Moms for Liberty Co-founders, Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich

This article has been updated. Please see bold italics below.

Michigan, Pocono Daily

The chairperson for the Monroe County, Pennsylvania chapter of notorious special-interest group Moms for Liberty has been issued a summary charge of harassment, court documents show.

According to a court document, Nicole Marie Prussman, 42, of Albrightsville, Pennsylvania was arrested on a summary charge of harassment on Wednesday, March 15 in Pike County.

Prussman is known in the area as the chapter chair of Moms for Liberty, a non-profit organization which claims it advocates for parental rights in schools.

Arkansas, Media Matters

Leaked audio from a Moms for Liberty meeting in Lonoke County, Arkansas, reveals a member of the chapter’s leadership flippantly threatening gun violence against librarians. 

In the audio obtained by Media Matters, the chapter’s head of communications and media, Melissa “Missy” Bosch, complained about librarians in the district, saying, “I’m telling you, if I was — any mental issues, they would all be plowed down with a freaking gun by now.”

Bosch is an Arkansas-based anti-mask activist who has since redirected that energy to her new charter school and the Moms for Liberty “parental rights” campaign that advocates for the banning of books across the country and strategically harasses school officials. 

Michigan, Livingston Daily

Jennifer Smith heads the Livingston County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a nationwide conservative nonprofit that has opposed COVID-19 restrictions in schools and school curriculums that include discussi

Smith led an alleged harassment campaign against Sarah Cross, an advocate for tougher COVID-19 protocols. Cross said Smith and other members of Moms for Liberty “prayed for her soul and equated her to doing the work of the devil during public comment at an election commission meeting,” as Livingston Daily described it.

Sarah Cross petitioned the court for a PPO on Nov. 30, 2022. Cross has in the past attended Brighton Area Schools Board of Education meetings and advocated for tougher COVID-19 protocols. When she believed a pair of school board members disparaged her, coughed in her direction, and dismissed COVID-19 safety, she sought recalls against them.

Because of her COVID-19 stance and the recalls, Cross says, Smith led harassment against her. Cross’ recall efforts eventually came to an end, in part, she said, because of the harassment.

“I have reason to believe that was her because she was working at that time or I believe she was acting at that time as part of a group called Liberate Livingston and it was a pseudonym that she had been previously using,” Cross told Circuit Court Judge Arianne E. Slay. “I believed it was her because Moms for Liberty was called Liberate Livingston.”

Update: March 13, 2023

From Jennifer Smith M4L:

“Yes it’s true but this is NOT the real story and I’m confident knowing what we NOW know that this was a targeted attack against MULTIPLE m4l leaders. 

In my case the lady who sought the PPO against me is a lawyer and a hard core liberal. She went to a neighboring county KNOWN for being the most liberal in our state and some how managed to get a judge to sign off on an exparte PPO on me – that means her life was endangered.
She made multiple flippant allegations against me, all hearsay, no facts. For example, saying I cut her power line, tried to steal her dog, drove by her house, etc

Meanwhile I was really the one stalked !
She made a website and posted my pictures on it, blocked me from participating in senior activities this year while my son graduates, has harassed me online. Started the irs complaint against m4l, reported me to the FBi as a domestic terrorist. There’s even more. 

My lawyer immediately filed to have the case terminated on LACK of evidence- the hearing was scheduled within 30 days. 

First hearing the judge removed herself and delayed to a new date. 30 days later, 75 days in total from the original filing. Next court date, she claims a medical emergency. Delayed 45 days .
2nd court date should have been me testifying to the judge MY SIDE of the story. Instead the judge went out of protocol and let the lady talk for 90 minutes. Court was closed for the day, case continued 3 weeks later.
6 months after the original filing I got my day in court and was VINDICATED.
The judge TERMINATED the PPO for LACK and ZERO evidence and the PPO was shut down.
The same lady who filed this is a lawyer who works for a non profit agency.
She does not practice law on her own.
She’s filed 11 grievances on Conservatives in our county all elected officials and myself.
Clearly she’s targeting us.”

Tennessee, Media Matters

In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Moms for Liberty members harassed an opposing group and threatened to report them for child abuse and called them “pedophile sympathizers.”  Moms for Social Justice — a group that predates Moms for Liberty by three years — spearheaded a campaign to diversify reading lists to include “protagonists of color, and LGBTQ protagonists, and queer authors, and authors of color.” Following this, the group reportedly received “constant harassment” from Moms for Liberty members who “threatened to report them for child abuse or distribution of pornography, publicly accused them of grooming children, and tagged them as #PedophileSympathizers in their closed Facebook group.” 

Wisconsin, LGBTQ Nation 12/6/22

The latest round in a Wisconsin Wauwatosa School District school board fight has one board member suing his fellow members to stop implementation of a controversial sex-ed curriculum while anti-LGBTQ+ organizations Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers stoke the controversy.

The new standards were adopted by a vote of 6-1.

The anti-LGBTQ+ groups Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers have made the tiny school district a focus of their national efforts protesting the “sexualization and indoctrination of children.” Gays Against Groomers founder Jaimee Michell, who is based in Milwaukee, described the Wisconsin curriculum as “child abuse” and “grooming.”

At a board meeting on October 24, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinelreported police were called after activists from both organizations plunged the gathering into chaos by shouting accusations at board members and parents, labeling them “groomers” and “child abusers” who wanted to show kids sexually explicit pictures.

Charlestown County, S. C. (WCBD)

The Charleston County School District Board of Trustees voted to censure a fellow board member, Ed Kelly, and remove him from leadership roles.

During a March 27 school board meeting, members heard from a speaker who recounted a story allegedly heard during a Moms for Liberty meeting where Kelley allegedly told where a parent said that his second-grade student came home in tears asking if she was going to turn into a boy.

When the father asked his daughter why she said that the second grader explained her teacher said that they were going to be a man now and that the student should call the teacher mister instead of miss,” the speaker recalled.

Kelley, the speaker alleged, applauded the parent for coming to speak to him and then stated that if his child said this, the board member would have shown up at the teacher’s house with a gun.

It comes after board member Ed Kelley was accused of making comments that some deemed to be threatening and transphobic towards a teacher within the district.

Speaker who addressed the school board on March 27 recalled a story in which they claimed to have heard Kelley tell members of a local Moms for Liberty group regarding a transitioning teacher.

Kelley said that his comments during the Moms for Liberty meeting were falsely presented by a single voice.  He objected to a female teacher wanting to be called mister.  “What I actually said was, “Given how understandably agitated he was, I applaud this father for making the right choice to write an email instead of pick up a gun.” 

Vero Beach, Florida

This sort of conduct is no surprise given the previous behavior of one of the group’s co-founders. According to Vero News, a local news outlet for Indian River County, Florida, co-founder Justice visited her fifth-grade son’s school to oppose the district’s COVID-19 mask mandate and was “being so disruptive and disrespectful in her interactions with Beachland teachers and administrators” that the school’s superintendent “warned she could be barred from the campus.” The district’s superintendent wrote a memo to the school board after Justice’s visit, promising that “if this behavior continues, the district will initiate the process to trespass this individual through law enforcement.”