Do American Children Belong to the State or Their
Parents?
By Deanna Rudisill
“To raise a child, it sometimes takes a village, but sometimes, that village should
shut up and mind their own business.” – American Poet Susan McLean
USA: As public school policies and curriculums make radical changes across the country, many parents are voicing their objections at the schools. What they are finding is that their school boards are not interested in any parental input.
Should parents just give their children’s safety and moral upbringing over to the state? Whose children are they?
Karl Marx said children should be handed over to the state to mold and educate as soon as they no longer need their
mothers. But we are not a Marxist state, right?
“Education is a weapon which is determined by the hands which wield it, by who is to be struck down,” Joseph
Stalin. But this is America, not the Soviet Union. Isn’t it? The parents in Louden County, Virginia, and counties across the US may not be so sure.
When it comes to their children, parents are not backing down and some of our leaders are standing up against the
Department of Education. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and Florida Governor Ron Desantis are fighting for parents’ rights and passing policies that protect their families’ abilities to choose what their children learn.
This battle is unfolding across the whole country but Louden County has drawn the attention of the national spotlight. Its parents have been arrested and brutalized by a radical hate group, which will never find its way onto the Southern Poverty Law Group’s terrorist watch list, but the parents may. The media later discovered that the hate group was peopled by acting politicians, school staff, and school board members. Although they did not participate in any death threats, they did violate the parents’ constitutional rights.
It began in 2022. Louden County school teacher Tanner Cross was placed on administrative leave in 2022 for denouncing a proposed policy that would put transgender females in the girl’s bathrooms and locker rooms.
The Virginia Supreme Court later upheld reinstating Cross. Louden County father Jon Tigges was, according to ABC-7 news, cuffed and arrested in 2022 for speaking at an over 700-strong school board meeting after Superintendent Scott Ziegler abruptly told all parents to immediately leave or be charged with trespassing. Tigges kept talking and was arrested.
Only a third of the parents signed up to speak that evening had received the chance to address their children’s school board. A judge later exonerated Tigges on the grounds of the First Amendment. Three weeks before, a transgender female had raped a ninth-grade girl in a Louden County bathroom. The assailant was moved to another high school, in the same district, and then he sexually assaulted a second female student. The rapist was later arrested and convicted in both cases. He was also made to register as a sex offender. In the first case, the young man, who was later described as trans-fluid, was charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy, and one count of forcible fellatio.
Ziegler had shortly before the “mass threat of arrests,” stated that there had “never been a sexual assault in Louden County Schools.” The parents were shocked.
None of them were allowed to counter or even state their concerns on the fraudulent statement, not even the raped
ninth-grader’s father Scott Smith. He too was arrested, bloodied, and dragged from the meeting. To date, a district court judge has dropped one of his two charges.
According to The National Review, a grand jury later charged Superintendent Ziegler with false publication, prohibited conduct, and penalizing an employee for a court appearance. Louden County Public Information Officer Wayde Byard, who denied any knowledge of a sexual assault in a Louden County school bathroom – in court, was charged with one count of felony perjury. The school board then fired Ziegler after a jury found that “district administrators pursued their own interest instead of that of their students,” stated The National Review.
In other words, pushing their agenda in lieu of the best interest of the children. This unfortunately was not the end of Louden County’s story. The persecution continued. The militant group “Love Louden Warriors” started ripping parents’ and families’ lives apart and then later escalated to death threats.
Fox News said, “Parents say they have become targets of violent threats on social media for speaking out against the school district’s LGBTQ agenda.” Area mother and co-founder of “Army of Parents” Alisha Brand was threatened by, what started as a Facebook group, the LLW. “They said that they wanted to curb stomp me,” Brand told “Fox & Friends” of threats made on the LLW Facebook page. “Army of Parents” was described by Brand as a “501(c)(4) that advocates for excellence in education, school safety, and parental rights.” The group has spoken out on transgender women in female bathrooms, LGBTQ sexual subjects, and critical race theory in their children’s curriculum and library.
Parents have recently discovered pornographic material in their school libraries. Not harlequin-like books but actual
books with cartoons showing two young boys performing fellatio, etc… And not in just a few counties, the problem is
nationwide. Speaking out against such issues, however, may not be safe. If you do not praise debauchery in even K-3rd grade, you are a hater. Just ask Governor Desantis. That is the Machiavellian falsely misnamed “Don’t say gay” law that Disney is bashing him about. The message is clear, do not even think to protect the children.
Brand’s death threat was brutal. She stated on Fox & Friends, that everyone may not be aware of what curb stomping is, “But what it does entail is grabbing somebody by the back of the head, forcing their mouth open, pushing them down to the ground with their face on the cement, their mouth around the curb, and then somebody else stomping on the back of their head,” she continued. She later said, “This is murder… it is a felony.” It strikes fear.
Mark Winn, the father of a local student, told WJLA that he learned of messages on the group’s site threatening his life and livelihood after he addressed the school board in December. The threats were carried out. Jobs were lost and lives were devastated. Father Scott Mineo told WJLA, he was fired after one member of the “love” group addressed his employer. “They went after my job,” Mineo said. “That happened in early February. They referred me to the FBI, IRS, and DHS all because they don’t like my opinion.”
“They’re probably going to sit back and celebrate the fact that I’m unemployed,” he added.
“I’m having a hard time finding a job. And who knows what’s next with the IRS and the FBI? I don’t know. But they’ve done more than just put me out of a job. It’s impacting my family, my kids.”
Some of the “Louden Love Warriors” posted photos of their guns and bragged about using them against parents.
Other posts included, “I am so ready to show up with guns,” “Lives need to be ruined beyond repair,” and, “Let’s actually destroy them… grind them.”
The threats eventually lead the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office to launch an investigation into the group.
The terrorizing also reached the attention of Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.
“My reaction to what are they calling themselves – the ‘Love Warriors Group’ — there’s nothing but hate in that group,” Earle-Sears told the WJLA.
“From what I’m understanding, if the reports are true, and I don’t react to it as lieutenant governor, I react to it as a normal, sane human being, when you hear what this group is trying to do, they’re trying to destroy lives. They’re going to make sure you definitely have a loss of employment, you will possibly lose your life because they’re talking about [disassembling] you, and they’re also possibly going to shoot you.” In other words, terrorists.
The story is still playing out but the outcome for American families is still up to the parent. If the state is indoctrinating our children we may simply deny them access. Because the answer to their claims that our children are theirs is an ever-resounding – NO!
If they have our children’s minds, if they pollute their souls, it will be too late. They will be theirs and not ours. You may talk until you are blue in the face, but they will see us, our God, and our democratic thoughts as foolishness, and many of them will hate us.
“Don’t let them rule you, don’t even let them school you… Oh no!” – Bob Marley
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DeAnna Rudisill is a U.S. Army Veteran and long-time journalist. She left a 20-year jaunt in the secular media to write the unadulterated truth and bring God back into the public forum, finding her niche at Blue Ridge Christian News / BRCNews.Com.
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