A group of parental rights advocates in Orange County, California, claim school policies are moving away from teaching math, reading, science, and other core subjects to teach students controversial “emotional intelligence” ideas and are trampling on their constitutional rights to direct the upbringing of their children by not allowing them to opt their children out.
The letter demands the district “implement policy changes to require parental notice, the right to inspect curriculum, and an opt-out option to comply with state and federal statutes,” and alleges the district has exploited schoolchildren “to elicit information about their beliefs and feelings with the goal of changing their emotions and behaviors in accordance with the cultural bias of the day and without regard to family beliefs or values.”
The RULER curriculum encourages educators “to build ‘culturally responsive classrooms’ by having children question ‘stereotypes’ they may have learned from their family or their religion,” according to the letter.
Sweigart said the district “should not be forcing children to participate in RULER against parents’ wishes,” and alleged that when parents requested that their children be opted out, the district refused.
RULER is described as “a systemic approach to social and emotional learning (SEL)” that “aims to infuse the principles of emotional intelligence into the immune system of Pre-K to 12 schools,” the letter states.
Sweigart alleges that the RULER program “runs afoul” of the federal Protection of Pupil Rights (PPRA) which states no student shall be required to submit to a survey, analysis, or evaluation that reveals information concerning political affiliations or beliefs, mental or psychological problems, nor sex behavior or attitudes of the student or the student’s parents. It also allows parents to opt their children out of any programs and requires schools to permit them to inspect school materials related to any program.
“RULER tasks educators—who are not licensed mental health professionals—with evaluating and even treating perceived problems with students’ emotional health” and “expressly instructs educators to gather information regarding categories prohibited under the PPRA including family background, family relationships, religious beliefs, and religious practices,” Sweigart alleged.
And, “even worse,” she said, the district “engaged in this behavior behind parents’ backs.”
The U.S. Constitution protects the parental right “to direct the upbringing of their children,” which is recognized as “perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized,” Sweigart wrote.
The district has 30 days to respond to the demands letter to avoid a potential court battle.
The allegations stem from a Public Records Act request filed by parental rights advocates who reviewed the RULER curriculum the district purchased.
Concerned Counselor
A licensed mental health counselor in California who goes by the pseudonym Anne DeTalvera for fear of retaliation told The Epoch Times parents have been monitoring school board meetings and the changes in curricula.Like many parents, DeTalvera said she became more aware of what students were learning during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and was alarmed to discover the district implemented the RULER curriculum in the 2022–2023 school year.
“Now, we’re on warp speed with ideological programming,” she said. “They are not following informed consent practices required by state and federal law.”
In the fourth grade, students are “armed and equipped” with a vocabulary designed to steer them towards activism, she said.
One of the activities has students engage in meditative exercises called “breathwork mindfulness” while listening to recordings of political speeches, protests, or news coverage, DeTalvera said.
“So, they are eliciting feelings,” which in today’s political climate are generally not moderate, she said. “It swings to one side or the other, and so we don’t know what political speeches are going to be implemented within the classroom.”
According to the letter, educators are encouraged to prompt fifth-grade students to “choose a side” after showing them “controversial photographs or news headlines” and “nudge” students towards feeling “red,” which is defined as anger when discussing topics such as injustice with the teacher.
Students are taught they must “affirm the resistance and amelioration of systemic racial oppression,” and there are lessons on “examining power and privilege,” DeTalvera said.
“So, it’s not, ‘Let’s work together as a community,’” she said. “This is ideological and politically driven to more of a left-leaning worldview.”
District Response
Annette Franco, the public relations officer for the district, confirmed in an email to The Epoch Times on March 31 the district has received the letter, but said it contains “several factual allegations which are inaccurate.”“The quotes that they included were from middle grades curriculum, which we do not use,” she said.
She said SEL programs, such as RULER, have been “welcomed and appreciated by our parent groups” and that under district policies, parents and guardians have the right to review instructional materials and “are encouraged to discuss any concerns regarding instructional materials with their child’s teacher and/or the school principal.”
Emotional Fragility
A parental rights advocate involved with the alliance who goes by the pseudonym Kim Davis for fear of retaliation told The Epoch Times that SEL is creating students who are emotionally fragile and can’t deal maturely with opposing worldviews.Davis said SEL is driving school districts and educators to teach students what to think rather than how to think by using aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy “to prime the students’ emotional response to receive critical race theory, gender theory—all of these woke ideologies—and react in a very emotive way to initiate and push for change.”
The problems with SEL are well-documented in “The Coddling of the American Mind,” a book authored by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist, she said.
Haidt points to a significant deterioration in the mental health of college students and declines in their ability to handle views and opinions that contradict what they’ve been told in school about social issues, Davis said.
SEL also encourages students to elevate other young people, such as climate change poster child Greta Thunberg, to a god-like status, while dissenting views are suppressed, she said.
Davis contends SEL presents emotional safety as a much more important viewpoint than diversity and freedom of speech and thus discourages debate.
“We believe that there is no system more important than education to fighting against racism, and we believe that our work in social and emotional learning must actively contribute to anti-racism,” Niemi says in the video. “SEL has the potential to do a lot of things. It has the potential to help people move from anger to agency and then to action.”
Program Costs
The California Alliance For Education says the district began implementing RULER at 11 elementary schools last year as part of the district’s “Mental Health, Wellness and Engagement” 2021–2024 Local Control and Accountability Plan.The plan allocates $20 million for mental and physical health providers, including $5.6 million for 11 elementary school counselors, six behavior specialists, and four general education social workers to provide “universal projects and supports,” and allocates an additional $14.6 million for behavior, mental health, and physical health employees, according to the alliance.
The district also spent $177,300 to purchase the RULER curriculum and training programs from Feb. 14, 2022, to Feb. 7, 2023, the alliance stated in an email to The Epoch Times.
