Founders and Daughters

Empowering tomorrows citizens today

Fear is an emotion that is often weaponized to take power. It has been used throughout history to subjugate people and strip away fundamental rights. When we give up our rights in service to fear what we surrender is our humanity.

When a school system has the audacity to demand that my daughters forgo their constitutional rights in the name of school safety; I will teach them in the spirit of their forefathers that some stands are worth taking.

My girls, like many other children, are compelled by law to attend school. Society mandates their presence and for them to participate fully in all that life has to offer. This mandate is rooted in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”

I expect that our school district fosters an environment for the survival of free people.

I am not alone in this.

Students as citizens, according to the Supreme Court of the United States in Tinker v DeMois, are guaranteed their rights: “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Nevada’s own Supreme Court in 2015 when Legacy High School Student was forced to sign a waiver consenting to unwarranted searches said: “Courts of other jurisdictions have held that the State cannot condition access to public education on a prospective student’s renunciation of his right to be free from otherwise unconstitutional searches and seizures.”

Today, Clark County School District is asking our students to renounce their rights via lottery. Students who, unlike the student at Legacy High, have ZERO histories of disciplinary action.

Ask yourself why your children should have fewer rights than a student who was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell.

Ask yourself why children who have done nothing wrong should be subjected to backpack searches that are humiliating to girls and demoralizing to boys.

Does a police state deter school violence or does it further alienation?

If history and literature are any indications of what oppressive society does to the human soul, we may want to reconsider such draconian policies.

CCSD, the same school district according to RJ Article “Tracking the Clark County School Sexual misconduct cases” has closed 18 cases of sexual misconduct from staff members abusing our children. There are still 11 pending. These are only the cases we know about.

This is a school district that has paid 7 million dollars to victims of school employees misconduct, including victims of sexual misconduct.

Ask if they can even guarantee that there aren’t predators performing the random pat downs?

I ask my fellow parents to stand with me in raising an educated citizenry and stand against school search programs. Let’s raise our children to be free citizens and caretakers of our democracy.