Back to School Checklist

Before you send your children back into the classroom, make sure you listen to our  Back to School Checklist episode. 

We want you to be equipped as parents to face current school policies that may be encroaching upon your parental rights.

Transcript

Karen England (00:03):

Hi, welcome to kitchen table activist. I'm Karen England. And I'm your host. We believe that everybody can make a difference at the state local and federal government right from their kitchen table. And so we aim to equip you and empower you to get you to go out and engage. And so we weekly, we're doing a podcast so that you can go out and make a difference in your community. Having, having said that we are starting off with a whole series that are gonna be several within a few weeks. And that is so that you can be armed with, with kind of like a toolkit with the basics of being involved, whether it's how bill becomes a law or what's a school board meeting or the 10 commandments of effective advocacy. So we're gonna have a toolbox and then we will be going to once a week in order to kind of walk you through the progress.

Karen England (00:54):

So by the end of the year, you will be a kitchen table activist. So today we're gonna talk about back to school. You know, we just finished a three day weekend, Martin Luther king day. We all just celebrated and it it's time to kind of refocus and see what's going on with, with education and what's going on with our kids in school. And so our organization capital resource Institute has put together a back to school checklist, which we do every year. And this back to school checklist is actually one that we send out in the fall. And then we do it again in January. And so this is the time to go back and look at those things that you've signed, the flurry of papers that come home. Then you might get something home midweek and say, oh, you've gotta, you've gotta do it by tomorrow.

Karen England (01:41):

You know, it's okay to take your time and, and not sign it by tomorrow. So originally, or initially I would say, read everything, sign nothing. And that's how you should start. And I recommend reading it, sleeping on it and going back to it to find out if there there's anything that just isn't sitting right with you, you know, you are the parent trust your gut on these things. So let me start with this back to school checklist, find out what they're teaching about sexual education, many states this past year, mandated sex education in schools. I, I know in Tennessee, a lot of red states and if they haven't done it yet, the progressives are trying really, really hard to get it in every school. And they're gonna be trying even even harder because of the Hobbs case. And they're really panicked at the issue O of the life issue. And so they wanna get indoctrinate our kids as early as they can find out if the school district requires teachers to attend equity or diversity training, you know, you can go on their website, read through the website and, and find out what's going on at the school district, go through old board board meetings. You need to find out what

Karen England (02:58):

Your rights are regarding opting students out of controversial subjects social, emotional learning, sex, ed, gender identity, and fluidity, critical race theory, or the concepts because critical race theory is just teaching through the lens of critical race theory. And so it's not like you're gonna have a book that says we're teaching critical race theory. There are words and different things you're gonna need to look for, which I will cover in a later podcast. This is important. And in the news, just the last two weeks, learn what clubs are active on your child's school campus. This one's important. I don't know if you've seen, but it was either Illinois, Michigan, or Minnesota that has a Satan Satanist club for elementary school. And then we've got down in LA. We have a rainbow club, which is a gay pride club for elementary schools and most school districts do not notify parents before the kids join the club.

Karen England (04:01):

Now, the satis club is interesting because they wanted notices sent home because, you know, they, they wanted kind of they wanted the school and the parents in the community to know they were there and that they were having a satis club. And I know what you're thinking about, well, how can we do this? Let's outlaw. I'm not an attorney. Just play one at work. But if your school district allows clubs, they cannot discriminate on religion. And that would go for fellowship of Christian athletes. And it would go for a SATs club. So it is legal sadly. That's what our countries come to. So find out, and this is something where you can go in and you can change the policy at the local school district level. You can say, Hey, be we want a policy that says before our kids can join a club, we want parental notification and consent.

Karen England (04:51):

There's nothing wrong with that. If a, if a parent doesn't want their child to be in fellowship or Christian athletes, then that is the parent's choice. You know, this works both ways. That way our kids don't end up like many kids in the rainbow club being indoctrinated in elementary school. Both of these were in elementary schools, mind you, oh, this is a good one. Especially for middle school and high school. Find out if your school has a student newspaper, you need to subscribe to it. You need to get your hands on it. There are often announcements, op-eds advertisements in the student newspaper on the controversial subjects. So a big thing is to have students lead. And so they're, they're forming progressive clubs. They're writing in the newspaper, they're doing commentaries. You know, I I've, I've seen everything from advertisements for planned parenthood in the student, led newspaper in the school will get away with it by saying, Hey, that's journalism.

Karen England (05:49):

That's student led. It's not the school doing it, but that's a great way to find out what's going on. You find out there was an op-ed about that has some really graphic hypothetical stories, a about sex and, and about rape. And so it's really, really important that you get your hands on that newspaper. So subscribe to that, that goes hand in hand with find out if the school has a student club for progressive activism and you need to get on their email list increasingly in red states and blue, but red states, they are coming in at the local level and getting our junior high and high schoolers to join the students for change or students for black lives or the rainbow club, whatever they call it. They're getting our kids involved in this. And these kids are being indoctrinated. They're, they're joining and, and they're becoming a little mini soldier, activists often AC advocating for things that we don't believe, find out if the school, what the school's policy is on restrooms, locker rooms, overnight trips, especially when it comes to gender identity.

Karen England (07:04):

Do they allow a biological male who believes he's a female to use the female's restroom? You need to be very specific when you find out about that policy, you know, in Tennessee first day of school boy, in the girls' bathroom, in the middle school now in Tennessee, that's actually I guess the law they have to pro provide them a private accommodation in California. It actually, the law is that you need to let them go in. And if the, the, the student that is not transgender wants privacy, they have to assert and go get a, a private accommodation. So it's a little bit backwards, but it doesn't matter if you're in a red or a blue state, you need to find out Nevada's another state that's allowing it. And so you need to find out, find out if your child can be released for confidential medical services.

Karen England (07:55):

And this is our last one. So if you live in a state, California, Nevada, where minors through case law or something else have the right, and, and this is a right, that's been giving, like I said, through case law to have confidential medical services without the parents knowing I E abortion birth control. Now, it's, it's moving into gender transformation, gender affirming, drugs, that kind of thing. You need to make sure that they are not releasing them in the school day to access those confidential medical services. The progressives have convinced school districts, that it means they have this right. And they get to exercise the right anytime they want. And that just isn't the case. And even in California, where they say, it's the case, it is not a school district may allow them to leave. And they also may not. So even though you're a closed campus in California, they're

Karen England (08:54):

Probably letting you leave for confidential medical services. So this is our back to school checklist. Hopefully it, it was helpful for parents, grandparents. And I just wanna encourage you to get engaged. I hope this podcast educated you, I hope you're a bit more empowered and I just wanna encourage you to be bold. Who knows? Maybe you've been called for such a time as this.