The conflict between school boards across the nation and the controversial nonprofit organization Moms for Liberty has reached the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, challenging school policies involving the LGBTQ+ community and racism.
The district’s Education Center in Danville was anything but normal on Aug. 15 when as crowds of people packed the building. This was in response to the attendance of Moms for Liberty, an organization sparking controversy by challenging school policies and board decisions.
Moms for Liberty was founded on Jan. 21, 2021, and has since created a distinct reputation for itself by contesting school curricula involving LGBTQ+ rights, ethnicity, or discrimination. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group is classified as an “extremist group” and “anti-government organization”.
The members of the Moms for Liberty who attended the school board meeting argued against a potential “Day of Silence ‘’ to promote awareness of LGBTQ+-centered bullying. The group also protested against the use of books focusing on LGBTQ+ rights.
“We have a voice in this community as well,” Moms for Liberty representative Lisa Disbrow said at the August board meeting.
Disbrow believes that the school board needs to re-evaluate what district schools teach their students and the content they are exposed to.
“We need to be able to sit down and look at what we are going to be planning on talking to kids about in kindergarten, in second grade, in third grade, in high school, surrounding LGTBQ events,” Disbrow said.
Disbrow expressed her concern regarding the new Day of Silence, saying that Charlotte Wood Middle School in Danville had passed a Day of Silence policy.
“The children that wanted to participate in the Day of Silence were given a necklace, if you did not participate, you did not get a necklace,” Disbrow said in the board meeting. “This divides our community. This creates bullies on the playground.”
Cal High Principal Demetrius Ball said addressed the Moms of Liberty during a press conference with The Californian.
“My understanding is that they want more parent involvement, parent rights when it comes to what their students learn in class,” Principal Demetrius Ball said. “I think there’s a movement throughout our country to get more oversight of what happens in a classroom from parents and community members.”
Cal High math teacher Bob Allen, who attended the August school board meeting to support the LGBTQ+ community, said Moms for Liberty is attempting to eliminate LGBTQ+ and race-focused content.
“Moms for Liberty tries to make school less inclusive under the facade of parent rights,” Allen said. “Parents and community members have the right to object, but Moms for Liberty targets programs and curricula that are inclusive, thought-provoking, and helpful to students.”
School board member Shelley Clark said she thinks that since parents are part of the community the school board seeks their participation and opinions in decisions being made.
“They’re one of our stakeholders, just like our students and our teachers,” Clark said.
Certain material and curricula taught in schools seem to stir up controversy within the district’s community.
“There are many divergent views in our district about some of the issues that have come up in the last year and I’ve stood firm in my beliefs about the books that are in our libraries, that students have a right to that information, and that they have a right to see themselves in our curriculum,” Clark said. “I think the problem comes when we have very divergent views, and we are unable to kind of reconcile those views.”
With the new addition of the “Banned Books” section in the library, librarian Nikki Ogden agrees that how appropriate a book is depends on the person reading it.
“We have huge maturity level differences, especially here in high school, right? We have 18 to 14-year-olds, and that dependent age doesn’t necessarily determine how mature you are and how ready you are for material, like what you read,” Ogden said. “So my objection to [Moms For Liberty] is that they’re taking it unilaterally, deciding a decision for people they haven’t met, they don’t know who they are and their stories.”
Freshman Siona Saurabh said that Moms for Liberty is especially infamous for its protest against books covering sensitive topics.
Freshman Jane Blinston agrees, saying the organization doesn’t fight for the greater good but rather for their individual beliefs and ideals. She believes the group tries to apply these beliefs to every student, not just their own children.
“The Moms for Liberty is hilariously misnamed,” Saurabh said. “It should be called Moms for Censorship with all the books they ban simply for mentioning LGBTQ or racism.”
Ogden said that her main problem is Moms for Liberty tries to take away other parents’ rights to advocate for their children as well.
“They’re not saying I don’t want my child reading this. They’re saying, I don’t want any child to read this,” Ogden said. “And they’re really taking away that personal choice of individual families.”
Many people think Moms for Liberty is robbing the school and its faculty of their expertise.
“I think it’s taking away the expertise that our educators have when someone that’s outside of education is trying to make a determination about what’s appropriate and what’s not,” Ball said. “Educators go to school for a lot of years and are continuously learning and trying to be responsive to the needs of our students and to the needs of the community.”
Ogden agrees, saying that the school’s job is to set parameters and guidelines to prevent students from content that’s not appropriate.
“I think one of our jobs as a school is to help kids learn their boundaries and make smart choices for themselves,” Ogden said. “We all know that every human being has a different life experience, right? They have different things that they’re comfortable with or uncomfortable with. Because of that, different reading materials are triggering to some people that aren’t to others.”
Stop Moms for Liberty activist Charlotte Gracer, who has two students at Cal, believes a decrease in awareness of certain issues can have a detrimental effect on the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth and other students.
“The suicide rates of LGBTQ kids have been really high recently,” Gracer said.
Similarly, Allen said the main problem is that Moms for Liberty is preventing all students from inclusive and beneficial education, which affects everybody.
“All of our kids deserve to be supported, including the LGBTQ community,” Clark said. “And I stand to protect all students, including them.”
Clark agrees that district students do feel harmed or threatened by organizations like Moms for Liberty.
“There have been instances in our boardroom where students were present and they were upset by some of the things that were being said,” Clark said. “Student voice is one of the most important things and I think it’s everybody’s right to express their opinion, but that doesn’t mean that person or that organization is going to get their way, because there’s a lot of other factors that come into making a decision like that.”
Gracer said she’s concerned for children who grow up with toxic and close-minded ideologies because they’re not exposed to the LGBTQ+ community through education is similar to growing up in a “bubble.”
“[Stop Moms for Liberty’s] main goal is to protect our children,” Gracer says. “Targeting our children is unacceptable.”
