The Daily Signal - 'It Feels Like the School is Dividing Us' Says Northern Virginia Mom

Episode Date: September 2, 2021

Loudoun County, Virginia has been the focus of national attention for some time now. Stories of woke school board members pushing critical race theory and gender ideology have led to pushback as parents realize their children are being indoctrinated. Shawntel Cooper is one of those parents who decided to take action. Cooper was the focus of a viral video back in May where she lambasted the Loudoun County School Board over critical race theory in the classroom. "I don't understand how you would not want to ban anything that is this divisive and divides each other because of color," Cooper tells the Daily Signal Podcast, "You can't understand evil." Cooper joins the show to talk about her experiences as a Loudoun County mom, and offer advice on how we can push back against woke school boards across the country. We also cover these news stories Texas bans abortions after an unborn child's heartbeat can be detected, generally around six weeks. There are still Americans stranded in Afghanistan, including at least 27 students and a family from California. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks out agaisnt House Democrats for calling on telecommunications companies to preserve records believed to be relevant to the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, September 2nd. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Doug Blair. Loudon County, Virginia continues to be a nucleus for policies like critical race theory and gender identity politics in the education system. Chantel Cooper, a mother of schoolchildren from Loudoun County, has witnessed firsthand the impact of policies like critical race theory coming from Northern Virginia schools. She joins the Daily Signal podcast to talk about her experience. And don't forget, if you enjoy this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts

and please encourage others to subscribe. And now, on to today's top news. The state of Texas has now banned abortions after an unborn child's heartbeat can be detected, which is generally around six weeks. Despite an emergency appeal, the Supreme Court did not respond to a request to delay the law and so it went into effect.

Marjorie Danen Felser, who heads the pro-life group, Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement, the American people are eager to humanize our extreme outdated abortion laws. This law reflects the scientific reality that unborn children are human beings with beating hearts by six weeks. President Joe Biden criticized the law saying in a statement, this extreme Texas law blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v. Wade and upheld as precedent for nearly half a century. The Texas law will significantly impair.

women's access to the health care they need, particularly for communities of color and individuals with low incomes. The law is unusual in that enforcement will be carried out by Texans, not law enforcement. The law empowers private citizens to sue anyone who helps facilitate an abortion. Two days after the last American troops left Afghanistan, there are still Americans stranded in the country. According to the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento, California, there are at least 27 students from the district still trapped in Afghanistan. Raj Rai, Director of Communications for the California School District, said in a Thursday statement, we believe that some of these families may be in transit out of Afghanistan, as we have not been able to reach many of them in the last few days.

In addition to the Sacramento students still trapped in the country, local NBC affiliate 7 San Diego reports that a family from El Cajon is still trapped in the country. The Biden administration has come up. under bipartisan fire for what many view as a poorly planned evacuation effort that left many Americans and Afghan allies behind. In statements delivered on Tuesday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken estimated the number of Americans still left in the country, saying, we believe that there are still a small number of Americans, under 200 and likely closer to 100, who remain in Afghanistan and want to leave.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is speaking out against House Democrats, calling on telecommunications companies to preserve records from April 2020 to January, if believed to be relevant to the January 6th Capitol riot. McCarthy said in a statement, Adam Schiff, January 6th Committee Chairman Benny Thompson, and Nancy Pelosi's attempts to strong-armed private companies to turn over individuals' private data would put every American with a phone or computer in the crosshairs of a surveillance state run by Democrat politicians. If these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States.

Politico reported, the January 6th Committee has not identified whose communications it is seeking, but it has made clear that members of Congress are among the potential targets, which would be a departure from past practices. The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack tweeted in response to McCarthy. The Select Committee is investigating the violent attack on the Capitol, an attempt to overturn the results of last year's election. We've asked companies not to destroy records that may help answer questions for the American people. The committee's efforts won't be deterred by those who want to whitewash or cover up the events of January 6th or obstruct our investigation.

Now stay tuned for my discussion with Chantelle Cooper on her experience in Loudoun County, Virginia. conservative women, conservative feminist. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories and interviews that are particular interests to conservative leaning or problematic women. That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and politics. Search for problematic women wherever you get your podcast. Our guest today is Chantelle Cooper, a mom from Loudoun County, Virginia, who came to national attention when a video of her confronting the local school board over critical race theory in the classroom went viral. Shantelle, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. So I would love to start with the video. In it, you deliver a very passionate rebuttal of critical race theory to the Loudoun County School Board.

And you were talking about how critical race theory is is racist and bigoted. Could you give our listeners a rundown of what's happening in Loudoun County right now and how it led you to speak out at this meeting? What's going on in Loudoun County right now? The school board, when I went and spoke at the school board, the school was stating that they were not teaching critical race theory. But we were able to ask it, I would say, curriculums, information teachers would provide us showing that they're teaching critical race theory. I have one of the trainings the teachers were being trained on, which I stated at my last panel where, you know, the teacher is, is to to be represented as the parent.

And right now we caught them like at the tip of the iceberg. Now they changed the wording to critical, actually cultural responsive framework. So when you look at the two critical race theory and then culturally responsive framework, they didn't change anything in the curriculum. They just changed the title. So you can see that it's the same thing.

We're still fighting for critical risk theory to be banned. But as of right now, there has not been any change. And the teachers are still being trained on culturally responsive framework and anti-bias. So you've mentioned some stuff that is in the curriculum that you found is objectionable. One of the things that I actually heard you talked about on one of your panels was this statement that the teacher is the parent. Can you explain to our listeners exactly what that was that this handout contained? So I know in one of the curriculams, it explains like white children have nothing to worry about, they don't go home thinking about how they can help, you know,

others and black children when their daily life is to consider other people's feelings instead of their own. So that really bothers me because when you're young, you're not thinking about those kind of things. You want to do your homework and go hang out with your friends. You want to do your report so you can go out and hang out with your friends. But these quotes, these direct quotes from the training material, it's very divisive. And that one quote really bothered me because as a mother, I take my job very serious. So to read, teachers have a special role to teach academics and in cold cake morals. The teacher is the second mother. Parents' role is to socialized children and respect teachers authority. Now that made me want to speak up at the school

board because I will tell you one thing. I was for, you know, some of this critical race theory, not the title, but to have an open dialogue is what the school first said. I was for that because, you know, who was, it's not a big deal to look through someone else's eyes. But when you are being vices and telling a child who they are because of their path from some past, you know, mistakes of how we evolved and to blame them because of the color of their skin. That's when it drew the line with me because I have biracial children. Now, my son, he wasn't raised in a black and white environment. He was raised in a black environment because, you know, his father didn't get involved with him

until he was five. So either way, it doesn't, it's, color has nothing to do. with how you raise your child. It's you teach them how to be victors. You teach them how to be strong and to take things, you know, lightly when it comes to the social justice, I guess you would call it a, I call it Marxist's ideology to not take it very lightly,

to make sure you read everything and it's okay to have an opinion. And right now, my kids haven't had the experience of being told they are oppressed or have any training because Loudoun County is in the spotlight. So they did draw back, but now they're pushing it back onto the teachers. One of the things that you mentioned that I thought was so fascinating is you mentioned yourself that you have biracial children and that, you know, while they haven't specifically been told that they are oppressed because Loudoun County is in the spotlight, that must give a different

view to you seeing as you're kind of this, you're one of the targets of this philosophy, right? They'll say, oh, you know, we have to talk about race because, you know, people who are black or people who are Latino or other things like that, they need to have their experiences shared. Do you believe that your experience as a black woman in America affects your view on critical race theory? I feel that I have a strong role to stand up against it because I am black. In my family, my family supports me on this decision. However, we all have different opinions, but we are against fighting racism with more racism. As a black woman, you can guess some of the things that, you know, some people call me, but the good overlaps the name calling.

And when someone can just go back on the name calling instead of looking at the good, that little name call doesn't really bother me at all. Good. I'm glad to hear that you've found that your experience has been relatively positive. I'd like to talk a little bit more about Loudoun County in particular. So you are a mother. of school-aged kids in Loudoun County where a lot of this stuff is taking place. What are some of the efforts that you and the other parents have been making to push back against critical race theory in the Loudoun County school system? Well, we have a lot of protests as far as, you know, getting together with like-minded people that understand that we have to do this together. We get involved in every school board meeting. We are, we actually, we actually

have quite a few organizations where we get together weekly and figure out, okay, what's our next step? What are the points that we want to make so they understand that we're not against, you know, looking through someone else's lens or having an open discussion, but all we want as parents is to sit down cordially and go over the curriculum and the instructional material. So we can come together with a solution together, not where the, school board is dividing, you know, every case. I feel like the school is dividing us by using the transgender, by using the LGBT or the mentally ill. All we want to do is work with them.

So with us having weekly organizations meetings being trained on critical race theory, we have a lot of panels and education. meetings. That's what we are doing in Loudoun County. We also have a lot of outreach from out of state. It's been really busy for a lot of us that are talking in regards to the girl's cool race theory. So I'm also encouraging people to read lots of reading, lots of reading. I found a couple of books. And one of them was Carol Swain, Dr. Swine, the Black Eye for America, That is something easy that can help, I guess, a beginner to understand. And there's another book, American Marxism. I've started that as well.

But really, the key is to get involved in your community, find out. Right now it's not about Democrat. It's not about Republican. It's not about how you want your child to raise, your morals, how do we intertwine this together and how do we solve this? So that's how we're doing it in Lowning County. So it's been really, I can say it's been, it's been good to finally know that we're not alone. Because during the 2020 COVID, the lockdown, a lot of us thought we were the only ones that thought this was horrible and is something wrong with me.

Right. Once everything opened up, we realized, oh my gosh, you think the same way? I do too. And then we were, we were just, it was like everyone was involved. Yes, I'll sign the petition. what do you need me to do? I'll go door knocking. Now it's, okay, we got to get the word out to America. Definitely. I think that's great. Why do you think that in Loudoun County particularly has so many of these radical leftists running around? You mentioned that there are other people out there who are kind of looking at it and noticing and saying, hey, in my school district, there's also this critical race theory or transgenderism thing. But Loudoun County in particular seems to be a bit of a hotbed for these things. There's the new transgender policy that forces teachers to use preferred pronouns and allows students to go into whichever bathroom they choose. There was that anti-critical race theory. secret Facebook group that was spreading positive critical race theory messaging around. Why is it Loudoun

County that seems to have all of these problems? Well, Loudoun County is a Democratic area. And in Democratic area, there seems to, I feel that there seems to always be some sort of divisive division kind of agenda to have people turn against one another. This is what I've noticed. And then you have, then you get the new people start to relocate because they don't like, you know, how a certain area is going. And I can say that's how we are feeling too down here. We're fighting to the nail of it, but we don't know what's the outcome going to be by the end of this year. All we can do is keep on trying. But more than likely, the only reason why this is happening is because, you know, the school board, they're paid and bought. The organization that are that trained,

the critical race theory, they are from California. And this organization from California has taken fundings from Soros. So we have to think, where is this divisive training coming from and where did it start? So then you think of, okay, well, California, we know how California is going and nobody wants to be in California. Right now they're fighting just like us. So now this training has came from California to here. And all we can do is get together and fight and not fight physically, but, you know, education-wise, we have to fight and get involved with our voting for our governor and lieutenant governor and making sure that their, their morals fall within our parenting

morals and rules and what we want, you know, together as a community. not just what's in our home, but together. Absolutely. So what do you view then as the consequences of continued critical race theory and indoctrination in school? So if this continues to kind of go unchecked, what happens if we don't push back? If we don't push back, our country, not just Virginia, is going to head towards a communist culture. Right now, I feel that my freedom,

to be a good role model and a mother is being trampled on because the school wants to raise my child. So we already know, I remember, Sivon Fleet had mentioned that what the government gives you can also take back. So if we know that this is the same plan that was trained in China and a communist country, and it is hitting America hard, then we have to fight back. So if we don't fight against critical race theory and these policies that are encouraging more violent things with lesser charges, then we won't see a good change here in Virginia. We're going to see more crime. We're going to see people turning against each other just because of the color of your

skin. Right now, critical race theory is dividing. It will divide us. It will not bring us together. So I can't stand for that. And I don't think any other Americans wants to stand for that because everything that we fought for and the soldiers that died for us, that absolutely would mean nothing. Absolutely. So given that we can all acknowledge that critical race theory is something we want to get rid of in our schools, we want to get out of. our education system. Do you feel that the efforts of parents and other organizations in Loudoun County fighting back against critical race theory have been successful? Are there any particular success stories you can point to? Oh, yes. There is an organization, I think it's every,

no child left behind. They have, they have won a couple of cases with banning CRT, Russell County, Virginia, and there's another county, I think Augusta. And I'm so proud of them. And, you know, I just hope that we can get there someday too. I mean, if anyone, I don't understand how you would not want to ban anything that is this divisive and it divides each other because of color, then I don't know what else to do. I just, I don't understand that part. I'm still trying to not understand it because then I have to remember, you know, this is something evil, not good. Definitely. You can't understand evil.

Right. No, I think you're absolutely right that critical race theory is. It's an evil philosophy. Chantal, we are running a little low on time. So I wanted to ask you one final question. Seeing as we've seen success in pushing back against critical race theory, as you mentioned in Russell County, Virginia and other places across the country, what advice would you give to parents who are trying to push back against these radical leftist policies in their own school districts across the country? To don't give up. I see parents, I think there's a mother in New York, who is.

being sued for asking or actually obtaining the instructional material. When you are asking for something so simple or something to come together or something that has nothing to do with bad or being mean and if someone is telling you how you should think instead of providing you this information, then that's when you need to question. Okay. What are their intentions with my child? So parents, Stay on top of your child's curriculum, instructional materials, books, lessons, literature. You have to protect your children and advocate for them because they are the innocent and they are the future of America. I think that's really, really great advice.

So that was Chantelle Cooper, a mom from Loudoun County, Virginia, who came to national attention when a video of her aired confronting the local school board over critical race theory and the classroom. Chantel, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for listening to The Daily Signal Podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave a review and a five-star rating at Apple Podcasts. And please encourage others to subscribe.

Thanks again for listening and we'll see you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Virginia Allen. and Kate Trinco, sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, please visit DailySignal.com.