Tennessee Democratic School Board Member Bashes State’s Prohibited Concepts Law And Insults Blount County Conservatives
Image Credit: Blount County Dems / YouTube
The Tennessee Conservative [By Rebecca Scott)
In an open-air pavilion, against the backdrop of a park-like setting, the Blount County Democratic Party welcomed Vandy Kemp, a member of the Blount County Schools Board of Education, representing district 2 since 2020.
Kemp came prepared to discuss the Tennessee Department of Education’s rules regarding Prohibited Concepts in Instruction, and the guidelines for parents, students, and teachers who wish to report a violation of these rules.
While there are 14 specified concepts that are prohibited from being taught or promoted in Tennessee classrooms, most of the prohibitions aim to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, or religion; and uphold the foundational American values that all people are created equal and have certain inalienable rights.
Early on in her message to Blount County Democrats during their October 2023 meeting, Vandy Kemp gave glimpses into her own thought processes regarding politics and education as she jokingly proclaimed that 3 years ago she came out of the closet as a democrat, that she thinks “teachers ought to be activists,” and that educators learn to use euphemisms to avoid being held responsible for violating policies.
She boldly stated that, while making a presentation to the Blount County School counselors, she “told them a lot of stuff that I told them was probably illegal for teachers to use in classrooms. But they’re counselors so they’re a little bit different.”
Kemp quickly progressed from her general discussion of Prohibited Concepts to a more passionate account of a book series recently removed from the 6th grade curriculum in Blount County.
The Dragon Wings series follows a Chinese family that immigrates to the United States. In the story, the grandfather is lynched by a white mob and, according to Kemp, the Chinese immigrants refer to white Americans as “demons, demon Americans, and demon whites.” Kemp then said that, “The conservative evangelical world went nuts over that.”
Kemp recounted heated board meetings where she claimed that members of Blount County were not the ones creating the resistance against The Dragon Wings series.
While admitting she had no evidence, she stated, “I am absolutely convinced that Blount County has been targeted by outside organizations.” She alleged that people attending the school board meetings were reading off of scripts and were not members of Blount County.
While jumping around from story to story of several board meetings, she encouraged members of the democratic party to show up at school board meetings prepared to match the other side “speech for speech.” She boldly stated, “There can be a perception out there that they [conservatives] are the majority. Oh my gosh! They’re not the majority at all!”
However, real statistics show the overwhelming majority of Blount County is, in fact, conservative.
As her presentation continued, she assured members of the Blount County Democrats that no students in Blount County are required to read or learn anything against their parents wishes. Kemp was very clear that she believes any attempts to remove certain controversial books from the curriculum are “an effort to undermine the public schools. It doesn’t have anything to do with books and materials.”
While parents should very much have a say in their child’s education, be it public or private, Kemp implied that those who take issue with specific texts are simply “serial objectors” who most likely don’t even have children in the district. She minimized their arguments to charts on a page that, in her estimation, indicate “outside instigation,” not citizens who are prepared to stand up for what they believe is right and appropriate for their children.”
As she approached the end of her time to speak, Vandy Kemp recounted several meetings where the Blount County School Board attempted to clarify library policies. She bragged that, not only is she a school board member, she is also the head of the policy board that develops and clarifies school policies for the Board of Education.
She then replayed some details from an especially heated board meeting in March of 2023, prefacing the story with the following: “I just want to say right here that I’m a practicing, devout Christian……. and so, I really struggled with this, but I have to tell you, the Christians with the little “c” ……… came out in busloads that night.” With her clear disregard for the citizens, parents, and students that have differing opinions than her own, Vandy Kemp spent much of her time speculating about and insulting some of the very people she is supposed to represent.
Kemp finished her presentation by announcing that there is a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the TEA currently in federal court attempting to undo what Kemp called, “this stupid law,” referring to the Prohibited Concepts in Instruction and the potential ramifications of violating the law, which include teacher license revocation and diminished funding to the school in question.
Finally, Vandy Kemp insisted, “We have teachers and librarians that are afraid. They are afraid to do their jobs because they could lose their licenses, they could get crosses burned in their yards, Lord knows what.”
Some have said that Kemp would do well to stop insulting the conservatives in her school district and stop promoting fear over hypothetical cross burnings.
Watch the Blount County Dems meeting below:
About the Author: Rebecca Scott is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Rebecca at Rebecca@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
At a time when too many American students fail to achieve basic competence, we need teachers who teach the fundamentals.
Teaching activism is not what is needed. Competence is.
AMEN!
I’m one of the “serial objectors” Vandy Kemp refers to and I can assure you I’m not part of an outside organization or “reading from a script”. I read from my notes because I am not experienced with public speaking. But I wrote my notes based on hundreds of hours of research into what books our Blount County schools have in their libraries. I do not want our kids sexualized by graphic books. I do not want our kids to think that gender is a construct and can be changed. I do not want our children to feel guilty for things that happened before they were born or because of their race. The laws agree with me and so do most residents of Blount County. Vandy Kemp is out of touch with the people who she is supposed to represent.
She’s living proof that getting older doesn’t always make you wiser.
She’s a Radical Leftist activist. Age doesn’t matter. When I was young I was a Leftist and worked with radicals. I know them. They will lie in order to achieve their goals. It’s the same mentality that the Russian Revolutionaries had. She claims to be a devout Christian!!! Sure…. She uses the tactics described in Rules for Radicals. Look at how she has managed to get herself appointed “head of the policy board that develops and clarifies school policies for the Board of Education”
She needs to be targeted for defeat. She probably also supports Hamas. Look her in the eye and say “You’re my enemy.”
Negotiation with people like her is NOT possible. She will use every trick.
Try again. She’s a Radical Leftist activist. Age doesn’t matter. When I was young I was a Leftist and worked with radicals. I know them. They will lie in order to achieve their goals. It’s the same mentality that the Russian Revolutionaries had. She claims to be a devout Christian!!! Sure…. She uses the tactics described in Rules for Radicals. Look at how she has managed to get herself appointed “head of the policy board that develops and clarifies school policies for the Board of Education”
She needs to be targeted for defeat. She probably also supports Hamas. Look her in the eye and say “You’re my enemy.”
Negotiation with people like her is NOT possible. She will use every trick.
No one is our enemy. She can have opinion and the other side can have theirs. It’s time to have evidence to back up what we say.
Her extreme comments need to b brought to light!
Find out where she attends service and engage her about her faith!
Rules for Radicals is a hate filled religion.
Show up policy meetings and make sure the changes are published early for response!
The most recent book up for school board review, had descriptive rape of a child by her Father. Detailed sex abuse between a little child and her dad. Absolutely NOT appropriate for children. However our left leaning school board voted to keep it here in Wilson County. Why? The left wants to pull our kids away from their parents. We need God loving people to Vote for the right people!!!
Too many left leaning people are moving to Tennessee to, they say, escape policies of the state they are leaving. Why then are they demanding the same policies in our schools? Tennessee is being slowly changed and NOT for the better.
Not true. The people who move to TN are hardcore conservatives leaving everything they had to make a better life . They are now questioning why the leftist crap already exists and is being pushed at the public schools . I know people who left other states and were in shock with the indoctrination in the TN schools . These people will lead the way in making waves at school board meetings against the garbage the government and the leftist are injecting.
This moron is not even close to being a Christian . She needs to be run out of the State of Tennessee . This evil demon possessed woman should not be tolerated . We have compromised with the devil too many times already . Enough of this crap …. I’m sick of it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Satan worshipping pedophiles shouldn’t be allowed near kids, much less serve on school boards.
Amen!! I hate seeing “democratic” party. It’s the democrat party, but the democrats started using democratic several years ago, to make them appear to be pro democracy, when in fact they are anything but!
Lucifer’s own demon possessed dimmercrap.
Was caught on the hop researching…to find that Vandy Kemp was so highly praised by most of academia at MC for her service upon retiring.
https://highlandecho.com/resolution-made-in-honor-of-former-dean-vandy-kemp/
One cannot reason with Ignorance with facts or any thing else. The Left wants Liberalism/WOKENESS taught is schools and the children cant even read or add 2+2=4!!!!
I too am one of those persons who objected to the BC school libraries Obscene Materials Books (OMB), and I have continually appeared before this board on my own volition, bringing attention to obscene books available to students from grades 6-12, by researching online for hours with another grandparent, Susan Wright, who also petitioned the board to remove inappropriate books. We were NOT SCRIPTED by an outside source, but rather we both are concerned grandparents/current tax paying home owners within Blount County, who spoke up! We were under the impression that some of the books we requested to be removed, that appeared to be off the online list, but now find out that the OMB are kept by the librarians & available to anyone who requested them. Vandy confessed all of her sins/lies in her dandy speech! She has also confessed colluding with school librarians to conceal OMB & with teachers/counselors to use deceiving terms/methods to indoctrinate students, undermine the parents, & break TN law! She is literally the fox watching the hen house! I have notified the school & state officials, sent the video & requested her immediate removal! Blount County tax payers need to bombarde the Blount Co. School Bd of Ed & demand her removal! We are all fed up & this is the straw that breaks the camel’s back! #wakeupBlountCounty