Written by Vincent Price
Former President Obama criticized the Virginia Republican Gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin for concentrating on controversial educational issues, calling them unimportant and “fake outrage.” Virginia Parents, as well as parent advocates, snapped back at Obama, calling his statements “clueless” and “tone-deaf.”
While campaigning for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe over the weekend, Obama said, “We don’t have time to be wasting on these phony trumped-up culture wars, this fake outrage that right-wing media peddles to juice their ratings.” He attacked Youngkin, saying that he was evading “serious problems that affect serious people.”
Obama suggested that anger directed at the school board is unwarranted, stating, “Instead of stoking anger aimed at school boards and administrators, who are just trying to keep our kids safe,… we should be making it easier for teachers and schools to give our kids the world-class education they deserve and do to so safely while they are in the classroom,”.
Laura Zorc, director of education reform at Building Education for Students Together (BEST) said, “Obama is clearly clueless or intentionally misleading the crowd”. Zorc’s group has been fighting against COVID restrictions and critical race theory in schools. Zorc, a parent and former teacher also said, “Parental rights is on the ballot in Virginia. This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue – it’s a parents issue.”
Brandon Michon, a father in Loudoun County, Virginia, said, “That is the most tone-deaf statement I have ever heard.” Michon also stated that Obama calling the cover-up of the sexual assault drummed up is laughable.
Michon refers to the allegations that Scott Ziegler, the Loudoun County Superintendent, and the school board covered up the report about a male student in a skirt that allegedly assaulted a female student in a girls’ bathroom. Last week, an email exposed Ziegler, showing that he had notified the board of the assault, then a month later, he publicly announced that he had no record of any bathroom assaults, “Any parent, regardless of our political views – Republican, Democrat, Independent – wants our kids to go to school and be safe. People are upset because Loudoun County covered up that they knew about sexual assaults and the question is, what else do we not know about?” says Ziegler.
Many parents have since demanded the resignation of the school board and Ziegler, Youngkin has joined in with these parents.
Photo Cred: Alex Wong/Getty Images
