How One State is Setting the Pace on Protecting Parental Rights — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01(soft music)
2. 0:03- Whose children are they?
3. 0:05That's the question at the heart
4. 0:07of what has played out at public school board meetings
5. 0:09across the country in recent years.
6. 0:11School boards and government officials
7. 0:13are claiming children belong to all
8. 0:14of us and not their individual families.
9. 0:17They believe bureaucrats, not parents,
10. 0:19should be the ultimate decision makers
11. 0:21regarding what's best for children.
12. 0:23But if children belong to parents,
13. 0:25a position held by most parents and teachers,
14. 0:27and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court for over 100 years,
15. 0:30then moms and dads should
16. 0:32decide how to raise their children.
17. 0:34I'm Sharon Supp with Alliance Defending Freedom.
18. 0:37As a Virginia mother, I've watched firsthand these
19. 0:39conflicting views gain national attention
20. 0:42through high profile incidents.
21. 0:43In Loudoun County where I work every day.
22. 0:46In 2021, a Virginia model policy
23. 0:48permitted male students identifying
24. 0:50as female to use girls only restrooms.
25. 0:53Parents expressed concerns about risks posed
26. 0:55to female students and were lied to
27. 0:58by a school official who denied a bathroom
28. 1:00sexual assault had been reported.
29. 1:02Not only had one been reported,
30. 1:04the male student alleged to have committed it,
31. 1:06was quietly transferred to a different district school,
32. 1:09where he assaulted another female student.
33. 1:12And dedicated teachers who disagreed
34. 1:13with such policies, risked their livelihoods.
35. 1:16Loudoun County Elementary School teacher Tanner Cross
36. 1:18was suspended 48 hours after voicing his concerns
37. 1:22at a school board meeting.
38. 1:23Tanner had pointed out
39. 1:24that the proposed policy compelled him as a teacher
40. 1:26to deny biological truth
41. 1:28and violate his conscience,
42. 1:30by lying to students about their sex.
43. 1:32Shortly after, ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit successfully
44. 1:35defending Tanner's First Amendment freedoms.
45. 1:38Scott Smith, whose 15-year-old daughter had been the victim
46. 1:41of the first sexual assault,
47. 1:42was arrested at another school board meeting.
48. 1:45Smith was prosecuted and convicted,
49. 1:47while President Biden's FBI answered the call
50. 1:50to investigate parents as purveyors of domestic terrorism.
51. 1:54And the highly discredited Southern Poverty Law Center
52. 1:56has since added hundreds of parental rights groups
53. 1:59to his bogus hate map,
54. 2:00a transparent attempt
55. 2:02to silence dissenting voices of moms
56. 2:04and dads protecting their children from harmful ideologies.
57. 2:08But despite these intimidation tactics,
58. 2:10the flashpoints in Loudoun County paved the way
59. 2:12to Glenn Youngkin's gubernatorial victory
60. 2:14just a few months later.
61. 2:16For parents like me, this was only the beginning.
62. 2:19My work with ADF includes mobilizing the promise
63. 2:21to America's Parents Coalition of 40 grassroots
64. 2:24and policy groups that advocate for the fundamental right
65. 2:26of parents to direct the upbringing, education,
66. 2:29and care of their children.
67. 2:31We seek to remove roadblocks at the state
68. 2:32and federal level in order to affect positive change
69. 2:35for local school boards.
70. 2:37Thankfully, in Virginia, that's exactly what we're seeing.
71. 2:40Prior to the 2023, '24 school year,
72. 2:42Virginia's Department of Education
73. 2:44adopted new model policies that brought changes
74. 2:46for parents and teachers.
75. 2:48These common sense policies require parents' written
76. 2:51permission to change their child's name
77. 2:53or pronouns at school,
78. 2:54and parents can opt out their child from sharing intimate
79. 2:57spaces like bathrooms
80. 2:58and locker rooms with opposite sex students.
81. 3:01The policies also respect the many caring Virginia teachers
82. 3:04who want to work openly with parents
83. 3:05and not hide their child's struggle with gender.
84. 3:08Shortly after these policies were finalized,
85. 3:11governor Youngkin granted Scott Smith an absolute pardon,
86. 3:14sending a clear message that parents shouldn't be bullied
87. 3:16or intimidated into silence.
88. 3:19A parent's right to direct their child's upbringing
89. 3:21and education doesn't end at the schoolhouse door.
90. 3:25Virginia's turnaround put parents back in the driver's seat
91. 3:27and it's an encouragement to all parents
92. 3:30who want to be involved in their child's education regardless
93. 3:33of politics, race, or religion.
94. 3:35But our work has only just begun.
95. 3:37As of September 2023,
96. 3:39parents defending education counted over 1000 school
97. 3:42districts with parental exclusion policies
98. 3:44that keep parents in the dark about their own
99. 3:46child's gender identity,
100. 3:48impacting more than 18,000 schools in over
101. 3:5010.7 million children nationwide.
102. 3:53Parents play an essential role
103. 3:55in their children's lives
104. 3:56and teachers should never be forced to lie
105. 3:58to parents or conceal critical information from them.
106. 4:01The important trust between parents
107. 4:03and educators must be restored,
108. 4:05so schools and families can work together toward
109. 4:07every student's flourishing.
110. 4:09Now it's up to elected officials on school boards,
111. 4:12in state houses, and all the way to the White House,
112. 4:14to follow Virginia's lead
113. 4:16and honor the central role parents play
114. 4:18in raising their own children.
115. 4:20The child is not the mere creature of the state.
116. 4:23Children belong first and foremost to their families
117. 4:26and the parents who know and love them best.
118. 4:28To find out more about this issue, visit adflegal.org.
119. 4:32before you go like this video
120. 4:33and subscribe to this channel so you never miss an episode.