EXCLUSIVE: School District Censored Watchdog Group After It Exposed Teacher’s Tirade Against Parental Rights

by | Sep 26, 2023 | Daily Signal

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The person behind a popular X (formerly Twitter) account aimed at exposing leftist ideology in schools is threatening legal action after a Maryland school district that has become notorious for clamping down on parents restricted the account’s access to what courts have ruled constitutes a public forum.

Montgomery County Public Schools blocked the account, Inside the Classroom, days after Inside the Classroom had exposed a public school teacher who condemned the “right-wing idea of parents’ rights” as “literally just fascism.” The school district has fought in the courts to deny parents the right to opt their kids out of lessons that include LGBTQ+ books .

America First Legal, a public interest law firm that represents Inside the Classroom, sent a demand letter to the school district on Tuesday, threatening legal action if the district does not restore Inside the Classroom’s access to the district’s account.

“It isn’t enough that Montgomery County Public Schools has been trampling all over parental rights,” Ian Prior, senior adviser at America First Legal, told The Daily Signal . “Now, MCPS teachers are taking to social media to bash parents as ‘fascist’ for daring to protect their children from the radical and abusive transgender agenda.”

“Then, MCPS hits the trifecta of bad judgment and violates the First Amendment rights of those, like Inside the Classroom, that are shining the spotlight of accountability on what is happening at our schools,” Prior added. “We look forward to MCPS taking swift action to unblock all accounts and come into compliance with the First Amendment.”

In the demand letter, Inside the Classroom notes that Montgomery County Public Schools blocked its X account shortly after the account exposed the teacher who condemned the idea of parental rights .

“Alright, we have to talk about this right-wing idea of parents’ rights. It’s literally just fascism,” the teacher said in a TikTok video Inside the Classroom shared on Feb. 10. While the teacher says she sees “educators’ role as partnering with parents,” she goes on to insist that “parents and caregivers who reject their children’s gender identities are not taking care of their children.”

“Conservatives that claim that their real concern is ‘parents’ rights’ are just trying to use a family-friendly excuse for wanting trans people to not exist,” the teacher says.

Four days after Inside the Classroom shared that video, “tagging” Montgomery County Public Schools in the post, the school district blocked Inside the Classroom’s account from accessing the school district’s X page.

While X users have the ability to block any other user, courts have ruled that the First Amendment bars government officials from doing so in certain circumstances.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Davison v. Randall (2019) that a Virginia public official violated the First Amendment by engaging in “viewpoint discrimination.” The official had banned an individual from commenting on her social media page, which the court said constitutes a public forum.

Phyllis J. Randall, chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, banned Virginia resident Brian Davison from her official Facebook page, on which she allows public comments. The court ruled that the “interactive component” of a local government official’s social media page constitutes a public forum and that Randall violated the First Amendment by excluding Davison from her page due to his views.

Inside the Classroom claims in the letter that Montgomery County Public Schools is “even more culpable in its constitutional violation” than Randall had been.

“Unlike the defendant in Davison v. Randall, where the account at issue was that of an elected official, the account at issue is the official account for the entire taxpayer-funded school system,” the letter reads. “MCPS has over [122,000] followers on X, and users are able to repost, reply, and like MCPS’s posts.

MCPS’s X account consists of information related to school activities such as upcoming events, announcements, surveys, and school schedules. In fact, according to the MCPS website, social media ‘can help Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) further our mission and core values by engaging students, their parents/guardians, and the community.’”

“Given that the MCPS X account is undoubtedly a public forum, it is thus impermissible for MCPS to discriminate on the basis of viewpoint against those who engage in the interactive nature of that public forum,” the letter adds. “Here, MCPS blocked Inside the Classroom because it tagged MCPS and tweeted a video and its commentary of an MCPS teacher who compared parental rights to ‘fascism’ and stated that parents who don’t affirm their child’s claimed gender ‘are not taking care of their children.’”

Many X users interacted with Inside the Classroom’s post, mostly criticizing the teacher and Montgomery County Public Schools, and then the school district blocked Inside the Classroom.

“It is abundantly clear that MCPS was motivated to take this action by suppressing the ‘particular views taken by’ Inside the Classroom; namely, disapproval of a teacher attacking parents for not supporting ‘gender identity,’” the letter adds, citing a relevant court case.

“America First Legal therefore demands , on behalf of Inside the Classroom, that MCPS cease and desist blocking Inside the Classroom on X and that any and all official MCPS or MCPS staff social media accounts cease and desist blocking users in violation of the First Amendment,” the letter concludes.

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Evidence Reveals Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin Was Right on DEI. Here’s What Parents and Students Need to Know. 

by | Sep 26, 2023 | Daily Signal

Yes, Virginia, radicals are promoting racial discrimination and drag queens in the Old Dominion’s public schools. Gov. Glenn Youngkin, however, has tried to protect children from sexually explicit content and reject racial prejudice since his first day in office.  

New research only confirms the Republican governor’s plan and adds urgency to the cause.  

Last week, researchers found that Virginia has more “diversity, equity, and inclusion” bureaucrats in its public universities than any other state in the country.  

Virginia Tech employs about six DEI staff for every 100 faculty members, while George Mason University has more than seven DEI staff per 100 faculty. These figures outpace the schools in traditionally left-leaning states such as Oregon—and even some schools in California.  

Nationwide, DEI offices have appropriately faced criticism this year, including in recent weeks, for pushing fringe ideas. With DEI offices on campuses in every state, officials are right to ask for results.  

They’ve turned up little so far. At Boston University, Ibram X. Kendi’s DEI-driven Antiracism Center is under investigation for raking in millions of dollars for operations with little academic content to show for it.  

In Virginia, the DEI office at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise hosted a drag show last year. GMU promotes the main Black Lives Matter organization, which faces accusations that it used tens of millions in donations to enrich its founders.  

How do these programs produce better doctors, engineers, pilots, or teachers? 

Earlier this year, Youngkin said that “ESG and DEI have gone off the rails, candidly,” adding: “We’ve got work to do.”  

Virginia’s governor is hardly the only one to feel this way: Lawmakers in Florida and Texas have prohibited DEI offices on campus from using taxpayer money and no longer allow administrators to require job applicants to write statements in favor of diversity, equity, and inclusion to go along with their resumes.  

“The Youngkin administration has worked with college and university leaders throughout the Commonwealth to shift the focus to restoring excellence in education and providing opportunities for all students to receive a best-in-class experience,” Virginia Education Secretary Aimee Guidera said in an email to a Heritage Foundation colleague and me, responding to a request for comment on the report. 

Youngkin is also among elected executives and lawmakers who have recognized that DEI and critical race theory likely violate state and federal civil rights laws. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, also a Republican, issued an executive order that rejects the application of critical race theory in K-12 schools and signed legislation to reinforce students’ and employees’ civil rights on college campuses.  

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Mississippi, Idaho, South Carolina, and elsewhere have adopted proposals that also reinforce the idea that kids in grades K-12 matter more than their skin color.  

On Jan. 15, 2022, his first day in office, Youngkin ordered a review of K-12 curricula and practices in Virginia, anticipating that educators’ applications of critical race theory were unlawful.  

Correct again: After a legal challenge, a school district in Massachusetts abandoned its mandatory racial affinity groups, a program that separated students by race for different activities. A South Carolina school district canceled its contract with a teacher training organization after lawmakers found the organization was promoting critical race theory’s prejudiced worldview. 

“Governor Youngkin will continue to advance equal opportunities—not equal outcomes—for all Virginians,” Guidera said in her email. 

Youngkin has parents’ support on these issues. Virginians have filed lawsuits against public school districts where educators push prejudiced ideas in schools. In Bedford, parents called on the school board to cancel a drag show that school officials intended to host in a school gym.  

In higher education, professors have more freedom over what they teach than teachers do in elementary and high schools, but this doesn’t mean college officials can violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964 nor that universities should use taxpayer resources on unproductive departments.  

The new evidence on Virginia universities’ DEI offices proves that Youngkin and other public officials who are trying to restore a sense of racial equality under the law have been right all along. 

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