Loudoun County school board has shown a ‘complete unwillingness’ to be ‘accountable’: Ian Prior
Executive Director of Fight for Schools Ian Prior discusses the Loudoun County school board's decision to vote against releasing an internal report of their handling of two sexual assaults.
This week, the Parents Bill of Rights (H.B.5) will be debated on the floor of the House of Representatives. This bill will help provide greater transparency in public schools, give parents statutory rights alongside their Constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children, and pressure our public education system to focus on academics instead of social indoctrination.
Having helped led the fight in Loudoun County, Virginia, it is a testament to the hard work of parents that House Republicans have made this a priority in the new Congress. But this bill will not fix our broken school system – it merely provides a powerful new tool for parents. It is thus incumbent upon us to continue our efforts to make meaningful and lasting change.
To do that, we must be strategic, recognize our advantages and disadvantages, and know when, where, and how to take the fight to our local activist school boards and their allies.
This week I release a new book, "Parents of the World Unite! How To Save Our School From The Left’s Radical Agenda," in which I document the successes the parents in Loudoun County had in shining the spotlight of accountability on America’s most notorious public school administration and school board. The story is told through 12 strategic rules that helped guide our actions over the past two years but can also be used to maximum effect by parents and parent groups throughout the country.
LOUDOUN COUNTY BOARD FLAMED FOR VOTING TO KEEP STUDENT SEX ASSAULT REPORT UNDER WRAPS
These are those rules:
Every Neighborhood Is a Battlefield.
Pay attention to what happens on your street and in your community. The infection of cancel culture and wokeism is not limited to the federal government, corporate boardrooms, professional sports, or Hollywood but has arrived next door.
Activate, Investigate, Communicate.
Every parent can be a private investigator into the moral corruption of the schools that they pay for and send their children to. With key tools like the Freedom of Information Act, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, and targeted media outreach, anyone can start to shine the spotlight of accountability on their school district.
Always Flip the Script.
With a combination of fearlessness and humorous mockery, parents can punch through the far left’s most potent psychological tool—fear of cancel culture—and bring the fight to the bullies.
Identify the "Bad Guys" and Take It to ’Em.
Every conflict by its nature needs a good versus evil framework. It is therefore important to find the right "bad guys" to fight.
Turn Your Fight into Must-See TV.
You cannot inspire in the darkness; you cannot pressure the enemy without the pressure of bad publicity. The greatest generals in history always knew that there must be an element of showmanship to the battle.
Do Not Get Stuck in the Mud.
Always be in motion. The opposition, however clumsily, will start to fight back and try to engage you on their terms. Do not fall into the trap. When they zig, you must zag and keep moving forward to your goal.
When They Mobilize, Go Guerrilla.
When you’re going up against the status quo, they will find a way to mobilize their political power and legacy media. That’s inevitable. What’s not inevitable is how you respond. When they finally confront you in the air, morph into a guerrilla operation that maneuvers on the ground.
Do Not Stop at the Wall.
A battle will have ebbs and flows, and you will find yourself hitting a wall. External and internal dynamics will make it challenging to get past that wall into the green fields on the other side. Explode through the wall.
You’ve Gotta Believe.
All your work means nothing unless you believe in your cause and believe that you can win. Be flexible and open to ideas, but never take your eyes off the North Star and never forget why you joined the fight in the first place.
Don’t Let ‘Em Off the Ropes.
Eventually your strategies and tactics, if well executed, will bring you to a moment when your opponent is on the ropes. They’ve made crucial mistakes to be in that situation. When this happens, it’s not time to back off. Go for the knockout.
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Don’t Be Overly Reliant on Past Success.
The greater the success, the greater the dangers that follow. Complacency will often set in as will the tendency to overly rely on the strategies and tactics that brought victory. Eventually your opponents will adapt and exploit.
Parents and community members attend a Loudoun County School Board meeting on June 22, 2021. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
Play the Endgame.
Always know your endgame. What started as your primary goal may become subsumed into something much greater than you could have imagined. When it comes time to shift to that greater purpose, let your opponents distract themselves with what they think, while you silently redeploy your efforts to the final victory.
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As you put on your armor to go fight for your children’s present and future, remember these rules and let them serve as a guide in how you design your own approach. But do not limit yourselves to only these rules. Think through successes of the past in history, film, literature, business, politics, and sports and shape your own rules, stick to them, and pass them on to others.
That is how we will win this fight together.