The Chipping Away of Parental Rights

Following are a couple things I've posted on my private Facebook page.  Because I feel so strongly about this issue, I've decided to share it here as well.

First, visit this article, "Glenn Beck Eviscerates MSNBC Promo Claiming Your Kids Belong to the ‘Whole Community’ — and Makes Some Scary Connections"

My original comment about that link:
This terrifies me! My kids don't belong to the collective. They belong to ME. The state does NOT know best in most cases. Have you heard of Common Core (new educational standards across the country)? It's related.

The following was posted the next day:
I posted yesterday a link to an article about kids belonging to the collective vs their parents. I guess my brother thought I was overreacting. :) In case anyone else cares, here was my response to him re: the chipping away of parental rights in this country:

Putting Glenn Beck's commentary/analysis aside, her words and the attitude/ideology they reflect are what worry me.

I know nothing about Ms. Perry, so I have no way of knowing what her true intent was. But the fact is that there are plenty of people in power in this country who really do believe that children should belong to the community instead of their parents. The idea that the state knows best.

Even the old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child" sounds good and usually probably isn't meant in any menacing way. But some will take it to mean that the village knows best and that everyone around you (your neighbors, teachers, government, random stranger at the grocery store, etc) has a right to tell you how to raise your child. In rebuttal I say, "It may take a village, but *I*, as the parent, get to decide who is in that village (grandparents, uncles/aunts, close friends, church leaders, etc)"
 
The fact is that parental rights are being chipped away all the time in this country. In California, your child's school can take your child to get an abortion during the school day and never inform you about it. It doesn’t matter what your beliefs are about abortion. The fact is, an abortion is a major medical procedure and as a parent, you should have a right to know what is going on.
 
Another example: There have been cases where school children have brought bagged lunch to school and then been told to throw it in the garbage and eat school lunch instead because it is “healthier.” I remember one particular case where a little girl was told to throw out the lunch her mom packed (which included a juice box and ham sandwich along with a fruit and/or veggie) and was given chicken nuggets and milk (with fruit and/or veggie.) The justification was that she should have a serving of dairy with her lunch. How ridiculous! The school has no idea what her eating habits are like at home (and it’s none of their business anyway.) Maybe she had a glass of milk at breakfast, always has a glass at dinner, always has string cheese after school, and has another glass of milk before bed.

Some schools are bypassing the above situation all together by outright banning bagged lunch from home because they believe they can do a better job of ensuring that kids eat healthy.
I also read about a case where a teenage boy complained to his school counselor (which encouraged him to call CPS) that his parents took him to church “too often.” CPS removed him and put him in foster care. The parents only got custody back when they promised the judge that they would require less church attendance from him.

The horror stories go on and on and there are new ones being reported all the time. This is the world we live in, and I don’t like it. I am the parent, these children belong to me. And barring abuse or serious neglect, the state has no business getting in my way.

Again, I don’t know what this woman’s true intent is. But her words sound too close for comfort to the dangerous things I wrote about. Yes, the school system is broken and as a society we need to figure out how to fix it. If that is what she meant, then she needed to explain it in a better way. (And as a tangent, I don’t think throwing more money at the problem is the solution.)