The Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act was recently signed into law in Tennessee. Free Your Children was opposed to this bill for many reasons even though multiple other well-known organizations and individuals that claim “conservatism” advocated for its passage. Although it may seem like a win for uninformed families in Tennessee, here are some things you should know.
This bill does not protect children from the collection of all biometric data. The bill states that it:
“(B) Does not include a physical or digital photograph, a video or audio recording, or data generated from the recording, or information collected, used, or stored for healthcare treatment, payment, or operations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPM) (42 U.S.C. § 1320d et seq.); and (C) Does not include data or information collected, used, or stored for law enforcement purposes;”
I have written and spoken extensively about how our schools have become medicalized. We now not only have school counselors, social workers and SRO officers but also counselors employed through private companies contracted with our school districts. It is important for parents to note that information from private companies is not subject to FOIA requests in Tennessee.
Furthermore, this Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act enumerates parental rights.
“(5) To direct the education of the child, including the right to choose public, private, religious, or home schools, and the right to make reasonable choices within public schools for the education of the child;”
“(c) All parental rights are exclusively reserved to a parent of a child without obstruction by or interference from a government entity, including, but not limited to, the following rights and responsibilities: (1) To direct the upbringing of the child; (2) To direct the moral or religious training of the child; (3) To make all physical and mental healthcare decisions for the child and consent to all physical and mental health care on the child’s behalf, as provided in § 63-1-173;”
A government large enough to enumerate your rights is a government large enough to take away your rights. We have a Constitutional, God-given right to educate our children as we see fit. Our children do not belong to the state; therefore, why do we need or want legislation that enumerates our rights as parents? Language is easily amended, and to play Russian roulette with the fundamental, basic rights of parents is egregious. Why would any legislator think we needed a bill in Tennessee that would give us the “legal right” to direct the upbringing of our children, the moral and religious upbringing of our children, and the right to make all physical and mental healthcare decisions for our children? We as parents, already possess these rights.
Blanket Consent Forms
After the bill’s passage, many school systems reacted by sending out blanket waiver forms encouraging parents to sign the waivers in order for their children to receive nonemergent medical care. Free YOUR Children received several copies of these waivers from districts across Tennessee, which did not clearly outline in detail all of the medical services that the system considered nonemergent or which employees or professionals would be administering said care.
If I had a child in a government school I would not sign a waiver. I would also not be under the false assumption that the Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act would protect my child. This new law will simply open the door for lawsuits to be filed against school districts that will drag out in the courts. These lawsuits filed against districts will leave counties on the hook requiring them to foot the bill for attorney’s fees, which will then be passed on to the taxpayer. The parents who have filed these lawsuits will receive a pittance while the attorney will stand to earn big bucks.
Lawyer Lobbyists
Alliance Defending Freedom lobbied for the passage of this bill, and I have encountered Jordan Carpenter, who serves as legal counsel for the ADF, on social media platforms instructing parents on the benefits of “private cause of action” (lawsuits) which Alliance Defending Freedom seems to be ready and willing to litigate.
Successfully passing a law that will provide them with a potentially hefty revenue stream was a big win for ADF, but not for families in Tennessee.
According to ProPublica, ADF’s reported revenue was $101,821,939 for 2023 with Michael Farris, who served as president for part of the year as well as counselor to the president, being compensated $848,848.
ADF engages in litigation, legislative work, training, funding, and public advocacy, with over 400 team members and 4,500 network attorneys. ADF also provides legal counsel to over 3,500 churches and ministries through its Ministry Alliance program.
I recently interviewed Connie Reguli, J.D. and founder of the Family Forward Project, regarding this new law.
“ADF is a predatory law firm. Parents who engage in this type of litigation need to think through it very carefully because they will be subjecting their family to a lot of exposure and probably in the end, very little reward—and ADF will be reaping all of the benefits,” Reguli said.
You can also listen to the full interview with Reguli regarding this law on the Free YOUR Radio show on WKOM 101.7 FM.
This law is about as useless as the laws that were passed to stop common core and critical race theory in government public schools. It didn’t work, and both common core and critical race theory are still alive and well.
Jordan Carpenter of Alliance Defending Freedom is already claiming that the language of the bill is being misinterpreted and school districts have already doubled down and attempted to manipulate parents into signing blanket consents. So, what is the answer?
After a child has been violated and parental rights usurped, the damage has already been done. Stopping the medicalization of schools on the front end would have been a much better course of action, but then that wouldn’t have left the door open for numerous lawsuits, litigation and hefty attorney’s fees. The winners here are not families and not the children but the attorneys.
If you want to ensure the protection of your children, get them out of government schools. Do not depend on legislation, legislators or law firms.
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Photo, top, courtesy of Pavel Danilyuk / Pexels
