The electoral race in the Frederick County Board of Education, which is set to take place in June of next year, is a very tense one; there is no doubt about that. Political action committees (PACs) pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into candidates to secure a seat at the county’s school board. And why not? Schools, as people say, are a building block of a children’s future, and for many, it is of utmost importance that students get the appropriate education they deserve. As a FCPS student myself, I began to become interested in the BoE during the summer, and one of the candidates who is set to run for the election caught my attention: Heather Fletcher. She’s from Point of Rocks, and has resided there for about 15 years. At first glance to the unassuming reader, some of her goals seem decent and understandable: she wants to improve the academic performance of FCPS students, provide financial support for teachers within the district, and expand career opportunities. Yet a deeper dive shows something interesting, she keeps mentioning “parents’ rights” in her campaign material, opposes Policy 443, a district-wide policy ensuring a safe environment for transgender and gender non–conforming students, FCPS’s relations with Planned Parenthood, and the instruction of what she calls critical gender theory, a feminist sociology framework which analyzes sexuality and gender. Those were major red flags to me, and I decided to look deeper into this entire “parents’ rights” thing and why it is so intertwined with conservative values—and what I found was shocking; I fell down a rabbit hole involving white supremacists and the Republican Party. This movement is threatening the integrity of education in Frederick County, and plans to replace our curriculum with a whitewashed view of the world. This is the story of the “parents’ rights movement”, within and beyond Frederick County.
According to AP News, the “parents’ rights movement” in the United States of America is as old as the public education system in the country itself. There are several lawsuits dating from the early 1900s that support the right of parents to direct the education of their children. It has often intertwined itself with moral panics such as the Red Scare, the anti-LGBT movement of the 70s and 80s, and the opposition to the civil rights movement. The belief that all these parents had in common is that people were indoctrinating their children with curriculum discussing gender, sexuality and/or race. In the case of this movement’s iteration during the 90s, they tended to encourage their members to run for local school boards; although they did win seats, they later resorted to other means of education, such as homeschooling, following public pushback. By 2020, the parents’ rights movement re–emerged once again over disputes about critical race theory being taught in schools and book bans in the United States. Among those groups are Moms for Liberty and Better Maryland Schools, grassroots organizations advocating for “parents’ rights” who have increased their presence in Frederick County, both in and out the school boards.
Moms for Liberty is a “parents’ rights” organization that emerged in 2021 as a result of these academic disputes; according to the SPLC, it is also part of the far-right anti-governmental movement, which opposes the government as they believe it is led by a leftist group seeking to establish a “New World Order”. As in the past with groups in this movement, they are against the inclusion of content involving gender, sexuality, and/or race in school curricula. As seen with the “parents’ rights” movement of the 90s, Moms for Liberty heavily encourages their members to run for local school boards; additionally, they similarly believe and propagate conspiracy theories arguing their children are being indoctrinated by being taught about the aforementioned topics. Jaime Brennan is a former chair of the group’s Frederick County chapter who won the BoE election in 2024 with over 54,000 votes; like Fletcher, she openly objects to Policy 443, arguing that the ability it gives to schools to make the social transition of students a confidentiality is a negative overall. She also opposes teacher unions. There is no doubt that with the increasing opposition to this policy, in conjunction with her prior activity as a Moms for Liberty chair, Brennan is most likely to vote in favor of repealing it, or worse, replacing it with transphobic policies that are most certainly going to harm both transgender and cisgender people. The Board of Education meeting, despite Brennan’s attempt to subvert opinion at public comment (see image below), was in support of Policy 443.
Brennan’s alleged post on Facebook
Better Maryland Schools is another “parents’ rights” organization founded by Tom Neumark this year. Neumark has affiliations to Genspect, an anti-LGBTQ+ think tank. As commonly seen with these establishments, they oppose the state teacher’s union, and oppose Policy 443 because it “lets boys into women’s spaces”, according to them. This rhetoric is not only harmful, as there are documented instances of cis people being harassed (e.g. 1, 2, and 3) because they looked like a “man” to some people, but it also reinforces patriarchal social structures that hurt women overall. They have also unsuccessfully attempted to introduce blatantly bigoted books into the FCPS library system. They tried to do an annual rally at the Board of Education on September 10th, but were chased out and outnumbered by counter-protesters. The remaining protesters found refuge at the Frederick City police station.
These groups are unfortunately making some sort of progress; as shown before, many of the “parental rights’ activists” of the 1990s ended up gaining school board seats, and many of the book bans that are currently occurring across the United States are mostly due to lobbying by these groups. Many of the books that have been banned usually tackle subjects like race, sexuality, and/or gender; it is clear that is not only an issue of transphobia, but also one of blatant racism. If we keep restricting the education of children, the cycle of bigotry and its ugly violence will not fade. On the bright side, there is a sizable opposition to this movement. There is an increasing number of people who have declared their support for Policy 443 for a fairer FCPS. There is an increasing number of dissent against the more conservative members of the board in similar fashion to the counter “parents’ rights movement” of the 90s. There is still hope. Love will win in the end.
