The Amazing Power of One
While many parents and concerned citizens have recently become active by founding or joining parents' rights organizations, others have demonstrated that the power of one also plays a critical role in today's war for our children.
Deborah Simmons of Round Rock, Texas, became such an activist nine years ago when she discovered the attempted insidious invasion of her school district by a Planned Parenthood-backed comprehensive sex education (CSE) program. "For nine years, I've concentrated on fighting CSE, but in my research I've also found that backers of CRT and SEL — the less-well-known socio-emotional learning — use the very same strategies to implement these programs. They are all coming from the same places."
Like fellow Texas researcher and activist, Missie Carra, Simmons began digging into the origins of CSE and discovered that "following the money is how you really find out what's going on." She traced the underpinnings of the proposed program in her school district to a concerted effort by the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit organization founded by Cecile Richards, daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards, and a former President of Planned Parenthood.
Simmons' journey led her to become involved at various levels of government, from local politics in Round Rock, to state capitols across the country, and everything in between. While she is a member of the Protect Child Health Coalition, she does not speak on their behalf. "Working independently allows me to do all the things I'm currently doing without having to attend board meetings or fulfill other commitments," she explains. Not that she finds fault with such obligations, but she relishes the freedom to chart her own course.
Legislative accomplishments in Texas
For example, when the Texas Legislature is in session, Simmons is a familiar figure in Austin. "Our legislative session is only 140 days long every two years," she explains. 
"This is a short duration as state legislative sessions go, so I'm able to dedicate my time to it for all 140 days."
She is proud of the legislative achievements Texas conservatives have made in recent years, including defunding Planned Parenthood, an endeavor that began in 2017. She told Education Reporter that fighting the abortion industry is a main area of focus for her, and that the experience was an exercise in the importance of staying the course. "The Texas defunding movement made a huge impact," she explains in reference to the passage of State Senate Bill 22 in May 2019, which took effect in September of that year. The law prohibits government entities from funding or "providing anything of value" to abortion clinics and their affiliates, including digital or physical presence in schools.
"Abortion provider employees immediately stepped off School Health Advisory Councils (SHACs)," Simmons relates. "They ceased providing instruction in classrooms, and school districts removed sex education programs including Planned Parenthood's 'Families Talking Together' and [the publisher] etr.'s 'Get Real' program."
Changes in education law
Simmons reports that Texas enacted new education standards in November 2020, all of which must be taught in compliance with state administrative code. "But there are 617 student expectations that kids are expected to learn in health education alone, which includes sex education. School boards are required to determine if and what Human Sexuality Instruction will be taught. We need a concentrated effort on behalf of academics, not medical health," she asserts. "States should not be writing health standards, but rather should be concentrating on academics."
In a related positive development, Simmons reports that Texas has also enacted "new transparency requirements for School Health Advisory Councils (or SHACs)," which make it harder for districts to hide objectionable curricula.
"There were two significant changes to education law in the 2021 legislative session," she describes. "First was passage of an opt-in requirement, which mandates that parents opt their children in to human sexuality instruction rather than opting them out, effective through August 1, 2024." (The opt-in requirement is a popular measure favored by parents in school districts across the country and is a win for Texas parents.)
"Second," Simmons continues, "the SHACs must post meeting notices and document and post meeting minutes, as well as record their meetings on audio or video. District Boards of Trustees must develop a policy for the adoption of curriculum materials for the district's human sexuality instruction, including making these materials available in the public domain, with processes for copyrighted materials. Districts must provide detailed descriptions of the content and more information on parental rights."
But this welcome change in Texas law is only as good as the character and makeup of the school boards, since board members appoint those who sit on the SHACs, and the SHACs adopt the CSE curricula. So, a focus on school board elections remains critical nationwide.
Safeguarding the souls of children
Simmons believes the first duty of parents is "to safeguard the souls of their children," and this conviction drives her to oppose the pornography industry to which she says children are routinely exposed because of the sticking point in current obscenity laws. "While these laws prohibit subjecting minors to so-called 'harmful' materials," she explains, "the 'out' is that children can be exposed to pornography 'for educational purposes.' In this way, materials that are harmful to minors can be welcomed in classrooms and libraries via educational obscenity exemptions."
Not only is pornography allowed in the classroom, but Simmons' investigative work shows that the online databases students routinely use for research purposes "contain tons of pornography." She explains:
"Obscene content has been found extensively embedded in vendor-supplied digital resources commonly referred to as "Homework Databases" including those supplied by EBSCO and Gale (Scholarly Resources for Learning and Research), which are widely purchased by schools and libraries. These database companies may also offer online encyclopedias, periodicals and magazine collections, and/or eBooks."
Simmons continues: "States often participate in cost share model contracts with these companies on behalf of their school districts and public libraries. Sometimes, school districts and libraries contract directly with the database companies."
Internet 'protections' that fail to protect
Simmons points out that "The Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), 47 U.S.C. sec. 254, requires schools and libraries with computer Internet access to certify that they have safety policies and technology protection measures in place, such as software filtering technology. They must do this," she notes, "in order to receive discounts for internet access and internal connections under the schools and libraries universal service support mechanism known as Education Rate (or E-Rate) funding." E-Rate is a federal program that provides schools, libraries and certain other entities with funding for internet access and internal connections, as well as maintenance of internal connections.
"On computers that are accessed by minors," Simmons explains, "these protection measures must block or filter internet access to pictures that are obscene; that constitute child pornography; or that are otherwise harmful to minors. However," she qualifies, "once students pass through a school network filter by accessing an approved resource, the filtering stops, and inappropriate content embedded in that resource can be accessed, including pornography and other harmful content."
Simmons notes: "The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) has published evidence charging EBSCO as one of the offenders on its 2021 Dirty Dozen List for being a major facilitator of the sexual exploitation of women and children since 2017." NCOSE's website charges EBSCO with "[exposing] children to graphic sexual content and more."
Once a month, Simmons meets online with a network of like-minded volunteers and researchers across the country, who work to identify and expose what she calls "these insidious land mines. It's a horrible game of whack-a-mole," she admits.
From her many contacts, including a key associate in Colorado, comes the report that Colorado parents have filed a lawsuit against EBSCO's online library resource after discovering "substantial amounts of easily accessible, hardcore pornography" in its database system that "bypasses school internet filters and private, parent-supplied internet filters."
Over the past two years, Simmons adds, "legislation has been enacted in Utah and Idaho requiring that online school resources be filtered. But," she adds, "similar bills were filed in multiple other states in an attempt to address this issue without any success."
Working with parents
Despite her tireless dedication during the Texas legislative session, while maintaining her extensive research network and keeping her finger on the pulse of national and local issues, Simmons manages to find time to work with individual parents.
"I try to help parents reconcile with how they can help their children once they identify a problem," she relates. "I help them file requests for information, including FOIA requests, and I also work as a consultant." She admits that parents aren't always successful when up against school administrators and objectionable curricula, but that "along the way, they make little impacts that benefit the entire school district. The challenge is to continue the fight without backing off."
Simmons' advice to other parents with school-age children is not to take anything for granted. "Don't trust the schools; be aware of what your children are learning. We should be able to trust those who are teaching our children to take care of their souls, but when a school is not doing that, we need to look at other alternatives. Show up, be a witness, and follow the feeling in your gut. Then be willing to take chances by doing the right thing."
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