Standing Up in Education: A Personal Journey through Advocacy and Political Struggles

Are you prepared for a hard-hitting conversation that uncovers the brutal reality of the political landscape within the realm of education? I, Jenn Parrish, share my personal journey of advocating for my children's rights, following my daughter's encounter with a bully, through covid. I reveal how I faced hostility and aggression, not just from individuals, but from an entire system that sought to silence me. Buckle up as we embark on this raw and challenging discussion about the struggles of speaking up in today's political climate.

Our conversation delves into the importance of excellence in every library for every student, and how personal attacks can derail the quest for improvement. I unpack my experiences in the School Board Race, my newest tango with the county commissioner race and share my thoughts on the WHY Katie Delaney has to be in District 1. 

I dive into the three-minute school board non agenda comments, why it is important or was this a great move! It gives a clear example of the challenges we face in holding our politicians accountable and being able to pivot as our elected officials try to muddy the waters when everyone just wants transparency.

In the final leg of our conversations, I reflect on the detrimental impact of attacking small businesses for political gains and stress the need for constructive dialogue. As a resident of Brevard County, Florida, since 2008, I share my relentless efforts in preserving the county for future generations. In the face of internet trolls and the propagation of hate, I urge listeners to aim for solutions that benefit everyone. This conversation is not just about my personal story, but a call to action for all of us to stand up, speak out, and foster positive change within our communities.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Alright, guys, this is the bed influence with Jen Parish, and I just wanted to this is our very first episode and hang on to your seats because we're going to go through some stuff so I just wanted to give an introduction to who I am, how we got here and kind of where we're moving forward. So my journey, as always, you know how did we get here? So I started back in, you know, with the rest of us. March 2020, you know, everybody's life kind of got railroaded with COVID. And you know one thing about me I am a mom of two little kids and my kids were smack dab in the middle of school.

Speaker 1: 0:53

My daughter, she was in BBK and her entire, you know, beginning stages, the most vital part of her education was completely disrupted and their schools made the introduction to bring masks in and everybody kind of, you know, quickly, were following orders and kind of get going with the flow to just try to get to back some back to normal. You speak, you know, two weeks, that was what everybody was told. But as a mom, a business owner, you know, we have a small business here in town and we just we wanted to do everything to kind of be safe with two little kids and we also wanted to do everything that was smart for our family. So, but you know, like so many of us, I was so angry. Oh, I was so angry and I was so frustrated because, prime example, my daughter. She was in VPK and one of the most important things about VPK was you have what's called story time. All the kids come together and they talk and they sit around this little carpet in their room and there was a little girl that was, quite frankly, just bullying her and every day, with the mask on, this little girl was yanking on her braid and every day my daughter was sitting on story time with tears in her eyes but guess what? The mask covered her face. She couldn't, she could not see the teacher and the teacher could not see her to figure out what was going on. This went on for a couple of weeks. It didn't escalate until one day I went to go braid her hair and my daughter, straight up, freaked out and was just like I can't do this anymore. I this, and she gave the little girl's name and I knew exactly what we're dealing with and I'm like that's it. I cannot deal with this anymore. We ended up in that point.

Speaker 1: 2:38

You know, social media was a thing. We got involved with another local group that was just a real big advocate on no mass and it was our local moms for Liberty chapter and I got involved and it was a slow walk. It was a slow like, hey, we're gonna, I'm gonna get involved. This doesn't seem right. Science isn't really adding up and we're kind of navigating through like all the data and everything that's being thrown at us but at the same time you have the political climate that's jumping on top of this science and turning it into this like monster. Well, while we're navigating through the mass, covid reshaping our businesses, I'm also saying, hey, I don't like what's going on in our schools and I want to get involved because that's what this local chapter is telling us. That is where I met a candidate that was running for our local school board race and that's kind of where my story began.

Speaker 1: 3:37

But alongside of everything, the world was still shifting and everybody was trying to figure out this new normal and I was still behind the scenes trying to be a mom, a wife, a business owner in my community, still trying to get involved. You know folks in my area are going to say, oh, she's just a brand new Republican or she's just getting started. You're right, I am just getting started. But every step of the way throughout this journey, everybody has come out from both sides, democrats and Republicans. Everybody has come out with this like spit viper of nastiness that I'm just like Whoa, hold the phone. I'm just talking about, you know, books in our classrooms or the bathrooms or subjects that matter to my kids. Why are you attacking me, my family or my business time out? That's not part of the equation, that's not part of why we're here, and it just really resonated with me that like, okay, either I'm close to something, a target or something, or they're trying to get me to go away. And now everybody on here is going to say, oh, my goodness, she's got aspirations to run for something in the future. Listen, my kids are little. I have zero aspirations to run for anything because, guess what, I'm going to drop an F bomb on that dice at any moment and call somebody a freaking moron.

Speaker 1: 4:55

Because half the people that get up there and whine about something or sit in silence for three minutes solid staring at these politicians expecting them to do something, nothing happens. There's no conversation there. You get up there for your three minutes and they're staring at you or staring in their phone, not given two rats asses about what you're actually saying, because that's not where things are happening. When things are happening, it's behind the scenes. It's meetings with committees and these special districts and these strange deals that are going on that nobody in the public has any clue what's going on. Everybody works their asses off trying to get these politicians into these seats, but then, when it comes time to actually what they're voting for, it's like the Wizard of Oz. You got this big old idiot sitting on a dais, but behind the scenes there's some lobbyist or funny politician that's really pulling the strings or a puppet master. What is going on?

Speaker 1: 5:50

But again, every step of the way, I have been met with the most vile attacks on me, my business and my family. My kids' pictures are my kids got attacked. My house was broken into, my business was targeted, all for the sake of politics. And it's just mind boggling that at the end of the day, we can't have a debate, I can't have a difference of opinions, but your motive, your narrative, is to try to hurt me or hurt the livelihood that supports my kids. Well, at the end of the day, fuck you.

Speaker 1: 6:24

And this is my show, this is my platform of where I want to kind of dive through all the different things that we've actually been dealing with, all the different hot topics Everywhere, from most recently the Meridah Island Incorporation, the bullshit, absolute bullshit that's going on behind there and we're gonna dive into that. I'm gonna bring a whiteboard in and some of the subject matter experts that I've been talking to and kind of diving into that aspect, some of the trolls, like. I'll give you an example if you would pull up that email, that kind of kicked off, the kind of the fuming launch pad, if you will. So I'll give you a little bit of a taste. So, like I said, this all started with our school board race.

Speaker 1: 7:05

I helped one of our representatives get elected and through the navigation of this, I kicked off an email to our chair, matt Susan, where I was concerned about our book committee and I was really concerned over the temper, the temperament of the committee. Everybody was attacking each other, nothing was being done correctly as far as like having real conversations, being able to dissect the books, read the books. No, no, no. This was mud slinging after mud slinging, attacking this one woman. That was a complete activist just trying to get books out of the kids. That was age appropriate material, like I'm talking, some of the most graphic books. And that was an email that I sent out to Matt Susan and from there they've taken this and lobbied it as a new attack on me because their behavior if you pull the video, all the public meetings are recorded and that's usually how I end up watching them Because, guess what?

Speaker 1: 8:05

I work, I have a business, so we, I watched it online and their behavior was just completely disgusting and it was nonsense because nothing was getting done, nothing was constructive. So it just it drove me to send an email because I'm I'm a problem solver. I want to try to fix it. It's like nothing is happening. And this, and guess what? The book committee has been stalled out because nobody wants to have a conversation, because nobody wants the attacks. So guess what? That's just stalling progress and both sides of the aisle guys, nothing's happening. So you can't have a con in the name of criticism. You can't actually attack people. You had cutouts of this woman's head. You actually, like, went after her and said you wanted to mess up her life. Well, guess what? You're also trying to mess up my life If you actually pull up some of that post seven, nine and four, they actually because of that email, they they're going against my business. My business has nothing to do with the book committee. My business has nothing to do with the school boards, but they felt the need to go after it. What? That is absolutely absurd.

Speaker 1: 9:09

Let's talk about nobody's banning books, nobody's penalizing media specialists. Hey, news Flash, the media specialists. They're the first ones that could approve or kick out those books. They get the first list. So for anybody that's out there saying that the media specialists aren't getting a seat at the table, wrong, they're actually the first ones that get to see the books that are in this. They're the reason we kind of got here. Had they not approved the books that came with the approved lists for the reading material, maybe these books wouldn't be in the library.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Oh, and the other conversation with that. Everybody's so focused, hell bent on these books. I'm sorry. Are these the only books that exist? Is there nothing better for literature that we could talk to as far as some of these same authors? If that's what you're after, the authors, did they not write something a little bit better, richer with literature, that might actually educate these kids without putting a pornographic thought in their head. How about that? How about we excel and want excellence for every single student and demand that we want better material in every single library for every kid? Don't talk to me about an equity issue, because you've got nonprofits and small businesses throughout Coco handing these books out left and right. So if you have an issue getting the books, don't worry. I will point you in the direction of some of these businesses and nonprofits that are handing them out for free. You literally have a nonprofit making bank off of the backs of putting non age appropriate books in these kids hands Outrageous.

Speaker 1: 10:41

So even after attacking my business, then they went another level. They went after my looks and let me tell you that's the last thing I could give two shits about, because my hair, my weight, anything like that. I'm not married to you. I'm happily married. I've been married to my husband for 10 years. We're going on a trip Like life is great. I'm sorry you feel. If you want to pull up some of the attacks on me personally, that would be post screenshot number five, six, and I believe let's see I think that was it and it's just absolutely ridiculous the depths of bullying that they will go to to try to attack me. But the question is, why? What? Like no offense? Who gives a shit what you think about what I look like, I'm not married to you, I don't see you at night, but they felt the need that this was good material on their pages.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Now this has been going on for over two years. Like I said, we kicked this thing off back in March and 2020. And I have done everything. I have blocked them, I have censored them as far as I've sent them letters, cease and desist letters through another group that I'm part of. In every step of the way, they're finding a new way to try to hurt me Again. They're going after things that are not relevant to the topic of what we're fighting about. They're going after my livelihood, they're going after me personally. Why? Let's stay on task. We can have again, we can have a debate and we can talk about the issues, but there's nothing that says my livelihood, my kids, my family that's off the table on both sides, because, guess what you're doing? You're actually hurting your side too. You're hurting other people that are like I don't want to deal with that bullshit. I don't want to have somebody attacking me because I have skeletons in the closet or I have this or I have that. You're hurting people from getting involved.

Speaker 1: 12:35

There are 190,000 registered Republicans in Brevard County. That's huge. That's a huge party. Guess how many people are actually actively involved? Maybe a thousand. If you stretch all the groups across the county, from MAMS all the way to Palm Bay, you probably have a thousand people that are actively involved in their Republican Party. That's bullshit. We need to wake people up If the corruption is going to stop in our area. We need more people making phone calls. We need more people showing up at these meetings, but nobody wants to.

Speaker 1: 13:11

If you're dealing with that level of bullshit as we go through this series, we're going to be talking about all of them. We're going to be talking about Merritt Island. I'm going to be pointing out all the trolls, the additional trolls that I mean. We're just touching the surface of all the things we've had been putting up with for two years. I'm going to bring in some of the folks that have also shared this journey with me and being able to shed the light on their experiences.

Speaker 1: 13:33

We uncovered people doing silly stuff, like taking out fake PPP loans or creating fake aliases and literally attacking people or doxing them. It is complete nonsense of how this is progressing. Quite frankly, it needs to stop. When are the adults going to come back to the table and have a conversation so we can constructively progress and do things better, our kids, our grandkids? The future deserves actual, constructive conversations, because nothing positive is coming from you posting a picture of me and trying to destroy my livelihood. That needs to stop.

Speaker 1: 14:14

Or, as crime is getting uncovered, don't attack me, don't attack the messenger, because guess what? The politicians they're just going to attack other people that are willing to step forward and come forward and talk about things that they've uncovered through public records, requests or digging in research or anything like that that they have found in their God-given talents of being able to find this stuff. You're going to discourage them from wanting to come forward because they don't want to deal with it. So again, some of the things that we're going to talk about the county commissioner race. We got some hot seats coming up for 2024 and, of course, I'm going to invite everybody to the table to see if they want to talk to us.

Speaker 1: 14:52

As far as some of the things that they've uncovered, county commissioner race my one that I'm focusing on right now, as you can imagine, is county district one. Katie Delaney is probably going to be my girl. She has been an absolute patriot throughout this journey that I've been walking along with her and just watching her how she's grown and gotten involved in different aspects. I am so excited to work with her and give her a platform. If this is an opportunity for her to talk more about what she's focusing on, the issues that she's going to really attack and kind of help bring home to her constituents in district one School board meetings, kind of talking a little bit more of that three minutes.

Speaker 1: 15:30

I would love to kind of dive in again. I've talked about it briefly as far as that three minutes, that moment where you're standing up there and you're sitting in silence and you're trying to make a politician or an elected official feel silly about getting their seat that is absolutely ridiculous. You need to be having meetings one-on-one, having phone calls or conversations with your elected officials and most definitely, if you know, specifically in one of those cases where they just sat there in silence for three minutes, girl, you knew what was happening. You had the conversation of that whole application nonsense before you got up there and embarrassed yourself for three minutes, give me a break. And of course, coco. We all want to talk about Coco and all the different things going on there and how Coco is police chief and everything that's going on. There is just a complete mess. I'm going to bring in some folks that want to talk, shed some light, kind of really dig into, like the things and the topics that are going on there and maybe, just maybe, some folks in Coco are going to jump on and get involved and really help that city council and get everything straightened out. And then, of course, moms for Liberty, moms for America I would love to kind of get a duel and even family for safe schools. I will absolutely give them an opportunity to come in and kind of dive through between the three groups that are here locally that have local chapters. Give them an opportunity that would really differentiate. I personally have been asked to get removed from Moms for Liberty, the Brevard County chapter, we, you know.

Speaker 1: 17:07

I'll give you a little story about that because I love my stories. There was a segment where there was a again going back to the county school board race. There was a lady that was running down in the south part of the county and I'm going to give her name because she's that vile of a human being, but she thought it would be a great idea to have everybody boycott small businesses that are owned by conservatives, that she thought she grew a brain cell and thought that they were associated with Moms for Liberty. The list that was on this lady's attack list, if you will, was targeted, and some of them weren't even involved with Moms for Liberty. She was so wrong. She was blatantly wrong. However, they were still attacking these businesses, and in the mix of COVID you're trying to figure everything out, you're now you have some person that's using your business as the platform of why you should be destroyed so she can get a seat to represent students in her district. That just didn't even make sense to me, so I was like, oh heck, no. So I had asked Moms for Liberty to get involved and maybe legally shut that down, but Moms for Liberty is focusing solely on their mission, which wasn't identifying with me. I may have got a little hasty, because I'm human and I small. I have a small business. I resonated with that wholeheartedly because I knew it was only a matter of time before I was on that list too, and so I asked them to get involved.

Speaker 1: 18:35

We went back and forth as far as being a strong conservativeness county and guess what? I got the boot, of course, and I'm never going to discourage anybody from speaking their mind. What I am going to discourage of is being violent and gross about the attacks. Be strong on your message, be strong as far as your convictions and what you stand for, but don't attack my livelihood. You and I can have a disagreement, but I'm never going to say, hey, your, not your business, should suffer because, guess what? Your business supports your kids, your family, your aunts, your uncles. However you live your life, your business is the main revenue source in your family. I wish nothing negative about that. You do you boo? So at the end of the day, I want to be able to have debates and like really dive in and kind of go through these groups. What do they mean? They're not extremists in any fashion. They really just want the best for their community, for their kids and their families, and I don't think anybody should be penalized for that in any side of the conversation. You know we're not. We're all neighbors here. At the end of the day, we live. We actually do live.

Speaker 1: 19:39

A lot of people don't realize Brevard County is one of the best counties on the planet and when I was young I got to travel a lot. I went overseas, I went to Europe and I tell you what Brevard County I mean we have every aspect. The only thing we don't have is snow. Depending on where you're from, that's a really good thing. So we actually have to remind ourselves that this still is one of the greatest counties in the state of Florida and probably the count country. We have some great schools, we have great areas to grow and grow our babies, and that that really needs to kind of resonate with every single person.

Speaker 1: 20:14

But at the end of the day, we also have some things going on behind the scenes, where we have some politicians that are thinking because nobody's paying attention, because at these county commissioner meetings and the school board meetings and the city council meetings, there might be a handful of people in these rooms and nobody is public records requesting anything, or, if you are, they're making it so expensive you're like you know what, never mind or they're making it so difficult and time consuming that you have folks waiting six and seven weeks for their public records request. Why? Because maybe they're withholding the information or I don't know, but it's making it difficult to get involved and that just needs to stop, because guess what? Again, we're all neighbors in this. We're all fighting for the same thing to make sure that we're preserving the very best for our county for the next generation, so that they're not dealing with beach erosions and condos falling into the ocean, they're not dealing with corrupt politicians that are selling them out the back door to some lobbyist that's going to flood their neighborhoods or we're not having bathroom issues where genders are confused and kids are at suicide rate is out the window.

Speaker 1: 21:21

We actively need people to get more and more involved every single day, every single meeting and every single election. I need everybody to stop with the attacks. Stop attacking me personally, because that has nothing to do with the topics we're dealing with. But if also, if this pisses you off, if the things that we're talking about here and that you get called the bad influence because, trust me, in the last almost three years, I believe, you went dealing with, I've been called every name of the book, but the one constant on my own side in the Republican party is that I'm a bad influence, I'm a troublemaker. Why? Because I'm asking questions. I don't want status quo anymore. I don't want the same old Republican party over and over again, because that is the definition of insanity. That is how we got here.

Speaker 1: 22:07

So everybody needs to wake up, get involved and ask your neighbor to come with you to the next meeting and I hope to God you do, because guess what? There is a lot of shit going on behind the scenes that everybody is hoping and praying that you Were not paying attention to because, as your tax dollars are getting wasted over and over and over again, they're just hoping that you're sitting at home watching Facebook or Instagram or something else and not paying attention to the fact that our tax dollars are being wasted. They're not being fiscally responsible in our kids futures are being eroded by absolute lobbyists and stupid agendas. It needs to stop. But don't attack me because I'm bringing it to the forefront because, guess what, I am a bad influence because I'm gonna get people To get up off their asses. If you don't want to show up to a meeting, great, make a phone call. You don't want to make a phone call? Send an email. You don't want to send an email because you don't want your domain attack, like mine is being currently. Talk to your neighbor, talk to your folks in church, talk to your folks in your bridge club, I don't care, just start talking, because there's so much going on that we need everybody to get up off their seats and do Something. Just do one thing, one plus one, and that makes everybody else that's actually getting involved and out there every single day for the forefront, makes us that feel supported and make it so that this fight makes sense.

Speaker 1: 23:29

I'm so tired of getting caught. You know. Oh, this person is so crazy. You don't want to get associated with her because she's she just has these radical ideas. Does she have radical ideas or she thorough in her research? Does she? Is she crazy or did she actually pretty invested in the community and she has seen a lot of shit? So I would be.

Speaker 1: 23:49

I really want to Encourage people to. Let's have conversations. We can disagree. I, I, I completely and open to a conversation, but at the end of the day, the moment you talk attack me personally, my business, my family and every single one of these issues. I'm gonna bring forward actual proof of things that have happened to me, my business or my family, of where most people would say this is nuts there's. Why are you continuing at the end of the day, we need to get involved. I don't want to stop doing what I'm doing. I absolutely want to get more involved and I'm just getting started again.

Speaker 1: 24:26

I have I am not I'm not a campaign manager this season because for the very fact of I kind of want to put in some hot top, hot Potato subjects in our area to get more people up out of their seats because, at the end of the day, if we get more people involved, more than a thousand people involved in all these various Areas, in all these communities, it's actually gonna put, it's gonna make sense for the politicians to actually do what they're running on. The message that they're saying that they're gonna get elected for the actual things that they're running on and trying to get money from you, you're gonna be able to hold their feet to the fire because you're holding them accountable Rather than you. That these politicians that have been there for eight, ten years. You need to go. You need to go find something else to do, because there is so much corruption going on behind the scenes with wasted tax dollars, special districts and special interest groups that they again they are hoping nobody else pays attention and I hope, all across Anybody in other counties, other parts of the country, get involved, be the bad influence, ask questions, and I really want everybody to kind of start public records requesting and diving into this data that we're seeing, because a lot of things across the board don't make sense and the swamp isn't just in DC. It's in your neighborhood County Commissioner, it's in your neighborhood City Council meeting, it's in your neighborhood school board race, and it does need to be brought to light so that we can get back to just living our lives.

Speaker 1: 25:57

If, covid, if there was ever a blessing of All the bullshit we had to put up with, is the fact that everybody had a stop and watch in real time, like, wait, that's how you're reacting to that, or that's what you're teaching my kid, or that's what you're doing. This is complete nonsense and it didn't allow give everybody the fair opportunity of like, hey, wait a minute, how am I gonna pivot to this? Because and it allowed everybody small business owners, employers, moms, dads, grandparents everybody had to pivot a little bit in every function of their life, so that, again, this is our first episode. I am so excited that you're following along as we go through all these different episodes. If you have questions.

Speaker 1: 26:38

I am on social media the bad influence by JP. You can follow me on Facebook, instagram. I think I've started a YouTube channel. I am new to all of this and I apologize in advance because I am not that techie, but I will tell you this. I am so fed up with people trying to attack me for just asking questions or Wanting to bring some decorum back to having a conversation or having a debate in a committee and not being attacked for my personal beliefs. That stuff needs to stop and I'd like to get more people involved and be that bad influence in whatever county that you're sitting in or whatever Area that you're in. Here in Brevard County, especially Meridahlin, you got a special place in my heart because that is where I live since 2008.

Speaker 1: 27:20

And oh, just wait, that incorporation is dead on arrival and we are going to Make a lot of people unhappy about that because we're gonna kick over some rocks and show every level of how we got here over the last decade and kind of all the different politicians that have played a hand in it.

Speaker 1: 27:36

And we are just getting started, folks, and we're so excited you're here with us and I just can't wait to Show everybody what we've been working on and how we got here, and the trolls that are out there that keep Spreading that hate. You know, go find something to do, find a new hobby, because, like, that's just gonna fuel everything that we got going. You're gonna motivate everybody to kind of come out Stronger and I hope it encourages every person on both sides of the aisle to say, hey, that's bullshit, let's, let's get to work, because we got a lot of work to do and we're gonna preserve Every county, that every area of this county that we live in, to make sure that it is awesome, kick-ass as it is, for the next generation To come. All right, guys, thank you, and it's been been awesome you.