Parent Alert: Whose Kids Are They, Anyway?

Whose kids are they anyways? Well, you'll be encouraged to learn the answer right now on Parent Alert. Jill Simonian from PragerU Kids here. Welcome to Parent Alert. If you haven't already, friendly reminders to subscribe to PragerUKids.com for free for all the resources you need to raise and educate kids about good character, history, our values, and the ideals of freedom that America is anchored in. Okay, you might be watching this live today on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X. Later this episode is going to be on PragerU.com. But before you go anywhere right now, drop me a comment. Tell me where you're watching from because we're in the belly of the beast of California and we want to know. So today, we've had a lot of progress with parental rights these last few years. And the most recent one, of course, in March with Mirabelli versus Bonta. If you remember that case, if you don't know that case, go and look it up right now. It's an important one. But with the return of back to school season happening now, of course, many parents still feel very helpless about how overreaching some school districts have become. I know that I am one of those parents who continues to feel helpless. I'm not despairing, but I do feel helpless many, many times. School districts and teachers unions are just not giving up their baseline philosophy of overreaching and implementing these very overreaching directives that pretty much assault religious beliefs and parental authority. Take a look at the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association's resolutions this summer. You will see very quickly what I'm talking about in the most shocking and disappointing way. So today, what we're going to do is we're going to share a vintage episode of Parent Alert from 2024. I know that seems like so long ago, but stick with me here. This was a conversation with Brad Dacus, founder of Pacific Justice Institute, which is a law firm that specializes in defending and protecting parental rights. So with this conversation that I'm about to share right now, and I want you guys to comment along as you're watching or listening in real time, I hope this really encourages you and fortifies all of us with truth that we can stand tall with as we go deeper and deeper into this school year. So enjoy this re-release clarifying all sorts of things and, of course, arming us all with facts and tips for whose kids are they anyways. Just in time for this back-to-school season, I thought it would be helpful for all of us parents and teachers and grandparents and caregivers to really get informed and educated about what our rights as parents and caregivers actually are in this time where parental rights are being stripped away. And I couldn't think of any better person to talk about this with than Brad Dacus, attorney, president of Pacific Justice Institute. You are the president and founder of Pacific Justice Institute. You're a non-profit law firm. So are you ready to have the big talk today? I'm ready. Good. I'm calling this a parent-to-parent talk because you are a parent, your children are grown and older, but today I really just want to tackle things like what rights we have as parents, compelled speech, mandates. Do us parents have any kind of recourse with all of these overreaching laws and directives that we see happening not only in California but, of course, across the country? And you deal with all of that. So before we begin, I'm hoping that you can share a little bit about Pacific Justice Institute and the wonderful work that you do before we get into the conversation. Certainly. I founded Pacific Justice Institute, by the grace of God, with the help of former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese back in 1997. And at the time, it was just right at the very beginning, had a secretary, a free office space. And if it wasn't up and running in three months, I was going to shut it down. I gave a lot of conditions to God to make this thing work, and he came through on all of it. Fast forward, we now have offices in 30 states, coast to coast. All our office space is donated. We have a team of attorneys all across the country in those offices defending religious freedom, parents' rights against the government, the sanctity of human life, all without charge. And what makes us so unique, Jill, I think the most is that we're very broad, but also we work hard to make sure that everyone gets help. So we don't just cherry pick a few high-profile cases. We don't operate as a business. We have more of a ministry heart. We want to make sure that no family is left behind, no church is left behind, or synagogue left behind. That's what we do to make a real difference. Right now, as we speak, we have 265 cases in active litigation. Some of those are representing hundreds of plaintiffs at one time, just one case. So we're very busy, and we do all our work without charge. We also have great resources as well that are also without charge. I know we're going to talk about a few of them that are going to really please a lot of people who are listening to the show. And they're all, like you said, they're all free. They're on your website. In fact, we've linked to some of those resources before, including the customized opt-out form for parents with kids in schools. But we're going to get to that. Let's just open this conversation about parental rights. We've seen laws passed in California recently, AB 1955. Of course, there are other ones. I look at all of these different directives that are trying to oust parents from schools. And as someone who is not an attorney, I am fascinated with the First Amendment. I always look at our U.S. Constitution and say, oh no, our U.S. Constitution supersedes all of these things because I don't know anything. So for our parents and teachers who are watching this, do we have any parental rights left that are legally protected? How does the hierarchy of all of these things work? Yeah, we do. We definitely do. And you're actually correct, Jill, in that the Constitution is recognized to give parents or to recognize fundamental rights of parents over their children. Myers v. Nebraska, Pierce v. Society of Sisters, Wisconsin v. Yoder, these are cases that are about 100 years old. Established case law where they recognize that parents have an inherent fundamental right over the education of their children, the religious moral instruction, the health and welfare of their children, the upbringing of their children. Clearly established. And so we have already, from the starting gate, solid protection in case law from the case law of the Constitution and interpreting of the Constitution to recognize the rights of parents. So that's the good news. And in addition, we have, I think, probably the most parental rights-respective Supreme Court in our history, thanks to the three Supreme Court justices appointed by former President Donald Trump. Politics aside, irrespective of how people are deciding they want to vote in November, I cannot even talk about this without giving him accolades of thanks and appreciation for the kind of judges we have, which give parents a fighting chance in the United States today when it comes to challenges over their children. So then I have to ask, my next question is, if these rights are already protected, then how are states like California getting away with passing things like AB 1955 that prohibits teachers from informing parents if their child requests a pronoun or a restroom change at school? Well, first off, California has a reputation of passing laws that are unconstitutional. Not surprising. Yeah, we've had to take them to the Supreme Court more than once to get state laws struck down as unconstitutional, or governor edicts struck down. We've had to do that. When they shut down all the churches and synagogues, we had to go to the Supreme Court to give an order to order the churches and synagogues be opened up again. When the state told pro-life clinics that they had to have a large sign in the waiting room telling women where they can get a free or low-cost abortion, we took that to the Supreme Court. Others filed suit afterwards, Supreme Court struck that down. So that's one thing we need to understand. Just because it becomes law in California doesn't mean they really thought about it, doesn't mean that they really took the Constitution seriously. They're very radical, very leftist in Sacramento, so we have to challenge those. We're already challenging something similar to that in New Jersey out of our Trenton, New Jersey office. The Attorney General of New Jersey, Joe, he came out and said, said teachers, all public school teachers, must use pronouns that affirm a child's gender confusion, irrespective of the conscience of the teacher. Now, what teacher with any kind of love for children is going to want to knowingly encourage confusion in any child, much less confusion that statistically we now know results in a suicide rate 12 times greater than the average child. No reasonable teacher would want to do that, but the Attorney General goes farther and says, not only that, but teachers, you have to be willing to lie to parents, cover up if a child has gender confusion. If a parent asks you, lie. Even if you're using a different name for the child, when it's time for open house and parents are there, use the child's name that the parents call the child, but otherwise, use the other name and lie to parents, cover it up, hide it. This is an egregious violation of parental rights. When a school district deliberately and knowingly hides information, and they have no basis to do so. I once talked to a principal of a high school here in Southern California, I'll keep it that generic. He told me, he says, well, the policy of the state is that we have to have the school counselor help the child to affirm the child's gender confusion. I said, what about the parents? He says, well, we keep the parents out of it. I says, why? He says, well, the parents may not understand and they may be hostile, they may be violent or dangerous to students. I said, what do you base this on? Well, what the teenager tells us. I've had teenagers. This is insane. And so parents need to know what their rights are, because we cannot trust public schools, the principals, even the teachers as a general rule. So say, obviously, this law is now going into effect in California to keep secrets from parents, to require that teachers keep secrets from parents. Say that there's a teacher who doesn't believe in any of this and says, well, I'm not going to do any of this. I am going to do what is right and true, yet that teacher fears that they will lose their job. So is there validity in that? I mean, I'm assuming that the school can, in fact, fire the teacher. Well, they can, but they're going to be sued by Pacific Justice Institute probably. Okay, so you got to go to that step. Because that's exactly what we've done. Now, well, we've encouraged teachers to do those circumstances. Unfortunately, it's not a hypothetical. It's very real, and it's becoming more and more rampant across the country, particularly in blue states, unfortunately. We advise teachers to first, in writing, let the school district know, the principal know, if they're confronted with doing something that violates their conscience, like affirming a pronoun or something like that, say, I have sincere religious beliefs and convictions against doing this. Cite Bible verses. Always cite Bible verses. That's like an ironclad guarantee. It's like kryptonite against the other side. They cannot in any way debate your sincerity or religious beliefs when you cite scriptures as a general rule. Cite that, explain that, and then also say, I would be willing to meet with you to talk about how we can mitigate and work this out for the benefit of all concerned. So that's one way of dealing with it. And then under Title VII, they're required to meet with the teacher and try to work it out. For example, we encourage teachers, as we've done before, to say, look, offer to not use first names. Say the child says, I insist you use the alternative gender name. Instead, say, you know what? Kids, in the real world, you're often referred to as your last name. I'm going to do something different. I'm going to refer all of you by your last name. That's mitigating. But unfortunately, these left-wing, zealous teachers unions and a lot of school districts say, oh, no, no. You must say the first name of the child. There's no room here for tolerance or mitigation of your religious beliefs. That just makes the case all the better for the teacher and for us to represent them. Yeah, because at what point does a directive like that, at what point is it considered compelled speech? I mean, as Americans, are we against compelled speech or is that out the window now? Yeah, that is exactly what it is. It's compelled speech. In addition, parents, they generally want to know what's going on. So if you have a friendly school district, that school district, teachers can allow parents to have information. They can have a policy as a school board under 1955 saying, you know, teachers cannot hide things from parents. They can't put that edict down. They have to give the teacher the ability to lie to parents and hide things from parents and that teacher will have total immunity. However, school districts can allow teachers, to be honest with parents, that's still a possibility. So teachers who are reasonable, they can go out of their way and say to the child, you know what, before I refer to that, I'm going to need to talk to your parents and see if that's what they prefer for you. In addition, you know, we have a policy that, you know, says, look, I call you by how you're registered. So if your parents want to re-register you with this different name, perhaps showing you a new birth certificate, change birth certificate with your name, I'll totally respect that. But I legally have to go by the name that I'm given here by the school district. And so therefore, I'd be happy to work with your parents. Some school districts will be amiable to that and work with teachers. Others will not, like the LA Unified, the San Francisco Unified. And we stand ready to go to bat for teachers for those school districts not willing to compromise and be accommodating towards teachers not wanting to be compelled to say something that violates their conscience and what they believe. What is your response to parents and teachers, for that matter, across the country outside of California that say, oh, no, that's happening in California and in New York, that's not happening here in Kansas or Wyoming or Georgia or any place? Yeah, the sad truth is that's how a lot of parents are thinking. Like a lot of people are moving to states like Texas and Florida and Tennessee saying, oh, we're safe. No, they're not safe. The Nashville, city of Nashville school district, Dallas, Austin, Houston. These are school districts that are very problematic. They're dominated by the Board of Education. The school boards are dominated by teacher union puppets, not people who are put there by parents, but by the teachers union. Teachers union is not just liberal, they're leftist, and they're putting in all kinds of horrific indoctrination material. Fort Worth, maybe they'll say, well, Fort Worth, that's a conservative city, one of those conservative large cities in the country. Really? Well, their school district adopted some of the same radical LGBTQ curriculum material that is being pushed here in California. Parents can take nothing for granted. Just because they live in a red state doesn't mean they're safe. Just because they live in a small town doesn't mean there's not going to be a teacher there that's going rogue, even from the overall direction of the school board or the superintendent. Sure. I'm curious if you can offer insight about what education codes are. Every state has a different set of ed codes, as we say, and I've gone through California's ed code and I've looked at all of the things it outlines about what kinds of rights I have as a parent, and I think, oh, this is fine. The California ed code says that I have a right to be involved in policy at the school and it says I have a right to, you know, volunteer at the school. But do those ed codes have any meaning left when laws and directives are passed? Yeah. Generally speaking, they do have meaning. There can be a law passed that actually maybe truncates part of an education code, and that's what new laws do sometimes. But the reality is there's so many education codes in California that you almost have to be an expert in education code law in California. In fact, the state overall has four times the volume of regulation than the state of Texas. So it's very bureaucratic and very regulatory. The good news is that parents do have rights in the state of California. Students actually have more rights in California because of the education code than students actually in other states when it comes to issues of free speech and expression, for example. So it's really interesting that these laws were passed during the, you know, the Vietnam War protests in the 60s. So the intent was to push the left and liberal thought, but we're using it to help students today who are standing up for their beliefs and convictions. And we're seeing fantastic victories because of the education codes we have. People need to know what their rights are. Some great information we have on our website is a book my wife and I wrote called Reclaim Your School, Steps to Practically and Legally Evangelize Your School. It talks about what parents can do, teachers, students, you know, school board members, and we have model policies for school boards. And a lot of it is using education codes, but it's something that's applicable really to everyone in the country. They can download it for free from our website, pji.org. Good to know. Something else that's on your website. I want to talk a little bit about these opt-out forms that so many of us are just obsessed with. If there is age-inappropriate sex education happening at school or even some of these social-emotional learning surveys that are given to kids that really mine sensitive information. I, at one time, when my kids were in public school, I was obsessed with opting out. I would tell everyone, opt out, opt out. And you say that opt-outs in every state are different, but you have something that is applicable to everyone on your website. Can you describe it? Yes. So people can go to our website, and we have opt-out forms customized for 41 states. I'd like to be able to say 50. We're not 50 yet. We'll be soon. Yes. There's some states out there that we don't have yet, and they're usually states where very few people live, relatively speaking. So we have these, and they're customized for each state. People say, what do you mean by customized? I got this generic one. Why isn't that one good? Well, that's great because it's looking at federal law and what are parents' rights under federal law. And there are some statutory rights for parents. However, that's only halfway. The rest is looking at the state laws and the specific rights given by state legislatures. Some states give more protection to parents, like Oklahoma. Some states give a lot less protections, like California. But there are still specific protections. We did our homework. We honed in on specific protections. We added that with the federal law protections and, of course, constitutional case law protections. And we customized these opt-out forms. They're very easy to use. There's boxes just to check. And I do want to give one qualifier, and that is, like, for example, in California, we used to have more protections than we used to. But Governor Gray Davis, right before he was impeached, out of desperation, signed radical bills truncating a number of rights of parents. It's a shame. So parents can opt their children in the state of California out of sex ed. Clearly, they can do that. However, they cannot opt their children out of LGBTQ propaganda. And what's the difference? Yeah, what's the difference? So sex ed is where do babies come from? Right. And that is very narrow. As far as LGBTQ, that's to do with lifestyles and choices. But why can't we opt out of that portion as well, if we don't deem that our children are old enough or mature enough to understand that? Because California education codes do not allow for any opt-out for that. Now, that said, there are a few left and right turns that we can take at PJI. For example, if parents say, I can't pull my kids out of the public school, in certain circumstances, we can say, you know what, if we get a letter from a psychiatrist and says, this, such instruction will be, can be very harmful and traumatic to this child, creating tremendous injury to them mentally and emotionally, putting them on front notice. That's a different ballgame. A tort lawyer would love to take something like that. If the school district says, we don't care, we're going to expose the child, we don't care about their background, we don't care about a psychiatrist and what they say, that's, that is one weapon using tort law to go after a school district. But parents need to also realize, they say, well, I've opted my child out of, I let my child stay home sick for this day. We found out that this, these two transgender individuals are going to come and flaunt what they do and try to convince kids that they may be the opposite of what they're born with. I'm opting my child out of that day by just having them call in sick and give us a notice. And there's a way you can do that, a certain language you want to put in. However, the problem is, in places like California, it's not just one visit. It's not just one day. It's all throughout the school. State law requires this at every grade level, all the way down to kindergarten, and it's so unbelievable. So parents need to understand if they have their child in a public school, there are some opt-out measures they can take. But some states, like California, children are still left in what I call a spiritual death camp. And it's very, very dangerous. You have done a lot of work with helping parents with children in public schools establish alternative educational institutions. Can you describe that? Oh, you bet. So a lot of parents are pulling their kids out of public schools. This last school year, more than 50,000 children were pulled from the LA Unified School District alone. There's a lot of angry parents out there. So they're pulling their kids out. Now, here's a problem. They say, well, I'll put my child in a solid private school reflective of my faith. Well, most of those schools, in fact, almost all of them have waiting lists. And a lot of it was because of the pandemic. And we helped a lot of the private schools open up a lot earlier, despite the shutdowns, and especially in blue states. It was fantastic. But these schools have been overwhelmed with kids coming into them, more than they can expand to accommodate. So then you have parents who say, okay, well, then what about homeschooling? Well, the hardcore reality is a lot of families, for a lot of families, it doesn't make sense. They can't do it. Maybe their language is different than English, and they know their child needs English immersion. Maybe they're a one-parent family, and that one parent has to work. Or they're a two-parent family, and both of those parents work because they live in places like California or Manhattan and some of these places that it's just very expensive to live. So what do they do? Those that cannot homeschool on their own, what they can do is be a part of what we're helping to start across the country and along with others, which are homeschool co-ops. Generally, they can be sponsored by a synagogue, by a church, and it can be a tiny little church. They can start a church homeschool co-op. It's easy. It's not a private school. They have a lot more freedom. These are parents working together and maybe elderly people in the church volunteering to provide an environment where the child can have an education in a homeschool kind of format. There's multiple different models, by the way. And do you need an attorney to be able to do that? No, not at all. In fact, we at Pacific Justice Institute can direct people to where they can find out information on the different alternative models that they can set up at their local church or synagogue. These are booming across the country, and they are the answer, I believe, to saving a lot of children, particularly if they're in a state that doesn't have school choice or school vouchers. Most blue states don't. This is the back door that's still there to be taken advantage of. Well, absolutely. There's endless possibilities now because the mandates—I say quotation marks—the mandates that were imposed on so many of us, whether it was for masks or COVID vaccine mandates, I mean, they scared a lot of people. And so a lot of people said, I have to get out of this system. For the people that, let's just say, were stuck in that system, what recourse, if any, do they have against mandates that the same kinds that were imposed on us? Yeah, especially during the pandemic. Well, we at Pacific Justice Institute, we did a lot of suing during that period of time. Which is so, quite frankly, it's very scary for some of us to hear, oh, well, we have to sue people, we have to sue. But this is the avenue, right? Yeah, they just contact us. We pick up all the costs, all the expenses. We do that. I don't mean to laugh, but it's insane, the gymnastics that we have to do now. It is. It really is. And it's because we really don't have local schools anymore. They're teacher union, state-driven institutions or government schools, not really public schools. So let me give you an example. Contra Costa School District in the San Francisco Bay Area, they came out with an order ordering all children, elementary school children, all of them had to have the controversial COVID-19 quote-unquote vax. That was it. No exemptions, no opt-out at all. We went right into court. And before one child had the injection, we got it halted. And we saved every one of those children from having the injection. Of course, now, unfortunately, now medically that the ramifications to a lot children, it's very, very serious. From those age 12 to 19, there's been a more than 13,000% increase in heart mitocarditis. And we see that with children dropping dead on the soccer field, et cetera. It's tragic. We were able to save a lot of children, just that one school district. Go to the other part of the country, West Palm Beach. They said, every child must wear a mask, no matter what, no opt-outs. We went right into court on behalf of 11,000 angry parents. And we said, no, you cannot mandate this against these parents. Make a long story short, we prevailed and we have some very happy parents from West Palm Beach. But we've taken all these cases all over the country. The fact is just because there's a mandate, doesn't mean it's lawful and doesn't mean we can't challenge it based on parental rights. I have to ask this question because I often say personally, one of the reasons why we've gotten to this place is because my generation somehow missed a breadth of education regarding civics. And do you disagree or you agree? Yeah, I agree. As far as public education goes, I believe they missed out on everything as a general rule. Mind you, there are some public schools that are excelling in some areas, but they're the small, tiny minority compared to what we're getting in public schools. And public civics is one of those subjects that I don't think they really taught students to really empower students. A lot of it, frankly, is filled with political propaganda. And same thing with history and even English literature. Public schools are not the same. Parents need to understand that and they need to know what their rights are. Parents need to be aware. It doesn't matter where they live. It doesn't matter how conservative, how many churches or synagogues are in the area. They need to go into their library and they have every right to do so in that public school library. Say, I want to look at all the books addressing LGBTQ issues, sex issues, sexuality issues, politics. I want to look at all of it, philosophy, all of it. And then that parent has a right to take note of it and write an op-ed piece letting people know. There's a bus driver in Idaho. Idaho, you think what's going to happen in Idaho, right? He found out in the public library, all this stuff was in there. The principal would do nothing. The superintendent would do nothing. He wrote an op-ed piece exposing all of it. He was fired from his job because he said something negative about the school district. Well, this isn't China. You don't surrender your First Amendment rights when you work for the government. We went to court. We filed a lawsuit. And needless to say, it ended in a very nice settlement for him that hopefully other school districts will learn from. So one question, when you mentioned the settlement, because in Southern California, not too long ago, I'm sure you heard the story about the high school PE teacher, Jessica Tapia, who won the settlement against her school district, who fired her for sharing her religious beliefs on her own time. For all of these people who are bringing legal action and are winning with settlements, does that then set a precedent so that these other school districts can't do the same thing to others? Yeah, that's the downside on a settlement versus a judgment. The settlement is not binding precedent. However, school districts and others, they do listen and they watch. And even if they can't disclose the amount, the monetary amount, they know oftentimes that it's significant. And especially when the plaintiff is very happy, they know that that school district lost in the settlement and they learn from it. So practically speaking, there's a big lesson learned in the process. As far as precedent, those settlements really do not provide any precedent. I see. And here I thought they did. I'm happy to hear your response, but then I also think, oh, okay, we got to win these cases. Yeah. And some parents will say, I don't want a settlement. I want to win. I want precedent. I want to send a loud message that every judge will have to pay attention to in the future. And that's what we have in terms of precedents, especially in federal court cases. If you win in a federal district court anywhere in the country, it may not be binding on all the judges across the country, but every federal judge must take that decision into consideration before making their decision in a similar case. So it's very, very powerful. What is your response to parents who might find themselves in a situation where compelled speech was imposed on them, or they were obeying mandates that they didn't agree with, who might just say, I don't have the energy to fight. It's fine. What difference does it make? Their silence makes a huge difference because you're allowing that tyranny to happen again and again and again. But when they stand up and there's a resistance that sends ripples across the country, it sends a message to the other side, you can't do this and think you're going to get away with it. You know, we have Pacific Justice Institute, we have offices across the nation uniquely for a reason. That reason is I want Satan to have no place to go for a vacation in the United States of America. And we intend that we stand ready to go against any school board, any school district, anywhere in the country that decides to step on the rights of parents. We're there, we're committed unconditionally to represent parents without charge. I want to take a turn for a little bit here. One nation under God, indivisible. A lot of teachers and schools and administrators have just airlifted the Pledge of Allegiance out of classrooms because they don't want to offend teachers and families in any way. Is the removal of the Pledge of Allegiance because of that phrase and attack on religious freedom? It's interesting. So the phrase, in God we trust, we defended that. And we have the Ninth Circuit to rule that that is constitutional. Our national motto is constitutional. And that was a fantastic victory in dealing with the state of California and some people who wanted to pull that from our currency. In the same way, our Pledge of Allegiance is constitutional. You can have one nation under God that is constitutional. That's clearly established. So schools cannot justify removing it because it's somehow a violation of separation of church and state. That's bogus. And in fact, many states require school districts to say the Pledge of Allegiance, that all the classrooms must say the Pledge of Allegiance. That's becoming actually more common in schools that don't do that. Those parents should contact us, and we'd be happy to go to bat for them to make sure that the law is complied with. So generally speaking, let's just play a game. If I were to walk to my local public school and place the Ten Commandments on the wall, could I get arrested? It depends on what state you're in. California, possibly. Possibly. But I will say, and we would defend that because of the Supreme Court we have now, because of President Trump's appointments. Things have changed. We have hope that we never thought we would have ever seen in my lifetime come to pass because of those three judicial appointments on the Supreme Court. But when you look at, for example, Louisiana, we worked hard through our legislative division. We worked hard to help them pass a law that mandates the Ten Commandments to be posted in every single public school classroom, including public university classrooms in the state of Louisiana. And 20 years ago, I would have thought, oh, it's going to get struck down as unconstitutional. But no, the Supreme Court will say, well, the standard they have now is, does the state action amount to a proselytizing and endorsement of a particular religion? Well, the answer is no. The Ten Commandments first is recognized not only by Christians and Jews and Muslims, it also is the foundation by which Western law came into existence. So this is about history, heritage that children should be able to know about because they don't know their past. How are they to decipher and decide on the future for future generations to come? Brad, this conversation has given me so much hope because, you know, quite frankly, with all the headlines I see and all the research I do trying to educate myself as a mom, I get pulled down in the dumps a lot, but this is giving me a lot of hope. Are you very hopeful for the next maybe 10 or 20 years, the direction of education? Well, I will say, overall, I'm hopeful and optimistic because homeschooling is booming, private schools are booming, and homeschool consortiums and churches and synagogues, that's booming. That's my greatest confidence. I'm also confident in those states that are having school choice, school vouchers, like Florida, soon to be Texas, and other red states are passing it. I'm excited about that, particularly in red states passing laws, we're able to get them to pass saying, hey, boys can't compete in girls sports. We got six states through our efforts to pass that kind of legislation. So in red states in particular, I'm very optimistic. In alternative education, I'm very optimistic. Public schools, overall, I'm very concerned because they're clearly heading in the wrong direction, and parents need to take note of that. But, you know, the battle is not just in the public schools against parents' rights, it's also outside the public schools with social workers in unbelievable ways, taking children from parents, wonderful parents. They're supposed to take them because the parents are abusive or neglectful, they're not feeding the kids, or they're hitting the kids over the head with something. No, they're taking children now because the parents say are traditional, they're Jewish or Christian beliefs, and not wanting to encourage gender confusion in their children. Because a parent refuses, social workers are coming in and taking children. We've had a case in Placer County, California, near Sacramento. They took a girl. She didn't want to be taken. She says, I feel like I'm a boy. She told her friend, who told the teacher, told the counselor, told the social worker. They took her, had her examined by their in-house shrink psychiatrist. I call him shrink because what he advised is, oh yes, we need to immediately start the process of changing her, quote, gender. And they took her from the family, and they would have started the process, but for the fact that parents called us, and we went right into court, and we got it halted, and we fought for two years for that girl. And at the end of the two years, that girl was reunited with her family. And at the last hearing, she said, you know, Your Honor, also, I just want you to know, I really don't feel like I'm a boy after all. And if we not intervene, she would have been permanently sterilized, and her suicide risk would have skyrocketed. That is the state of California. That was under the authority of Governor Gavin Newsom in the state of California. And I'd like to say that was one freak isolated case. Oh no, it's happened in Orange County, San Diego County. It's happening all over the country. And parents need to understand, this is the agenda. The good news is we have a resource that will give parents the protection. Once a child is taken, I give it about a 50-50 chance that they're going to get their child back ever. And they're often put in families and homes that are divergent completely for what they believe is best for their children. The good news, if they follow what we tell them to do, the odds are better than 98% that their child will not be taken in the first place. It's very successful. Parents just need to know what to do and what their rights are. So we have a, it's on our website called 12 Steps to Protect Your Children from CPS, Child Protective Services. It's called different things in other states, but 12 Steps to Protect Your Children from CPS. It's applicable to every state in the country. Every family should have this printed out. They should make it available to everyone in their church and synagogue. They should push it out via email. They need to have it on hand because when the social worker calls or they knock on the door, it's too late. That's when the most critical decisions need to be made. And that's why we make this available upfront. And it's something I think every single family, I know, not just think, I know every family in America should have a copy of this and it's free on our website. No charge, nothing. It's right there. We make it very easy on our website, PJI.org. I have no idea when you and the rest of you at Pacific Justice Institutes sleep because you're doing so much and you're doing such great work. And I just, you know, on behalf of the parents and the teachers, everyone who's watching or listening, thank you for doing all of this, you know, from a legal mind because we parents, I know nothing. And so I appreciate it when I hear wisdom from you. For people who don't yet follow you on social media, your Instagram handle is Pacific Justice Institute. And your website is once again, PJI.org. P for Pacific, J for Justice, I for Institute.org. We also have a newsletter once a week talking about our cases. We love people to pray for our work and maybe support our work too. But it's all right there on our website, PJI.org. We have a very empowering website and we really want to do to help people. And also, I just want to say, you didn't ask me to say this, but I just want to tell you, Jill, how excited I am about PragerU. Oh, thank you. It's been a blessing to so many young people in my church. They listen to it. They may not listen to their parents all the time, but I know they listen to PragerU. And I'm a big fan of Dennis Prager. He spoke at one of our big galas, our celebration of justice. And it's a joy and privilege to be able to participate as we are right now in this program. Thank you so much. Well, this conversation was long overdue. Brad Dacus, follow him, Pacific Justice Institute. And of course, if you have not yet subscribed to PragerUKids.com, parents, teachers, do it now so that we educate our young people so that they can know about civics and our history and our shared values as Americans, and they can carry that love of country with them. Also, for more conversations discussing parental rights, gender ideology in schools, how to audit your school, your child's school library, we've got all the conversations on PragerU.com slash parent alert. Brad, thank you so much. And we'll see you all next time.