The COVID-19 pandemic upended school (and the rest of society) in ways never before seen. Suddenly, kids were virtually learning from home, which meant parents were given a first-hand look at what their children were being taught. While some parents began to see material they weren't comfortable with their children learning, they also witnessed a "concerted effort to keep parents out of the loop," Parents United America's Deborah Flora told Townhall.
As a parent in Colorado, Flora had already been used to speaking out against the state legislature's effort to ram through comprehensive sex education. Looking around, however, she realized there needed to be a unified voice, which gave her the idea to form a nonpartisan advocacy organization for parents in 2019.
"What I realized was that there wasn't a way that parents could have their voices magnified," Flora said. "So, I testified downtown, three or four times that cycle as a parent, waiting sometimes 10, 12 hours to even be heard. And I saw the frustration. So that's why I started Parents United America—as a parent, simply galvanizing the voices and amplifying the voices of other parents."
Soon afterward, COVID hit, and Flora described it as a wake-up call for parents.
"That was actually really something that basically just opened the eyes of many, many parents, because maybe they didn't really want to look at the sex education or maybe that wasn't their particular issue, but … this concerted effort to keep parents out of the loop really began waking people up."
While much attention is currently being given to the spread of critical race theory in schools, Flora explained it's "just the next in a long line of egregious measures that have been taken where parents are not even consulted or notified."
She pointed to what happened in Douglas County, Colorado, as an example, where parents found out the school board passed an educational equity policy without input from parents. The cat was let out of the bag when a video was leaked showing a training the Gemini Group, a consulting firm specializing in helping organizations "eliminate institutional and systemic inequities," gave that referred to parents as "dissenters."
"Educators were taught how to address the dissenters," she said. "And it was all about breaking children into groups of oppressed and oppressors. So, that is when, I believe, really what we're seeing is a tipping point of parents who have been marginalized or shut out on multiple fronts. And this is the final straw."
Gender fluidity training is another issue Flora's group is hearing about, where parents of preschool and kindergarten-aged children and up are kept in the dark about what's being taught until it's too late.
In Colorado, she's also seeing policies where children are being given psychiatric treatment in schools without parental consent or knowledge.
The theme tying all these issues together, from CRT to sex ed to psychiatric treatment in schools, is that parents' rights are being trampled and kids are paying the price.
"The former ideal of education that served us well when America was No. 1 in academic success amongst all industrialized nations was known as the triangle… with parents and teachers partnering together for the good of the student," Flora explained. "What happened is indoctrination, ideological and politically motivated groups got in the middle of that. And they're separating parents from teachers, and they are shutting parents out."
And all this is to the detriment of the students. For instance, in Douglas County, as the school board was hiring the Gemini Group to teach toxic racial theories to educators, academic performance among students was dropping.
According to data from Douglas County, only 48 percent of students were proficient in math and 59 percent in reading on their state assessment tests. Flora called the results "abysmal" and said in a follow-up email that during a school board meeting last month, parents were told they ought to be "happy" to be among the top in the state. "As though we should be happy that we are failing less," she said.
It's a similar story elsewhere in the state and across the country.
Beyond that, though, some of what's being taught is affecting students' mental health. Flora heard from one father whose daughter was "so depressed and ashamed about being a 'white oppressor' that they were concerned she might be suicidal."
Another mom told Parents United America that her "young sons were traumatized after they were taught in school that police officers were all murderers" because their father is a police officer.
Parents with stories about what they're experiencing in their school district are welcome to share their stories on the organization's website. Once the form is submitted, parents can expect to receive information about groups that may be organizing in their area because change must come at the grassroots level, she explained. Parents United America is also working on a special project to amplify parents' voices.
So far, Flora has heard from parents in about half the states about various local issues. While she believes the U.S. is at a cultural "crossroads," she's encouraged by how many parents are waking up.
"They are not alone, and they can join with others right in their own communities and their school districts, and they can turn the tide because there's a tiny percentage of people who are trying to take control of the schools for ideological purposes and political purposes. But we're the vast majority," she said. "And we're finally waking up."