Our greatest national resource is the minds of our children.
—Walt Disney—
Key point: The push for gender identity politics, critical race theory, and cultural Marxism in the classrooms of America’s public schools is real and harmful. Thankfully, a backlash against these is taking place. If you love young people, you will defend them by engaging in this battle and participating in the effort to take back America’s public schools.
Byron “Tanner” Cross, a P.E. teacher at an elementary school in Leesburg in Loudoun County, Virginia, is a hero. As concerned citizen, he exercised his right to speak out against two school board proposals at a May 25 school board meeting. In an article at onenewsnow.com, journalist Jody Brown reported on what Tanner had to say and the events that occurred afterward. Tanner’s entire statement can be seen and read below.
My name is Tanner Cross, and I am speaking out of love for those who suffer with gender dysphoria. 60 Minutes this past Sunday interviewed over 30 young people who transitioned, but they felt led astray because [of] lack of pushback [against] how easy it was to make physical changes to their bodies in just three months. They are now detransitioning.
It’s not my intention to hurt anyone, but there are certain truths that we must face when ready. We condemn school policies like AD40 and AD35 because it will damage children [and] defile the holy image of God.
I love all of my students, but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences. I’m a teacher, but I serve God first – and I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa, because it’s against my religion, it’s lying to a child, it’s abuse to a child and it’s sinning against our God.
School officials did not welcome Tanner’s statements. Within a day or two after he spoke, Cross “was informed that he was being placed on administrative leave.” School officials said his statements were “disruptive.” It is clear he was being punished for opposing the politically correct agenda.
On June 1, the help of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), Cross filled a lawsuit against the Loudoun County School Board and two school board officials for punishing him for publicly speaking out against the proposed policies. ADF Senior Council Ryan Bangert declared,
All citizens have the right in the First Amendment to speak their mind about proposed government policy. We have the right to redress grievances with our government. We have the right to speak freely on issues of public concern. And that’s all Mr. Cross was doing.
Bangert also said,
The school district retaliated against him purely because he exercised his First Amendment right to speak on an issue of public importance that is being hotly contested across the country.
Moreover, noted the ADF attorney, it wasn’t just Tanner’s right to free speech that was violated, but also his right to freedom of religion.
First, the Good News
On Friday, June 4, ADF presented Tanner’s case in court. Outside, “a crowd of more than 200 parents and community members rallied in…support” of Cross.
A few days later, on Tuesday, June 8, James E. Plowman, Judge for the 20th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, issued an order 1) criticizing the school district for suspending Tanner, 2) granting his request for a temporary injunction, and 3) reinstating him to his teaching position. In the seven-page opinion, Plowman wrote,
The court finds that the plaintiff’s speech and religious content are central to the determination made by the defendants to suspend plaintiff’s employment.…The Plaintiff’s request for a temporary injunction against the Defendants is hereby granted. Defendants shall immediately reinstate the Plaintiff to his position as it was prior to the issuance of his suspension and remove the ban that was placed upon him from all buildings and grounds of Loudoun County Public Schools.
The injunction is set to expire at the end of 2021, “unless before the expiration thereof, it be enlarged.” On Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, Mr. Cross rejoiced that he would be able to return to school and teach his students during the final week of school.
The Loudoun County School Board’s treatment of Tanner Cross has fueled public support for him and opened parents’ eyes to the indoctrination of children that is taking place in America’s public schools. It also prompted Lilit Vanetsyan, a teacher in a neighboring Virginia County, to warn the members of the Loudoun County School Board about their overreach and to encourage parents and students to oppose critical race theory (CRT) and related ideologies. Make no mistake. The issue of gender identity, which was the primary issue Tanner Cross talked about, is tied to all the concerns Lilit Vanetsyan raises here.
Parents, the longer that you wait and you don’t hold your child’s schools accountable gives these guys more time to dictate what’s best for your child’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
—Fairfax County, Virginia public school teacher Lilit Vanetsyan, addressing the School Board in neighboring Loudoun County—
Before she was allowed to speak, Lilit was asked whether or not she had a medical exemption from the requirement to wear a mask. That exchange also is worth watching. It can be seen here. What was the Fairfax County teacher saying when her mic was cut off? The writer of one article determined she declared in part, “And your policies are just as pathetic as making us wear masks.…”
Marxism, Socialism, Communism, and the Shaping of Young American Minds
It isn’t just teachers; students, parents, and other concerned citizens also are pushing back against political correctness and Marxist ideologies. One individual is a mom who grew up in Mao’s China. She is seeing the same thing happen in America that happened in the Communist country where she grew up!
I’ve been very alarmed by what’s going on in our schools. You are now teaching, training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history. Growing up in Mao’s China, all this seems very familiar. They are [a] Communist regime use the same critical theory to divide people. The only difference is they use class instead of race.
During the cultural revolution, I witnessed students and teachers turn against each other. We changed school names to be politically correct. We were taught to denounce our heritage. The Red Guards destroyed anything that is not communist: oaths, statues, books, and anything else.
We are also encouraged to report on each other just like the student equity ambassador program and the bias reporting system. This is indeed the American version of the Chinese cultural revolution. Critical Race Theory has its roots in cultural Marxism. It should have no place in our schools.
Watch this impassioned mother give the LCSB a piece of her mind.
We Must Win the Battle for Our Children’s Hearts and Minds
Despite the growing backlash we are witnessing against indoctrinating children, we are foolish if we don’t understand how pervasive Marxist ideologies are, and how determined the left is to continue using the public school system to turn young people against the American way of life by creating and exacerbating tension and strife. Right now, Loudoun County is ground zero, but resistance is spreading. Parents are angry, and they have a right to be. ADF President Michael Farris writes,
Parents don’t want their children taught that they are oppressors if they have the wrong skin color. Teaching little white kids that they are evil because of their race is wicked, just as it was when the worst schools of our past taught little black children that they were intellectually inferior because of their race. Vanishingly few parents want their children immersed in a one-sided racial vendetta seeking to blame seven-year-olds for the acts of some people with their same skin color from past generations. This is racial scapegoating, growing from the same depraved ideology that in times past has conferred guilt and blame on entire people groups based solely on race.
Next time, we will examine the American educational landscape more closely and talk about an organization dedicated to exposing just how far away from their original purpose schools have departed.
Stay tuned. Our discussion will be too important to miss.
Part 2 is available here.
Copyright © 2021 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture has been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
top image credit: Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
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