Defending Freedom Show
The Defending Freedom Show brings powerful conversations and real stories from people standing on the front lines of faith, freedom, family, and truth. Hosted by Colby Willsey, this podcast exists to expose what’s happening in our culture, equip everyday Americans, and inspire action.
Defending Freedom Show
She Was Sued For Exposing The Explicit Books In The Kids Section | Bonnie Wallace Ep. 009
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Bonnie Wallace was shown a photo from a "children's book" that depicted something not safe for children. She refused to stay quiet about it.
In this episode of The Defending Freedom Show, Colby Wiltse sits down with Bonnie Wallace, one of the nations leading voices in the battle against harmful content in school libraries. Her years long fight has taken her before many school boards, through multipole lawsuits, and all the way to the federal First Amendment case against Houston ISD.
In this very important conversation, Bonnie discusses why she believes this is a spiritual battle, not just a political one, the reality of what is in school libraries, her experience being escorted out of school board meetings for bringing these issues forward, and how every family can take steps to protect the next generation.
Get in contact with Bonnie: defendthekids@reagan.com
Listen, Satan is after the children. He's after the family. And the first way to decapitate the dad and get the dad out of the picture is what he's been it's been useful for him. Our schools are broken. They're just broken in so many ways. And a lot of the people in the school, they think they're doing good.
SPEAKER_02From what I understand, you working with women in law.
SPEAKER_01I am.
SPEAKER_02And you have filed a lawsuit against the school district. Is that accurate?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I was very hesitant to do so because um I'm a conservative. Conservative people don't go out and suit people, right? I think we need to re-evaluate our playlist. The Democrats can use lawfare against us. And it's it's pretty effective. God does not want this stuff accessible to children. We have to stand and we have to link arms with each other.
SPEAKER_02Being willing to pay a price, even if it's your own life, it's courage.
SPEAKER_01And it goes back to what I just said. We have fighting on the winning team.
SPEAKER_02All right, well, welcome everybody. I'm excited for today's episode of the Defending Freedom Show. I have a special guest today, a dear friend, and uh it's a woman of deep conviction, of deep Christian faith. Um she actually lives in a small uh town in the hill country, and uh her story really began, it's it's really incredible, but her story began sitting in her hairdresser's uh chair, and she saw a picture of something that was going on in the schools, and she couldn't unsee it. And it was from that moment she knew that she had to get involved. She had to do something, and it's been a five-year battle for her. It's taken her to school boards across the state of Texas. Uh, she's spoken in hundreds of school boards at this point. She's a warrior, she's on the front line of this battle to protect children from harmful material in our schools. And uh, she's also a legislative liaison for Recover America, and she's actually currently uh a plaintiff in a First Amendment federal lawsuit against Houston ISD. And so I'm excited to welcome our guest today, Miss Bonnie Wallace. Hey Bonnie, welcome to the Defending Freedom Show.
SPEAKER_01It's a pleasure and an honor to be here. Thank you, Colby.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Well, thank you for coming. And before we get into all this, I mean, you know, before the court cases and the school boards, obviously your faith is a deep part of why you're in this battle. But can you maybe take us back before this, before that moment leading up to that when you saw that in your hairdresser's chair? Like, what was your faith like? What was your walk with the Lord like?
SPEAKER_01Well, unfortunately, I would have to consider myself as a lukewarm Christian back then. Um, I didn't know that I was. I thought that I was fervent and zealous for God. But looking back, I realized I was actually an infant in Christ. You know, I was one of those people, now I call myself a Sunday Christian. I would go and for an hour I would worship and praise and just really love on God. But when the sermon was over and the service was over, I would just wave, bye God, see you next Sunday, have a great week. So I left him in the four walls of the church. I didn't carry him into my life. And I wasn't seeking him, I wasn't listening to him, I wasn't asking for guidance or nothing. Only for that one hour a week, which is quite pathetic. So that's that's where I found myself when my book odyssey began. That's the kind of Christian I was. Did I go to church? Oh, definitely. Every you did I consider myself a Christian? Definitely. But what I tell people now is it's like the men that wear a pink skirt and identify as a girl. That does not make them a girl. And so people that identify as a Christian, but they have no fruits and they do not live a life, a godly, a God-seeking life. Well, just because you identify as a Christian, it doesn't mean you're gonna get into the pearly gates, right? I mean, the Bible tells us depart from me, I never knew you. And so many of us will hear that. So um I will not be one of them. Now I'm following Jesus. Praise God. But it did take a few lawsuits and um a lot of bad books, but um, God refines us by the fire.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And the only way we're going to be refined is by fire. So when we have fire in our life, we embrace it and we just thank God for it. And then um He gets us through it. It's a beautiful thing. Amen.
SPEAKER_02Praise God. And what and so, and then so you that was your life, and then you go to your hairdresser.
SPEAKER_01So in June, July of 2021, several friends of mine, not close friends, acquaintances more, um, they were telling me, Have you seen any of the bad books? And and this was in the public library, the Lana Public Library. You said schools in the intro, um, which is kind of what I battled now. But at the time it was it was the public library. And I said, No, I haven't seen any. And months went by with this conversation about what's in books, but I had never actually seen any any evidence. And so one day I'm getting my hair cut. It was November 10th, 2021, and my hairdresser, a really courageous, godly woman, she loves God, she's young, she's like 42. And uh, she said, Have you seen any of the pictures? And I said, No. And she said, Let me show you one. So she whips open her cell phone and from the you know picture page, she has a picture. And um it was from the book Gender Queer, and it was a picture of a blowjob, um, two children engaged in a blowjob, and I I just like I could not believe it. I could not believe it. I asked her, can you text me that picture? And she said, No, I will be sending pornography if I send it to you. So I said, Okay, put it on your phone, and I with my phone took a picture of her phone, the picture on her phone. And I went home and I um I created uh an email that I sent to over a hundred people and I attached that picture, and I said, I sent it to every pastor I know in Lano County, I sent it to the county judge, I sent it to every business owner and every parent I knew. Now keep in mind my daughter Reagan had graduated from Lano High School in May of 2019, so this is a few years later, and um I don't necessarily know a lot of people with children in the school district, but anyway, um so I sent this email out. Everybody was blind copied, and my my email just said that we have a crisis in Lano. Satan is after our children. See, I knew that much. I knew enough to know that this was a spiritual battle, and so I said, Satan is after our children. We need to be having weekly prayer, maybe at the courthouse square. Let's get together, let's invite God into our community to protect the children of our community. And so um that's how my Odyssey began.
SPEAKER_02Wow, and so from there, um, you did you put together a list of books? Like, how did you from that moment, like how did you take it into the Lano County, like the fight into the Lano County County?
SPEAKER_01Yes, so so earlier that year, uh State Representative Matt Krauss, he's now a Tarrant County Commissioner, he had published an email to every school district in Texas, and he had created the Matt Krauss list, and it was 862 bad books, books that had um sexually explicit uh content. Some of them had pictures, some of them just words. They're equally bad, by the way. Um, but also a lot of CRT and um hating on cops and hating America, hating your dad, you know, um, listen, Satan is after the children, he's after the family, and the first way to decapitate the dad and get the dad out of the picture is what he's been it's been useful for him, it's been effective for Satan. And um, so all of these things, I went through the Lano Um County Library catalog, and a friend helped me. She had been a librarian there for several years, and so she actually cross-referenced each book on the Matt Cross list, and we we found we had almost 60, we had 59 books, and so I also attached that email to the original email that list. These are the the books that we have, and listen, um the judge immediately ordered the librarian to remove the the book with the picture of and and found others, and so um a few months later in April of 2022, that's when we were sued. The the county judge, all four commissioners, the library director, me, because I told them about it. I'm like, okay, well. So listen, God uses the hard stuff, and that was not even the hard stuff, because the truth is we're fighting on the winning team. Right? We we are going to win. It won't be in the time frame we think, and it won't be even in the way we think, but we will have victory over this evil.
SPEAKER_02Right, and so so it's interesting. So, you know, looking back now, I could see where you're at today, because I I know a little bit about your journey, uh, or you could look back and say that wasn't the hard stuff. But at the time, you know, you went from being this lukewarm Christian to seeing what was in the library to actively saying, okay, I've got to do something about this. And then when you step in to do something, then it's you know, God puts you in the fire and you get sued. I mean, how what was going through your heart and your mind when you first, I guess, got served or found out you were.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, it's scary. It's scary. Bob and I have um a personal umbrella, and so I wasn't at all worried about it. I'm like, well, we have a personal umbrella, it'll take care of us. But when we actually sent it to the company who had issued our policy, they say, Oh, volunteer work is not covered. And so I was volunteering, I was a volunteer on the Llano County Library Advisory Board. So I was appointed, but it was a volunteer position. And so I'm like, well, I mean, wow, that's not very good. And a lot of people's uh efforts are on volunteer work, and so I think um, yeah. So I, you know, God has blessed me with um a husband who planned well and worked hard, and so it wasn't financially the scary part, it was just the whole thing. Then there was another lawsuit. So one of the librarians that was fired because she kept putting these same 17 books back into the children's section. Um, and the the judge and the commissioners told her repeatedly, I think ten times, do not put these books accessible to children. She continued doing it, and so she was fired, and so then she sued them and me too. I don't know why.
SPEAKER_02And why would she sue you?
SPEAKER_01You didn't I have nothing to do with the county employment, you know, nothing. But yeah, it was cascading kind of. But um that's what really what brought me closer to Jesus was just going through the fire, and it was scary. I wasn't worried about the money per se. But I mean, you think about it, people can sue you and take your home away, they can take everything.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they can really wreck your life.
SPEAKER_01They can wreck your life, and they have to you know the lefties go after people that are standing. They don't want anyone standing for Jesus, and so and they've destroyed so many lives. Um, I didn't necessarily um worry too much about that, I guess. But you know, in a tiny town, Lano has 3,000 people, so we're a small town and we know almost everybody. Um when we were going through the the public library lawsuit, I didn't I had immediately checked the high school because my daughter had just graduated a few years earlier, and so I checked immediately, and they had way worse books than the public library, believe it or not. And so, but I was, you know, I was telling God, because I always tell God what I think he should do. Do you ever do that?
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I was just saying, okay, God, send me a helper, and I will instruct them, inform them, engage them, and we'll get the books out of the school too. But that was not what God had in mind, and so I waited literally for two years before I ever went after the high school. And um, yeah, so I challenged 38 books at the high school and the principal or the superintendent called me. His son graduated with my daughter. My daughter's graduating class had 113 students, so small.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And we know all of them. Four of the school board members had a child in my daughter's graduating class and the superintendent, and the superintendent secretary. And so um, you know, we know these people, and I know them to be good people. Even maybe identify as Christians, but uh knowing the right thing to do and having the courage to stand and do it, those are two completely different things.
SPEAKER_02Right, right. Yeah, and um, you know, it's interesting is the idea of this spiritual battle. I I mentioned this on the podcast before, but it's you know, it's Revelation 12, right? And when Satan lost that battle to Michael and he fell to earth, he says he was enraged and he went off to make war against those who keep God's command and hold fast to their testimony in Jesus Christ. And that the spiritual battle that we're waging, it's so prevalent in all these different areas, and in particular the war on children, and it's uh between trafficking and the materials in the schools and what's happening, you know, to our children in America. But the good news is that in that same chapter, he says that they overcame by the blood of the lamb, the word of their testimony, and that they were not afraid uh to die, basically. And that's what we see in America today. We're really good at hey, the blood of the lamb, you gotta get saved. And then sharing your testimony. Oh, man, that's good. But we do it inside the church. Very rare do we see people out, you know.
SPEAKER_00There we go.
SPEAKER_02And then, but that third piece is so critical, and what it boils down to is being willing to pay a price, even if it's your own life, it's courage. That's right. It's courage to stand up and do the right thing. And what we see so often, and you just described it, is we there's probably good people in office in some of these school boards, but they not all of them lack the courage to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, and uh, you know, I go back to my favorite scripture, Joshua 1 9. And I when I speak, I always say the scripture. Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, do not be discouraged. The Lord your God goes with you wherever you go. But then I tell people, did anybody in the room notice I left out part of that scripture? Because really that's the only part of the scripture that's glamorized, all on wall art, t-shirts, coffee mugs, my Bible cover, you know. And so, but the part I left off, you of course know, have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, do not be discouraged. The Lord your God goes with you wherever you go. And it goes back to what I just said. We are fighting on the winning team. But it's not how we wake up tomorrow morning. Do we feel strong and courageous? If we don't, guess what? We still have to go fight. We have to go to school boards, we have to run for office, maybe. I don't know what God is telling your listeners, but your listeners know. And so I just say, listen for God's still small voice. And it may be, hopefully, not that you have to go reborn in public, right? Because that's kind of that's kind of hard.
SPEAKER_02It's not fun, folks.
SPEAKER_01But it doesn't matter, it's whatever God tells us to do.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01We are to lean into it, and we will have the most joyful life, the most fulfilled life that that we're supposed to have. The life that God created for us and us for.
SPEAKER_02Hey, wanted to take a quick break from the show to tell you about one of our sponsors, uh CDF Supply Code. This is the official merchandise store of Citizens Defending Freedom, and they've got some incredible apparel that they've just launched. Everything from hats to hoodies, I'm rocking a hoodie right now, to shirts uh that you can go on and you can buy right now. It's print on demand, it ships directly to your door, and this is an opportunity for you to wear your faith boldly. And I want to encourage you to buy their merchandise because every dollar spent on CDF Supply Co.'s website goes right back into the mission of Citizens Defending Freedom to help uh equip and train churches and pastors and citizens and then defend them boldly when they step out in faith. So go to CDF Supply Co. wear your faith boldly, be on the lookout for new apparel drops coming soon. Now, let's get back to the show. So okay, so you're this lawsuit in Lano, multiple lawsuits at this point that you're involved in. What was the outcome of those cases?
SPEAKER_01So God sent us an amazing warrior named Jonathan Mitchell to um to defend us, and we had to pay because Llano County covered um my expenses. There were three people from the Library Advisory Board sued, three out of thirteen. And so um the library advisory board kind of fell under the Lano County. They just felt like they had appointed us, they should defend us. And so, but the Lano County insurance would not pay to defend this lawsuit. In fact, what they told what the insurance company told Lano was put the books back and settle the suit. And now that's uh interesting, we'll we'll put that on the shelf for a second. But um so we went, we lost in Austin in Federal District Court, of course we knew we would, and then we appealed to the Fifth Circuit. They heard us in a bank of three, a panel of three first, and had a very discombobulated ruling. So we appealed for an on banque hearing, which means before the full court, and everyone laughed at us and said, they're never gonna hear you. They they hear three cases a year from the whole Fifth Circuit. Thousands and thousands of appeals. They hear three. Well, guess what? They heard Lano County, that was the third one for 2023.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01And so, um, or 20, it was 2024, sorry. And so in 2025, um, May 23rd of 2025, they came out with a magnificent ruling. When Jonathan Mitchell argued the case, he argued that library curation is actually government speech. The government buys the books, the government chooses which books to buy. The government can then change their mind on which books to have on the shelves. And so he made a very crafty argument about government it being government speech. The Fifth Circuit in May, in their ruling, they threw out a ruling that they had issued 30 years before in Campbell versus Tammany Parish School Board. They threw out their own ruling and they said, we ruled in error 30 years ago. Kind of like what they did with Roe v. Wade.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01And um they overturned that and they said that Lano County had the right to uh remove any book they wanted at any time they wanted for any reason they wanted. And um my favorite quote from that ruling is from Kyle Duncan, he's a Trump appointee, amazing man. He said, Take a deep breath, everyone. No one is banning or burning books. If you cannot find a book you want at your local library, you can always buy it with your own money. And that's what this is about. Taxpayer funded filth. Do we continue funding it or do we pivot? And I say we need to pivot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 100% we need to pivot. So so the ruling in that case, did it um is it is the case still active or is it like is it there has been so well it was we were happy with the ruling, of course.
SPEAKER_01We we prevailed. The seven people who sued Lano County and me, they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court on December 8th, this past December 8th, said they would not hear the case. Generally, it's because they agree with the lower court ruling. You know, they they think the lower court got it right, so they don't need to rehear it, which is all good. Um, so it's a a big victory for libraries everywhere everywhere. But also, um, I think, you know, there's two cases that are kind of pending, kind of working their way up. One of them's at the 10th circuit in Colorado, and Jonathan Mitchell is defending that school district that was sued for removing 19 books. Lano County removed 17. This Elizabeth School District in Colorado removed 19 books. Worse than Llow's books. Lano's, you know, it was just the very beginning. When I saw that first picture, Colby, I thought that was the worst picture I would ever see. Well, it's not even close. Wow. Not even close. And so um, there's another case in the Eighth Circuit in Iowa that's also working its way up. So we believe that within the next two to three years, there will be a case at the U.S. Supreme Court that finally settles this once and for all, that content with extreme sexual graphic sex organs, sex acts, sex with animals, sex with dead bodies, I mean, all these things that we have in our school books, that that is no longer necessary. It isn't necessary now, but the Supreme Court really needs to rule in on that and and set a nationwide precedent for us.
SPEAKER_02I agree. I agree. It sounds like that's what's happening. Yes, praise God to speak. So we need to continue to pray for that. Um, but so there's been a few years since Lano, and you have been a road warrior. Yes. You have been speaking really across the country. That's right. I mean, not just Texas, really across the country. How many school boards?
SPEAKER_01How many Well, my best number is 164. I believe that's right. It could be a few higher because um, but that's plenty. It's not that many, actually. I mean, the number is a big pretty big number, but think about it this way Texas has 1,207 school districts. So I'm barely at 15%. I have a lot of work to do.
SPEAKER_02Yes. And you know, look, we did an episode, um, our first episode actually was with Shannon Ayers. Oh, I love her. The education director for CDF in Texas, and um we it was interesting when um we put that episode, we got a lot of comments. And one of the things that I saw that was brought up was this idea that um, you know, this is isolated, it's just a few libraries, you guys are painting with a broad brush, this is not happening, this is not taking place, you know, stop doing this type of deal. Is that the case? What have you seen?
SPEAKER_01Well, the fact is that I've been in over 2,000 school libraries online, and I have not found one clean library. So not one library that doesn't have filth in it. So I would say it's very prevalent. That's my experience. Sad, but true.
SPEAKER_02Wow, and there's something else that you've I've heard you say. Um in you say it's actually really powerful, but it's because it's true. Well tell us about the library book list for the Texas prisons.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I was very shocked. I I go out and speak at school boards often with pastors, and so pastor Richard Vega from Houston brought a young man to a San Antonio school district uh to speak one day. And I had never met him before. I usually meet ahead of time with the folks that are gonna be reading. Sometimes there's new ones. I don't know what they feel comfortable reading. You know, they may want to talk about suicide or um, you know, not graphic sex. And so I have to get a feel. I bring a lot of books, and so I was handing out book reports to the people I knew, and this young man, David Stoker, um, brand new, he said, Um, yes, ma'am, I want to read a book. And I said, Great. I said, David, are you comfortable reading really graphic sex or you know? And he said, Miss Bonnie, I was 10 years in prison. I can read anything you got. So I said, Great. So I gave him a book. And I actually gave him the book to read that I was recently kicked out of Houston, you know, with three police officers taken out for reading. Same book. That book is in almost every single school. If that book has been removed from many schools because of my advocacy, because people watch me on social media reading it, and a lot of schools have removed that single book. But the book is the fifth in a series of five. Book six and is coming out in October, book seven in January. So get ready for more field. But uh, so I gave him that book. And um, when it was his turn to read, he got up to the microphone, and he's a young man, and um he started reading, and it's so filthy that I guess he had not maybe kind of skimmed it before he got up to the microphone, but he started reading it, and he literally began to weep. Wow. And it it got so quiet in the room, and there were about 250 people, give or take, in the room, and everybody was just watching and listening to his anguish because he was he was really weeping and um it was very hard to listen to, but he collected himself and he told the school board, he said, I have two daughters, one's 12 and one's 13. And I cannot believe I have to stand up here and ask you to remove this. But he said, Let me tell you, I spent 10 years in prison. This book would not be allowed in prison. And so he was done that you know, that evening when everyone else had spoken, he came up and he apologized to me and I said, No, David, you were amazing. You were so authentic and anguished, and it's beautiful. But I said, Tell me about the prison list. And so he began telling me that anything with graphic, that book actually wouldn't be disqualified because I sent it to the prison because I I found a person in prison that I can mail books to, and I thought that one would qualify. But it's actually anything with graphic, illegal sex, rape, okay, incest, sex with animals, sex with dead bodies, mullation. Listen, Colby, we have all those five things in our schools.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01It's shocking. A brand new book recently came out about maybe six weeks ago. It's called Sibylline by Melissa Delacruz. She's a very popular artist, author. Um, it has a three-some with a dead body. 14-year-olds. Y'all, what are we doing? We have to do better. And, you know, so many of the books, I've found like nine now, that have disclaimers on the publisher's page. So the first one I found says the authors and publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects which may result from the use or application of the information contained in this book. Right underneath that, random house children's books. That particular book is called Let's Talk About It. It was the 2022 Great Graphic Novel of the Year, Book of the Year for 12-year-olds.
SPEAKER_02Getting awards.
SPEAKER_01Getting awards. It tells um 12-year-old children look up interviews with your favorite porn performers, go to the sites they recommend and pay for your porn. And so, um, but it tells me the publishers know what they're doing if they're putting a disclaimer, right?
SPEAKER_02Wow. And there's other, you've taught is that there's another book too that takes kids to QR codes. Yes. Do you know what's the name of that book?
SPEAKER_01That book's called Trans Plus. It's by Katherine Gonzalez Catherine Gonzalez. It has 75 QR codes. So one of the QR codes takes you to a sex shop to buy sex toys, dildoys, but plugs, and all these things. This book is for 12-year-old children, and it's all over Texas. It's illegal in Texas now because of SB 13. We we deliberately got QR codes and websites included in that bill so that any book that takes these kids like outside of the book to a nefarious location, whether it cu be a QR code or a website, um, it's not allowed. But the books are still everywhere. Right? And so uh one one of the videos, they've taken down the video, but it took you to two trans. They were they were women that wanted to be men, so they had strapped on fake disos and they were having sex. It was literally to a video, it's been taken down.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01Um, but listen, books are not a safe space right now. I think they will be again, but at the moment I would not turn your kids loose in a library.
SPEAKER_02Right. Whew. Wow. Well, shifting gears, you um you actually collaborated uh with a young lady named Vanessa Civage and uh helped kind of launch uh what's called behind the shelves. What can you talk about that? What is that? Um how how is that helping uh people?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it is helping. Uh Vanessa Civage was the uh nurse who was fired from Texas Children's Hospital when she blew the whistle about transgender procedures. And so um she I met her at the Capitol, at the Texas Capitol. We would often be testifying the same day, and often our bills were actually in the same committee. And so we would, you know, be testifying, and sh she came up to me and she said, are the books that you've been reading, are they really in the schools? Because she couldn't believe it. It's it's hard to believe. And so I said, Yes. And so she said, Well, you know, a few months later she said, I want to do um like a video about the books. Can you can you would you participate? I was of course. Listen, I'm always ready to talk about the book problem with anybody. And so we by the time we started the video, she said, I want it to be a series, and I I want a new initiative for her protecting Texas Children um organization, and it's called Behind the Shelves. And so we I went and it took, you know, I I don't remember several days. We we did all the videos, and I just showed them book after book after book, and so many people have downloaded that um the videos, but also the book list. She doesn't have a complete book list. By the way, I don't even have a complete book list. I find new books every day.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I know.
SPEAKER_012033 is on my book list today, but um it grows all the time, it never shrinks, it only grows, and so there's still more work to do.
SPEAKER_02I know there's all these lists out there. We have uh a resource on Citizens Defending Freedom.com, and uh if you go to our resource library and do education, we have a national list on there, and it's just staggering. It's it doesn't even it's it's still a big list, but you know it's almost like we're still discovering these books that are out there.
SPEAKER_01I'm in a I'm in a signal group, uh chat group with people from all over the US who have the same problem, and there's one man that every Tuesday he gives a list of all the books that were published. Apparently books are published on Tuesdays. I didn't know that. And so every Tuesday he publishes books that have questionable content. Now we haven't read them because they may be just published, but they haven't been sold yet. And a lot of schools, by the way, they buy books that haven't even been published yet. And so, how can that be good, right? Right if you've never read it and no one you know has read it, I would say pause on that and wait because the books are so so harmful. Just um uh Texas Public Policy Foundation Foundation did uh I asked them to do some research on the effects of pornography on the brain, and they they didn't do any research, but what they did was they figured out that there had been a lot of research. So they gave me uh uh several sheets of all of this research that had already been done, the harmful effects of pornography on the brain, and so they sent it to me with a caveat, and that caveat was that all the research that's ever been done has been done on adults, right? Because who's gonna oh here I'll donate my child? You can put them through the you know, and inculcate them with porn and see if it affects them. I don't think any parent would want to do that, right? But um so it changes the pathways of your brain, literally. And so um, you know, what I tell school boards when I go speak is that when we are sending out our children addicted to pornography, they will never have a normal sexual relationship, ever. Because their idea of what sex looks like is so perverted and so distorted that they think it's normal, but you know, wife after wife after wife, and sometimes it's the girls, so husband after husband after husband, they can't tolerate it because it's so perverted and so distorted, and so we have to do better, but it is an attack on the family, right? And so what do we do? We stand.
SPEAKER_02Right, we stand. So let's shift gears to Houston ISD. This is kind of the latest uh thing that's happened in your journey, in your Odyssey. Um so you were at the Houston ISD school board meeting, the largest, by the way, largest ISD in Texas, right? Um how did you end up at the board meeting? This was what, March 19th?
SPEAKER_01March nineteenth. So I had actually spoken at Houston uh previously, and um but between the last time I had spoken and March 19th of this year, the Texas, the state of Texas had taken over the school district, right? Two and a half years ago, the the state of Texas took over because the the test scores were so bad, and there's a bunch of criteria that have to fit into it, but the state of Texas took over. So the seven trustees are no longer elected trustees, they are appointed by the governor's people, basically. I believe appointed by Mike Morath, and so who was appointed by the governor? But um Pastor Richard Vega asked me to come again. Um Vanessa Sivage was there, Dr. Rick Scarborough was there, uh Denise Bell's Moms for Liberty in Harris County was there, and others. And um, you know, we had kind of strategized because how impactful would that be if we go to speak at Houston and these appointed trustees say, What in the world we have to do better? Let's get rid of the books, right? That was kind of what we were anticipating.
SPEAKER_02That's what we were hoping for. That's probably what you hope for when you walk into every school board meeting.
SPEAKER_01Amen. Amen. Yes, Jesus, listen up. That's exactly what I hope for. Uh hardly happens. It's happened occasionally, so that's a good thing. But um, no, so Houston, when I, you know, Houston's process, if we just take a step back, Houston's process to sign up is so rigorous. It is like a bar exam. It's so hard to sign up. And that's intentional. They don't necessarily want people speaking. But we went through the process. I showed up to speak, it was my turn. I walked forward, they gave us one minute. It's hard to, you know, to say a lot in one minute.
SPEAKER_02Even if you're a local taxpayer, even if like your child's in the school district, it's a one minute.
SPEAKER_01Everybody had one minute because there's so many people that want to speak that there's a you know, they put a limit. They put a limit.
SPEAKER_02Gotcha.
SPEAKER_01I think that I think we need a a law that addresses that because I don't think that's enough time. But nonetheless, I knew it going in, I knew I had a minute, and so I just started reading um direct from the book. That's all I said. I did um mention to the the superintend or the um school board president wasn't present that day, so the vice president was administering the meeting, okay. So she I I said, if there are children present, um they need to leave the the audience. And she said she started banging the oh no no, you can't read anything that's inappropriate. And I said, Ah, inappropriate. Why is it in the high school libraries if it's inappropriate?
SPEAKER_02Like she makes they make the case for you.
SPEAKER_01I know, I know. They always do.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01So um I just started reading a few words and she started freaking out, and then I kept reading a few more words, and she's like, No, no, you're in violation, and so please escort her out. So three police officers come to walk me out of the auditorium, then out of the building, and then to my car and told me they had to film me leaving the premises. Now, I'm with other people there. I wasn't alone, so I drove off without anybody else, and we had to meet up, you know, elsewhere. But the interesting thing is I'm a 59-year-old woman now. I was 58 at the time, but the truth that comes out of my mouth is so scary that three police officers have to walk me off the premises.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01They do not want truth to be told. And they're embarrassed by the content, and they should be.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And so, what's been done? Well, um, not much. I did check a couple weeks ago. One of the three high schools has removed the book. The other two, it's still there.
SPEAKER_02Wow. So they basically um I think this is a classic First Amendment case. So what steps have you taken since that? Um, from what I understand, you've working with remnant law. I am, and you have um you've filed a lawsuit against the school district. Is that accurate?
SPEAKER_01Yes, I was very hesitant to do so because um I'm a conservative. Conservative people don't go out and sue people, right? But I think we need to reevaluate our playlist. The Democrats use lawfare against us, and it's it's pretty effective, and that's not necessarily the way we fight our battles. And so I actually had 12 attorneys call me. Um, some of them I didn't even know who they were. Um, several emailed me, not necessarily called, but 12 total, and said this is a very clear violation of the first of your first amendment rights. You need to sue, you need to sue, you need to sue. And so I I talked to my attorney Jonathan Mitchell, and he's like, Yes, clear violation, pursue it. I don't have time to to help you, but and not my forte anyway. And so um I did talk to Jonathan Hoaghan with Remnant Law, and he he agreed definitely we need to do this. Um Brad Dakis with Pacific Justice Institute has has asked to join the lawsuit, and um so I think there's still parts moving, but basically, here is what my prayer is that God will use this to first remove the books so that the children are protected, because that's ultimately always my goal, but also in a way that other jurisdictions are watching and learning, and you know, maybe fearing. We don't necessarily want everyone to fear everything, but if you are doing things that detrimentally harm children, you should fear. And so, um, not me, but let's fear God and have the beginning of wisdom, that would be good.
SPEAKER_02Right, absolutely. And and you know, because I think for so long, a lot of the school districts, um the let's just say the some of the bad ones and stuff, they have they have a lot of power, and they're very arrogant, they have a tremendous amount of power, and they can be very arrogant, like you almost like untouchable.
SPEAKER_01Well, think about it this way. If if I didn't sue and Houston got away with it, all the 1,206 other districts are watching.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And they're gonna be saying, Well, we don't have we can do the same thing. I've had my mic cut many times. When I'm reading, they just cut my mic off. Um, I usually just keep reading louder, but until my time's finished. But um walked out with three police officers, this was the first time, and um you we really can't let Houston get away with it because of all of the impact that would have on every other jurisdiction.
SPEAKER_02Right. So prayers it sets a rip it sets the tone, creates a ripple effect. That's right. So that other school districts take notice that this is serious. Like it our our kids' hearts and minds are at stake. It's not it's not about book banning. I love what you say. You say we need to set book boundaries.
SPEAKER_01That's right.
SPEAKER_02That's what it's about. Well, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01Not one book has been banned in America. You can buy any book you want anytime you want. That's right. You can buy it. This is about taxpayer-funded filth. Should my tax dollars buy filth, Atlanto ISD or Atlanto Public Library, or anybody else's buy filth at their public libraries and their school libraries? And I say no. I say that there has to be a consequence for doing so. I was with the Lieutenant Governor earlier today, and we were talking about what we're going to do starting next session. And he's like, Okay, I'm going to need your help. And I said, I'm here. Let's do it. Let's hit it hard. We have to have a consequence for any bill that gets passed and signed into law. There has to be a penalty if you're ignoring it. Because that's what schools do. They just ignore it. Bob said, my husband said, what we should do as a penalty is say one year with no football for any town in any school in Texas.
SPEAKER_02Cut the funding for the football program.
SPEAKER_01No funding for football. And he said the coaches would be prowling around the library, pulling out any bad book.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, especially in Texas. Especially in Texas. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you're right. And I'm glad the Lieutenant Governor said that because a law without teeth is just a suggestion. That's right. That's all it is. Right? Amen. So well, uh you've said it. I think we opened with this that, you know, this isn't this isn't a political battle, right? This is very much a spiritual battle. Very much so. And, you know, there's probably people in our audience that maybe get that. There might be people that don't. When we say stuff like that, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01Well, as a lukewarm Christian, I didn't understand it either. And so I give everyone grace if they don't understand it. Because what it is, is uh it's part of that personal relationship that we have with Jesus getting closer and closer and closer. The more you spend time with him, the more you want to spend time with him. And the more fulfilled your life is for doing his will, the more you want to be fulfilled. And so, but you it actually gives you a different viewpoint. And I go into a battle, listen, me and Jesus, we're a majority. So it doesn't matter if I'm with someone else because I always have the Holy Spirit with me. But um you can, you know, the Bible has stories about the the warriors, you know, on the hills, and who was it? Isaiah said, drop the scales from his eyes so he can see.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And so um there's many, many stories about how there are legions of angels helping us, and uh this is what we're in. We are in a spiritual battle between good and evil. And you may not know Jesus, you know, your listeners we can introduce him to you, but if you do know Jesus, just start listening to him more intently. Just ask him, what do you want me to do for you? And then listen to the answer, and then be obedient. That's the hardest part.
SPEAKER_02Right. Courage.
SPEAKER_01Courage.
SPEAKER_02That's right.
SPEAKER_01You know, not not not not it's a scarce commodity these days.
SPEAKER_02Very well, you know, Proverbs, uh Proverbs 22, 6 says, raise up a child in the way they should go. And they will not depart from it. Right. And uh, but you know, someone else is training our children in public education, and it's you know, they have a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them have a very different way of thinking or a different idea of what that should look like. So, you know, what do you think is the agenda behind placing this kind of content in front of our kids and like what's what's the long game? What does it lead to?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it's pretty obvious to me when I look at the pictures in the books. Listen, I have a book, I don't know if I've showed it to you. It is called Do Animals Fall in Love? And it's a red cover, very beautiful little animals, and it's for four, three to seven-year-olds. Three to seven-year-olds. And it says, and one page, it has three white-tailed deer mating. So it has a doe on the bottom, and then one buck on top of her, and then another buck on top of the first buck. Well, I can guarantee you that is something you will never see in nature.
SPEAKER_02I've been a deer hunter. I know since I all my life, my daddy took me out to the deer. I've sat in blinds, I've spent hours, I've you know, I've hunted deer and animals almost, I've never seen that.
SPEAKER_01No, and you will never see it. Because nature, those two bucks will fight even sometimes to the death, but they will never share a dough, ever. And so um you'll never see that because only the human mind is perverted, not nature. And they are trying to pervert the minds of children, even by now using animals, showing, oh look, animals have threesons, there's nothing wrong with threesons. That same book has eighty animals, the penis size of eighty animals. The red-nosed monkey, and I can't remember all the ones. Eighty animals. I had two three-year-old children in my life. Neither of them ever asked me the penis size of anything. Right. Right? Why are we planting demonic thoughts into the minds of our children?
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Why teach that? Why not teach about, you know, what do they eat, what is their habitat, how do they coexist? How do they fight off predators? Are they, you know, hunter, are they prey, or they and they're teaching this?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's very weird. But if you look at the agenda, which is to sacrifice children, why would you want to sacrifice children? Well, many of them want to have sex with children. There are books that minimize having sex with children. And they say there's a book that Alfred Kinsey wrote, and one of his proteges spawned off of, and it talks about how a child having sex with their parent, there's nothing wrong with that, and they can get wonderful feelings of warmth and intimacy.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So what's the long game? Unlimited sex for everybody with anybody, period. Um I can't think of any other agenda that could possibly that they could have. I I think that's it. I I won't know till I get to heaven, but um it's nefarious, it's dark, it's demonic, and we are called to stand against it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You know, um part of our mission at Citizens Defending Freedom is to equip and activate the church to get involved, right? That you don't that this is indeed a spiritual battle, it's not political, and it's it has to be the body of Christ that rises up in this hour to take a stand against this demonic evil. I mean, let's just call it what it is, right? Amen. And so the church in Texas, really the church in America, you know, we there's some very bold pastors.
SPEAKER_01Not enough.
SPEAKER_02Those past not enough. But if you're those bold pastors, I'm talking about you. But a lot of pastors in the church in large is quiet on this. You know, why? What I mean, what why do you think that is, and what do you say to the pastor who thinks that this is too controversial to get into, to even talk about from the pulpit, to educate his congregation on what's taking place in our public education? Um, what I mean, why and what do you say to that pastor?
SPEAKER_01Well, I only have one thing to say, and it's fear of man. If you fear the congregation will leave, if you are preaching about sin, do you know how many pastors don't even preach about sin anymore? The majority, the vast majority. But the good news is God only needs a remnant, and he doesn't even need it. He just wants a remnant, he wants us to partner with him. Um, yeah, so if you fear man and you fear that those congregation members are gonna leave, you know, that money that they put in every Sunday for their one-hour worship, if they are going to leave and that's what you care about, then you're not caring about the fear of God. You're caring about the fear of man. And listen, it's prevalent. I mean, um, yeah, I go to I go to churches. I've I've been invited by many pastors to come and I don't preach a sermon, I just preach, you know, porn.
SPEAKER_02And you expose it.
SPEAKER_01I expose it. And I say, this is in your children's schools right now in your town. They can't believe it. I mean, people are just shocked. Even now, five years into this battle, I would think that everybody would know, but they don't. And here's the thing: I I often, there must be good librarians in America. I have not yet met one, but there must be some good ones. I can't wait to meet one. But if I was a librarian and I did not know what was in my library, I would start digging. And so when librarians tell me, you know, I had no idea, well, then you need to do a better job at your job. Because in the end, protecting the minds of children should be paramount above everything else. We protect the children. And so, um, yeah, but you're right, pastors are not being bold. Pastors are fearful of losing, you know, I guess money, empty seats. I don't know. But I I believe that it just leads back to fear of man.
SPEAKER_02You're probably right.
SPEAKER_01Sadly.
SPEAKER_02So for the mom and dad out there that are listening and they're hearing this for the first time, or they're are they hearing this now and they're like, okay, this is I've got to do something. Advice, recommend where can they start? How can they how can they begin getting involved?
SPEAKER_01Yes, great question. So if you're going to look in a school library, I will tell your listeners and your viewers to go to take back theclassroom.com. Take back theclassroom.com. Karen England has almost every school in America listed on there by state. So you can scroll down to Texas, and then you can scroll down to Llano, and you'll see that at the point that she redid that one about two months ago, um, we added a thousand more books, by the way. I gave her a list a year and a half ago, and my list had 325 books on it. So that's what she ran. And um we did a fundraiser and we added 1,000 new bad books. So now she's done 1325, and now I'm up to 2,033. We we need another fundraiser. But um I would say look into your school library, you can find it online, and um look on take backheadsroom.com and you can find the names of bad books. Many of the bad books she doesn't yet have a book report there for, but you can find book reports at ratedbooks.org. That's Brooks Stevens from Utah. She's an amazing, godly woman, also young mother, um, who's doing amazing things. And also Vanessa Civage, um, behind the shelves. It's protecting Texas children. The initiative is behind the shelves. You can go on there. She also has how to challenge those books at your at your school. So it is illegal in Texas to have anything that is profane or indecent. Profane or indecent means if I cannot read it on network television or at a school board meeting, that's profane and indecent, it needs to go, right? It's common sense. Right. Not so common. But um Vanessa has challenge forms on there and different material, but um any of your listeners can reach out to me. I answer every phone call, every email, and um I don't do social media. I'm often on social media, but I don't do social media, and so you can't reach out to me that way, but um you can put my email on your on the screen or something if you and uh I will help you because the most important part is to start. The first step's the hardest, and um, but we can protect kids together, and it's gonna take every one of us because guess what? The Calvary is not coming to save the children and your community. You are the Calvary, we are the Calvary.
SPEAKER_02So Amen. Amen. Well, why don't you go ahead and if you want, we can put it in the chat, but you want to let people know how they can reach you?
SPEAKER_01Yes, absolutely. Defend the kids at reagan.com. Defend the kids at reagan.com. You can email me. Um if I don't answer right away, it's because I'm occupied, but I will I answer every single email, and I would love to help you protect the children in your community.
SPEAKER_02Awesome. Yep, and we will definitely we'll put that down in the perfect section for the comments so people can see that. So well, Bonnie, um any any last thing? You know, you've been sued. I mean, you've been uh removed by the police, you've been attacked by the media, you've been attacked by uh the radical uh leftists, if you will. Uh you know, you've been but yet you keep going. Where does that source of strength come from? What is that what does that look like for you?
SPEAKER_01Jesus. He's the strength of all the source of all strength. But let me share something else with your listeners. Ephesians 5.11 says, have nothing to do with the evil deeds of darkness, but expose them. And so when I discovered that verse, um, I just leaned into it because I felt like it was God talking to me. He often does that, probably to everybody, right, through Bible verses. And I was like, wow, Lord, you're talking directly to me. And so I have just embraced that. My job is to open eyes. My job is not to convict the hearts of the school boards or whoever, um, but my job is to open eyes. And when I learned that, you know, when I discovered that that was what God was telling me to do, just open eyes, it made my job a lot easier. I had thought my job was to get all the books off, which means that I had to convict the hearts of the people to move. And then I learned that was not, that's God's job.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And so we have to be very specific about doing only the job that God gives us and letting God do his part, which is all the rest, right? He's the hardest part, actually. And so I will I will tell everybody schools, our schools are broken. They're just broken in so many ways. And a lot of the people in the school, they think they're doing good. They think kids need this stuff, whether it's the books or abortion drugs, and you know, there's so many other things, but they will not repair themselves. We have to stand and we have to link arms with each other, link shields, and listen, we can do great things, and we are fighting on the winning team. I go back to my analogy because God does not want this stuff accessible to children, so fight with me, we can we can do great things.
SPEAKER_02Amen. And uh I think that's an excellent spot to close that. Bonnie, thank you so much. You're such a warrior, uh, you're a great friend, and I just I appreciate you so much in all that you do. And uh we're behind you, we're standing with you, and uh right into battle with you.
SPEAKER_01Amen. All right, thank you.