The Hate Group in Our Backyard: Purple for Parents
In 2018 teachers across the country gathered together in what was called the “Red for Ed” initiative. Teachers and people passionate about public education gathered on statehouse steps wearing red t-shirts and holding signs asking the state to increase the public education budget so schools wouldn’t be underfunded and teachers would be paid fairly. Most parents were supportive of this initiative and still today are working to get better pay for teachers and better schools for students.
However, not all parents supported the Red for Ed initiative. In Arizona a group of parents who were part of the anti-immigration, anti-Muslim hate group Patriot Movement AZ decided to form an offshoot group called “Purple for Parents” (P4P) to counteract the Red for Ed protests. According to news articles at the time, their mission was to stop teacher strikes, dismantle teacher unions, fight for school choice, and “end the politicization of K-12 classrooms.” In reality, however, their actual goals seem much more insidious.
P4P has now expanded to five states and has been very active in Indiana. In addition to having a strong social media presence, they have been organizing and showing up at school board meetings across the state as well as pushing legislators in the statehouse to adopt their demands. These school board meetings have become very contentious, and in some areas, such as Whitley County, the school boards have had to change their rules for public comment or move to virtual meetings just to protect themselves from the vitriol being expressed in the meetings.
P4P’s demands seem to revolve around three ideas. Taking Critical Race Theory out of schools; ending Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curricula; and ending all discussions and training on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which includes removing LGBTQ+ teachers and mentions of LGBTQ+ persons in school.
Using Critical Race Theory to Push a Racist Agenda
Critical Race Theory has become a rallying cry from the far-right, but in reality Critical Race Theory is a college- and graduate-level course that is not taught in K-12 schools. Based on their social media posts (many of which are shown below), P4P seems to want to redefine Critical Race Theory as any mention of race, racism, anti-racism, racial inequality, hate speech, hate acts, or sometimes even the history of racism in this country. It makes one wonder, why would they oppose children being told that racism is bad unless they are attempting to push a white nationalist viewpoint? We will let the reader decide.
Here are just a few of their posts where they highlight all of the things they are upset about when it comes to race and racism:
Social Emotional Learning
The second rallying cry this group brings up is the concept of SEL, which has been defined as “the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.” These concepts are often a threat to some hate groups because they teach kids to use empathy, compassion, critical thinking skills, and responsible decision-making. P4P has also made posts complaining about mindfulness exercises being taught to children. They claim mindfulness is inappropriate because it originated from a Buddhist practice. In reality, mindfulness has been a secular practice used by schools and other organizations for many years. In some social media posts P4P has declared that SEL is really just the foundation for Critical Race Theory. Many of their posts throw in buzzwords about SEL being Marxist or Communist, but the items in question have nothing to do with Marxism or Communism. Those buzzwords incite fear in many people so their inclusion is a common tactic among various hate groups. Here are just a few of P4P’s posts that discuss their opposition to SEL.
Using Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to Push Bigotry
Aside from opposing Critical Race Theory and seeming to want to rid schools of discussions on race, their second largest rallying cry centers on topics of DEI. Based on their social media posts, P4P appears to oppose discussions of diversity and inclusion because they can lead to schools acknowledging that LGBTQ+ students, parents, and families exist. P4P has claimed that this is “sexualizing our children.” Of course LGBTQ+ students have always existed in schools, but for decades those students were ostracized, bullied, ridiculed, and left out of all school discussions and curricula. Attempts to be more inclusive have led LGBTQ+ students to feel more accepted and included in schools. P4P’s posts appear to show they oppose this and seem to believe that schools have an obligation to only include references to heterosexual relationships and cisgender persons. Most of their arguments seem to be grounded in their religious faith, in which they see LGBTQ+ people as sinful despite those persons having no choice in their sexual orientation or gender identity. They appear to be especially opposed to the existence of transgender persons. The group has used outdated and offensive language such as referring to transgender persons as “transgenders” and the existence of transgender people as “transgenderism.” P4P has gone so far as to make posts about LGBTQ+ teachers they have discovered working in the school systems, along with the names and pictures of those people and their places of employment. Their posts seem to encourage their followers to contact the schools in attempts to have the teachers fired. Their efforts have been unsuccessful thus far, though some teachers have let us know that P4P followers have sent harassing messages and have called their schools. This has caused some teachers to remove their social media pages.
Here are some examples of P4P’s apparent bigotry toward LGBTQ+ persons.
Trigger Warning: Transphobia, Misgendering, Homophobia
Names and faces of those targeted have been blurred to prevent further harassment.
P4P’s Ultimate Goals
Based on the content that P4P has shared on social media, it seems that P4P wants to rid public schools of references to race and racism, remove any acknowledgement of LGBTQ+ students, prevent schools from teaching lessons on empathy and compassion, prevent schools from teaching lessons on consent and sex education, and prevent schools from hiring LGBTQ+ teachers. They are also pushing school libraries and public libraries to ban books containing content they take issue with. P4P has a sister page called “Mary in the Library,” which was started to call out any books in schools or public libraries with material they find offensive and then creating campaigns to get the libraries to ban those books. And in addition to bombarding school boards and insisting they bow to their demands, P4P has even made posts suggesting that people work to remove funding for school districts that do not give in to their ultimatums.
Here are some recent posts they’ve made that seem to be threatening to shut down school districts, going after teachers, and working to ban books.
Note: We have blurred the names and faces of teachers and students to protect them from further harassment.
In addition to these efforts, P4P is also actively working to turn their bigotry into laws. In the past year we’ve seen several anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced into the state legislature as well as bills outlawing discussions of race and racism. We’ve seen bills requiring teachers to share all lesson plans before the start of the school year so parents can opt out of any or all lessons being taught. P4P has spoken out in favor of all of these bills. Many of their members have stated they are running or will run for school board positions and/or public office.
These are just some of the bills in Indiana they have shown support for:
Senate Bill 288, introduced 1/11/21: This bill would make it a felony for schools or public libraries to provide minors with books that are “harmful” to youth. The law was so vague that it could be used to ban books on racism, LGBTQ+ issues, the Holocaust, and a host of other topics. This bill was stalled and reintroduced as SB17 in 2022.
Senate Bill 17: This bill takes Senate Bill 288 and adds colleges and universities to the list of agencies prohibited from sharing material that may be deemed “harmful.” The bill passed the Senate on February 2, 2022, and has moved to the House.
Senate Bill 34, introduced 1/4/22: Prohibits schools from supporting or affirming transgender students. Outlaws transgender youth receiving hormone treatment options (medication which all major medical groups recommend).
House Bill 1041, introduced 1/4/22: Forces transgender youth to join sports teams affiliated with their sex assignment at birth. Trans girls would be forced to play on boys teams, and trans boys would be forced to play on girl’s teams. This bill has passed the House and is in the Senate.
House Bill 1040, introduced 1/4/22: Prohibits schools from teaching on a large number of different topics, and prohibits schools from requiring COVID quarantines or mask mandates. This bill is in committee.
Opposes House Bill 1144 because it increases mental health funding in schools. The bill is currently in the House.
It appears from the posts that P4P makes that if they can't get school boards to bend to their demands, they will work to push through legislation to force these changes. And so far many in Congress are supporting these efforts to enshrine bigotry into our state laws.
Hate groups today are no longer hiding behind sheets and veils—they are working openly and boldly. They are bombarding our school boards and making it harder for schools to operate. They are going after school funding. They are working to force their religious beliefs on all public education systems. And these hate groups are teaming up. P4P has shared posts that appear to show they are working with three other known hate groups and extremist groups: the John Birch Society, the American Family Association, and the Indiana Patriots Alliance.
While members of groups such as P4P are welcome to express their beliefs, they cannot be allowed to push these beliefs onto public school systems. Northern Indiana Atheists is committed to protecting the separation of church and state, and that includes making sure bigotry and hate are not part of a public education. If you’d like to help, please report any church/state violations happening in your public schools, and consider donating to organizations such as TREES, Inc or The LGBTQ Center, which are working to make life better for LGBTQ+ persons.
Northern Indiana Atheists is a nonprofit established to fight state/church violations on a local level and defend the rights of atheists and other marginalized communities across Northern Indiana.
Membership is open to atheists and our allies who share our vision for a government that represents all citizens equally and our passion for serving our community. Your membership and donations amplify our voice and makes our impact even stronger. Become a member today at NorthernIndianaAtheists.com.