MassResistance Missouri parents stand up to unhinged pro-abortion activists at school board meeting

Confronting campaign to ban successful abstinence program from schools

Collusion by liberal school officials with leftist activists

July 23, 2017

Parents gather outside of Parkway School Board meeting preparing for their "silent" rally in support of the school's Thrive abstinence program.

In most school systems across the country, the pro-abortion activist army is able to get their way by steamrolling and intimidating parents and leveraging their access and influence with friendly school officials. But as we recently reported, it’s not going to be so easy for them in Missouri.

Recently, MassResistance Missouri organized parents in a particularly shrewd way to confront a vicious campaign by Planned Parenthood and NARAL activists aiming to purge a successful abstinence program from a local district.

At the May 10 School Board meeting of the Parkway School District in suburban St. Louis, nearly 50 parents showed up. They held very quiet, peaceful rally outside just before the meeting. Then during the meeting, they gave very calm but (painfully) truthful and uncompromising testimony before the Board.

The abortion activists reacted by screaming and becoming unhinged. The school board members also were shaken, causing them to reveal their collusion with the abortion activists.

So the meeting got disrupted, but the parents stayed calm and orderly! They made their point – and it forced everyone there to face what’s really happening.

Attacks on abstinence programs in the St. Louis area

Planned Parenthood and NARAL in Missouri are attempting to force local school districts in the greater St. Louis area to stop teaching “Thrive”, a longstanding and successful abstinence program that has been in some schools for nearly 20 years. Their well-organized campaign has targeted school boards in over a dozen districts (plus four charter schools).

MassResistance Missouri has been helping the parents in those districts organize and fight back. This is one of the nastiest battles we’ve ever seen.

In fact, Missouri state law requires abstinence to be the only type of “sex-ed” program taught in schools. Unfortunately, many school systems simply ignore that and teach whatever sex-ed the administrators prefer. But in the St. Louis Metro area, the Thrive program has been well-received by teachers and students alike.

The Parkway School district is targeted

The Parkway School District, although in a relatively conservative area, is an easy target. Thrive has been there for over 10 years and is well liked by parents and students. But the liberal (and quite arrogant) school officials, led by Superintendent Keith Marty and several School Board members, this past year also pushed throug an aggressive and intrusive sex-ed program that is widely disliked by parents.

Starting in October 2016, the pro-abortion forces – led by well-known local activist Sally Hunt – met privately with top school officials. Using the tactics employed in other districts, she aggressively “informed” them of alleged problems, pushing a litany of false and misleading “complaints” about the Thrive program.

Hunt had no problem getting meetings with Supt. Keith Marty, his staff members, and even School Board members – even though these same officials had repeatedly refused to meet with parents concerned with the district’s new comprehensive sexuality programs.

Pro-abortion activist Sally Hunt (center) poses with Parkway Superintendent Keith Marty (left) and School Board President Chris Jacob. (Jacob was subsequently defeated in his bid for re-election.)

The Thrive program gets “suspended”

Hunt’s efforts worked. In early March, Supt. Marty persuaded the Board suspend Thrive until he “reviews” the program. Tellingly, he cited the same concerns and descriptions that Hunt had used.

Thrive officials quickly got involved. They came to the March School Board meeting, along with an OB-GYN medical doctor and a university professor, to defend the program and completely refute all the false charges including that the Thrive information was “medically inaccurate.” But the Board largely ignored the Thrive advocates and told the Superintendent to continue his “review” and make the decision himself.

Fireworks at the May 10 Parkway Board Meeting

Parents across the district were very upset, however. At the May 10 School Board Meeting, nearly 50 parents organized by MassResistance Missouri came, including the national president of Eagle Forum, Ed Martin. Pro-abortion activists were also there in force.

The parents peacefully stood outside the building and held signs supporting the Thrive curriculum. They didn’t even engage in conversation with the leftist activists who approached them.

Eagle Forum president Ed Martin (in suit) came to join the parents' rally at the School Board meeting.

Here are signs from the rally that the pro-abortion activists said are "hate speech."

But the liberals quickly became very angry at the silent protesters. They screamed that the parents were engaging in “hate speech” (simply by holding up signs promoting Thrive) and they stormed inside and complained to Board members that there was a “fascist protest” outside the building.

Then the real fireworks began inside during the public comments period of the Board meeting. The pro-abortion activists had signed up early, and started with the most outrageous lies and nonsense about the protesting parents.

For example, during their “testimony” the pro-abortion activists told the Board:

• A Detroit-based militant group organized the parents’ rally.
• Thrive employees bring guns into the schools.
• The parents are a “hate group.”
• The rally was promoting a militant church-sponsored religious agenda that is “shame based towards women and medically inaccurate.”

They were loud, rude, and obnoxious. It was so absurd that even the Board members were clearly ignoring them.  

As the activists continued their rants, Superintendent Marty turned to two of the Board members. He didn’t realize his microphone was “live”. He whispered to them, “This is why we have to get out from under this,” and laughed nervously. (It was even caught on the video.)

When the parents got up to speak, the unhinged behavior by the leftists continued.

Here is an example:

As this parent (right) was speaking before the School Board one of the pro-abortion activists in the audience suddenly screamed, "You have to stop that hate speech now!"

The real message was loud and clear to everyone: The leftist activists have no coherent argument, only their blatant lies and childish anger.

And it continued after the meeting. At 11:57 pm that evening, pro-abortion activist Susan Hunt posted this on social media:

This is the mentality of the people who want to teach sexuality to your young children.

The Superintendent announces his decision

On the last day of school, May 25, Superintendent Keith Marty sent an email to Parkway School District parents saying that his “review” was finished, and he had decided to completely discontinue using Thrive. Instead he said, they will use their own “licensed and certified health educators” to teach kids a [Parkway] “board approved” curriculum. (Of course, the Board’s recently approved a comprehensive sexuality program is the polar opposite of abstinence.)

But it’s not the end of this issue

On April 4, there was a momentous School Board election in the Parkway district. As we reported, a clear message was sent. The School Board Chairman, who was a strong supporter of the comprehensive sex-ed curriculum, was defeated for re-election. This was largely due to the efforts of MassResistance Missouri parents notifying citizens in the district of his anti-family stands.

Thrive is still popular, and the issue is not going away. At that May 10 meeting, the new Board members got a trial by fire, so to speak, of what they’re going to have to deal with: parents vs. crazed left-wing activists. If this new Board is smart, they’ll override their arrogant liberal Superintendent and his allies, and not make the same mistakes again.

We’ll keep you informed on this battle!