Virginia’s largest school division put a “sex therapist” who promotes “kinky” acts like BDSM — a form of physical abuse geared to those who are aroused by humiliation — in charge of deciding whether to heed parent complaints about books that may be inappropriate for children, The Daily Wire has learned.
Fairfax County School Board chair Karl Frisch, a gay activist who recently became chairman of the school board, appointed Laila Cooper, the sex therapist, to the Challenged Materials Interdepartmental Review Committee <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/goto?open&amp;id=CWPPMH65065D">on January 25</a>, according to public school board documents. The appointment put Cooper in position to assess any request received by the school district about books.
&#8220;This Committee is activated only if a Fairfax County or City resident, without a student enrolled in a school, submits a formal request to remove a book or other media from FCPS,&#8221; it explained. &#8220;If a request is received, committee members will review the request, read or view the material identified, evaluate and discuss the request, and submit an individual <a href="https://www.fcps.edu/aggregator/sources/16" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vote to uphold or deny removal</a> of the material from FCPS.”
The appointment of Laila Cooper, the sex therapist, is a provocative gesture intended to signal that although the school system <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CSMQ4Y674B1A/$file/R%203009.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">technically has a process</a> for registering complaints about obscene materials, such complaints are likely to be essentially thrown in the trash, parents told The Daily Wire.
In a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/laila-cooper-fairfax-va/127057" target="_blank" rel="noopener">professional bio of Cooper</a>, she states, “I work from an affirming and social justice approach with the LGBTQIA community and people of color, and I am kink- and non-monogamy informed and affirming&#8230; My work is focused on sex and gender issues (including transgender issues), sexual orientation, kink/BDSM, and interpersonal relationships (including couples, polyamory, family dyads).”
Cooper’s work, according to her <a href="https://archive.is/5kfQ2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>, “includes but is not limited to: navigating non-monogamy (i.e., polyamory, open relationships, swingers, monogamish, throuples, etc.), kinky sex (e.g., BDSM, group sex, fetish), painful sex, difficulty with orgasm, erection issues, shame and anxiety related to sex, out of control sexual behavior (aka sex addiction), sexual orientation, and gender transition.  I work with all genders, sexualities, and relationship formats from an informed, non-judgmental, affirming, and celebratory stance.”
Her practice also includes providing paperwork that people can use to get gender surgery. “As ethically possible, I provide all documentation necessary to do this following a consultation with you,” she says. “I work from an informed consent model, wherein my goal is to advocate for and help you achieve the care you need and desire.”
She also writes doctor&#8217;s notes intended to help illegal immigrants convince a court that they need asylum. “As a longstanding advocate for the human rights of immigrants, I offer psychological evaluations (in English and Spanish) that accompany other legal documentation for asylum, human trafficking, and other immigration-related cases,” her website says.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
After The Daily Wire asked Frisch and Cooper about the appointment, Cooper said she has stepped down from the committee to avoid political damage to Frisch.
“Yes I was recently appointed to the Challenged Materials Committee,&#8221; Cooper said in an email. &#8220;I applied for the committee as an involved mother who cares about the school community and, in particular, about access to diverse reading materials. Although that was the extent of my discussion with Mr. Frisch regarding my desire to be on the committee, I understand that my professional background is causing distraction from the important work being done by him and other members of the school board; thus I have stepped down from the role. My work as a licensed clinical psychologist is unrelated to my desire to be on the committee,” she said in an email.
The appointment has not previously been reported, and she did not say when she tendered her resignation.
Frisch did not respond to a request for comment, and Fairfax County Public Schools spokeswomen Hellen Lloyd and Julie Moult did not reply to a request for the names of current committee members.
Brooke Corbett, a Fairfax mother, said she feels “like FCPS school board members live in an alternate reality” for thinking that out of all the county’s 1.4 million residents, someone who makes their living “affirming” “kinks” would be the right person to decide whether residents are correct to think a book is inappropriate. 
“A ‘professional’ with such credentials, assigned to a panel to adjudicate what is deemed appropriate material flagged by concerned taxpayers, will most certainly be biased in the determination of what’s appropriate to sit on our kids’ school library shelves, what’s presented to them in the classrooms and assemblies, in Family Life Education/sex-ed instruction, and what’s sanctioned to be presented in after-school clubs,” Corbett told The Daily Wire.
“The biases someone like Cooper brings to this role promote and enable grooming behavior of our children, plain and simple. It makes me suspicious and want to know what is Frisch’s motivation in supporting individuals and groups who normalize sexually explicit, disordered, adult practices to children… I hope all parents and concerned citizens take note of Frisch’s decisions,” she added.
Frisch is a career Democrat operative who in 2019 ran for school board despite the fact that he had no children and no college degree, the book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Uncovering-Destroying-Education/dp/0063056720/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Race to the Bottom</a> reported. After he was elected to office, his Twitter account, on which he often posted school board content, followed multiple accounts dedicated to tweeting hardcore pornography, it found. 
When he was sworn in this year for his second term, he took his oath of office with his hand not on a Bible, but on a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/school-board-member-sworn-in-on-stack-of-gay-porn-instead-of-bible" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stack of books depicting gay sex</a>.
Sexual orientation is a primary focus of his interest in policy, the book reported. In 2012, he warned that if Mitt Romney won the presidency, Romney would modify the U.S. Constitution and force gays to leave the country.
He won his seat on the suburban school board in 2019 by nationalizing a local race, raising money from leftist activists across the country by invoking gay issues. Tapping people in places like California to fund a school board race in Virginia, he raised $183,000, far more than anyone had ever raised for the position. One school board fundraising event advertised an appearance by a drag queen.
In 2021, a Fairfax review committee voted to keep <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-library-association-transgender-gender-queer-comics-schools">“Gender Queer”</a> in schools, claiming that the cartoon is “scientifically based” and that its images, including of a woman performing oral sex on a transgender person, “do not qualify as obscene.” In the book, the narrator visits the headquarters of a porn company that produced films called “Public Disgrace,” “Bound in Public,” and “Hardcore Gangbangs.” The book’s author, Maia Kobabe, said she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/author-of-infamous-gender-queer-book-i-dont-recommend-this-book-for-kids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">does not recommend it</a> for children.
A review committee said that the book Lawn Boy — which includes the words, “What if I told you I touched another guy’s d***? What if I told you I sucked it? I was ten years old, but it’s true. I sucked Doug Goble’s d**&#8221; — has “literary value as a narrative representing the <a href="https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/policies-regulations-and-notices/school-library-collections/library-books-challenge-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">perspective of a significant portion</a> of students in Fairfax County Public Schools.”
<div class="css-j7qwjs">
<div id="post-body-text">
<div class="e1nzmkc90 css-15jw47d">
Got a tip worth investigating? Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. <a href="https://tips.dailywire.com/">Submit your tip today</a>.
</div>
</div>
</div>

Laila Cooper, left, was appointed to a committee by Fairfax school board chair Karl Frisch, right. (drlailacooper.com / YouTube)

Virginia’s Largest School District Put A ‘Kink-Affirming’ Bondage Specialist In Charge Of Reviewing Parent Complaints About Books

Education

Parental Rights in Education

Transgender

Virginia

A new survey found that nearly three out of every four Americans believe that parents should be able to opt their kids out of public school subjects they believe are immoral or objectionable.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty surveyed 1,000 American adults between September 28 and October 5 as part of its annual <a href="https://www.becketlaw.org/index/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Religious Freedom Index</a>, and the results suggest that transgender advocacy in schools is a losing proposition for Democrat politicians — at least if voters are paying attention.
In a consensus that is rare for any political issue, a whopping 74% of respondents agreed that “parents should be able to opt their children out of public school curriculum on gender and sexuality that violates their religious beliefs or that they believe is not age appropriate.”
That’s four percent higher than when the question was posed in 2021, at the height of the education culture war, suggesting that the Left has lost ground as more Americans have seen examples of public schools concealing radical ideas under the banner of social-emotional learning, sex-ed, and the like.
Only a third of respondents agreed with a position mirroring that backed by teachers unions and many Democrats, that “public schools are responsible for shaping the next generation of citizens and should have final say on what children are taught in school.”
The percentage who strongly (rather than somewhat) agree with the parental rights position has also solidified, jumping nine points from 2021.
Eighty percent disagreed that schools should “be allowed to hide information from parents about their child’s decision to adopt a new name, new pronouns, or begin a gender transition,” and 76% disagreed that “schools should be allowed to encourage children to transition their genders.”
The survey results were shared first with The Daily Wire. Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, said that “Americans are making clear that no one can replace parents when it comes to raising children. That’s a heartening sign for the direction of our nation and for every parent who wishes to pass on values and virtues to their children.&#8221;
&#8220;Our nation is better when we allow parents to parent their children, not the government,” Windham said.
The findings come as school districts across the country act to the contrary.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, for example, the school board prohibited parents from removing their children from lessons on sexuality, specifically arguing that it was because so many parents wanted to do so that it would cause a disruption. District materials tell teachers that if a parent asks, “Can I keep my child home when students are learning about LGBTQ+ topics?,” they should discuss “equity” and then say, “Parents always have the choice to keep their student(s) home while using these texts; however, it will not be an excused absence.” (The same district recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/principal-was-proud-of-students-for-protesting-against-israel-on-kristallnacht-emails-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave excused absences</a> for students who wanted to protest Israel on the anniversary of Kristallnacht.)
The state of California, meanwhile, paid a nonprofit that encourages kids to identify as genders such as “foxgender,” and teaches schools <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-awards-grant-to-nonprofit-encouraging-kids-to-identify-as-foxgender-teaching-schools-to-hide-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how to hide it</a>. That includes a six-page for on which pronouns to use around kids and whether school staff needs to hide their use of those pronouns from their parents. “It’s not always the case that caregivers are supportive of their child’s gender, their gender journey, in that case, if parents are not supportive or if the child is not out, that’s not necessarily someone who will be part of the gender support team,” said Director of Training Carla Pena at the group’s annual Gender Spectrum Family Conference last year.
And in Virginia, a mother sued her school district after it relentlessly asked her child about transitioning. The child did transition, the district concealed it from the mother, and she was then <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-refused-to-give-back-a-virginia-runaway-because-her-parents-misgendered-her-then-she-was-sex-trafficked-mother-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trafficked to Baltimore and held by a registered sex offender</a>. A school counselor then allegedly testified in Baltimore court that the girl should remain in Baltimore — in a group home with at-risk boys — instead of being returned to her mother, speculating that the mother might be transphobic.
The survey results explain why issue of parental rights has become a flashpoint in the ongoing presidential election. Republican candidates this year have fashioned themselves as fierce defenders of parental rights in the classroom, with top contenders <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2023-03-14/trump-pushes-parental-rights-in-first-2024-campaign-visit-to-iowa">Donald Trump</a>, <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2022/03/28/governor-ron-desantis-signs-historic-bill-to-protect-parental-rights-in-education/#:~:text=Governor%20Ron%20DeSantis%20Signs%20Historic%20Bill%20to%20Protect%20Parental%20Rights%20in%20Education,-On%20March%2028&amp;text=SPRING%20HILL%2C%20Fla.,the%20upbringing%20of%20their%20children.">Ron DeSantis</a>, and <a href="https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2023/09/07/nikki-haley-spells-out-education-agenda--promises-to-give-parents-greater-voice">Nikki Haley</a> all promising to give parents more power if they win the presidency.

Montgomery County parents

Vast Majority Believe Parents Should Be Able To Opt Out Of Objectionable Curriculum, Rejecting Left’s View

Maryland

Religious Freedom

Not long after the Department of Justice mobilized the FBI against parents by citing a letter that painted the father of a Loudoun County, Virginia rape victim as a terrorist, an attorney from one of the department&#8217;s most corrupt branches is running for a seat on America’s most politicized school board on a platform that labels advocates for “parents&#8217; rights” as “extremists.”
While most federal employees shy away from any sort of political activity because of how it could erode credibility and violate the Hatch Act, Anne Donohue has run openly as a Democrat for the At-Large seat on Loudoun County’s school board.
On October 13, Donohue advertised a political event saying, &#8220;Are you tired of the so-called &#8216;Parents&#8217; Rights&#8217; extremists attacking our kids and public education? You&#8217;re not alone. Virginia moms have had enough.&#8221;
&#8220;<a href="https://www.mobilize.us/dpvasenatecaucus/event/579213/?emci=3d5075f9-9152-ee11-9937-00224832e811&amp;emdi=83963fba-f952-ee11-9937-00224832e811&amp;ceid=10710897&amp;fbclid=IwAR3g5ZRZlEfUTdkqXX386fXZx4Su02jw3fp7-p_7GM4zfVmDXA8i5R1bRvY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Join us tomorrow</a> for the All in for Leesburg rally!&#8221; she wrote in a campaign social media post, referring to and linking to a Democrat Party of Virginia event that said, &#8220;Join us at our coordinated office as we canvass for Russet Perry, Marty Martinez, and the rest of the Democrats up and down the ticket!&#8221;
&#8220;Help us GOTV to support our #LCPS School Board candidates! Ashburn Loudoun Democrats Leesburg Democrats Catoctin District Democrats of Loudoun County #election2023 #GOTV,&#8221; she wrote on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/anneforatlargeLCSB" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> this week.
&#8220;#anneforatlarge #blueloudoun,&#8221; she wrote in another campaign post.
She has <a href="https://twitter.com/LibsOfLoudoun/status/1711945458652766595" target="_blank" rel="noopener">campaigned</a> with far-Left, George Soros-backed prosecutor Buta Biberaj during the middle of what is typically a workday, and she has door-knocked, attended fundraising events with, or lavished praise on the other Democrat candidates.
According to her bio at George Washington University, where she is a lecturer, Donohue is a high-ranking DOJ lawyer who now works for its Civil Division, but from 2014 to 2020 worked for the <a href="https://www.law.gwu.edu/anne-p-donohue" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Security Division</a>, including &#8220;as a Deputy Section Chief, where she wrote and supervised briefs and memoranda regarding the handling and use of information obtained pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (&#8216;FISA&#8217;).&#8221;
During that time period, the DOJ used FISA to wrongfully target Republicans, including falsifying evidence and lying in order to wiretap Donald Trump&#8217;s adviser, Carter Page.
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-646195" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb2-461x576.png" alt="" width="461" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb2-461x576.png 461w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb2-240x300.png 240w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb2-768x959.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb2.png 1182w" sizes="(max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px" /></div>
On September 29, Donohue received a <a href="https://www.vpap.org/donors/455545-anne-pogue-donohue/">donation from the Democratic Party of Virginia</a> in the amount of $2,196, making it her second-largest donor, according to campaign finance filings. It was an &#8220;in-kind&#8221; donation in the form of &#8220;Mail production/postage.&#8221;
Donohue&#8217;s campaign has paid ActBlue Virginia, the Democrat fundraising operation, as well as Virginia Blue Star Printing, whose <a href="https://www.vabluestar.com/">mission</a> is to &#8220;provide high-quality printing and mail services on time &amp; on target to Democratic candidates.&#8221;
The Loudoun County Democrats held a &#8220;Barbie&#8217;s School Board Skate Party&#8221; to raise money for Donohue, writing, &#8220;Just $20 gets you in and adds a donation to be split among both women&#8230; Anne and Megan are running against some extreme candidates.&#8221;
The Loudoun Democrats also promised a May 17 event sponsored by &#8220;GenVoter Blue &amp; Ashburn Dems&#8221; where, according to pictures posted by the Democrat group, Donohue had a fundraising table.
According to the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/SOL/files/Political-Activities-Guidance_2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Labor,</a> &#8220;a federal employee, regardless of position, may not solicit, accept, or receive partisan political contributions. For instance, federal employees are prohibited from: &#8230; forwarding, ‘liking’, or “favoriting” a solicitation for political contributions using social media or email; [or] asking for donations at a fundraising event.&#8221;
The brazen partisanship by a current DOJ official raised the eyebrows even of LCPS&#8217; former top lawyer Stephen DeVita, who wrote on Facebook: &#8220;This is an obvious partisan election. How is this not a violation of the Hatch Act?&#8221;
School board elections in Virginia are nominally nonpartisan, meaning a party identifier does not appear next to names on the ballot. But in practice, they are fully partisan, with official slates of Democrat and Republican candidates. The political parties hand out “sample ballots” outside the polls letting people know what names belong to which party.
In 2021, the <a href="https://www.governmentattic.org/49docs/OSCrptsHatchActAdvWarn_2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Office of Special Counsel (OSC)</a>, which polices the Hatch Act, wrote that government officials can run in non-partisan elections, but only if they are actually nonpartisan, not just nominally nonpartisan. &#8220;Usually, a nonpartisan election is designated as such by state or local law. The law, however, creates only a rebuttable presumption that an election is nonpartisan. Evidence showing that partisan politics actually entered a candidate&#8217;s campaign may rebut this presumption,&#8221; it wrote.
&#8220;The following are examples of activities that could introduce partisan politics into an election: participating in and winning a party caucus; soliciting contributions from a partisan political group or political party; seeking and advertising a political party&#8217;s endorsement; or receiving party support in the form of supplies (e.g., wooden stakes for signs, bulk mail permit), campaign publications (e.g., flyers, posters) or use of party headquarters,&#8221; it continued.
According to OSC, &#8220;​The penalty structure for violations of the Hatch Act by federal employees includes removal from federal service.”
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-646197" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb1-517x576.png" alt="" width="517" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb1-517x576.png 517w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb1-269x300.png 269w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb1-768x856.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/fb1.png 1182w" sizes="(max-width: 517px) 100vw, 517px" /></div>
Donohue did not respond to an inquiry from The Dally Wire asking how she got the Democrats’ endorsement if she did not seek it, and how her actions did not constitute a Hatch Act violation.
The Loudoun GOP said &#8220;Her acceptance of a political party’s endorsement, her campaign contributions to that same party, her frequent appearances with democrat officials at campaign events, and apparent use of Democrat Party support, has placed her campaign in blatant violation of the federal law&#8230; The serious nature of these allegations demands an investigation. The last person we need on our school board is someone who is willing to violate federal law to gain power over our children and subvert the rights of parents.&#8221;
The DOJ did not return a request for comment about why it had permitted Donohue to run for America’s most politicized school board, and why Americans should be confident that its top National Security Division officials are not partisan.
In October 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland — Donohue&#8217;s boss — <a href="https://www.justice.gov/ag/page/file/1438986/download" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mobilized</a> the department against parents at school board meetings, based upon a letter from the National School Boards Association referencing Loudoun County. Garland has refused to rescind the memo even after the school board association apologized and admitted the request was improper.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-school-board-rejects-biden-admins-bid-to-mediate-its-deliberations-on-trans-policy">Virginia School Board Rejects Biden Admin’s Bid To ‘Mediate’ Its Deliberations On Trans Policy</a>

Merrick Garland

DOJ Attorney Wants To Join Loudoun School Board, Running An Anti-Parent, Openly Partisan, And Possibly Illegal Campaign

Department of Justice

A Virginia school board member seeking a promotion to the state legislature may have used her position in an attempt to sabotage her election opponent — a teacher in the school district she presides over, records show.
Democrat Stella Pekarsky, who currently serves on the Fairfax County School Board, was personally involved in discussions over whether to punish Julie Perry, a history teacher who is running against her in this year’s District 36 Senate race, according to <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23986992-pekarsky-foia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emails and calendar entries</a> obtained by The Daily Wire through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The records show a Pekarsky donor sent Centreville High School Principal Chad Lehman a complaint objecting to conservative social media posts the history teacher made as part of her campaign. Lehman forwarded the complaint to the school board&#8217;s Assistant Superintendent Penny Gros, who said she would seek guidance about what to do. That guidance appears to have come from none other than Pekarsky, and it was followed by a memo reprimanding Perry and threatening her job.
“Your behavior negatively impacts the goals of this department and others,” the reprimand said, citing the campaign posts. “Any action that brings the school system into disrepute may be just cause for dismissal.”
Experts said the conduct of Pekarsky and taxpayer-funded employees could constitute serious misconduct intended to impact the election, saying it is improper for individual board members to be involved in the discipline of specific teachers — much less their own campaign opponents.
The initial complaint came on May 7, not long after Perry announced that she was running for the same seat as Pekarsky, from Robert Rigby, a substitute teacher who is close with Pekarsky. Rigby wrote to Principal Lehman to say that he had filed a complaint with Child Protective Services (CPS) against Perry, citing a social media post she made regarding scientific research that found that autistic children are especially prone to transgenderism.
<div id="attachment_623493" style="width: 656px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-623493" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-623493 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/rigby-pekarsky-fb-cropped.jpeg" alt="Stella Pekarsky with Robert Rigby / Facebook" width="646" height="418" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/rigby-pekarsky-fb-cropped.jpeg 646w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/rigby-pekarsky-fb-cropped-300x194.jpeg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 646px) 100vw, 646px" />Stella Pekarsky with Robert Rigby / Facebook</div>
Lehman forwarded the complaint to his supervisor, Gros, who said she would &#8220;follow up tomorrow after getting some guidance.&#8221;
The next day, CPS alerted the school that it had dismissed the complaint as unfounded. But soon after, a second complaint was made asking the school itself to take action.
That complaint came on May 11 at 3:15 p.m., when Vanessa Hall – a local Democrat activist who was <a href="https://www.fcps.edu/committee/family-life-education-curriculum-advisory-committee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appointed</a> to a sex-ed committee by the school board – emailed Lehman pointing to Perry&#8217;s &#8220;numerous social media posts that are homophobic, transphobic, and deeply hurtful to the entire community.&#8221; It said that the tweet — in which Perry said she had personally seen how trangender ideology affected an autistic student — showed that &#8220;she is using students for her political gain.&#8221;
Lehman again forwarded the email to Gros, and calendar entries obtained by The Daily Wire indicate that she within an hour was meeting with Pekarsky to discuss Perry. Gros’ calendar shows a “Phone Call: Stella (re: Julie Perry)” for 4:00 to 4:30 that day, according to emails and calendar entries. And at 4:29, Gros replied to Lehman that she was ready to discuss how to proceed, saying, “I am available if you are.”
A FOIA request for references to Perry in Gros&#8217; account showed no evidence that she consulted anyone else other than Pekarsky for &#8220;guidance&#8221; on the matter.
The next week, Lehman summoned Perry to a meeting in which Hall’s complaint and the fact that a CPS complaint was filed were used as evidence that she had brought the school system into “disrepute,” even though CPS dismissed the complaint, according to a summary memo that Lehman placed in Perry&#8217;s personnel file.
The reprimand ordered Perry to avoid any posts on social media that reference her teaching position.
“Moving forward, you must avoid social media posts that draw a connection to &#8230; your role as a teacher at Centreville High School,” it said. (Pekarsky’s own website <a href="https://stellapekarsky.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says she is a teacher</a>, even though, according to public records, she does not have a <a href="https://vadoe.mylicense.com/verification/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">teaching license</a>.)
Pam Kirby, a former member of the Scottsdale, Arizona, school board who now leads the Arizona Coalition for School Board Members, said it would be abnormal for an individual school board member to be involved in the discipline case of a specific employee.
School board members have “no authority” as individuals, “they only have authority as a body” through votes, she told The Daily Wire. “It&#8217;s abusing your role as a school board member, whether there&#8217;s an election or not. That authority is given to the superintendent, and the board manages the superintendent,” she said.
The <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CV6K6B504D07/$file/Manual%20revisions%20approved%20-%207-13-23.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">governance manual</a> outlining the role of the Fairfax County School board members requires members to agree to &#8220;delegate authority for the administration of the schools to the Superintendent” and “refrain from using the board position for personal or partisan gain and avoid any conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety.”
“I will respect the confidentiality of privileged information and make no individual decisions or commitments that might compromise the board or administration,” it says.
<div id="attachment_623465" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-623465" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-623465" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/pekarsky-1024x555.png" alt="Virginia Senate candidate Stella Pekarsky. Source: Fairfax County Public Schools" width="1024" height="555" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/pekarsky-1024x555.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/pekarsky-300x163.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/pekarsky-768x416.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/pekarsky-1536x832.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/pekarsky-2048x1109.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Virginia Senate candidate Stella Pekarsky. Source: Fairfax County Public Schools</div>
The board’s <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/CKEJJH4D68C5/$file/P1801.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Conflict of Interest Policy</a> further states that “a School Board member shall disqualify himself or herself from participating in any transaction on behalf of the school system if he or she has a personal interest,” noting that “violation of the State and Local Government Conflict of Interests Act, which is the basis of this policy, may result in enforcement action by the Commonwealth Attorney, including but not limited to criminal prosecution.”
Virginia <a href="https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodepopularnames/state-and-local-government-conflict-of-interests-act/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a> says a public official may not “use for his own economic benefit or that of another party confidential information that he has acquired by reason of his public position” or “use his public position to retaliate or threaten to retaliate against any person for expressing views on matters of public concern.”
In the Fairfax County Public Schools rulebook, it says that a dispute over how policy applies to an employee personnel matter would only reach the school board after <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BY5HWF4A7833/$file/R4461.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">six layers of appeals</a>.
Violations of rules for board members can result in the “removal from any leadership or committee positions.”
Pekarsky, who is squaring off against Perry for the Senate seat representing western Fairfax County with early voting starting this week, acknowledged in a statement that the CPS call by her donor was a &#8220;misuse&#8221; of the CPS system, but claimed she did not know about it. &#8220;I have recused myself from anything to do with any internal school system process involving her,&#8221; she said.
A FOIA request of Pekarsky&#8217;s emails including Perry&#8217;s name showed no email saying she recused herself from anything
Pekarsky did not deny the &#8220;Phone Call: Stella (re: Julie Perry)&#8221; immediately following the CPS complaint, and did not explain the records or what would have been discussed if not the CPS complaint, instead suggesting that her opponent is a Nazi.
A spokesperson for FCPS defended the contact between the school and Pekarsky. “There is an expectation that all Fairfax County Public Schools regional area superintendents keep their magisterial school board members informed about matters that could be of community concern at any schools under that member’s purview,&#8221; the spokesperson said. &#8220;Such updates are informational.”
But Karen Hilz, a former school board member in Franklin County, Virginia, who has run trainings for school board members, said “The pecking order is assistant superintendent, superintendent, board. So why wasn’t it elevated to the superintendent to inform the board? … And did they reach out solely to [Pekarsky] or inform all board members? If it’s for information purposes you inform all school board members.”
She said the conduct by political activists, FCPS staff, and Pekarsky was “without a doubt election interference.”
“Obviously there’s a relationship there, is what it seems to me, and they were collaborating on what to do with an opponent, which is totally inappropriate,” she added.
Perry said a successful CPS complaint would mean “they would have fired me immediately, ripped my teachers license away from me, I would have never gotten another teaching job, and there’s a chance I would have gone to jail,” she said.
The school district initially attempted to conceal the identities of both Hall and Rigby under FOIA, before conceding that it had no justification for withholding Hall’s name. It continued to conceal Rigby’s name, saying CPS complaints are private under the law.
But Hayden Fisher, a lawyer who is running for another state Senate seat as a Republican, noted that <a href="https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title63.2/chapter15/section63.2-1514/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia law</a> also says a complainant&#8217;s identity can be unmasked if the complaint was &#8220;in bad faith or with malicious intent.&#8221; Representing Perry, he made that argument in court.
On September 8, a Fairfax County judge <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23986994-pekarsky-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">compelled CPS</a> to provide the name of the complainant for his review. The judge said he would investigate whether the person is tied to Pekarsky, and if he found connections, the complaint would likely be presumed to be malicious, Fisher said.
Perry deleted the tweet after only an hour, meaning it was seen by few people and the two complainants were likely working together, Fisher said.
Public records reviewed by The Daily Wire show that Hall, who emailed a complaint to the principal, is one of four officers of a Democrat activist group called <a href="https://cis.scc.virginia.gov/EntitySearch/BusinessInformation?businessId=11378816&amp;source=FromEntityResult&amp;isSeries%20=%20false" target="_blank" rel="noopener">4 Public Education</a>. Another officer of that group is Rigby, raising the possibility that Rigby filed the CPS complaint, with Hall following up with a school-specific complaint when the CPS complaint did not work.
Rigby last year served as an advisor to the Pride Liberation Project, which said it would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pro-trans-group-behind-virginia-school-walkout-plans-to-rehome-gay-kids-who-hate-their-parents" target="_blank" rel="noopener">harbor minors</a> who wanted to run away from their parents, saying, &#8220;In the event of you needing to leave your home, we can provide you with emergency housing from a supportive, Queer friendly adult.&#8221;
Rigby acknowledged to The Daily Wire that he made the CPS complaint.
Rigby has donated more than <a href="https://www.vpap.org/donors/323895-robert-rigby/?start_year=2018&amp;end_year=2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$9,000</a> to Virginia Democrats since 2018, including more than $800 to Pekarsky. He donated to Pekarsky’s Senate campaign three days after Pekarsky spoke to the assistant superintendent, and one day before the principal summoned Perry to threaten her with discipline.
That means the judge may rule the complaint malicious. But that might not come until after the election, with voting beginning September 22 and ending November 7.
Perry said “there have to be consequences” that punish election interference.

Virginia Senate candidate Stella Pekarsky. Campaign website

Virginia Democrat Used Gov’t Position To Play Role In Reprimand Of Her Conservative Opponent, Records Reveal

A Conservative Teacher Is Running For State Senate. A Democrat Operative Complained To Her School District, Which Coordinated With Her Opponent Then Threatened To Fire Her

Election Fraud

Virginia Democrats and Loudoun County&#8217;s George Soros-backed prosecutor are lashing out at Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) over his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/glenn-youngkin-grants-absolute-pardon-to-loudoun-dad-arrested-at-school-board-meeting">Sunday pardon of Scott Smith</a>, whose daughter was raped in school and who the prosecutor, Buta Biberaj, personally sought to put in jail.
Biberaj said Youngkin&#8217;s pardon &#8220;is an unprecedented and inappropriate intervention into an active legal case,&#8221; and said he was taking action &#8220;not for justice but for political gain.&#8221; Scott Surovell, the vice chairman of the Democrat Senate Caucus, said Youngkin&#8217;s pardon was an abandonment of &#8220;law and order&#8221; intended to &#8220;help his failing presidential ambitions.&#8221;
Smith was set to face his second trial this month for the crime of cursing at a leftist activist who said she didn&#8217;t believe his daughter was raped. Smith was arrested after a police officer grabbed him from behind as he was exchanging words with activist Jackie Schworm, leading to a televised tussle with police. But the resisting arrest charge was thrown out, meaning Smith was being prosecuted solely for an angry exchange of words.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Gov. Youngkin is once again using Loudoun County for his political gain. My full statement below. <a href="https://t.co/fPYEksC93T">pic.twitter.com/fPYEksC93T</a>
&mdash; Buta Biberaj (@ButaBiberaj) <a href="https://twitter.com/ButaBiberaj/status/1700983375153205358?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Despite Smith having committed no apparent crime, police apprehended him from behind, saying his body language suggested that it might escalate. They bloodied him and kneeled on his chest as he shouted, &#8220;I can&#8217;t breathe.&#8221;
Youngkin&#8217;s pardon stated that his office determined Smith committed no crime, and called into question the &#8220;integrity of the prosecution.&#8221;
State Delegate Candi Mundon King, a black Democrat representing Stafford and Prince William Counties, said on X: &#8220;Didn&#8217;t law enforcement make these charges&#8230; Guess he doesn&#8217;t &#8216;Back the blue&#8217; as much as we thought.&#8221;
Biberaj ran on a platform lamenting &#8220;overincarceration&#8221; and has refused to prosecute many misdemeanors. Democrats, claiming to want to stop people from being arrested for minor crimes in schools, even passed a <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?201+sum+HB257=">law</a> that &#8220;Eliminates the requirement that school principals report to law enforcement certain enumerated acts that may constitute a misdemeanor offense.&#8221;
When it came to a parent whose lived experience posed a threat to Democrats&#8217; effort to pass a transgender bathroom policy, however, Biberaj personally took Smith&#8217;s case and sought jail time. He was denied a jury because it was a misdemeanor, and he was convicted. A judge threw out the resisting arrest charge after Smith appealed, and threw Biberaj off the case for apparent conflict of interest.
But the government kept fighting Smith, forcing him to head towards a second trial for disorderly conduct. A judge was brought out of retirement from neighboring, deep-blue Fairfax County who ruled that under the “peculiar” language of Virginia’s disorderly conduct statute, Smith arguably committed disorderly conduct by cursing at Schworm because it could “incite” her to violence—even though that interpretation would seemingly mean the leftist activist was guilty of the same crime.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What kind of sick freak objects to pardoning a dad being charged for confronting the school board that covered up the anal rape of his daughter??? <a href="https://t.co/IRy5SYiz9r">https://t.co/IRy5SYiz9r</a>
&mdash; Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) <a href="https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/1701230931921576175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Judge Howe Brown, who was brought out of retirement from deep-blue Fairfax County to hear the case, suggested Smith might have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/father-of-loudoun-rape-victim-dealt-another-blow-in-court-when-will-the-healing-begin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deserved to be assaulted</a> for calling the activist Schworm a &#8220;b&#8212;,&#8221; saying, “I think it incites her to violence. I think he was lucky he didn’t get slapped.&#8221;
Smith told The Daily Wire this week that Schworm had just spoken with his daughter, who was in line to speak into a megaphone, before making a beeline over to him to say she didn&#8217;t believe her story and that she would destroy his plumbing business by attacking it on social media.
&#8220;It&#8217;s obvious&#8221; that Schworm — a member of a Facebook group called <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-teachers-target-parents-critical-race-theory-hacking" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun&#8221;</a> alongside Biberaj, and whose members plotted to destroy anyone who posed an obstacle to the transgender agenda in schools — intended to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/glenn-youngkin-grants-absolute-pardon-to-loudoun-dad-arrested-at-school-board-meeting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prevent the daughter from telling her story</a> to the world, Smith said.
Her efforts were initially successful, with Smith&#8217;s arrest being used by the Department of Justice and media organizations to paint conservatives as a threat to school boards. The reason for his anger at the school board was unknown until The Daily Wire revealed it five months later, after the rapist attacked a second girl. The rapist was later convicted, but was not placed on the registered sex offender list because of an error by Biberaj.
Smith told The Daily Wire the pardon was necessary because there was no assurance of justice &#8220;anywhere in counties that are run by radical prosecutors.&#8221;

Scott Smith at the Loudoun County Courthouse / The Daily Wire

Democrats Lash Out At Youngkin For Pardoning Father Of Loudoun Rape Victim

George Soros

Loudoun County

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Sunday granted an &#8220;absolute pardon&#8221; to the father who was arrested at a school board meeting after the superintendent lied about his daughter&#8217;s rape by a skirt-wearing boy.
The pardon says that in June 2021, Scott Smith &#8220;exercised his constitutional right to attend a public meeting of the Loudoun County School Board to observe the proceedings, during which time a community member threatened to spread false and malicious information about Mr. Smith&#8217;s business with the intent to damage his reputation.&#8221;
&#8220;After an ensuing verbal confrontation, Scott Thomas Smith was charged with Obstruction of Justice and Disorderly Conduct,&#8221; and Smith was quickly convicted, even though an appeals court later disqualified the prosecutor due to concerns about &#8220;the integrity of the prosecution,&#8221; the pardon continues.
&#8220;<a href="https://www.governor.virginia.gov/media/governorvirginiagov/governor-of-virginia/pdf/Scott-Thomas-Smith---Pardon.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WHEREAS</a> Scott Thomas Smith has been publicly and falsely accused of &#8216;domestic terrorism&#8217; and &#8216;hate crimes&#8217; for attempting to advocate for his daughter, a victim of sexual assault&#8230; I have decided it is just and appropriate to grant this ABSOLUTE PARDON that reflects Scott Thomas Smith&#8217;s factual innocence,&#8221; it concludes.
Smith&#8217;s story galvanized parents who were concerned that schools had sacrificed student safety and academic rigor for ideology. Youngkin&#8217;s pledge to be a voice for those parents helped usher him into office a month after The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> Smith&#8217;s story.
Democrat prosecutor Buta Biberaj bucked her typical soft-on-crime stances and personally argued to put Smith in jail for misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Smith was denied a jury because it was a misdemeanor in General District Court, and a judge quickly convicted him.
He appealed the ruling, and would have been entitled to a jury in appeals court. But the legal saga has dragged on for years, taking a financial and emotional toll on Smith, who says he&#8217;s grateful Youngkin allowed him to move on.
&#8220;I&#8217;m thankful that the Youngkin administration gave me an off-ramp to these charges that never should have happened,&#8221; Smith told The Daily Wire. &#8220;It&#8217;s kind of bittersweet, because I really looked forward to winning this in court. But unfortunately, our justice system is so screwed up right now that I didn&#8217;t feel that I could potentially get a fair shot in court.&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s what should scare every American&#8211;is that I had to take this, because I could not trust our justice system,&#8221; Smith said.
As Smith&#8217;s legal saga dragged on, the same system that prosecuted Smith <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-jury-find-schools-spokesman-not-guilty-of-perjury" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquitted</a> Loudoun County Public Schools spokesman Wayde Byard for perjury charges. The day Smith&#8217;s daughter was raped, Byard wrote an email to parents that falsely blamed Smith for police presence and falsely said that no students were in danger, even as the rapist remained on the loose.
The rapist was eventually convicted in juvenile court, but due to a mistake by Biberaj, will not be placed on the sex offenders registry.
Smith said that on the night of the June 2021 school board meeting, where school board members were discussing passing a policy to allow transgender students to use the restrooms of their choice, his daughter had intended to say through a megaphone how just a few weeks before, she had been raped in a school bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt.
&#8220;That&#8217;s why Jackie attacked us, was to stop [my daughter] from speaking,&#8221; he said, referring to Jackie Schworm, a radical Leftist who had just spoken to Smith&#8217;s daughter, then sought out Smith and threatened to use social media to ruin his business. A police officer grabbed Smith from behind, and a struggle ensued.
An appeals court said that the prosecutor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-throws-soros-backed-prosecutor-off-of-case-against-loudoun-rape-victims-father" target="_blank" rel="noopener">may have been biased</a>, but that the fact that he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/father-of-loudoun-rape-victim-dealt-another-blow-in-court-when-will-the-healing-begin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cursed at Schworm was enough to retry him</a>. Smith said that even if his appeal would have prevailed, &#8220;radical prosecutors&#8221; had already punished him by putting him through a years-long process.
&#8220;The damage has already been done,&#8221; Smith said. &#8220;This process has been absolutely brutal, because it took away some of my family treasure that [could have gone to] my daughter&#8217;s situation.&#8221;
The media plastered around the world a picture of Smith being dragged away by police, and used him as a symbol of how angry conservative parents were supposedly disrupting school board meetings out of bigotry and ignorance. The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/national-school-board-association-at-risk-of-total-collapse-following-letter-comparing-parents-to-domestic-terrorists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National School Boards Association</a> likened him to a domestic terrorist in a letter that the Biden administration used to mobilize anti-terrorism forces against parents.
Only The Daily Wire bothered to ask Smith whether he had a good reason to be mad at the school board. It turned out that not only had his daughter been raped, and the superintendent lied about it, but that the school system <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kept the rapist in school</a>, where he sexually assaulted a second girl.
&#8220;They villainized me and my family from the minute my daughter reported that she was sexually assaulted, pretty much until present time,&#8221; he said.
Biberaj wanted &#8220;to make an example out of me to scare people from speaking out. And quite frankly, it worked,&#8221; Smith said, noting that far fewer parents have turned out to school board meetings and spoken out since his arrest.
He said his next legal step will be to sue the prosecutor for misconduct, and possibly the National School Boards Association.
The pardon from Youngkin, who enjoys high favorability ratings in what was previously considered a blue state, continues a fulfillment of his campaign promise to focus on parental rights in education. On Tuesday, he will hold a &#8220;Parents Matter&#8221; conversation in Loudoun&#8211;at Cornerstone Chapel, a church that was placed on an enemies list by a group of liberal activists called the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/northern-virginia-leftists-secretly-plotted-to-guard-democrats-from-trans-rape-fallout" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Loudoun Love Warriors</a>.
The church&#8217;s pastor said it&#8217;s &#8220;ironic that those who espouse ‘tolerance’ the most, are actually some of the most intolerant people toward those of us with different views and values.”
A member of the Love Warriors was arrested on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftist-activist-arrested-in-loudoun-county-after-threatening-to-burn-down-historic-site-sheriff-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">felony charges</a> this month. Biberaj has not responded questions about whether she intends to drop charges, prosecute, or recuse herself.

Glenn Youngkin Grants ‘Absolute Pardon’ To Loudoun Dad Arrested At School Board Meeting

Glenn Youngkin

The state of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california">California</a> has awarded a nine-year grant to a group that encourages students to identify as a wide variety of bizarre genders, including &#8220;foxgender,&#8221; and teaches school districts how to hide it from parents.
The California Department of Public Health has awarded a total of $2.3 million to a nonprofit called Gender Spectrum for activities such as developing &#8220;concrete strategies for applying the lens of gender diversity to school practices,&#8221; according to an investigation from the watchdog group OpenTheBooks.
The grant is intended for Gender Spectrum to conduct a &#8220;rigorous evaluation&#8221; of whether its own programs work.
Among those programs is the development of a <a href="https://www.openthebooks.com/assets/1/6/8.23_Fillable_Student_Gender_Support_Plan_2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">six-page form</a> for students to submit school districts their pronouns and whether school staff needs to hide their use of those pronouns from their parents.
&#8220;It&#8217;s not always the case that caregivers are supportive of their child&#8217;s gender, their gender journey, in that case, if parents are not supportive or if the child is not out, that&#8217;s not necessarily someone who will be part of the gender support team,&#8221; said Director of Training Carla Pena at the group&#8217;s annual Gender Spectrum Family Conference last year.
Naomi Cruz, the group&#8217;s manager of family and educational programming, gave a presentation at the conference called &#8220;Intro to Neoidentities and Neopronouns.&#8221; The presentation said pronouns may &#8220;describe gender as a personal, aesthetic, synesthetic, or head-space oriented experience.&#8221; They include &#8220;noun genders&#8221; like &#8220;foxgender, moongender, and rockgender,&#8221; and even &#8220;emojiself pronouns,&#8221; such as &#8220;:)self.&#8221;
Cruz said &#8220;foxself&#8221; describes someone who identifies with &#8220;aspects of a fox, whether that&#8217;s their appearance, their personality, or how they&#8217;re viewed in society.&#8221;
<div class="image"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-611817" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/gender-spectrum.png" alt="" width="772" height="416" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/gender-spectrum.png 772w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/gender-spectrum-300x162.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/gender-spectrum-768x414.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px" /></div>
&#8220;Our youth are becoming more and more independent regarding their self expression. Instead of trying to fit into premade boxes, they&#8217;re using their unique identities and forms of expression to create terminology to describe themselves,&#8221; the presentation said.
The presentation said that youth are on a &#8220;gender journey&#8221; and their genders will likely change over time, but that parents should &#8220;affirm&#8221; those identities — unless, of course, those identifies appropriate a &#8220;racial, ethnic, religious or disability group they are not part of.&#8221;
In that case, parents should say, &#8220;I understand that this term means something to you, but perhaps we can create another term or another pronoun that also has a meaning to you, but isn&#8217;t specific to a certain racial, ethnic, or other group where there are closed identities and pronouns.&#8221;
It is unclear why youth do not have to gain permission from foxes before appropriating them.
Though Gender Spectrum wants to push its programs on children across the country, it appears to have <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230709131754/https://www.genderspectrum.org/work/conference-and-symposium" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taken down its website</a> after it attracted attention.
California previously awarded $1.1 million to the group for a &#8220;pilot project&#8221; between 2017 and 2022, before extending it to 2026, and doubling the fee, last year, OpenTheBooks found.
&#8220;As a result of our work, students who fall all along the gender spectrum will see their experience recognized and affirmed in their school,&#8221; the initial <a href="https://www.openthebooks.com/assets/1/6/8.23_16-10528_Executed_1229_1of2-3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grant application</a> said.
The premise is that doing so would reduce mental illness among LGBTQ children. &#8220;41.5% of transgender youth have seriously considered attempting suicide,&#8221; the application said.
It said as a result of the program, &#8220;cisgender young people will have a greater understanding of gender (knowledge, beliefs and attitudes) leading them to be more comfortable with their own gender expression.&#8221;
Asked on the application what evidence suggests that the program is effective, it said that it didn&#8217;t have the resources to measure the impact of its trainings.
&#8220;In the past year we implemented pre and post surveys to measure the impact of our school trainings. We have not had the resources to aggregate this data, but the initial findings from individual schools show positive results&#8221; in the form of &#8220;substantial changes in participants&#8217; report of their knowledge, intent to use gender inclusive practices, and recognition of the importance of becoming a gender inclusive school.&#8221;
It does not say whether students became less suicidal.
Gender Spectrum previously was involved in the &#8220;National Sex Education Standards,&#8221; which say that by second grade, students should be able to define gender identity, and by fifth grade, they should be able to describe the role of puberty blockers, <a href="https://www.openthebooks.com">OpenTheBooks</a> said.
Even though having nontraditional gender identities is associated with higher suicide rates, Gender Spectrum official Kim Westheimer said at the 2022 conference that &#8220;giving young people more permission to explore their identity and maybe to try on new identities&#8221; is &#8220;a good thing, not a bad thing.&#8221;
The group also received $297,000 in coronavirus loans from the federal government, OpenTheBooks found.
&#8220;How many taxpayers can tolerate paying for their children to be confronted with such controversial and confusing material?&#8221; OpenTheBooks founder Adam Andrzejewski told The Daily Wire.
California lawmakers recently introduced a bill titled “Instructional materials: removing instructional materials and curriculum: diversity” that would prevent local school boards from declining to teach radical content.
Those could include gender materials produced by California&#8217;s Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom&#8217;s wife, who has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-bill-would-block-school-districts-from-removing-woke-lessons-could-enrich-newsoms-wife">earned money</a> producing content which is later used by the state&#8217;s schools.
This week, a Virginia mother <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mother-of-sex-trafficked-teen-files-lawsuit-after-girl-was-held-in-boys-group-home-to-affirm-her-trans-identity">sued a school district for facilitating and hiding</a> a 14-year old&#8217;s gender transition, alleging that it led to her being sex-trafficked to Baltimore and held in a locked room by a registered sex offender.

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks about his plan to have insulin available to everyone during the Tour of the State of California.

California Pays Nonprofit Encouraging Kids To Identify As ‘Foxgender,’ Teaching Schools To Hide It

California

Gavin Newsom

The mother of a teenage girl who at the age of 14 fell into the hands of sex traffickers is suing the Virginia school district she blames for her daughter&#8217;s trauma and the government lawyer who interfered with her efforts to return the girl home.
Officials at Appomattox County Public Schools concealed Sage Blair’s gender transition from her parents and hid the fact that she was being bullied over dressing like a boy, <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Complaint-as-filed-082323.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to the lawsuit</a> filed in federal court on Tuesday by Michelle Blair. The events and secrecy led to Sage running away from her rural Virginia home, only to be captured by a sex trafficker and taken to Baltimore, Maryland, where she was held in a locked room and raped by multiple men, the lawsuit said.
But the girl&#8217;s saga didn&#8217;t end there. When the FBI recovered her, a Baltimore public defender named Aneesa Khan — a target of the lawsuit — worked to keep the girl in Maryland until her parents accepted her gender transition. The mother had not refused to accept her child’s transition because she did not even know about it, but Khan threw away the letters that Michelle Blair was sending her and led the girl to believe that she had been abandoned by her parents, the lawsuit said.
The 14 year old rape victim was put in a Baltimore group home with teenage boys and &#8220;told by Khan that her parents no longer wanted her, and that Khan was going to arrange for [her] to live with a family in Maryland who would affirm her as a boy,&#8221; the lawsuit states.
Even after a judge said that it would be illegal under the Interstate Compact on Juveniles to refuse to return the girl to Virginia, the girl remained in Baltimore while Khan appealed. She was only returned to her Virginia home after she ran away from the Maryland facilities and was abducted by a man who brought her to Texas, where she was again raped and tortured, according to the lawsuit. Officials in Texas, unlike Maryland, promptly returned her to her parents, the lawsuit said.
<h1>She was sex-trafficked again until she was recovered in Texas, which unlike Maryland, promptly returned her to her loving parents, the lawsuit said.</h1>
Khan went to great lengths to keep Sage in Maryland. After the judge stated that there were no grounds to keep her from home, Khan enlisted two counselors from the Appomattox school to accuse Michelle Blair of child abuse in Virginia, an attempt to get her child taken from her, even though none of them had ever spoken to Michelle, the lawsuit states.
Michelle was herself a certified foster home volunteer who had been extensively vetted, and Appomattox deemed the charges unsubstantiated.
Melissa Rothstein, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender — whose email signature includes her pronouns — returned a request for comment from The Daily Wire only by expressing concern for the safety of the lawyer, Khan.
&#8220;We remain concerned for her safety and caution against including personal identifying information or photo, which could reignite and expand these threats,&#8221; Rothstein said.
School board members in the conservative area of rural Virginia, including chair Bobby Waddell and vice chair Wyatt Torrence, have failed to respond to The Daily Wire’s requests for comment on the case. The board has not yet adopted Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-replaces-democrats-mandatory-transgender-policy-with-parents-rights-manifesto" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Model Policies </a>on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students in Virginia Public Schools, which would bar schools from transitioning students without their parents&#8217; approval, though they discussed them August 17, according to board minutes.
Superintendent Annette A. Bennett did not return a request for comment on behalf of herself or counselors Dena Olsen and Avery Via, who are also named in the lawsuit.
In January, Virginia state Republican lawmakers introduced <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-republican-moves-to-ban-calling-misgendering-child-abuse-after-girl-is-kept-from-her-parents-for-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sage&#8217;s Law</a>, which would bar counselors from hiding a student&#8217;s gender transition from her parents; block counselors from encouraging children to keep secrets from their parents; and ensuring that laws on child abuse cannot be interpreted as including parents who don’t affirm a child’s gender transition. The Republican-led House passed the law, but the Democrat-led Senate <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?231+sum+HB2432" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killed it</a>.
The <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Complaint-as-filed-082323.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> seeks “to recover damages for tortious interference with the parent-child relationship, conspiracy, intentional infliction of emotional distress, professional malpractice, and other rights under Virginia law.”
“Deprived of her parents’ care and treatment as a result of Appomattox Defendants’ conduct, S.B. feared continuing harassment and assaults at school and threats from schoolmates to pursue S.B. and her family at home and ran away. She was found by an adult male who kidnapped S.B., drugged and violently raped her in the backseat of his car. It was this man that she lost her virginity to. He then drove her to Washington, D.C. and left her with two men who raped and drugged her again. These two men drove her to Maryland and left her with a registered sex offender. He kept S.B. in a locked room after raping her and trafficking her to other men,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit says that the school not only hid the girl&#8217;s gender transition from her parents, but encouraged it. Counselors summoned Sage to discuss her gender eight times during the first 12 days of the 2021-22 school year, the suit said, alleging that the counselors were providing major psychiatric care that they were not qualified or authorized to perform.
“In the sessions, Ms. Olsen encouraged S.B. to ‘embrace’ her male identity. Mr. Via also directed S.B. to internet sites, apps, and social media networks that promoted transgender ideas, indicating she could find friends there,” it said. It added that there was evidence that the counselors did not even review her file, showing existing mental health issues, before encouraging her to live as a boy, and that they did not initiate Title IX investigations, as required, when she was harassed at school.
The girl realized after her traumatic experience that she never was a boy, she told her mother, according to <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2023/01/19/virginia-teen-sex-trafficked-twice-after-school-hides-gender-identity-from-her-parents/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Federalist</a>. &#8220;I don’t know who I was. I’m a totally different person now. I never was a boy. Everybody was doing it, I just wanted to have friends,&#8221; she said.
The lawsuit charges Khan for failing &#8220;to act in the best interest of her client.&#8221;
“As S.B.’s attorney, Ms. Khan had an obligation to act in the best interest of her client whom she knew to be a citizen and resident of Virginia living with parents in Virginia, and who was present in Maryland only as the result of being sex trafficked across state lines.”
The Daily Wire told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-refused-to-give-back-a-virginia-runaway-because-her-parents-misgendered-her-then-she-was-sex-trafficked-mother-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sage’s heartbreaking story at length in January</a>.

Maryland Assistant Public Defender Aneesa Khan, Appomattox Superintendent Annette A. Bennett, and ACPS Chair Bobby Waddell

Mother of Sex-Trafficked Teen Files Lawsuit After Girl Was Held In Boys Group Home To ‘Affirm’ Her Trans Identity

Baltimore

Rape

The nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group said Monday that a Maryland school system misled a federal court about its efforts to block parents from “opting out” their children of lessons pushing homosexuality and transgenderism.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also obtained documents showing that a labor union representing principals harbored similar concerns, with the principals saying that Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) was publicly telling parents it wouldn’t indoctrinate kids, then forcing principals to take the heat for doing the opposite.
The dual broadsides by the Muslim group and labor union highlight new fault lines on sexual indoctrination in minority-heavy, Democrat-dominated school systems like MCPS, a large district outside of Washington, D.C. Hundreds of immigrants gathered for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-muslim-and-christian-parents-show-up-in-force-to-protest-lgbt-books-at-maryland-school-board" target="_blank" rel="noopener">protests</a> this summer to advocate for parental rights, while white female Democrat activists shouted them down.
MCPS claimed it prohibited opt-outs because so many parents wanted to opt out that it was causing a disruption, but it also said in response to a public records request that it had no data on the number of people who wanted to opt out, and a CAIR official said in a deposition that a school official said repeatedly that it was actually because of advocacy from a few LGBT activists.
“Contrary to its claims, MCPS has indeed instructed Pre-K through 12 English teachers to teach detailed concepts that would normally arise in sex education courses and then scold, debate or silence only children who express traditional or religious views about those topics. This is wrong. So is MCPS’ decision to mislead the public and a federal court about why it canceled the opt-out option earlier this year,” CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.
Emails show that the district’s principals union wrote in November 2022 that principals were angry that the school district was publicly telling parents that it wouldn’t indoctrinate their kids, then leaving principals to take the fire when they were ordered to do it anyway.
MCPS said that it was simply using LBTQ books as examples of literature to study English, but internal documents “contradict the overarching messaging and seem to support the explicit teaching of gender and sexual identify,” the union wrote.
MCPS documents erase “parents” altogether and refer only to “caregivers.” A document called &#8220;<a href="https://www.cair.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Responding-to-Caregivers_Community-Questions.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Responding to Caregivers/Community Questions</a>&#8221; instructs teachers how to dismiss concerns from parents.
In response to the complaint that “Ideas about gender diversity go against the values we are instilling in my child at home. Are you trying to teach my child to reject these values?” they should say that children are “increasingly, identifying as LGBTQ+ themselves, even in elementary school.”
In response to “Can I keep my child home when students are learning about LGBTQ+ topics?” it gives a long speech about “equity” before giving a “no” dressed up as a “yes,” saying: “Parents always have the choice to keep their student(s) home while using these texts; however, it will not be an excused absence.” Parents who keep their child out of school for extended unexcused absences can be charged with promoting truancy.
In response to “Are these books appropriate? What place do they have in the classroom?” it claims they are simply examples of literature being studied in English, as well as being used for social emotional learning.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/woman-abused-as-teen-says-schools-social-emotional-learning-guru-pressed-her-to-drop-charges-because-her-teacher-assailant-was-black" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Woman Abused As Teen Says School’s ‘Social Emotional Learning’ Guru Pressed Her To Drop Charges Because Her Teacher Assailant Was Black</a>
Another MCPS document tells teachers how to respond to students, saying if a student says that a boy can’t be a girl, the teacher should <a href="https://www.cair.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sample-Student-Call-Ins_LGBTQIA.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tell the child</a> that “that comment is hurtful” and that they are wrong. The principals union said staff was being forced to make a “shaming comment to a child” and “state as a fact” something that was not necessarily a fact.
The union said that the answer teachers were instructed to give to a student who says being gay is against their religion is “dismissive of religious beliefs.”
It said that principals were being asked to push books about transgenderism to young elementary school students, before they even take sex-ed in fifth grade.
“Numerous concerns have been raised by principals, teachers, and community members that the content of the books does not align with the stated messages” and “Principals are requesting that MCPS consider other titles that more closely align to the communicated intent,” the <a href="https://www.cair.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/2023-07-26-47-1-Decl-of-Robert-McCaw.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">union wrote</a>.
MCPS wanted preschoolers to read a book about a drag queen called &#8220;Pride Puppy,&#8221; have first graders read a “difficult and unengaging” book called &#8220;Intersection Allies,&#8221; and have second graders read a book called &#8220;My Rainbow&#8221; about an autistic girl who “comes to understand she identifies transgender [sic].”
Fourth graders are asked to read &#8220;Love, Violet&#8221; about a “young school-age girl who falls in love with another girl in her class.”
“It is problematic to portray elementary school age children falling in love with other children, regardless of sexual preferences,” the principals union wrote.
It also referenced a critical race theory-based document that encouraged students to judge a work of literature based on the race of the person who wrote it. “This criterion is exclusionary,” the principals wrote.
It said that the documents contradicted MCPS’ claims that they were reading such books merely as examples of literature, rather than pushing the content, when it said it hoped the books would lead to “curious exploration.”
“MCPS has stated publicly that there is no option to opt-out, with the rationale that MCPS is simply providing books about inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters and inclusivity. However, due to the concerns shared earlier about the plot and nature of the books, this creates a significant concern by some parents about ‘indoctrination’ or ‘hidden agendas,’” the union wrote.

Montgomery County parents stage ‘Family rights & Religious freedom’ demonstration

Muslim Group, Principals Union Say School System Lied To Stop Parents From Opting Their Children Out Of Transgender Lessons

CAIR

A woman who was sexually assaulted in school as a teenager says the founder of a prominent “social emotional learning” non-profit that receives funding from California public schools pressured her to drop charges against the teacher who attacked her because his arrest could contribute to the “over-incarceration” of black men.
Jennifer Freed, a psychologist, astrologist, and sex guru who runs the “social emotional learning” (SEL) non-profit AHA! Santa Barbara, conducts talk circles with high school students with the goal of “reducing emotional/physical violence in schools by building healthy campus climates,” according to its <a href="https://ahasb.org/about-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>. But a woman who participated in those talk circles as a high school student says Freed pressed her to let a teacher who tormented her with sexual advances off the hook.
The woman, who The Daily Wire is referring to only as Maria because she was the victim of an assault as a minor, says Freed delivered a lecture to her about how her accusations against the teacher would contribute to the mass incarceration of black men in America. Freed suggested, according to Maria, that she consider a “restorative approach instead of going to authorities” after the teacher grabbed her buttocks and nibbled her ear when she was 17.
“I was very scared of Jennifer because she’s very persistent in getting what she wants. She said I will feel better if I talk to him and do a restorative approach instead of going to authorities,” Maria told The Daily Wire. “I think it’s really inappropriate for a licensed psychologist to say that to a victim a week after they’ve been assaulted by someone in authority. That really harmed me.”
Freed’s group AHA! Santa Barbara has gained national prominence for its work to advance SEL, a school curriculum that has been embraced by the Left in recent years. Freed’s organization has been feted by celebrities such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who <a href="https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a43891929/prince-harry-meghan-markle-santa-barbara-youth-group-photos/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">visited</a> the organization in May to herald its purported mental health benefits for youth. But the actions by Freed could fuel critics who say SEL prioritizes leftist politics over children’s emotional well-being.
Maria did not take Freed’s advice. Her accusations against the teacher, a black nationalist and socialist named Matef Harmachis, led to a criminal conviction for battery in 2017, his firing from the school in 2020, and a nearly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-school-district-pays-1m-to-victim-of-disgraced-teacher-and-ethnic-studies-activist" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$1 million settlement</a> with the school district just months ago in a lawsuit that faulted the district for keeping Harmachis on staff despite years of sexually inappropriate behavior.
Freed is just one of the leftists who Maria says turned on her in defense of Harmachis. She told The Daily Wire that she is now “scared for [her] safety” after seeing far-left activists defend her attacker as the real victim because of his race.
(READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/scared-for-my-safety-sexual-assault-victim-stunned-as-leftists-defend-teacher-who-attacked-her" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘Scared For My Safety’: Sexual Assault Victim Stunned As Leftists Defend Teacher Who Attacked Her</a>)
Freed has denied that she knows Harmachis or pressured Maria to drop charges, saying she had nothing to do with the case and didn’t know why anyone would say that. But after a previous Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/radical-activist-teacher-got-away-with-shocking-behavior-for-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> on Harmachis, Freed took to Facebook to state that she had evidence that Maria had a positive view of her group.
&#8220;I have actual testimonials on video etc from MARIA about the groups AHA! and how much she gained,” Freed wrote. It is not clear how Freed would have even known who the pseudonym Maria referred to if she had nothing to do with the case.
For this story, Maria provided a detailed recounting of the encounter with Freed, which involved Freed asking to pick her up at her house and drive her to a restaurant called Public Market for lunch.
Maria said she met Freed at the restaurant instead and didn&#8217;t order any food. Freed said that she had &#8220;been hearing a lot of things about you&#8221; and that she’s &#8220;known Harmachis for a long time, we&#8217;re close friends,&#8221; according to Maria.
&#8220;You know what the rates of black men being incarcerated are. Knowing you, I know you&#8217;d just want to do a connection circle instead of pressing charges, and I&#8217;d facilitate that,&#8221; Freed continued, according to Maria. Maria said she sat in stunned silence, until Freed said she was going to tell the principal the next day that Maria had consented to the plan.
&#8220;She&#8217;s saying she&#8217;s going to say these things that I don&#8217;t want her to say. It seemed really wrong and transactional. I felt betrayed, I&#8217;ve known this person since I was like 13,&#8221; Maria told The Daily Wire. &#8220;She&#8217;s a licensed psychologist, why is she saying these things to me?&#8221;
One reason, Maria suspects, is that Harmachis’ wife, an ethnic studies professor named Diane Fujino, sits on the board of directors of a group that contributes money to AHA! Santa Barbara’s “social emotional learning” programs. Fujino’s Fund for Santa Barbara is listed in the group’s <a href="https://ahasb.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/AR_2020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">annual report</a> as a donor.
“Now I feel like I was just a pawn that they wanted to get rid of because I was interrupting their business,” she said. “Of course she would encourage me to drop charges, she’s getting money from the district and she’s friends with my perpetrator.”
Freed declined an interview with The Daily Wire to reconcile her blanket denial with Maria’s detailed account.
“I have devoted much of my career to helping youths process trauma and learn methods of empowerment and resilience as a means to protect them from all forms of violence and become thriving community members,” Freed said in an email.
Maria said that besides the Harmachis incident, Freed used the talk circles to push her to be more sexually active, pushing students to consider masturbation and lesbian experiences. “I always pushed back against her when she was very sexually positive. At that time I wasn’t,” she said. “I felt like she was just laughing at me. It was like, you’re really crossing a boundary.”
“I was one of the only heterosexuals and Jennifer would question that and say, ‘Why can’t you be both?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m not attracted to women.’ And she said, ‘I think the world would operate better if everyone was gay,’” Maria said. “I didn’t want to be pushed. I don’t want an adult to talk to me about personal intimate things.”
Freed has publicly discussed these after-school circles, explaining on the podcast <a href="https://sexwithemily.com/dr-jennifer-freed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sex With Emily</a>: “This is what we do with the teens, once we’ve heard from them all their basic misconceptions about sex, like guys only want girls who have completely shaved pubes and then find us disgusting unless we’re bare. Then we go ok, how’s that working for you?” A photo of her with the podcast host Emily showed her in a room full of sex toys.
AHA! Santa Barbara asked participants to sign waivers allowing Freed to use their images for promotional and fundraising purposes, then frequently directed them to record video testimonials praising the program, Maria said.
Freed’s invocation of video records of Maria in her possession raises concerns about the leverage that adults who engage in sex talk with children as part of SEL could have over them. Not only could such marketing materials be used to undercut youth’s credibility should they criticize the program, but if a teen girl was troubled by the conduct of SEL consultants and was tempted to sound the alarm, she would likely be conscious that the consultant knew plenty of embarrassing personal details about her—the type they are encouraged to disclose in talk circles.
In NXIVM, the brutal sex-slave cult that began as a &#8220;self-help&#8221; group run by a psychiatric nurse, women had to turn over embarrassing information which served as &#8220;collateral&#8221; to dissuade them from defecting, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/nxivm-timeline.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The New York Times</a>.
Though Freed never made such a threat to Maria, the young hispanic immigrant said “of course” the secrets shared in the talk circles made it scary to call her out. “Because of the way she probed me I thought I needed to be extra nice to her,” she said.
Maria says her negative experience with Freed has impacted her ability to seek professional mental help.
“It took me a long time to disassociate psychologists with people like Jennifer,” Maria said. “She did a lot of harm to me, and I can only imagine the harm she does to other children. I don’t trust her.”
Read the Daily Wire’s series on indoctrination and abuse in the Santa Barbara schools:
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/scared-for-my-safety-sexual-assault-victim-stunned-as-leftists-defend-teacher-who-attacked-her" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘Scared For My Safety’: Sexual Assault Victim Stunned As Leftists Defend Teacher Who Attacked Her</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-is-a-cult-how-wealthy-santa-barbara-foreshadowed-the-fight-against-crackpot-curriculum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">‘This Is A Cult’: How Wealthy Santa Barbara Foreshadowed The Fight Against Crackpot Curriculum</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/radical-activist-teacher-got-away-with-shocking-behavior-for-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Radical Activist Teacher Got Away With Shocking Behavior For Years</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-disgraced-teacher-who-took-the-name-of-an-egyptian-god-and-radicalized-a-school-district" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Disgraced Teacher Who Took The Name Of An Egyptian God And Radicalized A School District</a>

Screenshot 2023-08-16 at 2.48.39 PM

Woman Abused As Teen Says School’s ‘Social Emotional Learning’ Guru Pressed Her To Drop Charges Because Her Teacher Assailant Was Black

Critical Race Theory

Death threats and political attacks against the parental rights group Moms for Liberty have ramped up after the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) put them on its &#8220;<a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hate map</a>&#8221; alongside the likes of the Ku Klux Klan.
Moms for Liberty said it has received more death threats and hateful messages over the last few weeks since June 6, when the SPLC released its “The Year in Hate and Extremism” <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/year-hate-extremism-2022/introduction#hateextremism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> for 2022.
The SPLC, an uber-leftist civil rights watchdog, frequently brands conservative and Christian organizations “hate groups,” and this year, that <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/moms-liberty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> Moms for Liberty as well as other parental rights groups like Parents Defending Education.
“Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups,” the SPLC said in its report.
Moms for Liberty is “at the forefront of this mobilization,” the SPLC said.
Moms for Liberty said it has received the threats through voicemails, emails, and responses on its “Contact Us” page.
“I will personally eradicate you from Massachusetts,” one person <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/07/10/exclusive-moms-for-liberty-undaunted-by-death-threats-being-treated-as-subhuman-after-splc-attack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>, calling them &#8220;nasty sows.&#8221;
A person who put their name as “Execute All-Nazis” wrote, “Piece of s*** fascists like you deserve to be dragged against a wall and force-fed hot lead. Eat s*** and die.”
“You women have no soul, no morals, for quoting Adolf Hitler in your newsletter,” another person wrote. “The state should remove your kids and/or grand kids from your homes. Evil, evil, evil people you are!”
Last month, a Moms for Liberty chapter <a href="https://apnews.com/article/moms-for-liberty-adolf-hitler-newsletter-quote-bcce698e901b9e782970030ccd710512#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> in their newsletter the quote, “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future,” and cited Hitler. It later updated the newsletter with more context, saying the &#8220;quote from a horrific leader should put parents on alert.&#8221;
Another person appeared to reference the SPLC&#8217;s report, calling Moms for Liberty &#8220;extremest [sic]&#8221; and &#8220;biggoted [sic]&#8221; in a profanity-laced rant.
A person who put their name as “Satan Anti-Christ” wrote that Moms for Liberty “will answer for the crimes YOU committed against our LGBTQ children (legally of course).”
Even an elected official joined in the name-calling.
&#8220;Assholes with casseroles, taliban in minivan,&#8221; tweeted Democrat New Hampshire state Representative Catherine Sofikitis.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Assholes with casseroles, taliban in minivan
&mdash; Catherine Sofikitis (@nashuaward7) <a href="https://twitter.com/nashuaward7/status/1678141739847090177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 9, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Tina Descovich, a Moms for Liberty co-founder, referenced the 2012 shooting at the conservative Family Research Council&#8217;s headquarters, which the shooter targeted after he found them online through the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“I don’t think you have to look any further than at the Family Research Council and how they were threatened by a shooter because of the designation as a ‘hate group,&#8217;” Descovich <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/07/10/exclusive-moms-for-liberty-undaunted-by-death-threats-being-treated-as-subhuman-after-splc-attack/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-101401">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
“It gave people permission to treat us as subhuman,” Tiffany Justice, another Moms for Liberty co-founder, told The Daily Signal, saying critics are trying to “whip people up into such a frenzy that they end up sending death threats to me and to the members and our children.”
“Designating us as a hate group gives people permission to dehumanize us, and the SPLC knows it,” Justice said.
Moms for Liberty was started in 2021 by two former school board members responding to COVID restrictions in schools. Since then, the group has expanded its fight to include issues like sexual content in curricula and school libraries, gender pronoun <a href="https://www.momsforliberty.org/media/files/pages-page/6d92a117/10questionsparentsshouldask.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policies</a> in schools, declining <a href="https://twitter.com/Moms4Liberty/status/1652730841682923520" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grades</a> and test scores, and <a href="https://www.momsforliberty.org/news/-parents-revolted-against-critical-race-theory-heres-how-they-won/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racial</a> curriculum content with leftist overtones.
Members of Moms for Liberty often show up to school board meetings around the country, sometimes wearing matching t-shirts reading, “We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.”

US-POLITICS-VOTE-EDUCATION-LITERATURE

Death Threats To Moms For Liberty Ramp Up After SPLC Lumped Them With KKK: ‘Taliban In Minivan’

Death Threats To Moms For Liberty Ramp Up After SPLC Lumped Them With KKK

Hate Crime

Hate Speech

Politics

Public Schools

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

Florida Governor and U.S. presidential candidate Ron DeSantis filed a <a href="https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/fl-gov-ron-desantis-files-motion-to-dismiss-disneys-federal-lawsuit/#motion">motion</a> on Monday asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit Walt Disney Co. filed against him, claiming the company does not have standing to sue him. 
DeSantis, who cited several precedents including a 2023 case the city of Miami filed against him, claims he and another state official, who is also a defendant, are “immune from suit” in his request for a Florida judge to dismiss the suit Disney filed against him in late April.
The company <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-desantiss-disney-oversight-board-to-consider-nullifying-agreements-7909173f?mod=article_inline">accused DeSantis</a> of a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” after Florida state lawmakers passed a bill to curb many of Disney’s benefits from its special tax district, Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID). The district has allowed Disney to self-govern the land containing tourist magnet Walt Disney World. 
Disney argued that the state&#8217;s move to strip the company&#8217;s special tax status was in response to the company’s criticism of the state’s Parental Rights in Education Act, known by its critics by its misnomer — the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, to which DeSantis subsequently responded by calling Disney a &#8220;woke corporation.&#8221; 
While the district was not completely disbanded, the state government <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-desantiss-disney-oversight-board-to-consider-nullifying-agreements-7909173f?mod=article_inline">renamed</a> the district to “Central Florida Tourism Oversight District” (CFTOD) and replaced its board with the governor’s allies. Disney tried to override the new board’s jurisdiction by striking agreements with the old RCID leadership, just before the new CFTOD board took over.
The new CFTOD board declared the company’s agreements with RCID leadership void, <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/06/ron-desantis-disney-lawsuit-reedy-creek-1235424902/">suing Disney</a> for failing to comply, while DeSantis subsequently signed a bill legally voiding them at the state level. 
The governor’s motion also argues that “any alleged injuries” from the legislation cannot be “traceable to the State Defendants, and enjoining the State Defendants would not provide Disney relief,” since the governor only signed the legislation. 
“When the governor signs a bill, he acts in a legislative, not executive, capacity,” the motion reads, citing an Eleventh Circuit ruling that a plaintiff cannot “challenge a law by suing the legislators who enacted it instead of the officials who execute it.”
The motion <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/06/ron-desantis-disney-lawsuit-reedy-creek-1235424902/">also notes</a> that the governor has no control over the new CFTOD board: “His sole connection to CFTOD is his authority to appoint CFTOD’s Board,” the motion reads.  
A spokesperson for Disney had no immediate comment, according to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ron-desantis-asks-judge-to-toss-disneys-lawsuit-a6485ff9">The Wall Street Journal</a>. 
The Journal also noted that the lawsuit will be overseen by Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge <a href="https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/winsor-allen-cothrel">Allen Winsor</a>, who previously blocked two lawsuits that tried to stop the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. 
Disney has until late July to file a motion in response.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis holds a press conference at

DeSantis Asks Federal Judge To Dismiss Disney’s Lawsuit, Says Company ‘Lacks Standing’ To Sue

Disney

Florida

Ron DeSantis

Menu