Time for Schools Districts, Other Organizations to Push Back on Conspiracies
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Karen Pressman and Jessica Mayes
For those not familiar, Libs of TikTok is a national social media account that thrives on dangerous conspiracy theories and hate speech. Its founder is especially known for targeting educators, medical providers and the LGBTQ+ community.
The site has been linked to harassment as well as death and bomb threats to teachers, public schools, libraries and hospitals. Not long ago, USA Today ran an article with the headline, “When Libs of TikTok posts, threats increasingly follow.”
You might wonder what this has to do with our community. Unfortunately, for the Lakeland Central School District, a lot right now. A local parent, well-known for her relentless attempts to undermine our educators by painting them as indoctrinators and groomers, has sadly brought Libs of TikTok to our front door.
This person secretly took video of a meeting between herself, a beloved teacher and a dedicated administrator. While this may be legally allowed under the state’s one-party consent law, it’s certainly not ethical.
The issue she raised with them in September 2022 was absolutely legitimate. Students inadvertently had access to a site with links containing inappropriate content. As the superintendent noted in a recent e-mail, “the district’s technology department contacted our internet filtering vendor, immediately blocked the sites, and the vetting process of instructional material, including Internet sites, was thoroughly reviewed.”
What should’ve been a normal concern raised by a parent, and thoughtfully addressed by the district, has now been weaponized. Through the magic of video editing, this parent created a dangerous false narrative that suggests the content was intentionally taught as part of the district’s curriculum and was “covered up” by the administration. This fabricated nonsense was then posted on the aforementioned hate site, Libs of TikTok.
If anyone actually watches the video with a critical eye, they’ll see right through the deception. But Libs of TikTok caters to those who don’t think, but react. And, this is where it gets dangerous.
From that USA Today article: “Philadelphia. Boston. Pittsburgh. Washington, D.C. Akron, Ohio. Threats hit hospitals and medical clinics, and some temporarily evacuate their patients while law enforcement assesses the danger. Then comes summer and fall 2023, at least two dozen public schools and libraries start receiving bomb threats. In California, Colorado, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, they cancel classes and evacuate students. These cases, and many more, share a common link: The victim of each threat had also been targeted, in the days before, by the enormously popular conservative social media channel Libs of TikTok.”
That’s what this parent has brought to our community, to our schools, to our educators and ultimately to our children.
A very brave but also scared teacher recently posted about this incident on Facebook. It’s a beautiful statement and it’s clear she’s understandably worried about her colleague, her own career and the entire teaching profession. It’s incredibly sad that she felt she couldn’t name the teacher in her post because she rightfully didn’t want to attract “more unwelcome attention” to him.
Similarly, we don’t want to name her in this letter. Yet, both of these teachers, and so many educators, deserve to be publicly celebrated and rewarded, not threatened and pushed out of a profession they love.
For far too long this parent, and a small group of others like her, have been calling the shots. We appreciate that the district is standing up now but they’ve entertained this band of bullies for years. If Lakeland wants to show it values its educators, it will stop placating these agenda-filled parents and publicly push back on their attacks on our teachers, administrators and the entire public education system.
We also call on legislators to address flaws in the one-party consent law. There are exceptions under the legislation in which a person can be found guilty if they record another party “for the purpose of degrading or abusing a person” and at “a place and time when such person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
At a time when our educators are under attack, and many are exiting the profession out of legitimate fears around personal safety, there must be an avenue to help protect them from bad-faith actors who smear professionals, not in the best interest of students, but in an effort to boost their own profile. It’s not an exaggeration to say public education is under assault and teachers are taking the biggest blows. We all need to put an end to it.
Karen Pressman and Jessica Mayes are on the Board of Directors of Lakeland RISE, a grassroots advocacy founded by parents and residents of the Lakeland Central School District in 2021. It is not affiliated with the district.
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