The Bedrock, USA podcast story “The School Board Queen” talks about public schools’ controlling and backstabbing behavior toward parents, with Rachel Ziegler as the focus. Not much gaslighting has changed between 2023, when the Bedrock podcast was released, and 2025. This scenario demonstrates the usual way parents are discouraged from being involved or gaslit so the school may deny that children were indoctrinated.
Mrs. Ziegler decided to enter the school board in 2014 after her husband asked her to do so. He felt that it was important for her to be on the school board because they were raising a family and wanted their daughter to stay successful in school. Despite not having any “public service experience,” Mrs. Ziegler remained an influential figure. Besides serving on the school board, she is the co-founder of Moms for Liberty and uses both groups to fight against school indoctrination and for parental rights. She and the other Moms for Liberty members (totaling “100,000”) state that the school system is “teaching kids to hate America.” Mrs. Ziegler is a mom herself, so her job is very personal and meaningful to her. Ron DeSantis liked her experience being “a mom,” “an outsider,” and “not part of the establishment,” so he endorsed her, and she had served in the Sarasota School District.
However, one reporter argued that Rachel Ziegler was simply using “parental rights” as an “umbrella term” or excuse for “banning books” and removing everything that does not conform to certain beliefs (what she doesn’t like). Ziegler rebutted the reporter’s accusation by saying she does not want to make anyone feel “less than” or inferior to her. Involved parents, represented by Ziegler, are really trying to raise their children to be kind and empathetic.
Using more gaslighting against the parents and Ziegler, however, Chapter 3 (Episode 12) talks about how a transgender youth regards the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act. The youth, who comes from a broken family with divorced parents, did not feel comfortable sharing her pronouns with her parents, but she was okay with sharing them at school and expecting other students to follow them. Her father is described as “transphobic,” while her mother sits in the interview quietly, nodding and smiling.
The Florida bill, to the dismay of the youth, requires parental consent for minors to introduce new pronouns and names to their teachers. “Nico” complains that “he” is “heartbroken” because Florida students no longer have the freedom to announce their gender changes at school without their parents being notified.
She also introduces some new vocabulary, “dead naming,” which means when someone changes their given name and others continue to address them by that original name. The episode uses overly cheerful, descriptive words for Nico, such as “warm, delightful, and clear-sighted,” especially highlighting her blue hair and chosen career path as a tattoo artist. Meanwhile, Bridget is portrayed as an old woman in a black dress, wearing too much perfume.
The podcast highlights several areas of disappointment, but it also serves as a reason why parents now wish to homeschool their children and acts as a gauge of gaslighting.
As noted by the absence of Nico’s father and her passive-aggressive, hostile attitude toward him, parents who disagree are often labeled “bigoted” or “transphobic.” We never hear his perspective; he is portrayed solely as the villain. Nico’s mother, who is “smiling and nodding,” is depicted as supportive; however, she could also be seen as a doormat—at best allowing her minor child to do whatever she pleases, or at worst being a pawn in her child’s actions. Nico’s mother never speaks during the entire interview, which symbolizes the absence and gaslighting of parents that the school system seems to encourage.
The podcast pretends to offer a balanced portrayal of Bridget but instead seems to set her up for failure. In the first episode, she is shown as a loving mother playing with her daughters while a reporter asks her questions. In the third episode, they acknowledge that she is “a loving and caring mother.” Yet, they still make Bridget appear immodest and ditsy. Did they ever consider that she might not have finished her degree because she was raising a family? She can complete a degree at any time, but her window to raise her children is limited. Her priorities and sacrifices are clear, yet the podcast never points this out.
Additionally, the group she formed has 100,000 members, a substantial number of like-minded people. The “loving and caring mother” statement seems like a throw-away line meant to give the appearance of balance. A closer look reveals a devoted mother sacrificing and giving her all to ensure the public education system is safe and maintains traditional values. On the other hand, we have “warm” and “clear-sighted Nico” with “blue hair,” who dreams of being a “tattoo artist,” and is portrayed as a child trying to be male despite being female. The misled Nico is depicted as an authority.
A deeper investigation into current school funding is also necessary, as it is obvious there are motivations in the public school system that are unrelated to education. These funding investigations should be pursued to their fullest extent.
The Bible has strong, relevant warnings regarding the teaching of children:
1. “Ye cannot serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold on to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24, KJV)
2. “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” (Luke 17:2, KJV).
3. “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are an abomination unto the LORD thy God.” (Deuteronomy 22:5 KJV).
4. “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 KJV).
