Some parents at one Fairfax, Virginia middle school have expressed their outrage over a proposed policy change by the school district that would penalize children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades for “misgendering” or “deadnaming” people.
The parents say such policies go against free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Examples of such behavior which could lead to stricter discipline include a student greeting a fellow male student as “he” even though he prefers to be called female, or calling transgender or other LGBT people by a name other than their newly chosen name.
The penalty for such actions allows for a suspension of up to 5 days, according to the district’s Student Rights and Responsibilities Booklet.
Concerned parents recently rallied outside of the Luther Jackson Middle School to show their opposition to the school board’s proposed policy, according to The Federalist.
“It could be that some people are waiting for the stillness and quiet of a summer evening when we’re all not paying attention,” Stephanie Lundquist-Arora told the parents. “But I’m here to say, our enthusiasm for the First Amendment will not wane; we will not stop paying attention, even in the summer months.”
The Fairfax County School Board was supposed to discuss the change to the district’s student guide, but tabled the proposal until their next meeting on June 16, The Federalist reported.
In addition, parents at the rally also expressed their disapproval about the declining quality of their children’s education, including the chosen curriculum and the books available to children that portray different sexual acts.
CBN News has reached out to the Fairfax County School Board for comment. We will post it here if we hear back.
As CBN News has reported over the past year, parents have started to push back against local school board policies.
Last October, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland even directed the FBI to work with law enforcement to protect school board members, teachers, and other public school employees after some highly charged parent protests.
Garland’s order comes after numerous school board meetings across the country erupted in chaos as parents voiced their concerns about serious issues, including the teaching of Critical Race Theory, transgender policies, graphic sexual content, and pandemic restrictions like mask mandates.
This order led to Garland being skewered by congressional Republicans over the Justice Department memo.
“Is there a legal precedent for the Department of Justice to investigate peaceful protest or parental involvement at public school meetings?” asked Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT).
“We would never do that, we are only concerned about violence, threats of violence,” Garland responded.
As CBN News reported earlier this month, in a letter to the Attorney General, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee say they have further evidence that the FBI did start monitoring parents who spoke up against local school board policies.
The evidence they say comes from whistleblowers within the FBI who reveal that the FBI, through its Counterterrorism Division, created EDUOFFICIALS “threat tags” to monitor parents who expressed anger at school board meetings. The FBI’s leads allegedly came from an FBI-created “snitch line” used by opponents of the parents.
Getting federal law enforcement into the business of targeting concerned parents stems from a letter last fall from Viola Garcia, the president of the National School Boards Association (NSBA). Previously reported by CBN News, in her letter Garcia referred to dissenting parents as “domestic terrorists” and asked the Biden Administration to examine whether perceived threats to board members over mask mandates and issues like “critical race theory” required a federal investigation.
The Washington Free Beacon reported that the letter was coordinated with the Biden Administration prior to its release.
Just last week, a draft form of the NSBA’s September 2021 letter asking the Biden administration to investigate alleged threats and violence from concerned parents over their children’s education, also asked for the Army National Guard and military police to be deployed to monitor schools.
The NSBA apologized for the initial letter that was sent to the Biden administration. The organization said it is implementing a number of policy changes to ensure this does not happen again.
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