June 10, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York parent has gone viral for her eleven-minute excoriation of the school board for Carmel Central School District, accusing the group of “treason against our children” over classroom indoctrination.
Tatiana Ibrahim began her remarks by explaining that she was voting against a recent budget plan because she considers the school board “thieves” and “liars” who need to “stop indoctrinating our children. Stop teaching our children to hate the police, stop teaching our children that if they don’t agree with the LGBT community that they’re homophobic.”
She referenced a teacher who had allegedly called her daughter “pasty white,” at which point board member Michelle Yorio interrupted to tell her that using the names of specific teachers was not allowed.
“Why are we not allowed to discuss names?” Ibrahim replied. “Why am I not allowed when they purposely expose themselves on social media, calling for the death of a former president, or saying that any child that doesn’t believe in Black Lives Matter should be canceled out? Is this what my tax dollars are paying for? You’re teaching my children and other children that if they believe in God Almighty they’re part of a cult. These educators put their own names out there. We have Mr. Barrie who took it upon himself with Ms. Cyrus to create a curriculum. Do you want the proof? I have the proof. You created a curriculum of Black Panther indoctrination.”
“Is that what scares you, the proof?” she went on. “A parent actually standing up against all of you? Is that what scares you, to call out the names of these people? You work for me. I don’t work for you. You have a duty, we are entrusting our children to you. We teach our children morals, values, when they grow up to commit crimes and end up in prison and kill a police officer, it’s our fault? No. It’s your fault. You’re emotionally abusing our children and mentally abusing them. You’re demoralizing them by teaching them communist values.”
As Ibrahim went on, several board members interrupted, with Yorio complaining that “this is not a peaceful discussion” and saying she would not discuss her grievances in public but would instead join her in a private meeting with the school superintendent.
“I don’t want to; the assistant superintendent already sent an email and stated that they had no idea that these books were being put into students’ hands,” Ibrahim answered. “The superintendent already stated that they had no idea that the funds of taxpayers were supporting this.”
Throughout her remarks, she also referenced school officials purchasing a middle-school curriculum without approval from the board of education, teachers passing out fliers encouraging students to attend Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, and a school librarian passing out BLM pins yet replying “why would I have that?” when asked if she had pro-police pins. “What policy do you have that teachers are not allowed to go on social media and not indoctrinate?” she asked.
Ibrahim made clear she has no intention of slowing down or going quiet. “I’m retired. I have nothing else better to do,” she said. “We can do it peacefully, or we can take it to the highest court. Because you know and I know I’m not the only parent fighting this all across America right now. Schools are trying to poison our children’s minds, teaching them about things that have no right to be taught in school.”
77WABC reports that the confrontation comes as the school board is trying to get the community to approve a proposed $133.6 million budget for the next school year. The latest budget proposal was narrowly defeated in May; a revised version will come up for a vote on June 15.
In the meantime, Tatiana Ibrahim has become a viral sensation; at the time of this report, her address has been viewed more than 840,000 times on YouTube and 30,000 times on Rumble.
Left-wing indoctrination in public schools has long been an issue of concern, but has intensified in recent months with the rise of “critical race theory,” a doctrine that asserts race is a “socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour,” and that “law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans.”
Conservatives argue that CRT stokes racial divisions rather than healing them; former President Donald Trump worked to remove it from federal training programs and publicly advocated its removal from public education. One of President Joe Biden’s first acts was to dismantle Trump’s 1776 Commission, an antidote to the race-minded, error-riddled 1619 Project that called for educational curricula focused on teaching students to understand and embrace the founding principles of the United States.
“The only thing disturbing about this video is the passivity of the other parents in the room,” Andrea Wildburg writes at American Thinker. “They should be applauding her wildly. Instead, they sit there, and you know that each of those parents is desperately hoping that the ‘educators’ before whom they grovel is not putting that parent’s name — or worse, the name of that parent's child — on a list for future harassment … Ms. Ibrahim needs to throw her hat into the political ring and run for that school board.”