New American heroes -- parents fight against a gay agenda in America's schools

Each day millions of students are sent off by their parents to build a solid academic base as well as to learn about our American values in school. What happens when the topics your child may be learning are ideals and values that marginalize how you have raised them and articulate an agenda that compromises your family's religious beliefs and those of the vast majority of Americans? Is this a church and state separation argument or is this a parental rights revolution in the making? What kind of parent does it take to stand up for his/her child?

One such parent and one such hero is David Parker who was arrested and jailed in Lexington, Massachusetts last year in April. He had a rather simple innocent request. He wanted to be notified when his then six-year-old son, who was in kindergarten, before adults, ie. his teachers, discuss homosexuality or transgenderism with him while in school. Well the school did the politically correct thing and refused his request. Massachusetts state law requires parental notification.

Was Parker politically incorrect for fighting for enforcement of state law? As a parent, what are you willing to sacrifice to stand up and protect your child from a school or a school district that is willing to take away or marginalize your child's values and principles because it is convenient for them, inconvenient for you, and politically correct for the few parents or secular organizations that would like the scant minority view and values to dominate our American culture of life, of its principles and of its biblical heritage?

Who knows what inner principle guided David Parker as he took on the goliath public school system. We understand that in our American heritage there are always those small towns, big cities and rural communities that give birth to parental heroes whose actions become larger than life. They pray over their decisions at their kitchen table or in the living room or perhaps during the church service. They realize that if as a responsible parent they do not take a stand on principle, then they should turn over their role and responsibility to the offending teacher, principal, school administrator or local school board member because it would be easy, convenient and just swallow their principles and values. With that in mind, it is difficult to see why any parent wouldn't stand up.

This year, again, Parker's son's school, Estabrook Elementary according to published reports, decided to present the book "King and King," which is about homosexual romance and marriage, to second graders.

David Parker and other parents were highly disturbed that again the school refused to grant parental notification. This dismissive attitude had gone on long enough so in April of this year David Parker and his wife joined other parents and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against school officials and the Town of Lexington over the incidents and the town's refusal to follow state law.

The anti-parental rights supporters struck back and jumped into the legal fray. Several national gay rights advocacy groups and Massachusetts state groups like American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders are systematically working their homosexual agenda in Massachusetts by forcing the issue in public schools and building this case into a battleground state issue much as the same-sex marriage battle which had begun in Massachusetts and had swept into state legislatures across the country. These insidious fringe groups are using Massachusetts to get their foot into the door and then using that opening to force their way in to the rest of the country.

These groups went to federal court to block David Parker and other parents insistence that lack of enforcement of the state's Parental Notification Law (M.G.L. Ch. 71, Sec. 32A) was a violation of their children's civil rights and Constitutional rights.

Just where were the PTA or the parents groups? Were they just standing around in small little rooms eating doughnuts and drinking coffee? Where is the ACLU in assuring that David Parker and other parents' civil liberties are being protected? Do they only care about the civil rights of the far left fringe?

Well according to Brian Camenker, President of Mass Resistance — a Massachusetts-based pro-family action center that fights attacks on our freedoms, constitutional government, our children, and parents' rights — said the PTO in Parker's son's school was less than helpful. "In this town the liberal politically active parents congregate around Parent Teacher Organizations (PTO). In some ways they have been hostile to parents like David Parker."

It has become an unfortunate circumstance in far too many communities across America that conservative parents or those who are of faith find out that when they go to their school parents organization to assist them in simply standing up for the interests of their kids or for the enforcement of laws which were passed to protect their children, they are given the cold to lukewarm shoulder.

It appears the PTO at Parker's school was MIA when his son Jacob was beaten by bullies behind his school, Joseph Estabrook Elementary, on May 17, (which just happened to be the second anniversary of same-sex "marriage" in the Bay State) who didn't agree with Jacob's father's stand. Did the PTO complain when, according to Camenker, "none of the kids involved were suspended from school"? Does this send a chilling message to other parents who would stand up for their children's civil and constitutional rights? The Parkers needed answers not lukewarm silence or worse indifference.

But David Parker and his wife, as Brian Camenker knows and the nation will soon come to know, are deeply religious people. "He put a lot of religious things that were important to him in the legal brief. He is the real thing and was willing to go to jail for this," stated Camenker.

What David Parker and his wife were willing to do was not stand on the sidelines pointing fingers, serving doughnuts or coffee, or compromising their children's future to just go along in order to get along — just being lukewarm.

David Parker, I am sure, is familiar with the teachings in Revelation 3:15–16. This is where Jesus is speaking and says, "[15] I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou were cold or hot. [16] So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

A lukewarm supporter is perhaps the most dangerous type because as Allen Roy states in "Good News and Bad News About The Judgment," "A lukewarm person is one who is hot on the outside but cold on the inside. It's the kind of person who knows all the rules and regulations, who has beaten a hard path from his home to the church door, who knows all the forms and ceremonies, but who still keeps God at arm's length." Therefore this type of support or sacrifice is compromised and truly only ceremonial at best.

But David Parker and his wife and the other parents need more than ceremonial support. According to Camenker, "David and his wife believe so deeply in this issue that they have put their life savings into this lawsuit and they need all of our help."

My friends this issue is not unique or isolated to Massachusetts. Parents in the Philadelphia, PA school district are preparing to fight against the school district's effort to indoctrinate school children into what can be labeled a "gay" agenda with the district's announcement that October is "Gay and Lesbian History Month."

Parents you can draw a line in the sand by not standing alongside parents who have buried their heads in the sand along with their ceremonial lukewarm support. David Parker needs you to not be lukewarm about standing on the Parent's Rights battlefield with him.

According to Camenker the Parkers have started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal defense fund to help continue to battle called the David Parker Fund. For more information contact Brian Camenker the President of Mass Resistance. His email is Brian@MassResistance.org Write him at P.O. Box 1612, Waltham, MA 02454 or call him at 781-890-6001.

The Parkers are truly American Heroes with a capital "H." Let us remember that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of Parkers around America and in the Heartland who need to be supported in this necessary Parents' Rights Revolution.

Samuel Adams, one of America's Revolutionary Heroes and a Founding American Father, whose father was a church deacon probably put it best concerning lukewarm supporters when he said, "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."

Take off the politically correct chains of convenience and stand with the Parkers as they fight to protect their child and your children's future.

Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is a regular contributing columnist for the Detroit News.

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL PING!

Another piece on the David Parker/Massachusetts story, and Philadelphia, PA, is mentioned, too.

This ping list is for the "other" articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. If you want on/off this list, please freepmail me. The main Homeschool Ping List by DaveLoneRanger handles the homeschool-specific articles.

The more I read about Mr. Parker, the less I support what he is doing.

It's obvious to even the most casual observer that Mr. Parker's child is in a hostile environment. Your primary responsibility as a parent is to raise and protect your child. It is not to engage in political grandstanding, nor is it to use your child as a sacrificial lamb. The child has no choice in this matter. This isn't an adult that's being forced to stand his ground, it's a child of 6 or 7 years.

This government school is beyond repair.

I just went and read about the whole debacle on Mr. Parker's website and IMHO he should not be allowing his son to remain in that school. It is harming the child to not be able to have his parent attend school functions. There is also some question in my mind as to how the teachers would "opt-out" their child if discussions arose "spontaneously" without causing harm to their child by having him singled out among his peers.

While I support Parker's right to not have his son exposed to things that are against their beliefs forcing the public school system to uphold those beliefs is wrong, and IMHO he is abdicating his parental duties to the school district and teachers which is exactly what should NOT be done.

He is, in essence, wanting to force public school officials to behave as a parental unit. I don't know how one would resolve this issue besides pulling the child out and either placing him in a private school, or homeschooling...

"He is, in essence, wanting to force public school officials to behave as a parental unit. I don't know how one would resolve this issue besides pulling the child out and either placing him in a private school, or homeschooling..."

Exactly. This gentleman has already been arrested over his conflict with this government school. You'd think it would be obvious that the time to shake the dust from his sandals had come.

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.