While lecturing at a Leadership Institute school board training program event last week, Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice bumped into U.S. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) where he signed the organization’s Parent Pledge.
“We always carry pledges with us so that anyone we run into, we can ask to sign it,” she said. “Rick Scott was also there speaking. I was on the stage actually when he signed it. It was just a great opportunity to have him sign it.”
Signing the pledge, according to Moms for Liberty, means that Scott recognizes the rights of parents to be involved in the education decisions of their children in public K-12 schools.
“It brings awareness, certainly,” Justice told the Florida Record. “He's a well-known figure. He served as governor for eight years. He's now serving in the Senate. He’s a very successful businessman. He’s a leader so we hope that other elected officials will follow in his footsteps.”
The parent pledge was launched in Jan. 2021 during the pandemic when restrictions, mandates and lockdowns were imposed by elected officials.
“There were parents who came forward during COVID who expressed the fact that their children were being harmed by lockdowns and mandates and those parents were silenced to the point of being called domestic terrorists,” Justice said in an interview. “It just became very apparent to us, especially in some states like Oregon, Washington and California that this idea of fundamental parental rights had been lost in our country.”
The pledge states that a politician promises to honor the fundamental rights of parents to direct the education, medical care, and the moral upbringing of their children as well as advance policies that strengthen parental involvement and decision-making, increase transparency, resist government overreach, and secure parental rights at all levels of government.
"At every turn, there is confusion and obfuscation where information is not being shared with parents regarding curriculum," Justice said. "You can't direct something if you're reacting to it. If your child has already been exposed to something, then you're now picking up the pieces of that and you're not directing your child's education. So, our parents are asking for curriculum transparency. They're telling schools that we don't co-parent with them and we will be voting for people that are going to respect our fundamental parental rights."
The pledge is based on Florida's Parental Bill of Rights, which was approved two years ago.
Moms for Liberty is now working to have a Parent's Bill of Rights passed in every state.
"It's very exciting," Justice added. "North Carolina just got a Parent's Bill of Rights after the governor vetoed the bill. The legislature overrode that veto. Steadily, we are working."