Parents’ Rights Are On The Virginia Ballot. Again.

by Kerry Dougherty

Good news. Virginia’s Democrats have taken the bait.

So far at least four liberal school districts in the commonwealth have declared that they will defy Virginia’s Department of Education model policies on parental rights that were unveiled late last week.

You know, policies that contain “radical” ideas such as these:

“Parents have the right to make decisions with respect to their children”

“Schools shall respect parental values and beliefs.”

Oh, and here’s the new definition of “transgendered”:

The phrase “transgender student” shall mean a public school student whose parent has requested in writing, due to their child’s persistent and sincere belief that his or her gender differs with his or her sex, that their child be so identified while at school.

This means that students who present themselves as a gender other than the sex they were given at birth without their parents’ permission will not be allowed to change their identities in school.

Under the new policies, school officials will no longer be able to keep secrets from parents.

Normal people believe that’s a good thing, by the way.

Schools should not be teaching children to keep secrets from their parents. It undermines the parent-child relationship.

Children do not belong to the state, they belong to their parents.

Feminists should stand up and cheer the new policy. After all, these new regs protect girls who — until the last governor’s administration — had enjoyed an absolute right to privacy in areas of public schools where they routinely disrobe. As it stands in some districts now, any boy who claims to be transitioning can use the girls’ lavatories and locker rooms.

Biological girls have rights, too.

The Democrat strongholds of Arlington, Falls Church, Alexandria and Richmond have signaled that they plan to continue their anti-family policies that keep parents in the dark about their child’s behavior in school.

Presumably, in those defiant districts, boys who say they identify as female will be allowed to invade areas traditionally reserved for girls and teachers will be compelled to conceal their behavior from parents.

It remains to be seen if these school districts will also continue to cover up sexual assaults on school property if those crimes are committed by boys dressing as girls.

I can’t wait for Virginia Democrat Reps. Elaine Luria and Abigail Spanberger to campaign against parents’ rights.

It is not a winning issue, as we learned last November

Admit it, Governor Glenn Youngkin may be new to politics, but he’s showing himself to be a political genius.

This column has been republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.


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Comments

40 responses to “Parents’ Rights Are On The Virginia Ballot. Again.”

  1. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    “Me too! Me too!,” cried Karen.

  2. DJRippert Avatar

    “So far at least four liberal school districts in the commonwealth have declared that they will defy Virginia’s Department of Education model policies on parental rights that were unveiled late last week.”

    The model policies are instantiations of Virginia law. Parental rights are clearly laid out in the code. The clowns who have decided that the law doesn’t apply to them should be at least removed from office or, at best, handcuffed and perp walked out of their school board meeting or school. White collar crime is crime. People who fail to obey tax laws go to jail. Why should it be any different for some jackass politician on a school board?

    1. James McCarthy Avatar
      James McCarthy

      Virtually every county in VA in declaring that they are Second Amendment sanctuaries stated they would not enforce state firearm control laws. When is defiance of the rule of law acceptable?

      1. DJRippert Avatar

        That is wrong too. Either we are a state / nation of laws or we are not. I don’t want to pay taxes for a lot of things government does but I do pay all my taxes. Why? Because that’s the law. The way to protest is not to refuse to obey the law but to elect politicians who will enact the laws you like.

  3. Is there any space for nuance?

    Human development research has long shown the importance of “other significant adults” in children’s lives as they mature. Those high school students are quickly moving toward having the developmental task of separating from their families of origin. By undermining their trust in teachers, we are undermining their developmental progress. The needs of a 17 year old are different from those of a 6 year old.

    If you ask people who, other than their parents, influenced their lives, many will name teachers. The current campaign seems to push for removing teacher influence. No wonder we have so many discipline problems in schools! Kids don’t view parents and teachers as working together, but instead hear that they should no longer fully trust teachers. I suspect that any teacher who’s been around a while has faced the student who when asked to do something replies “You aren’t my parent. You can’t tell me what to do.” This had become an issue long before the current push to protect “parental rights.”

    The more we find ways to devalue teachers in the eyes of students, the harder it will be for teachers to teach. The current culture war is harming us in more ways than I can count. Somehow we’ve got to find middle ground – and the needs of children should be our focus instead of rights of either parents or teachers.

    1. vicnicholls Avatar
      vicnicholls

      Oh please. There is no middle ground: parents’ kids are their own. To say teachers’ can’t teach because of this is completely illogical. For generations, hundreds and thousands of years, this has been true. The scoring tests shows the truth of this.

      1. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        Thousands even hundreds of years ago, children were deemed little more than chattel in feudal and agrarian societies. Public education is legally required to foster development of capable citizens. That requirement encompasses treating children as humans with innate rights for the pursuit of maturity.

  4. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    How about students’ rights? Not all parents react positively when they find out their child might be gay? Or, is this all to fuel Youngkin’s political career?

    1. vicnicholls Avatar
      vicnicholls

      Under 18 you don’t have them. Remember those studies saying kids brains didn’t mature until middle 20’s? They did before the childish coddling generations did. For loads of generations well adjusted adults grew up and possessed healthy respect for all and pulled together to make this nation great. All rights and no responsibilities is one reason why kids now just don’t have the mettle they used to.

      1. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        Of course children have rights that must be respected. They are not chattel.

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Not the children. Just the women. Good Christian women folk must subjugate themselves to the man.

          1. James McCarthy Avatar
            James McCarthy

            How myopic of me to have missed that vision.

        2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
          Eric the half a troll

          Vic says that human beings under 18 have no rights…. while this should be a truly jaw dropping belief, I am absolutely not surprised this is the new Conservative position.

          1. DJRippert Avatar

            They have no right to deceive their parents. They try all the time but they have no right to secrecy from their parents. And adults outside of their parents have no right to aid and abet keeping secrets from the parents. If the parents are unfit as parents then there are due process approaches to remedy that situation.

            If parents think that little Jimmy is too young and immature to become little Janey, who the hell is some dumbass teacher to prevent the parents from knowing about little Jimmy’s thoughts?

          2. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            Well, that is not what Vic says. Vic says no rights at all. And, really, they do not have the right to deceive their parents? I think you are very wrong there. Looking forward to Conservative attempts to criminally prosecute others for keeping secrets from parents. Youngkin will now be prosecuting teenagers that lie to their parents?… I know… just trans ones…

            Btw, you mean “dumbass teachers” like Tanner Cross who says he knows better than parents and is fully backed by Youngkin… is that what you mean by “dumbass teachers”?

          3. Eric the half a troll Avatar
            Eric the half a troll

            Well, that is not what Vic says. Vic says no rights at all. And, really, they do not have the right to deceive their parents? I think you are very wrong there. Looking forward to Conservative attempts to criminally prosecute others for keeping secrets from parents. Youngkin will now be prosecuting teenagers that lie to their parents?… I know… just trans ones…

            Btw, you mean “dumbass teachers” like Tanner Cross who says he knows better than parents and is fully backed by Youngkin… is that what you mean by “dumbass teachers”?

        3. Eric the half a troll Avatar
          Eric the half a troll

          Vic says that human beings under 18 have no rights…. while this should be a truly jaw dropping belief, I am absolutely not surprised this is the new Conservative position.

    2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
      James C. Sherlock

      Peter, how old do you think most kids need to be to have developed their learning and risk/reward decision making sufficiently to exercise rights independent of their parents in the realms of education and gender?

      1. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        Red herring!!

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Smellier. Probably just a day old sardine.

          And don’t use “red” around the Captain. He’s a Birther. Bircher! I meant Bircher. It’s red with Birchers, black with Birthers. Just don’t mention either of those colors around him.

        2. James C. Sherlock Avatar
          James C. Sherlock

          red herring?

      2. DJRippert Avatar

        18, same age you have to attain to vote, join the military (without parental consent), etc. That’s 3 years younger than one needs to be in order to legally order a beer.

        Only liberals could possibly believe that a 15 year old can embark on gender transition approaches without their parents knowledge but are 6 years too young and immature to buy a beer.

    3. this has nothing to do with being gay

    4. DJRippert Avatar

      They can’t vote. They can’t buy a beer. They can’t join the Army. Under 16, they can’t hold a job. Under 16.5 they can’t drive. Children are not adults. If they think they are gay they need to discuss that with their parents. Having a part-time teacher who is looking after a hundred or more children help a child hide an important life decision from their parents is bull****.

  5. James McCarthy Avatar
    James McCarthy

    The author states children belong to their parents. That view was dominant in feudal and agrarian societies. Parents may be responsible for the welfare of their children but children are not chattel. And when parents fail that duty, society is obligated to intercede in loco parentis. At bottom, the welfare of children requires the cooperation of many players including teachers and school systems. The children themselves have rights which must be respected.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Hell, nowadays even veterinarians don’t use the word “owner”.

      1. James McCarthy Avatar
        James McCarthy

        Is Kerry/Karen a vet?

        1. Nancy Naive Avatar
          Nancy Naive

          Must be kind… must be kind…

          No, her doctor is.

          Arrrrgh. Epic fail.

    2. Right, most people wouldn’t think twice to override a parent’s right to deny their child lifesaving medical treatment. So we know this absolutism isn’t true.

      They just disagree with the medical community that gender dysphoria is a medical condition and that transitioning helps with that. Similar to gay people when conversion therapy was a hot item, they’ll support the science if it supports their distaste for LGBT people. Other, scream bias until they get their way.

  6. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Capt. Sherlock. Please don’t lecture me on parenting. I raised two children. If a child is in his or her mid to late teens, I would say they are ready to decide.

    1. Hard agree with both your comments. There are some parents who are truly trans/homo phobic and would make a child struggling to navigate their preteens (who realistically would be the age group most affected by this) even more arduous.

      Funnily enough, the law is probably not even legal, which to me, confirms that this is a political stunt. Plain and simple.

      1. DJRippert Avatar

        I’m guessing that you are not a parent. The vast, vast majority of parents love their children more than life itself. While it might be hard for a parent to initially accept that a child is gay or trans they will inevitably accept that. I know a number of conservative parents who have had children come out as gay, trans, etc. None of them disowned their children. Not one.

    2. DJRippert Avatar

      And I’ve raised five. At 15, children are full of odd and questionable ideas. Ideas that are best discussed with their parents. Parents are the people who have the best understanding of their children. Not some school counselor who talks with the kid for 15 minutes once a week.

  7. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    “As it stands in some districts now, any boy who claims to be transitioning can use the girls’ lavatories and locker rooms.”

    Not true but if it were, it would be fully compliant with Youngkin’s policy. I see you still haven’t read it, Kerry. As expected.

  8. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    “As it stands in some districts now, any boy who claims to be transitioning can use the girls’ lavatories and locker rooms.”

    Not true but if it were, it would be fully compliant with Youngkin’s policy. I see you still haven’t read it, Kerry. As expected.

  9. Fred Costello Avatar
    Fred Costello

    When a person’s mind does not agree with DNA science, his mind needs fixing, not his physical appearance. If this were not the case, a person who thinks he is an eagle would not be stopped from flying off a tall building. The parents have the right to have their child’s mental state be properly treated.

    1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
      Eric the half a troll

      Do they have the right to demand the school cooperate with that treatment? According to Youngkin, they do not…

  10. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    Don the Ripper. YOU are full of odd and questionable ideas.

  11. Bob X from Texas Avatar
    Bob X from Texas

    It’s child abuse for a school system employee to assist in gender reassignment.

  12. vicnicholls Avatar
    vicnicholls

    Boil it down to this: a 4 year degree in supposedly teaching kids how to add, subtract, learn the 50 states and capitals, learn how to operate a microscope, how to know a noun from a verb; is in no way qualified to judge on the sexuality of a child. Parents, who live with that child, and are qualified under *every free system* to give their values to that child, unless under *communism, socialism, Nazism, fascism, or some other totalitarian governing system*, should never be fighting this battle. There is no excuse under the sun except for perversion of the free state, that teachers think that degree gives them the rights or privileges to control those parents/kids or deviate from academic subjects to porn teachers. Stop grooming children, that is all this is. Methods are used that are exactly the same as groomers.

    While we’re at it, can any teacher give alcohol to kids? Or can just parents do it in the home (as Europeans do with dinner)?

    Kids are now asking for litter boxes because they’re pretending they’re cats. https://www.wlwt.com/article/meade-school-district-students-are-dressing-and-acting-like-cats/37398744 The fact there is even a rumor with some pretty obvious true sounding reports says this has gone way way too far. Control should not be given to those who obviously abuse it and that appears to be 4 yr degree holders who need to have egos and personal lives checked at the door before they go to work.

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