Lead Editorial: Parental control
Parent advocacy for aspects of their children’s education is important, but when it becomes a danger to others, they have to change the way they advocate.
From the October 2021 issue of tjTODAY.
Death threats sent to Loudoun County school board members.
Parents rioting outside a Tennessee school, banging on its closed doors.
In today’s world of controversy and conflict, we sometimes forget that there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed. However, current discussions surrounding America’s schools have been increasingly influenced by outraged parents around the nation, polarizing issues from mask and vaccine mandates to the validity of teaching critical race theory. This effect has been even more prevalent in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), where the presence of suggestive material in school libraries and changes to Jefferson’s admissions process have been hot topics of debate at Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) and school board meetings alike.
While input from parents is valuable and impactful, their actions must also be respectful and remain within reasonable bounds. Violent reactions to policy-related concerns such as the death threats recently levied against Loudoun County School Board members are unacceptable. They create an environment that intimidates would-be participants, alienating those prospective members from joining discussions and sharing their perspectives. Additionally, attempts to disparage school board members, teachers, or administrators via social media and news channels have no place in education advocacy. Although parents are important members of the Jefferson community and the policy changes related to it, they are not the main stakeholders. Teachers and students are.
To address this issue, it is important that parents find ways to advocate for their beliefs without crossing these undrawn lines. For example, sending letters or emails to the Jefferson administration or staff allows for opinions to be expressed with minimal disruption to proceedings within the Jefferson community. Speaking at School Board meetings is another way in which parents can voice their opinions to a larger audience. When addressing contentious subjects such as critical race theory or admissions policies, it is important that parents leave room for other parties to comment. Finally, parents must recognize that educators and school members are professionals — addressing education and educational issues is their job, and they have more knowledge of how to further educational systems than most parents. Parents’ individual beliefs or opinions may not always be highlighted in school system actions, but the people behind these motions are usually better informed.
As a school, Jefferson is undergoing a period of massive change. As a community, we have the power to effect that change and what direction the school will take in the future. It is important that Jefferson’s stakeholders make their voices heard, but it is just as important to ensure that those with the ability to create change have the best possible environment to foster that change.
![The Jefferson dance team performs between the third and fourth quarter of the varsity girls basketball game. “A lot of the time, the captains choreograph a dance for us to practice during [practices] and at home,” junior Holly Huang said.](https://www.tjtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_1369-600x450.jpeg)
Parvathi Rachakonda • Nov 30, 2021 at 10:34 am
Good work TJToday staff. Kudos for picking up a contentious topic and writing about it to create the necessary awareness. I love that the article does not ask that advocacy be stopped but calls for it to take on a better form – in a more civil and respectful way. Afterall, that is what we want our kids to be taught in school.
Par Rachakonda • Nov 29, 2021 at 8:58 pm
Good work TJToday staff. Kudos for picking up a contentious topic and writing about it to create the necessary awareness. I love that the article does not ask that advocacy be stopped but calls for it to take on a better form – a more civil and less harmful way. Afterall, that is what we want our kids to be taught in school! Civility and respect for others.
Kate Carey • Nov 29, 2021 at 8:38 pm
Bravo! I read your article carefully and appreciated your insights. I like how you recommend that parents use email and School Board meetings to offer their opinions (don’t waste people’s time), and that they not cross lines of civility. That’s an important suggestion one would not have needed to make a few years ago, but now it is important.
You correctly mentioned death threats in Loudoun Co. It has also been documented that a few FCPS members have also received death threats. I have personally seen some of the threats on twitter and from FB. You are correct in what you say.
It’s interesting to listen to everyone’s ideas, and those people who love to talk must also remember to listen to others and not to simply harass and frighten them.
We want to keep our teachers and school advocates who are already working under a lot of strain in their jobs. Well intentioned school board members take up their jobs out of civic duty and not for the paltry salary. We need those people most of all; people who want to work for the students and not a political platform.
It has been a difficult couple years for students, school board members, school nurses, and teachers. Parents need to support them more than ever. Fewer and fewer people are going into these fields just when we need more teachers and staff to help us recover from learning loss.
Thank you for your invaluable student voices. Your opinions should help parents keep their own in check as you remind us of what is important.
Mark Williams • Nov 10, 2021 at 8:34 am
This article kind of makes you wonder what sort of punishment parents should mete out on TJ Today staff children who just implicitly accused them of being death-threatening rioters. Civility indeed!
Brian Davison • Nov 9, 2021 at 12:45 pm
This viewpoint is patently absurd.
And this article is based on lies. There were no death threats to Loudoun SB members. None. True threats are illegal ln addition to being unacceptable. But there have been no arrests because no threats were made. Falsifying threats is but one tactic used by SB members to silence criticism over the incompetence of school boards and admintrators.
The opinion states that teachers and administrators are supposedly better informed than parents. This is demonstrably false. The teachers and administrators of Fairfax, Loudoun and the participating districts knowingly violated federal law under NCLB for years. That is not just my opinion but that of the Asst US Attorney and general counsel of the US DoE. Teachers claim CRT has not been Incorporated in Fairfax schools yet the chief equity officer participated in Fairfax professional development meetings THIS year directing history teachers to use critical race theory as a lens to history. The premise of CRT is embedded in VDOE and Fairfax equity statements noting that unless racial groups have equal student outcomes, there can be no “equity”. When teachers and administrators openly lie with contempt for parents, it is outright fraud for the TJ Today staff to claim they are more informed.
All of this would be moot if our government funded educational system operated like our government funded healthcare system (Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP). In healthcare, you pick your doctor even if the government pays. When your doctor is incompetent, you get another. In education, you are assigned teachers by a government bureaucrat. When your child gets an incompetent one, the bureaucrat laughs and says tough luck (knowing that many are incompetent). Were we to have a market based system like the US was founded upon, you would not hear any disputes. You would simply read about the mass exodus of parents and students from government schools as they used their $20k+/year vouchers (yes, taxpayers spend over $20k to educate children in NOVA… ask any teacher and I will bet none of them know the approximate amount) in more effective private or charter schools. And lest the admins and teachers howl accusations of “racism” as they fear unemployment, know that 70%+ of black parents support vouchers and school choice.
Lastly, one has to seriously question the integrity of the TJ newspaper sponsors. When journalists of any stripe (even students) base their conclusion on lies, they become propagandists. It is a shame that any TJ student would participate in this false narrative.