Tennessee, Florida progressive parent groups push to protect students' voices in education

Stephana Ferrell remembers the first time she heard about the book "Gender Queer" while sitting in on an Orange County Public Schools board meeting.

During public comment, someone began to read excerpts from the book, a memoir by Maia Kobabe that has become one of the most debated titles across the country in recent months.

Teresa Jacobs, chair of the board and former mayor of the Central Florida county, stopped the commentator from continuing, but the point was already made.

Jacobs said such books should be removed from school libraries, Ferrell remembers. That was when the Florida Freedom to Read Project was born.

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Hundreds of miles away, a group of Tennessee parents and longtime education advocates were having similar experiences.

Taylor Lyons and Mari Smith, two founding members of the group Moms for Social Justice in Chattanooga, Tennessee, were finding themselves at odds with a new, more conservative advocacy group.

The group, Hamilton County's chapter of Moms for Liberty, a parent movement that originated in Florida and has started chapters across the country touting thousands of members, took aim at Moms for Social Justice's Classroom Library Project, which for years has put books in the hands of some of Chattanooga's most underserved students.

Many of these more progressive parents — some new to education advocacy thanks in part to increased engagement during the coronavirus pandemic, and some who have participated in these circles for years — felt they were "being held hostage," Ferrell said in an interview with The Tennessean.

They became concerned about how national debates would impact students in the classroom and the education they received in public schools.

"Really it comes down to the type of education that you get from public schools in the U.S. should not matter based upon which state that you're in," Ferrell said. "There really needs to be something at the national level to protect our students, to make sure that they feel that they are not only safe, but appreciated, respected, able to fully participate in the class and to make sure that they're getting a uniform education."

Now, as a groundswell of conservative parents and advocates fill public comment during meetings and vie for school board seats, a coalition of progressive parents are pushing back and calling for legislation at the federal level to protect students' rights and freedoms.

Testifying before Congress

Earlier this month, Jennifer Cousins, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in Washington, D.C.

Cousins was there to speak about efforts to censor curriculum and classroom materials as well as the potential impact of Florida's new so-called "Don't Say Gay" law that restricts discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in elementary schools.

A mother of four, she worries about the impact the law could have on her nonbinary child and other children as they learn and prepare for a world where they will encounter people with all types of backgrounds.

"Public schools always have and always will continue to serve the largest and most diverse group of students," Cousins testified during the May 19 hearing. "Teachers are trained to discuss many controversial topics in the classroom in a way that will challenge our students to think critically about their own beliefs and perspectives. For most parents across the U.S. exposure to a diverse set of people and beliefs is a major attribute, not a risk."

But Cousins was also there because of the work parents with Moms for Social Justice and the Florida Freedom to Read Project have been doing.

Recently, the two groups formed a new coalition, the Students' Rights Coalition, and have drafted federal legislation that would protect students' constitutional rights to things like safety, free expression and privacy as well as equitable access to educational opportunities.

The bill is named "The Students’ Freedom in Education Act of 2022," and now the group is looking for a sponsor.

The Students’ Freedom in Education Act of 2022

Based on previous efforts to enshrine the rights of students into law by legislators like the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, the bill is a counter to laws protecting parents' rights to determine their child's educational experiences that have been proposed and enacted in several states, including Florida.

Many parental rights efforts have been championed by conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, whose Williamson County chapter forced a review of more than 30 books after filing numerous complaints about the content and appropriateness of them. Gary Humble, founder of Tennessee Stands, has advocated for parents' rights when it comes to mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinations and for parents to have the ability to use public tax dollars to send their children to private schools.

This year, Tennessee state Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, R-Lancaster, and Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, sponsored a bill that would have granted parents access to certain information and authority over their child’s access to certain curriculum or events at school. The bill failed to make it out of committee.

The progressive groups' new students' rights legislation, as drafted, would require schools to consult an adolescent before limiting their access to books or curriculum and the student's preference would take precedence over a parent's.

It would also allow students to keep their sexual orientation, gender identity and other sensitive information private and would prevent schools from denying any student the right to participate in any sport on the basis of sex or gender identity.

"We do not own our students' education. Our kids' education belongs to themselves," Lyons said. "When you have very young children, it's 100% appropriate to be deeply involved and asking questions of your educators and wanting to know what your kids are learning; we're not suggesting otherwise. But at some point, students and their wants and their desires for their education supersede a parent's right."

Ferrell notes that the group's desire isn't to leave parents out of the conversation about their children's education but to recognize that students have the right to advocate for their own education.

Fighting for students' voices

Ultimately, the groups want to help amplify student voices in debates where the consequences will directly affect them. The Florida Freedom to Read Project has supported students rallying against book banning, including Will Larkins, a Florida teen activist who went viral after testifying against the "Don't Say Gay" bill before the Florida Senate. 

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Moms for Social Justice also has a history of working with Chattanooga teen activists around issues like school safety in the wake of the 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The National Youth Rights Association helped inform the legislation's language and the coalition continues to add other student, parent and educator advocacy groups to its ranks.

"We can't talk about student rights without having student voices at the table," Lyons told The Tennessean.

Whether the proposed legislation will find a sponsor — and whether Congress has the appetite to take up the legislation in a year when inflation, student debt and gun control are top of mind — is yet to be known.

Lyons hopes to build momentum ahead of this fall's midterms and continue advocating at local and state levels.

And if the bill is introduced on the House floor, the moms joke they will hop in a caravan of minivans and carpool to D.C. to fight for it.

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Meghan Mangrum covers education for the USA TODAY Network — Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee, Florida progressive parents push to protect students' voices