According to Attorney General Merrick Garland, you might be a domestic terrorist. Effectively immediately, the National Security Division is handling the investigation of “harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools.”
I have long advocated that parents not sit back and be afraid that if they expressed their disagreement with what is being taught in school, their kids would feel the brunt of the blowback. Now, instead of punishing your kids for your complaints, you will feel the repercussions yourself. Of course, you should not do anything violent or use words that are vulgar or hateful, but if you are angry, let the world know you are angry. Wear it as a badge of honor. You care enough to fight for good education for your kids. Instilling racism through the teaching of CRT is only one of the objectionable instruction materials teacher unions and some school boards and teachers are promoting.
I don’t see the protester who followed Senator Kyrsten Sinema into a restroom being charged with harassment.
I don’t see the crowds who intimidated and threatened Senator Rand Paul and his wife leaving the White House and injured a police officer being arrested.
I don’t see perpetrators of the so-called peaceful riots in jail.
But parents who demand a good and valuable education for
their kids? They are domestic terrorists. A few years ago, when Sarah Palin was running for Vice President of the United States, she said: “I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”
You may not be a hockey mom or dad, but change that to “concerned parent.” Be a pit bull and don’t let go no matter how much the federal government tries to get involved in local school affairs. You are not the first, and you will probably not be the last parent(s) to face this challenge. Below is an excerpt of chapter 10 in my book Who’s Got Dibs on Your Kids?. If you would like to read the full chapter, let me know and I’ll email it to you.
Chapter Ten
Who’s Got Dibs on Your PARENTAL RIGHTS?
God Gave Your Kids to YOU—Not the Government!
“Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord” (Psalm 31:24).
Do you remember when your little darling was about two or three and the strident “NO!” bounced off the walls anytime an unwanted food was approaching, or the car seat became the hated object of the day? Then there was the “I don’t want to” accompanied by a foot stomping. Not all kids go through that stage; it isn’t very pleasant, but you have to admit it gets attention.
If you are going to exercise your parental rights to protect your kids from unwanted overreaching authority, you are going to have to do a little foot stomping yourself, accompanied with a don’t-mess-with-me “NO!”
What the Courts have to say
In November 2005 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled your rights as a parent to control the way your children are raised, and what they are taught, end when you let go of your kids’ hands and they step foot into the school. The ruling reads, your right “does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door.” They also determined that the school has the right to teach your kids anything they want to teach: “. . . whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise.”[i]
This court (the case was Fields v. Palmdale School District) upheld a lower court’s ruling that your responsibility as a parent, entrusted to you by God, and with the instruction to “bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord,” simply disappears when they go to school. The court said you—your kids’ parent—don’t have the right “to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex in accordance with the personal and religious value and beliefs.” (Emphasis mine.) The ruling continued, “. . . there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children.” You also have no right “to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed.” That court also stated parents’ “fundamental right to control the education of their children is, at the least, substantially diminished.”
You have been stripped of your parental rights. The government requires school attendance. That requirement carries with it denying your right to direct all forms of education of your kids the moment they pass through the door of a public school.
What started the uproar that ended up in a federal court? The school district had seven- to ten-year old kids complete a questionnaire that asked if they thought about having sex, touching the private parts of others, and committing suicide. What was the purpose of this personal invasion of privacy? The court’s decision asserted that the questions were designed “to improve student’s ability to learn.” I have to ask: to learn what?
A permission slip was sent home prior to administering the questionnaire, but it somehow neglected to include information about the deeply personal probing that would take place. It did say that if any child felt uncomfortable with it, the school would have a “therapist for further psychological help.” So what they were saying was, if you or your kids preferred not to answer these questions about sex and suicide there was obviously some kind of a mental problem, and these little kids needed a mental health therapist.
On the positive side, a law was passed in 1978 (yes, this problem goes back that far—farther even than that) that schools can’t ask the students questions about either their own or their parents political leanings, religious beliefs, sexual actions or thoughts, and a whole bunch of other private actions, thoughts, and beliefs. It’s called the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. Public schools and the National Education Association fight constantly against this law, and more often than not prevail.
In November 2005 Congress passed House Resolution 547, voting 320-91, that quoted Supreme Court decisions upholding “the fundamental right of parents to direct the education of their children is firmly grounded in the Nation’s Constitution and traditions.”[ii] It’s just a Resolution though. It doesn’t change a thing. It’s a nice statement, but nothing more. It does, however, put on record that in 1923 the Supreme Court stated that within the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is the “power of parents to control the education” of their kids. (Emphasis mine.)
And in 1925 the Supreme Court stated that your kid is not “the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations . . .”[iii] That term, “additional obligations,” was referred to again by the Supreme Court in 1972. “This primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition. . . . The duty to prepare the child for ‘additional obligations’, referred to by the Court [the 1925 case] must be read to include the inculcation of moral standards, religious beliefs, and elements of good citizenship . . .”[iv]
The Supreme Court also determined that “The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees the right of the individual . . . to establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to his own conscience.”[v] In 1908 (regarding the education of black students) Justice Harlan declared in his dissenting opinion, “The capacity to impart instruction to others is given by the Almighty for beneficent purposes and its use may not be forbidden or interfered with by government . . .”[vi] (Emphasis mine.)
Another case stated that government can’t interfere with your right as a parent to control your kids’ education.[vii] And another concluded the Fourteenth Amendment also guarantees the right to privacy: “This privacy right encompasses and protects the personal intimacies of the home, the family, marriage, motherhood, procreation, and child rearing . . .”[viii] (Emphasis mine.)
Probably the most definitive statement of all by the Supreme Court came in 2000 in the case Troxel v. Granville: “. . . it cannot now be doubted that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.”[ix] (Emphasis mine.)
So why then do the schools get away with their offensive questionnaires, immoral teaching, revision of history to fit a political agenda, and standing as the final authority in the instructions of your kids? It seems it’s because in many cases they can. Without the will, or backing, or financial ability to take it to the Supreme Court, parents are left in the cold, subject to the power of unions, politicians, and local judges.
Your rights in public schools
Public education officials, including school boards, local, state and federal government agencies, along with teachers’ unions, have conferred upon themselves the right to design learning programs, and specify the text books, audio/visual materials, outside speakers and other learning resources. School boards are supposed to be the control group, ensuring that all materials are vetted for appropriateness and accuracy. Some school boards do an excellent job, but others simply default to “recommendations” from others. Where does your school board fall?
For the entire text of chapter 10 go to the Contact page and fill in the required information, asking for the chapter in the Comment area.
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
[i] “Ninth Circuit Decision Denies Parents’ Rights,” Education Reporter, December 2006.
[ii] Rep. Murphy, Tim [R-PA-18], “H.Res.547 – Expressing the Sense of the House of Representatives That the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Deplorably Infringed on Parental Rights in Fields V. Palmdale School District.,” (Congressional Record: United States Congress, 2005).
[iii] Pierce V. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925), 583, 584(1925).
[iv] Wisconsin V. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972), 406(1972).
[v] Meyer V. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923), 262(1923).
[vi] Berea College V. Kentucky, 211 U.S. 45 (1908), 211(1908).
[vii] Pierce V. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925).
[viii] Klicka Esq., Christopher J., “Decisions of the United States Supreme Court Upholding Parental Rights as “Fundamental”,” Home School Legal Defense Association, 27 Oct 2003, http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000075.asp# (Date Accessed: 24 Sep 2015)
[ix] “U.S. Supreme Court: Parents’ Rights Are Fundamental,” Home School Legal Defense Association, 17 Aug 2001, http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/20011210.asp (Date Accessed: 24 Sep 2015)