If you didn’t see the previous post about Moms for Liberty’s national history, click here!

This post will be focused on local events.

As has been the case in many towns, Moms for Liberty started to gain momentum during the pandemic and was often focused on anti-mask rhetoric. As those mandates ended, they then focused on the new health standards that had come out. These standards had been released in 2020 but were set to be implemented in 2022. 

You can read the actual standards here. Comprehensive Health and Physical Education (nj.gov)

Quickly misinformation spread about these standards. Perhaps you remember hearing about children identifying as cats? And teachers having litter boxes in their classrooms?  That was completely false and spread like many urban legends do. 

People shared screen shots of random curriculum; many were claiming that teachers were going to teach kids that “they were born in the wrong body.”  That “tom boys would be convinced they were boys.” This was also false and never a part of any curriculum. 

A read of the ACTUAL standards was pretty tame compared to what it was made out to be. Much of the outrage fell right in line with the talking points of M4L, such as: fear of speaking about diversity, inclusion, acceptance, anything LGBTQ, etc. 

Then they came for the books in the fall of 2022.  Several of our loudest community members (two who are proud M4L members) were among them. They continually discussed their concerns about books in Roxbury High school  they felt were inappropriate at board meetings. Confusingly, it appears they only officially challenged one of those books.  Neither of these two women have children in the high school. It was explained several times by BOE members that the options parents have regarding books they dislike, would be to request their child not be allowed to check it out by contacting the library, or to submit a formal challenge for the book. Lets Talk About it had been challenged in the fall and had been put behind the counter in the library.  Gender Queer was then challenged, and was determined to be appropriate. In March, no other books had been challenged, yet the two M4L, and one other woman who may or may not be involved in M4L, spoke at the board meeting. What they said was shocking. You can listen to the audio from the meeting here. 

The High school librarian was called a child predator, amongst the following:

“You’re allowing Roxana Caivano, with the support of the administration, to endanger students,” said Balestriere. 

“Roxana Caivano appears to be luring children with sexually explicit material,” Cobo said. “This is the behavior of a child predator.”

“This woman is a danger to Roxbury,” she said, “and it’s time you all do something about it.”

They were then subsequently sued by the High School librarian and have been fundraising for their legal defense ever since. They have sat for countless interviews, repeatedly mischaracterizing the lawsuit as being due to them “disagreeing about books,” and attempts to “silence parents.”  They were sued for defamation, for the specific things they said about the librarian. We find it horrible that they are receiving donations from residents, possibly based on misrepresenting what they did that led to this lawsuit. 

As for Board of Ed elections… Neither of the two loudest M4L members have run for a position on the board. Yet they have both been VERY active in the campaigns in both 2022, and 2023. 

The campaign of Milde, Macgregor and Pope in 2022 was endorsed by Moms for Liberty and admittedly run by the vice chair of Morris County Moms for Liberty, Kristen Cobo. She admitted this in an interview you can see here. 

As she promised, in 2023, M4L was seemingly the loudest and most active people involved in Back to Basics campaign (Back to Basics was the campaign for Anne Colucci, Camilo Bonilla, and Valerie Galdieri, who were elected and sworn in this year.)

It is worth mentioning that the “Back to Basics” slogan was used by many M4L candidates and on the M4L Facebook page itself. 

They were possibly more active in the campaign than the candidates themselves. Much of their campaign was based on misinformation regarding policy 5756, which I have talked about in length in previous posts. They repeated that anyone in support of 5756 wants schools to keep “secrets.” 

In both 2022 and 2023 they tried to suggest that candidates they opposed were somehow secretly involved with organizations aligned with Democrats.   Both years at Old Sucasunny day they took pictures of candidates they opposed talking to locals, claiming that it proved the campaigns were involved with Democrats, since they were seen talking to registered Democrats. They claim the Kids First ticket in 2023 was involved with left leaning groups, and the Back to Basics slate even claimed that Kids First were involved with a group called Action Together NJ and “want to impose the values of that political organization onto our children.”  All that we observed, was that the candidates had signed a pledge through that organization, which was listed as non partisan. The pledge was the following: “I believe in public schools and in protecting public education for all kids.  I support our teachers. I do not support book banning.”

Now BOE member (then candidate) Bonilla stated that Kids First “failed to mention the donors that paid for those mailers,” as well as stating that Kids First “are receiving paid assistance from Next Door, again paid by unreported donors, sending private message blast to Roxbury residents with Facebook pages.” He then asked “‘which of the two slates is the one truly engaging in unethical and political practices. I speculate ATNJ and a certain political party are working with their slate. I say we let the facts speak for themselves”

So interestingly enough, these claims that he stated as being FACTS seem to be his opinion.  We looked up ELEC info, and Kids First filed all their paperwork showing where their donations came from.  There were no donations from any organizations. All donors listed appeared to be Roxbury residents or family members of the candidates and the candidates themselves. 

We don’t know much about Next Door but we don’t think they provide the services he is suggesting.  Someone did post about the election on Next Door in support of Kids First.

As you will come to notice, what often happens with M4L aligned individuals is that they accuse those they disagree with of things they themselves are guilty of. Every accusation is an admission. 

Neither campaign filed expense statements (We believe it is not necessary if less than a certain amount is spent). 

Back to Basics largest contributors were a Republican councilman from Kinnelon, Sean Mabey who has donated over $19k to republican causes. The other largest contributor was then candidate Galdieri’s boss’s wife Marla Luciano, who certainly appears to be an extremist political activist, and is ALSO not a Roxbury resident. As we have mentioned before Galdieri had spoken at a prior board meeting reading a statement from Gays Against Groomers, so we have known she was aligned with these groups for some time.

Luciano is involved in organizing the event “A Seat at the Table” which seems to be a far right networking event that is focused on helping likeminded far right candidates win local NJ elections. Over the past few years, she has donated over $18k to Republican candidates. Sean Mabey has also been a speaker at this event. 

Other people involved in this event are Elizabeth Nader who is a conservative activist and chair of the Elect Common Sense PAC,  (Bill Spadea’s PAC). If you remember Bill Spadea also endorsed Back to Basics.   When asked if that was partisan, Back to Basics reported that Spadea was not a political figure, yet his PAC is listed as Republican. Spadea has regularly attended this event and said that he wants like-minded people to stop going after the Republican party, and just “take it over.”

Another co-founder with Luciano for A Seat at the Table event is Sherry Nardolillo who is Morris County M4L chapter secretary. She was also a part of the Jan. 6 Insurrection. Tiffany Justice (founder of M4L) is also regularly in attendance.

Both Nader and Luciano are political activists who have been seen at events like CPAC with Lauren Boebert and Katie Gorka, wife of Seb Gorka. Nader proudly announced Seb and Katie Gorka will be speaking at ASATT. Seb has previously told people to lean into it when people say they’re racist. And he has strong ties to racist and fascist organizations.

Photo from A Seat At the Table

Other speakers at the event have included:

Josh Aikens who  took over NJ RISE which is an organization that helps like minded BOE candidates,  and has admitted that he “ran 300 candidates” for BOE in NJ.  He ran for state assembly and seemed to use the controversy in Roxbury as a campaign platform, by doing so, clearly politicizing the school board. He was regularly seen campaigning with our local M4L. 

John Amanchuku- a pastor (grifter) who is paid to travel the county and speak at BOE meetings. He has been to Roxbury, Chatham, Old Bride, as well as Florida, Texas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. He has said that all LGBTQ books in the library are “perverted.” He also infamously harassed employees at a Lego store for wearing pride pins. He has also been interviewed and stated that his plans are to train at least 400 people to do what he is doing at BOE meetings across the country. 

Greg Quinlan – founder of Center for garden state families.  Click here to see his tax filings, showing that while his “charity” raised $80K, he paid himself $60k as well as meals, entertainment and phone expenses. He is also a regular at BOE meetings, especially here in Roxbury. He has been mentioned in many prior posts.

Phil Rizzo – ex congressional candidate (yeah, the guy that tried to escape property taxes on his home by claiming it was a church, and then got caught).

What might all those people have in common?  They have all attended the A Seat at the Table event, and they have all come to Roxbury BOE meetings to speak, and none are residents of Roxbury.

Interesting right?

Our own local M4L Kristen Cobo has also been present at this event and is listed as a speaker this year. 

Sponsors for A Seat at the Table: Common Sense Club, Jersey 1st, Advancing American Freedom, Americans for Prosperity CPAC, First Day PR IBEW Local 102, TPUSA High School New Jersey State PBA, Moms for Liberty, The Epoch Times.

Yet our local M4L claim that their involvement in the BOE campaigns is not partisan, M4L is not partisan, but everyone else but them IS partisan….. you can’t make it make sense!

Locally our loudest M4L members and M4L adjacent locals often bully and harass online, at times screenshotting any person with opposing views. One M4L member joined the next-door app to simply disparage someone they disagreed with. They have suggested that people that disagree with them are perverted. 

They regularly portray teachers as not being the experts in education, and claims that the things they disagree with in school “is damaging to young minds”

They have called people “child sexualization advocates” and “child mutilation advocates.” They claim people they disagree with are fighting to “keep secrets from parents”. They often claim to have “proof” of candidates or residents lying or being “caught on video” yet never publicly shared any of this “proof” they claimed they had.   Likely because the things they claimed were not true or taken completely out of context. 

The Morris M4L vice chair said that she’s “seeing things go on in schools that are so damaging to young minds and the psychosocial development of children which is the diversity, equity, inclusion push.”  They are against anything involving the words diversity, equity of inclusion, against anything involving social emotional learning, and against any sexual education. 

Ultimately, they conflate ANY sexual education with the “sexualization of minors,” even claiming that teaching kindergartners proper terminology of body parts is inappropriate. News flash, teaching proper terminology of body parts is not “sexual” or inappropriate. The idea that we can’t speak about body parts would just possibly suggest that they are shameful or should NOT be spoken about.  Experts in the field disagree with Ms. Cobo, and believe that teaching children proper terminology is protective against sexual abuse.

She also claimed that children who read the graphic novels in the library, will likely become addicted to pornography…. This is a wild inaccurate conflation. Porn addiction is real, it happens with REAL pornography. Meaning adult videos, not books in a library that are NOT porn.   To suggest that children will have the same dopamine response from a book, as adults have to porn is ridiculous, and harmful. 

Cobo can also regularly be found at Republican events, often at M4L table. Here you can see handouts available – “theology of politics” written by Liberty University

Quick synopsis of Liberty University- it is a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (Southern Baptist Convention). Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns as Lynchburg Baptist College, Liberty is among the world’s largest Christian universities. 

The university requires undergraduate students to take three Evangelical Bible-studies classes. The honor code, called the “Liberty Way”, prohibits premarital sex, cohabitation, any kind of romantic relationship between members of the same sex, and alcohol use. Liberty University has been described as a “bastion of the Christian right.”  They have also been in the news lately due to this lawsuit. 

It is clear that Moms for Liberty and those who follow them, are pushing Christian Nationalist in our schools. Their ultimate goal is to dismantle public education as a whole.

Moms for Liberty, and specifically Moms for Liberty Morris County, have been named antigovernment “hate” groups by SPLC. They should have NOTHING to do with our schools, or our Board of Education.

Moms for Liberty is all about subtraction, meaning taking away, rights, freedoms, choice, representation, diversify, equity, empathy, etc. They do not ADD anything to their community, except their own hate and fear.

So please, share this information with others who care about our community, our children, our schools, and keeping these extremist groups from infiltrating them.

We will post more about other claims they make such as misrepresentation of state and local test scores, misrepresentation of the lawsuit they are involved with as well as the Freedom to Read Act, and continued attempts to spread fear and hate while also fundraising for their legal fees.  Be sure to follow our Instagram for updates!