Pennsylvania State Senators to Pitch Parental Rights Protection Act in Upcoming Hearing

Admiral Rachel Levine, assistant secretary of HHS and former state health secretary, asked to testify

Parents and students of West Chester Area School District in Pennsylvania protest the mask mandate. Courtesy of Beth Ann Rosica

From potty training to high school graduation, it used to go without saying that parents had ultimate authority over how to raise their own children. Parents impart nutritional and health habits such as limiting sugar and setting a bedtime. Parents teach social, emotional, and religious values such as how to treat people with respect or when to start dating.

But in recent years parents have found themselves in conflict with public schools, which have gone beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic to teaching values previously reserved for parents.

“If the last three years have taught us anything, it’s that we can no longer take for granted the assumed rights we hold as parents and guardians. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us just how far the government will go to intervene in the health and welfare of our children,” Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano told The Epoch Times.

Mastriano is the Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor.

“Universal masking and discriminatory quarantine policies left millions of kids behind socially and academically. Now the Department of Education has given schools a pass to push radical gender ideology and sexually inappropriate content to children as young as 5, and when parents ask questions or dare to object, they’re equated to domestic terrorists,“ he said. ”It shouldn’t be controversial to say parents should direct and guide the upbringing, education, and health care of their kids. But that’s the path progressive ideology has led us down.”

Parental Rights Protection Act

While 12 other states currently define and protect parental rights, Pennsylvania does not have a state statute recognizing these rights. Mastriano introduced the Parental Rights Protection Act in January, and on Oct. 18, the Senate State Government Committee will host a hearing on the act.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano gives a victory speech at his election-night party at The Orchards in Chambersburg, Pa., on May 17, 2022. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The act defines and protects parental rights, asserting that the liberty of a parent to direct the upbringing, education, care, and welfare of the parent’s child is a fundamental right and that neither a state nor a nonstate agency may infringe upon the right without demonstrating that the law or ordinance is narrowly tailored to meet a compelling governmental interest by the least restrictive means.

Parents have struggled to access content their children are seeing. The legislation will also codify a parent’s right to access and review all school records related to their child, a right to review all instructional materials used throughout the school year, and the right to opt their child out from certain curriculum that the parent finds to be objectionable or harmful.

In the past year, Pennsylvania schools have hosted a drag show and encouraged kids to bring dollar bills to give to gyrating, scantily clothed dancers; spent thousands of dollars training teachers to embrace critical race theory; and provided books with pictures and instructions for sex acts.

“Critics can try to paint this any way they want, and they will, but no matter what, this bill reaffirms what we already know to be true. Parents, not the government, know what’s best for their children,” Mastriano said.

Rachel Levine Asked to Testify

The Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee has sent a letter to Admiral Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021, Levine is the first transgender woman to hold a federal office at this level. Levine promotes “gender affirming” care for children and recently posted a message on Twitter urging all children 6 months and older to get flu vaccinations.

Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine meets with the media at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) headquarters in Harrisburg, Pa., on May 29, 2020. Joe Hermitt/The Patriot-News via AP

But Pennsylvanians know Levine as the face of COVID-19 information early in the pandemic, from Levine’s time as state secretary of health. Levine gave daily updates on the spread of COVID-19 and the state’s policy changes. Levine also worked with the state education department to develop policies including school closures and mandatory masking.

“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare how far public officials can go to interfere with ‘ordinary’ parental rights, including the unconstitutional universal masking orders and unreasonable quarantine policies that left students behind, socially and academically,” said the committee’s letter to Levine, signed by Mastriano and committee Chair Sen. Dave Argall, a Republican. “This erosion of parental rights compounded when political ideology began seeping into curriculum for public schools that further divides children over issues of race, gender and socioeconomic background.

“Most disturbing of all, some guidelines now encourage school employees to hide information about a student’s health and wellbeing from their parents or guardians. The rapid evolution of these policies coincides with the National School Boards Association publication to the U.S. Department of Justice of an inflammatory letter that described parents as ‘domestic terrorists’ for questioning the trajectory of their children’s education.”

Levine is widely recognized for expertise in pediatric medicine, the letter says, mentioning certifications from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.

“This, combined with your institutional knowledge of the intersection of public health and education, make your testimony particularly compelling and thought-provoking,” the letter said.

The hearing will feature other speakers, including parents and education advocates.

The public is invited to the hearing on Oct. 18 at 10:30 a.m. at the Pennsylvania Capitol building in Harrisburg. Levine has not responded to the invitation yet, Mastriano’s office said. The Epoch Times reached out to Levine and HHS for comment.

The legislative session is over in days, meaning there is not enough time to pass the legislation in the current session.

“This is more of a preview for next session,” Chad Davis, executive director of the Senate State Government Committee, told The Epoch Times. “Hopefully we'll have a more friendly governor, in terms of their relationship with parents, who would advocate more strongly for this bill.”