What is CRT? Guest: Allen Sarvians, Maine Affiliate

Hanna  0:03  
Welcome back to the parents rights and education podcast. We are a grassroots movement of millions of parents and allies standing together, speaking as one to protect children and ensure parents crucial role in their child's education is protected. We come alongside millions of parents and allies and equip them to stand up for their rights by free trainings, membership and community support. You can join this movement for free by visiting parents rights and education.com. And hey, if you love the work that we're doing, please leave us a five star review. Your review helps us get out our message and allows us to keep advocating for parents rights. Thanks so much for being here. Let's get into today's topic. Hey,

Suzanne Gallagher  0:41  
guys. So Grady, we're back and let's start with around the country. We have some updates on legislation for California and North Carolina. So you know, we've been following this bill, this California bill is Senate Bill 596. And it passed in May, and it's now making its way to the State House. So the Senate, you know, passed it. Now let's go into the house. And before getting into too many specifics, let me just clarify something for you. Parents Rights and education does not condone making threats, assaulting or subjecting anybody to disrespectful behavior. This is not how we roll guys. However, parents do have a right to communicate with school officials at any level, whether it's if the local school board or the State Board of Education. So just to bring you up to date, maybe you've forgotten about or you didn't know about this bill before, but it provides that any adult who subjects a school employee to threats or harassment, or makes a credible threat against the employee, or the employee's family, while the employee is away from a school site or after school hours for reasons related to the employee's course of duties is guilty of a misdemeanor. So they're serious about this, aren't they? And in California, and misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $500, nor more than $1,000. So between 500 and $1,000, or by imprisonment to a county jail, not exceeding one year, or by both imprisonment and the fine. Let me read a little bit more from this bill. Harassment means unlawful violence, a credible threat of violence, or a knowing and willful course of conduct directed it is at a specific person, that seriously alarmed a noise or noise, or harasses, torments or terrorizes the person, and that serves no legitimate purpose. That's from the bill. The bill also states, the course of conduct must be that which would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress and must actually cause substantial emotional distress. That's unique to the person. Oh, boy. So who decides what puts a reasonable person in distress? Oh, they don't talk about that. And oh, do these school employees need to show proof of emotional distress? Or can they just claim it? So the bill came out as a result of parents speaking up and getting involved in their child's education. And the state of California is trying to shut them down. The language is vague and left up to the interpretation of school employees themselves. Oh, right. So we're going to depend on the school employees opinion. Now got to thinking about this legislation. Is there any doubt? The California Education Association is behind it? I'd say that's a yes. So moving on. North Carolina. bill banning gender affirming treatments for minors, passed by the legislature and was vetoed by the governor. Okay, so last week. That veto by the governor was overridden by the legislature. So this legislation bars medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty, blocking drugs, and surgical gender transition procedures to anyone under 18. With limited exceptions, the Senate voted 27 to 18 to complete the veto override after the House voted 74 to 45 earlier And not only that, to House Democrats joined all President Republicans in supporting the override bid. Of course, the local LGBTQ rights Plus Advocates vow to take the band to court. We'll see about that. Okay, organizational news and updates. We're going to keep talking about this because we want you to go to the website and check it out. You can now select your affiliate, we need a point of contact in every school district and these folks are called affiliates. First, become a member of Parents Rights in Education by filling out our membership form located under the parents taught menu option. And if you are already a member, make sure to update your membership. With our updated membership form, you can select which affiliate group you would like to join. If there is no affiliate in your school district, consider becoming one. It is simple. All you need to do is fill out the start and affiliate form located under the leadership top menu option. We will contact you with more information. We have another announcement. Oh this is so exciting club 12 by 12. Now you know about club 12 by 12. And you know you should be joining it right. While we're getting ready to ship. This is our very first shipping to all club 12 by 12. Members, we are sending them a lapel pin. It's so cool. features our parent child icon and it states it ends here. Next, you will receive a six inch car sticker put it on your car, it's very cool, non threatening. Let people know that you stand with parents. And lastly, you will receive a 12 inch by 18 inch that's pretty big guys, people will see it. It ends here flag. Now we're not sending you the stick but I know you can find a stick somewhere anyway. So very, very cool. And we will have more of these flags, stickers and pens available in bulk quantities. So just let us know if you're interested. And last but certainly not least, do not forget the events that are coming up. The Great Northwest Awakening on Saturday, October 21 is in Ridgefield, Washington. That's October 21, mark your calendar. Parents Rights and education zoom calls are every other Monday and you need to be on those calls guys because you're gonna get updates from national. And the third item on our events list is parents rights and education, Zoom training calls and I heard this last Saturday it was rockin so they will be every Saturday so mark your calendar for this opportunity coming up next Saturday. So if you want to see more on these events, more details, check out our website at parents rights and education.com scroll to the bottom. It's under Events.

Hanna  8:10  
Hey, parents and allies here at parents rights and education, it requires us to all do our part in protecting our children's education. That's why we created club 12 by 12. For just $12 a month you can sign up to become a club 12 by 12 member and help us continue our work on training and forming and empowering parents and allies to stand up for their rights. Being a club 12 by 12 member gets you access to our exclusive monthly trainings, swag such as hats, T shirts, buttons, a monthly newsletter and more. But most importantly, being a club 12 by 12. Member It means you are doing your part to protect parents rights for one more day. To become a club 12 by 12. Member, visit our website, parents rights and education.com and click club 12 by 12. That's parents rights and education.com click club

Suzanne Gallagher  8:58  
12 by 12. Okie dokie Well, we're going to talk about critical race theory. Now, you know some people might think well I know everything there is to know about critical race theory but you know, you can always learn more because it's so deep. It's so wide. It's so well I guess I could say this to you guys. It's so crazy. Simply put, critical race theory claims discrimination and inequity are woven into all laws. Think about that. And in systems and policies, critical race theory advocates, or believers argue that racism goes beyond individual prejudice and is ingrained component of American society in history. Critical Race Theory or CRT we'll call it CRT from here on arose after legal scholars of color question why majoritarian legal scholar Lawyers insisted that legal decisions policies and practices were based on objectivity or neutrality. Say you're either on one side or the other. You either believe in objectivity or neutrality, or you believe that discrimination and inequity is woven into all laws and policies, CRT believers a specifically acknowledge the legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of second class citizenship on black Americans and other people of color that continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation. There is no discussion with them on this, they are solid on their beliefs, these CRT scholars maintain that race was and is central to every decision made by those in power. So you know, you're not going crazy. It does feel that way, doesn't it? But it actually is, that's what they think it is impossible to make a colorblind decision. That's what they think. They also think that people are not judged as individuals, but by their race. The oppressor race is the white race. And that equals bad people, all whites are bad. The oppressed races are racial minorities. And they're the good people and collective guilt is white guilt. The only people who should be feel guilty, they believe are white people. Christopher Ruffo, such a well respected and highly known journalist has created a definition, the anti CRT definition. And this is how he sums it up. Critical Race Theory teaches that the United States is a fundamentally racist nation and divides Americans into oppressor and oppressed based on their skin color. And that, my friends, is identity based Marxism. You know, this is really simple. When you break it down like this. It's very straightforward. Now, some key terms to watch out for in curriculum in the classroom are whiteness, white privilege, white fragility, oppressor, oppressed. Intersectionality systemic racism, spirit murder, equity, anti racism, collective guilt, affinity groups, and the last is a manipulation of their acronym. They refer to CRT as culturally responsive teaching. Isn't that clever? Okay. I am being sarcastic. And I'll admit it, okay. All righty. So Ruffo is research on the implementation of CRT will be in the show notes. There's, there's a link to it, but he has, he has studied this at length, and he states that students rank themselves in the classroom. And this is true, we've heard about it. According to their power and privilege. It's an exercise that is done in the classroom. This is also called the oppression matrix. So not only are our children taught something, but they're asked to identify where they are on this matrix. And each attribute on the matrix features and oppressor oppressed relationship. These attributes are as follows. race, gender, sexual identity, religion. And by the way, in case you haven't figured it out yet, straight white Christian males, for example, are viewed as the most oppressive group or identity. Now this sounds like you know, science fiction I can almost hear you know, Nan on and on and on, you know, this can this be this is what they're teaching our kids. So just this past February, there was a situation in Florida where a sixth grade teacher had the white students in his class, bow down, canned feed, and fan, you know, with a fan, the black students in his class for a Black History Month, exercise or skid. Now while students are not forced to participate, no child should be put into that situation. I don't care what race they are that way. is inappropriate and wrong. So, guys, we want to hear about any stories like this, that are related to these kinds of classroom exercises or anything that's going on in your school district. For example, we've heard about other get togethers that have been created, just excluding all white kids, you know, just for the blacks and minorities, which is also not good. I thought we were about inclusion and people getting along and everybody being equal, but that is not what CRT is about. Upload your stories, upload your videos, upload your articles, upload, you know, JPEGs and PDFs, of, you know, promotional items, you know, that you'll see coming, you know, through the school system. We want to publish those so you can go and upload those all on our website. And we appreciate that very much people need to know what is happening. Our guest today, when we come back, is Maine state affiliate leader, Ellen, sir Venus is going to be joining me to discuss his experience working with parents rights in education.

Hanna  16:16  
Hey parents, do you want to testify at your school board but aren't sure where to begin? Or do you want to run for your school board and need tips for how to win, we created a free training center for you learn how to effectively testify at your school board and how to win your school board election through our free courses available for you. In our courses, we provide step by step video instructions along with the quiz to make sure you really grasp the information. Some of the video instructions include how to testify at your school board in person, and virtually how to prepare your testimony and tips for recording your testimony and sharing it and more in our course that teaches you how to win your school board election. We have video instructions for things like creating your campaign plan, managing a team, budgeting, how to debate effectively and more. You are making an impact on your child's education. And we are here to support you join for free today by visiting parents rights and education.com/login. That's parents rights and education.com/login. Hey, Ellen,

Allen Sarvinas  17:15  
how's it going? Good. Suzanne

yourself.

Suzanne Gallagher  17:17  
Great. Great. Well, I'm so glad you were able to carve out some time today to be with us. This is awesome. Please remind me, how long have you been with us? Is that about two years?

Allen Sarvinas  17:29  
Yep. I think we're gonna go over two years here.

Suzanne Gallagher  17:31  
Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Well, you're one of our top top guys. And I love the fact that, you know, we our organization is very inclusive, we love the boys just as much as the girls. And, and we appreciate all of our leaders. So tell us what's been going on in in the state of Maine,

Allen Sarvinas  17:57  
or the state of Maine has had a majority that's decided that wants to be the mother to Oregon, Washington, California, which apparently based on an ideological push for what they deem is the best way, whether it has out whether it has outcomes that result in a standard of living that we're used to or not, they have blinders on and are forcing me down that down that track. And then and then there is a lot of people that see the issue with it. But most either either don't understand or intimidated and just have a lack of confidence and in what they what they perceive as wrong.

Suzanne Gallagher  18:38  
Okay, so are you talking about the voters in general or community? Yep, the general population, then

Allen Sarvinas  18:45  
there's a reason they use these polarized topics such as transgender because they know, they know the norm, the common resident and citizen who's who works every day doesn't really keep up with politics isn't going to jump on board and come out in the public and start talking about transgender, this and transgender that it's just not going to happen. And why do they do that they pass bills on, you know, that, like LD 535 that allows 16 year olds to begin medical care without parental consent. And in that bill, they have laid out a path for informed consent for 16 year olds and above that, that's what I get most out of that bill. Obviously. They're allowing 16 year olds to make decisions that can mutilate themselves for their entire lives. But really, where I see growth in that bill, in terms of Big Pharma and other other reaches is providing informed consent a path for informed consent for minors. And based on how they operated in the past, they started 16 And they go down to 14 I think I think it's 14 and in an Oregon I think it's 14

Suzanne Gallagher  19:57  
Well in California too. And now These are these are decisions that minors are making without parents knowledge or consent for medical treatments, and it includes does it include the mental health in the state of Maine?

Allen Sarvinas  20:17  
Yes. But at this point, any any minor may request any type of mental health support without parental consent?

Suzanne Gallagher  20:25  
So now, is this bill fully into law? Was it? Was it signed by the governor? Yes.

Allen Sarvinas  20:31  
LD 535. That was the there wasn't much support on public record for this bill, or many of the extreme bills they passed, 90, you know, over 85% of the public comment, or public engagement was negative. But at this point, like I said, it's purely ideological. So they, you know, they ignore everything and just march down there, what they want to do,

Suzanne Gallagher  20:53  
right, so I have to laugh to myself, because the mantra coming from the other side for so many years was always Well, are you going to reach across the aisle? And you know, everything that they expect us to do there? They're certainly not going to do themselves. So I, but do you? I don't know if you see this, Allen. It was it was it right down party lines that in? We're not, you know, politically affiliated to any any organization. But, but this is political. The discussion is political. Because because we're voting on it in our state legislatures, correct? Yes. Yeah. And and so was Did anybody in your legislature, you know, break like, like they did in South Carolina? Did anybody break away and vote with the conservative viewpoint?

Allen Sarvinas  21:53  
There is, there was actually it was the other way, there was one Republican, one Republican who has some libertarian leanings that provided consent, and he did have an impact on getting more details in the bill about informed consent. He helped make the bill a little more explicit. So it didn't get outrageous, so fast. I guess I'll put it that way. Oh, he did have logic to what he was thinking. But at the same time, we know that this is the only starting point. And this is the seed to get in the door. And they'll promote every 16 year old that does it, they'll promote it to make it seem like it's common when it's not common. And they'll you know, they'll they'll jump right on the social social bandwagon social contagion, social media stuff to make it more.

Suzanne Gallagher  22:46  
So you know, I guess, what would you say to other people who are looking at Parents Rights in Education, as far as a helpful grassroots support group for what they're doing? What are some of the benefits that that you've?

Allen Sarvinas  23:04  
So we're talking at the state level right now, it's pretty. I'm not gonna say useless, but it's hard. They've made it this way on purpose. So our focus has been mainly networking in the district level, engaging on a big level, and in not allowing the rhetoric to be so shallow and producing real solutions. And when you produce a real solution, that when the when is avoided, that starts bringing in people to to see that they're not actually looking for compromise. They're not actually looking for balance or solutions. They're just ramming down on the agenda.

Suzanne Gallagher  23:38  
Okay. Okay. And so, have you done quite a bit of testimony at your local school board over the past couple years? Yeah, I know your wife is involved as well, we've

Allen Sarvinas  23:48  
we've been intimately involved with our local district for four or five years now. A local policy that's making has made its rounds in Maine, it's called ACA. It's the transgender and gender experiences policy. And we we've provided pressure for the last few months, mainly on the parents rights of parents notification. Good and what what they've done with this local bill that we're talking to many people around the state now locally about this, that the state of Maine, there's a law that allows school counselors and school social workers to have privileged communications or keep secrets with kids. But it's on the education chapter and it explicitly says school counselors and social workers. Now that's opposed by many itself. But what they're doing with this local policy is expanding that law to everybody. The teachers to coaches, oh my gosh, oh, hey, we got this. Because in the beginning, when we first read it, I say, Well, what do you can't not ever do? You can't just have everybody keeping secrets that they want. Right? In since we've, you know, we've kept the pressure on we've tried to go to other districts and they actually had, we just received feedback from our board attorneys. And this board attorneys flagged this in the policy saying, you can't just leave parent notification on unchecked. Though it was a big win on our on our end. We're trying to be making a call for people to rally for parents, right? Because it's at minimum they need they absolutely need to roll in the attorneys Brandon's Isaacson's legal memo the language they offer. Yep. And reality we want. We want parents rights as a fundamental right to do when the day which is absent, which is they have mandatory reporters. If there's an instance where you don't believe that child is safe, going home, telling his parents the truth, but telling them parents anything, then call CPS and let the process and let due process in all these mechanisms we've put in place over the years work. What they're doing now is just keeping it to themselves. It's becoming a game. We know multiple kids who go back and forth. We have other other girls who won't use bathrooms now, and it's becoming this mess because they're doing it. It's almost it's almost not a serious at this point. Why do people run for school boards, they get the messaging from nonprofits, they roll it in, but what they don't understand is that they're violating the law. And parents rights are fundamental, fundamental rights. Absolutely. They're not ordinary, they're not ordinary, they need to be respected. And they rely on parents not having the money for lawsuits. Yep. But as we saw last week, they just had a correspondence from this law firm we retained. So you know, they we put them on notice saying, Look, these are fundamental rights, we're gonna we're gonna fight it tooth and nail, oh, good, no matter what, because this is the this is the slope, we're going down that parent's rights are going to become ordinary than then at that point, that they'll be able to make pretty much any decision as if they do with, you know, gas, right? We all need gas, but they regulate gas. That's an ordinary right, we have right to consumerism, but they can regulate all the products. That's not a fundamental right, a fundamental right, is they have very limited ability to to have any influence. And if they do, it has to be very explicit. And there's, you know, the legal language you can read, but it has to be very explicit for one little thing, they absolutely cannot allow to use this local policy to expand the law.

Suzanne Gallagher  27:27  
Okay, so I'm sorry, I think I missed this document that you're talking about, is this legislation? Or what? Is it a policy, a school board policy that you're trying to help pass the locally or what is it

Allen Sarvinas  27:45  
so at the state, the, at the state level, they have not? In Maine, they have centralized, basically local control into quasi state government entities like MSMA, MSBA, this the main school board, main school management, they provide sample policies, then the school boards, for the most part, just blindly accept them as good. So this is one of these, this is one of these policies is called transgender and transgender and gender expansive students. Okay, now, and so inside this policy is where they open up teachers and everyone to have privileged communications with students.

Suzanne Gallagher  28:28  
Okay, I get it. Okay. So this is actually, in my opinion, Alan, you've got a huge opportunity here. Because because we do want school boards to take to take responsibility for creating policies, not one like this, of course, but but the parents in every single school district in the state of Maine should be going to their school boards and saying, No way, Jose. So I would like to encourage our listeners. And this will be also be part of an email that we have going out, coming up in a couple of days. We want to put them in touch with your school board, and email all of the school board members and tell them what they think that they should do with this policy. What do you think of

Allen Sarvinas  29:20  
that? That sounds great. That's that's absolutely what people should do. And every headway we make in this district, we're going to take to every single district with this policy, violating the law and they're violating these these periods. Right.

Suzanne Gallagher  29:33  
Exactly. And, and guys, you know, I mean, Maine Parents and Citizens have a huge opportunity here, because what we're talking about is a school district policy that the board has control of. So we you know, let's start making a list here, Alan, of those school boards and who is passing this and who voted how what One of those board members voted in favor, and which ones voted against? Because this is, you know, call it a litmus test if you like, but I mean, this is how we operate in this in this country. And we'll have a nice little list there too, with email addresses. Okay, Alan, I think this is going to be fun

Allen Sarvinas  30:19  
is, you know, no, not word of fun. We're talking serious right now policy. But look, we go out and we come out. We have fun and we love to promote parents rights. It's not this down and everybody's in a bad mood, don't know, we're having fun. We and we know how to compartmentalize that we're not looking to demean people, but we want to perm, prioritize parents rights and get back within law, which will then empower parents to get involved. Exactly. If you under if you undermine parents, right, then they're not going to get involved in the teachers are going to complain. And it's this, this this thick cycle. So when you come out, have fun with it. We have banners for now we have, we have a bunch of props that that can make it fun, and then let the school board know that you know they're gonna have, they're not going to have a fun time being school board members, as long as that policy exists.

Suzanne Gallagher  31:13  
Fun. And hey, let's get some flags out there to Maine to so you can be waving those flags before you get into that go into that meeting. I do want some of those flags. Yeah, let's get those flags in their hands. Because there's, you know what the flag says, to stop messing with our kids. It ends here. Yeah, yep. Way to go. Alan, I'm so proud of you. I didn't know this was happening. This is wonder.

Allen Sarvinas  31:39  
Forget the last the end of last week after, after two or three months of, you know, hard local lobbying, advocating this last couple days is when it broke. And I think we're gonna have some local coverage, hopefully up here of it. And I'm making some calls and we're gonna we're gonna get this done.

Suzanne Gallagher  31:56  
Cool. Awesome. Thank you so much, and thanks for being involved. This is this is one of my greatest pleasures, is talking with our leaders, our affiliates all over the country. They are the heart and soul of the United States. Thanks for being on today. Alan.

Allen Sarvinas  32:15  
Thank you, and see you soon.

Hanna  32:17  
Bye bye. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Keep up with everything we're doing. Check out our website, parents rights in education.com and sign up for our newsletter. You can also join our movement for free by visiting our website parents rights in education.com. To do your part in protecting parents rights, you can become a club 12 by 12 member by donating $12 a month. It takes all of us to make the change that we want to see. Thanks so much for listening. Talk soon.