Submitted by Amber Falgout

Thomas Jefferson is often credited with the idea that an educated citizenry is necessary for our survival as a free people. Building on this idea, an educated citizenry is also essential for our democracy and for America to compete globally with other nations. From these ideas, our nation’s public education system was born.

Since the beginning, religious conservatives have usurped the public education system in their attempt to establish the U.S. as a Christian nation. Several cases have been brought to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight these actions, including The Scopes Trial (evolution vs. creationism) and Stone v. Graham (the Ten Commandments in schools violate the First Amendment Establishment Clause).

Now, we are seeing “parental rights groups” like Turning Point USA Mom’s Coalition in Northern Nevada, taking up this anti-American crusade of imposing their religious morality on our education system at the expense of children. We hear hostile and combative parents yelling at school and library board members and demanding books by LGBTQ+ authors be removed from the shelves. This played out with Drag Queen story hour at Washoe County libraries. The consistent protests from right-wing activists have led to libraries canceling these events.

Parental rights groups fight against age-appropriate sex education, which teaches kids how to have healthy relationships, make informed decisions, and accept themselves and others for who they are. They fight against this education despite the option to opt out, which is designed for parents who believe their children should not learn this information in our public school system. Age-appropriate sex education has been proven to reduce teen pregnancies and reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

These groups argue against teaching history from the point of view of minorities in this country because it will make their children feel bad about themselves. Again, they silence voices and isolate children from the effects of the colonization of this country, genocide of Indigenous people, and enslavement of black people.

Most sadly, these parents and right-wing protestors say they are standing up for their children. However, they ignore the thousands of children who they harm daily with their hate and vitriol. According to PFLAG, Nationwide, nine out of 10 LGBTQ+ youth experience bullying and mistreatment in schools.

Making LGBTQ+ youth political targets only increases their mistreatment. Studies show that LGBTQ+ youth already experience higher anxiety and depression rates than their peers. However, for these parents, LGBTQ+ children don’t count. Instead of encouraging safe schools for all students, parental rights groups are spreading disinformation and hate about history, gender and sex. Right-wing bad actors have inserted themselves on our local library boards in Washoe County to further their harmful agendas of demonizing LGBTQ+ authors and narratives.

As a mother of a child in the northern Nevada public school system, I have seen the harm inflicted by attacks on LGBTQ+ youth. My oldest child has gone to school in both Washoe and Lyon Counties. She has witnessed the repeated bullying and mistreatment of her classmates and herself as political tensions grow. The more we focus on culture wars, the more our children suffer. All students should be accepted regardless of their race, class, or sexual orientation status. We must strive to reduce the harmful narratives that are impacting students and get back to focusing on ways to improve our students’ education.

From right-wing protestors spreading harmful rhetoric about our libraries to parental rights groups seeking to undermine our children’s education in Washoe County, these bad actors are increasing the harm to our students. As we prepare to head to the polls in the general election, it is important to remember that we need to vote in our best interests.

Northern Nevadans should look carefully at candidates running for the Washoe County School Board and Nevada Board of Education. These local elections significantly impact our daily lives and our children’s daily lives. Let’s vote against bullying and extremism, so our kids can have a place to thrive in our public education system.

Amber was born and raised in Reno. She has three children, ranging in age from 16 years old to 10 months old. Amber is working on her MSW degree at UNR.

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