'Peak gaslighting': Desperate California teachers characterize parental rights candidates as untrustworthy

The prospect of greater transparency and restored parental involvement in children's education appears to have panicked a gang of teachers from California's Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Parental rights advocates emphasized to Blaze News that this desperation is yet another signal the tide is turning in favor of parents.

English teacher Matt Armstrong of Newport Harbor High School and a multitude of fellow travelers in the district released an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times' Daily Pilot on Thursday blasting those candidates now seeking election to the NMUSD board of trustees who would dare protect parental rights.

Although Armstrong and the op-ed's signatories refrained from naming the candidates outright, they appear to have been referring to Philip Stemler in Trustee Area 3 and Amy Peters in Trustee Area 6.

"We understand that it's fashionable in some circles to criticize public institutions and vilify teachers," wrote Armstrong and company. "With that in mind, the undersigned teachers and I want to make clear that proclaiming 'parental rights' is code for two goals: to lord over our community's teachers and to censor materials available to students."

According to the opinion piece, parents "have not been deprived of any rights" but threaten to upend Democratic laws intended to keep parents in the dark about consequential decisions regarding their children and to foist racial and LGBT propaganda on children.

Corey A. DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Culture Project and executive director at the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, told Blaze News, "Their claim that parents haven't been deprived of any rights is peak gaslighting. California politicians are fighting to keep secrets from public school parents"

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) ratified the so-called AB 1955, the so-called SAFETY Act, in July.

'They think they own other people's children.'

The law, first introduced by gay Assemblyman Christopher Ward (D) and championed by the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, prohibits school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and state special schools from introducing or enforcing rules, regulations, or policies that require employees to disclose to parents "any information related to a pupil's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression."

On account of AB 1955, parents in NMUSD are precluded from challenging the district's policy that requires educators to hide a child's so-called "transgender or gender-nonconforming status" from their parents when "appropriate."

Armstrong and company alleged in their op-ed:

If elected, these people will overrule the qualifications and experience of the educators in our schools by adopting policies intended to challenge California law. They would use their position of public trust on our nonpartisan local school board to pursue a partisan agenda to upend the California SAFETY Act. Such grandstanding will subject our district to costly litigation on a losing case. This is where 'defending parental rights' will lead us.

According to her candidate statement, Peters, a mother of three and former educator, not only wants to address the suboptimal academic outcomes in the district and its "poor fiscal health" but to "work to restore the partnership between parents and educators, and to ensure that transparent and response governance and leadership is prioritized."

The Daily Pilot indicated that Peters has been openly critical of AB 1955.

"I don't think we should be keeping that information from parents," she said at a recent forum hosted by the Harbor Council PTA at Back Bay High School. "The secrecy that's happening on school campuses drives a wedge between schools and parents and teachers and children."

Stemler, a father of two and San Bernardino County deputy district attorney endorsed by Newport Beach Mayor Will O'Neill, similarly emphasized the need for transparency in his candidate statement, noting further that "when it comes to the issues facing today's students, family is the solution, not the problem."

Stemler added, "Parental and family involvement is vital for student success. We must end policies driving a wedge between parents and students."

Both Stemler and Peters have reportedly expressed an interest in challenging state laws that undermine parental rights.

"The blizzard of state laws and regulations that are governing our schools are the reason why you need someone like me, who has experience in court and litigating and standing up for what's right," said Stemler.

After warning that if parental rights advocates were elected, choices over what students read might be localized, Armstrong and company claimed, "Those who 'fight for parental rights' don't really care about your rights or your children."

Blaze News reached out to Peters and Stemler for comment but did not receive a response by deadline.

DeAngelis told Blaze News that the claims in the op-ed "raise serious red flags. Government school employees attacking parental rights in education are the ones who cannot be trusted."

"They think they own other people's children," continued DeAngelis. "It's time for parents to hold these tyrants accountable at the ballot box."

'They look at parents as dangerous and think they should get out of the way.'

Alvin Lui, president of the parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit, told Blaze News that the "gas-lighting tactics" employed in the op-ed are now customarily advanced by government educators and administrators in K-12 — by those convinced "it's the parents that shouldn't be trusted; that they're the ones that know better."

Lui noted that the mounting pushback from parents across the nation is partly the result of such brazen anti-parent sentiment in the school system.

"The schools aren't even hiding how much they disdain parental rights," said Lui. "[Educators] believe that they know better than the parents. They believe that their values are better, that the parents are backwards or bigots. ... They look at parents as dangerous and think they should get out of the way."

This op-ed is another "great example of why more parents should push back even harder," added Lui. "It's a classic manipulator tactic: DARVO, which is deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender. That's exactly what they're doing."

Like Lui, DeAngelis noted a silver lining about the current battle in the schools.

"The good news is parents have woken up and they're never going back to sleep," DeAngelis told Blaze News. "The power of parents scares the defenders of the status quo more than anything else. That's precisely why teachers unions have resorted to attacking parents who want more of a say in their children's education."

DeAngelis added that the U.S. Supreme Court "famously ruled in 1925 that 'the child is not the mere creature of the State.' California politicians would be wise to remember those words today."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!