More and more parents are rebelling at school board meetings against the radical indoctrination of their children, and some leftists are crying crocodile tears. "The nation's school boards are under attack," trumpeted writers for a group called Popular Information LLC in an article on Substack. The article lists a number of alleged atrocities committed by parents across the country, including disorderly conduct, rude language and hand gestures, and of course, the infamous Scott Smith incident, to which the authors alluded but did not specifically identify. They whined that in one instance: "Unmasked protesters" forced their way into a California school board meeting "in violation of COVID protocols." Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

The article predictably supports the National School Boards Association's (NSBA) September 29 letter to the Biden Administration. "Alongside the chaos and violence," the authors state, "there is a parallel effort to replace incumbent school board members with right-wing ideologues who oppose public safety measures and teaching students about racism." They opined that in 2021 "there were at lease 80 efforts to recall 207 school board members." Hooray! Concerned citizens applaud these herculean efforts by ordinary, fed-up parents.

But there's nothing to see here, folks, right? Just a bunch of right-wing crazies trying to unjustly disrupt and commit violence at school board meetings. Tell that to the concerned parents who have been speaking out. On September 23, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, testified at a Citizen Participation School Board Meeting that her daughter's high school library reading material included "pedophilia," "sex between men and boys," explicit sex acts, and graphically offensive text. One book included pornographic visuals which she displayed before the board.

But rather than show alarm or even embarrassment that such books are readily available to impressionable teens, they reacted by cutting off the mother's microphone and refusing to allow her the balance of her time to speak. "There are children present," the board chair disingenuously stated, as if those same children, had they actually been present (there were no children at the school board meeting), could not avail themselves of the pornographic trash this brave mother was trying to bring to light.

Blaming 'Right-Wing Political Operatives'

Perhaps most alarming about the Popular Information article is not the left's manufactured hysteria over alleged parental violence at school board meetings, but the reframing of the central issue, which is that parents do not like the objectionable curricula being served up in their children's classrooms. Particularly since the Covid lockdowns, the mask is off, and there is no putting that genie back in the bottle. Therefore, blame must be assigned elsewhere in order to maintain the charade.

The writers contend: "The sudden interest in school boards is not an organic grassroots movement of angry parents. Rather, it is an effort orchestrated by seasoned right-wing political operatives who have formed a constellation of well-funded groups dedicated to disrupting school boards. With the help of conservative media, they've already succeeded in pushing school boards into the center of political debates." And this may well be key. Due to the fact that left-wing political ideology has been taught in public schools for at least several decades and is finally coming to light in a big way, school boards cannot continue to promote it largely in secret, and so a blameworthy phantom must be identified to explain away legitimate dissent.

Perhaps in hindsight the teachers unions should not have been so adamant about keeping students out of the classroom during the pandemic; the educational horrors might have continued to remain hidden from the inquiring eyes of parents. As some observers might say, they brought it on themselves.

The article goes on to blame school board unrest on the grassroots group Parents Defending Education (PDE), which has grown in size and effectiveness by helping parents discover what their children are learning despite the efforts of many schools to deny them that right. (Education Reporter featured the work of PDE in its May 2021 issue.)

PDE's ingenious and informative IndoctriNation Map, an online tool that connects parents with grassroots organizations in their states and identifies school districts where objectionable curricula are being taught, has put a burr under leftist saddles. The Popular Information writers discussed this map at length and added a helpful hyperlink, which just might move readers of their tripe to get a clue. PDE is further accused of having become "suspiciously well-organized" during the short time since its founding. Imagine that! Smart parents with a brilliant idea and a worthwhile mission have succeeded in creating a non-partisan, crackerjack organization by teaming up with like-minded parents to fight for the future of their children.

Also blameworthy is No Left Turn, a grassroots organization started by immigrant mom Elana Fishbein, who was repulsed by the indoctrination of her children with CRT. The Popular Information writers moaned that after Fishbein appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight, her small group’s Facebook page “shot up from fewer than 200 followers to 30,000 overnight,” which should serve as yet another illustration of the dissatisfaction among parents who want propaganda-free schools where basic skills are actually taught. The article also points a finger at “Koch-funded organizations” and Fox News for helping these groups, while failing to mention the likes of George Soros on their side and their champions in the mainstream media.

Liberal Parents Also Concerned

One important aspect of the school board controversy not mentioned in the Popular Information article is the fact that liberal and non-political parents are among those protesting. A self-confessed liberal mom and former school board member named Maud Maron of New York City wrote a letter published on Substack's "Common Sense with Bari Weiss," in which she objected to the fact that "the FBI is considering using the Patriot Act against me."

Maron wrote: "Many of the parents who are on the receiving end of the federal government's chilling message are new to school boards, new to speaking up and, to say the absurd part out loud, clearly not domestic terrorists. The combination of extended Covid-related school closures; mask mandates; an increasingly extreme race- and gender-focused curriculum; and the removal of tests, honors classes, and merit-based admissions has created a bumper crop of engaged—and, in many cases, enraged—parents rightfully concerned about what is happening in their children's schools."

She admitted that she too has "actively participated in many raucous school board meetings where board members, and even the New York City school chancellor, have been shouted down by parents who refused to be ignored. I have never raised my voice to make a point, but I have sat next to those who have. They are sincere parents exercising their civil liberties."

Maron concedes that as a school board chair, she was "harassed, smeared, and subjected to online campaigns demanding my resignation. Activists who disagreed with me regularly showed up at my school board meetings to give me a piece of their minds...

"It is not fun to listen to people call you names or falsely accuse you of racism. But when you are an elected board member you have an obligation to listen to everyone—everyone—at public meetings. So, I listened. It was often painful. Yet never in my wildest dreams would I ever have considered their activism to be something best handled by the FBI."

Like most Americans, Maron believes actual violence "should be condemned without reservation, and that school board members can and should immediately call the police in the event of a crime or a credible threat." But she contends that the incidents cited by the NSBA "are not criminal and they definitely do not warrant federal intervention..."

Maron adds: "Perhaps the most outlandish aspect of all is the NSBA's risible complaint that parents are spreading lies about Critical Race Theory being taught in school. [Their] letter states: ‘This propaganda continues despite the fact that critical race theory is not taught in public schools and remains a complex law school and graduate school subject well beyond the scope of a K-12 class.'

"Are you kidding me?"

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