'I shouldn't be scared': Teachers protest conservative group in Flour Bluff

Editors note: This story has been updated to reflect Samuel Aundrá Fryer's comments about County Citizens Defending Freedom of Nueces County.

"Let teachers teach," protesters chanted along South Padre Island Drive in Flour Bluff on Saturday.

About 40 teachers and supporters gathered near the office of a conservative group, County Citizens Defending Freedom of Nueces County, to demonstrate against the group's efforts to ban LGBTQ-themed books from school libraries, influence curriculum and monitor teachers' social media. They drew a crowd of about 20 counterprotesters.

Protesters included the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers; Texans for the Right to Read; League of United Latin American Citizens, District 11; LULAC Para TODOS; Coastal Bend Labor Council; Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education; and educators from Calallen, Corpus Christi, Flour Bluff, Gregory-Portland, London, Tuloso-Midway and West Oso ISDs.

The protest initiated from concerns of a flyer that appeared to advertise a volunteer training held by County Citizens Defending Freedom of Nueces County to influence school library books and curriculum. A photo of the flyer began circulating on Twitter and Facebook last week.

County Citizens Defending Freedom is a national organization with a chapter in Nueces County. The local chapter declined interview requests from the Caller-Times.

In a statement on Saturday, the chapter said its Education Action Division aims to equip children with the "values and educational resources" to "become an impactful and positive member of our society."

"Students have a right to a wholesome childhood and education," the statement read. "We help families by providing a level of oversight for decision makers in our school system, and a platform for parents and concerned citizens to get involved."

The statement said CCDF believes teachers' "self-published public content on social media is like an open window revealing your beliefs, interests and actionable expressions."

Nancy Vera, president of Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers, said she and other teachers fear people monitoring their social media pages will steal personal pictures of their children and "we don't know what they're capable of doing with that."

On the heels of the Uvalde and Chicago shootings, Vera said, CCDF's training sessions make Corpus Christi vulnerable to violence. She also referenced a recent Facebook post by Nueces County Sheriff J. C. Hooper in which he appeared to deride the Corpus Christi AFT's giveaway of LGBTQ-themed books.

"It started with Sheriff Hooper with his post, and it has escalated to banning books and controlling teachers," Vera said. "Why would they trust teachers with guns and not with textbooks? That's the misguided philosophy they have been brainwashed with."

Marlena Villarreal, a volunteer pastor at Rock City Church, said she is a concerned grandmother about certain books in school libraries within Corpus Christi ISD.

Villarreal said a book titled "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robbie Harris depicts pornography. Illustrations in the book show three couples, heterosexual and homosexual, having sexual intercourse.

Villarreal said the book was found at Los Encinos Elementary and that somebody told her the book is on the school's website.

"It was word-of-mouth," Villarreal said.

The Caller-Times checked the online library system for the school district and could not find the book at any of the schools.

Miranda Galvan, an elementary school teacher in Flour Bluff ISD, said she and her colleagues joined the protest because she believes teachers are entitled to have personal beliefs.

"I shouldn't be scared to be at something like this just because someone doesn't like what I say," Galvan said.

Galvan, who has been an educator for eight years, said every school year she tells her students they have a voice and their voice is powerful.

"To control the things they read, the curriculum they learn or the things they're exposed to is just creating uneducated and narrow-minded future leaders," Galvan said. "I don't think (CCDF) understands the gravity of what they're trying to do and how many people they're truly affecting by trying to push their beliefs on an entire group of people."

Samuel Aundrá Fryer, a counterprotester, said he was there to "share the truth with individuals" and that children "need to be fully aware there is a God that created them and love them."

Fryer entered the protesters' group and began to share his religious beliefs on the matter. He was met with educators booing and chanting, "Separation of church and state."

The CCDF is "concerned about certain books and things that indoctrinate children to lifestyles contrary to the truth," Fryer said. "Whether it be this mindset of LGBTQPIA-infinity, or whether it be a mindset of a transgender teaching children they're in wrong bodies and corrupting their minds, putting that in schools to have children learn is wrong."

The protest began to dissipate after an hour and a half, but Vera said the "fight" is not over.

"I think that if we're not imposing on them, they shouldn't be imposing on us," Vera said. "We are professionals, parents, taxpayers, and we're going to hold our elected officials accountable. We are the majority. We believe in true freedom, not freedom from those who only want their beliefs known."

MORE COVERAGE

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John Oliva covers entertainment and community news in South Texas. Contact him at john.oliva@caller.com or Twitter @johnpoliva. 

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This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Teachers protest conservative group seeking to influence education