U.S. Education Secretary’s visit to Colts Neck school draws protesters

A visit by U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon to Cedar Drive Middle School in Colts Neck on Friday, Dec. 5, drew protesters who stood outside the school while McMahon presented a controversial history and civics lesson coordinated by a nationwide partnership of conservative groups.

The partnership, which includes Turning Point USA, Moms for Liberty, the America First Policy Institute, and the conservative Christian Hillsdale College, is part of the Education Department’s “History Rocks!” initiative and tour that coincides with the nation’s 250th anniversary. McMahon and “other education leaders” will visit schools in every state to highlight “excellence in patriotic education, civic literacy, and student-driven civics projects in classrooms across the country,” according to a Dec. 2 department news release.

Colts Neck Public Schools Superintendent MaryJane Garibay in a Dec. 2 letter to parents characterized the Education Department’s tour as a “meaningful, non-partisan initiative.” Garibay praised Board of Education President Angelique Volpe “for her early outreach” to the department and “for her leadership in helping position our district for consideration in this unique opportunity.” The opportunity was not open to members of the public or the news media according to police, who kept protesters a distance away from the school.

One of those protesters was Alison De Noia, who was on the Colts Neck Schools Board of Education from 2021 to 2024. She said how the district is presenting the visit shocks her.

“I did reach out to the district and say this is not a non-partisan event. What is happening here?” De Noia said. Having groups and institutions such as Turning Point USA and Hillsdale College being part of the initiative and requesting that the secretary of education be its “face” is “putting forth a history that is not accurate and is built on what they want it to be built on,” according to De Noia.

“That’s problematic for me,” she said. “That’s not how I learned history. I do believe that history rocks, but not in this format, and there’s not a lot of information on what’s being presented, and I think that’s causing concern for parents in the community as well as community members who even don’t have kids here. So that’s why I’m here today.”

LGBTQ advocates have expressed concern that such policies are harmful to students

The BOE has touted its efforts at transparency for parents and legal guardians of students and unanimously adopted on Nov. 19 a “Parental Bill of Rights.” The policy allows, among other things, parents or legal guardians to opt their child out of lessons they find morally objectionable, including lessons containing LGBTQ content, and requires district staff upon inquiry to inform a child’s legal caretakers of issues regarding their child’s gender identity. In a statement she read before the adoption vote was taken, Volpe said: “No group’s sexuality will override the values or rights of others.”

Guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education says school staff members should be allowed to keep confidential what a student tells them in regard to sexual orientation and gender identity. Other school districts in the state have written policies similar to Colts Neck’s that have been met with legal challenges by state Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, who has alleged in at least three lawsuits that those policies are discriminatory.

LGBTQ advocates have expressed concern that such policies are harmful to students who are sexual and gender minorities, including those at Cedar Drive Middle School. “I would like them to know that there are advocates standing right outside here, standing for their right to be who they are,” said Kyler Dineen, who came from Old Bridge to protest.  

De Noia said the parents’ rights bill is problematic.” “I think it’s going to hurt kids that feel that they’re being targeted. It’s wrong. It’s wrong,” she said.

Nicole Taetsch, who has a niece and nephew in the Colts Neck school district and was among the protesters gathered outside the school, called the policies “ridiculous” and said they “don’t help anybody.” “I live in Red Bank, and thankfully we are in a district that we don’t really have to worry about those kinds of things because it’s inclusive and because we really don’t waste our time with these types of measures when what we really should be focusing on is making sure our kids are supported and educated in a sensible way,” Taetsch said.

Dineen, who was defeated in the Nov. 4 election in a run for a New Jersey General Assembly seat, said he came to show his opposition because McMahon is promoting a curriculum developed by a consortium “involved with our U.S. taxpayer dollars” that includes groups such as Priests for Life, The Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA, and similar organizations. “I would like to know what Priests for Life is doing being invested in curriculum about civics for kids across the country. It is a brazen expansion of the Christian nationalist network that is unfathomable to me that this is what we’re talking about right now,” said Dineen, who founded the grassroots organization NJ Voters for Church and State Separation.

Dineen said he submitted a petition with hundreds of signatures, including dozens from Colts Neck residents, to the BOE. He also said it was unacceptable that the public and news media were not allowed inside.

“When I was on the school board, we came from all different (political) backgrounds and checked our politics at the door.”

Emails sent to Garibay, Volpe, and Cedar Drive Middle School Principal Colin Rigby requesting comment on why the event was not open, why the board canceled its Dec. 3 meeting, how the event could be considered non-partisan, and whether parents were allowed to opt their children out of the event if they chose were not returned.

According to De Noia, the makeup of the current board is different from that of the board on which she served. “When I was on the school board, we came from all different (political) backgrounds and checked our politics at the door. We came to represent the kids and what’s best for the kids, and that’s how we worked,” she said.

De Noia no longer has children in the district, but she said her son went through the middle school and had a wonderful experience. “I love the teachers. I love the administrators. Everyone has been wonderful and kind, but the problem is the school board. The school board is of one mindset and one ideology, and it’s really extreme, and it’s not representing all of the kids,” she said.

Taetsch said she’s spoken with district parents who are “really unhappy” about what’s happening. “This isn’t my district, but I feel like if Secretary McMahon is going to kick off a national fascist propaganda stunt in my community, she’s not going to do it without hearing from me in opposition to it,” she said.

Taetsch thinks that the Education Department tying its initiative and tour to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the nation. The tour is based on holding leaders accountable and on stopping public discussion. The denied public access to McMahon’s ‘history’ presentation. “They don’t want to hear that people are unhappy with what this administration is doing,” said Taetsch. “There’s nothing more American than protesting, so I’m happy to be out here to remind people that the true history of our country is based on dissent and people speaking out.”

Also speaking out was Garden State Equality, the state’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization. GSE in a Dec. 2 news release called on the district to cancel McMahon’s visit and apologize to the families of Cedar Drive Middle School students. The organization also criticized the district for giving insufficient advance notice to parents that McMahon was coming, accusing the district of violating its own newly adopted parental rights bill.

“Cedar Drive LGBTQ+ middle school students deserve better than this,” Justine Evyn Saliski, GSE’s senior director of education and youth development, said in the release. “It is unethical and dangerous to bring such hate-fueled representatives into a public education building. It is just as unethical and dangerous to present this assembly as a non-partisan and enriching learning experience.

“Secretary McMahon may not have the educational pedagogy that is needed to understand the consequences of her actions, but we do. Your radical ideology is not now, nor will it ever be, welcome in our New Jersey schools.”

When asked about the increasing polarization of politics in the country, De Noia agreed that the country is becoming more and more polarized and added that she doesn’t know how to fix it. “But I think we still need to speak up and speak out when things we think are wrong are happening, and that’s why I’m here today,” she said. “I don’t know what the answer is right now. I hope we can get back to being able to work together, but I don’t know for sure, and that’s scary. It’s a hard time.”

The BOE’s next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 17 at the district office, 70 Conover Rd., in Colts Neck.