Expose

What was the magic ingredient behind how parents and citizens in Loudoun and Fairfax counties were able to move the needle toward making significant changes in Virginia? They exposed the truth behind what schools and community leaders were doing to students and citizens. First, they empowered themselves with knowledge and then they used that knowledge to grab the attention of the world, shining a bright spot light on the wrongs being done and propelling the wrong doers on the international media stage and held them accountable in a court of law
It is crucial to expose the indoctrination of children with divisive ideas, the infestation of political ideologies and special interest group agendas in the classroom, the lowering of education standards in the name of equity, the misuse of federal, state and local dollars and the politicization and corruption of our educational systems. If this is happening in your school system, it is happening at almost every other school system across the country. What you expose and share, will help other students and parents elsewhere. To fix our broken system, we must all be in this together. At Army of Parents, we’re dedicated to working with you and our partner Parent Advocacy groups to investigate and expose all of the rot that exists inside our schools.
What you can do first is file a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) with your school district. Because schools are taxpayer-funded institutions, you have a right to see all information that is not attorney client privileged. Some of the information may be redacted if it involves identifying information of a student. You can FOIA anything from emails to text messages to course curriculums to hand-written notes and more. Try using FOIA to follow the money. Ask for invoices and contracts to see the details behind what your school is spending on “diversity and inclusion” consultants, curriculums and books.
Get started by following this FOIA guide.

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.” — Seneca

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FILING A FOIA

If Public school parents want to have ammunition to fight their causes with data and facts, they should take advantage of weapon in their arsenal: the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or similar local public records laws. 

You have the right under your state’s Freedom of Information Act and public records laws to get documents related to your issue of concern. Public school records available include emails from the email addresses of public school officials (including principals, school board members, teachers, staff and anyone with a school email address). Also available are contracts, curriculum, trainings, videos, text messages and other records that provide valuable information about events, classes and other issues that may be of issue to you. 

A FOIA requests usually takes anywhere from a few days, but he school can request an extension.  

Additional Resources:

Royal Oak Schools in Michigan issued a FOIA Procedures and Guidelines Manual that spells out its fee process and offers a guidebook that most school districts don’t typically provide. It offers good insight from a school district into the FOIA process.

DOCUMENTING YOUR ISSUE

The number one rule to keep in mind if you have an issue at school, whether your child is in public or private school, is that you must document every single thing, all the time. If you didn’t document it, it didn’t happen. 

So, document all day, every day. For the issue you are concerned about, you must write a chronological timeline from the start of the issue and continue documenting. This means keeping a journal about everything. Include dates and times and information about what happened before and after. The devil is in the details. Write down information about everything including: emails, texts, homework assignments, reading lists, digital resources, teaching, surveys or training. 

  • Don’t just write things down. Anything that you can download, DOWNLOAD and add to your Facts binder. Take screenshots of everything that is online (making sure to include the timestamp and date that is on the computer) save the content as a PDF and as screenshots. Save Word documents as files.
  • Videos are the best. Check to see if your state is a two person state.  It’s important to find out your state law. In two-person states, you can make videos without the other party knowing. Save your video and download it. There are various applications available, such as Screencast-o-matic and Quicktime (which can do screen recordings) or Replay Media Catcher (which can download videos, such as school board meetings). You can also use your own phone to record recorded videos when you are not live and in person.
  • Make audio recordings. It’s important to find out your state law. 
  • Take photographs of content that you are worried about.
  • When you attend meetings, take notes in real time. Pull out a notebook. Write longhand. Repeat statements that cause you concern to confirm what you heard.