There is a playbook being used across America right now, and it has nothing to do with winning in court.

File a lawsuit. Make it expensive. Make it exhausting. Make the target think twice before they ever open their mouth again. Legal scholars have a name for it: a SLAPP suit, Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. The goal is not a verdict. The goal is silence. As one Republican state legislator put it while fighting to pass anti-SLAPP legislation: “The punishment is the process.”

I know this playbook well. I lived it for nearly five years.

In 2020, I co-founded the Niles Township Accountability Coalition (NTAC) with two other parents, driven by growing concerns about certain school board members. What began as a local accountability effort quickly exploded as COVID upended our children’s education and parents got a firsthand look into classrooms through remote learning. Then came the post-George Floyd DEI wave, followed by gender ideology, pronoun policies, and social transition practices that often excluded parents entirely. NTAC quickly grew to more than 300 parents.

I am a Christian Arab, the daughter of Jordanian immigrants. My aunt and uncle left Jordan for Greece, boarded a boat from Athens, and arrived at Ellis Island after a month at sea. They sponsored my father’s immigration to this country. That is the America my family crossed an ocean to reach, a place where you could speak, where you could petition your government, where no one could silence you for asking questions.

So when I watched outsiders flood our school board meetings, people who did not teach here, did not live here, had no children here, pushing radical ideologies and calling our parents names, I could not stay silent. These parents were immigrant families, some with Holocaust survivors, people who fled communism and religious persecution. They understood, at a bone-deep level, what it means when institutions stop listening to citizens. And they were being silenced and mocked in their own community.

I could not take it anymore. In August 2021, I wrote a 14-page complaint letter to school administrators documenting what I had personally witnessed. I signed my name to it. Ten days later, I was served with a defamation lawsuit.

Standing on the front line is not glamorous. For nearly five years, I was called names, lied about in my own community, and targeted by litigation that never stopped moving. It takes a toll, mentally, emotionally, on your family and your sense of self. There were moments I questioned whether it was worth it.

But advocating for change is a marathon, not a sprint. On my lowest days, I stepped away from social media, went into the garden, cooked, prayed, and spent time with the people who love me. I must have listened to the Anne Wilson song Stand a million times. That song gave me the strength to keep going when I had none left.

Fighting this lawsuit did not just test me; it tested my resolve. It made me stronger and smarter. It taught me the mechanisms the other side uses to silence parents — the legal tactics, the media strategy, the community narrative, and the fundraising campaigns. I also made a decision about my daughter: I pulled her out of the public school system and enrolled her in private school for academic rigor and peace of mind. As parents, we will do anything to protect our children. That instinct is not radical. It is the most natural thing in the world.

When I was served with the lawsuit, I hired attorney Sorin Leahu, and we immediately built our defense under Illinois’s anti-SLAPP law. A year later, America First Legal joined the case, with attorney Nicholas Barry serving as co-counsel alongside Sorin. In 2023, we won a dismissal and were awarded attorney’s fees, a major victory. But from my years in enterprise software sales, I knew better than to celebrate too early: you don’t have a deal until the contract is signed. They appealed.

Between December 2023 and February 2024, the plaintiffs held a YouTube press conference and raised $44,000 in GoFundMe donations explicitly solicited to pay the attorney’s fees the court had awarded to me. In June 2025, the Illinois Appellate Court reversed the anti-SLAPP dismissal and gave the plaintiff one final opportunity to amend their complaint. We were back to square one.

The new judge was precise and moved the case into discovery and summary judgment. We were prepared to go all the way because the truth always wins in discovery. Our interrogatories required the plaintiff to identify, under oath, every alleged lost job opportunity despite public records showing she had been promoted to Assistant Principal at a higher salary by the same employer to whom my letter was sent. We also requested the original version of a key email whose formatting raised concerns about authenticity and demanded an accounting of the $44,000 raised during the litigation.

A few days later, we received an email: they wish to dismiss with prejudice. Each party is to cover its own fees.

Almost five years of a false story claiming I attacked a teacher in my community disappeared in an instant with a single email. I was never truly in control; they were. The only thing I had power over was whether I would give up, and I chose not to.

This Is Happening Everywhere

My case is one thread in a much larger pattern. Across Illinois, people who have spoken out have faced the same playbook: Stacy Deemar sued District 65 over race-based curriculum; Nicole Georgas filed a federal civil rights complaint against District 109 over locker room privacy; Michelle Hammer Bernstein faced defamation claims in District 113 for Facebook posts; and in Libertyville, District 128 placed an administrator on leave after Marnie Navarro exposed a grooming scandal that administrators had quietly buried. In Wisconsin, Scarlett Johnson was sued for calling a DEI hire “woke” on social media and won.

Notably, in my case, the plaintiff’s attorney, Sheryl Ring Weikal, also represented the Abolition Coalition parents who filed a separate lawsuit against Fairview School District 72, which was also dropped after years of litigation. Two lawsuits. Same attorney. Same pattern.

Awake Illinois, the statewide parental rights organization where I serve as vice president, was founded by Shannon Adcock and our director, Steve Lucie. We have filed multiple federal Title IX complaints against Illinois school districts, including the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and Naperville Community Unit School District 203, using official federal channels to fight for the rights of students and parents. This is exactly what civic participation looks like, and it is exactly what SLAPP suits are designed to stop.

What Every Parent Should Know

No parent should have to fight alone. Across the country, grassroots organizations are standing beside families willing to speak up for their children and communities. Groups like Defending Education, Moms for Liberty, Courage Is A Habit, Awake Illinois, and America First Legal have empowered parents through advocacy, education, investigative work, and legal support.

Filing a complaint letter is not a crime. Speaking at a school board meeting is not harassment. Lawsuits should never be used to silence citizens exercising their constitutional rights. Illinois’s Citizen Participation Act exists to protect individuals who petition their government and speak out on matters of public concern.

As this chapter closes, I am deeply grateful to my legal counsel, the organizations that stood beside me, and every person who offered support, prayers, and encouragement over these past several years. Their support carried me through one of the hardest battles of my life and reminded me of something important: truth matters, your voice matters, and no parent should ever be intimidated into silence for advocating for children.

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Helen Levinson is vice president of Awake Illinois.

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Fighting Back Against The Goliath Lawsuits Designed To Shut Parents Up