Pennington county chapter of Moms for Liberty

Moms for Liberty - Pennington County is dedicated to the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.

Please invite parents, grandparents, and community members that value parental rights.

We are stronger together!

www.MomsforLiberty.org

Answer to the KELO article published August 30

We very much wish that the reporters from KELO had reached out to us for comment before publishing this article (or at any time since.) Apparently they feel that the integrity of a story is not compromised by only getting one side or by including incomplete information. It is true that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated Moms for Liberty national as a hate group-along with many other groups that the SPLC disagrees with politically. It is also true that we expressed concern about our district's proposal to use Blend Consultancy to fill our teacher holes. This company does push "diversity, equity, and inclusion" initiatives. KELO may disagree with us on the true meaning of these terms, but companies that have been captured by DEI intiatives have been known to hire based on immutable characteristics, subject their employees to implicit bias seminars, and put the demands of ESG/DEI over what is best for their shareholders and customers. We are also concerned about bringing in non-citizens to teach our children, as citizenship is an important part of American education. It seems the district agrees, as I have been told that they have decided not to use Blend Consultancy after all, although Rapid City Area Schools is still listed on the Blend Consultancy website as a partner school.

The strategic plan for our district does include the buzzword "diversity." The information which the KELO article quoted was shared during the time when the community was voting and giving their responses on the plan. We shared our view of the good and the bad parts of the plan. While our current superintendent and board may not intend it, this does open the door for future school administrators to seek diversity of race, gender, and sexual orientation, etc, instead of diversity of skills, opinions, and backgrounds.

Nowhere on our website do we claim to want books "banned." We would like our school leaders to take a closer look at the materials they are currating for our libraries. As stated, the purpose of the links leading to lists of books is to increase parents' awareness. KELO picked some of the mildest books on our lists, ignoring the ones which openly and graphically discuss rape, BDSM, violent sex, adult sex with minors, heavy drug use, open racism, and radical gender ideology. It is also worth noting that the books they cite about homosexual relationships are located in our elementary schools. As we state on the page, we believe that parents have the right to decide if and how they discuss these matters with their younger children. Because there are so many commonly challenged books, we have a limited number of members, and the primary purpose is to inform parents, there are some books we haven't had a chance to read fully. Bringing them to parents' attention allows them to decide for themselves.

More to the point, we reject the decision dilemma they are trying to place us in, where we have to choose whether to allow books to stay in school libraries unquestioned, or to be painted as hateful book banners.

We do not want nurses and counselors removed from schools, and we have never claimed that we do. We DO oppose the whole school/whole child/whole community model currently promoted by the CDC, which would place a full primary health clinic in every school. We also oppose the current South Dakota law preventing counselors from disclosing information to parents without the written consent of the student.

The rest of the article outlines the reporter's repeated attempts to pull Attorney Jackley into giving more information than he is willing to, and his masterful ability to stick to message. We have enormous appreciation for his support and his standing firm on this issue, and we hope his clear support for parents' rights and governmental transparency will help him in his future political career. Any member of the media that wishes to hear more about our views is welcome to reach out to [email protected]