A Minnesota mom and parental rights activist fears her black daughter’s public school is “grooming” her to hate her white parents.
Jill McLaughlin pointed to Peter Hobart Elementary School’s recent participation in “Black Lives Matter at School Week” as an example.
“We were notified via email on a Thursday that that very week was Black Lives Matter at School Week,” McLaughlin said of the Feb. 9 newsletter.
She believes the school intentionally kept this hidden from parents until the last minute, noting that there was no mention of BLM in a schedule of Black History Month activities sent to parents at the beginning of the month.
“They absolutely tried to hide it from parents,” she said. “They knew that they were going to do this.”
The school told McLaughlin that its newsletter regularly goes out on Thursdays and said it didn’t have information on the BLM week ready to go the week prior.
“They’re lying,” McLaughlin said.
The newsletter itself claims that the BLM week is necessary because students frequently “share that racism is an issue they feel passionate about addressing.”
But McLaughlin’s daughter is black and said it’s not something her 9-year-old is passionate about at all.
“She comes to her own intelligent conclusions before I’m ever able to articulate my feelings about it,” McLaughlin said.
In fact, her daughter raised concerns in the past after being given another assignment called a “racial autobiography.”
“She said, ‘Why does it have to be a racial autobiography? Why can’t it just be an autobiography?’” McLaughlin said her daughter asked her. “She’s a smart kid and she’s not falling prey to a lot of the messaging going on at the school.”
According to its website, BLM at Schools is a national coalition “fighting for racial justice in schools.” It has 13 “guiding principles,” including “globalism,” “queer affirming,” and “trans affirming.”
“We are committed to disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, and especially ‘our’ children to the degree that mothers, parents and children are comfortable,” the coalition says.
The coalition is wholeheartedly endorsed by the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country.
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, whose co-founder Patrisse Cullors described herself as a “trained Marxist,” came into disrepute in 2021 when the New York Post exposed Cullors’ lavish lifestyle.
“We’re going to pass on providing a statement and instead communicate directly with families who bring their concerns to our attention,” St. Louis Park Public Schools told Alpha News.
‘Plastered with propaganda’
McLaughlin said the walls of her daughter’s elementary school are “plastered with propaganda,” providing Alpha News with several examples.
“As far as the ambient propaganda that’s on the walls, it is thick at Peter Hobart,” she said.
McLaughlin formed a nonprofit, Good Trouble Parents, to be a voice for mixed-race and transracially adoptive families like her own. It was formed in response to Minnesota’s “Good Trouble Principals” group, which is now defunct. McLaughlin renamed her organization to the Protective Parent Coalition and wants to focus on telling the stories of families like hers.
“Critical race theory has specific harms for families like mine because these kids are being groomed to believe and to think that white people are oppressors and that black people are oppressed. So for a transracially adoptive family, she could be groomed to believe that her white parents are oppressing her,” McLaughlin said.
She said the district has attempted to paint her as a “radical Karen,” but there are many other parents “who are really concerned about what’s going on, too.”
She encouraged other parents to pay attention and not be afraid of speaking out. McLaughlin provides a list on her website of the best questions to ask.
“Parents do have the right to inspect curriculum under the data practices act,” she reminded others. “But if they’re not being open and transparent about lessons, then how do we know what to inspect?”
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Liz Collin
Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
