Tag: parental rights

DOJ Declares School Dissent Protected Under First Amendment

Attorney General Pamela Bondi issued a memorandum to all United States Attorneys highlighting the Department of Justice’s policy to prevent and act upon violations of parental rights and First Amendment liberties in educational settings. 

Bondi directed United States Attorneys to work with federal, state, and local partners to identify and respond to credible threats against parents whose federal rights have been violated.

“The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances-including at public school board meetings,” the memo said. “These rights do not yield to political trends or bureaucratic convenience. While schools must maintain order, such authority cannot be used as a pretext to silence dissent or punish parents for expressing their views. 

The new memo says it will protect the right of parents to dissent during school board meetings. 

“Let me be clear: when school board members, administrators, and other government officials threaten law-abiding parents, they can and will be held accountable,” the letter said. 

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DOJ now looking for threats to parents’ rights, after Biden’s threats against parents themselves

he Department of Justice this week issued a memo directing the Civil Rights Division to work with federal, state and local partners to identify threats to parental rights and free speech in education, following years of parents’ rights being trampled on under the Biden administration. Many of the parents say their voices were silenced as well.

“Recent years have seen a disturbing trend in which state and local authorities have brought radical gender and racial ideology into our public schools while suppressing dissenting viewpoints,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in the memo. “Worse still, they have ignored, dismissed, and even retaliated against concerned parents who speak out against these morally and factually bankrupt ideologies and in defense of their own children.”

Bondi: Constitutional rights “do not yield to political trends”

“The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances—including at public school board meetings,” she added. “These rights do not yield to political trends or bureaucratic convenience. While schools must maintain order, such authority cannot be used as a pretext to silence dissent or punish parents for expressing their views.”

She further highlighted the rights of parents to exempt their children from instruction contrary to their religious beliefs, specifically pointing to gender and sexual orientation-related issues. “We are restoring the rule of law and returning the federal government to the people it serves. This Department stands with America’s parents,” her memo concluded.

Under the Biden administration, there have been multiple stories of parental rights being violated in the school system, resulting in protests and parents speaking out. Some have even been arrested at school board meetings. 

In October 2021, a 15-year-old student who identified as transgender was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two female students at two separate high schools in the Loudoun County, Virginia, Public School district.

According to local news station WUSA, the first assault was reported on May 28, 2021, at Stone Bridge High School, while another one allegedly occurred on Oct. 8 of that year at Broad Run High School.

The parent of one of the alleged victims was arrested at a school board meeting, where he shouted at officials for not doing more to protect his daughter. Ex-Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler was found guilty by a jury in 2023 for using his position as superintendent to retaliate against a teacher who cooperated with a grand jury to expose how the district covered up a sexual assault.

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Massachusetts School District Under Investigation for Forcing Kids to Take Graphic Sex and Gender Surveys, Ignoring Opt-Out Requests in Violation of Parental Rights

The Department of Education has launched a formal investigation into Burlington Public Schools in Massachusetts, following parents’ accusations that the district ignored their opt-out requests and forced students to participate in the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS).

The probe, initiated by the Department’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO), is investigating potential violations of the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA). This federal law guarantees parents the right to exempt their children from surveys that ask for sensitive, private information.

The YRBS, administered to students at Marshall Simonds Middle School and Burlington High School in March, included explicit questions on topics like drug and alcohol use, mental health, sexual encounters, sexual orientation, and “gender identity.”

Parents were notified in advance about their opt-out rights, and several submitted written requests to exclude their children from the survey. Despite this, the district allegedly required the opted-out students to take it anyway, with at least one teacher reportedly forcing a student to participate over clear objections.

Screenshots of the survey questions, provided in a complaint filed by the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) and parents, reveal the invasive nature of the content.

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California AG Bonta ‘running out the clock’ to stop parental rights initiative, appeals court hears

California law required Attorney General Rob Bonta to write a neutral title and summary for a 2024 ballot measure to mandate parental notification when children request to be identified as the opposite sex in school records, limit girls’ sports to females and prohibit puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital surgery for gender-confused youth.

Having just sued a school district for the same parental notification policy, the Democratic attorney’s title for the Protect Kids of California Act seemed predictable: “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.” 

His summary used the same framing, referring to males who identify as girls as “transgender female students,” claiming the parental notification mandate lacks an “exception for student safety” and referring to medicalized gender transitions as “gender-affirming health care.” 

Sixteen months after a trial judge upheld Bonta’s phrasing as “accurately and impartially” conveying the substance of the measure, which under Bonta’s language fell short of the required signatures for the ballot within the 180-day collection window, Protect Kids California’s crusade to give voters a direct say in the matter may founder on a technicality.

Polling suggests voters would approve the measure, with majority support for each of the three prongs, but an appeals panel repeatedly grilled the group’s lawyer at a hearing Monday on why the case wasn’t moot in light of Protect Kids California’s litigation choices.

The three judges essentially made Bonta’s argument for him as Liberty Justice Center counsel Emily Rae tried to redirect them toward Bonta’s “malfeasance,” for what its lawsuit called his “inaccurate, false, and biased” language. The panel, by contrast, asked deputy AG Malcolm Brudigam just a single question during the state’s argument.

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Child Protective Services Investigated Her 4 Times Because She Let Her Kids Play Outside

Parenting expectations are often unreasonably high—and so is the number of people who believe that kids can’t handle anything on their own.

Passersby too often see an unsupervised child and assume they are unsafe. So they call the authorities, who also often share those super-sized fears. Then parents get investigated simply for trusting their kids with some age-appropriate, location-appropriate independence.

Because of this frustrating cycle, I frequently get letters like the one below. When people ask why I spend so much time trying to pass Reasonable Childhood Independence laws, it’s for people like Emily Fields and her children. Fields is a mom in small-town Virginia who responded to my nonprofit Let Grow’s call for parents willing to speak to child protective services about why such laws are necessary. (Virginia unanimously passed its Reasonable Childhood Independence law in 2023.)

This letter is presented as a stark example of how little trust our country has in its parents and children anymore—and how misanthropic neighbors can weaponize the state at will.

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School district must face ‘deliberate indifference’ claim by gender-confused girl alleging assault

AVirginia school district that allegedly socially transitioned a “gender-nonconfirming” 14-year-old girl into a boy’s identity, hid it from her legal parents, told her to use the boys’ restroom even after boys started threatening her, and “pressured her to recant” those threat claims, will have to defend itself again in trial court.

A split panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit by Michele Blair, who with her husband adopted their granddaughter Sage at age 2 from foster care, where she had been placed after her father’s death and mother’s inability to raise her.

But it dismissed all but her Title IX “deliberate indifference” claim against the Appomattox County School Board, Superintendent Annette Bennett and its staff and contract counselors, and a dissent accused the majority of “push[ing] past the boundaries” set by the Supreme Court in student-on-student sexual harassment cases.

While the school board was “not entirely unresponsive” to Sage’s threat claims, giving her access to the nurse’s restroom, that falls short of “reasonably calculated” efforts to end her harassment, simply addressing it “in piecemeal,” wrote President Clinton-nominated Judge Roger Gregory, joined by President Biden nominee Judge DeAndrea Benjamin.

The court record shows “no indication” the board took action against the boys on the bus who allegedly “threatened her with sexual violence,” another group of males who “jacked” Sage against the wall and threatened her with violence, or students who “threatened to shoot” her “and told her they knew where she lived,” the majority says.

“In fact, the direct opposite happened” when school counselor Dena Olsen and deputy sheriff Daniel Gunter allegedly interrogated her and tried to get her to take back her claims that the boys were threatening her, Gregory wrote. Olsen had first told Sage to use the boys’ restroom and to go back when other girls reportedly complained about her in the girls’ restroom.

Even after being told to use the nurse’s restroom, Sage “continued to be so fearful for her and her family’s life that she ‘suffered a psychotic breakdown’ and opted to run away from home to save her family,” the majority said. 

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Report: Fairfax County Public Schools Investigates Claims Staff Arranged Students’ Abortions Without Parents’ Knowledge

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia has opened an investigation into allegations school staff arranged abortions for students without parental notification and consent.

The investigation is based on claims from a report that school officials at Centreville High School in Union Hill arranged and paid for students’ abortions in 2021, including a 17-year-old girl, local news outlet WJLA reported.

“We learned yesterday of these concerning allegations from 2021,” FCPS told the outlet in a statement on Wednesday. “We are launching an immediate and comprehensive investigation as we take all concerns of student wellbeing very seriously.”

FCPS said “not to [our] knowledge” when the outlet pressed as whether staff have ever arranged abortions for students.

“We have launched an immediate investigation into these concerns as soon as we were made aware,” the district added.  

The district has a policy stating that ““every effort shall be made to encourage and support students suspecting pregnancy to discuss their concerns with their parents or guardians.” The policy does not require staff to tell parents, but it states: “In no case shall personnel commit themselves to maintain such information confidentially, keeping it from parents, guardians, or appropriate school authorities.”

The district told the outlet that district employees do not arrange abortions for FCPS students who are minors. When asked if FCPS employees inform students about abortions and where to get them, the district did not directly answer. 

“Students are referred to the public health nurse for any health-related matters. The public health nurses are Fairfax County Health Department employees,” the district told the outlet. 

Virginia state law requires parental consent and notification before a minor can obtain an abortion. 

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American Academy of Pediatrics DECLARES WAR on parental rights, demands end to vaccine exemptions

As the corrupt empire of mainstream medicine crumbles, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has launched a last-ditch effort to tighten its stranglehold on American families. In a tyrannical move straight from the playbook of medical fascism, the AAP is doubling down on its draconian push to eliminate non-medical vaccine exemptions — effectively stripping parents of their right to refuse toxic injections for their children. Behind the slick veneer of “public health” lies a much darker agenda: forcing compliance, silencing dissent, and consolidating power under the ruthless thumb of Big Pharma-controlled pediatricians.

Key points:

  • The AAP is pushing states to eliminate religious and philosophical exemptions, leaving only narrowly defined (and increasingly denied) medical exemptions for school attendance.
  • Pediatricians are being urged to refuse any cooperation with families seeking non-medical exemptions, effectively turning doctors into enforcers of state-mandated medical tyranny.
  • School immunization rates are dropping as parents wake up to the dangers of vaccines — yet the AAP’s solution isn’t transparency or informed consent, but coercion.
  • Vaccine failures and injuries are surging (measles outbreaks in vaccinated populations, skyrocketing autism rates), yet the AAP continues to peddle lies about vaccine “safety.”
  • Parents must fight back by knowing their rights — resources like the National Vaccine Information Center and Vax Freedom Guide are critical tools in resisting this medical mafia.

Key AAP recommendations include

  • Backing laws requiring immunization certification for child care and school attendance, effectively eliminating religious and philosophical exemptions that parents are increasingly using to avoid having their child poisoned.
  • Supporting equitable vaccine access to maintain in-person schooling through medical homes, public health, and school programs.
  • Permitting only “justified” medical exemptions, regularly re-certified by pediatric providers in line with “Red Book standards.”
  • Eliminating all non-medical exemptions for school attendance and ensuring medical exemptions are “evidence based.”
  • Advising pediatricians to counsel (coerce) families seeking non-medical exemptions but not to endorse such exemptions.
  • Ensuring child care centers and schools comply with state immunization documentation laws uniformly.
  • Urging public health authorities to disclose immunization rates to assess outbreak risks and determine who should be segregated.

The AAP’s war on parental rights

Fueled by Pharma dollars and a pathological disdain for individual freedom, the AAP has openly declared war on parental choice. Their updated policy statement (Pediatrics, 2025) demands that states remove all non-medical exemptions, reducing parents to beggars pleading for rare medical waivers. Worse still, doctors are being instructed to deny families’ requests for exemptions — essentially acting as gatekeepers for state coercion.

Jesse Hackell, AAP’s puppet mouthpiece, had the gall to claim: “We recommend that vaccination is required for participation in certain public activities… If you choose not to vaccinate, you’re essentially choosing to exclude yourself.” Translation: Submit or be exiled. This isn’t “science” — it’s medical apartheid, segregating children whose parents dare question the sacred vaccine dogma.

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Biden Justice Department Sought ‘Federal Hook’ To Go After Parents As ‘Domestic Terrorists’: Documents

The Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden actively sought a “federal hook” to justify sending federal law enforcement after parents it labeled “domestic terrorists” because they were concerned about their children’s education.

Documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL) show that prior to the infamous Oct. 4, 2021, “domestic terrorist” memo from former Attorney General Merrick Garland, staff were looking for any possible way to go after parents concerned with coronavirus mandates, critical race theory, and “transgender” policies.

“We’re aware; the challenge here is finding a federal hook. But WH has been in touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion,” Kevin Chambers, then an associate deputy attorney general, wrote in an Oct. 1 email, trying to manufacture a way to respond to a teed-up letter sent by the National School Boards Association (NSBA).

Career staff at the time were even concerned, saying there was no authority or legal basis for going after parents speaking out at school board meetings, particularly since they were protected by the First Amendment.

AFL said the new tranche of documents allows the organization to “complete the timeline” of how the NSBA and Biden DOJ and White House were colluding in order to go after parents. The legal group’s president, Gene Hamilton, said the emails show a “conspiracy that was ultimately aimed at depriving parents of two fundamental rights — the right to speak, and the right to direct the upbringing of their children.”

“They did so with political intentions, most immediately by attempting to influence the Virginia gubernatorial election, and to more broadly chill dissent across the United States,” he added.

The day after Chambers’ “federal hook” email, Oct. 2, Sparkle Sooknanan — who was then in the associate attorney general’s office and was later appointed by Biden as a judge on the federal district court for the District of Columbia — asked at 8:17 a.m. if anyone in the Civil Rights Division could assist in a response to the NSBA letter.

The Biden administration had already collaborated with the NSBA to produce the NSBA anti-parent letter, but Oct. 2 was a Saturday, and the timing implies that these Biden officials were looking to send their thugs after parents as soon as humanly possible.

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Smoking Gun: Biden White House Colluded with Merrick Garland on Memo Labeling Parents ‘Domestic Terrorists’

America First Legal obtained new documents proving what we knew to be true all along: Merrick Garland’s infamous memo labeling concerned parents at school board meetings “domestic terrorists” was politically orchestrated and driven by the Biden White House.

In October 2021, Mark Levin broadcast a letter with insider information on the teachers union, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and the FBI who met and organized how to combat America’s parents who were speaking out at local school board meetings across the country.

The parents were outraged at the COVID masking and vaccination rules, critical race theory indoctrination and open porn disguised as literature promoted in American schools.

Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland even sent federal agents and a helicopter circling overhead to threaten parents attending the Fairfax County School Board meeting in Virginia.

This was after Garland testified and said he was not sending the feds to threaten American parents who speak out at their local school board meetings.

Merrick Garland labeled the concerned parents “domestic terrorists” in a memo addressing the “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” toward school officials.

Parents showed up to school board meetings to reject the porn and LGBTQ propaganda being forced on their children and Merrick Garland called them terrorists.

America First Legal previously sued to obtain documents related to Merrick Garland’s memo and on Friday it was revealed the Biden White House coordinated with Garland to terrorize concerned parents.

“We’re aware; the challenge here is finding a federal hook. But WH has been in touch about whether we can assist in some form or fashion,” Biden’s Deputy Attorney General aide Kevin Chambers wrote in an October 2021 email.

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