A Texas <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school</a> district is demanding parents fork over more than $7,000 for public records about bullying in the district.
The Joshua Independent School District, which sits just south of Fort Worth, <a href="https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/school-district-demands-7k-to-reveal-how-often-kids-are-getting-bullied/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demanded</a> that mom Terrie Chumchal pay the exorbitant sum when she tried to get to the bottom of the district&#8217;s bullying problem.
For two years, Chumchal&#8217;s son, who is now in eighth grade, was bullied relentlessly both verbally and physically, according to his family. A lot of the bullying focused on his Korean American heritage, and one assault even left the young boy with a ruptured eardrum, they said.
Last month, Chumchal filed a public records request with the school district for the number of bullying, incident, assault, police, and grievance reports filed in Joshua Independent between 2015 and 2022. Lawyers for the district responded that this information would cost a whopping $7,111.12.
The district <a href="https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022-12-02-Submitted-Attorney-General-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that it will have to manually retrieve all 6,636 pages of bullying and other incident reports and manually redact all confidential information since it does not have any &#8220;existing documents reflecting a total number&#8221; or &#8220;the resources to run a search for reports automatically.&#8221;
However, the mom simply wanted to find out the number of bullying reports and was not seeking to view the content of the reports, so redactions are unnecessary, her attorney argued.
Last week, Chumchal&#8217;s attorney Warren Norred filed an <a href="https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022-12-02-Submitted-Attorney-General-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeal</a> with the Texas Attorney General’s Office challenging the district&#8217;s high fee. Norred is volunteering his services with the conservative Goldwater Institute, which is helping the family challenge the district&#8217;s fee.
“Parents shouldn’t have to pay thousands of dollars just to access simple information about what’s happening in their children’s schools,” Norred said.
“Texas law is clear on the matter — and I intend to fight this excessive public records fee and defend Terrie’s right to access public information,” the attorney added.
The mom said the ordeal has taken a toll on her family, but she is hopeful.
&#8220;When you start seeing the pattern here, it appears the district is discouraging people from asking for information. If the sort of cruel, horrific bullying that my son has been a victim of is a widespread issue, don’t parents deserve to know about it?&#8221; Chumchal told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;Our experience has been painful and stressful for our family. I hope my sharing will strengthen others to stand up and fight for their rights. Retaliation is real, and that&#8217;s what keeps parents silent. But I am hopeful that by standing up, things can change, and other children and families won&#8217;t have to suffer,&#8221; the mom said.
Other districts have charged parents similarly eye-popping amounts of money for public records reports.
In August, the nearby Fort Worth Independent School District <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fort-worth-parents-charged-over-1200-to-see-curriculum-book-lists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charged</a> parents nearly $1,300 to see the public school district’s K-12 curriculum book lists. One mom, who is an attorney, filed a complaint over the charge.
Similarly, a Rhode Island mom was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/parents-not-welcome-rhode-island-mom-sues-school-district-over-secret-meetings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> by her kindergarten daughter&#8217;s school district that the public records she requested on the curriculum would cost $74,000. She was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stay-at-home-mom-sued-by-nations-largest-teachers-union-after-investigating-crt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> by the largest teachers’ union in the country, which sought to block her numerous requests for public records.
Over the last two years, frustrated parents across the country have gone head-to-head with public school districts on a litany of issues, including inappropriate curriculum content and school safety, sometimes giving school boards a piece of their mind at school board meetings.
Attorneys for the Joshua Independent School District responded to a request for comment by pointing to the district&#8217;s claim that it must &#8220;manually retrieve all potentially responsive reports, then review, and redact confidential information.&#8221;

The Bullying Stops Here sign on School Bus, Queens, New York

School District Demands Over $7K From Parents For Bullying Records

Bullying

Education

Public Schools

School Choice

U.S.

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/planned-parenthood" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Planned Parenthood</a> executive has sparked backlash for saying that children are &#8220;sexual&#8221; from birth and calling for porn literacy lessons for older children.
Bill Taverner, executive director of the New Jersey-based Center for Sex Education, Planned Parenthood&#8217;s sex education arm, made the newly unearthed comments in a 2015 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfFH7bVqVQE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a>, Fox News first <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/planned-parenthood-sexuality-educator-claims-kids-sexual-birth-porn-literacy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
&#8220;I think that we unfortunately have in our society, an assumption of asexuality of people with intellectual disabilities,&#8221; Taverner told the interviewer, sexuality consultant Leslie Walker-Hirsch.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a myth that&#8217;s perpetuated, and really we are all sexual beings from birth until death,&#8221; Taverner said.
Planned Parenthood itself <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/planned-parenthood-sexuality-educator-claims-kids-sexual-birth-porn-literacy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">echoed</a> this sentiment in a guide called the &#8220;Fundamentals of Teaching Sexuality,&#8221; stating that, &#8220;sexuality is a part of life through all the ages and stages. Babies, elders, and everyone in between can experience sexuality.&#8221;
In a 2012 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37WNlsk5tQA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a>, Taverner appeared to imply that some pornography exposure could be &#8220;useful&#8221; for older children.
&#8220;I think that there&#8217;s this yearning for information that young people have that &#8230; hasn&#8217;t changed,&#8221; Taverner said in the interview, which was hosted by a local New Jersey chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
&#8220;I think that the internet is a major influence on how people learn about sexuality,&#8221; Taverner said. &#8220;There&#8217;s access to erotica, pornography. That was very different for young people 30 years ago, certainly not as accessible, certainly not as instantaneous. So there&#8217;s a lot of information that is useful, there&#8217;s websites that are —&#8221;
&#8220;Some of it is wrong,&#8221; interrupted the interviewer, NOW&#8217;s Rebecca Lubetkin.
&#8220;Some of it is wrong, a lot of it is wrong, but there&#8217;s good stuff out there as well,&#8221; Taverner responded.
Taverner added that &#8220;sexting&#8221; is another issue schools need to discuss with students during sex education.
The Planned Parenthood executive made similar remarks last year, saying that while those in public health and sexology never wanted porn to be the &#8220;de facto educator,&#8221; we need to &#8220;shift our education.&#8221;
Taverner said in a 2021 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnbpFlwlKXQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> that there is a &#8220;resistance&#8221; to discussing pornography with students because some people think it will encourage them to watch it, which Taverner called &#8220;the same faulty kind of premise as if we teach about condoms is it going to make people want to have sex with condoms. Maybe that&#8217;s not a bad thing.&#8221;
&#8220;Getting back to meeting people where they are, if this is what they&#8217;re doing with their cell phones and their tablets and their laptops, then we need to shift our education and stop doing the banana on a condom and think that, you know, we&#8217;ve done our thing,&#8221; he said.
Taverner said sex educators need to guide young people in thinking about their values, for example, the ethics of pornography.
&#8220;That&#8217;s not to say that there&#8217;s a right answer,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We need to have conversations about what&#8217;s missing in porn that may be different in a real relationship, and that&#8217;s not to castigate porn.&#8221;
Sex education can start as early as kindergarten, Taverner said in the 2012 interview. In kindergarten, sex education may involve talking about &#8220;what makes a family&#8221; or &#8220;the basics of germs.&#8221;
&#8220;All of that sets the foundation for a basic understanding that is useful for further conversations when we&#8217;re talking about condoms or when we&#8217;re talking about pregnancy prevention,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;Age-appropriate sex education is so important,&#8221; Taverner said. &#8220;We need to let our experts guide us.&#8221;
Monica Cline, a former Planned Parenthood sex educator, said Planned Parenthood clearly has a &#8220;distorted view of sexuality and children.&#8221;
&#8220;The pornification of our children by Planned Parenthood pays homage to the &#8216;Father&#8217; of sex education, Alfred Kinsey, who claimed children are sexual from birth after sexually abusing infants and children for his research,&#8221; Cline said in a statement. &#8220;The sex-ed industry, funded in large part by our government, has adopted this depraved belief, pushing this twisted thinking onto vulnerable populations since the 1970s.&#8221;
Cline called for the government to cut funding for Planned Parenthood and for parents to &#8220;wake up and get them out of the schools in their own communities.&#8221;
Taverner has worked in the sex education field since at least 1995, according to his LinkedIn page. In 2014, he <a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/planned-parenthood-holds-capitol-hill-briefing-real-sex-ed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advocated</a> for sex education at a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill.
Last year, he expressed his view that society has a &#8220;puritanical, anti-sex, eroti-phobic kind of orientation&#8221; around the topic of sex.
&#8220;We need to recognize that a lot of folks are driven by fear,&#8221; Taverner said in the same 2021 interview.

US-POLITICS-JUSTICE-RIGHTS-ABORTION

Planned Parenthood Exec Said Children Are Born ‘Sexual,’ Wants Kid Porn Literacy Lessons

Planned Parenthood Exec Said Children Are Born 'Sexual,' Wants Kid Porn Literacy Lessons

Abortion

Child Sex Abuse

Children

Planned Parenthood

Sexuality

Social Issues

In a major legal victory for a group of parents, Vermont has agreed to stop excluding religious <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">schools</a> from the state&#8217;s tuition assistance program.
Families who live in Vermont towns where there is no local public school will now be able to receive tuition assistance to send their kids to Catholic or other faith-based schools, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
The victory marks the end of a 20-year legal battle after a group of parents and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Burlington, Vermont, sued the state&#8217;s education secretary Daniel French and several Vermont school officials in a <a href="https://adflegal.org/sites/default/files/2022-12/EW-v-French-2022-11-30-Stipulation-Of-Dismissal.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pair</a> of <a href="https://adflegal.org/sites/default/files/2022-12/AH-v-French-2022-11-30-Stipulation-Of-Dismissal.pdf">lawsuits</a>.
The parents and archdiocese were represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which <a href="https://adfmedia.org/case/ew-v-french" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> the victory on Thursday.
“All parents should be able to send their kids to schools that are the best fit for them, and the First Amendment protects parents’ right to choose religious schools,” said Paul Schmitt, ADF legal counsel.
“For more than two decades, Vermont unlawfully excluded religious schools and their students from public benefits, essentially eliminating school choice for many parents in the state,&#8221; Schmitt said.
In June, the Supreme Court reached a similar conclusion about Maine&#8217;s tuition assistance program, ruling that Maine cannot exclude students at religious schools.
Schmitt said that the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision showed that &#8220;the government cannot eliminate families’ benefits just because they choose to use those benefits at religious schools that provide religious instruction.&#8221;
As part of the settlements, Vermont agreed that in light of the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision, its exclusion of religious schools is unconstitutional and unenforceable.
&#8220;School districts may not deny tuition payments to religious approved independent schools or religious independent schools that meet educational quality standards,&#8221; Vermont’s Agency of Education <a href="https://education.vermont.gov/sites/aoe/files/documents/edu-letter-tuition-payment-to-religiously-affiliated-approved-independent-schools-13092022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in a letter to school districts.
Requests for tuition assistances for students who attend religious schools must be treated the same as those for secular schools, the education agency wrote.
The state&#8217;s “adequate safeguards” requirement was the subject of both lawsuits. In 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that school districts could not pay tuition at religious schools unless there are &#8220;adequate safeguards&#8221; against the funds being spent on religion. In response, Vermont banned religious schools from receiving state tuition money.
Now that the &#8220;adequate safeguards&#8221; requirement has been scrapped, Vermont has <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/dec/1/vermont-agrees-pay-religious-school-tuition-where-/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">updated</a> its list of schools eligible for tuition assistance and now includes several Catholic and Christian schools.
ADF attorneys filed to dismiss the lawsuits on Wednesday in light of the settlement.
The attorneys said the settlement also means the families who requested tuition for religious schools, but were denied by their school districts will be reimbursed for the tuition they paid out-of-pocket.
The state of Vermont and the school districts will also pay the families’ attorneys’ fees, the attorneys said.
Public school districts and school boards have become a battleground for parents rights and school choice over the last several years, especially since the pandemic.
Many parents frustrated with their public school districts on a litany of issues, including inappropriate curriculum content and school safety, have turned to private or religious schools. Some have simply pulled their children out of school in favor of homeschooling.

Miami Catholic School Holds Moment Of Silence To Mark One Week Since Newtown Shooting

Vermont Agrees To Stop Excluding Religious Schools From Tuition Assistance

Catholic Church

Private Schools

Religious Freedom

Religious Liberty

Ohio parents are suing their local <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school</a> board over a new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gender" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transgender</a> policy that allows students to use the bathroom and locker room that correspond with their gender identity.
A group of Muslim and Christian parents in Bethel, Ohio, filed a civil lawsuit in federal court on November 22 against Bethel Local School District&#8217;s school board, seeking to halt the district&#8217;s new bathroom policy.
The parents say the policy violates their parental rights and Constitutional religious rights, as well as Title IX and Ohio state law.
The <a href="https://aflegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Complaint-Bethel-Filed-Copy.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> claims that children of the plaintiffs &#8220;hold their urine and avoid using the restroom at school if at all possible&#8221; due to the policy. If the children do use the restroom, it causes them &#8220;anxiety and emotional distress,&#8221; and they fear they will be exposed to the opposite sex, the suit says. One of the children, a ninth grade girl, takes a friend with her to make sure no boy &#8220;violates her modesty.&#8221;
The Bethel school district sits just north of Dayton and <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/districtsearch/district_detail.asp?Search=2&amp;ID2=3904861&amp;DistrictID=3904861&amp;details=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">serves</a> nearly 1,600 K-12 students.
The bathroom policy &#8220;blindsided&#8221; parents after it was implemented secretly, violating Ohio&#8217;s Open Meetings Act, the parents claim.
A district faculty member proposed the new bathroom policy at a school board meeting in September of last year, and the change was adopted in January with no public discussion, according to the lawsuit.
&#8220;The Board’s actions keep the community in the dark regarding its new rules and policies for intimate facilities by refusing to answer basic questions parents need to know to make decisions about their child’s education,&#8221; reads the lawsuit. &#8220;The parental right to direct the education, safety, and upbringing of their children is the oldest fundamental right recognized by the Supreme Court. And the Board’s actions deny these parents the same.&#8221;
Previously, transgender students could use a private single-stall bathroom, but the faculty member who proposed the new policy argued it was unfair to make a transgender student do this simply &#8220;because they were born a man,&#8221; according to the complaint.
Two Muslim parents even donated out of their own pocket to build a sex-neutral restroom next to the main bathrooms at one school, the lawsuit says, and the district built the bathroom, but introduced the transgender policy anyway.
The school board <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/muslim-christian-parents-sue-ohio-school-board-transgender-bathroom-locker-room-policies.amp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argued</a> it had &#8220;no choice,&#8221; saying the change was necessary to comply with Title IX since &#8220;the federal government was threatening school funding, and potential litigation was imminent.&#8221; The lawsuit calls that claim &#8220;incorrect&#8221; because Title IX&#8217;s language and regulations &#8220;expressly provide for Bethel’s historic practice of separating intimate facilities based on biological sex.&#8221;
The parents also complained that students as young as fifth grade are required to do assignments that promote LGBTQ views, including reading a story about &#8220;a queen who wanted to be a king and her noble struggle to be accepted as a boy.&#8221; Students are also asked to complete surveys about their attitudes on sexual and transgender issues without parental notice, the parents said.
America First Legal (AFL), the conservative legal group representing the parents, emphasized that it will continue to fight for parents&#8217; right to protect their children&#8217;s personal privacy.
&#8220;School districts across the country — the leadership of which have been captured by woke ideologues and weak-spined bureaucrats — are actively destroying fundamental rights,&#8221; AFL Vice President Gene Hamilton <a href="https://aflegal.org/afl-sues-bethel-school-board-in-ohio-for-forcing-children-to-share-bathrooms-and-locker-rooms-with-members-of-the-opposite-sex-and-for-violating-parents-rights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement.
&#8220;Generations of Americans have grown up in environments that have unquestionably respected students’ personal privacy in intimate spaces, separated by biological sex,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Yet here we are as a society in the year 2022 subjecting students across this country to the kinds of anti-science, social experiments that would have once been unfathomable and absurd a decade ago.&#8221;

North Carolina Clashes With U.S. Over New Public Restroom Law

Distressed Children Avoid Using Bathroom At School Due To Transgender Policy, Parents’ Lawsuit Claims

Distressed Children Avoid Using Bathroom At School Due To Transgender Policy, Parents' Lawsuit Claims

Gender

LGBTQ

Ohio

Transgender

Washington state’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elementary-school-teacher-says-autistic-students-may-experience-gender-queerness-more-than-other-students">special education</a> schools are rife with student abuse allegations and poor academic performance, a new report shows.
A severe lack of state oversight has resulted in concerning conditions at a group of private but taxpayer-funded special education schools in Washington, according to a new <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/therapeutic-schools-northwest-soil-invisible-washington">investigative report</a> from the Seattle Times and ProPublica. The outlets reviewed more than 17,000 pages of documents from 45 school districts, three police departments, and Washington state’s education department.
The report scrutinizes a set of special ed private schools known as nonpublic agencies, which collectively pull in millions of taxpayer dollars.
While some of the schools do not have negative reputations, the largest school, Northwest School of Innovative Learning (SOIL), has produced a string of shocking reports of students suffering abuse at the hands of teachers and staff.
In one complaint to state education officials, a therapist said a teenage boy with severe autism was locked in a school room at Northwest SOIL for hours as he begged to be let out. One local education official reportedly witnessed a teacher put her foot in a student’s face as he lay on the floor and threaten to step on him as he pleaded with her. In another disturbing incident, a staffer who was previously convicted of assault and drug possession put a student in what a school counselor called a “chokehold,” an incident that was caught on security footage, according to the report.
Former staffers of Northwest SOIL described a chaotic and understaffed environment where the adults often resort to restraint or isolation to deal with difficult children. Parents reported finding bruises on their children’s bodies. 
Students also often suffer academically. Sometimes uncertified teachers operated without a curriculum, according to one special education director.
Meanwhile, over the last five school years, the state has spent at least $173 million on these special education schools, which have more than 60 campuses and serve about 500 students. State spending on these schools has more than doubled over the last five years, according to the report. Northwest SOIL alone has pulled in at least $38 million and accepted hundreds of public school students during this period, the report says.
Most of Washington&#8217;s about 140,000 special education students attend their local public schools, but lately the state has been sending more of the students with the most serious disabilities to the separate special education schools, the report notes.
One reason for the apparent lack of oversight is that the state expects local public school districts to monitor the special education schools since they are the ones sending students there. This makes it very difficult to get an overall sense of the conditions at these separate schools. 
Before two years ago, the state could not even count how many public school students attended the special education schools, the report states. Additionally, the goal of many of the special education programs is to have children ultimately return to their local schools, but the state does not track how many actually do so. The state also does not track how many children are restrained or locked in isolation rooms.
Washington state does have the power to force these schools to correct their issues or shut down, according to the report. So far though, the state has not taken any major action.

Special Education Teachers Visit E-learing Students At Home During COVID-19 Outbreak

Washington’s Special Ed Schools Rife With Abuse Complaints, Poor Academics: Report

Washington's Special Ed Schools Rife With Abuse Complaints, Poor Academics: Report

Corruption

Seattle

Washington

Oregon parents are outraged after a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education">school</a> board took their meetings virtual during ongoing discussions about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gender">gender</a> ideology and below-par academic performance.
The North Clackamas School District in the Portland area decided to move its school board meetings online indefinitely after parents erupted at a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0Xk9RDE79I">meeting</a> last month.
During the October 27 meeting, parents ripped into school board members over &#8220;gender-affirming care&#8221; content and alleged &#8220;pornographic&#8221; books in school libraries.
&#8220;This district and the way it runs is a complete dumpster fire,&#8221; one father who attended the meeting <a href="https://katv.com/news/nation-world/oregon-school-board-goes-virtual-after-outraged-parents-flood-board-meeting-complete-dumpster-fire-north-clackamas-school-district-october">said</a>. &#8220;Stop gaslighting us in your little newsletters saying everything is okay.&#8221;
&#8220;You guys are too blind to see it, but school choice and privatization of education is coming,&#8221; another father said.
The tipping point came when a mom held up a placard with explicit pictures from the LGBT graphic novel &#8220;Gender Queer.&#8221;
The board&#8217;s vice chairperson, Jena Benologa, abruptly shut down the meeting.
&#8220;Okay, I think we&#8217;re gonna have to shut this down and go back online,&#8221; Benologa said as she and other board members stood up and walked out as parents in the room erupted.
The frustrated parents shouted after them, &#8220;You&#8217;re just afraid! You&#8217;re afraid to face what you do!&#8221; and &#8220;You have disrespected us!&#8221; along with shouts of &#8220;Cowards!&#8221;
Parents continued to read their statements even after the school board members had left the room.
&#8220;We value public input during our board meetings, which is why we invite community members to sign up and address the board with their comments and concerns,&#8221; the North Clackamas district <a href="https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/oregon-school-board-goes-virtual-after-outraged-parents-flood-board-meeting-complete-dumpster-fire-north-clackamas-school-district-october">said</a> in a statement. &#8220;The main responsibility of board members during that designated time on the agenda is to listen. It is not a venue for discussion, so they do not provide immediate feedback. This can be frustrating to speakers and may contribute to the perception that they are not being heard.&#8221;
On the controversial library books, the district <a href="https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/oregon-school-board-goes-virtual-after-outraged-parents-flood-board-meeting-complete-dumpster-fire-north-clackamas-school-district-october">said</a> that &#8220;representation in instructional and library materials is a very important part of engaging and supporting all students, including those in the LGBTQ+ community, who are especially vulnerable.&#8221;
Meanwhile, a district-by-district <a href="https://www.ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/reports.aspx">report</a> released last month by Oregon&#8217;s education department shows students are suffering academically.
In the North Clackamas district, which serves nearly 16,300 students, a dismal 24% meet state grade-level math expectations, lower than Oregon&#8217;s 27% average. Only 43% meet grade-level expectations in English language arts, slightly higher than Oregon&#8217;s 40% average.
As students returned to in-person learning last school year following the pandemic, Oregon&#8217;s regular attendee rate sank nearly 15.7% compared to the 2018-19 school year.
North Clackamas is not the first Oregon school district to shut down in-person school board meetings over parent backlash.
In September, the Salem-Keizer School District, the second largest in Oregon, said it would no longer hold in-person school board meetings <a href="https://salkeiz.k12.or.us/news/letter-school-board-meetings/">due to</a> “threats and potential safety issues&#8221; from &#8220;adults all along the political and ideological spectrum.”
Over the last few years and especially since the pandemic, school board meetings have become a battleground for a litany of issues, including sexual curriculum content, gender ideology, school safety, and learning loss.

A girl waving a LGBT flag when thousands of activists from

Parents Apoplectic After Oregon School Board Goes Virtual Amid Gender Ideology Concerns

Gender Identity

Oregon

Portland

Two school board members in one of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/maine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maine&#8217;s</a> largest school districts are facing recall elections over their support for a controversial gender identity school policy.
Nearly 700 people signed a petition to remove board members Julia Lester and Sarah Otterson from the Oxford Hills School District school board, which includes Paris, Maine.
At an emergency meeting of the town of Paris&#8217; select board on Monday night, the board voted to put the issue to voters. The town of Paris will now decide whether the pair of school board members will lose their seats.
Lester and Otterson support the Oxford Hills (MSAD 17) district&#8217;s new proposed gender identity <a href="https://themainewire.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ACAAA-POLICY.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policy</a> that deals with student names and pronouns, parental notification, and bathroom and locker room usage.
Last month, the Oxford Hills school board voted to provisionally approve the gender identity policy. Twelve school board members including Lester and Otterson <a href="https://www.themainewire.com/2022/10/oxford-hills-school-approves-rules-to-keep-student-gender-identity-changes-secret-from-parents/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted</a> to approve the policy, while seven members voted against the policy.
The new rules would require school administrators to hide a child&#8217;s new gender identity from their parents unless the student has given express approval for their parents to know.
&#8220;Parent notification shall be contingent on student approval with the exception of school records accessed and disclosed under FERPA,&#8221; the policy <a href="https://www.themainewire.com/2022/10/oxford-hills-school-approves-rules-to-keep-student-gender-identity-changes-secret-from-parents/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reads</a>.
School officials are also directed to coach students on how to make sure their parents do not find out about their new identity. For example, officials must inform students that changing their name and gender on official school records could reveal the change to their parents since parents have access to those records.
The policy also allows students to use whichever single-gender bathroom and locker room aligns with their gender identity.
The policy also requires that students be addressed by &#8220;the name and pronoun they request&#8221; by teachers, school staff, and other students.
If the policy goes into effect, it will apply to all 3,400 <a href="https://www.msad17.org/page/district-profile" target="_blank" rel="noopener">students</a> at all 10 schools in the Oxford Hills School District, which includes eight elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school.
On Monday evening, some Paris select board members expressed their concerns with the new policy.
“I don’t want boys to be able to go into the girls room, and vice versa, and I have nothing against anybody who wants to live a certain lifestyle, I just don’t care. But I’d be worried if my grandchild was there, my little granddaughter and boys could go into the bathroom,” <a href="https://wgme.com/news/local/paris-to-hold-recall-election-for-school-board-members-who-support-gender-identity-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> select board member Scott McElravy.
The policy&#8217;s critics cited the parental notification part of the policy as a major problem.
“Two people on the board was promoting policies that interfered with a parent’s right to know. Us parents have had enough. That policy promoted secrecy,” said Armand Norton, who organized the recall petition.
“Parents are the first line of defense if something happens to the kid, the parents are responsible for them, not the school,” Norton said.
There is currently some <a href="https://www.wmtw.com/article/paris-select-board-accepts-petition-to-recall-school-board-members-over-gender-id-proposal/42043237#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legal confusion</a> around whether the town of Paris can remove school board members since the school district extends beyond Paris. Lester and Otterson represent Paris on the Oxford Hills School Board.
“If it is a law and it needs to be changed, maybe the town of South Paris is going to be the town to start changing things,” Norton said.
The recall election is <a href="https://www.wmtw.com/article/paris-select-board-accepts-petition-to-recall-school-board-members-over-gender-id-proposal/42043237#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expected</a> to be held in January or February.

Equality March In Krakow

Gender Identity School Policy Leads To Recall Elections For Maine School Board Members

Elementary Schools

High School

Maine

A Canadian man has changed his mind about ending his life through medically assisted suicide after an outpouring of support from good Samaritans.
Amir Farsoud said he is no longer considering euthanasia after strangers who were moved by his story donated more than $60,000 to help him, which will allow him to avoid <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/homelessness" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homelessness</a>.
“I’m a different person,” Farsoud <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/11/16/ontario-medically-assisted-death-support/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Toronto-based CityNews, which first <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/10/13/medical-assistance-death-maid-canada/">shared</a> his story. “The first time we spoke, I had nothing but darkness, misery, stress and hopelessness. Now I have all the opposite of those things.”
Farsoud, 54, lives with agonizing chronic back pain due to an accident several years ago. During the worst bouts of pain, he was “crying like a 5-year-old and not sleeping for days in a row,” he said. He also takes depression and anxiety medication.
He is unable to work and lives on checks from Ontario&#8217;s government disability assistance program. He felt there was no way to avoid homelessness after the St. Catharine&#8217;s, Ontario, rooming house he shares with two other people was listed for sale.
Farsoud had applied for Medical Aid in Dying (MAID), Canada&#8217;s legal euthanasia program. He had gotten one doctor to sign off on his application and needed one more doctor to approve it while he waited the mandatory 90-day waiting period. He expected to be eligible as early as this month.
&#8220;I don’t want to die but I don’t want to be homeless more than I don’t want to die,&#8221; Farsoud previously told CityNews. “I know, in my present health condition, I wouldn’t survive it anyway. It wouldn’t be at all dignified waiting, so if that becomes my two options, it’s pretty much a no-brainer.”
His story deeply moved a stranger, a Canadian woman named Effie, who set up a GoFundMe for him, hoping to raise enough money to convince him not to end his life. The fundraiser had <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/np76w-choosing-to-live?qid=488fbd8c769c687c460d682400888fd4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pulled in</a> $60,289 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Now, Farsoud is no longer seeking to move forward with his assisted suicide.
“I honestly thought by December I wouldn’t be here. So no, I certainly did not envision this by any stretch of the imagination,” Farsoud said.
Farsoud said he has also received more than just money.
“There has been this amazing outpouring of love and support, emotional support. There’s been therapists that have gotten in touch to do like online or on the phone therapy,” he said.
Farsoud said he hasn&#8217;t felt this grateful and happy since he was 12 when his family immigrated to France from Iran to escape the revolution.
“I have felt like this one time in my life. When we left Iran and got to France, we left the plane and I was a kid, but I fell to my knees and kissed the tarmac, because no one was going to shoot me, no demonstrations, no army, no burning buildings. I’m going to get up in the morning knowing I wouldn’t be dead that night,” explained Farsoud. “The way I feel or have been feeling since this happened, that’s the closest I’ve come [to that],” he said.
Still, Farsoud has not ruled out using MAID in the future, as he expects his chronic back pain to become too painful to bear at some point in the future. For now though, he is not planning for it.
“It’s amazing what an act of kindness can do,” he said. “I wouldn’t have thought it possible the kindness and humanity and compassion I saw, I didn’t think it existed anymore. It does.”

Illustration: Euthanasia On July 1998 In France

Canadian Man Changes Mind About Assisted Suicide After Good Samaritans Step In

Canada

Euthanasia

Health Care

Homelessness

Medical

Poverty

Suicide

World

In New York and California, institutions of higher <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education">education</a> bought into wokeness wholesale years ago, but now schools in red states have been infected as well.
In Texas and Florida, several prominent schools have made diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) a priority.
The University of Texas at Austin has been on a years-long journey to appease students demanding the school double down on DEI initiatives.
Austin is a blue area in red Texas, so it&#8217;s not a complete surprise that the dogma of DEI has taken hold there. However, it signals that red states are not immune to their local universities foisting woke values on their young people and communities.
Back in 2018, UT-Austin released a seven-page DEI <a href="https://utexas.app.box.com/s/86ufnux2332hw8ndq7ulib5vc7hfl65u">plan</a> responding to <a href="https://diversity.utexas.edu/actionplan/background/">student demands</a>. In 2020, students <a href="https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/ut-students-release-list-of-demands-for-transformative-change">presented</a> the school with yet <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qj017DGgEi0lH5zkSZIVTwPIPfI4uw971cvvRpWTZf8/edit">another slate</a> of demands, including that Austin police be removed from campus, that admissions adopt a test-optional admissions process, and that the school require students to learn about the &#8220;racist background&#8221; of the university&#8217;s origins.
UT-Austin responded with a new 29-page DEI <a href="https://utexas.app.box.com/s/07gro61mcobe0gkpae0jp9gnfrlzwmzb">plan</a>, and since then the school has implemented DEI in various ways.
In one example, the <a href="https://dellmed.utexas.edu/blog/understanding-health-in-equity-a-list-of-recommendations">reading list</a> published by the medical school&#8217;s Associate Dean for Health Equity includes titles by authors who are essentially the patron saints of woke. The list includes &#8220;How To Be An Antiracist&#8221; by Ibram X. Kendi and &#8220;White Fragility&#8221; by Robin DiAngelo as well as an essay called &#8220;White Privilege: Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack.&#8221;
&#8220;Racism contributes to health inequity,&#8221; the associate dean writes.
UT-Austin has also embedded DEI into its tenure and promotion policies, saying that each school will &#8220;develop mechanisms for evaluating faculty contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion in their units for considerations of merit and promotion,&#8221; according to UT-Austin&#8217;s strategic <a href="https://utexas.app.box.com/s/g74axpkhbneupxotfcbvtrpqxil7vhv8">plan</a> for faculty DEI.
In addition, new faculty positions are infused with DEI.
UT-Austin&#8217;s Religious Studies department is currently <a href="https://utaustin.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UTstaff/job/UT-MAIN-CAMPUS/Postdoctoral-Fellowship-in-Ancient-Mediterranean-Religions_R_00023625">hiring</a> an early Christianity scholar to research topics including the &#8220;religious identities&#8221; of &#8220;sexual minorities&#8221; and &#8220;feminist and intersectional interpretation of biblical texts.&#8221;
UT-Austin is not the only prominent school in Texas that has embraced DEI.
The Texas A&amp;M system, whose flagship school is the state&#8217;s oldest public university, has fully integrated DEI policies as well.
Texas A&amp;M&#8217;s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences recently hired an Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence. The school is also <a href="https://aglifesciences.tamu.edu/inclusive-excellence/">requiring</a> each department to establish a &#8220;climate committee.&#8221; Texas A&amp;M&#8217;s dentistry school has an entire Diversity and Inclusion <a href="https://dentistry.tamu.edu/education/academic-affairs/docs/diversity-and-inclusion-plan-approved-092217.pdf">Plan</a> of its own that actually cites UT-Austin&#8217;s plan as a resource. In 2020, Texas A&amp;M&#8217;s School of Education &amp; Human Development (SEHD) <a href="https://mysehd.tamu.edu/oie/">created</a> an “Equity &amp; Social Justice Collective.”
Yet another Texas school, Texas Tech University, has <a href="https://www.depts.ttu.edu/biology/resources/diversity/docs/Diversity_Statement_Rubric.pdf">strict rules</a> for its biology department on evaluating faculty candidates based on how they talk about diversity.
The department must take into account whether faculty candidates &#8220;discuss diversity in vague terms,&#8221; &#8220;seem uncomfortable discussing diversity-related issues,&#8221; or seem unaware of &#8220;personal challenges that underrepresented individuals face in academia.&#8221;
In Florida, where the Republican governor <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-florida-governor.html">cruised</a> to victory by double digits this month, DEI is pervasive at many schools.
The University of Central Florida has an active DEI office that <a href="https://diversity.ucf.edu/odi-land-acknowledgement-statement/">includes</a> a &#8220;land acknowledgement,&#8221; essentially a statement acknowledging that the university&#8217;s land traditionally belongs to Native American tribes.
The University of Florida, where retiring Republican Senator Ben Sasse will take over as university president next year, has a DEI office and strategy as well.
The school&#8217;s Office of the Chief Diversity Officer <a href="https://www.cdo.ufl.edu/initiatives/inclusive-excellence-blueprint/">boasts</a> that University of Florida has more than 1,000 unique DEI initiatives.
Unless a school is specifically counter-cultural, as some <a href="https://www.niche.com/colleges/thomas-more-college-of-liberal-arts/">private</a> <a href="https://www.niche.com/colleges/christendom-college/">religious</a> liberal arts colleges are, it is likely to have invested heavily in DEI, even if the school is in a red state.
Texas and Florida may be red, but their universities are very much not.

TOPSHOT-US-LGBT-PRIDE-PARADE

Red State Schools Are Plagued By Wokeness Too

American Universities

College

Critical Race Theory

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Woke Culture

Wokeness

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily halted enforcement of a law known as the &#8220;Stop WOKE Act&#8221; at Florida <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">universities</a>.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction against the &#8220;Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E.) Act,&#8221; officially dubbed the Individual Freedom Act. The judge&#8217;s move means that the law cannot be enforced on college campuses for now.
&#8220;This is positively dystopian,&#8221; Walker wrote in his <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flnd.443792/gov.uscourts.flnd.443792.44.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">order</a>. &#8220;The law officially bans professors from expressing disfavored viewpoints in university classrooms while permitting unfettered expression of the opposite viewpoints.&#8221;
The <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/7/BillText/er/PDF" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a>, which the Florida legislature <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-critical-race-theory-education-stop-woke-act/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> in March, prohibits public K-12 schools and universities from teaching eight concepts that constitute &#8220;discrimination&#8221; and lets parents sue if their children are taught those concepts. It also targets employers who require their workers to partake in woke trainings.
The banned concepts include that a person is &#8220;inherently&#8221; racist or sexist &#8220;whether consciously or unconsciously&#8221; due to his race or sex, that a person &#8220;bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt&#8221; for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, and that virtues like hard work, fairness, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist.
“‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,’ and the powers in charge of Florida’s public university system have declared the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of ‘freedom,’” Walker wrote, quoting George Orwell&#8217;s dystopian novel &#8220;1984.&#8221;
The judge also quoted Orwell&#8217;s remark that, “if liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
The Act enhances enforcement of the Florida education board&#8217;s June <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2021/06/10/keep-critical-race-theory-out-of-schools-desantis-tells-state-board/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decision</a> to ban public schools from teaching Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project, which reframes American history with slavery at the center.
In September, a professor and student at the University of South Florida <a href="https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/politics-issues/2022-09-07/usf-professor-student-organization-lawsuit-florida-race-based-teaching" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> a lawsuit against the law. The lawsuit alleged that the law infringes on their First Amendment rights and threatens the professor&#8217;s livelihood.
USF history professor Adriana Novoa and student Sam Rechek celebrated the judge&#8217;s decision Thursday.
“It is a happy day not only for Sam and me, but for the institutions of this country,” Novoa said in a <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/victory-after-fire-lawsuit-court-halts-enforcement-key-provisions-stop-woke-act-limiting-how" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> through the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which is representing the two.
“I hope that the courts will defend the existence of a public education that cannot be manipulated by politicians to push any ideology, now and in the future,” the professor said.
Governor Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers have touted the law, saying it will prevent both students and employees in Florida from harmful, woke classes and trainings.
“In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is Critical Race Theory,” DeSantis <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2021/12/15/governor-desantis-announces-legislative-proposal-to-stop-w-o-k-e-activism-and-critical-race-theory-in-schools-and-corporations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in December when announcing the bill. “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other.&#8221;
DeSantis added at the time that Florida must protect workers against the &#8220;hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.&#8221;
DeSantis&#8217; office said they &#8220;strongly disagree&#8221; with Thursday&#8217;s ruling and plan to appeal it.
&#8220;This recent ruling included several victories for our legal team. We expect many more and ultimately to prevail in this litigation,&#8221; Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis&#8217; office, said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
&#8220;The Stop W.O.K.E. Act protects the open exchange of ideas by prohibiting teachers or employers who hold agency over others from forcing discriminatory concepts on students as part of classroom instruction or on employees as a condition of maintaining employment. An ‘open-minded and critical’ environment necessitates that one is free from discrimination,&#8221; Griffin said.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Holds News Conference With Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo

Federal Judge Suspends ‘Stop WOKE Act’ In Florida

Federal Judge Suspends 'Stop WOKE Act' In Florida

DeSantis

Florida

Ron DeSantis

A Michigan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education">school</a> district is pulling several pornographic books from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservatives-flip-school-boards-in-wave-of-education-wins">school</a> libraries after the local Muslim community expressed outrage.
Dearborn Public Schools <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2022/11/15/dearborn-school-district-controversial-books-keep-remove/69648667007/">announced</a> Monday it will remove two books, keep one book, and restrict another book to high school students only.
The two pulled books are &#8220;Push&#8221; by Sapphire, which is about a girl who is sexually abused by her father, and &#8220;Red, White and Royal Blue&#8221; by Casey McQuiston, an LGBT romance with several sexually explicit passages. The books were ruled inappropriate for high schoolers and will be removed from school libraries.
&#8220;The Lovely Bones&#8221; by Alice Sebold, which is about the rape and murder of a young girl, will remain in the libraries for high school students only.
&#8220;Eleanor and Park&#8221; by Rainbow Rowell, which is about a teenage romance and includes profanity and domestic abuse, was ruled inappropriate for middle schoolers but appropriate for high schoolers. Copies of the book will be pulled from middle schools but remain on high school library shelves.
Two books are still under review, &#8220;All Boys Aren’t Blue&#8221; by Jason Reynolds and &#8220;This Book is Gay&#8221; by Juno Dawson. The books were previously available to students through the ebook service Sora, but the ebook service is currently disabled for students.
The district also reviewed &#8220;Flamer&#8221; by Mike Curato, a graphic novel about a gay boy that includes several sexually explicit scenes. &#8220;Flamer&#8221; was not part of the initial books challenge from a parent but has been deemed appropriate for high school students and will remain on the shelves.
On Monday, a district mother read an extremely sexually explicit passage from &#8220;Flamer&#8221; at a school board meeting.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BREAKING: Parents in Dearborn, Michigan, are revolting against pornographic books in school libraries.
A mom reads a passage from the book &quot;Flamed&quot;: &quot;We&#39;re each bustin&#39; a load in this bottle. If you don&#39;t cum, you have to drink it.&quot;<a href="https://t.co/2KJGPTjpHZ">pic.twitter.com/2KJGPTjpHZ</a>
&mdash; Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) <a href="https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1592352306598928384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A parent officially challenged the seven books last summer.
Last month, parents in the Muslim community showed up to a school board meeting to protest the sexually explicit books remaining in school libraries.
&#8220;Keep Your Dirty Books In The Closet,&#8221; read one protester&#8217;s sign. &#8220;Quit Grooming Students! You Sexually Perverted ANIMALS,&#8221; read another sign.
Many Muslim parents also showed up to Monday&#8217;s school board meeting.
“We’re going to be at every single meeting for the next 20 years if that’s needed. I’m not going to allow these books to be read to our kids,” one Islamic man <a href="https://twitter.com/loganwashburn76/status/1592326182053507072">said</a> at Monday&#8217;s meeting.
“The sexually explicit material in these books was just a catalyst that brought forward broader concerns about the state of public education today and where it’s at, and that the traditional partnership between parents and public education has been compromised,” Hassan Chami, a Muslim parent and local political activist, <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/15/school-removes-multiple-books-following-muslim-community-complaints/">told</a> The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“What you’re seeing now is a grassroots movement of concerned parents trying to reassert their right to direct education for their children,” Chami said.
The books were the first ones reviewed under the district&#8217;s new Guidelines for the Selection and Review of Media Materials, <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2022/11/15/dearborn-school-district-controversial-books-keep-remove/69648667007/">according</a> to the district.
A district form now allows parents to prevent their children from checking out individual titles or even any books.
“With roughly half a million books in our school libraries, we realize the likelihood that there could be a few books that were added over the years that parents and staff agree should not be there,&#8221; Superintendent Glenn Maleyko <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2022/11/15/dearborn-school-district-controversial-books-keep-remove/69648667007/">said</a>.
&#8220;However, we want to assure our parents that those books are few and far between and that, overall, our libraries provide a wide range of age-appropriate materials to encourage students to strengthen their academic skills and build a love of reading,&#8221; the superintendent said.
“We appreciate the parents who are working with us to address concerns about books in our school libraries,” School Board President Roxanne McDonald <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2022/11/15/dearborn-school-district-controversial-books-keep-remove/69648667007/">said</a>.

Fight for our children protest, Protesting in front of the department of education to stop the masking and vaccines for the children going to school, St. Paul, Minnesota. November 3, 2021.

Michigan School District Removes Pornographic Books After Muslim Community Outrage

School Boards

Election night did not deliver the overwhelming victory Republicans had hoped for on a national level, but on a local level — in school board races — conservatives picked up a wave of wins across the country.
This week, conservatives flipped at least nine school boards in at least six states — Michigan, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Florida — giving them conservative majorities, <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2022/11/09/grassroots-organizations-school-board-wins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to two parental rights groups who endorsed many of the victorious candidates.
The wins signal that parental rights were a significant factor at the ballot box on Tuesday.
In Michigan, four school board candidates in Brandywine who were endorsed by a parents rights group called 1776 Project PAC won their races, flipping the board from liberal to conservative, the group said.
In Maryland, three of their school board candidates <a href="https://twitter.com/1776ProjectPac/status/1590182863785193472" target="_blank" rel="noopener">won</a> in Carroll County, flipping the school board there to a conservative majority, the group said.
The 1776 Project PAC claims it has officially flipped 100 school boards since November last year. The group’s candidates also won in Oklahoma and Ohio.
Another parents&#8217; rights group, Moms For Liberty, told The Daily Wire it notched clusters of wins in at least four states. The group flipped at least seven school boards.
In North Carolina, conservative candidates won in both New Hanover County and Iredell County, flipping both of those school boards conservative, the group <a href="https://twitter.com/Moms4Liberty/status/1590495219853950976" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
In South Carolina, six conservative candidates <a href="https://twitter.com/Moms4Liberty/status/1590496029501460480" target="_blank" rel="noopener">won</a> in Berkeley County, five <a href="https://twitter.com/Moms4Liberty/status/1590496412374274051">won</a> in Charleston County, and another four <a href="https://twitter.com/Moms4Liberty/status/1590447372030484480" target="_blank" rel="noopener">won</a> in York County,  flipping all three school boards conservative, Moms For Liberty said.
In New Jersey, three candidates in Cape May County won their elections, flipping that school board conservative, the group <a href="https://twitter.com/Moms4Liberty/status/1590513976562941952" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
In Florida, two candidates won in Pinellas County, flipping that board conservative as well, the group <a href="https://twitter.com/Moms4Liberty/status/1590495633475268608" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Also in Florida, all six of the school board candidates Florida Governor Ron DeSantis <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/08/desantis-conservatives-school-board-00065794" target="_blank" rel="noopener">endorsed won</a> their runoff races. This means that of the 30 local education candidates DeSantis backed this year, a total of 24 have now won their races. 
Over the summer, conservative school board candidates, including some endorsed by DeSantis, won their races and flipped school boards to conservative majorities in five counties, including some traditionally blue areas like Miami-Dade and Sarasota. 
In recent months, Florida has been the epicenter of the education culture war in some respects. Back in March, DeSantis signed a parental rights bill that prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through 3rd grade.
The Republican school board wins this week and earlier this year point to parents becoming an activated voter bloc. The victories may also point to a larger trend of conservatives gaining the upper hand nationally in the education debate.
One of the first signs of parents taking their frustrations to the ballot box came last fall when Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin flipped the state’s governorship. Youngkin won his gubernatorial race after emphasizing parental rights during his campaign. At the time, there was some question as to whether that enthusiasm from parents would fizzle out.
It remains to be seen whether this level of energy from parents will continue through to the 2024 elections.
Aside from the wave of local school board wins, conservatives also won majorities on both the Texas and Kansas state education boards. The Texas State Board of Education <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/voters-reinforce-republican-stronghold-on-state-board-of-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will have</a> a 10-5 Republican majority. All of those seats were up for election this cycle. The Kansas State Board of Education will now have a 7-3 conservative majority after conservatives <a href="https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2022-11-09/conservatives-sweep-races-for-seats-on-kansas-state-board-of-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">won</a> four seats.
Over the last two years, parents have complained about a litany of issues plaguing the public school system, including pandemic learning loss, pornographic and Critical Race Theory content in classroom materials, sexual orientation and gender identity being taught to very young students, and school safety.

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Mairead Elordi