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We're back with another edition of The
Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Jasinski,

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culture editor here at the Federalist.
As always, you can email the show

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at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr LST.

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Make sure to subscribe wherever you download
your podcasts into the premium version of

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our website as well. Today I
am here. I'm joined by Michelle Blair

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and her attorney, Vernadette Broyles,
who is the President and General council over

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at the Child and Parental Rights Campaign, Inc. We're going to dive into

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a tragic and unfathomable and unfathomable story
based on a lawsuit that Michelle and Vernadette

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have filed actually just this week as
we're taping the podcast. First, before

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we dig in to that, I
want to welcome both of you and thank

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you for joining the show so much. This is not an easy thing to

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talk about, so we very much
appreciate your time. Oh, thanks for

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happiness. Yes, Emily, thank
you so much. I really appreciate you

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letting my voice be heard. Absolutely
absolutely, And so let me start by

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reading from the press release with some
background on the allegations in the lawsuit.

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That was filed in Virginia this week, so that listeners are up to speed

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on the story and have a clear
picture of the facts, because this is

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an incredibly complicated case and it is
just again, as I said, I'll

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use the word again, unfathomable on
so many different levels. It's one that

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some people might already have heard from, although I imagine there are more details

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in the lawsuit that we'll get into. People who are familiar with the Push

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for Sages law in Virginia may be
familiar with the contours of the case,

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but let's go to the press release
here. On Tuesday, August twenty two,

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twenty twenty three, the Child and
Parental Rights Campaign, Inc. Filed

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a lawsuit on behalf of Michelle Blair
against the Appomatox County School Board, Superintendent

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Annette Bennett, school Counselor Dina Olsen, school Counselor Averreville, and public defender

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Anissa Khan. Missus Blair's parental rights
were violated when school officials withheld information about

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her fourteen year old daughters asserted a
male gender identity, an ongoing harassment,

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and the public defender interfered with missus
Blair's right to custody. In August twenty

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twenty one, Missus Blair's daughter Sage, began identifying as a boy at Appomattox

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County High School. Sage had a
history of mental health issues and early childhood

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trauma, which missus Blair had shared
with the school. Yet, school administrators

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actively hid sage suddenly identifying as a
boy from her parents and did not inform

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them that Sage was being verbally,
physically, and sexually assaulted by her male

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classmates because of it. Despite this, the school still encouraged Sage to use

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the boy's bathroom, where the bullying
and abuse continued. Because of the harassment,

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Sage based, she ran away from
home and ultimately was drugged, raped,

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and trafficked. After days of abuse, Sage was found in Maryland and

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assigned a public defender, Anissa Khan, who falsely convinced the judge that her

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parents were abusive and deprived Sage's mother
of custody. Sage was placed in a

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male juvenile services facility, where she
was further sexually assaulted. Sage ran away

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from this facility and once again fell
into the hands of sex traffickers, who

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transported her to Texas, where she
was rescued by law enforcement and reunited with

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her parents. That's from the press
release again, and believe it or not,

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the details as we dive into them
will be I think even more shocking

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as they continue to get flushed out. Michelle, My first question is for

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you. You are Sage's grandmother,
correct, You have a guardianship over Sage?

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Is that the way? And tell
us maybe just a little bit about

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the history there. It's in the
lawsuit, but tell us about that.

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Yeah, my son, Sage's daddy
passed away when he was twenty seven and

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two thousand and five, and Sage
was shuffled through a few different foster homes

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until I finally was able to get
custody, and it took almost a year.

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So Sage came home a little shy
of two years old, and she

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was our pride and joy, the
apple of my eye, the sun rose

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and set and me and my husband, we we just loved her. We

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loved her and we loved every minute
with her. Do you want a Sage

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doing today? Well, you know, we're hopeful for brighter tomorrow. But

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Sage does have a lifetime sentence of
complex PTSD. And it's interesting you say

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that because when Sage had had a
trauma as a little one, as a

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baby, I read a book while
she was gone called The Body Keeps Score.

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Because see, when I adopted Sage, I thought that, you know,

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I could love her through anything that
she had been through as a baby.

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And apparently the body keeps score.
So when puberty came, her puberty

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hit really hard. So she did
have a rough time with puberty. And

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as soon as she hit like twelve, I started taking her for for counseling

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because I could see her mental health
was declining. And going into that school

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year, you had alerted appomatics,
the school system apomatics I did. I

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did, and that's why that's why
I to this day, I don't understand

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how this even happened because the forms
you fill out when your child enter school.

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I let them know. I let
them know she had trauma, she

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had mental health issues. She had
been impatient for five days a month before,

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so I I just expected them to, you know, read read the

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fib and let me know if anything, you know, changed, or if

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they saw her acting different. And
something that strikes me about this story,

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and these are likes, is how
it condemns two states. It's not just

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it is not just Virginia, it's
also Maryland and wherever Sage turned as a

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fourteen year old girl, she was
let down by the system over and over

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and over again, according to these
allegations, turning to adults for help and

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adults allegedly failing over and over again. And that's stunning. And I want

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to ask you, Ernadette, what
this sort of constitutional questions on the table

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are constitutional and related to the law
in Maryland and Virginia. What is in

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this lawsuit? Where have these states
actually legally appear to Where do they appear

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to have failed on the legal questions? Well, from I'll talk to about

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the legal questions, but first from
a human right standpoint, they failed because

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the adults pursued their own ideological agenda
as opposed to the best interests of the

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child. You know, the entire
legal system is supposed to be set up

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on a state standard of always at
all levels, at with at the juvenile

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court level and the family court level, at the superior court level, even

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in federal court, it is always
supposed to be pursuing the best interests of

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the child. And that did not
happen here. These adults pursue their own

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ideological agenda. Now, from a
legal, you know, constitutional standpoint,

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they clearly violated the fundamental parental right
that is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment by

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the due process clause. So the
Fourteenth Amendment has been held by the Supreme

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Court the United States for about one
hundred years now to protect certain very basic

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fundamental rights. So the oldest of
which is the right to raise your child,

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to be able to raise your child
accorinty to your own ideas for up

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upbringing, to direct the education of
your child, the directory religious training in

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your child, and the medical and
mental health care of the child. That

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has been that case. Law has
been developed over the course of time.

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But it is now quite true that's
a excuse me, a fundamental constitutional right.

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And in each step of the way, the school, the school officials,

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and this Anissa con the public defender, clearly violated that fundamental constitution right.

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I want to get into the story
of Anissa Khn and Michelle. I'll

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turn this one to you first.
Anissa Khan is the public defender in Maryland,

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sage ends up being traffic, runs
away from home, and appomatics ends

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up in Washington, DC. Is
sexually assaulted, ends up with a Maryland

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public defender in Baltimore, sort of
discovered I think by law enforcement in Baltimore

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and as assigned a public defender.
Their allegations of the public defender fabricates stories

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of abuse on your behalf, and
Sage ends up in squeezed in this horrific

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system, is being housed with boys
again in the process, and Anissa Khan,

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according to these allegations, coaches Sage
in some just gobsmacking, mind numbing

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ways. Tell us about the story
of Sage's interactions with an Anissa Khan as

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you understand them, sure, well. What I would like to mention is

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Sage was actually rescued nine days later
in Maryland in the house of a sex

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offender who is in jail right now. Why Sage was brought to jail,

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I don't understand, because Sage has
never been delinquent. She has always been

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a very innocent child. So so
when I couldn't even see her, me

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and my husband couldn't see her at
the jail and we were told we had

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to go to a hearing at four
o'clock, that's kind of where it all

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started. I don't even know why
Anissa Khan. I mean, she's never

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even talked to me. Sage comes
up on a big zooms screen and I

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just I say, Sage, I
love you, and I start crying and

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she says, I love you too, Nanna. And that's when Anissa an

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shut down the hearing and said that
I was I hope's misgendering her. Oh,

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and then she's remained in the jail. And when we came back to

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the other here hearing the following week
because we had to come back, did

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you know the judge ended that hearing? I asked the judge, I said,

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why is she in a jail?
Can we please get her out of

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the out of jail. She's done
nothing wrong. Well, he agreed,

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but unfortunately Anissa Khan convinced him that
we needed to make sure she went to

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a facility, and all boys facilities. She ended up with Irish teenage boys.

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I don't know how that happened.
I don't know, but it was

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absolutely horrible. It was horrible,
and in that there are echoes of what

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allegedly happened to Sage in the Appomattox
County school system, which is and this

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is the big question on the table
when they decided to keep this information from

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you. They were allowing Sage to
use a restroom with boys, and Sage

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said that Sage had incredibly difficult experiences
sexual experiences in the restroom. Can you

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tell us a little bit more about
that, well, Sage, Sage was

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bullied horribly and they kept me in
the dark. She was harassed, sexually

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harassed, she was verbally harassed.
The boys pushed her around. I do

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not know that an actual rape occurred, and maybe Sage will someday remember if

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there was or wasn't, But the
bottom line is she was horribly bullied on

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the bus with X rated disgusting insults, to the point where she was so

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afraid she was threatened that they would
that they would kill her, and that

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they knew where she lived and that
they knew where her family lives. So,

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in essence, Sage ran away,
not just to save herself, but

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she thought she was saving us.
Is where it ended up. Because they

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didn't they didn't feel it was necessary
to tell me. They kind of didn't

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understand trauma or I don't know how
this all happened. And Michelle, can

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you tell us a little bit about
how Sage and I know that this comes

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from mental health difficulties in the years
prior to twenty twenty one. As this

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all begins unfolding, But how Sage
came to be diagnosed, at least by

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one counselor, with gender dysphoria,
How Sage came to start identifying as a

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boy. I think basically what we
know at this point is from Sage in

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the school. Because you were you
were kept out of the loop. But

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what do we know about how that
unfolded back in twenty twenty one, Well,

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hall unfolded was Sage went from being
goth and then she wanted to be

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Emo. So I you know,
I've been a volunteer cost Us since twenty

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fifteen with kids, So to me, kids need to figure out who they

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are, and their puberty is hard. And I remember my puberberty, you

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know, I was, I was
a tomboy and we go through different stages.

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So I was just letting. I
was just going along with it.

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And I bought her boy style clothes
so she could be Emo. And she

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wanted blue hair, so my husband
colored her hair, and so she was

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going to school as Emo as far
as we knew, which was fine.

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There was never any problem until she
let them know she was going by a

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boy gender and a boy's name,
and they just had to fail me.

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Yeah, they just had to tell
me, and I could have got a

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handle on it just right. And
that when I was reading through the lawsuit,

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that was among the allegations. That
is one of the ones that stands

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out to me is essentially you have
somebody who works at the school stopping Sage

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in a hallway asking whether she identifies
as a boy or girl, then just

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jumping to well, you can use
the boys bathroom. Am I remembering that

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sort of set up? Oh you
are, Yeah, this counselor the second

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day of school, they absolutely that
was what tit. Sage told me.

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Well, Nana, I asked,
and they and the counselor lady told me

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to use the boys bathroom because the
girls are uncomfortable. Hey, y'all,

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this is Sarah Carter, host of
The Sarah Carter Show. Thanks for listening

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This is interesting from a legal standpoint
as well, because schools are entrusted with

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students well being in safety when they're
in their facilities, and to jump from

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for a counselor to jump from,
how do you identify too, it's okay

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to use the boy's bathroom and then
not tell any of this to the parents

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and then on top of it,
not do further due diligence. There's this

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history, this entire history of mental
health concerns prior to that. Legally,

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this is we're talking about miss Olson. This is allegation against miss Olson.

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What does the liability look like there, Well, there's there's going to be

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clear liability. So people under need
to understand, as school officials need to

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understand that endorsing a child's discordant gender
identity and an identity of themselves that is

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in direct conflict with by their biologic
reality is a very It's a serious personal

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and mental health situation and decision to
be made, and it is one that

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school officials are not qualified, they're
not competent, and they're not authorized to

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make. Those are the types to
decisions that only parents are authorized to make,

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because they don't if it's not about
a broader you know, school policy,

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curriculum issue. This is a very
personal, individualized mental health decision for

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a child. Schools are not competent
authorized to make that decision, so legally

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they clearly they overstep their bounds and
stepped into the purview of whatever. All

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of your audience instinctively recognizes, that's
our decision to make for our child.

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What makes it so wrenching in this
situation is that it's what's set off a

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whole series of actions that deeply traumatize
this child. And that's what people need

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to get. It's not a benign
intervention to drive a wedge between parents and

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their children just because their child expresses
a discordant gender identity. Is actually placing

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these children in farms way because that's
a time when they need their parents the

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most. And if they don't have
the guidance and the assistance and the care

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that their parents alone are able to
bring to bear the situation, the most

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horrific things can begin to happen in
a child's life because now they're isolated and

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they're off on their own to try
to figure out a very troubling situation for

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them. So these officials own it, and Democrats in California right now are

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debating a bill that would prevent what
they referred to as quote, forced outing

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of children to their parents. So
this is the flip side of the coin,

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which says, you know, I
would argue laughably that, I mean,

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it's not really funny, but that
you the only way to keep students

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safe if they are just secretly transitioning
or experienced experiencing dysporia that their parents do

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not support. So in their language, they would say they have anti transparents

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something like that, the only way
to keep them safe is to let them

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keep this to school and to prevent
this from going to the parents, to

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keep the secret from the parents.
So vernadette, what is the legal where

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does that in Virginia? What does
the law look like? And then legally,

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as the other side prepares a case
that I imagine might hit on that

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theme, where does that come into
play. Well, that entire mindset is

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completely accurate. Think about it.
It presumes that children are not to be

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protected by their parents. It presumes, as a matter of law by the

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state that children are to be protected. All children are protected from their parents.

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It basically presumes that parents are a
threat to their own children, not

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the state, not the government,
but that parents are presumptively a threat to

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their children. The day we have
that is law in our in our country,

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we don't have a country anymore,
very very seriously. It also,

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and so by extension, if you
presume that parents that of course, historically,

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naturally speaking, have always our entire
Western civilization has always had the presumption

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recognized by the Supreme Court United States
that parents are naturally the guardians of their

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children, and they are naturally the
ones who are going to have the best

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interests of their children at heart above
anybody else, and so therefore, presumptively

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they must be making we have the
right to make the decisions for their children.

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That's what our case law has been, that's what our cultural normative has

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been. If we reverse that through
some horrific set of laws, then we're

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saying they now creeps, that children
are the creatures of the state, that

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they are the mere creatures of the
state. And that is exactly what the

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Supreme courts said. They are not
all right, And so fortunately Virginia does

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not have a law. In fact, Virginia has some very strong protections for

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parents. There is a has been
recognized a cause of action for interference with

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parental authority under Virginia common law.
And so we amongst amongst our claims that

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we have brought, we have brought
a cause of action under the Virginia in

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excuse me, interference with parential rights
under Virginia law. And that's in addition

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to the constitutional claims. And candidly, most states do not. Really all

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states still have the presumption that parents
act in the best in to their children

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and that they have the right to
make these decisions. It's just these recent

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laws or bills that are being debated
that are very disturbing and candidly have got

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to be resisted with every fiber of
our being soul. On that note,

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what would you say to people in
other states that might be considering laws that

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would have changed your circumstances, that
would have given the school full license to

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do what it did wrongfully according to
these allegations. What would you say to

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people you know, even well intentioned
people who you know might be they might

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be on the left, they might
you know, deeply care about the well

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being of LGBT kids, kids suffering
from the horrors of gender dysphoria, which

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is legitimately an incredibly painful thing.
What would you say to them about allowing

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schools to keep parents in the dark
laws that would allow and in fact,

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in some cases, mandate that schools
keep parents in the dark on these huge

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questions of sex identification. Well,
I would say, if you're going to

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keep parents in the dark, you
are robbing us of our right to protect

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our children because they are not experts
on our children. We are. They

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do not know our children. I
know my child better than any of them

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ever did, and we must be
the voice of reason for these kids.

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I mean, they're going through puberty, They're going to change their minds when

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the wind blows. That's just what
it is. So to put adult decisions

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on a child to begin with,
never mind behind the parents' back, is

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just going to cause It's just the
consequences are going to be horrible. I

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mean, I'm just I can just
see the writing on the wall with this

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happening. I mean, if you're
going to take my child away from me

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and put her in a safe house, I don't even know what we're going

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to do. I mean, you
have to remember, I was traumatized.

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Not only are these children being traumatized, we are too, these parents.

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I was petrified to speak out.
I didn't know what to say. So

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I'm not alone, but I will
tell you that we love our children.

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We are not the bad guys.
We want what's best for our children,

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and I think that parents need to
stand together and let them know that.

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Emily, I had served for five
years on the state Board of the Department

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Services here in Georgia, which has
our child a Tective Services. As part

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of that agency, I help co
chair the Chilbotective Services Subcommittee, and I

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can just tell you that states are
struggling to respond to actual legitimate abuse and

295
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neglect. They can barely handle the
number of cases and the number of kids

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in foster care due to actual legitimate
abuse and neglect, you know, physical

297
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sexual harm and so forth that they
can They can really hardly even handle those

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cases. And to to think of
taking away children from loving parents is we're

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talking about completely destroying and undermining,
completely destroying the system. Since that you

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can't actually respond to kids who do
need that are being a truly abused you

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think about, it's just completely perverse. You know. I'm really glad you

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make that point, because I was
actually just going to ask about the cases

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with the points in these allegations where
we see incompetence together with ideology, or

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incompetence instead of ideology. I mean, some of these cases, the one

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thing that stands out to me,
I'm going to read actually from the lawsuit

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because this one is just unbelievable.
Where you have the you have an officer

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Gunter in this case, Gunter Gunster
is interrogating, intimidating, and threatening Sage

308
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according to the lawsuit, who is
the sexual harassment victim. The way that

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officer allegedly treated Sage is again a
situation where it seems to me like they

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just it's beyond ideology. They have
no idea what they're doing. And I

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had a similar reaction to the allegations
about Maryland, where Sage ends up in

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this group home being abused. Is
that the consequence of ideology as well,

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Yes, but it also seems like
they have no idea what they're doing with

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these these precious children. And both
of you may have thoughts on on that,

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because in some cases to me,
it seems like it's it's a combination

316
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of ideology and in competence and not
just one or the other. Thank you,

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00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:21,680
thank you, and to be and
you know what, I need to

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piggyback on that, because that's where
Sage finally broke was when she was being

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interrogated. I did not know.
Had I known that the bullying was this

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horrific that parents had to even call
in, I would have taken Sage out

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of that school immediately. I would
have taken her out I immediately and got

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her the mental health support that she's
so desperately needed. And I'll add to

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that the ideology, particularly obviously in
the school when Michellby talked about that,

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Within the Maryland juvenile court system,
the ideology drove the incompetency because best practice

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00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:10,319
in terms of handling trauma, in
terms of responding to victims. This was

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a victim of sexual assault and sex
trafficking, right, not just you know,

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a pat on the rear end,
multiple rate and sex trafficking. This

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is probably the most serious of compon
victims. And somehow, for frankly,

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00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:33,200
the police officer has been more importantly
this public defender to bring her into the

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juvenile juvenile system as if she's a
juvenile delinquent. Frankly, it was in

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order to continue to maintain control.
That was the purpose of all of this,

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and so the ideology overwhelmed everything that
we all know about trauma, about

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sex abuse victims, about children needing
their parents, and how they should be

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restored immediately to their parents unless there's
an action, will you proof of actual

335
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abuse and neglect? All of these
well established understanding of children was thrown out

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the door. Not to mention how
vulnerable stage is not even a hundred pounds.

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She's small, She's a small girl. The idea of putting a diminutive

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little girl who already had been raped
in with couple of boys. Again,

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you're throwing out our basic knowledge of
youth, of kids because of the ideology.

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00:28:30,039 --> 00:28:38,480
The ideology drives the confidence the washed. Aldo on Wall Street Podcast with

341
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:44,000
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342
00:28:44,039 --> 00:28:47,960
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343
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safety and government mandated green energy transition. Is your local government pushing these ESG

344
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:57,359
policies which could make problems worse in
a disaster. Don't let the government medal

345
00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:00,440
in the private sector. Whether it's
happen in DC or down on Wall Street,

346
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,440
it's affecting you financially. Be informed. Check out the Watchdoor on Wall

347
00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:10,440
Street podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast

348
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,880
disgusting. And on top of that, it reminds me of what we were

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00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,799
talking about earlier of miss Olsen allegedly
jumping to, oh, go ahead,

350
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use the boys bathroom without even considering
this history of mental health that Michelle,

351
00:29:26,319 --> 00:29:30,400
you had disclosed to the school that
the school rightfully needed to know in order

352
00:29:30,519 --> 00:29:36,319
to prevent decisions like this allegedly from
happening. Michelle, can you tell us

353
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more about I imagine over the course
of this incredibly painful experience, you've learned

354
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how human trafficking in some cases happens, and child trafficking in some cases happens.

355
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I imagine some listeners are curious about
that. My understanding from the lawsuit

356
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is that Sage left through a window, was then somehow going to contact with

357
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someone who brought up to Washington See
and then to Baltimore. She ended up

358
00:30:02,599 --> 00:30:04,599
in Texas at one point. Can
you tell us what do you what you've

359
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:11,880
learned about that industry and those patterns
from this entire ordeal. Well, what

360
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I've learned is that social media,
I think COVID really took a hit on

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all these kids' mental health because everybody's
been on the social media and these kids

362
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are vulnerable. And if I have
to sign a document at school to let

363
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:32,640
the school give my daughter a tile
in all, then I'm pretty sure I

364
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:37,000
should sign something to allow her to
go into the same bathroom as a boy.

365
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So when she left, she was
having a mental breakdown. So when

366
00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:51,920
this Virginia guy picked her up,
I mean they brought out searchain rescue dogs

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that lost the scent, So she
obviously was meeting people that was grooming her

368
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that she just did not know,
because that's how she ended up losing her

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00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:07,039
innocence. And I mean, just
horrible circumstances, like Burnidette was just saying,

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just horrible. From Virginia to DC
to Maryland where we could have ended

371
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:19,720
it on day nine, and it
just continued from there. And when Sage

372
00:31:19,759 --> 00:31:23,680
was missing, I ended up with
Freedom four twenty four in Lynchburg, a

373
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:30,279
nonprofit organization that gave me so much
knowledge. Scared me. But now I

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00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:37,119
understand why these kids are leaving home, and it has really just because their

375
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:41,880
kids running away. Look, because
that's what teenagers do. They're looking for

376
00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:45,519
excitement, I don't think it really
has anything to do with lifestyle. It's

377
00:31:45,559 --> 00:31:52,440
just a teenage thing because their brains
are still developing. And she really truly

378
00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:56,559
thought she was meeting a sixteen year
old kid, so it was not only

379
00:31:56,599 --> 00:32:02,720
a route awakening, it almost killed. It's a miracle this child's alive.

380
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,880
There really is. These guys are
good, man. They're waiting at every

381
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:10,599
corner, they are in every game
room, they are everywhere. They're just

382
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:15,799
waiting for kids exactly like Sage that
have had a lot of trauma, you

383
00:32:15,839 --> 00:32:22,960
know, and Emily. That's what
makes it so insidious that school officials across

384
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:30,119
the country are Unfortunately, what happened
to Sage in terms of the secretive transitioning

385
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:35,240
at school is by no stretch and
isolated incidents. By just the opposite.

386
00:32:36,039 --> 00:32:42,799
There is a national movement where we
are all across the country where school officials

387
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:49,359
are taking the position that they are
deliberately undermining the authority of parents when a

388
00:32:49,559 --> 00:32:53,480
child expresses a discordant gender identity.
Whereas in just you know, just a

389
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:59,759
few years ago, they generally speaking, the position was to work cooperatively with

390
00:32:59,799 --> 00:33:06,039
parents and transparently. It's now you're
just seeing this domino effect all across the

391
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:13,599
nation of promoting this this ideology,
and as part of it is deliberately coming

392
00:33:13,599 --> 00:33:16,480
out the parents. And what I
want to continue to stress is that when

393
00:33:16,519 --> 00:33:21,799
you do that, you place a
child. There are there are predators.

394
00:33:22,119 --> 00:33:25,000
There are people out there that are
waiting for children to be isolated, and

395
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:29,960
they're waiting for children to fall into
their nets, into their into their webs,

396
00:33:30,799 --> 00:33:35,799
all right. And so by by
by driving wedges between between teens and

397
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:42,559
their parents at a time of stress
and distress in their life, you are

398
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:49,799
setting children up for harm. And
unless you're prepared to own all the consequences

399
00:33:49,839 --> 00:33:53,799
that your interference with parental rights sets
in motion, then you shouldn't start it

400
00:33:53,880 --> 00:34:00,000
to begin with, because otherwise you
need to own it all. That's right.

401
00:34:00,279 --> 00:34:08,639
I agree, Michelle hasn't been frustrating
with this personal experience to watch this

402
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:15,199
issue be sort of kicked around like
a political football in the national discourse over

403
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:20,960
the last couple of years. Is
it hard to watch that having gone through

404
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,840
what you did? Yeah, one
hundred percent, you know what I just

405
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:31,360
it just drives me, like my
heartbreaks every single time, because you know,

406
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:35,920
I moved out of a big city
in Massachusetts to raise my daughter,

407
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,320
my granddaughter here in a small town. So this was never on my radar,

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00:34:39,639 --> 00:34:44,079
So that that kind of is my
warning to people. My top priority

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00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:49,039
has always been Sage, and my
ability to protector was just robbed. It

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00:34:49,159 --> 00:34:53,320
was stolen from me by a small
town. So I guess my morning is,

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00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:58,519
guys, this is real, this
is happening. It's not just to

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00:34:58,639 --> 00:35:02,719
Sage, it's to our chill been
all over the nation. And if you

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00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:07,800
don't think it could happen to you, you need to think again, you

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00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:13,239
really really do, because you know, if it wasn't for me having the

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00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:17,320
training as a CASA, I would
never ever have made it through this.

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00:35:17,519 --> 00:35:22,800
My mental health never would have made
it through this alive. I'm so serious.

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00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:27,360
I don't know how parents are are
handling this. I just happened to

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00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:34,119
have some experience with the court system
for children and juvenile court system. But

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00:35:34,199 --> 00:35:37,960
without that I was I would have
been. I don't I don't know.

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00:35:37,079 --> 00:35:42,440
I mean, my husband was seventy
three. He could not be He almost

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00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,320
even the judge had to ask Kemp, the bailiff, to remove him because

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00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:50,599
he couldn't remember to call her by
a boy's name. It was horrible.

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00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:55,239
We were in tears, like just
and I kept asking him, Okay,

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00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:59,519
could you just please get somebody to
talk to her about all the trauma?

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00:35:59,599 --> 00:36:05,559
She please? Please, and they
just they just did not see it as

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00:36:05,599 --> 00:36:09,239
a trauma case. It was our
heart wrenching and candidly that should never have

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00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:15,039
been necessary for your husband to have
to have to be put through that.

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00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:19,639
I just want to say, this
is not This is no longer a big

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00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:22,039
town, a big city, small
town issue anymore, and it's not even

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00:36:22,039 --> 00:36:28,800
a right left issue anymore. We
encounter parents from every part of the political

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00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:35,519
spectrum. We help all parents,
and if there's any civil lining in all

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00:36:35,559 --> 00:36:37,159
of this, Emily, I always
like to leave with some ray of hope

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00:36:37,519 --> 00:36:42,320
because it's so dark, is that
we're actually seeing this issue, this issue

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00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:47,079
of parental rights be a unifying issue
where I have I have colleagues and I

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00:36:47,119 --> 00:36:51,880
have parents on the left and on
on the rights saying, you know what,

436
00:36:52,639 --> 00:36:55,119
we agree on this one thing that
you know, parents have to be

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00:36:55,159 --> 00:36:59,920
the ones who make these decisions and
they're not gonna We're not gonna let our

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00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:02,400
you know, school officials or others
take that out of our hands. So

439
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:07,559
it actually is bring you right and
left together in many ways, certainly at

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00:37:07,599 --> 00:37:14,800
the grassroots, and we want to
challenge those leaders that have stood against this

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00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:19,760
parental rights issue. You know,
wake up, wake up, wake up.

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00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:25,480
It flipped things in Virginia. So
again, let's let's let this be

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00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:30,400
an issue that brings us together because
we all want to protect our kids.

444
00:37:30,679 --> 00:37:36,000
Yes, I agree, I so
agree with that. Well, you have

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00:37:36,119 --> 00:37:40,719
both been so so fascinating to listen
to and so generous with your time.

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00:37:40,880 --> 00:37:45,639
Michelle Blair is the mother of Sage. Her attorney is Bernadette Broyles with the

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00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,960
Child and Parental Rights Campaign, Inc. She is the president and general counsel

448
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,559
over there. I know you guys
have some help on the suit from FAIR.

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00:37:52,599 --> 00:37:54,920
It's being supported by FAIR, and
so we appreciate both of you.

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00:37:55,079 --> 00:37:59,519
Michelle, thank you for sharing your
story. Vernondette, thank you so much

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00:37:59,559 --> 00:38:04,880
for sharing your insights. Thank you, thank you very much for letting us

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00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:08,559
be heard. Absolutely. Of course, of course, of course, we'll

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00:38:08,639 --> 00:38:13,719
keep following this important, important story. I'm em Elijashnski, culture editor here

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00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:17,480
at The Federalist. We'll be back
soon with more of freedom and thank you