Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 513 ｜ Parents： It's Time to Double Down ｜ Guest： Lysa Kosins

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week.

00:00:14.840 All right. Today, I am going to interview the second half of this episode, Lisa Cousins. She

00:00:22.480 is a mom of two, small business owner from Centerville, Ohio, who is running with two 0.95

00:00:29.720 other conservative candidates for the school board. Centerville has actually made national news

00:00:36.160 because the school board meetings there have raised a respectful ruckus, as we like to say.

00:00:42.900 Parents have been raising a respectful ruckus there. And so in PR, other outlets have been

00:00:48.540 talking about this. And the people at the center of this are these school board candidates,

00:00:54.500 one of whom we are going to speak to today. We're going to ask her, why are you running?

00:00:58.520 What are some of the issues that are going on? She's going to give us some inspiration,

00:01:02.940 some encouragement, some clarity that kind of cuts through the narrative that you are hearing

00:01:09.620 from these national outlets who really want to demonize concerned parents. And I'm going to spend

00:01:15.800 the first part of this podcast talking about that. You've probably seen, and we have talked about

00:01:23.760 on this show, these school board meetings that are so contentious can be very heated because these

00:01:30.080 concerned parents, whether it's about sex ed, whether it's about some of the sexually explicit

00:01:36.400 and in some cases, LGBTQ material that is accessible to elementary school students,

00:01:45.700 middle school students in their libraries, some of the material that teachers are actively

00:01:51.520 recommending, whether it's racially divisive, a historical content that is being taught

00:01:57.860 in classrooms, or whether it's these unscientific, in a lot of cases, unfair

00:02:03.620 and discriminatory mask mandates. What I mean by discriminatory and unfair is that in some places,

00:02:10.960 like in Centerville, Ohio, kids who need medical exemptions are not even being granted those

00:02:18.080 exemptions. And so parents are understandably angry. We've seen a lot of the rot, a lot of the dark

00:02:25.860 underbelly of teachers unions, teachers associations, school districts, the public school bureaucracy,

00:02:32.060 and even some of these elite private schools in places like Manhattan that are just corrupt to

00:02:38.060 the core, that are not serving our children and their parents well. Now, we are also seeing a

00:02:44.880 national conversation about this by Democrats and in the press. Democratic candidate for governor in

00:02:50.900 Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, said in a debate a couple weeks ago against his competitor,

00:02:58.600 Youngkin, he said, I don't think parents should be telling schools what to teach. And he has really

00:03:06.460 tried to walk that back because he just he just said it. He said the quiet part out loud. He said what

00:03:12.920 most Democrats and a lot of people in the public school school bureaucracy, I'm not talking about

00:03:18.180 every single administrator, I'm not talking about every single teacher, but the bureaucrats that are

00:03:23.460 leaving the public education system, they truly see parents as an impediment to what they want to do

00:03:30.760 rather than an asset. Barack Obama, when he was campaigning for Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, said that these are

00:03:39.800 just phony culture wars. They're just trying to stoke anger that, you know, the concerns that people are

00:03:46.900 expressing on the Republican side. They don't represent any real issues. We've got more important

00:03:52.480 things to take care of. So that's him trying to brush this statement that was controversial really

00:03:58.000 across the aisle by Terry McAuliffe. He's trying to brush it under the rug. The National Association

00:04:03.660 of School Boards or actually I think it's the National School Boards Association wrote a letter to the

00:04:09.360 Biden administration a couple weeks ago asking for help combating so-called violence against school

00:04:15.700 board members and suggested that these concerned parents should be called and considered domestic

00:04:20.940 terrorists. Now, they got so much backlash from the right, so much pushback from parents, I'm sure

00:04:27.020 that included parents who vote Democrat too, saying, what are you talking about? We have legitimate

00:04:31.740 concerns about our kids' education and their well-being and you are calling us domestic terrorists? So the

00:04:39.120 National School Board Association has actually walked that back. They published a letter apologizing

00:04:44.840 and saying that they regret the letter. Now, that is rare because the National School Boards

00:04:51.940 Association has a lot of institutional power behind them, including Biden's Department of Justice led by

00:04:58.520 Merrick Garland. Now, Merrick Garland and his DOJ has not backed down after they published a letter

00:05:06.120 promising to mobilize the FBI against parents at school board meetings. Now, one of the examples that

00:05:14.080 was used by the NSBA in their original letter calling parents domestic terrorists was a dad in

00:05:24.080 Loudoun County, Virginia named Scott Smith. He called a board member, school board member, a B-word at a

00:05:32.740 meeting on June 22nd. He was arrested, dragged away. His angry face with his shirt pulled up became like the

00:05:42.340 poster that the press used to prove that these concerned parents are actually just angry white

00:05:47.760 people, racist, mad about diversity and masks and vaccines and whatever they could throw on him. 0.72

00:05:54.900 They did. But let's ask a question. And thankfully, Luke Rosiak of the Daily Wire has answered this

00:06:03.320 question for us. The reason that he expressed the sentiment that he did at that school board meeting

00:06:11.380 back in June was because he says his daughter was raped in a school bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt 0.71

00:06:18.200 who calls himself gender fluid. And the kid was simply just he was transferred to another school

00:06:23.980 rather than the issue actually being addressed head on. So that assault, that alleged assault happened

00:06:30.500 in May. And then this is according to Fox News, quote, the boy after the May assault was subsequently

00:06:36.500 charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy and one count of forcible fellatio. 0.57

00:06:44.220 We're talking about a ninth grade girl. We're talking about a ninth grade girl being allegedly assaulted 0.78

00:06:48.680 by a dude wearing a skirt. And after that charge, he was apparently given an ankle monitor and allowed to

00:06:55.000 simply transfer schools. And what happened when this, quote, gender fluid boy transferred?

00:07:01.100 This is also according to Fox News, quote, on October 6th, the sheriff's office said a 15 year old boy

00:07:06.960 was charged with sexual battery and abduction of a fellow student at Broad Run High School.

00:07:11.980 That's the high school that he transferred to in Ashburn. In an October 7th press release,

00:07:17.000 the sheriff's office said the suspect forced a female victim into an empty classroom where he held her

00:07:22.960 against her will and inappropriately touched her. The outlet, citing a government official,

00:07:28.540 reported that the boy accused in the Broad Run case had the same name as the student who allegedly

00:07:34.840 assaulted Smith's daughter. So let's back up a little bit. So the superintendent of Loudoun County

00:07:41.580 Public Schools, Scott Ziegler, sent out an email after the allegation surfaced because the dad complained

00:07:48.440 telling the school board about the accusation. And he also says that the dad who complained

00:07:52.900 Scott Smith came up to the school and when he complained, he was apparently disruptive,

00:07:57.260 according to this email, and that anyone who witnessed this dad's disruption could access

00:08:02.340 counseling services provided by the school. So he says, quote, the school's counseling team

00:08:07.780 is providing services to students who witnessed the parents' behavior, but he doesn't offer those

00:08:13.420 counseling services to the alleged victim of assault. So that's one problem, but it gets worse.

00:08:19.600 So then, and this is where things get really bad. On June 22nd, there was a school board meeting.

00:08:25.520 Scott Smith shows up. He accuses the school board of ignoring the assault. According to Fox News,

00:08:32.380 quote, at a school board meeting on June 22nd, Ziegler declared that, quote, the predator transgender

00:08:38.920 student or person simply does not exist. And that to his knowledge, we don't have any record of

00:08:46.120 assaults occurring in our restroom. So we know he lied because the email in May has been published

00:08:53.840 where he acknowledges that there was an allegation that this happened. And then in June, he says,

00:08:58.800 oh, no, we don't have any record of any assault happening. So the girl was accused of lying about 0.62

00:09:04.060 it. And the dad, very understandably, in my opinion, freaked out. He didn't actually use any physical

00:09:09.540 violence. But I think he kind of used his presence and used his approach to be intimidating. And

00:09:16.360 apparently he called someone a B word. He was arrested. He was dragged out of the meeting.

00:09:23.100 And the National School Board Association used this dad, Scott Smith, as an example that these parents

00:09:29.500 are domestic terrorists in their letter to the Biden administration, which then prompted the

00:09:34.960 Department of Justice to say, OK, we're going to mobilize the FBI against these concerned parents.

00:09:39.740 This was the dad that apparently was the impetus for this. And you know why he got as upset as he

00:09:45.860 did. So these are the people that are being called domestic terrorists, the dads who are going to bat 0.80

00:09:52.080 for their for their daughters who are being assaulted in the bathroom. And the school district is doing

00:09:59.560 nothing about it. And they're lying about it. And they're trying to cover it up. Are you kidding me?

00:10:04.080 And by the way, I'm not condoning him calling someone a B word. But I mean, if someone accused

00:10:11.200 your daughter of lying about being raped in a bathroom after you had already complained to them

00:10:17.580 a month earlier, what would you do in that situation? And for him to get arrested? That's not illegal,

00:10:22.620 by the way. That's not illegal. Also, according to Fox News, quote, on August 11th, nearly two months

00:10:29.380 after Smith's arrest, the school board voted to approve its transgender rights policy, which requires

00:10:34.740 teachers to call students by the pronouns they identify with. It requires bathroom renovations

00:10:39.760 in order to make them more private. That is Fox News's roundabout way of saying that it's going to

00:10:45.700 allow boys to access girls' restrooms. Daily Wire reports this. A Virginia court ruled Monday,

00:10:53.380 so that's October 25th, that there's enough evidence to find that a teen, the teen that we

00:10:58.980 have been talking about, accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student in a Loudoun County

00:11:04.480 high school bathroom in May, engaged in non-consensual sex. And so he has been charged.

00:11:12.580 Now, he was also, he was charged back in the summer too. And that's when he just got the ankle monitor

00:11:18.680 and was apparently allowed to transfer schools. He is being charged again. So this whole thing

00:11:23.820 has just been a disaster. Can you imagine being the poor victims of this dude? Yesterday,

00:11:31.300 students staged a school walkout to protest the coverup of this rape by the school board. And

00:11:37.260 good for them. Good for them. Now, of course, this is not the only place where things like this are

00:11:43.040 happening. This is not the only troubling school district. Sherry Clements, who I had on

00:11:46.760 a few weeks ago, she is a mother of an eighth grader at Richardson Independent School District

00:11:53.080 in Texas. She delivered a very emotional speech before school board members about a list of 10

00:11:58.840 recommended books given to her daughter by one of her teachers. And according to Clements,

00:12:03.540 seven of the 10 books, she went through all of them, seven of the 10 books recommended by this

00:12:08.400 teacher contain profanity, sexually explicit content. We're talking about 13, 14-year-old kids.

00:12:13.980 One of the books she explains in her speech includes a graphic depiction of child

00:12:18.500 rape. One of the books also details all the different ways that a kid might be able to commit

00:12:25.060 suicide. And that is just one of the most recent examples of parents and students across the country

00:12:34.620 who are alarmed. They're registering their concerns with curriculum centered on radical ideas about sex,

00:12:42.240 about gender, about race to their school board. There was a fourth grade student in Minnesota.

00:12:47.760 She claims she was required to complete a, quote, equity survey that asked her preferred gender

00:12:54.700 identity. Students were allegedly instructed not to tell their parents about that. Also, 17-year-old

00:13:00.960 students in Ohio at Hudson High School were reportedly prompted by their teacher to write a, quote,

00:13:06.360 sex scene. They wouldn't show their mom, which obviously provoked outreach from parents, but also

00:13:11.580 the city's mayor actually went to the school board meeting and was like, what the heck? So according to

00:13:16.600 Barack Obama, these are just phony culture wars. These are just phony culture wars. And according to

00:13:22.860 Democrat candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, parents don't have the right. Parents don't have the

00:13:28.020 right to say anything about what's going on in schools and what's being taught to their kids in

00:13:31.900 schools. Now, I want you to think about what would have happened if this dad, Scott Smith, had not

00:13:36.900 complained. Clearly, he was the only adult in this scenario who cared about this victim. And yet,

00:13:44.100 the Washington Post agrees with Barack Obama, agrees with Terry McAuliffe, agrees with these school

00:13:49.920 board members who don't believe that parents should get a say in any of this. And we're going to talk

00:13:54.080 about what the Washington Post says in just one second. All right, so let me read you a little bit of

00:14:00.040 what the Washington Post is saying. So here's the title of this article. Parents claim they have

00:14:09.080 a right to shape their kids' education or shape their kids' school curriculum. They don't. Let's 0.94

00:14:16.660 read that again. Parents claim they have the right to shape their kids' curriculum. They don't. Okay,

00:14:24.760 that's what the Washington Post says. Quote, in their search for issues that will deliver

00:14:30.040 Congress in 2022, conservatives have begun to circle around the cause of, quote, parents' rights. So

00:14:37.620 that's the narrative. That the only reason parents are concerned is because Republicans want to gain

00:14:43.240 power. It's not actually valid. They also put parents' rights in scare quotes as if parents' rights

00:14:48.920 aren't real. Do you know how frightening that is? Do you know how, like, Khmer Rouge that is? How scary 0.89

00:14:55.460 that is? They go on to say, what's actually radical here is the assertion of parental powers that have

00:15:01.940 never previously existed. So get it? If you care about what your child is learning in school, you're

00:15:07.140 the radical. That's not too far from what the National School Board Association said about parents being

00:15:12.480 domestic terrorists who raise their concerns at school board meetings. The article goes on to say,

00:15:17.220 when do the interests of parents and children diverge? Generally, it occurs when a parent's

00:15:22.840 desire to inculcate a particular worldview denies the child exposure to other ideas and values that

00:15:29.020 an independent young person might wish to embrace or at least entertain. To turn over all decisions to

00:15:35.580 parents then would risk inhibiting the ability of young people to think independently. I have so many

00:15:40.660 problems with this. First of all, nothing is neutral. So this is what progressives want you to

00:15:46.660 believe. They want you to believe that it's the religious right that are the only ones who do the 0.61

00:15:51.500 indoctrinating. They're the only ones who have a bias that secularism, that progressivism is just

00:15:58.000 neutrally good. What? It's just about civil rights. It's just about compassion and empathy and inclusion

00:16:02.760 and tolerance. It's just about science. It's just about the facts. It's just about history.

00:16:07.280 They present critical race theory as it's just history. They present talking about gender identity to

00:16:15.240 five-year-olds as just inclusion and tolerance. They pretend that talking about abortion to

00:16:22.060 elementary and middle schoolers is just talking about science. They want you to believe that their

00:16:28.640 ideology, that their pseudo-religion is neutral. It's not. Nothing is neutral. As we say so often on

00:16:34.880 this podcast, neutrality is a myth. And so public schools are not teaching your child to think

00:16:42.660 neutrally and independently and looking at all different points of view. You know, that would

00:16:46.580 be fine. That's what you expect from a public school. It's not a religious school. So of course

00:16:50.020 they're going to teach about atheism. Of course they're going to teach about, you know, a variety

00:16:53.800 of things that you as a Christian parent might not teach. But they're actually in a lot of cases,

00:16:58.300 I would say in most cases at this point, not doing that. They are talking about one kind of

00:17:03.900 progressive ideology, one view of history, one view of so-called science, one view of morality,

00:17:08.460 one view of creation, or what they would, you know, call the big bang or whatever. And they're

00:17:16.340 not actually presenting all kinds of possibilities of belief systems and then equipping kids with the

00:17:22.120 tools to think critically. They're actually teaching kids a whole lot of pseudo-religious dogma,

00:17:28.480 phrases that don't mean anything like my body, my choice, or about intersectionality,

00:17:34.400 the oppressed versus the oppressor breaking down along racial and class lines. Like that is not

00:17:40.200 teaching kids to think independently and critically. That is indoctrinating them with your particular

00:17:44.500 worldview. And so what these people are actually saying, what Democrats actually think is that

00:17:49.460 teachers and the public school bureaucracy actually have more of a right to indoctrinate kids with their

00:17:55.540 worldview than you do as a parent. So kids are always going to be indoctrinated. Education for the

00:18:01.860 most part and in some ways is indoctrination. Yes, you are teaching kids how to think, but you also

00:18:07.600 have to teach them what to think. You teach them that two plus two makes four and you teach them how

00:18:13.780 to get there. But at the same time, like you are supporting a specific conclusion. If you are teaching

00:18:19.200 kids that the Holocaust was bad, which I believe is objectively true, I don't think there are alternative 1.00

00:18:25.740 views to that. You are still telling them what to think. And so, yes, you are telling kids what to

00:18:32.280 think. You also should be equipping them with the tools to draw their own conclusions and to critically

00:18:37.100 think and to ask questions. But really, when it comes to gender, when it comes to abortion, when it

00:18:42.300 comes to morality, when it comes to sexuality, when it comes to all of these issues, there is only one

00:18:47.960 conclusion on the progressive side that is being pushed in public schools. And so this article,

00:18:53.520 it's delusional, it's delusional that public schools are teaching kids to think independently

00:18:59.580 and that it's parents that are trying to inhibit that. That is a lie. Article goes on to say,

00:19:05.800 the sudden push for parental rights then isn't a response to substantive changes in education law.

00:19:11.400 It's a political tactic. So it talks about that, you know, the state has always had a role in educating

00:19:17.020 the child and that these different case laws. They support that. Well, no, the law hasn't changed,

00:19:23.640 but the ideology and the ferocity of the left and the corruption in public schools has changed.

00:19:32.060 I mean, I have never been a fan of the public school system at all for a very long time. And I

00:19:37.480 would say this has been happening for a while, but it hasn't been happening forever. I do think

00:19:43.220 public schools have always been set up for conformity and indoctrination and even some

00:19:49.420 private schools too. That's true. But the kind of stuff, the glorification of rape and pedophilia,

00:19:55.680 I am not sure, has been mainstream in public schools forever. And so again, they're trying

00:20:00.460 to obfuscate here. They're trying to get away from the main point and the valid reasons why parents

00:20:04.980 are concerned. They go on to say, for years, the Republican Party has understood that the demographic

00:20:10.160 tide is against it. Here we go. Here's the racism. Knowing that every vote matters, the GOP has

00:20:18.320 increasingly relied on a strategy of voter suppression. Simultaneously, Republicans have

00:20:25.260 worked to ensure that their base turns out in force by stoking white racial grievance. Get it,

00:20:31.780 parents? If you care about your kid learning about anal sex when they're eight years old, 1.00

00:20:37.380 it's because you're a white supremacist racist. Get that? The recent firestorm over critical race 1.00

00:20:42.600 theory is a perfect case in point. Never mind that this concept from legal scholarship isn't

00:20:48.340 actually taught in K through 12 schools. They love that line. Or can you tell I'm worked up? Or that

00:20:53.160 it isn't what most protesters believe it to be. Republicans gain an electoral advantage by convincing

00:20:58.540 their base that white children are being taught to hate themselves, their families, and their country.

00:21:04.420 Look, I don't care what you call it. I don't care if you call it critical race theory. I don't care

00:21:09.180 if you call it intersectionality. I don't care. I don't care what you call it. They absolutely are

00:21:14.780 learning the dichotomy of oppressed versus oppressor based on whether you are white or black

00:21:20.700 or brown. They absolutely are learning Howard Zinn's version of American history, which that America

00:21:27.700 is exclusively oppressive and bad. Not in every school, not in every school district,

00:21:33.240 not in every classroom. I don't think that a lot of teachers even intend to do that. But story after

00:21:38.920 story comes out on a weekly basis about school districts teaching stuff that parents didn't

00:21:44.560 realize that they were teaching and that parents don't want their kids learning. And the Washington

00:21:49.680 Post thinks that it's not up to you parents. Terry McAuliffe believes that. I'm sure that Barack Obama

00:21:56.160 believes that. It's not up to you parents to shape what your child is learning. And by the way, I

00:22:01.080 guarantee you that I could define and explain critical race theory far better, far better than

00:22:07.460 the people who wrote this Washington Post article. It's so tired. Like, don't you understand that

00:22:13.680 they're going to call you a racist no matter what? You're going to have to get over that. You're going to

00:22:17.120 have to get over that. If you want to stand for what's true. If you want to push back for the sake

00:22:22.500 of your kids, you're going to be called a racist. It doesn't matter if you're black. It doesn't matter 0.97

00:22:26.660 if you're brown. It doesn't matter what color you are, what your background is, what your socioeconomic

00:22:31.860 status is, how tolerant, how inclusive, how liberal, progressive you might be. If you stand against the

00:22:38.140 education establishment, the democratic establishment, and the liberal worldview, then you are going to

00:22:47.040 be called a bigot. So just get over it. Get over it. Don't be intimidated by it. You're just going to

00:22:52.440 have to double down because it doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter how much you nuance or

00:22:56.520 caveat your stance. If you push against what they're trying to teach kids in school, you're going to be

00:23:01.720 called a bigot. The Nation published an article by Jennifer Berkshire, and she says parents' rights has

00:23:10.440 emerged as a centerpiece of the Trump-era GOP, an aggrieved rallying cry against mandating vaccines,

00:23:17.920 masks in schools, or teaching content that parents find objectable. Again, parents' rights is in scare

00:23:23.760 quotes. Let's just remember, Democrats believe this. This is what all authoritarians have believed,

00:23:30.920 that you are an impediment to their recruitment of your child. The democratic establishment,

00:23:37.960 not all Democrats, seek to indoctrinate children with their view for the purposes of political power

00:23:43.620 and activism. And just remember, the state does not care about your child. The state wasn't there

00:23:48.200 when your child was born. The state wasn't there when you adopted your child. The state has not

00:23:51.880 sacrificed for your child. The state wasn't there when they laid that child on your chest. The state

00:23:57.740 is not there when your child cries out for mom or dad in the middle of the night, and you have to go

00:24:01.880 comfort and rock them back to sleep. The state doesn't know what your child's birthday is,

00:24:06.540 what their favorite food is, what makes them laugh, what makes them cry. They will preach

00:24:11.740 grievance and gender confusion to your kid, and they will never have to pay for the repercussions 1.00

00:24:16.660 of that. They don't care if your child ends up depressed. They don't care if your child ends

00:24:19.900 up confused. They don't care if your 15-year-old girl gets on hormone therapy and gets a double 0.94

00:24:24.140 mastectomy without your consent, as they can in some states. They do not care. The state does not care.

00:24:30.260 You care. You are the biggest obstacle, the biggest barrier between the predatory state

00:24:35.220 and your child. So now is the time to step up. Now is the time to step up. There's one mom who

00:24:41.300 is stepping up, and she is running for school board, and her name is Lisa Cousins, as I said

00:24:48.720 at the top of this episode, and she is going to show us what it means to push back against some of

00:24:54.320 the intimidation tactics that we are seeing from a variety of places. Lisa, thank you so much for

00:25:02.340 taking the time to join us. You are running for school board outside of Dayton, Ohio. Is that

00:25:08.840 correct? That's correct. I'm in Centerville, Ohio, which is just south of Dayton. And tell us why

00:25:15.560 you're running. Well, I got interested in running for school board about a year ago when the schools

00:25:25.720 had to shut down because of the 2020, the COVID, and my school decided to go not to go back. They went

00:25:33.340 remote, which put my children who were younger, I had a first grader and a third grader at the time,

00:25:41.200 in a situation where they weren't being able to learn online. And so it got me interested in looking

00:25:47.160 into the policies that were being made and why they were being made. And that prompted me to decide to

00:25:55.060 run for school board because I felt like a lot of the parents who had concerns weren't being heard.

00:26:00.800 And I wanted to make sure that parents like myself had a voice on the board.

00:26:06.080 And what are some of the other policies that you and other parents are taking issues with? Are there,

00:26:11.300 I know that mask policies are certainly contentious, and I completely understand that. We've talked a lot

00:26:17.460 about the data on our podcast. But also, there is an issue of divisive, racialized curriculum that a lot

00:26:28.240 of schools are dealing with. There's also so-called comprehensive sex education that a lot of parents

00:26:34.300 are understandably taking issue with. So what are some of the things that you're seeing in your school

00:26:38.860 district that you're hoping to change? So all of the above. So there are some questionable things

00:26:48.400 that are being taught that maybe aren't so age appropriate that are being put in the school

00:26:54.800 system, into the school libraries, particularly books that are being read that might have questionable

00:27:00.760 content. And parents aren't necessarily being notified. They're finding out after the fact.

00:27:06.940 And I've, I'd like to change things like that. I think at minimum, we need to be notifying parents.

00:27:13.340 And ideally, we wouldn't be putting any content in our schools that aren't age appropriate.

00:27:19.860 Right. Do you have any specific things that you're thinking about? Like, are there books that have

00:27:26.160 been presented to kids that you feel like are not age appropriate? Like you said that you have

00:27:30.440 elementary school kids. Was there anything specific that you have found them learning that you're like,

00:27:35.140 nope, I don't think we're, we're for that?

00:27:39.740 Yeah. So there was a book that was introduced a few, about two years ago, and it was picked for

00:27:46.700 grades four through eight. And the majority of the book has a good message. It talks about

00:27:52.540 distant, you know, disadvantaged children. But one of the main characters in the book is a 16 year

00:27:59.160 old girl who was pregnant. And in the book, she does not want to have the baby. It talks about her

00:28:05.920 wanting to kill her child and have an abortion. And this was something that was presented to fourth 0.99

00:28:11.440 graders and fifth graders. I mean, that's like, we're talking fourth grade, that's nine and 10 years

00:28:17.260 old. And we're talking about teen pregnancy and abortion. Absolutely. And to me, that's not age

00:28:23.880 appropriate content for my fifth grader. And not something that I want her to be introduced to

00:28:30.280 through the school system. And definitely not without my supervision to. And then we've also

00:28:37.180 found other library books that have been in our middle schools that have sexually explicit content

00:28:44.200 with visuals that aren't appropriate for middle school children to be seeing and why those things

00:28:52.420 are in the library. I'd like to question as well. And who's approving the materials for the library.

00:28:59.400 And when you and other parents have spoken up about this in the past, because there are a couple

00:29:03.300 news articles about Centerville school board meetings becoming quite heated. What has been the reaction

00:29:12.520 from the school board when you have raised these kinds of concerns?

00:29:16.860 Uh, there's been no reaction at all. So typically we go up, we speak, we say what we're concerned

00:29:24.180 about. And, you know, the board starts off the meeting and they say, you have three minutes to

00:29:29.660 speak. We will not address anyone as they're speaking or after they're speaking. And there's

00:29:34.640 never any followup either. So it's almost as if you're speaking to just an empty room and, and there's

00:29:42.520 no response back from the board. And that's one of the reasons I decided to run because I feel like

00:29:47.200 as a board member, we should be responsive to the parents' concerns. At minimum, we need to respond

00:29:53.040 back. Um, whether that be at the meeting or through email, none of that's happening and nobody's getting

00:29:59.780 any response. So we feel like we're not being heard at all. Yeah. Parents, it seems like are being

00:30:04.900 disrespected and ignored, obviously not in every case in every district, but it's happening enough

00:30:10.360 that it's starting to make the news, even the national news. But a local news outlet, Dayton

00:30:15.880 Daily News reported opposing sides in Centerville City Schools school board election say they have

00:30:22.720 called law enforcement to their homes in recent weeks. One incumbent seeking re-election said

00:30:27.940 Centerville police were at every interest at a recent school or at a recent board of education

00:30:33.040 meeting, helping fuel a mood which left her physically ill prior to the meeting start and led

00:30:38.040 her to text her priest. Some Centerville board meetings this year have drawn to 100 people

00:30:43.120 and police have requested, have been requested at four to keep the peace according to a department

00:30:48.920 spokesman. So what's the reason for that? Why has there been so much hubbub at these meetings

00:30:53.560 recently? I think it's a lot of media driven hubbub. I, you know, at all the meetings that I've been

00:31:00.740 to, everyone has always been civil. Nobody has ever threatened the board or gone to the board in

00:31:07.620 any violent way. I've never seen anything like that transpire. Definitely not anyone from, you know,

00:31:15.020 my side or people that I know. We've always been very civil. We come, we want our, you know, concerns

00:31:21.340 addressed, but no one has ever gone up and threatened anyone. There has been a police presence there,

00:31:28.700 but there's never any need necessarily for them to step in or anything like that. It's more just,

00:31:35.800 I guess, a precaution on the side of the board members who want to kind of paint the picture

00:31:40.520 that school board meetings are contentious, but not because there's actually an incident that has

00:31:46.820 progressed that required that kind of action. Well, and we've seen that for the National School

00:31:52.060 Board Association calling concerned parents domestic terrorists. We kind of just talked about all of

00:31:59.180 that and the temperature that is really being raised, not as much on the conservative side as

00:32:05.160 it is on the democratic side, calling these parents some kind of extremists or radicals who are really

00:32:11.140 just, of course, there have been some examples of, you know, of people raising a ruckus in a way that

00:32:17.420 is disrespectful, but for the most part, they're just parents like you saying, hey, I want some

00:32:23.140 transparency here. Like, I just have some concerns about what my child has access to in the library,

00:32:28.520 what they're learning without the knowledge and the consent of the parents. Like, that's a big deal.

00:32:33.700 And then you've got NPR. They also are highlighting what's happening in Centerville. And this kind of goes

00:32:40.500 to your point, painting a certain picture of what's happening that may or may not be accurate.

00:32:44.660 NPR says school board meetings in Centerville, Ohio, used to draw just a handful of people,

00:32:50.920 but that began to change last spring in the state and suburb when dozens showed up to a late April

00:32:55.460 meeting angry about school mask requirements. And then says these are also conservative parents

00:33:02.580 concerned about diversity curriculum. They always try to make it seem so innocuous. And they say that

00:33:10.180 this is driven by Republicans who are hoping education could be a winning issue. So basically,

00:33:16.740 what it boils down to is, oh, and then also mentions vaccine requirements. So NPR is basically trying to

00:33:23.880 say that these concerned parents in this particular suburb, but really in districts across the country,

00:33:28.720 are just anti-vax racists who are cynically using the issue of education to try to gain power.

00:33:36.620 I mean, what's your reaction to that kind of what I think is an unfair depiction of what's really

00:33:41.280 going on? Well, NPR's article was very disingenuous. We spent about two hours interviewing with NPR

00:33:50.820 before they released that radio cast. And they had interviews from myself, Heather Schultz,

00:33:59.300 and Don McGuire, who are all running together on a ticket for school board, and which they used none

00:34:06.620 of. They instead decided to pull old footage from when we went to a school board meeting addressing

00:34:14.960 our concerns about masks and asking for exemptions to be held for some of the students that need

00:34:20.680 exemptions and that Centerville wasn't accepting. And they spliced together my words from the school

00:34:27.620 board meeting, talked over what I actually said, and painted the picture and the narrative that

00:34:32.520 they wanted to play out, which was that we were crazy anti-mask candidates, that that was the only

00:34:38.940 platform that we had to sit on. And that's absolutely not true. I have 12 years of experience in the

00:34:45.440 educational field, and that's what got me involved in running for school board in the first place.

00:34:49.860 But they didn't want to use that footage. They wanted to use the footage from the meeting to paint a

00:34:55.060 picture. Do you have confidence that no matter what the national or even local media wants to

00:35:01.200 paint this as, that the people around you, Democrat, Republican, whatever, are kind of waking up to some

00:35:08.020 of the corruption in the school board, in the school system, and that because of that, that you three can

00:35:16.200 be successful in your campaign come Tuesday? I think so. I think there's a lot of support in our

00:35:23.280 community for what we're doing. There's also a lot of support behind the truth and finding out what

00:35:31.460 we are really about and not listening to outlets like NPR and the Dayton Daily News who want to

00:35:37.080 paint one picture. I think parents are concerned that that is the picture that's being painted

00:35:41.640 and that will keep some people from coming and speaking up. But I think others see this as an

00:35:47.920 opportunity to support board members that will speak on their behalf.

00:35:52.100 Right, right. And what you guys want to do, what you are setting out to do, the values that you are

00:35:58.320 purporting are very simple. They're very foundational. You believe it says that all of our children are

00:36:04.760 created equal. You're against, obviously, racism and discrimination. We're all created equal. We teach

00:36:10.920 people, we teach children to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

00:36:15.980 That used to be something that was just a given or even seen as progressive. Now that's seen by the

00:36:21.820 people who call themselves progressives is not enough. Now they insist upon dividing people by

00:36:27.100 their skin color and bringing that kind of grievance and resentment. And of course, you believe in 1.00

00:36:32.060 teaching the good and the bad and the ugly of our history, but not in a way that pits one group

00:36:37.520 against another. Or I'm guessing, I don't want to put words in your mouth, paints America as exclusively

00:36:43.780 bad and oppressive and wrong, right? Absolutely. I think it's important that we learn about history

00:36:50.740 and context. And, you know, it's easy to create this utopian view of what the world should be like

00:36:58.440 and apply that to our past, but that's not realistic. And so we need to teach history in a realistic way.

00:37:05.700 We need to be truthful about what happened. But we also need to look at our successes and see that

00:37:11.760 we have progressed. And that's part of why America is so great, because we have been able to overcome

00:37:17.960 these faults and overcome these, you know, blights on our history, you know? And I think that that is

00:37:27.640 what needs to be taught, because if you don't learn from history, you're destined to repeat it.

00:37:31.920 And I think that that's really unfortunate that we're at a place where we want to

00:37:36.200 get rid of the history that we don't like. Yeah. Yep. You're right. Well, I really applaud you for

00:37:42.960 getting involved. I'm sure maybe it's not something that you foresaw that you saw yourself

00:37:49.100 doing as you're, you know, busy in a lot of other ways, raising young kids, being a mom,

00:37:54.440 you're a small business owner. But it sounds like you feel like you are called to this at this time

00:38:00.740 because of the challenges that you're facing. Tell us how people can support you. Obviously,

00:38:05.440 if people live in your area, they should definitely go out and vote for you. But there are a lot of

00:38:11.040 people who might want to support you before Tuesday, election day, who don't live in Ohio. So how can

00:38:16.620 they do that? So anyone can go support us through our website. We do have a link that they can donate,

00:38:23.920 and that's just cousinsschultzmcquire.com. And you can go donate to our campaign. But really,

00:38:31.500 just getting the word out in our community and in other communities, because this is happening

00:38:36.300 across America. It's not just in Centerville, Ohio. I think that this is something that parents like us

00:38:42.840 want to be involved, and we want to be involved in our children's schooling and what's being taught

00:38:48.340 in our schools. And I think it's important that they support those candidates and support their values

00:38:53.080 and their own communities, and just making sure that we keep speaking up,

00:38:56.960 and that we continue this movement so that we can defend our children's right to a great education.

00:39:04.100 Yep. And they can be inspired by your courage. Courage is contagious, and you are refusing to

00:39:10.660 be daunted, to be intimidated by this huge bureaucracy that is trying to silence parents.

00:39:17.340 And kudos to you. I am hopeful for you guys that you are going to win, and I will be

00:39:24.080 cheering from afar and supporting you guys and hoping for the best. So thank you so much for

00:39:30.460 taking the time to come on. Thank you. I appreciate it.

00:39:37.560 All right, guys. That's all we've got for today. If you love Relatable, please leave a five-star review

00:39:42.560 on Apple Podcasts. That would help us out a lot. As you can tell, I'm very fired up about,

00:39:46.980 I'm very fired up about this subject. I was glad to have Lisa come on and kind of

00:39:50.620 calm us down and to remind me that there are parents who are raising a respectful ruckus

00:39:56.260 about all this craziness and pushing back, and I know a lot of you are included in that group.

00:40:00.240 So thank you. Thank you, moms and dads, for being so courageous and for standing up for the things

00:40:04.920 that matter. All right, we'll be back here tomorrow talking about Halloween.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - October 27, 2021

Ep 513 ｜ Parents： It's Time to Double Down ｜ Guest： Lysa Kosins

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