The so-called “parental rights” group Moms For Liberty just held its annual summit in Philadelphia, where its members were getting fired up to engage over school board races nationwide. But the platform on which these far right “moms” perch cannot be more wrong for Newtown.

Our community has already felt the influence, if not the actual presence of these “Moms,” as a recent push to ban certain books from our public school libraries reared its ugly head.

Throughout that protracted and divisive process, we saw letter writers and social positors accusing our own educators and library professionals of “grooming” students, and other ridiculous things like pushing woke ideology, and condemning work supporting DEI initiatives as nothing more than a veiled effort to introduce critical race theory into the Newtown schools’ curriculum. (All this while seeking to strip our students and future leaders of their own constitutional rights.)

Let’s not forget this group has been labeled an “extremist” organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center for allegedly harassing community members, advancing anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation, and fighting to scrub diverse and inclusive material from lesson plans.

As a community, we need to be aware this organization is already directly or indirectly influencing a small number of individuals locally who have sought to impose their ideas of right and wrong onto our entire community. As a result, the influence of these “Moms” has already tarnished our “Nicer In Newtown” reputation — let’s not let that kind of politics do any more damage.