If elementary-age students at Bob Graham Education Center in Miami-Dade County, Florida, want to read Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb,” they’re out of luck. The K-8 school recently limited access to the poem for young students, based on a single complaint submitted by Daily Salinas, mother of two students at Bob Graham.

Why did she submit a complaint about the acclaimed poem that was read at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in front of an all-ages crowd?

In her formal complaint, provided to the Los Angeles Times, Salinas claimed the poem “is not educational” and contains indirect “hate messages.” In the same complaint, Salinas wrote that she believes the function of the poem is to “cause confusion and indoctrinate students.” She also incorrectly attributed the poem to Oprah Winfrey, who wrote a foreword for the 2021 book version of the poem.

But Salinas is far from the only parent who is filing complaints and getting involved in what children should and, more notably, should not learn. 

Over the last few years, there has been a growing effort among parents––the so-called parents’ rights movement––to have a more direct role in public education. But Shaunna Harrington, a teaching professor in Northeastern University’s master’s of teaching and education programs, says the movement’s intent and political alignment is about more than standard parental concerns.

“The timing for these specific groups does align with COVID … but really they grow out of a much larger right-wing movement, which has been about an attack on diversity, equity and inclusion, social justice, gay rights, the history of African Americans and other people of color,” Harrignton says.

The conditions of COVID-19-era remote learning, when parents had to be more involved in their children’s education, certainly played a role in galvanizing some parents. But Harrington says the movement has deep roots in far-right politics that have risen to the surface since the mid-2010s. 

Politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin have explicitly evoked the parents’ rights movement in their campaigns and legislation. And some parents’ groups, like Moms For Liberty, a nationwide network of conservative parents, receive direct funding from conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.

The end result is a highly organized, politically aligned movement of parents who are having a real impact on public education.

Books bans have been a growing trend in recent years, hitting an all-time high in 2022, according to the American Library Association. In its annual report, the ALA found that there were 1,269 attempted book bans in 2022, making it the highest number on record since the ALA started collecting data more than 20 years ago.

There were 1,269 demands to ban or restrict library materials in 2022, the highest number of attempted #BookBans since we began compiling data more than 20 years ago. https://t.co/rlLhWO1IkA#UniteAgainstBookBans pic.twitter.com/JzfbahBaSA

— American Library Association (@ALALibrary) March 23, 2023

In a Washington Post analysis of 1,065 complaints filed in 2021 and 2022, the majority of book challenges, 61%, were based on a claim that a book contained “sexual” content. Twenty-one percent of the 499 people who identified themselves were parents, 15% filed with a group of parents or residents and 14% were involved with Moms for Liberty, a nationwide network of conservative parents.

Notably, the Post found that 11 people were responsible for the majority of the complaints, each filing 10 or more challenges that accounted for 60% of all book challenges. It helps that due to new legislation in states like Florida, it’s also never been easier for parents to file a complaint and hamstring access to books. 

Many of the parents who submitted these complaints claim they are doing so to protect children. Michelle Teague submitted 24 book challenges against her library in North Carolina’s Catawba County, ranging from titles like Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” to Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” In her complaints, Teague made it clear she wanted to prevent young readers from “being exposed to pediphilic [sic], sexual content” (“Lolita”) and “gay sex between men” and mention of “rape” (“The Kite Runner”).

But who––and what––is being challenged in many of these complaints is notable. In 43% of the complaints analyzed by the Post, challenges targeted books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes and 36% targeted books that included people of color or dealt with issues of race and racism. Challenges to LGBTQ+ books increased dramatically in the last two years, alongside a record amount of legislation targeting the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

In one complaint submitted in North Carolina, a challenger wrote that “Call Me Max,” which tells the story of a trans boy, is meant to “confuse our children and get them to question whether they are a boy or a girl.” Another challenger in Georgia wrote that “The Poet X,” focused on a same sex couple, “is where teens get the idea it’s [being gay] OK.”

We talk about parents’ rights, but I think we should also talk about kids’ rights: kids’ rights to learn, kids’ rights to be prepared to be part of a diverse society and be members of a multi-racial democracy.

Shaunna Harrington, a teaching professor in Northeastern University’s master’s of teaching and education programs

In another complaint filed about “Black Brother, Black Brother,” a coming-of-age story that follows two brothers and their experiences with race in the U.S., a challenger wrote that the book would make students “begin to question whether race plays a role in every interaction.”

“That’s deeply, deeply harmful for the kids in the classrooms, particularly for kids of color, gay and trans kids, but it’s bad for all kids,” Harrington says. “We talk about parents’ rights, but I think we should also talk about kids’ rights: kids’ rights to learn, kids’ rights to be prepared to be part of a diverse society and be members of a multi-racial democracy.”

Eliminating diverse perspectives from the classroom will only harm students, Harrington says, referencing Rudine Sims Bishop’s “windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors” concept.

“What learners really need, in the English classroom in particular, are opportunities to both see themselves and see outside of themselves, and that’s such an important part of building empathy and building multiple perspectives,” Harrington says. “We know that’s the foundation of a good community and for a strong democracy.”

“Kids are very empathetic and have a very clear sense of right and wrong and justice and fairness,” says Jaci Urbani, an associate professor of education and director of early childhood education at Mills College at Northeastern with decades of classroom teaching experience. “Being able to engage with kids in those conversations is just so critical.”

As a teacher, Urbani says she welcomed conversations with parents. Hearing parents’ concerns and explaining why a certain book or lesson is used in the classroom is foundational work for any teacher, Urbani says. But watching public schools get inundated with book challenges and school boards get death threats from parents, Urbani notes that some parents’ concerns have become both more personal and political.

“I love the idea of parents knowing what their kids are learning about and then engaging in conversation around whatever their family values on that topic might be,” Urbani says. “What happens in school, those conversations should continue into the home. But just because there are conversations that parents don’t want to happen in the home, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t happen in school.”

For teachers, school administrators and school board members, pressure is coming from all sides. It’s coming from parents, who are lodging book challenges in organized efforts, and, in some cases, from state governments like DeSantis’ that have created legal frameworks to go so far as to charge teachers with felonies. Harrington says school districts and teachers have struggled to respond to the parents’ rights movement because it is fundamentally at odds with how public education in the U.S. has historically operated.

Schools have at least theoretically been considered “partisan-free zones,” she says, and school boards have traditionally been “not terribly political groups.” But now both face an organized political movement that they are, in some ways, not designed to handle.

“You’ve got a school committee member who wants to say, ‘Of course we want to take things seriously. We want to hear what your complaints are. The school system needs to work for all of us,’” Harrington says. “But they’re talking with somebody who’s part of a political agenda and political movement, so there’s some misalignment.”

That’s not to say there aren’t efforts being made by other parents, students and even lawmakers to combat this trend. Organizations like the Florida Freedom to Read Project are connecting parents and parents organizations across the state to protect students’ access to books. And a group of students and authors have even sued a Florida school district and the Florida Department of Education over a book ban.

Harrington says it’s a reminder that parents’ activism has been central to American education for decades, often in positive ways.

“Special education probably wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for parents who really fought and advocated for their kids and continue to fight and advocate for their kids,” Harrington says. “I don’t think we need to be scared of parents, and I think we need to acknowledge all the positive ways that parents have impacted our public schools and recognize this moment, this parents’ rights group, for what it is, which is a right-wing movement.”

Cody Mello-Klein is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email him at c.mello-klein@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter @Proelectioneer.