BLM Activist Group Holds Nationwide ‘Week of Action’ In Schools

Black Lives Matter Plaza on 16th Street is repainted following the removal of the lettering for a construction project in Washington on May 13, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The Black Lives Matter movement has extended its reach into schools across America.

Black Lives Matter at School (BLMAS) has hosted a “Week of Action” in schools across America since at least 2019.

This year, the Week of Action will take place from Feb. 5 to Feb. 9 and the theme is “collective action.”

Public schools in 18 states and the District of Columbia will participate in the event, according to a map on the BLMAS website.

The states include California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

BLMAS says on its website that it’s dedicated to “deep revolutionary transformational politics, opposition to neoliberalism, corporate reforms in education, defend and transform unions, Black queer feminist anti-capitalist politics, abolitionist politics and approach to restorative and transformative justice.”

The group’s founder is Tamara Anderson, an African American actress.

Aly Legge, the director of civic engagement for parental rights group Moms for America, says BLMAS’s activism is inappropriate for schools.

“It reminds me of Mao’s agents of change, his Red Guard,” she told The Epoch Times, referring to the Chinese communist leader’s student indoctrination programs.

“He ended up having agents of change infiltrate schools to essentially indoctrinate children for specific political reasons.”

The BLMAS website states that it follows the core principles of the Combahee River Collective, “a black feminist framework” founded in the 1970s.

“The liberation of all oppressed peoples necessitates the destruction of the political-economic systems of capitalism and imperialism as well as patriarchy,” the Collective’s official statement reads.

In schools, BLMAS advocates an end to “zero-tolerance policies” that punish children for breaking school rules.

It supports the removal of police officers from schools and replacing them with mental health counselors, as well as increasing the number of African American teachers, and mandating African American history classes for children from kindergarten to 12th grade.

The Epoch Times contacted BLMAS but received no comment by publication time.

School Safety

Easing up on discipline in schools and removing police officers from school will likely make schools less safe, according to Ms. Legge.

“We’ve seen where that’s done over the last couple of years with these videos coming out of children being jumped by mobs of other students,” she said. “If you’re not actively deterring bad behavior, you’re going to increase bad behavior.”

Kimberly Fletcher, the president of Moms for America, said BLMAS’s advocacy to increase the number of black teachers and to change the curriculum won’t help.

“Teachers should be chosen on merit, not race or gender,” she wrote to The Epoch Times by email. “Curriculum should consist of a classical liberal arts education, true history, real science, and actual math. Political agendas do not belong in schools.”

While ostensibly a group focusing on American school reform, BLMAS has also put its support behind Gaza after Hamas terrorists invaded and killed Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.

Aly Legge is the director of civic engagement for parental rights group Moms for America. Courtesy of Aly Legge

“As the news of violence & loss of Palestinian & Israeli life unfolds, we must be clear: this is the direct result of decades of Israeli occupation, blockade, & apartheid over millions of Palestinians,” BLMAS retweeted from a group it collaborates with, the  ZinnEdProject.

Howard Zinn was a Marxist who wrote a textbook titled “A People’s History of the United States.” The book presents American history through the eyes of socialist radicals.

BLMAS also puts its support behind “trans” and “queer” identities. The group intends to “work outside of the [gender] binary to achieve full liberation,” the group’s website reads.

Ms. Legge said the BLMAS agenda endangers all students and makes it harder for them to learn.

“They’re essentially trying to activate our students to protest things that they may not quite understand,” she said. “It is very politically slanted one way.”

American Literacy

The American public education system has delivered disastrous results, Ms. Legge said.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2022, 33 percent of American fourth graders can’t read proficiently. About 83 percent of fourth-grade African American students can’t read at proficiency levels, the NCES found.

Not knowing how to read and write makes it 400 percent more likely for someone to live in poverty, Ms. Legge said.

However, BLMAS’s agenda doesn’t prioritize teaching children to read, write, and learn math, she said.

“We need to make sure that our schools are actively working on teaching our children how to think and not what to think,” she said.

Tina Descovich, the cofounder of Moms for Liberty, told The Epoch Times she agrees BLMAS has its priorities wrong.

Tina Descovich, the cofounder of Moms for Liberty, a pro-parental rights organization. Photo courtesy of Moms for Liberty

“Schools need to get back to the basics,” she said. “Education needs to focus on teaching children skills that they can use to be successful in life. And that is not social justice skills. That is learning to read.”

Radical Leaders

In addition to pursuing these goals, BLMAS promotes to children role models that most Americans wouldn’t consider worthy of emulation, Ms. Legge said.

They are figures who are known for being radical, politically and sexually.

“That is not something that needs to be talked about to children,” Ms. Legge said. “Sexual habits are conversations that need to be had between parents and not with strangers that work in schools.”

Children have many amazing African American role models, including Martin Luther King, Harriett Tubman, and Rosa Parks, Ms. Legge said.

Radical groups like BLMAS can enter schools because America’s biggest teacher’s unions belong to the far left, said Ms. Descovich.

“Every teacher that I know is opposed to these types of things and would never teach them in the classroom,” she said.

But both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have pages that support BLMAS on their websites.

Ms. Descovich advised parents to research if the Week of Action is planned at their local schools, and if so, to collect and expose the worksheets, activities, and curriculum. 

“BLMAS is everything that’s wrong,” said Ms. Descovich. “Anti-capitalist, anti-American, anti-nuclear family. They have no place in a public school in America, absolutely no place.”