Station:    Facebook, America’s Mom @Sherronna

Show:       America’s Mom with Sherronna Bishop

Guests:    Williams, Emily

Link:        https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2F2xudoDq3bZU%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR0Z5x_AIxRorBuHQ2VilCTLFPW1sunXzpHNqd9zb1kCL0PxYaH7o398Tv4&h=AT1j2D75Wn4fzBX0e4AAUMynK0PXfECCOW1nyBouwFtxRi_pO8rXBxQKGD6aAQU3NoJKqMJ_AAJaOeNvrXMcpr6SSxy9_sN16ICpaluK_BsvkCVOtAWFOQklK5XkBBVELZ7XWfKbegbKaV0RbQ

Date:       November  1, 2019

Topics:     HB19-1032, Comprehensive Sex Education, Monument Resolution, HB19-1192, Minorities and Civics Bill,

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EDUCATOR, WIFE OF REP. DAVE WILLIAMS, & ACTIVIST EMILY WILLIAMS [00:00:08] OK, so eleven ninety two is a ‘Minorities and Civics Bill,’ and the title doesn’t sound that bad, It doesn’t sounds terrible. But once again, you have a situation where other states have passed a bill similar to this, and when you look at what those other states are implementing when it comes to state standards and curriculum and handouts, it gets very concerning. Some of it is blatantly politically biased and very inappropriate as far as politics in the classroom. But you also have a very concerning category, which is this bill basically labeled LGBTQ people as a new minority. It’s a — it’s a class of people. So you’ve got Native Americans, you’ve got African-Americans —  I don’t know all of them off the top of my head that the bill listed, but LGBTQ people are listed as one of them. So, you have a bunch of different people of different races and then you have LGBTQ, which is not a race. So it’s an interesting classification. But part of it is that this bill requires the cultural instruction about those minorities to be integrated into civics classes. And one of the things that we’re seeing is that it’s very advancing– it’s very promoting — of an LGBTQ culture and lifestyle. And some people look at that and go, “Oh! Well, it’s inclusive.” And other people look at that and go, “Well, I don’t agree with those viewpoints or those philosophical beliefs or those religious beliefs, but that’s being taught to my child as fact, as reality, as that’s the way it is.” And so, once again, you’re really starting to overstep parents and their role with their children and how they raise them. And the other issue is, this starts to get very political. We’re seeing things like — you know, instead of focusing on the founding fathers and the Constitution and the beliefs that that were molded into the constitution, they focus on the fact that the founding fathers may have owned slaves. And it’s used to kind of discredit the founding fathers and then, in turn, discredit the Constitution. We’re seeing this as a huge area where socialist ideas are being promoted. And so they’re they’re belittling and degrading — you know — capitalism and freedom and, you know, everything our country was founded on. And then on the other hand, they’re promoting socialism, communism, things like that. So it’s getting very, very political in nature. The other issue with this particular bill for Colorado is that [HB19-]1192 actually went even a step further than [HB19-]1032 as far as the state overreach in messing with the instruction and that authority with the school boards. Within [HB19-]1192, that bill itself created a commission, and this commission is going to basically have oversight of the school districts. Each school district has a curriculum review committee that meets every so often, they look through curriculum, and that committee — it’s a whole process, that committee kind of decides what’s going to be implemented for their district. This commission that [HB19-]1192 created is now going to play an active role with districts in developing content curriculum programs for [these] particular standards to meet [HB19-]1192. And that’s never been done before, as far as I know. And it shouldn’t have been done, because the state has no business developing curriculum for school districts. It is not their job. It’s not their role. Now, who is on the commission? What is the commission? What who makes it up? Well, so, for all of the different minority groups that were listed out in the bill, there are people from those groups that get appointed to the commission appointed, meaning they’re chosen. They’re just picked. Who gets to pick them, you might ask? Governor Polis does. So, Liberal Governor Polis is going to get to cherry pick a commission that is going to have oversight about the civics classes that get taught in our school districts. We literally have Denver and Boulder dictating what is taught in El Paso County. And I don’t know about where everybody else lives, but fun fact: El Paso County is the fourth largest Republican county in the country. And Boulder and Democrats are going to tell us what to teach our kids.

YOUTUBE BROADCASTER, VOLORADO CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST, & ORGANIZER SHERRONNA BISHOP, AKA “AMERICA’S MOM” [00:05:27] I smell a lawsuit coming.

WILLIAMS [00:05:31] That’s hopefully what we’re working towards, and that actually ties in very well to the next part. So, thank you for the set up, Shirrona!  So, the whole point of tonight is the Monument resolution. I kind of gave you some background a little bit. Now we move on to the Monument resolution. What is it? What does it do? What’s the point? So the Monument resolution is something that was written up and passed by the Monument School Board in District 38. The resolution itself was basically almost like a notice of intent to a group called CASB.. It’s C-A-S-B.  CASE is a group — it’s an association across the state of other board members. So other school board members from all over join this group. It’s supposed to be like professional development and how to be a school board member and things like that. You know, you pay your dues. Well, CASB has a lobbyist. They lobby the state legislature, supposedly on behalf of education and supposedly in what is in the best interests of schools and school districts for the state of Colorado. FYI, CASB supported [HB19-]1032 and [HB19-]1192. So, needless to say, they are very left-leaning. They are very biased. It isn’t necessarily about what’s best for children. It’s definitely pushing an agenda. So anyways, this Monument resolution was a notice of intent to CASB, saying, “Look, you know, you may have supported these bills or you may be lobbying on behalf of these bills, but we feel like these bills violate our authority of local control.” And they cited — Monument cited [HB19-]1032 as an example. So they said, “You know, [HB19-] 1032 is starting to get into our territory, now. And and we should be picking instruction. We should be deciding, and [HB19-]1032 is violating that.” And in that statement, they also listed out that they intend to not teach or implement [HB19-]1032. So that was huge. That’s a big deal. That’s a line in the sand. Okay, before they passed that, I was actually working with several people in the Monument School District area to try and get a separate resolution passed. This one wound up coming through and getting passed. And so the people that I’m working with, we kind of switched gears and took the Monument resolution and we’ve been trying to get that passed in other districts. The reason why it’s important is that school boards have far more authority than they realize, perhaps, or than they are willing to take credit for. And we either need our school board members to get informed or get a backbone. There is either a lack of information or a lack of courage. Or maybe they just need to be recalled or voted out. Those are your options. And so, if you take this D 38 resolution, this Monument resolution, it’s a really good template to take to other districts to say, :Hey, do something similar to this. Pass something similar to this.” Maybe they tweak it a little bit — you know, whatever. CASB actually recently did a statement  — a standing resolution — saying that they support local control. That sounds like a win. And [HB19-] 1032 would fall under that. But at the end of the day, it really comes down to, “Okay, that’s great. Is my school district still going to implement [HB19-]1032 or not? I’m working with several school districts here. Colorado Springs is a little bit different than some of the other areas; we have several school districts in one county, several school districts in one city. And I have a home district where I live that I’m working very hard in, but I’ve also been trying to help organize and lead the charge in a couple of other districts out here just because I live in Colorado Springs. This is this is my home. So that being said, for those of you that are interested, take a look at that Monument resolution. Find some other parents. Find other community members. I’ve reached out to parents of kids that go to the school. I’ve reached out to homeschooling parents. I’ve reached out to private school parents. I’ve reached out to elderly people whose kids are grown and gone. All of those people have a vested interest. And most of them might come back and say, “Well, I don’t know if I’m a good candidate. I homeschool or, you know, I don’t have kids in the school.” Here’s the fact, okay? If you live in that area, I don’t care what kind of school your kids go to or if they’re grown and gone, your tax dollars are going to that school district. They are tax payers. That entitles them to an opinion. That entitles them to a right to speak. And guess what:  those people still get a ballot and still get to vote for school board members, whether they have kids that go there or not, because their tax dollars do. So, all of those people, regardless of their circumstances with their kids in schools or whatever, have a vote and their taxpayer dollars go to that district. So they have a right to speak up. End of story. I’ve tried to encourage people to make it personal. There are some parents who homeschool that came to D-49 — [that] is my home district. And they say, “Hey, we homeschool. And this is why, because we can’t trust the school district to be a line of defense against this stuff.  Or, “Hey, we go to a charter school and here’s why, it lines up with our beliefs,”  and “Here’s why we’ve pulled our kids out of public school,  or “Hey, I have grandkids!”  There are a lot of elderly people who have grandkids in the different school districts. And that’s huge because everybody appreciates and respects a grandparent’s heart. And oftentimes, you know, you see grandparents, maybe they help take care of the kids after school because mom and dad are working. So they’re caretakers, too. And that counts. That all matters. So, Sharona, I believe you gave everybody a copy of the facts — [the] fact sheets — that I did up, right?  Okay.  So, um, those I created just for some basic information. I actually created those during the legislative session so that people have that information when they were calling up their representatives and they could be armed with information to talk with them. Or, it could help, like, if they’re writing an email, they had some facts that they could include in the email as to why they had a problem with things or what their opinion was on it. Those are great education tools. Hand those out at school board meetings. Hand those out to people at grocery stores. Hand those out to your friends and neighbors, and use those as a tool. I don’t care if people know that I created them. I don’t care if I get the credit. That’s not what it’s about for me. It is simply about getting the information out there and helping people weed through all of that. Some of these bills, like [HB19-] 1032, are complicated. You’re dealing with legal language. I’ve worked very closely with a legislative liaison who is like an encyclopedia on all things education. And Sharona, if you think you learned things from me every time you talk to me, you should talk to this lady. Sometimes I feel bad because I call her 10 times a day and we talk about the same section of law over and over and over because it’s just not sinking in for me or, you know, I have questions, or somebody challenges me and I forget something, or whatever. This is complicated. It’s a lot. So those fact sheets are designed to simplify things for people and really get to the meat of what is in those bills without all the complicated legalese that they throw in there. So please use those. And when you go to the school boards, sometimes these guys don’t know what’s going on. A lot of school board members, maybe they’re retired, maybe they work other jobs. They are relying on a lot of their information from their district lawyers or maybe they have some curriculum development people that are handling these things. And while the school board members are accountable to us, the people that are educating them are not accountable to us. And if that’s where they’re getting their information, sometimes it can make it very difficult for them to be on your side or to see what the problem is. When I was looking at D-49 and their breakdown of [HB19-] 1032, all they talked about was basically, “Yeah, we’re going to have some things that we have to change and implement.” That was it. There was no conversation about, you know, if this is even something parents want. There was no conversation about how controversial it was. There really wasn’t a whole lot into it. Now, I organized parents to go and community members to go, and then we had a good talk about it. Then there were some discussion, but it wasn’t until we organized and showed up. Don’t be afraid to use the carrot and the stick with them. The first time you talk with board members, give them the benefit of the doubt. Make it about educating them. Make it about expressing your concerns. Give them an opportunity to respond in a positive way. But don’t be surprised if they don’t. Don’t be surprised if they downplay it. Don’t be surprised if they react harshly with you.