Caroline Mickey, a local librarian at Alpine Crest Elementary School in Hamilton County, Tennessee, came up with a Mother’s Day lesson involving two children’s books that would be inclusive of children growing up without a mother but who have people who “fill the motherly roles in our lives.” The books—“Mother Bruce” about a male bear that adopts a gaggle of goslings, and “Stella Brings the Family” about a girl with two dads—are rated appropriate for ages 2 through 5.
Mickey, who has a child in the school system, explained her reasoning to opinion columnist Greg Sargent of The Washington Post: “We have students who don’t have mothers for a variety of reasons. But everyone has somebody who loves them the way that a mother does.” School policy these days is to send a letter to parents offering them the chance to opt out of a lesson and providing an alternative.
This is when the well-funded right-wing, racist, homophobic Moms for Liberty stepped in and raised a ruckus about how this was the beginning of the end of civilization. The Hamilton County school board folded up and canceled the event, with School Superintendent Justin Robertson quickly replying to the outside bully group that the lesson would be “addressed.”
Now parents in the district are mad. They came out to lambast the school board for bowing to these bullies.
RELATED STORY: Moms for Liberty cry when ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill gets turned against heterosexual parents
The progressive independent news outlet Tennessee Holler posted video of the follow-up Hamilton School board meeting after the Mother’s Day lesson was canceled. In it, parents and community members defend “Mrs. Mickey” and call out the fundamental problems of cowardice in the face of the kind of hate that bullies like Moms for Liberty bathe in.
Mickey remained clear about the intentions of the inclusive lesson plan: “While not everyone has a mother, everyone has someone who loves them in a motherly way. And that was what the intention was with that,” she told ABC News Channel 9.
Moms for Liberty’s Jessica Perkins—who does not have a child at the school—told Local 3 News that “exposing the lesson was not to bully anybody,” and that she was afraid if the lesson was taught at Alpine Crest it could spread all around Tennessee. But as miles of internet URLs on social media and websites show, the Moms for Liberty campaign against Mickey and the inclusive lesson plan was nothing if not a huge bullying smear campaign. These include diatribes with phrases and buzzwords like:
Moms for Liberty Hamilton County Chair Tonya Dodd has also been very vocal. A walk through Dodd’s social media feed is a nightmare journey filled with right-wing conspiracy theories as well as some thinly veiled antisemitic globalist conspiracy theories about elites trying to turn our country communist. These are the people who got a Mother’s Day lesson plan nixed.
A reminder of what Moms for Liberty is all about.
A reminder of the big picture.
How do you make a campaign ad that voters actually want to watch? We're discussing that critical question on this week's episode of "The Downballot" with leading Democratic ad-maker Mark Putnam, who's been responsible for some of the most memorable spots in recent years. Putnam details his creative process, which always starts with spending time with candidates to truly learn their story—and scouting locations in-depth. He then walks us through the production of the famous Jason-Kander-assembles-a-gun-blindfolded ad that went viral and explains why, believe it or not, you always want footnotes in your attack ads.
RELATED STORIES:
Fox & Friends' 'Parent Panel' is pretty suspicious
100-year-old woman slams Florida book bans and brings the house down at school board meeting
