Parents Rally at State Capitol Against Morally Corrupting Curriculum

A newly-created, mother-lead parent group from Orange County decided a little over a week ago it was time to roar back in person at policy makers in Sacramento. They were set off by the same thing that has upset many conservative and Christian parents around the state: California’s new comprehensive sex education curriculum and a proposal to teach gender theory to kindergarteners.

Last Friday, the leaders of Informed Parents of California gathered on the capitol steps with more than 50 supporters for the first of several rallies they plan to hold to make legislators and the State Department of Education aware of their concerns.

“We are taking our passion for protecting our children to Sacramento to make our voices heard,” said Stephanie Yates, co-founder of Informed Parents of California. “We will not allow our kids to be sexualized in the classroom. We will not allow our parental rights to be stripped from us. We will not allow our children’s hearts and minds to be stolen and used for political social experiments and radical activist agendas. We will stop at nothing to protect our kids.”

California Family Council President Jonathan Keller interviews Informed Parents of California founders Aileen Blachowski and Stephanie Yates.

Rally leaders also planned to testify before the Instructional Quality Commission hearing after the rally to address its proposal to revamp K-12 health curriculum to include gender theory, as well as a long list of other morally corrupting material. (Curriculum details… ) Although 13 people signed up to speak, only one member of the parent group was able to testify, because the commission changed the time for public comment at the last minute.

Speakers at the one-hour rally included Courtney McDaniel, a representative of the Capitol Resource Institute and a mother of a Rocklin Academy Charter School student. Her child’s kindergarten class received national attention two summers ago for being introduced to transgenderism, without parental consent, through a book and a student “transition ceremony.” Kevin Snider, Chief Counsel for Pacific Justice Institute, spoke as well and offered his legal organization’s help to protect the rights of parent to direct the upbringing of their children.

Ken Williams and Elizabeth Woning, leaders of a “once-gay” ministry called Equipped to Love, both shared their stories of leaving LGBT lifestyles and explained how confused children would be if introduced to these sexual identity topics at such an early age. A member of Senator Mike Morrell’s staff, Chris Odneal, read a letter of support and encouragement from the senator (R-Rancho Cucamonga), while public school sex educator Ashley Newman explained the medically inaccurate information used in sex-education classes throughout the state.

Keller interviews rally speakers Ken Williams and Elizabeth Woning, with Equipped to Love, 
regarding their concerns with California’s sex education curriculum.

The rally also featured a fiery speaker from the Coachella Valley, America Figueroa, a Mexican immigrant, mother of five children, a children’s pastor and women’s ministry leader. Speaking in both English and Spanish, she passionately explained how upset her immigrant community was with their local state politicians after finding out what their children are being taught in school. “We deserve to know when these things are going on,” Figueroa told the crowd. “AB 329 was not put on a ballot for us to vote.”

Informed Parent of California plan to hold another bigger rally at the capitol in March and again in May, when the propose health curriculum framework will come before the State Board of Education for a vote. So expect to hear more from this organization in the future.

“We will not stop. We will continue until our kids are protected,” said Yates. “And if that means a massive exodus out of the public schools, then that’s what it’s going to take. The government will not have our children.”