just using a juvenile way to object to the new Texas legislation, which tempers indoctrination in topics like critical race theory? Education professionals are supposed to teach the children, not act like them.

Actually, there’s a backstory to Peddy’s nonsense. At the macro level, it’s about what’s going on nationwide in public schools — parents are realizing the indoctrination that is taking place and are objecting.

And the priests and priestesses of Big Education are responding by telling parents to butt out.

At a local level, in Southlake and elsewhere, some parents have been concerned about the school district’s elevation of diversity and inclusion teaching.

Texas law prohibits teaching that could make individuals feel “guilt or anguish,” regarding their race, according to NBC.

There has been concern about the teaching of CRT, and some Southlake teachers are incensed that the school board voted to reprimand a fourth-grade teacher who had in her classroom a book on “anti-racism.”

Teacher Allegedly Threatens to Shoot School Administrators After Maintenance Staff Removes Plastic COVID Barrier from Classroom

(For those having trouble keeping up, you can consider the term anti-racism to be as against racist attitudes as Antifa is against fascism).

Not surprisingly, Peddy’s Holocaust comment has brought reaction.

Karen Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for the school district, said the district is trying to aid teachers in compliance with the new legislation, not only in teaching but in books they provide students, according to NBC.

“Our district recognizes that all Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements,” she said. “Our purpose is to support our teachers in ensuring they have all of the professional development, resources and materials needed. Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed nor will we mandate that classroom libraries be unavailable.”

Union spokesman Clay Robinson of the Texas State Teachers Association said the new legislation doesn’t cover classroom libraries. And he criticized what Peddy had said.

“We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history,” Robison told NBC. “That’s absurd. It’s worse than absurd. And this law does not require it.”

Republican State Sen. Bryan Hughes, who wrote Senate Bill 3, concurred. Schools don’t have to present both sides of “good and evil,” and there’s no requirement to ban books with only one perspective of the Holocaust.

“That’s not what the bill says,” according to Hughes.

Following publicity surrounding Peddy’s teacher training, Carroll school superintendent Lane Ledbetter posted on Facebook: “We recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust,” and said the district would work to clarify expectations for teachers.

Some teachers have expressed concern over what they have in their classroom libraries. One anonymous interview conducted with two teachers by NBC addressed the statement that the district is not pressuring teachers to purge their bookshelves. “That’s a lie,” one responded. “It is a flat-out lie … How could you even make that statement?”

Asked by NBC what was at stake, the anonymous teacher said: “In books, children see what the world can be. And to have that taken away because we’re afraid of a few parents getting upset about a word or two or an idea that they have imagined is in a book is unthinkable.”

And true to form for ongoing militancy among those in the education establishment, one teacher’s classroom library has been covered with yellow caution tape, similar to what is seen at police or construction sites.

Ever think that maybe what we call public schools are really private schools, as in what Big Education thinks is its own private domain?

The superintendent of a Virginia school district on Friday appeared to admit the district violated state law in failing to properly report alleged sexual assaults, as a state official confirmed the matter is under review.

Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler made the admission during a brief appearance before reporters, where he read a prepared statement and took no questions.

Ziegler said that the district made “errors in our state reporting regarding disciplinary incidents in schools,” adding that it “inadvertently omitted some information in the past.”

“That is extremely concerning, and we are taking steps to make sure that process is improved. I will say that I have no reason to believe at this time that any missing reports were due to an intent to hide any information from the Virginia Department of Education,” he said, blaming an alleged “lack of oversight” that was in place before he was appointed in June, even though he served as interim superintendent starting Jan. 1.

Ziegler appeared to be responding to a report by The Daily Wire that the district failed to record multiple instances of alleged sexual assault even though it’s required to by state law.

Ziegler said during a school board meeting on June 22 that he was unaware of any record of assaults happening in the district’s restrooms, nearly a month after a girl was allegedly raped by a male in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School.

State law says that reports “shall be made” to school and district authorities regarding all assaults on school buses, on school grounds, or at a school-sponsored activity.

State law also directs district superintendents to annually report such incidents to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). But a public database of reports showed at least one assault that was not reported to state authorities.

A Loudoun County Public Schools spokesperson declined to comment on Ziegler’s Friday remarks but did not dispute the characterization that Ziegler acknowledged state law was not complied with.

Superintendents who fail to comply or secure compliance with the reporting requirements are subject to sanctions.

A VDOE spokesman told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency has reviewed the submissions made by Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) concerning discipline, crime, and violation “and is in communication with LCPS regarding the accuracy of their reports and whether the division is in compliance with state reporting requirements.

The spokesman confirmed that the submissions are required annually and that superintendents are required to certify their accuracy.

“This is a matter that VDOE takes very seriously and is actively investigating discrepancies in the LCPS reports,” he said.

In his statement, Ziegler said he made misleading comments during the June meeting. He said his remarks came after wrongly interpreting a question about incidents in bathrooms as only involving transgender or “gender-fluid” students.

“I regret that my comments were misleading and I apologize for the distress that error caused families. I should have asked Board Member Barts clarifying questions to get to the root of her question, rather than assuming what she meant. I will do better in the future,” he said.

He also apologized for how the district handled two recent alleged assaults. “Let me say to the families and students involved: My heart aches for you, and I am sorry that we failed to provide the safe, welcoming and affirming environment that we aspire to provide,” he said.

A spokeswoman for father Scott Smith said in a statement to news outlets that Ziegler’s statement on behalf of LCPS “is the first acknowledgment that we have had that they are in fact responsible for their bad decision-making and policies that resulted in the two sexual assaults that happened in our high schools.”

“Today, Superintendent Ziegler said what we already knew: that the actions of the Loudoun County School Board and Administration ‘failed to provide the safe environment’ for the Smith’s daughter,” an attorney for the family added, before accusing LCPS of prioritizing “misguided policies of political correctness over student safety.”

Ziegler’s statement came as the county’s education leadership is under heightened scrutiny, in part because the board passed a policy that forces LCPS staffers to address students by any pronoun they choose, and lets students who claim to be another gender use that gender’s facilities.

The policy drew a fiery response at the June meeting, which was disbanded after Smith and another parent were arrested.

Smith recently revealed that his daughter was allegedly raped by a male inside a girl’s bathroom in her high school. He has described the male as utilizing the softness toward transgenderism to get inside the facility.

Smith has accused district leadership of covering up the assault.

The Loudon County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to The Epoch Times an incident took place in May at Stone Bridge High School but declined to provide more details, citing an ongoing investigation. It also declined to confirm reports that the same male was behind a sexual assault that took place at a different LCPS high school in October.

A Freedom of Information Act request seeking more details on the incidents and the arrest of Smith was sent.

LCPS told The Epoch Times earlier in the week via email that school board members “are typically not given details of disciplinary matters” and were not aware of the alleged rape until it was reported on in media outlets.

A member of the school board facing a recall petition resigned from the board on Friday, and attorneys for the Smith family filed a lawsuit this week against the district.

Allen Zhong contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/loudoun-county-superintendent-appears-to-admit-district-violated-state-law-by-not-reporting-sexual-assault_4052269.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

An ethics complaint has been filed against White House press secretary Jen Psaki after she indulged in a bit of political cheerleading during a White House briefing.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel calling for an investigation of an alleged Hatch Act violation by Psaki, according to The Hill.

The Hatch Act bans government employees from partisan campaign activities and other political activity while acting in their official capacity.

CREW, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Psaki crossed the line Thursday during a White House briefing when she gushed over Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia. McAuliffe is locked in a tight race against Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin.

Psaki was asked if the White House was interpreting the race as a referendum on President Joe Biden’s policies, which McAuliffe strongly supports.

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“Well, I have to be a little careful about how much political analysis I do from here and not (inaudible) into that too much,” she said, according to a White House transcript of the briefing.

“Look, I think the president, of course, wants former Gov. McAuliffe to be the future governor of Virginia. There is alignment on a lot of their agenda, whether it is the need to invest in rebuilding our roads, rails, and bridges, or making it easier for women to rejoin the workforce,” she said.

“I will say as — I will leave it to other outside analysis to convey that off-year elections are often — are often not a bellwether, but — and there’s a lot of history here in Virginia. But, again, we’re going to do everything we can to help former Gov. McAuliffe, and we believe in the agenda he’s representing,” she said.

The letter from CREW said Psaki’s comment was a foul when it came to the Hatch Act.Did Jen Psaki violate the Hatch Act?Yes No
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“By mixing official government business with support of a candidate for partisan political office in the weeks before the election and engaging in political activity while on duty, Ms. Psaki appears to have used her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election, political activity that is prohibited by law,” the letter said.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany scolded the establishment media for not making a peep when Psaki crossed the line.

“Why does the media not hold @PressSec accountable for potential Hatch Act violations? She has twice advocated for political candidates from the podium. There is no problem in engaging in First Amendment political activity, but it must be done separate and apart from the podium,” she tweeted.

Why does the media not hold @PressSec accountable for potential Hatch Act violations? She has twice advocated for political candidates from the podium.

There is no problem in engaging in First Amendment political activity, but it must be done separate and apart from the podium. https://t.co/ICLldHRCgs

— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) October 15, 2021

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Psaki shrugged off the complaint as a case of poor word choice, according to CNN.

“I take ethics seriously. So does the president, of course,” she said in an interview.

“As I understand it, if I had said ‘he’ instead of ‘we,’ that would not have been an issue at all, and I’ll be more careful with my words next time,” Psaki said. “Words certainly matter.”

“While the President has publicly expressed his support for McAuliffe, we’ll leave it to the press and the campaign to provide commentary on the race,” Psaki told CNBC.

Earlier this year, the Office of Special Counsel ruled that Marcia Fudge, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, violated the Hatch Act in talking about Democrats’ chances to win an upcoming election in her home state of Ohio.

The Ohio State Board of Education has rescinded a racial equity resolution it adopted last summer, citing a “troubling focus” on students’ skin color rather than their character.

The resolution in question, approved in July 2020 amid the nationwide unrest sparked by George Floyd’s death, highlighted “significant gaps” in academic performance between black students and their white peers, acknowledging that “profound disparities” between white and non-white students “exist in all parts of the Ohio education system.”

To address the said racial inequity, the resolution directed the Ohio Department of Education (DOE) to require training for all employees and contractors to “identify their own implicit bias,” and recommended that all Ohio school districts reflect on potential bias in their curricula and policies for hiring, staff development, and student discipline.

Following a four-hour debate on Wednesday night, the education board voted to repeal the 2020 resolution by a margin of 10-7, with two members absent, reported Advance Ohio.

In a new resolution put forward as a replacement, the board said it has observed since last July “not only a growing national divide but a troubling focus on the color of one’s skin rather than on the content of one’s character.”

“The Board seeks excellence in education for all children and families, without prejudice or respect to race, ethnicity, or creed,” the resolution reads, adding that it not only acknowledges the disparities between students of different races, but also those among “additional diverse groups, such as economically-disadvantaged students.”

The new resolution no longer asks that the Ohio DOE employees or contractors undergo implicit bias training, citing a legal analysis of the original resolution by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. In his opinion released last month, Yost said the board does not have authority to require private contractors to take such training.

While the Wednesday resolution doesn’t specifically mention critical race theory (CRT), it condemns any attempt to teach the idea that people of a certain race are inherently racist and should feel guilty for historical injustice and oppression committed by those of that race—one of the key premises held by CRT proponents.

“The Board affirms its condemnation of racism, hate speech, hate crimes and violence in the service of hatred,” it reads. “The Board condemns any standards, curriculum, or training programs for students, teachers, or staff that seek to divide or to ascribe circumstances or qualities, such as collective guilt, moral deficiency, or racial bias, to a whole race or group of people.”

Board member John Hagan, who voted in favor of the new resolution, said the original one excessively focused on race.

“I think the initial resolution was very pointed,” Hagan said, according to Advance Ohio. “It kind of said the boogeyman in the problem with these gaps is based on race. I don’t think anyone questions whether race might be a factor in this. But there are a lot of factors.”

House Judiciary Committee Republicans sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding an ethics review and public report regarding the AG’s memo, which directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Attorneys to use law enforcement to investigate parents who “intimidate” school board members.

“This letter is to express our serious concerns about your recent decision to involve federal law enforcement entities in local school board debates and to stifle First Amendment-protected political speech. Your actions are not just inappropriate, but also appear to have been improperly influenced by politics and by your family’s interest in the matter,” wrote the Republican Judiciary Committee members in their letter (pdf), including Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.).

The letter is referring to the memorandum that Garland sent to federal agency heads on Oct. 4 directing the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to mobilize their states’ law enforcement to investigate parents who “threaten violence” toward school board members or administration officials.

“While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views,” stated Garland’s memo.

Garland’s memo came only days after the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to crack down on parents who are “threatening” school boards.

“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” stated the NSBA’s letter.

Parents across the United States and most prominently in Loudon County, Virginia, have been speaking out at crowded school board meetings to oppose some of the curriculum being used in their children’s public schools and divisive ideas such as America is systemically racist. Parents in many areas have also been questioning some of the sexual content in the books being used at their children’s schools.

Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) one of the Reps. who signed the letter to Garland, said he attended Loudon County public schools for most of his childhood but that now the curriculum being taught is an “embarrassment.”

“I also want to know where he thinks he has the power to send FBI into communities to go after parents who are simply going to the school board to express their discontent with what’s happening in school boards,” Roy told Newsmax on Thursday.

A Virginia mother, Asra Nomani, told The Epoch Times those parents are only advocating for what they think is best for their children.

She is the vice president of strategy and investigation with Parents Defending Education, an organization working to “reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agendas,” their webpage states.

Nomani said in an Oct. 8 interview that parents going to school board meetings are, “asking the school board serious questions about how money is spent, the ideology that’s being promoted in the classroom, and these school board members don’t like getting these hard questions.”

“What’s happening in Loudoun County, Virginia, is incomprehensible. … And parents obviously have a right to exercise free speech and demand accountability from public officials. … This should be the time for all parents to get engaged. Do it lawfully, exercise your free speech, but certainly, we have to have some accountability at these local school boards,” Rep. Johnson said during a recent interview with Fox News.

Nomani’s advice to parents is to not be intimidated by the DOJ’s directive but to continue to voice their opposition to the ideas they disagree with, at public school board meetings and videotape their interactions.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Republicans’ letter to the AG.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/gop-congress-members-demand-answers-from-doj-about-parents-free-speech-rights_4051237.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Walgreens issued a statement saying vaccine mix-ups are rare after an Indiana family said their two young children got two full adult doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine instead of influenza shots.

Speaking to 14News, Alexandra and Joshua Price said a Walgreens in Evansville, Indiana, administered the COVID-19 vaccines to their two young children, aged 4 and 5, on Oct. 5. The Pfizer vaccine isn’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration for children under the age of 12.

“Walgreens called me to say there was a mix-up, we did not receive the flu shot,” Alexandra Price told the local news outlet. “And I’m like well what did we get? And he was like we got the COVID-19 shot … And instantly I was like, ‘Well what does this mean for my kids?’”

A lawyer for the family, Daniel Tuley, told the outlet that both children were taken to a pediatric cardiologist. The family was told that both kids were showing signs of heart trouble.

“The children have experienced a number of adverse effects since receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Fever, body aches, cough, headaches, and nausea are among the symptoms the children are experiencing,” Tuley said in a statement to news outlets. “The 4- and 5-year-old are also under treatment of a pediatric cardiologist for tachycardia and elevated blood pressure, respectively.”

The family said the younger child became sick with a fever and a cough and the older child developed a fever.

“Lukas started feeling sick before we even got home from Walgreens,” Price said, referring to her son, CNN reported.

On Tuesday after a follow-up appointment, Alexandra said her son’s condition had improved but her daughter’s condition is worsening.

“Her blood pressure is in the 98th percentile and she continues to have no energy,” Price said, referring to her daughter Sophia.

Walgreens issued statements to several news outlets about the incident, describing such mix-ups as uncommon.

“Generally speaking, such instances are rare, and Walgreens takes these matters very seriously,” Walgreens said in a statement. “In the event of any error, our first concern is always our patients’ well-being.”

The pharmacy chain also said, “Our multi-step vaccination procedure includes several safety checks to minimize the chance of human error and we have reviewed this process with our pharmacy staff in order to prevent such occurrences.”

Walgreens did not elaborate on how the mix-up could have occurred. The Epoch Times has contacted both Walgreens and Pfizer for comment.

In September, a Wallgreens in Fresno, California, also mistakenly injected a COVID-19 vaccine instead of a flu shot.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/walgreens-responds-after-family-says-children-received-covid-19-vaccine-instead-of-flu-shot_4051067.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

A controversial letter sent to President Joe Biden, in which the National School Boards Association (NSBA) asked that some parents attending school board meetings be considered domestic terrorists, was the final straw for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA).

The letter (pdf) prompted the Department of Justice to announce that the FBI and U.S. attorneys would discuss ways to address threats against school employees and board members, a task traditionally left to local law enforcement.

After what it describes as “significant deliberations,” the PSBA voted unanimously to withdraw from the National organization and sent a statement (pdf) to its Pennsylvania members Thursday, explaining the decision.

“The value of the NSBA federation membership has been questioned numerous times over the past several years both within Pennsylvania and amongst many other state school boards associations,” the statement to members says. “This misguided approach has made our work and that of many school boards more difficult. It has fomented more disputes and cast partisanship on our work on behalf of school directors, when we seek to find common ground and support all school directors in their work, no matter their politics. Now is not the time for more politics and posturing, it is the time for solutions to the many challenges facing education.”

PSBA serves 500 school districts and 4,500 elected school board directors. It said a school board meeting should be the model of democracy in action.

“Civility is the bedrock of this approach to local governance,” the statement said. “Board members, the public, and parents need to be held to a high standard of responsible participation in this process. No school board member or administrator should ever be the subject of threats or violence—it is shocking that someone would ever use violence to solve a difference of opinion over educational policies. However, attempting to solve the problems with a call for federal intervention is not the place to begin, nor a model for promoting greater civility and respect for the democratic process.”

PSBA has been unhappy with NSBA for quite a while. “It has been a struggle for the board and leadership of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association to identify a reason to continue to be a part of a federation that is not focused on bipartisanship, civility, and seeking solutions to the internal problems,” the statement said.

PSBA is not alone in its displeasure with NSBA. Florida School Boards Association sent an Oct. 11 letter (pdf) to NSBA encouraging a review of NSBA’s leadership and urged a public acknowledgment of the federal overreach expressed in its letter to the president. “As you are aware, we did not submit payment for 2020–2021 dues, which were due July 1, 2021,” the Florida association wrote. “We have been clear about reassessing the value of our affiliation with NSBA due to concerns surrounding NSBA’s governance, leadership, transparency, and failure to embrace non-partisanship.”

The Montana School Boards Association issued an Oct. 5 statement (pdf) saying NSBA did not consult the Montana organization before it issued its request. “We have full trust and confidence in the civility of constituents, the sincerity and good intentions of those providing input and trusted local law enforcement to address any isolated criminal issues that may arise,” the Montana statement said.

In an Oct. 6 statement, Denotris Jackson, executive director of the Mississippi School Boards Association called the NSBA letter inflammatory. “It has created great dissension, much unproductive discussion, and a rise of distrust in public school board members and educators,” Denotris wrote. “Hearing from passionate stakeholders can be a sign of healthy community engagement. NSBA’s action is counter-productive to board efforts to engage parents and other stakeholders in the activities of the district and to our efforts to solicit stakeholder input and support.”

Parents Defending Education, an advocacy group, contacted state school board associations for comment on the NSBA’s letter to Biden. According to its website, 16 states have distanced themselves from the NSBA’s letter as of Oct. 14, including Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming.

NSBA did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/pennsylvania-school-boards-association-quits-national-school-boards-association_4050838.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Loudoun County parents used the public comment portion of Tuesday’s school board meeting to call for the resignation of the district’s superintendent over an alleged sexual assault cover-up.

Angry parents demanded Superintendent Scott Ziegler and other school board members resign over allegations that the Loudoun County School District and leadership covered up two sexual assaults on two separate school campuses, the Daily Wire originally reported.

Over 60 concerned parents spoke at the meeting, including many who carried signs encouraging Ziegler’s resignation.

“This is not China, this is the United States of America, and we will not be silenced,” one mother said, according to Fox News.

“Remove the superintendent immediately and then resign for your negligence and duplicity. End this nightmare!”

Vaccine Tyranny: UCLA Doctor Escorted Off Property for Refusing Vax, Then He Reveals His Plan

The father of the first alleged sexual assault victim was arrested at a Loudoun County school board meeting on June 22 for “unlawful assembly” after attending the meeting to oppose a transgender student policy that allowed students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.

Smith said his ninth-grade daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy wearing a skirt who entered a girls’ bathroom at Stone Bridge High School on May 28.

At the same board meeting where Scott was arrested, during the hearing on the transgender student policy, Beth Barts, a school board member, said “our students do not need to be protected, and they are not in danger.”

Barts continued, asking Ziegler, “do we have assaults in our bathrooms or locker rooms regularly?”

“To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” Ziegler responded.

“Have we had any issues involving transgender students in our bathrooms or locker rooms?” school board Chairwoman Brenda Sheridan asked.

“I think it’s important to keep our perspective on this, we’ve heard it several times tonight from our public speakers, but the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist,” Ziegler responded.

Juvenile court prosecutors told Smith that the suspect was under house arrest at his mother’s townhouse, but on Oct. 6, a 15-year-old boy was charged with sexual battery and abduction for forcing a girl into a classroom, where he inappropriately touched her, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith’s attorney said the suspect is the same boy who attacked Smith’s daughter at a different school months earlier, the Daily Wire reported.

Tennessee Bill That Places Restrictions on Boys’ Use of Girls’ Restrooms Faces a Legal Challenge

On Aug. 11, the school board voted on and approved Policy 8040, which requires teachers to call students by their “chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity without any substantiating evidence” and allows transgender students to participate in sports and use bathrooms that correspond to their chosen gender identity.

“The 8040 policy was rushed through to a vote without consideration for the safety of all students, simply to satisfy a liberal agenda — a policy that you knew full well would allow our children to be abused inside our schools,” one mother said at the Tuesday school board meeting, Fox News reported.

“At least two young women are recent victims of sexual assaults in our high schools, one of them in a restroom.”

“What is worse than a child being raped at school? The coverup by those who are trusted with the safety and well-being of children,” another mother said.

“Today, Scott Ziegler must resign for the unconscionable act of allowing an alleged rapist back into school to rape again, and for that coverup.”

One 14-year-old LCPS student, Katie Young, said “8040 and many policies that are being proposed are not to make people more comfortable or to accept others but instead to change the way my peers and I think, so that we will become the next generation of social justice warriors.”

“I am 14 years old, the fact that I have to be here defending my rights to not have your radical agenda shoved down my throat in school is not only concerning, it’s upsetting,” she added.

“My peers and I are not tools to further your political agenda.”

Content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of the DCNF’s original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

A version of this article appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation website.

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland to demand an explanation concerning his memorandum to the Federal Bureau of Investigation over “serious concerns” regarding parents at school board meetings.

The letter, first reported by the Daily Caller, was led by Lousiana Rep. Mike Johnson and joined by 18 additional GOP House members on the committee.

“This letter is to express our serious concerns about your recent decision to involve federal law enforcement entities in local school board debates and to stifle First Amendment-protected political speech. Your actions are not just inappropriate, but also appear to have been improperly influenced by politics and by your family’s interest in the matter,” the representatives wrote.

“As members of the House Committee on the Judiciary, we have a responsibility to conduct oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and we trust that you will fully cooperate with our inquiry,” they added.

Part of the letter’s request included a call for Garland to submit himself to an ethics investigation.

(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers

The House members concluded with the “request you promptly consult with the designated agency ethics official to determine if your actions in this matter have resulted in an ethics violation for a breach of impartiality.”

“Judiciary Republicans trust that Mr. Garland will submit to our requested ethics inquiry, publicly release its results, and take whatever actions are necessary to protect the integrity of the office of Attorney General, including either recusing himself from this issue and/or rescinding the October 4th memorandum,” Johnson told the Daily Caller.

Part of the controversy stems from allegations that Garland’s son-in-law profits from work to promote critical race theory.

“The Justice Department usually has very broad standards for the appearance of impropriety that would trigger at least the inquiry into whether there was a conflict of interest,” former U.S. Assistant Attorney Andy McCarthy said during a recent interview with Fox News.

Garland’s son-in-law reportedly co-founded and works with the company Panorama Education. An educational workshop released by the company includes materials that promote critical race theory and fixate on overcoming “white supremacy,” according to Fox.

“The idea is that Garland’s son-in-law is profiting lucratively from peddling this stuff to the schools. And Garland, even though the Justice Department doesn’t appear to have jurisdiction to do what it’s done, is siccing the FBI on parents who are dissenting against these kinds of materials,” McCarthy added.

Garland’s Family Ties to CRT Exposed After He Threatened to Curb Parents’ ‘Intimidation’ of School Boards

Garland sent the Oct. 4 memorandum to the FBI concerning “threats” against school personnel.

“In recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s schools,” the attorney general wrote.

“The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate,” Garland continued.

“In the coming days, the Department will announce a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel,” he went on. “Coordination and partnership with local law enforcement is critical to implementing these measures for the benefit of our nation’s nearly 14,000 public school districts.”

The left’s destructive “defund the police” frenzy has backfired in spectacular fashion as unprecedented crime waves roil Democrat-run cities across the United States.

In the latest iteration, students at a Seattle public school were threatened by an armed duo toting an AR-15 rifle, KOMO-TV reported Wednesday.

The incident occurred Monday afternoon in the parking lot of Ingraham High School, according to a parent whose son witnessed the terrifying confrontation.

The father, who asked to remain anonymous, said a man and a girl drove up to four students in the parking lot. He started yelling at the kids and then threatened to kill them.

“The girl that was in the passenger seat, clicked in and loaded in a magazine into the AR-15,” the dad told KOMO.

Video: Biden Humiliates Himself Again, Refers to ‘Everyone in This Room’ While Delivering Outdoor Speech

His son told him the girl handed the gun to the male driver, who then pointed it at the four frightened students.

“It was the middle of the day and somebody decided to, who knows,” the father said.

He said all parents should be angry that armed thugs freely roamed the school campus and threatened to kill four children.

“You should be outraged,” the father said. “You should be pissed out of your brain.”

Another parent told KOMO, “Hearing that kids are on the property with guns, I want to move my kid away from this region as quickly as possible.”

Amazingly, most students at the school and their parents were unaware of the incident until the following day, when Principal Martin Floe sent out a letter to parents.

In his letter Tuesday, Floe did not share many details about the menacing event.

“Around 2:45 p.m., students reported interacting with two people in a vehicle on the periphery of Ingraham property,” the principal wrote, according to KOMO. “The students also reported seeing a weapon, believed to be a firearm.

“The driver then briefly drove into the visitor parking lot on the west side of campus and then turned into the student parking lot. Neither of the occupants are believed to be Ingraham students.”

Floe said the school alerted the Seattle Police Department about the episode, which is currently under investigation. The principal then paid lip service to protecting students without specifying any actions he’s taking to ensure their safety.

Lib City Shells Out $48 Million for Luxury Apartments – and Then Gives Them to Homeless People

“We will continue to work to resolve this as the safety of our students, staff and school community is our top priority,” he said. “We have been, and will continue to be, a school community where everyone feels safe, respected, and engaged.”

Several parents said Floe’s letter left out key details about the confrontation, including that the car had returned to the parking lot a second time and that the school never went into lockdown.

Some parents told The Post Millennial on Wednesday that the Seattle Police Department was called because there were no security guards at the school.

This is because Seattle Public Schools banned police who had served as school resource officers from campus for one year following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020. A city government report in March said “there are no plans to restart this program.”

Erika Nagy, a parent at Ingraham High School, said students are being endangered because Seattle’s left-wing school district caved to Black Lives Matters’ false narrative demonizing all police as “racists” who are hunting down black people for no reason.

“Seattle Public Schools has become less and less about education and more about what’s the daily  ‘popular’ political view,” Nagy told the Post Millennial.

“Seattle public schools prioritizes a socialist narrative over the education and public safety of our children,” she said.

Nagy pointed out the farcical irony of anti-police school administrators calling the cops to protect them after they had chased law enforcement off the campus last year.

“The same taxpayer-funded ‘for the people’ institution that banned police because of false BLM narratives, had to call the police after armed trespassers entered school property at least twice,” she said.

This is one of many incidents around the country spotlighting how toxic left-wing policies are blowing up in everyone’s faces and eroding public safety.

In August, a squalid homeless camp took over the campus of a Seattle elementary school, where kindergartners were forced to walk in viewing range of street fights, drug addicts shooting up and prostitutes working the streets.

A homeless encampment at a Seattle school continues to grow but the district does little. Fights, drugs, prostitutes… what will happen when the school reopens to students on September 1? I discussed on @AmericaNewsroom with @DanaPerino. This was my 200th FOX News appearance! pic.twitter.com/Xncw212mzZ

— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 5, 2021

Similarly, violent crime has rocketed to unprecedented levels in many Democrat-controlled cities across the United States amid the left’s “defund the police” mania.

Sadly, the cascading, multipronged fallout of these dangerous liberal policies is just beginning to materialize.

When the Department of Justice announced they’d be investigating possible “acts of violence” against school authorities, parents quickly responded. Many saw this investigation as something else.

While the DOJ apparently wants to probe a “disturbing trend” of harassment and threats, many Americans say it’s more about government stepping on their rights as parents.

And former Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos agrees 100%.

On Monday, the news broke that the FBI and U.S. attorney’s officers were going to have meetings with federal, state and local law enforcement in the next month.

The plan: to combat the aforementioned trend of harassment, supposedly perpetrated by parents against school board officials.

Of course, while it’s important not to dismiss legitimate threats, most parents likely aren’t guilty of anything so serious. And many just want to be part of their children’s education.

Now, parents around the nation are calling out this investigation, saying it further diminishes their input, and elevates the power of state and federal leaders.

In speaking to Fox News, DeVos echoed these sentiments:

This memo is a shameless attempt to intimidate parents into silence and to continue to limit their control of their children’s education.

…this is yet another example of the Biden Administration being more focused on keeping the union bosses happy than putting America’s students first.

DeVos added that the DOJ should be more worried about “real civil rights concerns involving indoctrinating students with false, race-based narratives.”

She’s referring to the ongoing battle with CRT (Critical Race Theory), which millions of parents have already spoken out against. DeVos has also been vocal about her criticism of the theory.

As for the DOJ’s investigation, to lots of parents it feels suspiciously like a threat itself.

DeVos said these parents won’t easily be pushed around, however. “Fed-up parents who want the best for their children will not be intimidated into silence,” she noted.

The memo in question came after the National School Board Association penned a letter to President Biden, asking his team to look into parent protests and potential acts of “domestic terrorism.”

This is the sort of terminology that rubs many parents the wrong way.

In fact, here’s what Asra Nomani said; she’s the vice president of investigations and strategy of Parents Defending Education:

I am what a domestic terrorist looks like? You owe parents an apology!

Education remains one of the hot-button issues of the day, and now it’s going beyond topics like CRT.

At this point, parents are very concerned that the state is essentially taking full control of the entire system, and will even push things in school parents absolutely don’t want their children to see and hear.

The progressives claim it’s important for the child’s education — but many moral, common-sense parents vehemently disagree.

Key Takeaways:

• Former Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos called out the DOJ’s investigation into parent protests.
• The FBI has been asked to look into possible acts of “domestic terrorism” by parents against school officials.
• DeVos and many parents claim this is just another way to “intimidate and silence” Americans.

Source: Fox News

https://thepatriotjournal.com/bidens-parents-education-devos/

A Virginia-based parent group attempting to oust five Loudoun County School Board members was given a small win after a Loudoun County Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday in favor of the organization’s recall petition against a board member who sought to dismiss it.

On Tuesday, a judge denied Loudoun County school board member Beth Barts’ motion to dismiss the case and also removed Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj from the case.

The group Fight For Schools and others have alleged that Barts was involved in a private Facebook group that violated the School Board’s Code of Conduct and other laws after members allegedly tried to attempt to reveal private information about parents and opponents.

Judge Jeanette Irby, meanwhile, ruled that Biberaj should be removed from the case due to a public perception issue, arguing the public may not trust the prosecutor to be impartial.

“I have the utmost respect for Ms. Biberaj … however, if she continued on this case there would never be acceptance on this case,” Irby said, according to local media outlets.

An attorney for Citizens of Leesburg, another plaintiff in the case, cited a Twitter post made by Biberaj in which she shared a letter to the editor published in Loudoun Now that supported the district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion work—which is closely aligned with the quasi-Marxist critical race theory that’s now at the center of many heated school board debates across the United States.

Biberaj was also listed as a member of the same private Facebook group in which Barts had belonged—Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun—where members were allegedly sought to reveal private information, or “doxx,” parents and opponents of critical race theory.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office and the school district for comment.

Ian Prior, who is involved in the charge to remove Barts from the school board, said he is pleased with the judge’s decision on Tuesday.

“We are ecstatic,” Prior told WJLA. “I can say for months, parents have been asking for a seat at the table. We haven’t been heard by the school board. They haven’t given us that opportunity. The leaders here haven’t stepped up to try to come to resolution about what’s going on in schools, but yesterday the court gave us that seat at the table.”

“I feel like the judge looked at the evidence and made a decision that was right,” Fight for Schools supporter Erin Dunbar, also a parent, said after the hearing, according to Loudoun Now. “I think she’s unbiased. She’s looking at the evidence in front of her and I think she’s actually going to give us a fair trial.”

Earlier this year, when she was censured over her social media activity, Barts said in a statement: “It’s not my job to be liked. It’s my job to ask hard questions, work to provide the best education for our kids, make sure our teachers are paid what they really deserve, and represent the people of Leesburg.”

Her statement came after School Board Vice Chairwoman Atoosa Reaser asserted in March that Barts repeatedly violated the school board’s code of conduct.

Meanwhile, a several-month-long Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office investigation found that social media posts in the private Facebook group did not constitute criminal action, according to local media. The office, as a result, did not pursue criminal charges against any of the members after they received complaints alleging “evidence of organized criminal activity intended to infringe upon 1st Amendment rights and [violations of] certain laws surrounding the crimes of stalking, harassment, and racketeering.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/virginia-judge-hands-victory-to-parents-sides-against-prosecutor-on-school-board-recall_4037593.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

With the emergence of U.S. Constitution focus groups in North Carolina comes their different strategies on reasserting what they say are breached liberties.

The WNCFreedom2020 group in Asheville, North Carolina, has convened a Grand Jury of the People, according to its founders, pursuant to the 1215 Magna Carta and the North Carolina State Constitution, to question the authority of the Buncombe County Commissioners and Board of Education’s COVID-19 policies.

According to the documents, a people’s civil grand jury is recognized as the authority on correcting, admonishing, and reining in “tyrannical actions” of government.

Kay Olsen, WNCFreedom2020’s secretary, told The Epoch Times, “There are four branches of government: the judicial, legislative, and executive branch. Then there’s ‘We the People.’ Somehow, the other three branches have forgotten that we put them there.”

Olsen referred to a quote from the late Antonin Scalia, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1986 until 2016.

The quote comes from his opinion in the case of United States vs. Williams, a 1992 ruling during which the purpose of the grand jury was debated surrounding a hearing in which exculpatory evidence had been withheld from the grand jury, a decision that might not have led to indictment based on that evidence, according to the defendant.

Scalia says that the grand jury is alluded to in the Bill of Rights, but not in the U.S. Constitution, and has not been “textually assigned” to any of the branches in the first three Articles.

“In fact, the whole theory of its function is that it belongs to no branch of the institutional government, serving as a kind of buffer or referee between the government and the people,” Scalia says.

Thus, the citizens have an “unbridled right” to create their own grand juries, Scalia says, and present “true bills of indictment” to a court that can lead to criminal proceedings.

“Our Founding Fathers presciently thereby created a ‘buffer’ the people may rely upon for justice, when public officials, including judges, criminally violate the law,” Scalia says.

Findings of the Grand Jury

The group published three findings in its civil grand jury specifically directed at the Buncombe County State Government in Asheville, North Carolina.

The jury said that the state has no authority to mandate masks or vaccinations in its school system and demanded that its schools eradicate Critical Race Theory (CRT) from its curriculum.

CRT is a Marxist philosophy that describes society as a class struggle between oppressors and the oppressed; it labels white people as the oppressors, and all other races as the oppressed.

The Grand Jury of the People served its findings to the Buncombe County School Board, County Commissioners, and the Sheriff’s Department in August.

In its second meeting in September, Olsen said the grand jury awarded financial restitution to parents of children who had been what the grand jury alleged as abused by restrictive COVID-19 masking and medical discrimination policies.

“This past week, the grand jury—after hearing sworn testimony by several parents, the distressful, and in many cases, unlawful conduct of teachers, principals, and other school employees—unanimously determined the following offenses and have determined damages be rewarded,” the findings reported.

This restitution, according to Olsen, is to be paid by the board of education to five parents: $60,000 to one, and $55,000 to the four others.

“The board has 30 days to respond,” Olsen said.

The grand jury sent notices of its actions to Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, Democrat Attorney General Joshua Stein, Republican Chief Justice Paul Newby, Republican House Speaker Tim Moore, and Republican state Sen. Phil Berger.

“We have sent them the findings of the first grand jury and the second grand jury, with a letter stating that Buncombe County has not responded to our first grand jury, and that it’s the governor’s responsibility to remedy this,” Olsen said.

Grand Jury of the People’s Structure

The Grand Jury of the People is comprised of 24 people or more who aren’t required to be named.

The meetings are held in secret, and no one is allowed to discuss what took place in the meeting.

The foreperson, assistant foreperson, the secretary, and the grand jury sign an oath, and hear testimony from people who choose to come before the grand jury.

The oath is specifically to uphold the U.S. Constitution of 1787 and the NC Constitution of 1776, Olsen said.

Later, findings are made based on the testimonies given.

Those findings are then delivered to what the grand jury decides are the transgressing entities, such as the school board and the commissioners that have mandated masks and enacted what the jury has deemed as medical discriminatory policies.

The grand jury alleged that county officials have not done their due diligence in researching the science that contradicts the effectiveness of the policies and their harmful outcomes, nor does the county have the authority to prescribe medical accommodations, therefore they must terminate the policies, according to its findings.

Right to Assemble

According to one of the advisors of the grand jury, Mike Flannigan, the word “assemble” must be viewed from a 1776 perspective.

“It’s not people sitting on the street corner with signs saying, ‘Hell no,’” Flannigan told The Epoch Times. “An assembly is an assembly of the people called together to correct their government, and the grand jury is the ultimate form of that. It’s a grand jury because it has a larger number of people than a petit jury, which is used during the trial.”

The people have the right to assemble to instruct their representatives, Flannigan said.

“And if they ignore the instructions of the people, they are creating a constitutional crisis, and should be removed from office,” Flannigan said. “The people don’t ask for permission. If you go to the government and ask for permission, who is really ruling the roost?”

Buncombe County Response

Though the Buncombe County Board of Education did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for a statement on its reply to the Grand Jury of the People, the Buncombe County Commission Chair, Brownie Newman, told The Epoch Times that he’s aware of the group.

“My response to these groups is that if they really believe that ‘the people’ agree with their views, they should file to run for elective office just as the people serving on the county commission and county school board have done,” Newman said. “Elections are how we decide who will represent the community. For a small group of self-selected people who have never been elected by anyone in our community to decide they have the authority to impose their agenda on everyone else goes against everything our Constitution stands for, in my opinion.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/grand-jury-of-the-people-forms-as-unique-strategy-to-challenge-local-governments-authority_4037283.html?utm_medium=epochtimes&utm_source=telegram

Attorney General Merrick Garland has a conflict of interest in his order to federal officials to target parents who are suspected of intimidating, harassing, or being violent toward school staffers, activists say.

Garland in an Oct. 4 memorandum directed FBI agents and U.S. attorneys to address what he described as “a disturbing spike” in such behavior in recent months. He said a series of measures will be announced soon “to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”

Parents have increasingly protested against the rise of critical race theory teachings in schools, but few incidents have turned violent.

Some activists say Garland’s order constitutes a conflict of interest, pointing to contracts that his son-in-law’s company, Panorama Education, has signed with school districts across the country.

In one case, Asra Nomani of Parents Defending Education said, the company signed a $1.8 million contract with Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia that will see Panorama collect information on students with surveys including questions about whether they feel “gender fluid.” There are also portions allocated for “equity” professional development, a word often used by critical race theorists.

“Panorama Education staff gets status as ‘school officials’ so they have the right to private student data under federal law, according to an email just sent by a Fairfax County school district official. This is federal law that Garland would have to enforce and Big Tech is now circumventing,” Nomani wrote in a blog post.

“The Attorney General is instructing the FBI to investigate parents who might pose a financial threat to the business of his daughter’s husband,” she wrote in another blog, under the moniker Sundance.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said he’s been reviewing notes on Garland’s connections.

“The allegations that Attorney General Garland’s family is potentially profiting off his recent decision to use federal law enforcement to shut down debate at school board meetings is deeply troubling. If this turns out to be true, Congress must hold oversight hearings now to investigate potential corruption,” he told The Epoch Times via email.

Panorama and the Department of Justice (DOJ) didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment by The Epoch Times.

A Panorama spokesperson told news outlets that the company “only uses student data for the purpose of helping schools and districts better serve their students.”

The company isn’t linked with “any particular academic philosophy, including critical race theory,” the spokesperson said. “The only relationship between Panorama Education and Attorney General Merrick Garland is that Panorama’s co-founder Xan Tanner is AG Garland’s son-in-law.”

Lisa Monaco, a top DOJ official, defended the order before Congress this week, arguing that “spirited debate” was welcome at school board meetings but that “violence is not appropriate.”

Most of the incidents were merely parents growing “rowdy or disruptive,” writer Zaid Jilani said.

The National School Boards Association urged the Biden administration to deal with “angry mobs” of parents just days before the order was issued, listing a number of incidents it deemed over the line. “The classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” the association wrote.

The association welcomed the new order, saying it sent “a strong message to individuals with violent intent who are focused on causing chaos, disrupting our public schools, and driving wedges between school boards and the parents, students, and communities they serve.”

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Parents opposed to critical race theory (CRT) in California classrooms are outraged over accusations from school boards that criticism of ethnic studies curriculums based on CRT and other neo-Marxist ideologies is linked to domestic terrorism.

The National School Boards Association (NSBA), which denies CRT is being taught in K-12 schools, in a Sept. 29 letter (pdf) said parents at local school board meetings opposed to CRT and mask mandates are contributing to a “growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation” and asked President Joe Biden’s administration to address the issue.

The NSBA letter states: “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

Celeste Fiehler, a member of ParentsUnion.org, told The Epoch Times the NSBA comparison of parents to “domestic terrorism” is ludicrous and wrong.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s an intimidation tactic,” she said. “I’m not afraid of the FBI knocking on my door because I stood up for my kid as a parent.”

She opposes CRT, which she calls “hate-based” education that divides students into oppressed and oppressors based on race and privilege.

“When you take power away from parents, or their ability to raise their children, you’re going to get angry parents—parents who love their children,” said Fiehler, whose children attend the Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) in Riverside County.

“We’re not knocking down podiums. We’re not burning down school buildings. We’re asking for fair education for our children, and what we oppose is the curriculum,” Fiehler said.

AG and DOJ Respond

Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland responded with a memorandum and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release announcing a concerted effort to target threats of violence, intimidation, and harassment by parents directed toward school board members, teachers, and other personnel.

“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” wrote Attorney General Garland. “Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety.”

Garland has directed his office and the FBI “to meet in the next 30 days with federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement leaders to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend. These sessions will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment and response by law enforcement,” according to the press release.

The DOJ will create a task force consisting of representatives from the department’s Criminal Division, National Security Division, Civil Rights Division, the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the FBI, the Community Relations Service and the Office of Justice Programs “to determine how federal enforcement tools can be used to prosecute these crimes, and ways to assist state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement where threats of violence may not constitute federal crimes.”

The DOJ will also create specialized training and guidance for local school boards and administrators to “help school board members and other potential victims understand the type of behavior that constitutes threats, how to report threatening conduct to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and how to capture and preserve evidence of threatening conduct to aid in the investigation and prosecution of these crimes.”

Riverside County

Fiehler blasted the “domestic terrorist” label at a DSUSD meeting on Tuesday.

“If you think for one second, that parents who love their children and are here to protect them … are domestic terrorists, then consider every single one of us just that,” Fiehler said.

“Being a domestic terrorist, you’ll see me in the pickup line and the drop-off lines of three different schools, rushing three kids to sports, and at the high school football games because I love my children,” she told the board.

“What you won’t see is this tired terrorist mom doing is burning down buildings, destroying property, physically assaulting people throwing Molotov cocktails out my car window, or murdering anyone,” she said, referring to incidents during the 2020 summer riots. “I’m a law-abiding citizen who wants a fair and healthy education for my children.”

“So, don’t mess with parents protecting their children because you will lose,” she concluded.

Fiehler said Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris downplayed the violence that occurred during protests following the death of George Floyd last year.

“Thousands of people were injured, hundreds of lives were changed forever, and a lot of people died because of them,” she said.

Rather than policing parents, she said “the activists should be investigated.”

Fiehler said some school boards have taken steps to disrupt the conversation on CRT and other important topics, including censoring videos of public meetings on YouTube to remove parents’ comments and removing chairs to limit the seating capacity at meetings.

Monterey County

Kelly Schenkoske, a Monterey County parent who homeschools her children, has opposed the ethnic studies curriculum and CRT at Salinas Union High School District (SUHSD) meetings.

The NSBA’s comparison of parents protesting CRT to domestic terrorism, suggesting there is some kind of moral equivalency, is simply false, she said.

“They want to shut down any dissenting voices. They want conformity,” Schenkoske said. “While they’re attempting to silence the civic engagement of parents and taxpayers, they’re ramping up efforts to push civic engagement on youth.”

Many teachers in public schools are actively recruiting unsuspecting “young foot soldiers” to promote their own political ideologies, she said.

The book, “Rethinking Ethnic Studies,” by R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, encourages student activism and talks about the youth voice as imperative, Schenkoske said.

“It showcases their agenda for all,” she said.

SUHSD has recently used a new tactic, allowing students to comment first at school board meetings, Schenkoske said. Though there hasn’t been a change in official board policy, she said it’s another strategy the board has used to silence dissenting opinions and block criticism.

At the last board meeting, parents who requested their three minutes to speak were denied the opportunity because of the new policy.

“None of them were ever allowed to speak. Students were given the entire allotted time,” she said.

SUHSD teacher Peter Williams has mentioned several times at recent school board meetings that parents opposed to CRT should not be allowed to speak.

Orange County

Irvine parent David Whitley told The Epoch Times many parents in Orange County are fed up with what public schools are teaching, and many parents have chosen CRT as “a hill to die on.”

“We’re either going to get this nonsense tampered down, or people like me are going to leave the state. There’s no reason to stay in a place that is completely anti-American and growing to be anti-white under the guise of anti-racism. It just defies logic and reason,” he said.

Comparing irate parents to domestic terrorists is “completely absurd,” he said. “If there’s one thing parents should be doing, it’s being extremely angry at what the public schools are teaching their kids … so I am ecstatic that more and more parents are going to the school board meetings and speaking up.”

Though “it’s a little bit late in the day” to try to fix public schools in the state, Whitley said parents can no longer sit back and watch what’s happening.

Whitley said it’s not surprising that the recent backlash from parents has left local school boards and other government officials feeling threatened.

“They should,” he said, “because the country is run by families and by parents. The public schools are there to educate their kids so that they’re informed and good citizens, and what they’re doing in the public schools is literally dividing the nation and destroying the country.”

Whitley urged more parents to stand up against the school boards.

Children are being taught to have “different moral views, different views on sexuality, different views on American history, different views on the nuclear family and their place in life itself,” he said. “It’s just absurd.”

While he’s glad to see so many mothers at school board meetings, Whitley said more fathers are now showing up.

“That may be why they’re intimidated, because it’s not just a bunch of soccer moms that are talking at the school board meetings now,” he said.

“And, they want to intimidate us with the power of the FBI? Well, I know people in law enforcement, and they don’t like what’s going on either,” Whitley said. “So, it’s going to come to a head at some point because what I know is the parents that are upset by this aren’t going away until they’re either in handcuffs or they stop indoctrinating their children.”

Californians for Equal Rights

Meanwhile, the Californians for Equal Rights Foundation (CFER) on Oct. 1, joined forces with 20 organizations in response (pdf) to NSBA’s “fear-mongering” letter,” the organization stated in a media release.

“Going forward, CFER will stand with our parent and community supporters in the unifying and broad-based movement against toxic racial divisions and political indoctrination in our public education system,” according to the media release.

“CFER is particularly alarmed by DOJ’s categorical allegation of grassroots activities at the school district level as ‘criminal conduct,’ and how this call for federal investigations can gravely discourage civic participation,” the media release stated.

“In response to community demands for more transparency and parental access to controversial educational activities, CFER has engaged in local organizing and awareness building on issues such as ethnic studies, critical race theory and racial preferences,” said Frank Xu, CFER president.

“Contrary to the victim narrative promoted by DOJ to coddle school board personnel, lack of responsiveness and accountability on the part of many public-school authorities has prompted a growing number of parents speaking at open meetings and seeking legitimate channels to express their concerns,” the release stated.

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