tOP STORY

Children Uncloaked

By GREG TAYLOR with Mary Otto-Chang HBA, MES, PhD (Candidate)

The War On parental rights

Our Country Our Children had written in the past on this same issue. Like a stubborn stain on America’s history, this issue has not been fully resolved by any means. Parents in the US and in many other Globalist-trodden lands must remain vigilant in protecting our children and youth.

Imagine a world where your 13-year-old child can vanish into a web of secret decisions, mental health treatments, gender-altering therapies, or counseling sessions, without you ever knowing, all sanctioned by the state, paid for by your tax dollars mostly, while you are left powerless in your own home. This is not dystopian fiction; it is the chilling reality unfolding in socialist strongholds across America, where Democratic lawmakers are waging a quiet war on parental rights under the guise of “protecting” vulnerable youth.

California’s AB 665 lets 12-year-olds greenlight their own therapy, Michigan’s HB 5318 hands 14-year-olds the reins to outpatient mental health, Colorado’s lawmakers mull shielding school counseling records from parents, and even Oklahoma’s progressive fringe toys with echoing this madness—all while you, the parent, are sidelined, your authority eroded by the mostly salary-beholden, little minds of the little people of legislature, who are convinced they know better.

These are not just laws; they are a seismic shift, tearing children from the cradle of family and faith, thrusting them into an abyss where schools and bureaucrats play God.

The left will tell you that the numbers scream urgency with 44% of teens grappling with persistent sadness, yet these states gamble that kids, barely past childhood, their brains still developing, can navigate life-altering choices alone, vulnerable to influences you can’t counter because you’re kept in the dark. At the same time, neutral studies and even government based research has proven otherwise repeatedly. Our Country Our Children has covered this in detail in previous Newsletters.

Your rights as parents are bleeding out, one bill at a time, and the question burns. Who is left to shield your child when the state decides it’s their turn to raise them?

It is a progressive crusade, dressed in empathy, that’s wrenching control from parents in Democratic enclaves, replacing it with a state-sanctioned autonomy that feels more like abandonment. This is not protection, it is an assault, a calculated unmooring of the family unit, and it’s happening now, in statehouses from Olympia to Sacramento, where the voices of parents are drowned out by the drumbeat of a new-age agenda.

Washington State

Washington State Senate Bill 5181 amends Initiative 2081, the “Parental Bill of Rights,” enacted in 2024 with over 454,000 voter signatures and broad legislative support.

Initiative 2081 granted parents access to their children’s school records, curricula, and medical information, including prior notification of non-emergency medical services offered at school. SB 5181, however, removes key provisions, most notably the requirement for schools to notify parents about medical services or treatments.

Democrats, stung by 2081’s passage that permitted parents nothing more than constitutional rights, saw it as muddying student privacy laws and clashing with progressive priorities. The bill’s rapid push, complete with an emergency clause to block voter referendums, reflected a backlash against parental empowerment, fueled by a cultural rift over youth autonomy versus family oversight.

The stated intention of the new law, per sponsor Democrat Sen. Claire Wilson, is a “cleanup” to clarify 2081’s ambiguities and protect student health privacy, especially for vulnerable teens who might avoid care if parents participate in their healthcare decisions.

Democratic delusions and misinformation ignore common sense and balance. SB 5181’s ambiguity opens a back door for exploitation. If the past few years has shown anything, it is that ideological driven teachers will exploit this law to withhold gender identity counseling or mental health referrals from parents, pushing leftist doctrines under the guise of “privacy”.

Other States

This isn’t something that is particular to the northwest’s Evergreen State. Across the United States, a wave of legislation in progressive-leaning states is quietly dismantling parental rights, handing decision-making power to children as young as 12 and sidelining the very adults tasked with guiding them.

California, Michigan, Colorado, and Oklahoma, all with legislative efforts mirroring Washington’s, exemplify this trend, each driven by a mix of noble intent and ideological undercurrents that threaten to redefine family dynamics. These laws, often championed by the more liberal Democrats, prioritize minor autonomy over parental oversight, to shield vulnerable youth, but they open a Pandora’s box of consequences, some unintended and some malign, leaving parents in the dark as their children navigate life-altering choices, unsure, surrounded by false narratives.

Sponsor Assembly Member Wendy Carrillo, claims it is to break down barriers for at-risk youth, homeless teens, those estranged from parents, or those fearing stigma, who might otherwise avoid care. With 37% of California teens reporting sadness or hopelessness per the CDC in 2021, the law aims to empower kids to seek help independently. Yet, it is quite obviously a double-edged sword: it assumes a 12-year-old can weigh complex psychological needs, potentially exposing them to therapies—like gender-affirming care—without familial input, a move many decry as a socialist ploy to normalize secular, state-guided upbringing over traditional values.

Michigan’s House Bill 5318, (2024) advancing through committee as of February 18, 2025, takes a similar tack, allowing minors aged 14 and older to access outpatient mental health services without parental consent. The Trevor Project’s 2024 data that 54% of transgender teens feel unsafe at home, bolsters this from a Democrat perspective, suggesting parental opposition can delay critical support. However, the law’s breadth invites exploitation: ideological counselors are likely to steer teens toward decisions parents might oppose, unchecked by family oversight.

Colorado’s legislative landscape is murkier but equally telling. While no single bill matches SB 5181’s scope as of February 2025, a draft proposal in the Senate Education Committee seeks to limit parental access to school counseling records, building on HB 23-1003 (2023), which allows mental health assessments without consent in emergencies. Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez ideologically frames it as enhancing student privacy, arguing that schools, where kids spend most waking hours, must function as safe havens for those dodging abusive or unsupportive homes.

Oklahoma, a conservative bastion, presents a twist. While its 2025 legislative session (started February 3) leans toward parental rights bills, progressive counterproposals, like one expanding minor healthcare autonomy, are gaining traction among Democrats, per The Oklahoman on February 20, 2025. These echo SB 5181’s spirit, aiming to let teens access mental health resources on their own, driven by advocates citing rural poverty and limited parental support (12% of Oklahoma children are in foster care, per DHS, 2023). The reason is to ensure that care reaches children and young people in chaotic homes. But in a red state, this clashes with other laws which uphold parental control, highlighting a tug-of-war. There is a fear that progressive enclaves could exploit such laws to advance secular ideals, though Oklahoma’s conservative tilt tempers this risk.

Socialist Views on Childhood

Beneath the surface of this progressive legislation lies a chilling ideology, a neo-Marxist vision where children are not the sacred charge of parents but possessions of the state, to be molded into agents of a collectivist future. This view, rooted in Marxist critiques of the family as a bourgeois institution, reimagines childhood as a battleground for dismantling traditional power structures, such as parents, religion, individualism, and replacing them with state-driven conformity. Laws like Washington’s, stripping parents of notification rights for their 13-year-olds’ medical decisions, or California’s AB 665, letting 12-year-olds consent to therapy without approval, are not mere reforms, they are symptoms of this radical shift, cloaked in empathy but based in control.

This legislative push is a neo-Marxist playbook unfolding in Democratic strongholds. By citing mental health crises and equity, progressives justify state ownership, but the endgame, dissolving parental rights for a homogenized, state-raised generation, is on the horizon. Activist teachers and politicians, armed with SEL and vague laws, will undoubtedly exploit this to imprint ideologies, leaving parents as bystanders in a radical reimagining of childhood.

How Legislation Parallels Social Emotional Learning

The legislative tidal wave is surging, hand-in-glove with Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), of which we at OCOC have previously written, to wrench children from their parents’ embrace and the faiths they hold dear, steering them instead toward a homogenized, state-sanctioned worldview. These laws do not stand alone, they are the legal scaffolding for SEL’s quiet mission to supplant parental authority and religious roots with a secular narrative crafted by the state.

SEL, entrenched in 90% of U.S. schools, teaches children self-awareness, empathy, and decision-making, noble on paper, but a Trojan horse in practice. In Washington, mandatory SEL standards dovetail with SB 5181’s intent. The law’s removal of parental oversight assumes teens, guided by SEL-trained counselors, can self-regulate, mirroring CASEL’s “self-efficacy” goals. California’s AB 665 sponsor, Wendy Carrillo, ties it to “breaking trauma cycles” while Michigan’s Rep. Felicia Brabec calls HB 5318 a trust-builder—all SEL code words. Colorado’s draft bill and Oklahoma’s efforts echo this, positioning schools as sanctuaries where SEL equips children to bypass parents.

This constructive collaboration isn’t accidental. SEL’s secular framework of mindfulness, identity exploration, and equity, clashes with religious teachings many parents instill, like biblical absolutes or traditional morality. Critics like the Family Research Council warn SEL “replaces faith-based values with subjective ethics,” a charge leveled at laws enabling secret counseling.

California’s 12-year-olds, Michigan’s 14-year-olds, and Colorado’s counseled teens, shielded by these laws, become SEL’s foot soldiers. Programs like Second Step (Colorado) or Michigan’s SEL mandates emphasize “identity” and “belonging” which are terms ripe for pushing gender fluidity or secular humanism, sidelining parental faiths. Oklahoma’s emerging proposals, though in a red state, hint at similar risks in urban Democratic enclaves. Neuroscience screams these kids are not ready, yet SEL and legislation assume they are, handing impressionable minds to school staff who might prioritize state narratives over home values.

The intent of protecting vulnerable youth masks a deeper play. SEL’s state-backed rollout, paired with laws erasing parental checks, crafts a pipeline: kids leave the home’s religious moorings for a school-driven ethos. It is state grooming. Parents, stripped of influence, watch their children drift not to the faiths of their choosing, but to a sterile, state-owned creed.

And finally…

The assault on parental rights in liberal states like Washington with SB 5181, isn’t just a policy shift; it’s a gut-wrenching betrayal of America’s soul, a radical departure from the bedrock values that forged this nation: family as the cradle of nurture and religion as the compass of conscience.

These progressive Marxist laws, cloaked in “be nice” and compassion, rip children from their parents’ arms at ages as tender as 12 or 13, handing them to a faceless and malign state and its Social-Emotional Learning machine, where secular indoctrination supplants the sacred bonds of home and faith.

This isn’t freedom, its theft, a neo-Marxist power grab that mocks the Declaration’s promise of liberty, the Constitution’s shield of parental duty, and the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious choice.

Just imagine, a 13-year-old, brain still half-formed, nudged by ideological teachers toward gender theories or anti-religious ethics, while Mom and Dad, the keepers of their child’s moral heritage, are gagged by laws like SB 5181, AB 665, or HB 5318, blind to the state’s silent reshaping. This has been going on too long already and now it gets legal protection.

This is no minor tweak; it’s a cultural earthquake, shattering the American ideal of parents as first guardians, replacing it with a chilling vision where children are state property, molded for a collectivist tomorrow.

We have strayed far from our nation’s Founding Fathers’ dream, from Jefferson’s “pursuit of happiness” through family, and Madison’s defense of faith, into a dystopia where bureaucrats play God, or more accurately Satan.

To restore these values, we have to fight back with ferocity. We must repeal these evil laws, and demand transparency that let’s parents see every record, every session, every influence.