Posted on 04/09/2022 4:24:25 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Goldwater Institute is a leading free-market public policy research and litigation organization that is dedicated to empowering all Americans to live freer, happier lives. We accomplish real results for liberty by working in state courts, legislatures, and communities nationwide to advance, defend, and strengthen the freedom guaranteed by the constitutions of the United States and the fifty states. The following column is by Nicole Solas, a mother in Rhode Island and a client of the Goldwater Institute.
I’m just like any parent—when I enrolled my daughter in kindergarten, I wanted to know what she would learn. In response, our school district bullied, harassed, defamed, evaded, and stonewalled me. Then the teachers union sued me. I left public school because I no longer felt safe but I’m still taking action to get answers.
Kindergarten is a precious milestone. Our babies are not babies anymore: They go to school for full days. Parents want to know their children are safe at school, and they want to feel confident that their children are receiving a quality education. I knew many public schools across the country have been politicizing lessons, so I called my principal in the South Kingstown School District in Rhode Island to ask if they teach concepts of Critical Race Theory or gender theory. That question and the events that followed changed my life.
The principal said they don’t call children “boys” and “girls,” and teachers embed values of gender theory into classroom lessons. They ask kindergartners, “What could have been done differently on Thanksgiving?” How can five-year-olds answer such a bizarre question that shames them for their American heritage? The principal told me these were “common practices” but could not define a “common practice” or tell me when these “practices” originated. Now I wanted to know these “common practices” and the educational pedagogy supporting them, but the school refused to answer my questions.
Instead, my school did everything in its power to evade me. The school told me to submit public record requests, but when I submitted what they considered to be too many requests, the school publicly threatened to sue me. They held a special public meeting to target me and treated me as if I were on trial. There, they publicized my public record requests and my personal emails. They allowed community members to speak in support of me or against me, and one woman whom I’ve never met turned directly to me and called me racist. The school even hired a PR firm to smear me in the national media. Later, the local teachers’ union had a meeting with 250 teachers where they put my name and picture on slides characterizing me as “threat to public education.” Two months later, the Rhode Island branch of the National Education Association filed a frivolous lawsuit against me to silence me and send a message to other parents that they could be punished for asking questions too.
This is all because I did what the school told me to do: submit public record requests about Critical Race Theory and gender theory. I became the target of an organized and vicious attack—all because I dared to ask questions about my child’s education.
But it backfired. Treat parents like adversaries, and they will respond like adversaries.
The Goldwater Institute has stepped in to defend me against this bullying litigation and to help me access the public information to which all parents are entitled. Without the help of a public interest law firm like Goldwater, it would be nearly impossible to pay for my legal defense and challenge a powerful public school district. But parents should not need a lawyer to know what their children are learning. Parents should not be sued by a $300 million dollar union just for asking questions.
All parents have the right to know what their kids are taught in the classroom. There is absolutely no reason why our public schools should keep this information under lock and key. Instead of being transparent, school districts bully parents like me who challenge their woke activism. If schools are so proud of what they teach, why do they go to such great lengths to hide it?
I now understand what it means to be abused by government power. If South Kingstown School District and the teachers union can so viciously target a parent, what will stop them from targeting a vulnerable child? I could not subject my daughter to such a hostile learning environment that attacks anyone with questions or a different point of view.
In stark contrast, I asked my new private school whether they taught or practiced Critical Race Theory and gender theory and the answer was simple: no. I had a tour, met the kindergarten teacher, and had my curriculum questions answered in one day. None of that was possible in the South Kingstown School District.
I hope that my story encourages more parents to ask questions about what their children are learning in public school. Remember that your taxes fund public school, and you are entitled to know exactly what you are paying for. I know the risk of retaliation is real—it happened to me—but our kids are worth the risk, and I’m still here fighting back. We have to show our kids how to stand up for themselves. If we don’t teach them that, who will?
The Long, Horrifying History of Groomers
They are coming for your children. They will have an advocate on the Supreme Court.
By Antoinette Aubert / April 8, 2022
https://amgreatness.com/2022/04/08/the-long-horrifying-history-of-groomers/
In the 1980s and 90s, I worked in child advocacy. One of my jobs was to teach children how to protect themselves from abuse. First and foremost I taught children that adults should not be telling children to keep secrets. I taught children if an adult were to tell a child that something the adult does or says must be kept secret from mom or dad, the adult was doing wrong. The first way for a child to protect themselves was to immediately tell mom and dad about adults wanting to keep secrets.
Florida took that safety lecture I used to teach children and turned it into legislation, (HB 1557) Parental Rights In Education. Simply put, the law requires schools to keep no secrets from parents. Whatever the schools are teaching children, the schools must notify parents. This is basic safety for a child, codified into law.
It was once my job to give children this knowledge to protect themselves. Imagine my stark horror now. Now, if you tell children to protect themselves from secret-keepers you are labeled a bigot, homophobe, and transphobe. The entire media industrial complex is demanding teachers be allowed to keep secrets from parents.
Teachers have decided they are victims if they aren’t allowed to keep secrets with five year-olds. [rest at link]
Good post thanks.
Schools are poisonous.
Sad.
We used to have a decent system going there.
Even a worm will turn
Why the left really wants to sexualize your kids
Calling them ‘groomers’ is on the right track
“The left’s goal is to drive a wedge between children and their parents so they can be more easily indoctrinated with radical, progressive ideas.”
> by Amber Athey, April 7, 2022
https://spectatorworld.com/topic/left-groomers-dont-say-gay-bill-debate/
It could be successfully argued in a court of law that sending your child to public school constitutes child abuse and conspiracy to do so.
Another Reason to Homeschool
“I asked my new private school whether they taught or practiced Critical Race Theory and gender theory and the answer was simple: no.”
That really isn’t enough. They can still teach it but refer to it as a name other than Critical Race Theory. So they can say, “No” and be technically not lying. It’s a form of Clinton-speak.
OK groomer.
Excellent point!
Get your children, your children’s children, and your friends’ children out of public school now, and keep them out.
Public education is CHILD ABUSE..........PERIOD!!!!
That horrible horned character is a man from Lansdale, Pa., who goes by the stage name of Annie Christ. Mocking God and women, destroying children, duping foolish parents and professionals. Annie Christ indeed.
“Yes, David French, Public Schools Are Absolutely ‘Grooming’ Children. I Would Know”
BY KAELEY TRILLER / APRIL 07, 2022
“I spent the first 10 years of my life being groomed by a pedophile. I am intimately familiar with the tactics and methods, all of which are brazenly present in much of today’s curriculum.”
In a sane and healthy society, the men of “Annie Christ’s” town would arrange a tar and feather party, and “ride him out of town on a rail...”
At the very least.
But we are neither a sane nor a healthy society.
Public schools have been indoctrination/brainwashing centers since the ‘70’s.
Silence and ignorance of conservatives has allowed them to only magnify their success as such for decades.
Too late now to change them.....
Why? Because the schools are symptoms, not causes. The origin is in the EDU and Journalism schools of our colleges and universities - totally controlled by Marxists.
As planned in the 1930’s.........
Good grooming used to be taught to kids. Now they do it to them.
America’s public school systems...... “WE OWN YOUR CHILDREN, AND WE HAVE 12 YEARS TO INDOCTRINATE THEM INTO IGNORANCE!”..../sarc
Read up on Paolo Friere to see where these ideas originated
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.