South Carolina teachers and local leaders slammed conservative Charleston County school board officials, labeling them ‘White Christian’ nationalists at a recent rally.
The "Protect Education Rally" took place March 13 outside the Gaillard Center, a performing arts theater, before the school district's board of trustees met to discuss issues such as increasing wages and compensation for teachers.
"They're all based in a particular brand of religious identities that sociologists are calling ‘White Christian nationalism,'" progressive activist and psychologist Bonnie Cleaveland aud at the rally.
"In schools, White Christian nationalists are targeting social-emotional learning, sex education, Black history, and LGBTQ students," Cleaveland said.
Attorney William J. Hamilton, III, manager of Lowcountry Up is Good Political Action Committee, spoke at the rally, where demonstrators were seen with signs including one that "White Christian Nationalism oppress sexuality, gender, women, racial minorities."
"Ladies and gentlemen, there are men and women in that room, right over there, that don't believe our schools should parent their kids," Hamilton said.
He further expressed how some children who attend Charleston schools have less fortunate living situations.
"There are kids that wake up and are lucky if they have their own breakfast at home. They put on whatever rags they got," he went on. "They walk to school by themselves. They arrive hungry and scared and alone."
Lowcountry Up is Good PAC was incorporated in South Carolina in 2016. Its mission is to "move progressive issues forward in Charleston and the Lowcountry's surrounding urban core," according to the committee's Facebook page.
Fox News Digital reached out to the CCSD board of trustees Chairperson Pamela McKinney for comment and she said she was "eagerly" looking forward to collaborating with community members.
"I value first amendment rights and embrace the freedom of speech for all in our great nation," McKinney added. "Charleston County School District is fortunate to have thousands of dedicated professionals educating and caring for our students."
CCSD surrounds 80 schools and programs in eight constituent schools districts, according to the Charleston County government website. Academic Magnet High school, one of the district's public high schools, is ranked the No. 2 public high school in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report.
Parents across the country have also spoken up at school board meetings relaying their concerns and disapproval of the content their children are learning, such as what they view as sexually inappropriate books being offered to students in the library and classrooms, the discussion of sexuality and gender and Critical Race Theory.
Jon Tigges, a Louden County, Virginia father was found not guilty in early January of this year after he was arrested and charged with trespassing back in June 2021 for refusing to leave a school board meeting where he protested the school district's CRT and transgender policies.
