Meet The Parents Taking Over School Boards

For decades, parents have been passionate about what their children learn in school. In 1970s West Virginia they protested over diverse textbooks, in 2022 itโ€™s the handling of the pandemic and issues of gender and race. In this episode, Audie talks to two parent activists turned elected school board officials about what motivated them to run for office and the changes they hope to make while in power.

Originally published November 17, 2022

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43 comments

  1. A teen’s brain does not fully develop till age 25, therefore teens can be easily manipulated therefore teens and children need to be protected from people who are trying to confuse children and teens about sexuality and gender.

    1. When I was 7 in 1979, I knew I was gay. Did you know you were heterosexual when you were 17? Or were you confused about your sexuality and possibly gay until then? Why were You right as a teen thinking you were heterosexual, but claim others are wrong? Says who?

    2. โ€‹@Kenneth Bitting unless you’re gay or non heterosexual when you’re 6 ot 7, as I was, or older. Then what? How does my 1979 self in rural Ireland- hardly Woke Central – for your narrative?

    3. The Gnostic Apostle Thomas: Chapter 24 verse 22 “When you make male and female into a single one”

      Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom.”

      Is it some kind of a metaphor for transcending? https://youtube.com/watch?v=WhgXJQnf49A&feature=shares

    1. As a former middle school substitute teacher. Itโ€™s not the library where the porn exists. Itโ€™s on the kidsโ€™ phones.

  2. The past participle is “had spoken,” not “had spoke.” Lady opining about critical thinking and how learners should be directed: Learn English.

  3. Dears, I think it’s hilarious that parents are so worried about what is being taught “in the classroom.” Kids find out and talk about EVERYTHING, and it happens OUTSIDE of school. Doesn’t matter what you try to hide from them, they’ll find out. It’s ALWAYS been that way and always will be.

    1. My kindergartener’s vocabulary list includes the terms “transgender, queer, activism, upstander, sesquipedalian” and the lit claims that the whole of the civil rights movement as a whole for black americans “is sometimes referred to as BLM” ๐Ÿค”. His self-portrait that I saw at school is black which is hilarious because he’s asian. I think he’s confused. The vocabulary is inappropriate for his age level and the set of terms and reading at first glance appears to celebelrate “activism” which I consider to be a moral good when coming from a mature mind who has thought through the potential consequences of civil disobedience and determined how far they are willing to take it only. I’m gathering information to figure out the extent and specifics of this indoctrination before coming to the school, but I’m already in contact with my congress person. Second worse case scenario I homeschool or move to Florida…Worst case scenario would be if I ever found that the school mutilated my child with puberty blockers… At bare minimum…I should have a say in WHEN topics involving sex and sexuality are discussed. Kindergarten is too young.

    1. ๐Ÿค”๐Ÿค”๐Ÿค”๐Ÿค” assessing whether that is a term I would want to use. I’d definitely love to see the reaction to its use in controlled experiments that I took no part in. From your icon I think you have probably have a troll disposition but you may have stumbled on an idea here that is worth exploring.

  4. Parents should always have control over the school board. The school board are either appointed or elected representatives of the people. The people are the parents and the parents have control over the school board.

  5. I was surprised CNN had a somewhat of substance discussion on this topic. Never heard of this host Audie Cornish but she asked good probing follow-up questions and some challenging questions, wish she could get more air time if she’s as tenacious or more

  6. Why should schools be Federally fund if they teach agenda other than reading, writing, civics, arithmetic, history?

    1. It’s easy to parrot what others say without investigating, isn’t it? You literally just mentioned civics

  7. all I hear in these ladies voices is โ€œIโ€™m going to say you can be who you want to be, but I donโ€™t want to see it, hear about it or know in any way that your different than me.โ€ In other words, we want to go back to the world where you go back in the closet.

  8. I had to stop listening, these parents were making me too angry and the words they used like โ€œpersuasionโ€œ are insulting. Thank you Audie Cornish for you patience and persistence.

  9. I think that the people she was interviewing did a good job despite the interviewer framing the discussion in such a way as to indicate that any notion of “parental rights” should automatically be regarded with suspicion of racist or discrimanatory intent. Heaven forbid this lady’s only option for her child was a religious school promoting the notion that we are all children of God with a spark of the divine within us and that we are commanded to love one another as ourselves as an alternative to not only seeing race but emphasizing it as a core part of ones identity all the time and that if you aren’t a white male with “priviledge” then all of the systems of America are set up against you succeeding not just historically, but today as well and you should practice “microinterventions” against anyone who disagrees with you (which is really just being dismissive and rude to people who disagree with you) desensitizing people to the notion that an accusation of racism should be taken seriously; also convincing people to be “upstanders” and in peoples face over clearly accidentally offensive speech. Do you really want more Trump? Collective action done like that: That’s how you get Trump. Good job. *Slow clap* [I don’t like him either, but then again I voted for Ye in the last election so maybe nothing I say should be taken too seriously. ๐Ÿ˜ฎ I regret that now.]

  10. These same parents are the ones who never show up for parent teacher meetings, because in their eyes, their children never do anything wrong. I want to see one of these women take over our classroom and had a discussion. They said they are not educators. Why are frying to control what is taught in the classroom. Have any of them ever handled a class of 30 teenagers who donโ€™t want to be in the school at all? Have any of them ever gone to the Scorz to try to help logically I would say no but they might actually do something. To help students learn.

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