Judge Scott Skavdahl recently ruled that local school boards, superintendents, principals and other officials have no responsibility to keep school employees from secretly practicing psychological quackery on your kid.
The Obama-appointed district judge ruled in favor of Sweetwater County School District No. 1, upholding their pronoun policy and denying Sean and Ashley Willey any monetary damages for the harm that the school caused their minor daughter.
Skavdahl’s ruling, however, does not mean that the Willeys’ allegations were disproved.
The school district did not deny that teachers helped an underage girl to subvert her professional mental health worker’s treatment plan.
It did not deny that school employees and former employees proselytized her against her religion.
The school district did not deny that its official policy required teachers to use a child’s made-up name and pronouns publicly while treating it as a “private” matter that the parents didn’t need to know.
Nevertheless, Skavdahl ruled that these things do not violate the Willeys’ parental or religious rights.
According to Cowboy State Daily, Superintendent Joseph Libby praised Skavdahl for characterizing the school district’s outrageous actions as a “respectful and nondiscriminatory school environment.”
He went on to claim: “[W]e have a deep and abiding respect for parental rights.”
If that’s respect, one wonders what disrespect would look like.
Meanwhile, the Willeys are left to undo the damage to their child. That’s what parents do.
While ideologues can try their social experiments on a new crop of students next year, true parents are left holding the bag. They will love their child through the lifelong consequences of non-licensed psychologizing.
That’s why the Willeys are right to appeal the decision. I wish them luck.
The rest of Wyoming’s parents are right to worry about similar experiments being performed on their own children. Skavdahl has not closed that door.
That’s reason enough for the Wyoming Steamboat Scholarship Act. With it, parents have more options.
Beginning next week, May 15, Wyoming families can apply to receive $7,000 for the upcoming school year to spend how they wish.
According to the Wyoming Department of Education website, families can use Education Savings Account (ESA) funds for tuition and fees at alternative schools; online learning programs; tutoring services; computers; textbooks and curricula for homeschooling; educational therapies like behavioral or speech-language therapy; school transportation costs; and more.
Alternative schools exist all over Wyoming. So, you may already have good options in your local area.
Private schools in Wyoming and online schools around the nation began applying to become qualified schools more than a month ago.
Under the “resources” tab on the ESA website you can view the growing marketplace of ESA-registered schools and providers.
If your preferred school is not on the list, simply encourage it to apply. To qualify, schools need only to teach reading, writing, math, civics, history, literature, and science. Wokeism is not required, and praying is not forbidden.
Communities that do not already have alternative schools should look into building one. What was not possible last year may be economically viable now. The educational marketplace has changed.
Undoubtedly, this is scary for public school teachers and administrators. But fears due to change should not paralyze you.
I, personally, know of many terrific teachers and administrators like Ashley Willey who privately rage against school policies that alienate parents. This is your chance.
The anti-parent educational establishment stokes fears, and lobbies against any educational choice. But smart teachers and administrators see parental choice as a tremendous opportunity.
When school boards are dominated by the National School Board Association, the Wyoming Education Association, and the School Superintendents Association, the common sense of teachers goes unheard.
Their desire to work with parents, and not against them, puts them in a hostile work environment.
The powerful education lobby treats parents as a problem, and “privacy” as the answer. Its power is its money. Until now, that power was mostly one-sided.
But Wyoming’s ESA program gives you, as a common-sense teacher, a louder voice.
Without parental control of student purse strings, local school boards face more pressure from the education lobby than from parents. Now, that is more balanced and teachers can benefit.
In a free marketplace, teachers, administrators, school boards and parents can work together to restore true respect for parental rights and stop the bleeding of students out of the public school system.
They all have been given a golden opportunity to make Wyoming education the best it can be.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
