“A Moms for Liberty chapter in Tennessee questioned whether a textbook that included a photograph of two sea horses mating was too risque for elementary schools. Members in Suffolk County, N.Y., have begun describing school mask policies as “segregation,” urging their children to rip off their masks in classrooms in protest.
“And in Indian River County, Fla., a chapter recently objected to fourth-graders being taught how to spell 'spinal tap,' 'isolation' and 'quarantine' because they were too 'scary of words' to teach at that grade level, said Jennifer Pippin, head of the Indian River chapter.”
(Tim Craig. “Moms for Liberty has turned ‘parental rights’ into a rallying cry for conservative parents.” The Washington Post. October 15, 2021.)
In order to understand Moms for Liberty, one must understand the very concept of their mission as it applies to Constitutional rights. They claim they fight for liberty; however, I believe they see that concept in a very limited light. I write this entry today to serve as an evaluation of the group's mission and as a warning that restricting the knowledge of youth serves to perpetuate ignorance.
The term “liberty” appears in the due process clauses of both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. As used in Constitution, liberty means freedom from arbitrary and unreasonable restraint upon an individual. Freedom from restraint refers to more than just physical restraint, but also the freedom act according to one's own will.
Perhaps the most practical explanation of liberty involves the exercise of fundamental rights – fundamental rights under the Constitution include the right to free speech, the right to vote, the right to free association, and the right to be free from restraints on travel.
The due process clause of the Fifth Amendment might not come into play until a person has been deprived of it. A deprivation of liberty essentially includes two things.
* First, a person is denied a freedom granted him, either in the Constitution or in some other law.
* Secondly, a person is deprived of his liberty when he or she loses freedom of action, where the loss is significant in nature.
Under these two considerations of deprivation, it is not difficult for anyone to make an argument that a deprivation occurred. Nonetheless, the procedures required by law are not required until such a deprivation happens.
(Brendan Bukalski. “What liberty means according to the Constitution.” https://www.theintelligencer.com/commentary/article/What-liberty-means-according-to-the-Constitution-10767066.php. The Intelligencer. November 22, 2016.)
Common law and case law in the United States uphold both the general authority of state governments to educate future citizens and the specific right of parents to direct their own children’s education. This balance now seems to be precarious as groups like Mothers for Liberty gain popularity.
Liberty for both parents and schools? Deprivation of their freedoms? The “liberty” works both ways and requires parental involvement but also teachers' freedoms. I fear Moms for Liberty seeks complete control of the educational process in public schools through interpretative and political restrictions. This manipulation, in itself, is a denial of certain widely accepted liberties educators employ to instruct their students – lessons or even discussions of inclusion and equality relating to issues like race, sexual orientation, gender status, and multiple views of any subject.
A public school education should not attempt to “standardize” children with a stripped-down, white, conservative, homophobic curriculum. I believe one must look beyond the stated ideals of Moms for Liberty to understand fully their motivations and their true mission.
Who They Say They Are
The Moms for Liberty website, https://www.momsforliberty.org/, states …
“We are Moms, Dads, Grands, Aunts, Uncles, and Friends. Moms for Liberty welcomes all that have a desire to stand up for parental rights at all levels of government. Our founders are Tiffany and Tina, moms on a mission to stoke the fires of liberty. As former school board members, they witnessed how short-sighted and destructive policies directly hurt children and families. Now they are using their first-hand knowledge and experience to unite parents who are ready to fight those that stand in the way of liberty.”
The mission statement for the group is …
“Moms for Liberty is dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”
Moms for Liberty uses this John Adams quote to promote their cause: “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.”
Interestingly enough, John Adams also stated …
"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives."
I find this quote fuel for freedom – freedom of thought and the need for understanding a diversity of ideas, interests, and concerns. When a school restricts “principles of freedom” to a singular broad and conservative interpretation, it hinders both thought and action.
Adams’s original draft of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1778 included a paragraph on education which he expected would not survive the ratification process. He believed it would be found too radical. McCullough describes it as “a paragraph on education that was without precedent.”
The paragraph:
“Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties. And as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates in all future periods of this commonwealth to cherish the interests and literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them … public schools, and grammar schools in the towns.”
Adams believed that wisdom, knowledge, and virtue are all educational aspirations for the good of society. He speaks of the necessary “duty of legislators and magistrates” in the future to insure that the interests of all be protected.
(Darrow Miller. “John Adams on Education.” https://darrowmillerandfriends.com/2018/01/22/john-adams-education/. January 22, 2018.)
Groups like Moms for Liberty do not seek to “accelerate industry and activity” other than action toward their own views.
For example, this summer Florida state legislators unanimously voted to place new emphasis on civic education literacy and a type of education called Action Civics.
Action civics is a youth-centered, standards-aligned curriculum that asks students to think about what they value and teaches them how to act on those values. Rather than being assigned a topic to act on, students learn to consider what issues their communities, towns, cities, states, or country face, determine what options allow their voice to be heard, and imagine possible solutions.
(Anthony L. Ives. “Action Civics Should be Celebrated, Not Banned.” The Constitutionalist. https://theconstitutionalist.org/2021/07/26/action-civics-should-be-celebrated-not-banned/. July 26, 2021.)
Action civics has recently become part of the broader anti-CRT (Critical Race Theory) controversy sweeping the nation, however, and Republican Governor DeSantis vetoed the bill because he argued that focusing on civic education could provide a vector for CRT to reenter public schools in the state.
This concern has been promoted nationwide to the extent that the anti-CRT bill in Texas (HB 3979) has aimed to ban this form of pedagogy. The ideological movement misrepresents the value and character of action civics, which is deeply American and nonpartisan method for promoting good citizenship. The argument that action civics is a “trojan horse” whereby left-wing ideology can be covertly placed on school curriculums is ridiculous.
“So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless.”
– Ray Bradbury, Fahrenhsit 451 (Temperature of a burning book)
Moms History
Moms for Liberty was incorporated January 1, 2021. It has grown rapidly and now claims 70,000 members across 165 chapters in 33 states.
A trio of current and former Florida school board members founded Moms for Liberty. They are: former Brevard County School Board member Tina Descovich, former Indian River County School Board member Tiffany Justice and Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler. Moms for Liberty leaders say their group is nonpartisan, but grounded in “conservative values.”
All three of the founders are registered Republicans and the group has ties to Republican leaders in Florida. Ziegler’s husband is the vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida and Rogerson was paid to do campaign work for Republican state Rep. Randy Fine, whose campaign has donated to Moms for Liberty. Other Republican leaders also have donated to the group.
(Zac Anderson. “What is Moms for Liberty? Here's a look at its roots, its philosophy and its mission.” https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/moms-liberty-heres-look-roots-114024557.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall. December 10, 2021.)
Last Word
Moms for Liberty members also lobbied lawmakers in states including South Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, New York and Ohio. The group says it plans to hire a series of paid state coordinators, who will organize local chapters into a more cohesive political force and engage with legislators, as well as a Hispanic outreach expert.
Teachers’ unions, school board organizations and Democrats say the movement promotes disruptive public behavior, anti-gay and trans ideologies, and book bans.
The National Education Association, a top teacher’s union, calls the group “dangerous.”
Democratic Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith said the group preyed on unsubstantiated fears of teachers “grooming” young children for sexual abuse and promoted conspiracy theories that were once only on the party’s fringe.
“Every single day, I am bombarded by baseless accusations of pedophilia by Moms of Liberty-type advocates that say I need to stay away from children,” said Smith, who is gay. “It’s unhinged.”
I ask you to consider all aspects of Moms for Liberty, not just their seemingly principled drive to insure parental say-so in public education, but also their blatantly discriminatory stances on censoring LGBTQ+ information and literature about racial minorities. These are the same old WASPy tactics of White fragility that have been used for centuries. Under the guise of social indoctrination by schools, Moms for Liberty is stirring up a nationalist fervor for control – nothing “liberating” is the result.
“If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.”
– Ray Bradbury, Fahrenhsit 451
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