Parents With Pitchforks

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Parents with Pitchforks. Please welcome Senior Advisor at America First Legal, Ian Pryor. From Virginia, Lieutenant Governor, Winsome Sears. Dripping Springs, Texas, Independent School District Trustee, Olivia Barnard. And your moderator, co-host of CPAC Now, Mercedes Schlapp. Owen, this is really because what do we got to do when we protect America now? We got to protect our children. We got to protect our parents and not allow the leftist radical agenda to take over our school system. And I've got the best panel in the whole wide world. This is very exciting. Don't tell the other panelists, okay? But let's get started real quick. I would love to start with Olivia. She's actually a school board member down in Dripping Springs, Texas. And I want to ask you, why would you run to be a school board member? You came here to CPAC and really got your training. And you said, I got to make a difference. So this is another example of a person who got involved when they came to CPAC and made a difference in their community. I ran really because of 2020. I mean, masks were really the it for me. I'm so blessed. My son's receiving an excellent education. We have a wonderful district. But 2020 kind of opened the veil of what we stand to lose and what's at risk if parents start losing rights. So I got really involved. And it's been such rewarding work. I love it. We have a lot to do. But 2020 was really it. I never in a million years would have thought- So you're saying COVID, COVID lockdown, seeing the kids suffer. Yeah. Incrementally, the shutdowns, I understood immediately what that was going to do to kids. Emotionally, socially, not being in school, the stress that that put on families. I saw my own son regress. But for me, it was really the masks. Because the masks were the point that I would have pulled out of public schools. Right. Then we don't love those masks, I have to be honest. But Lieutenant Governor Winston Sears, I am so thrilled to hear. OK. So I think you have a fan club. This is really wonderful. Now, you're right now, you are the messenger when it comes to school choice in Virginia. You all are working on legislation in this Commonwealth of Virginia to figure out how do we get parents to be able to be empowered to send their kids to the best schools that they want, that would be the parents' choice? How do you get this process going? Well, first of all, we've got to get people elected who want parents to be able to have the choice to send their children to whatever school that they want. I mean, this is like a no brainer. These children are mine. They don't belong to the state. And I am responsible for the rearing of my children. Right. We don't co-parent. These are my kids. And so I want to be able to make that choice for my children. And I want everybody to have that choice. And unfortunately, there are too many of these politicians who are listening to the teachers unions, which, by the way, they don't care as much as they say they do. Because here's the thing. The teachers unions, they're just after the dues. Because you stop paying your dues and you see how quickly they keep you in the union. Right. So this is all about the dues. And we're saying children ought to be able to have a hope and a future. And the way that starts is with a good education. Without a good education, you get nowhere and you get there very fast. There are people who are incarcerated. Sixty percent of them are functionally illiterate. That's what we're the school to prison pipeline has already started. We've got to stop that. Well, I got to ask you, Lieutenant Governor, you know, you're talking about should we be for the students or should we be for the teachers unions? That's another no brainer. Right. This is about children. Right. And their future. We've already had our education and we don't want our children to say to us, what did you do to make sure that I would have a good education? What did you do? And and we've just got to stay involved. Right. Those of us who are not involved, we've got to get involved, because if we keep doing the same things, you know what that means. And we get the same results. Then we are part of the problem, too. And the reason why we won in Virginia, number one, was because parents and it didn't matter if they Republican, Democrat, whatever they were, they decided, you know, party loyalty is one thing. But when it comes to my child, all bets are off. That's right. It goes beyond party lines. Ian Pryor is one of the front line fighters when it comes to making sure that they don't push for that. These school districts don't push forward this radical leftist agenda to indoctrinate our children. And he is also the author of the book, Parents of the World Unite, How to Save Our Schools from the Left's Radical Agenda. And the first line says, the first line says, if you're reading this book, chances are you're interested in starting a parent's revolution in your own school district or neighborhood. Give us a gist of what's in this book. Why did you write it? Well, you know, in 2021, parents rose up in Virginia and we organized and we did a good job organizing. And it took a lot of work from a lot of people that put a lot of time in. And what I always heard from the left was, oh, this is some GOP operation. They were sent here to do this. Right. That's a great script that you should totally give to Hollywood. But we're going to give this story to the people with actual brains, because this book, really, it goes through each chapter and each chapter is a rule and how we work together, how we figured out what the school system was doing, understanding the human nature of the individuals involved. And when you're dealing with a $1.6 billion school system, you have to be smarter than them. You have to not always attack, but know when to counterattack, know when to lay back and let them make mistakes. And they will make mistakes. I mean, nobody ever built a statue for a committee. And that's what you're looking at. A bunch of committees, and they don't know how to operate, and they don't know how to work with their constituency. All they know how to do is work with the people that support them. So I would ask, if you buy the book, buy two copies. Buy one for yourself. It comes out on March 21st. But then find the most annoying, woke person you know and buy one for them and send it to them on April Fool's Day. Is there one story, Ian, that you really think tells the story? I know that there's a lot of stories in here, but one of them that really stands out. Well, I think it goes back to the origin, which is in March of 2021, when you had these activists in Loudoun County create this list of parents that simply weren't woke enough. And you had the school board, or six members of the school board, our Soros-backed Commonwealth attorney, all in that group. And it just struck us as wrong that you would have government officials in there. They never apologized. Half of them didn't even pull themselves out of the group. They didn't denounce it. And it really set off alarm bells that these people are there for their own political agenda. If they're not willing to come out and take responsibility for this, then what else are they willing to do? And we found out later, I mean, they put Tanner Cross, a teacher, on suspension for speaking at a school board meeting. We all know what happened with the sexual assaults, where they had no process in place. The superintendent lied about it to the public and is now indicted for that. And their own school spokesperson is indicted for perjury. So what does that tell you? School spokesperson indicted for perjury. Parents were on the ball. They knew that you had a school system that was not fulfilling its obligation as citizen representatives. We saw it. We called it. And we followed through. And we also have a fan club over here. Olivia, let me ask you, because we were having this conversation. We literally, I think, held this panel backstage. And all of a sudden, I was like, stop talking. Save it for the CPAC audience. So Olivia, we're talking about public schools. Because I know public schools get a bad rap a lot of times, especially as they're pushing this kind of woke agenda. But you kind of made an interesting argument. You said, I'm for school choice, but we got to salvage the public schools. Walk us through your thought process here. As a parent, as a taxpayer, I really respect and believe in the fundamentals of the rights, the roles, and the responsibilities of parents. If my public school system is not meeting my needs, of course, I want to have that choice. But I am passionate about public schools. And I am passionate about every single child that deserves an education in this country. And I call it the macro-micro view. Because I can go on TikTok, and I can get super enraged really, really quick when I see what's happening. And it really is happening. It's not conspiracy theorists. It's not parents overreacting. These things are happening in some cities, in some states, in some districts. But we have to look at the micro. And I have to look at my responsibility as a parent, my child, his classroom, my campus, my district, and get involved. I am so proud of my district right now. So we have dads that are volunteering. We have moms that are coming in and substituting. It's getting involved in the education. And then when things aren't going right, it's holding our elected officials responsible. It's holding our educators and administrators responsible. But if we do that, if we—I'll be very brief. But like in my district, we have the most amazing career technology programs for young adults. We have an incredible special education department. So public schools have things that maybe not all the private schools will or the charter schools will. So if you're fortunate enough to live in an area that have that type of school, it's fantastic. Right. But let me ask you, Lieutenant Governor, because we're talking about fantastic public schools, but then you have 17 Northern Virginia public schools. They held these merit awards from students. I mean, are you—do you imagine being the child, like, that you've worked this hard? And because in the name of, quote, unquote, equity, how do we explain this? It's a dumbing down is what it is. And, you know, if all—if some children are up here and some are up here, instead of trying to bring everybody up, we're just going to bring everybody down. And here's the thing. America is a superpower. And the only way to maintain that superpower status is to ensure that everybody has a quality education because China is right behind. Right. And guess what? They don't care about that. So we've got to have the ability where parents, again, can make the decision of where to send their children to school. And by the way, this is not a public versus private. This is both. It's and. We can do both. And in fact, the current governor, Shapiro of Pennsylvania, when he was a candidate just last year, he said we can do both in Pennsylvania. He advocated for ESAs and other methods of school choice. And guess what? He still won as a Democrat. So we know that this is doable. It has to be doable because otherwise what will happen to our children? Our children must have a good education. Everybody knows maybe that my dad came to America from Jamaica with only a dollar seventy five in his pocket. He brought me later on. And what pulled him out of poverty was a good education. A good education will lift all boats. By the way, there are stats to show us that by the time a child even goes to college now, 65 percent of them need remedial education, remedial. So we're paying for it twice. We're paying for it in the public schools that they're not getting. And we're paying for it when they do go to college or other post high school ed. And what's so tragic is that there's such record low numbers of children with math proficiency levels at the right levels and reading proficiency levels as well. It's just tragic. Give me your sense also in terms of the minority communities as you're reaching out to these minority communities, saying the Republicans, the conservatives, they have a better option for your children. What's the response you're getting? And this is not about black and white or, you know, whatever, low income, whatever. This is about the child. We keep hearing, of course, the Democrats, some of them keep using, well, you know, it's for the white kids, the white kids, the rich kids, folks, the rich people have already made a decision on school choice. They're not waiting on a government program to decide where to send their child to school. That's a stupid argument. So let's move away from that. We have we brought together so many parents, black parents, Latino parents, Asian parents, white parents, all income strata to our committees to advocate for this. And they they some of them who are activists said to the Democrats, we want school choice. One mother said that she's she's working three jobs. She's black. She's working three jobs so that her child can go to a particular school. You know what the Democrats said to her? Well, you can afford any school you want. Wait a minute. Didn't you just hear what I said to you? I am working three jobs. Another Democrat said to the to the mothers and fathers, well, I'm worried about what happens if the children don't go to private school and they stay. And wait a minute. You sent your children to private school. So why can't everybody have that same option? It's all hypocritical, right? So we've got to make a change. And the change begins with us, begins with the people that we elect. Let me ask you, Ian, bathrooms. You say that one word. I'm going to let you just go. You know, in this country, unlike in China, where Chinese children are learning calculus and complicated numbers and complex numbers in our country, they learn 72, 72 genders. They're laughing at us right now. And because of that, we have these bathroom policies all over the country where you can use a bathroom that does not correspond to your biological sex based on, I guess, how you feel that day. Now, in Virginia, we know that this was the reason, not the reason why the sexual assault happened, but the reason for the cover up so they could pass this policy. I just got a call yesterday from a mom whose daughter was using a bathroom and there was a boy in the bathroom, I guess a transgender boy. And she asked the school, you know, about it. And they said, well, your daughter can contact the unified mental health team for using a bathroom. Explain what the unit, what is it? The unified health, mental health, mental health. Explain what that is. So so you go to a counselor to discuss your issues with whatever social emotional issue you may have, which apparently in this case was a girl being able to use the girl's bathroom without a boy in there, which is insane. But I will say that the scope of the law may be changing here in the Fourth Circuit, which is where we are. There was a case, Grimm versus Gloucester County School Board, which the Fourth Circuit, two judges with one dissenting held that a student has the equal protection right to use the bathroom of the gender that they identify with, which creates a lot of problems when you're in the Fourth Circuit because they will, you know, a student will say, well, I have this equal protection right. But at the end of December, the 11th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in a 7-4 decision said, well, not in the 11th Circuit. So in the 11th Circuit, they held that Title IX says that if you have sex segregated bathrooms, they must be sex segregated on biological sex. And there is no equal protection right to use a bathroom that does not correspond with your biological sex, which all means that you now have a split in the circuits. And that's how you get to the Supreme Court, when you have a split in the circuit. So hopefully, this will be taken up by the Supreme Court in the near future, and we can be done with this. Ian, I also want to do a quick follow-up with one of the delegates from Virginia, Liz Guzman, who came out and basically said, well, maybe, well, you guys don't like her? Oh, well, well, wait till you hear what she said. Then you're not going to like her at all. So she's basically saying that parents can be jailed if they do not support their child and their gender fluidity, and the child wants puberty blockers. Right. And that was the bill she introduced in 2020 in the Virginia legislature. So effectively, if you, as a parent, do not agree with whatever your child is saying, and you don't take her to the clinic to get puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones or to get surgery, or you just don't even let her identify at school as a boy, you can be investigated by Child Protective Services and arrested. That is her bill. But here's the most interesting part of that. Schools can already do that, because schools will withhold that information from parents because they consider it health care. And if a parent doesn't administer that health care to their child, then they are a danger to their child, which is why they do not tell the parents. So then why don't they call Child Protective Services now? Because that's already their policy. If a school is withholding that information from the parent, they are saying, you are dangerous if you do not allow your child to go down this path. Then call Child Protective Services, and we'll fight that out. So as a school board member, Olivia, how do you handle this? And I know this has even been seen in Texas, this curriculum where they're pushing critical race theory, where they're trying to change the narrative of American history and making it seem like America is a very horrible place. Do you think America is a horrible place? No, no. I mean, how do we handle that? I think first and foremost, the legislation in Texas, we're doing well now because some new curriculum, history curriculum was coming down the pipe, and it actually got stopped in its tracks, and it did not make its way into our public schools. So that's good. The second thing is, like I said, it's our legislators who we're electing in to make sure that they are protecting the parents' rights and just making sure America has a beautiful history, not a perfect one. We just have to teach factual history. So I think legislation is very, very important. And then the second thing is, again, locally, holding our local districts accountable, parents being engaged. We have to read our kids' books. And when there is something, ask a question. But number one is legislature, making sure that your state representatives are ensuring that per se level. Lieutenant Governor, let me ask you, as you've encountered, obviously, the opposition from Democrats, but you've also run into a problem with Republicans and kind of their strange relationship with some teacher unions. What is happening? Well, sometimes, unfortunately, people get afraid of the teachers' unions because they're huge and they can work against you. But the reason why we do things, as John F. Kennedy said, it's not because they're easy. It's because they're hard. And I would add it's because they're righteous. And if I have to lose the next election so that the children can get an opportunity for a good education, I'll do it because children need a future. You know, it's not about maintaining a seat. It's about our children and their future. Abraham Lincoln, it is quoted as saying, the philosophy of the classroom in one generation is the philosophy of the classroom in the government. Think about that. And so that's why we have to keep fighting. And I would put it to you that this is the new Brown versus Board of Education fight. This is what it's all about, parents, again, being able to choose where their children should be able to go to school. Well, I think you must have read Ian's book because Ian's book on page 190, it says, you need moms and dads that have the courage to go out there and fight for the kids. OK. All right. You're going to get the book. Ian, as we're running out of time here, I want to make sure I get everyone in. But let me get a sense from you. Just final thoughts. What is your message? What do you anticipate this landscape to be as we enter into the next? I would say the next phase of this fight of making sure that we protect our children and make sure that we have a healthy education system. It's taken the left decades to really take control of the education system. We cannot expect that one election or two elections is going to allow us to fix this. It's going to take decades to repair. And you can sit on the sidelines and say, well, it's not going to affect my kid or I'm just going to mind my own business. And you can watch all this happen or you can get in the fight. So get in the fight. And if I could just add one more thing to what Ian just said, actually, my dad came in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement. And so it was just 11 days before MLK Jr. gave his I have a dream speech when there were real dog whistles, when black people really couldn't live anywhere they wanted, et cetera, et cetera. Folks, that's not where we are today. Otherwise, I wouldn't be second in command in the former capital of the Confederacy. So to your point, I put it to you. It is not 1963 when my dad came. It's 1984. And if we don't get a grip, we're going to be living in some kind of dystopian society. So we've got to fight for our children, our grandchildren, our nieces, our nephews. All right. I told you this would be the best panel. You don't tell anybody else. But Olivia Bernard, our lieutenant governor, Winston Sears and Ian Pryor. Thank you so much.