An Ohio dad—who has spoken out against Critical Race Theory and sexual orientation discussions in his children's schools—is set to take his fight to the next level, politics.
Like thousands of parents across the United States, Jonathan Broadbent sees "madness" in the school system and believes it is scarring children with transgenderism concepts.
Broadbent and his wife, Tiffanie, are the parents of two middle-school-age children.
They first pulled their children out of Beachwood Schools in a desirable east Cleveland suburb. Then, the Broadbents took their children out of West Geauga Middle School because they saw some of the same things they found objectionable in Beachwood.
They are among many parents who are pushing back against the transgender agenda which has spread rampantly through the public school system.
Broadbent is also fighting against what he sees as misinformation in the teachings of critical race theory.
Broadbent believes is set to begin serving on the Geauga County Republican Party's central committee in Newbury A Precinct, which represents about 2,000 people. He was elected in the May 3 Primary Election after running unopposed.
The 18 newly-elected committee members started serving their four-year terms on June 8. The committee meets about every other Friday, Broadbent said.
Broadbent told The Epoch Times that many members of the committee see improving public education as "mission-critical." There are about 45 members on the committee who he described as constitutional conservatives.
"Like many people running for some kind of office, we're seeing more and more longtime politicians who don't think they have to answer to the people," Broadbent said.
"We want to show ... that this is needed," Broadbent said about the group's grassroots movement. If we're successful, this will help bring accountability back. If not, we'll vote these people out of office."
Broadbent also said he hopes that other concerned parents around the state will see people winning central committee seats and will try themselves to help it become a national movement.
The county-level of the central committee hears residents' concerns about issues. Then, the county passes that on to the state GOP committee members hoping the legislature takes them into account and supports what the people want.
"Nobody pushed me into running for a central committee seat," Broadbent said. "I did this on my own. I saw the need for it."
Broadbent also is the team lead for Protect Ohio Children, a growing grassroots group that attends school board meetings. He monitors more than 200 schools throughout north and northeastern Ohio for ever-changing buzzwords for transgender courses and Critical Race Theory. Protect Ohio Children is a subsidiary of Ohio Value Voters, a non-profit organization, and addresses some of the same issues, Broadbent said.
"Federal and state tax dollars are being spent to put these programs in schools," Broadbent added. "That's not how a lot of people want their money to be spent."
He said an alarming number of parents are seeing their children come home confused about whether they should be of a gender other than the one they were born with and blames schools for pushing to keep a child's desire, or confusion about transgendering, private from their parents.
"I have received about 40 phone calls from terrified parents who are worried about their children because of what is being taught in our public schools," Broadbent said.
"Schools are beginning to put policies in place not to inform parents about their children wanting to transgender and have been partnering with county mental health departments who provide counseling to kids. Some also provide them a private dressing area where they can change into the clothes they want to wear for the sexual orientation they want to identify with."
Broadbent also said some districts working with mental health counselors want to provide puberty blockers, medicines which can delay hormonal development.
"A lot of these counselors who are coming to these schools are telling kids that it's easy to transition to another sexual orientation and everything will be all right after they do," Broadbent added. "There's nothing easy about any of this."
Frank Cavanagh lives in Geauga County. He went through an adversarial process soon after his divorce in Texas.
Although he had joint custody of his two daughters, who were 8 and 14 years old at the time, he told The Epoch Times his ex-wife moved to Los Angeles with them in Dec. 2013. He then moved to Ohio.
In Los Angeles, school officials discovered the Cavanagh children were from a broken home and were living in a single-parent household, Cavanagh said.
Cavanagh said they were the kind of students targeted for change.
When the daughters moved to Ohio in 2015, his oldest girl, Emily, had transgendered into a boy and became Jeremy.
Jeremy Cavanagh was a salutatorian in the 2021 graduating class from Chagrin Falls High School on the edge of Cuyahoga County near Cleveland. Jeremy now is a freshman at Johns Hopkins University, taking pre-med and pre-pharmacy courses, Cavanagh said.
Cavanagh, who got emotional when talking about his daughter turning into a boy, said he agreed to let Emily officially change her name to Jeremy if she didn't take hormone-blocking or altering drugs in the belief that they would create a drug addict for life.
He said his ex-wife supported the transgendering process. Cavanagh said he saw his parental rights slip away.
The change process and counseling were done through a child psychologist at Cleveland Clinic who had boasted of transgendering 33 children, Cavanagh said.
"It was like a notch on the butt of their gun. What is going on is demonic. I had no allies in this process."
Cavanagh served on the Geauga County Republican Party's Central Committee for the past two terms but was beaten in the 2020 general election by Jezeon Wong.
"What's going on in Geauga County with the Republican Party is exciting," said Cavanagh, who is continuing to provide guidance and training to the newly-elected members of the central committee.
"This is a spiritual battle, and we're entering the second phase of it. When I served on the central committee, people weren't paying any attention to the schools.
"When I would mention things about CRT or this transgender movement with our kids, people would look at me and tell me, 'Oh, that's way out there.'"
"Then, when people started seeing the assignments their kids were bringing home that were gender or transgender-related, and they were like, 'Oh, Wow. This is happening. It's going on. This is against nature; it's against God.'"
Cavanagh went on to say that parents from both Republican and Democrat backgrounds voiced concerns.
"The thought was, 'My kids are my kids,'" Cavanagh added. "Of the world's population, two percent identify as transgender, but 40 percent of them are in the United States. The kids are 100 percent victims. We're never going to get any headway against this unless we fight this in critical mass.
"Parents need to be more involved in their kids' lives and their schools," Cavanagh added.
"The central committees are the training grounds for the future political leaders that are going to be good for changing the venom that is coming from the top. It all has to start with the central committees, the local school boards, township trustees, and on up."
Nancy McArthur, the chairperson of the Geauga County Republican Party, has been the party's chairperson for the last eight years. She was re-elected to another four-year term as chairperson by a vote of 31-29 during its meeting on June 8. She is also running for a seat on the Ohio Republican Central Committee in the Aug. 2 special primary election, she said.
McArthur told The Epoch Times on June 14 that "pocketbook issues" such as the economy, high gas prices, inflation, and job are key for the 2022 midterm elections.
"There's no doubt the economy is the top issue, and it's not very good right now, is it?" McArthur said. "People are concerned about this inflation and high gas prices, and whether they'll keep their jobs. There's a lot of people out there who aren't really (political) party people, but one-issue people. Whether it's abortion, parental involvement in schools, or the economy, that's what's driving people to the polls."
"People feel like they're losing control of their liberty, but I am an eternal opportunist and realist," McArthur added. "It's not like we haven't bounced back from these cycles before. The Republican Party still is for economic freedom and liberty. People are out of their minds right now. We all need to calm down and stop the in-fighting. We should be fighting the liberal progressiveness and the ideals they are trying to push on us and our children."
McArthur believes that the education system is important, but that it's not the most important issue facing the United States right now.
"The economy is the most important thing," McArthur reiterated. "I would say when it comes to importance, education would be in the Top 10 for sure, maybe the Top 5. There's always been evidence of teachers pushing their agendas. We, as people, just have to be vigilant in fighting these issues. Do I believe liberals have gotten into the school system? Yes, but they've gotten into everything."
Janet Carson, the chairperson for the Geauga County Democratic Party for the past 16 years, told The Epoch Times that she disagreed with Broadbent's assessment of the education system.
"There is a structure in place that the schools have set up," Carson said. "They are set up to educate and teach the children, not to be monitored by the parents. That is why we have school boards, teachers, principals, and superintendents in place.
"Voters elect the school board members, and parents can be involved in their children's schools on a limited basis.
"The Republican Party uses CRT as the bogeyman with the voters," Carson added. "I just think they're trying to dumb down education and deny history or facts in being taught. The state regulates what should be taught in the schools.
"CRT is not taught in any high schools in Ohio, and sex education always has been taught in schools. In colleges, CRT courses are only taught as electives."
However, Carson did say that she believes that politics have been coming into the education system more, and that should not be happening.
"Politics doesn't have any place in the schools."
The Democrats have filled 50 of the 78 central committee seats in Geauga County including in the heavily populated areas in the half-urban and half-rural county. They plan to make appointments for the remainder of the vacant seats beginning with their re-organizational meeting in early June, Carson said.
"Our [party] members still support fair wages, the ability to have control over our lives and personal choices, and have fair judges who represent the law," Carson added.
"I think the Republican Party has internal struggles for party leadership, and they're using CRT and the transgender issue as fear tactics. What are we afraid of?"
"I believe America is waking up," Carson added. "We may not retain control of Congress in the November elections, but we might be surprised at the number of angry voters who turn out," Carson added.
Carson said she likely will remain the chairperson of the Geauga County Democratic Party, but said she is open to stepping aside if someone else is interested in becoming the chairperson.
Broadbent said that he hopes stronger leadership settles into the Geauga County Republican Central Committee.
"If there's no political backing or will to bring education back, it will only get worse and we'll lose one of the most important institutions we should have—public education," Broadbent said.
"We have done a lot," Broadbent added. "We've spoken before school boards, we've been in boardrooms of district offices, and we've set up an anonymous tip line for parents to voice concerns about something going on in the schools."
“It’s a racket between the government and these organizations,” Broadbent added of these programs schools are paying for.
“Schools are bound by their state board of education to implement policy and course curriculum, or possibly face loss of funding from the federal or state governments if they don’t. So, a lot of school districts are like, ‘OK.'”
"Well, it's not OK," he said. "It's got to stop, and we're going to do everything we can to stop it because it's not right."
