Asheville – On Wednesday, September 6th, Mom’s for America (MFA) founder and president, Kimberly Fletcher, came to speak to concerned parents at an event at A-B Tech. Kimberly started Mom’s for America twenty years ago when she was concerned about the curriculum of the schools her kids attended. Fletcher and her husband have eight children, so she has a vested interest.
According to the MFA website, “Founded in 2004, Moms for America (formerly HomeMakers for America) is a national, non-profit 501c3 educational corporation rooted on the principles of liberty and virtue our nation was founded on and focused on promoting these principles, values, and virtues in the home and family, particularly through the women and mothers of America.” Their three-fold mission is to empower moms to raise patriots and promote liberty, creating a culture of truth, family freedom, and the Constitution in homes and communities. Moms for America has over 500,000 moms in their national network, in all 50 states, and their Board of Directors and Advisory Counsel has some very well-known names, like Mercedes Schlapp, who worked in the White House for two different presidential administrations in senior level positions, and John Rich, a multi-platinum music industry leader. Yes, fathers are allowed.
Parents vs. School Boards
With the advent of school closings for COVID-19, parents were forced to get more involved in their children’s education through homeschooling, and like Kimberly Fletcher, many parents didn’t like what their kids were being taught. This started a chain reaction of parents attending school board meetings for the first time to address the topics many parents felt were not appropriate or necessary for a good education, but the parents still didn’t feel heard. Fletcher had successfully served on a school board, so to remedy this situation, MFM is providing training on how to be a good school board member for those interested in running for office.
When asked in an interview why Fletcher got involved, she shared, “My husband was stationed in the Pentagon on 9/11, and when he came home safe that day, through a series of God’s little miracles, it changed me. I didn’t understand the price of freedom until that day. That was the day I went from being patriotic to being a patriot; I’ve been on the front lines for freedom ever since.”
In this case, what these moms are fighting for is their inherent right to “raise, nurture, teach, and protect their children. Fletcher said, “All of the organizations out there, whether they’re churches or government agencies, they’re there to support us, not to restrict us, to regulate us, and certainly not to replace us. That’s one of the main core missions and messages that we have: that parental rights are fundamental.”
Sexualization in Elementary Schools
One of the most heated topics in the nation right now is the sexualization and gender affirmation being taught to younger children. This includes the content of books available in school libraries, especially for K through 3rd grade. One book that parents believe is inappropriate for young kids was available at the presentation for parents to see. The book, brought by MC and award-winning writer Bill Robinson, was It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie H. Harris. It’s Perfectly Normal has graphics that include full frontal nudity on nearly every page and explicit descriptions of the body and sexual activities throughout. This book is supposed to be for 10 years and up, but many parents have seen this used with kids that are much younger.
In school board meeting videos that have been circulating on social media, concerned parents have read from some of the more graphic books but were stopped by school board members who told them they cannot use that kind of language in a board meeting. Then why is it okay for young children?
FCC Standards Bill & Federal Enticement Statute
In order to protect children from what many consider to be pornography, Kimberly Fletcher and John Rich met to discuss solutions to the obscene material being pushed on our children. The result of that conversation was to use the current FCC Standards to draft and promote legislative bills within each state to protect our children from obscene material, whether in books, digital online learning, or from any adults who come in contact with the children in school. The bill simply states that if you cannot show it on TV or air it on the radio, you cannot use it in the classroom.
Another bill, the Federal Enticement Statute, targets the sexual grooming of minors. The statute’s focus is on the INTENDED effect on the minor rather than the defendant’s intent to engage in sexual activity. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals noted “that child sexual abuse can be accomplished by several means and is often carried out through a period of grooming. The court recognized that grooming refers to deliberate actions taken by a defendant to expose a child to sexual material and that the ultimate goal of the grooming is to reduce the child’s inhibitions to prepare the child for sexual activity.
Attack on Moms for America
For taking a stance with other parents Moms for America has been accused of being anti-trans, book banners, and was recently labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (who also labeled the US Border Patrol as a hate group just for doing their job). This caused Vimeo to de-platform MFA, taking down all of their videos. However, Fletcher will not be intimidated; she knows that moms and their kids are the future of our country and will fight for them, and she’s got half a million moms with her.