Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - From the Locker Room to the Classroom： Fighting for Fairness

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00:00:25.040 Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Gains for Girls podcast.

00:00:27.940 I believe this is our first episode since Donald Trump's 100th day in office.

00:00:34.000 It really has been win after win after win since he assumed his role as president back in January.

00:00:40.380 I've been able to benefit, of course, lots personally with everything that his administration has done to combat the DEI gender ideology movement.

00:00:49.920 But even things like immigration, how my family has been able to benefit from a president who is pro-legal immigration,

00:00:58.020 anti-illegal immigration.

00:01:00.680 So really exciting stuff across the board.

00:01:03.340 But as always, grateful you're here.

00:01:05.100 Check us out at Outkick.com.

00:01:06.460 That's where you can find all things Gains for Girls. 1.00

00:01:09.360 We've got an exciting episode today.

00:01:11.120 We're going to talk more in depth about some of the wins that we have seen from the Trump administration

00:01:15.400 across the different states as it pertains to parental rights.

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00:02:53.040 Today's guest is Tiffany Justice.

00:02:56.200 She is a parental rights advocate.

00:02:57.940 She is an education advocate.

00:02:59.220 She is an advocate for maintaining the innocence of children.

00:03:04.120 She's the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, who has done fantastic work, especially at the grassroots level, having chapters all across the nation involving just everyday parents, everyday moms, who see what their children are up against.

00:03:19.280 And Tiffany is now a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

00:03:23.500 And I think most importantly, she's a mom of four.

00:03:25.640 I would imagine that's much of her motivation.

00:03:28.920 So check out my interview with Tiffany Justice here.

00:03:31.020 Well, Tiffany, thank you for joining the Gains for Girls podcast.

00:03:35.500 Truthfully, over these past few years, you've been a mentor to me and one of my favorite people to talk to.

00:03:41.760 We've officially made it more than 100 days with Donald Trump back in the White House.

00:03:45.800 So I just wanted to ask you, you know, start us off.

00:03:47.900 What are some of your favorite Trump wins thus far?

00:03:50.700 I think that moment where we were in the White House and we saw him sign the executive order protecting women and girls in sports and to see him surrounded, Riley, by all those beautiful young women was just a moment.

00:04:04.780 And, you know, for a president who has been so vilified, right, there's been such a message sent to the American public that he doesn't like women or somehow is bad to women.

00:04:12.800 And to see him surrounded by those kids and protecting their rights and freedom was just I think it was one of the most special moments.

00:04:19.660 Honestly, I think that picture will be will go down in history as one of the most iconic moments of President Trump's entire presidency, both last term and honestly this term, too.

00:04:29.880 I totally agree with you.

00:04:31.860 That visual, it means so much to me.

00:04:35.280 And when I think of that, when I see people like Governor Mills who are pushing back against or I guess what she believes to be pushing back against President Trump, I think of that visual and who she's really pushing back against are those young girls.

00:04:48.280 She's not fighting Donald Trump.

00:04:49.640 She's fighting those five, six, seven, eight year old girls who are surrounding him with their big bows in their hair, who have dreams, who have dreams to achieve on the field or the court, in the pool, whatever the athletic setting is and beyond. 0.85

00:05:02.580 And so I totally agree with you.

00:05:06.080 I want to get your thoughts on the dismantling of the Department of Education.

00:05:10.540 This, of course, has been a hot topic really since I mean, Donald Trump campaigned on it, of course, since he has taken office and now he's taken, I mean, swift and decisive action to do such.

00:05:21.220 Can you explain why returning power and funding to states, school boards, parents and teachers is actually a good thing for a child's education?

00:05:30.580 Well, first and foremost, parents are the most important part of any child's education.

00:05:36.540 You know, an involved parent is the number one driver of student success.

00:05:40.160 So as much power and control that can go back to the parent is what needs to happen.

00:05:44.880 For some reason in America, education became this behemoth.

00:05:48.340 And I think we know that reason.

00:05:50.180 When the Department of Education was created by Jimmy Carter, it was a promise to the teachers union.

00:05:54.420 And since the Department of Education has grown and grown in Washington, D.C. and satellite offices all over the United States, we've seen the teachers union have so much more power.

00:06:04.820 Riley, when I was a school board member, I was shocked when I learned how much control the teachers unions had on my kids education in collective bargaining.

00:06:13.820 Things like when the kids would eat lunch were decided.

00:06:16.340 There were parents who were upset because sometimes lunch would be served at like 10 o'clock in the morning.

00:06:20.060 That was part of the collective bargaining agreement that we had in our district.

00:06:23.580 And so it was just shocking to see that.

00:06:25.700 And then COVID happened.

00:06:26.560 And I think all of America saw the teachers union so involved in school closures or school reopening.

00:06:32.700 The CDC's guidelines, right?

00:06:34.600 Randy was right in there.

00:06:35.700 Randy Weingarten, the head of the AFT, was right in there affecting the decisions that were being made.

00:06:41.520 And so, you know, the local control is the most important.

00:06:46.180 I know we're probably going to talk about that Supreme Court case that was just heard, Mahmoud v.

00:06:50.660 Taylor in Montgomery County.

00:06:53.200 And, you know, those are fundamental rights.

00:06:54.920 So there's a role for the federal government in protecting our rights and freedoms and our civil rights like Title IX.

00:07:00.960 But other issues should be left up to local control.

00:07:03.560 And certainly, you know, responding to what a community needs.

00:07:07.260 And every community is going to be different.

00:07:08.700 You're going to have kids who are coming from different backgrounds who may have different needs, may need different supports in the school.

00:07:14.000 So as much power that Secretary McMahon can give back down to the governors, who will hopefully be listening to constituents, listening to their Board of Education, and really, you know, giving the districts the freedom to meet the needs of the students that they have in their school community, the better off that kids and parents will be.

00:07:32.580 Also, if you have a problem, you know, you send an OCR complaint, an Office of Civil Rights complaint up to Washington, D.C.

00:07:38.980 That's far away from Utah or Washington or Oregon or even Florida, right?

00:07:44.140 And what happens there, this Federal Department of Education, if you have a problem as a parent, you need to be able to go to the most local source and talk to them.

00:07:51.000 You want to talk to the decision makers.

00:07:52.620 So all around, just really, really good for local control to be supported by the president and Secretary McMahon.

00:07:59.600 Yeah, it didn't take long for those two to uncover that the Department of Education has spent over a billion dollars on DEI training since 2021.

00:08:11.020 And now DOGE, I mean, of course, they've done a fantastic job across the board, but especially within the Department of Education, uncovering fraud, waste, abuse.

00:08:18.960 I believe not too long ago, they uncovered $1.3 billion in unneeded Department of Education contracts.

00:08:26.060 And so can you give some insight on the state of public schools now?

00:08:30.240 What I find living in a very conservative state, the state of Tennessee, where, of course, we have a Republican governor, we have a Republican supermajority in both the House and the Senate.

00:08:40.160 We have Donald Trump back in the White House.

00:08:41.940 I hear from people all the time who think, look, we don't have to worry about this stuff anymore.

00:08:46.560 We're immune to it because look at look at who's back in the White House.

00:08:49.820 It's not going to affect us now.

00:08:51.320 Can you just provide some insight on the state of public schools, what we're seeing in states like Colorado, California, maybe some of the other usual suspects and even some of those unusual suspects like Texas, for example?

00:09:04.080 Yeah. So first and foremost, I want to say I love teachers.

00:09:06.860 My mom was a teacher.

00:09:08.060 My grandmother was a teacher.

00:09:09.300 And so I think the majority of teachers are really tired of being tasked with raising other people's children.

00:09:13.640 And there's been this mission creep of public education where they do more than just teaching, reading, writing and math.

00:09:18.680 But now they're getting into doing all kinds of things for students, including supplying medical services in schools, which sounds really nice.

00:09:25.380 But we have to step back and say, what is the role of the government?

00:09:27.960 And really, what is the role of the parents?

00:09:29.620 And the more the government does for the citizens of the United States, the less they do for themselves.

00:09:33.980 So we really do need to empower parents.

00:09:35.940 Not only do you have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of your child, but you have a duty given to you by God and a responsibility to raise your children.

00:09:45.540 And so we always want to support and protect that right and that freedom in places like Chicago, in Illinois, in New York, in a lot of different states across the United States, you're seeing really abysmal reading and math scores.

00:10:01.560 I'll be honest with you, across the board, Riley, reading and math scores are pretty bad.

00:10:06.420 And I think it really is this, you know, this idea that the public school should be doing everything for a child.

00:10:12.780 And, you know, no one entity can do everything for a child.

00:10:16.140 And so, except for the parents, if they choose to do that, right?

00:10:19.680 And so, you know, for those that can homeschool, great.

00:10:22.200 But for those who partner with their public school in, you know, educating their kids, this lack of focus on reading, writing and math.

00:10:30.260 Kate Brumley would say, let teachers teach, right? 0.87

00:10:32.980 Let them get back to really engaging with the students in the classroom.

00:10:36.340 Parents are watching as their kids return from COVID, a lot of technology in the classroom, not supplementing what the kids are learning and enriching their learning, but really supplanting the role of the teacher in the class, taking the place of the teacher, right?

00:10:48.820 A lot of those programs, especially in middle school, I've seen that school districts, you know, kind of invested in during COVID to try to meet kids in what they call virtual learning, which I say is complete nonsense.

00:11:00.380 It really wasn't happening.

00:11:01.620 It didn't work for the majority of students.

00:11:03.520 But a lot of those programs have continued and teachers are becoming babysitters.

00:11:07.260 And that's really concerning because we know direct instruction, the teacher engaging with the student directly is the most important thing.

00:11:13.920 And so a lack of focus on the basics has led us to this moment where we really, I believe, have a national crisis.

00:11:21.580 How will America be great again if the majority of kids across the nation can't read, write, or do math?

00:11:27.380 Are we still seeing this infiltration of what most people accurately, I believe, label as indoctrination in the form of the sexualization, you know, the books in libraries, different things like that, the flags being hung in classrooms, what can only be described as activists who are in these powerful, authoritative teaching positions?

00:11:53.480 Yeah, and it's not like you can take your kid out of public school and put them in private school and think that everything's going to be okay.

00:12:00.120 There is an intentional drive to sexualize kids.

00:12:04.860 I don't know why.

00:12:06.440 I mean, you know, if you're a religious person, you're going to say there's an evil that has taken over in the world.

00:12:11.500 And, you know, certainly taking the innocence of children is evil.

00:12:16.820 We used to know that there was such a thing as like age appropriateness.

00:12:20.180 I think we still do.

00:12:21.140 There are movie ratings, for example, right, you know, are in PG-13.

00:12:25.160 We know that there are certain subjects, maybe PG-13 is okay for kids over 13, right?

00:12:30.060 But under, you know, really questioning some of the content, even places like the American Holocaust Museum has an exhibit for sixth grade and up, a separate one for fourth and fifth grade.

00:12:41.560 And then has another exhibit.

00:12:45.180 I'm sorry, under fourth grade, excuse me.

00:12:48.280 They say, really, maybe this isn't subject matter that the kids should engage with.

00:12:52.720 And so I think that we need to get back to knowing and understanding that kids are different than adults.

00:12:58.220 They're not just little adults.

00:12:59.600 They have different minds.

00:13:00.860 They develop differently.

00:13:01.780 They can handle different subject matter in a different way.

00:13:04.120 And there's certain subject matter that really children don't need to engage in.

00:13:08.380 And so I just think it's an interesting moment we find ourselves in in America.

00:13:12.140 And it's up to parents to really draw the line and to say, listen, these are our children.

00:13:17.480 We will not let you rob them of their childhood.

00:13:19.800 It's a beautiful time of life, right, where it should be exciting and fun.

00:13:24.980 And you should be learning about lots of different things and being curious.

00:13:28.860 But, you know, the idea that the most interesting thing about elementary school kids, middle school kids, is that it's their sexual orientation or the sexual orientation of their teacher and how the teacher feels about politics.

00:13:40.560 It's just nonsense.

00:13:41.500 You know, I think Robert Pondicio from AEI has said, if you're kids in your classroom, if you're a teacher and you have students in your classroom and they know who you voted for for president or they know your political ideology, then you're doing something wrong.

00:13:55.540 That's right.

00:13:56.620 That's right.

00:13:57.500 Last week, you were in Florida alongside Florida's attorney general for the announcement of a brand new Office of Parental Rights.

00:14:05.020 Tell us a little bit about this new Office of Parental Rights and what it aims to do.

00:14:08.960 So there's something called the Pew Protection Rights Amendment that was passed in the 70s.

00:14:13.400 And then there was a rulemaking process that happened in 19 in the 1980s, early 1980s.

00:14:18.280 And what it said was that, you know, children cannot be surveyed about political affiliation, sexual orientation, their parents' political affiliation without the consent and knowledge of parents.

00:14:28.800 It shouldn't be happening.

00:14:29.620 It also said that parents should have access to anything that's being presented to the child, any type of curriculum, whether that's curriculum that's normally scheduled for the classroom or supplemental curriculum that the teacher is bringing in.

00:14:39.760 And that's been violated, left and right.

00:14:42.400 We've seen that even in a place like the free state of Florida.

00:14:45.220 And I know everybody always wants to say, oh, Florida is perfect.

00:14:47.600 Everything, you know, even in Florida, it's happening.

00:14:49.800 And so Attorney General James Uthmeyer, who was appointed by Governor DeSantis after A.G. Moody went up to the Senate to serve, he has opened an Office of Parental Rights.

00:15:03.800 And it was just amazing to be there for that moment where he said, you know, he realizes it's really expensive if you're a parent to bring a lawsuit against your school district.

00:15:14.660 It's hard to find lawyers oftentimes that are willing to take the cases, honestly.

00:15:18.780 And so, you know, you can't get damages.

00:15:20.860 So, you know, lawyers aren't really incentivized to take these cases.

00:15:24.480 And so it's just wonderful that he's opened up this Office of Parental Rights.

00:15:28.540 He really had a message to parents that said, we're opening a portal.

00:15:32.020 Send us the information.

00:15:33.060 And as much as I loved the Office of Civil Rights and the DOE opening their DEI portal and wanting to get the information, you know, so that they could go through it and see where to launch investigations across the country.

00:15:43.040 Again, you know, education is really the purview of the state.

00:15:46.960 And so it's just wonderful to see an attorney general standing up for parents.

00:15:50.760 It was exciting to be there.

00:15:51.940 It's the first in the nation.

00:15:53.480 And I really do hope that other attorneys general across the country will emulate James and open an Office of Parental Rights in their state.

00:16:02.060 Fingers crossed.

00:16:03.740 Fingers crossed.

00:16:04.660 I think that would be a fantastic and really smart move.

00:16:08.140 You alluded to this recent Supreme Court case, Mahmoud v. Taylor.

00:16:13.040 It centers on this dispute between parents in the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland over the inclusion of these, again, age-inappropriate, sexualized, LGBTQ-plus-themed books in elementary school curriculums.

00:16:29.760 One of the pretty spectacular things I noticed about the plaintiffs in this case, it's an alliance of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish parents.

00:16:40.280 And they're arguing that the absence of the opt-out option for such materials infringes on their First Amendment right to freely express and exercise their religion.

00:16:50.660 You, of course, listen to these oral arguments.

00:16:53.020 Can you tell us what you saw, what you heard more so, and what you expect the ruling to be?

00:16:59.320 Yeah, so you're right.

00:17:00.260 These parents who used to be able to opt out of this Pride Storybook collection, the school district said, no, too many of you are opting out.

00:17:06.880 It's a real problem for us.

00:17:08.320 So now we're going to take the opt-out away.

00:17:10.580 And they lost in the Fourth Circuit.

00:17:13.220 And so, yes, the Supreme Court just heard that case.

00:17:15.400 It was fascinating.

00:17:16.160 I'm going to say, first of all, Riley, it was kind of vindicating to hear the Supreme Court justices, you know, really just incredulous.

00:17:22.460 Justice Roberts could not believe the content that was in the books.

00:17:26.000 And he engaged with the lawyer from Montgomery County School District and said, well, you have them pointing out leather and sex workers.

00:17:32.340 And the guy said, well, but it's not a sex worker. 1.00

00:17:34.320 It's a drag queen. 1.00

00:17:35.320 And, you know, Justice Roberts was just like, come on.

00:17:37.740 You know, you want to introduce this is a book that's meant for pre-K called Pride Puppy.

00:17:41.800 Why the heck, you know, does a preschool kid need to be introduced to drag queens? 1.00

00:17:46.960 My good friend James Lindsay would tell you there's a white paper called Drag Queen Pedagogy where they say that drag queens are an introduction to queer theory.

00:17:55.700 In fact, they want to leave glitter in the carpet.

00:17:57.760 That's literally the words that they use.

00:17:59.640 So there's very clearly a want to indoctrinate.

00:18:03.800 Now, why would the school district not allow opt-outs?

00:18:07.420 You know, there was Justice Barrett brought up, you know, there's a difference between exposure.

00:18:11.800 And so you're not allowing these opt-outs.

00:18:14.720 And, you know, then you're saying, you know, are you saying some people believe X and some people believe Y and people think different things?

00:18:21.220 Or are you saying some people believe X and some people believe Y?

00:18:24.540 And if you don't believe X, you're a hateful bigot.

00:18:27.460 And that was actually what was said to some of the Muslim parents in this case by the school district in the lower courts. 0.93

00:18:33.040 They compared the Muslim parents to the KKK or a hate group.

00:18:37.480 And so just this real disdain for the parents' concern.

00:18:40.560 I thought one of the most telling moments was Justice Kagan Riley.

00:18:44.220 She said that she imagined that parents might have an issue with these books, not just based on their religion solely, but just the age appropriateness of the content.

00:18:52.920 I thought that was really telling.

00:18:54.120 So I think that the parents have a really good chance of winning in this case.

00:18:58.660 I would love to see a 7-2 ruling.

00:19:00.920 Maybe we can get Kagan with us and it would just be Sotomayor and Jackson who, you know, are not in favor of allowing the opt-out.

00:19:08.720 But there's no doubt that this case is going to be very important for the future of parental rights and education.

00:19:14.780 And I just remind every parent that your parental rights do not stop at the classroom door.

00:19:21.220 That's right.

00:19:22.420 So what's next for you?

00:19:23.800 You're still involved with Moms for Liberty. 0.98

00:19:25.900 Of course, you're with the Heritage Foundation now.

00:19:27.800 So what are some of the next big projects or initiatives to be on the lookout for?

00:19:32.880 Yeah, I love Moms for Liberty and I'm still a member of my local chapter, which is awesome.

00:19:37.680 It's the most important part of the work we do.

00:19:39.560 The local chapters coming together, being leaders in their own community, not waiting for someone else to lead.

00:19:44.800 We saw during COVID, it was so important for people to stand up and not wait for somebody else to make a decision for their family, but to stand up for what they believe in.

00:19:52.460 And yeah, you're right.

00:19:53.580 I joined the Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow.

00:19:55.960 I'm so excited about that because the Heritage Foundation has been an amazing partner to Moms for Liberty and so many other conservative organizations throughout, you know, the past five years of working at Moms for Liberty.

00:20:06.800 And so to take what I've learned, the advocacy tools and skills that I've learned and all the relationships that I've been able to build and to be able to take those to Heritage Foundation and to lead this parental rights initiative, we're going to have a parental rights network.

00:20:20.380 So if anyone's listening and they want to be at the forefront of knowing exactly what's happening in policy, in the legal space, on the people that are making the biggest difference across the country, we're going to be doing weekly calls there.

00:20:32.240 We're going to have a What's Best for Kids series.

00:20:34.260 We'll have an annual summit where we bring everyone together and then we'll have some regional town halls.

00:20:39.220 And so I think it's going to be a wonderful opportunity for all of us to get together, to really, you know, catapult this movement forward and create a lot of momentum.

00:20:48.280 That's right. That's right.

00:20:49.580 Well, I appreciate you, Tiffany.

00:20:51.840 Thank you for everything.

00:20:53.040 We will be on the lookout.

00:20:54.440 I would encourage everyone to get involved in the ways that you just said, really, really important stuff going on.

00:20:59.980 Even with Donald Trump back in the White House, we must stay vigilant and we cannot become complacent.

00:21:06.400 So thank you for everything, for your fight.

00:21:09.420 You've given really so much of yourself, so much of your time.

00:21:13.000 Of course, you have a family, your resources, your own peace.

00:21:16.800 You've made sacrifices that 99 percent of people would not make to preserve education,

00:21:22.720 to preserve parental rights and to preserve the innocence of children.

00:21:26.820 So incredibly grateful for you.

00:21:29.100 Thank you for that.

00:21:29.720 Nobody is going to fight for anything like a mom is going to fight for her kids. 0.97

00:21:33.520 Right. We'll do anything for our kids.

00:21:35.280 And so it's just been an honor to be able to to make the change happen in America that we needed.

00:21:41.180 After COVID, Riley, I said never again, never again will we let our kids go through this nonsense and hurt their development so much.

00:21:47.280 And so I'm committed to making sure that, again, never again does that happen.

00:21:52.680 No way. Well, thank you.

00:21:54.440 Thanks.

00:21:55.740 Thank you guys for tuning in to the Gains for Girls podcast.

00:21:58.700 As Tiffany made very clear, there is a lot of work that still needs to be done at the local level, state level and federal level.

00:22:06.200 Before you go, check us out at Outkick.com.

00:22:08.800 Again, that's where you will find all things Gains for Girls. 1.00

00:22:11.320 Make sure you subscribe to these episodes.

00:22:13.140 That way you will never miss one.

00:22:14.720 And go to CozyEarth.com.

00:22:16.360 You can use my code Gains, G-A-I-N-E-S for 40% off.

00:22:20.860 Again, sheets, pajamas, loungewear and more.

00:22:24.420 I promise you, you're going to love it.

00:22:27.000 We will see you guys again next week.

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - May 07, 2025

From the Locker Room to the Classroom： Fighting for Fairness

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