a rallying cry tonight from parents families protested outside the state house in Trenton today urging lawmakers to vote in favor of what they're calling parental rights giving parents ultimate say in what their children are exposed to in New Jersey's public schools by pushing back against the State's new sex ed curriculum teaching critical race Theory and vaccine requirements but a senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports critics say the term is being used to disguise a right-wing education agenda they believe marginalizes lgbtq students and undermines school districts we cannot stop we cannot relent we must save our children headlined as a parental rights demonstration the State House rally drew a vowed conservatives and parents to speak passionately about their mission they want to rest control away from government agencies that set education and health standards everything from vaccination schedules to the new sexual education curriculum the sexual exploitation of your children is right here in black and white done by your State Board of Education by Phil and Tammy Murphy the health and sex ed curriculum controversy is the Trojan Horse no educator with a sound mind would believe that drag queen Story Hour is appropriate speakers opposed bills promoting transgender affirming health care for kids from other states they also called for absolute school choice so parents could refuse to pay for public school that money does belong to you you are to Steward that money and when the people elected in the legis later refused to do that you need to take them out and I don't mean to dinner I mean retire them vote them out the rally featured several conservative media Stars including two Roxbury moms who are being sued by their school librarian for alleged defamation in a battle over book Banning over and over again speakers pointed to The Ballot Box the schools belonged to us we need to fix the school boards we need to fix who is making these decisions among the speakers plumstead Town committeeman Dominic Cuzo who's facing a recall effort for his extreme statements the longer that that people of faith stay out of this Arena the worse it is going to get if there's a vacuum of leadership and we need to get involved the anti-woke agenda is designed to help promote Grassroots political activism but it also helps Republican candidates burnish their conservative credentials and there are about four Republican primaries and legislative districts across New Jersey right now out of our 40 districts where conservatives are trying to beat out more moderate Republicans for nominations and so I suspect the part of the calculation is here let's rile people up and let's keep energized and enthused incumbent Senator Ed doors one of those Republicans from Jersey's third legislative district campaigning for the June 6th primary with Gloucester County Republican Senate candidate Nick dasilvio dorsey's unmined votes here you're looking at individuals who probably have shied away from voting over the last several elections with you know anger and maybe just apathy towards the whole thing and now because of its involving families they're going to get involved we want this to be a Grassroots Movement we don't want to be a campaign stopping rally organizers told us the event wasn't supposed to be overtly political but many speakers reminded the crowd about making political commitments Felicia malali rallied in 2019 to keep the religious exemption and school vaccination policies we won that battle but the war is far from over so I am here today to remind you there is nobody coming to rescue you at the State House in Trenton I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news