The results of the Virginia gubernatorial race made two things clear. First, Democrat leaders, in lockstep with teacher unions, want unbridled control of children through public schools. Second, growing numbers of increasingly passionate parents are standing up to the threats to their parental authority over their children. In turning down former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, Virginians sent a resounding message to the entire country \u2014 parents will fight for their rights and for their children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McAuliffe\u2019s candor during a September 29 debate against Glenn Youngkin set parents on fire, and likely cost him the election. Referring to books with sexually explicit material, he vowed that he would not \u201clet parents come into schools and take books off the shelves.\u201d He doubled down a few seconds later with this indicative statement: \u201cI don\u2019t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But his loss was not just a matter of some ill-advised comments. Disturbing as they were to many parents, McAuliffe\u2019s actions while Virginia governor in 2016 revealed that in his mind, parental consent is not applicable when it comes to what is taught in the classroom. Specifically, he vetoed a bill<\/a> that would have required schools to warn parents if their children would be assigned books with sexually explicit content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clearly, this is not just a Virginia issue. On the national stage, just a few days after McAuliffe\u2019s debate statements, Attorney General Merrick Garland threaten<\/a>ed to sic the Department of Justice on parents who speak out against the radical politics, practices, and curriculum in their children\u2019s schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teacher unions are also major players in the drive to exercise control over the next generation. With the remote sessions that became the norm due to Covid school shutdowns, parents had a front-row seat in their children and teens\u2019 classroom. They were understandably shocked to learn that political indoctrination had replaced academic learning. And the longer teacher unions thwarted the reopening of schools to in-person learning, the more parents were exposed to the leftwing agenda dominating the school day. Not surprisingly, parents by the droves pulled their students from public schools mid-year and in the fall of 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The radical ideologies being taught range from gender redefinition and self-selection<\/a>, the rewriting of history<\/a>, and Critical Race Theory<\/a>. But the negative impact on our children\u2019s hearts and minds is not limited to instruction; it is implemented through school policies and practices. For example<\/a>, students as young as age five are not only taught that their gender is open to their own interpretation and selection, but they are also encouraged to self-select the bathroom and the preferred pronouns they use, regardless of whether those match their biological sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Students can go to a Planned Parenthood clinic (under the guise of a Wellness Center) to receive a prescription for hormones of the opposite sex (i.e., estrogen for males and testosterone for females) or be referred for an abortion on their school campus, during the school day, free of charge, and without parental consent.<\/p>Keri D. Ingraham<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Not only is all this often taking place without parental consent required, but in many cases, it is even kept secret from parents and legal guardians through lies and deceit. According to research by Ryan T. Anderson<\/a>, \u201cthey want to set up a school environment so your child or grandchild can transition at school without you knowing about it\u2026to avoid any \u2018inadvertent disclosures.\u2019\u201d Some districts go as far as to have two views of electronic student record information \u2014 one view the parent sees when logged on, including the student\u2019s given name, gender, etc., and another view that only the school can access that includes the conflicted name, gender, and preferred pronouns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legal experts Sarah Parshall Perry and Alexander Phipps argue<\/a> that this overreach and deceit by our public schools violates the equal protection requirement of the 14th<\/sup> Amendment as well as the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which grants parents the rights of their children\u2019s school records. A lawsuit<\/a> in Wisconsin is underway as the Kettle Moraine School District authorizes students to change their names and gender pronouns void of parental consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In prompting children to question their basic identity, schools not only breed confusion but mental and emotional harm. And their agenda is not limited to words \u2014 they actively facilitate gender-transition measures<\/a>. For example, in California, students who qualify can go to a Planned Parenthood clinic (under the guise of a Wellness Center) on their school campus to receive a prescription for hormones<\/a> of the opposite sex (i.e., estrogen for males and testosterone for females). All this is free of charge and requires no parental consent. Furthermore, those prescribing the gender-transitioning drugs can\u2019t even ask for parental consent. But that\u2019s not all. Due to the Biden administration reinstating funding for Title X, under these federal dollars and parameters, pre-teen and teen girls can be referred<\/a> for an abortion on their school campus, during the school day, and in secret from their parents, at the school\u2019s Wellness Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McAuliffe was a bit of a pioneer in 2016 when he used his political power to ensure parents were unaware of sexually explicit books placed in the hands of their children. Yet far graver damage to our children occurs every school day across our nation today \u2014 some with irreversible, life-altering consequences. This includes young girls\u2019 losing the ability to have children<\/a> later in life or, at the other end of the spectrum, choosing to end the life of their preborn child with the encouragement of their school\u2019s clinic, all with no guidance or input from their dad and mom. Young boys are also led to experiencing lifelong implications<\/a> from taking estrogen hormones. And the above-mentioned gender-altering practices are linked with higher rates of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide. In all these cases, children are being fostered to make significant decisions that can cause pain for a lifetime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Public schools, you\u2019ve gone too far and need to be held accountable. It\u2019s time more parents nationwide join those in Virginia to raise their voices and exercise their votes to elect political leaders, superintendents, and school board members who will work with and for parents in the academic education of their children. These are our children, not theirs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" McAuliffe\u2019s candor about his desire to keep parental influence out of the classroom during a September 29 debate against Glenn Youngkin set parents on fire, and likely cost him the election. But more broadly, it symbolized the struggle over who should have authority over children \u2014 parents or the government and teacher unions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":4237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":4,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,533],"tags":[785,76,605,71,548,784,520,521,779,777,78,205,85,715,72,780,68,781,782,783,83,713,778],"coauthors":[1073],"class_list":["post-4234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-policy","category-indoctrination","tag-children","tag-covid-19","tag-critical-race-theory","tag-critical-race-theory-crt","tag-crt","tag-depression","tag-gender-redefinition","tag-gender-self-selection","tag-gender-transition","tag-glenn-youngkin","tag-k-12","tag-k-12-education","tag-parents","tag-political-indoctrination","tag-public-schools","tag-school-clinic","tag-school-closures","tag-school-wellness-center","tag-self-harm","tag-suicide","tag-teacher-unions","tag-terry-mcauliffe","tag-virginia"],"acf":[],"author_names":["Keri D. 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