Guest Column: Why I Support Parental Rights In Education
The Natrona County School District Board of Trustees met on Monday to discuss a proposed board policy relating to parental rights.
During the public comment period, one Casper resident derided the policy and claimed that “Moms for Liberty and the Freedom Caucus want to destroy public education.”
A kindergarten teacher and the National Education Association (NEA) head for Wyoming argued that the policy would “create a barrier between educators… and their students,” “violate the rights of students,” and “push students away when those students need [their teachers] the most.” He also argued that some are “about local control until [they] aren’t.”
As a proud member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and of Moms for Liberty, I have to say it: Enough with the histrionics – also, the most local control of all is PARENTS.
The same NEA that worked behind the scenes with Dr. Fauci to keep public schools shut down at the expense of student mental health and academic achievement and which has spent over $200 million in left-wing political races and causes over the last 20 years also believes that parents create an impermissible “barrier” between public school employees and their own kids – oh, and argues for lessons in “gender identity and sexual orientation” for Casper kindergartners.
The NEA has become more of a hyper-partisan political action committee at the expense of our good teachers who just want to teach – not become political pawns in their game.
But I digress.
The policy is pretty simple. It requires school personnel to let parents know before their kids are given wellness screenings and to provide notice to parents prior to classroom instruction in sexual orientation and gender identity.
It also requires school staff to let parents know when there is a change in their child’s mental health or well-being.
f bolstering the fundamental and constitutionally protected rights of parents will “destroy public schools,” then things are worse than I thought. But I trust that they’re not. Again, it’s political histrionics.
My school district, along with others around the State, are promulgating similar policies as a result of the Wyoming Legislature’s passage of Senate File 9 (Parental Rights in Education) last session, which instructs school districts to ensure that the fundamental rights of parents are not violated.