TOMS RIVER, NJ – Toms River School Board Member Ashley Lamb was featured on the Fox News program Ingraham Angle Friday night, speaking out against an NJEA commercial that paints frustrated and upset New Jersey parents as extremists.
The NJEA is New Jersey’s largest teachers union.
Last week, the NJEA released a commercial intended to demonize parents and concerned members of the community who are upset with the direction of education in New Jersey when it comes to critical race theory, sexual education and other progressive agenda-related curriculum shifts in recent years.
The Toms River School Board is one district that has pushed back against the NJEA and the administration of Governor Phil Murphy in recent years.
“When I saw that ad, I was completely appalled,” Lamb told Fox News host Jason Chaffetz who was filling in for Laura Ingraham. “I sit on the Board of Education in the 4th largest district in the state and it’s the largest suburban district, we have 32,000 parents and when you hear the word extremist, I honestly don’t think of the parents that show up to my board meetings, I think of people like Sean Spiller, the President of the NJEA who gets paid half a million dollars on the backs of teachers he fails to represent.”
Lamb said the NJEA and Spiller should look in the mirror before calling parents political extremists as the union had spent $20,000,000 to re-elect New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy.
“Parents protecting their children is not political, it’s survival,” Lamb added. “This isn’t ok.”
Today, the NJEA is walking back its position.
“The ads themselves could not be more clear about our belief in the important role that parents play,” the statement from the union said. “Parents are never referred to in any negative or critical way.”
The union says they were only referring to a very small, but vocal group of people in their ad calling parents extremists.
Lamb said the NJEA itself is an extremist organization, adding that they no longer fully represent the beliefs of the average school teacher and local Toms River Education Association member in her own district.
“It’s not polite, it’s condemning parents. It’s attacking the nuclear family,” Lamb added. “It’s absolutely ridiculous. the parents in my district are not going to stand for it. I’m not going to stand for it. We encourage our parents to show up for our meetings. It is their job to defend their children.”
Lamb also criticized Governor Phil Murphy’s “woke” sexual education agenda, saying it’s predatory and sickening.
“Our teachers do not want to teach it, but it’s being shoved down their throats and it’s not our local bargaining units,” Lamb said. “It’s not our local unions. They actually represent our teachers. The NJEA does not.”
Forces aligned with New Jersey Assemblyman Greg McGuckin who was caught spying on Lamb and her husband last week quickly attacked Lamb for speaking out against the NJEA on Fox News, even calling for her resignation.
Assemblyman McGuckin, who was caught red-handed funneling money from the Ocean County GOP through Toms River lawyer Kevin Riordan to hire a Monmouth County private investigator to spy on Mrs. Lamb and her husband Justin, a Lavallette police officer and member of the Toms River municipal council did not respond for comment on that voyeuristic operation against the couple.
McGuckin played an active role in supporting pro-NJEA school board candidates in Toms River that opposed the election of Lamb. Each year, McGuckin’s law firm Dasti, Murphy, and McGuckin donate roughly $50,000 to local political candidates directly. In return, the firm received $1.7 million in public contracts in 2021 alone.