Hypocrisy Isn’t the Problem With the Parental-Rights Movement

Scandals involving alcohol for teens and a threesome reveal what the leaders truly want.

Clarice Schillinger wanted to be known as a champion of parental rights. Troubled by COVID lockdowns, she formed the Keeping Kids in School PAC in 2021. “I kept seeing these questions over and over: How do I run for school board? How do I help candidates run for school board?” she told the local PBS station at the time. For Schillinger, the issue of school reopening — taken on under the banner of parental rights — helped pave her way to prominence. The following year, she ran unsuccessfully for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor.

Now an assault charge means she is known for something else. The Philadelphia Inquirer has reported that, according to a police affidavit, the conservative activist allegedly punched a teenager at a drunken party she threw for her 17-year-old daughter. Police say that Schillinger, stocked her home with vodka and rum and encouraged teens to take shots with her. As the party devolved into chaos, she ordered the minors to stay. “She then punched one young man in the face three times, according to the affidavit, which said video footage showed Schillinger lunging toward a group of teenagers in the foyer and having to be restrained,” the Inquirer reported. Schillinger’s mother and boyfriend also face charges of simple assault and harassment.

Before Schillinger’s legal woes, venture capitalist Paul Martino appointed her to lead Back to School PA, a PAC which “poured more than $500,000 of Martino’s money into school board races,” the Inquirer reported. After her unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor, she became the executive director of Martino’s federal PAC, Back to School USA. (According to the Inquirer, the federal PAC raised and spent $20,000 in the first half of 2023; a website for the PAC no longer exists.) Schillinger isn’t the only parental-rights figure to face scandal. In Florida, conservatives are abandoning Christian and Bridget Ziegler as scandal engulfs them, too. Bridget, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, admitted to being in a relationship with her husband and another woman. That woman has also accused Christian, the chairman of the Florida GOP, of rape.

Christian Ziegler has denied the accusation, and Schillinger’s attorney told the Inquirer that the activist “looks forward to the opportunity to defend against these allegations.” The damage has been done, however. In Christian Ziegler’s case, authorities in Sarasota, Florida, are expanding their investigation to examine whether he broke the law by allegedly recording his accuser during sex without her consent. Though he’s refused to step down from his role as GOP chair, executive board members stripped him of his power and salary in December, Politico reported, adding that party members “are expected to oust him from his post” later this month.

The Zieglers face accusations of hypocrisy, Politico noted, and perhaps Schillinger will, too. But something else is going on underneath the headlines. In the broadest sense, both stories depict a movement unable to cope with the scrutiny that accompanies national infamy. The precise shape of their misconduct matters. Ziegler and Schillinger allegedly abused their power: over a sexual partner and over children. This isn’t hypocrisy. Instead, the allegations hit at the very heart of the parental-rights push and reveal an unflattering truth about the conservative movement: Parental rights activism is about power and the domination of others.

This is an old story on the right. All fall short of the glory of God, but some fall further than others. History is replete with self-proclaimed moral leaders whose private debasements became public knowledge. Just ask Ted Haggard, the anti-gay megachurch pastor who lost his position in 2006 for procuring the services of a male sex worker. More recently, Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as president of Liberty University after a former business partner said he’d had sex with Falwell’s wife as Falwell watched. Prominent conservatives want to police others, not themselves. Or as the online maxim goes, “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” That’s why true believers can work alongside or for more cynical actors — including, yes, Donald Trump. As they see it, their opponents are not fully human with developed moral natures or reasoning powers to rival their own. Everyone else is just a piece on a game board. The objective is to win.

The Schillinger and Ziegler scandals will not end the parental rights movement. Recent electoral losses notwithstanding, activists have tapped into evergreen conservative fears about shifting cultural mores. While parental rights isn’t quite the powerhouse that the right — and at times the press — have made it out to be, it isn’t going away, either. In conservative-run states like Florida, it may even wield significant power. And it’s hard to argue that the tarnish on the movement is new. Some members have been linked to the far-right Proud Boys. (Bridget Ziegler even posed with two Proud Boys after she won a seat on the Sarasota County School Board, though Wired reports that she denied links to the group.) Members have inflicted measurable harm on LGBT children and families, while conducting their personal lives however they see fit. It is much harder, though, to deny the real purpose of parental rights. The movement is a means to an end.