ANNAPOLIS, Md. — “The people in this statehouse seem to think that our children belong to them,” Harford County Moms For Liberty Chair, Suzie Scott, said as she addressed the crowd.
Moms, dads, grandparents, and kids rallied at the Capitol today with a message for lawmakers:
“We are here to defend the fundamental right that we hold dear - the right of parents to direct the upbringing of our children,” Jonathan Alexandre from the Maryland Family Institute said from the podium.
The rally was hosted by Moms for Liberty, a national organization that was launched in response to pandemic-related restrictions at schools. But parents here today said it was COVID that pulled back the curtain into what their kids were being exposed to in the classroom, and that's how the movement has grown into something much bigger.
“You're home and you're hearing all this stuff that they're talking about, you're watching your kids get depressed and disillusioned and then you just start peeling the onion,” Jaime Brennan, a Frederick County mother of two high-school students.
A big topic on a lot of the parents’ minds is sexually explicit materials in schools.
“What they're doing with the pornography in the schools, with keeping parents not involved or even knowing what's going on in their children's lives, it's devastating. People have got to wake up,” Shari Wilcoxon from Talbot County said.
“I don't need my child learning about certain things that it's my responsibility to teach, which we will do, when it's appropriate,’ Joni Palko, a Carroll County mother of two, said. “I want to keep him innocent, that's my job,” referring to her third-grade son.
"Basically, our rights don't stop at the door. They extend into the schoolhouse. So we just want to make that known. We should be partners with our teachers and administrators and not in opposition with them,” Kit Hart, Harford County Moms For Liberty Chair, and mother of five, said.
Republican lawmakers also stopped by the rally to share with parents what they're doing this legislative session specifically to protect kids.
Delegate Nino Mangione, who represents Baltimore County, talked about two bills. One aims to keep sexually explicit materials out of schools.
"Some of the opposition I think is - they're misconstruing this by saying it has something to do with anti-LGBT or anti-trans, no, it's not about sexual behavior. It's about the sexually explicit material in the books. That's all it is. We're just trying to get that out. It has no academic value, no basis whatsoever in a child's school," he told WMAR-2 News after his speech.
The second bill, the Student Protection Act, is still being drafted, and its goal is to keep child sexual predators out of schools.
“The Student Protection Act is probably the single most important thing I can be a part of in this session in particular,” Mangione said.
Delegate Kathy Szeliga, who also represents Baltimore County, spoke about her “Fairness In Girls Sports Act."
“High school JV and Varsity girls' sports should be for?” she asked the audience, to which they responded, “Girls!” “You get it! It’s that simple,” Szeliga said.
And Senator Justin ready, who represents Carroll County, wants to codify parental rights into state law.
“Not controversial. The Supreme Court, not this supreme court, previous supreme courts, have established that the right for a parent to direct the care, nurturing, and upbringing of their child, is an absolute fundamental right.”
"It's our obligation to care for them, but also our right to raise them, in our family, with our family values, and our morals and our expectations. And I think establishing control of that, and codifying that, is super, super important,” mom Jaime Brennan said.
After the rally, parents went and visited their local legislators in Annapolis - as they put it, both friends and foes - to get their message out.
