Our Deputy Managing Editor Kira Davis broke the story of a mother whose seven-year-old daughter was punished and humiliated for drawing a Black Lives Matter picture for her multi-racial friends that also included the sentiment that “any lives” matter. This was done without the mother’s knowledge, and the school administrators never informed her of their action. This mother had to find out a year later, when another parent mentioned it to her.

The mother decided to file a lawsuit against Viejo Elementary School where her daughter still attends, despite this cruel treatment. Through research, the mother connected with The Gavel Project. Founder and CEO Ryan Heath connected her to representation with the LexRex Institute, which assisted her in holding the school administration and the school board accountable.

The Gavel Project is a pro bono organization and is fully funding this and other California-based suits involving the infringement of student and parental rights.

As I and my RedState colleagues have been highlighting, California is rampant with corruption and abuse at all levels, but especially through the all-powerful labor unions and the incestuous relationship they have with the California Governor, state, and local legislative bodies.

Right now, Los Angeles and San Diego parents are battling the unified school districts to not mask their children again. The unelected Los Angeles Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer has been colluding with unions to bring back the mask mandate, and has her own conflict of interest with her daughter writing the guidelines and data that Ferrer used to justify reinstituting the indoor masking.

Parents are angry and overwhelmed, but also at a pivotal juncture to be able to unify in a manner never before seen for the cause of their children’s protection and education. This is where Ryan Heath’s The Gavel Project is coming alongside as an ally in this fight. Not just over the mask battles, but for any government action and policy that is detrimental to our life, liberty, and safety, and our right to protect our children and other defenseless children.

Heath’s impetus to start The Gavel Project was Hair Gel himself, Governor Gavin Newsom:

I started The Gavel Project in response to Gavin Newsom announcing back in October of 2021 that he was going to be making vaccination a contingent precedent to attend school in California.

When I saw that happen, I decided that I wasn’t going to stand by anymore and let these types of backwards policies continue on without having some sort of pushback, and so I’d spoke with my wife and we worked together with another individual [to make it happen].

As their website describes, The Gavel Project is a non-profit (501(c)(3)) legal organization that exists to fight unethical government and employer mandates and protect the freedoms of Americans, especially children. Heath described the mission of The Gavel Project in greater detail:

The idea was to take on all sorts of issues that have societal impact—detrimental societal impact. So, we weren’t limited to the COVID-19 masking issues, which is our primary work right now. We have a number of lawsuits that we’re actually funding across the state of California for that issue, but we’re also interested in taking on things like CRT in schools, which I believe is detrimental to the development of children because it teaches them things that just frankly are not true about the world. It teaches them to view themselves in a false light, and it limits their capacity to succeed in many ways, and so that’s an issue we’re passionate about.

Heath’s latest focus, which has sparked a partnership with Tracy Henderson of the California Parents Union, is California’s embedding of the so-called gender affirmation care into elementary and high school education. From kindergarteners being coerced to experiment with LGBTQ+ identities and choose their own pronouns (kindergarteners don’t even know what a pronoun is!) to providing puberty-blocking drugs.

The gender affirmation care [is] another issue that we’re also passionate about. Essentially, we have a case selection committee that meets occasionally to consider applications and we offer exclusively pro bono services for our clients. So, we operate entirely off crowd source funding.

In this current age of unelected bureaucrats drunk on power, and elected representatives refusing to hold them accountable, advocates who understand our constitutional rights and laws and can equip parents and families in legally and appropriately demanding their rights be honored are in short supply.

So, Heath and The Gavel Project’s vision has been a godsend to this state.

Heath is not a Californian, so California’s progressive politics and policies are not directly affecting him or his family. He is a resident of Arizona and has no dog in this fight. Heath could happily go about his life and respond as a good majority of Republicans and conservatives do to California’s plight: Not my circus, not my monkeys — and my favorite (#sarcasm) You deserve it—you get what you vote for!

But Heath and his wife have chosen to stand in the gap for California and use their organization to not only encourage and motivate action on the part of Californians, but also provide the tools and resources to maximize that action. Heath is standing with those who believe California’s promise will be restored.

I’ve been traveling out here to do this since January. And you’re right: the state is worth saving. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the entire world, and I can say that without hesitation the value of the people here is amazing.

It’s second to none. You have some of the smartest people in the world living in California, some of the greatest talent. But for the next generation, I can see it when I go around and I speak to the young people here, and I meet with folks. These are the leaders of America—the future leaders of America are being raised right here in California, and that’s because they’re growing up in such an oppressive state, and they’re seeing how important it is to establish the ideals of liberty and to fight for those.

Heath and his wife have also personally sacrificed on our behalf.

My wife and I have been the primary funders of this project since its inception, liquidated a vehicle to fund this. We’ve emptied our savings accounts and checking accounts, but we did so because we believe that it was necessary and there wasn’t enough being done to push back against what I see is a deliberate attack on the American dream.

The Gavel Project was founded in October of 2021, months after the formation of the California Parent’s Union (CPU) in July of the same year. CPU has similar goals, as their website attests:

California Parents United is building California Parent’s Union (CPU) which will be a special interest group bigger than the other special interest groups actively working against our children’s best interest. It is a membership base of parents, grandparents, and guardians of youth. Our focus is to give parents a true seat at the table and their voice back in all things parent’s rights.

On Twitter, Heath teased a partnership with CPU that would provide necessary resources on how parents can legally and actively resist the COVID-19 mandates, and the gender-affirming agenda being pushed in the state’s school districts.

@thegavelproject is working with @CalParentsUnion on something for the parents wanting to protect their children from the reproductive health center @PPLosAngeles and @nlmusd are contemplating for John Glenn High School. We’re also drafting peaceful noncompliance instructions 1/

— Ryan (@Ryan_L_Heath) July 18, 2022

Yeah, so, I am working with Tracy Henderson of the California Parents Union. We are going to be putting together some educational materials for parents and students returning to school when it comes to exercising peaceful non-compliance in the face of the COVID-19 mandates. We’re also putting together materials for teachers and for state employees to do the same. Because you do have constitutional rights, they are your capacity to refuse to comply with a forced orthodoxy on the opinions of deep value for the individual, and they are long established in constitutional case law.

We intend to educate folks on what their rights are and prepare them to basically go all the way to push the envelope. [Teachers and students can] say, “Look, I invite you to call the police if you disagree with me. [Let the police] come, and if what they are saying is true, they can arrest me and they can take me out. But if not, I intend to return to class.”

This legal tactic has been successful with school district battles over the COVID-19 mandates and the forced masking and mistreatment of students that resulted from them. Heath then addresses the partnership’s plan for gender-affirming care.

As far as the Planned Parenthoods inside of schools, Tracy and I are working on a notice for the parent to present to the Planned Parenthoods in these schools, that basically tells them they have no right to interact with their children. Should they fail to do so, the notice will set up the capacity for those parents to file a lawsuit to protect their rights and protect the rights of their children.

Some of these resources will be available for free on the CPU website. Other more detailed resources will be available behind the CPU member paywall, such as,

[A] cease and desist or what’s called an “ultimatum” for the state employees, students and parents to be able to demand access to education, and demand access to their jobs without being discriminated against for COVID-19 mandates. We’re going to put more specific instructions behind a paywall on the California Parents Union website.

When asked about those who may applaud The Gavel Project’s efforts, but say it is a losing battle, Heath said,

I disagree completely. I challenge them to consider the last term of the USDA in court, and think about what it is that the Supreme Court is doing with respect to individual rights.

They’re returning power to the people. They are returning power to the states to decide for themselves.

And that [SCOTUS] has a very strong, let’s call it a “conservative majority” right now that is primed to make a number of constitutional decisions. I believe the primary issue that they’re going to have to decide in the coming years is whether the government can force you as a citizen to play pretend, even though your eyes recognize that what they’re trying to get you to accept are a bunch of lies, and that’s the issue when it comes to gender affirmation here in schools.

We’re waging a peaceful war against those who wish to oppress others in the name of the greater good.

Tracy Henderson was interviewed by California podcaster Bryce Eddy of Liberty Station. Henderson explains why she worked to form the California Parent’s Union and how she intends to bring power back to the parents and the teachers at about six minutes in, and worth the listen.