Angry parents are fighting back against Moms for Liberty’s school board takeovers

Community members in Bucks County, Pennsylvania are fighting the takeover of a local school board by members of the anti-LGBTQ+ so-called “parent’s rights” group Moms for Liberty. The group, described as an “extremist” group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has whipped up right-wing hysteria against anti-racist and LGBTQ+ content in schools.

At least five out of nine members of the county’s Pennridge School Board have links to the group, according to Salon. In response, parents and concerned locals have been organizing against Moms for Liberty using a variety of methods, including a Facebook group called the Ridge Network which has about 1,400 members.

Related:

School board orders librarians to use Moms for Liberty’s book censorship list to evaluate books

Moms for Liberty is an extremist organization that wants to remove all references to LGBTQ+ people from schools.

Ridge Network members have said that the Moms for Liberty first began eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and then began a “censorship campaign” to remove Pride flags as well as anti-racist and LGBTQ+-inclusive books from schools. Now, the group is pushing for revisions to the district’s social studies curriculum.

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One Ridge Network parent, Jane Cramer, said that Moms for Liberty used a “specific strategy” of “throwing a lot [of change] at people, all at once, to overwhelm them.” This strategy was reportedly suggested by Jordan Adams, a speaker at Moms for Liberty’s recent summit in nearby Philadelphia, whose education consultant company, Vermilion, got a board-approved contract (reportedly rushed under secrecy) to rewrite the school district’s social studies curriculum.

Adams was previously hired by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to ensure that progressive social policies aren’t in the state’s textbooks. He has also worked for Hillsdale College, “a leading force in promoting a conservative and overtly Christian reading of American history and the U.S. Constitution” in schools, Salon wrote.

Local board meeting attendees have inspired outrage against Adams’ proposed curriculum changes by reading passages from it that “minimize the evils of slavery or the genocide of Native people,” the aforementioned publication wrote. The rushed contract for Adams’ company and his proposed social studies curriculum have enraged local citizens and made them more politically engaged as a result.

Another local parent, Darren Laustsen, has also begun researching how many books the district has banned after board members complained about “a pornography problem in our school libraries” involving “filth,” “smut,” and “X-rated” content. Laustsen found that right-wing activists are largely using resources like BookLooks.org to suggest which books to ban. However, while none of the books have been formally banned, not all of the books were available to be checked out.

Laustsen and other parents began filing right-to-know requests to find out more but were continually stonewalled. He eventually discovered that many of the books had been perpetually checked out or quietly removed under a “weeding process” meant for damaged or under-read books and then sold off by the district. Both methods essentially bypassed the district’s official book review policy and kept certain titles inaccessible to students even though they weren’t officially reviewed or banned.

Many local parents feel that the Moms for Liberty takeover is really a bid to threaten the well-being of LGBTQ+ students, decrease community trust in public schools, and convince the state’s swing voters that Democratic school policies devalue parents while threatening kids. A similar campaign helped Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) win his office in 2021.

Concurrently, Cramer has begun spreading information about Moms for Liberty’s methods via her TikTok account, Cringey the Ram, and retired kindergarten teacher Elizabeth Mikitarian has launched Stop Moms for Liberty, a resources website to fight similar tactics nationwide.

Moms for Liberty’s past activities include offering bounties for turning in teachers who discuss “divisive topics,” attacking the Trevor Project for trying to prevent LGBTQ+ teen suicide, trying to get a book about seahorses banned for being too sexy, complaining about a book on the Civil War because it portrays “white people as ‘bad’ or ‘evil,’” trying to get librarians arrested for offering “inappropriate books,” saying that two girls briefly kissing at a school function is “lewd” and “traumatic,” lobbying in Florida for the Don’t Say Gay bill, encouraging schools to ignore LGBTQ History Month, and suggesting that LGBTQ+ students be forcibly isolated from other pupils.