Hired in fall of 2019, McWilliams was a Title I instructor, an uncertified teacher's aid and at will employee of the Indiana district. But the fall of 2019 was a noisy time in Indiana schools, and McWilliams had concerns:
As the school year started, Red for Ed - a national movement for the teachers union, was in full force. Jennifer began researching what was behind Red for Ed and was disturbed by what she found. The information supporting Red for Ed was extremely misleading, and many policies hurting public schools were being pushed by the union. So she began Purple for Parents Indiana to bring awareness to parents and communities in order to protect children and parental rights in the education system.
McWilliams, according to later sympathetic accounts, was apparently busy ringing all sorts of alarm bells.
Standing against the radical Red for Ed movement, McWilliams founded a chapter of Purple for Parents in Indiana that now has almost 2,000 members. Especially disconcerting, she told The Newman Report, was the exploitation of naive children to advance the NEA’s nefarious political agenda.
“It was very difficult for me to watch the children be used as pawns in the political game,” she explained in a statement to FreedomProject Media. “Those kids had no idea why they were wearing red and I highly suspect many parents didn’t know either.”
The district had adopted the Leader In Me program in 2017, a widely used SEL program that is spun from Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. McWilliams was not happy about this, either, and her litany of complaints will sound familiar. "Usurped the parents' primary role for teaching morals." Took time away from important academic learning. Her complaints also included that teacher evaluations were based on how well they implemented the program, and that the district was going to start mentoring other districts.
McWilliams went to Facebook with her concerns. She shared a link to an article critical of LIM that criticized it for a "cult-like" atmosphere and accused it of religious roots in Mormonism (Stephen Covey is Mormon). And she posted her own comments. Stuff like this:
School staff and administration saw the posts, including the claims that were simply untrue. The district is not training anyone, parents are informed of the program, and teachers are not evaluated based on LIM use. Administrators met, then met with McWilliams, where they expressed concerns about her effect on staff morale, her willingness to be a team player, and her spreading of untruthful information about the school. McWilliams was given a choice of resigning or being fired.
One of her own versions of her history simplifies all of this.
McWilliams got herself represented by the Bopp Law Firm. The firm was founded by James Bopp, Jr., a conservative activist and former vice-chair of the Republican National Committee. He has been associated with work on campaign finance and election laws (no limits on giving, please) and anti-abortion model legislation. His firm defended Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn when their involvement in the January 6 insurrection threatened their re-election eligibility. He's the general counsel for National Right To Life and Focus on the Family.
They opened with a demand for a preliminary injunction against the school district. The court said no.
Like many before her, McWilliams found a new career as a right wing victim. Fired for standing against indoctrination. First amendment lawsuit. Half a million Youtube views for her tale. A GoFundMe.
And she has played the circuit, in April of 2022 starting up her own consulting business as "the country's leading expert on how Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs have infiltrated every school district in America." She wrote an affidavit for a Tennessee CRT lawsuit. She consults and trains Moms for Liberty chapters, is a content consultant for Courage Is A Habit, an author at The American Mind, and a consultant for Center for Renewing American. She even works as a Teacher Ambassador for Kids and Country, Rebecca Friedrich's outfit. And she does lots of pod and media appearances. And she does M4L gigs. And other stuff, some of it far from home. She's frequently billed as "former teacher," even though she isn't. Meanwhile, Purple for Parents Indiana's Youtube channel has been quiet for a year.
Her big pull quote from her website:
Social Emotional Learning is transforming the attitudes, values, morals and worldview of this generation of children and it must be stopped systemically. I have the knowledge, passion, and experience to help freedom-loving patriots do exactly that and I’m looking forward to building this movement from coast to coast.
With all this going on, it may not be any kind of big deal that McWilliams lost her lawsuit against the school district that effectively helped her launch this second career.
In December of 2022, in the United States District Court of the Southern District of Indiana, Judge James Patrick Hanlon made his ruling on the cross-filing for summary judgment, a decision that was barely covered by anyone at all.
Hanlon ruled in favor of the district, noting it might be arguable that McWilliams believed what she said, but it was clear that the district acted reasonably. McWilliams had argued that administration hadn't taken enough time to investigate, but the court found that since her comments published in plain sight, there was no question about what she said, and since her comments were about things known by administration in the performance of their duties, there was no need to do deep research on whether her statements were false or not. Her First Amendment rights were not violated.
At this point, that seems kind of beside the point. You can still hire McWilliams to come exercise her First Amendment rights in front of your group, one more suffering conservtive-ish patriot fighting all sorts of stuff. Thus do such hustles become careers.
From victim to huskster says it all.
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