How to Create “Woke At” Pages

Tell your community – and the world – what’s happening at your school

Something you’ve probably noticed about woke activists: they present themselves to the outside world very differently than how they act behind classroom doors. To the public, they use language that makes them sound idealistic and admirable – inclusion, equity, justice – but we know the real story is the divisive, toxic, and extreme ideas they promote in the classroom.

A lot of parents aren’t aware of the language games woke activists play (you can click here to read our simple guide to understanding their jargon) – so one of the single most important things you can do to promote reform at your school is to simply show, in public, that something is terribly wrong at your school. This can be done through transparency – and woke activists hate it, because they know it’s the first step toward accountability.

You and other concerned parents and students can create a social media page for your school and document examples of woke indoctrination. Putting indisputable facts in one place for your community and for the world to see is enormously powerful.

We recommend using Instagram as a starting point. You can set up an account in minutes, it can be anonymous, it’s designed to be easily findable and shareable, and it makes it easy for allies to get in touch to start building your network.

Here’s our guide to setting up an anonymous, safe Instagram page and shining a light on what’s happening at your school:

1. Create a new email address with Gmail that will serve as a stand-alone email for Instagram and any other social media accounts you create. Give it an address that can’t be tied to you. We recommend Gmail because you will also be creating an anonymous Google Form (more on that below). We strongly recommend enabling two-step verification for this Gmail account and we recommend using a password generator to create strong (and different) passwords for all your accounts.
   
2. Using the Gmail address you created in Step 1, create a new Instagram account. Many have used the “Woke At” formulation for their names, and we recommend doing this as it helps show we’re building a powerful local-national movement.
   
   For the “full name” field, use “Woke at [school name].” For the “username” field, use “wokeat[school name].” We strongly recommend enabling two-step verification for this account as well.
   
3. Instagram allows a short bio statement, so think up a concise way to describe the purpose of your page. It shouldn’t be angry or accusatory – we suggest saying something about documenting harmful changes, extremism, or radicalism at your school in the interest of transparency and raising awareness in the community. You can look at some of the Instagram pages linked below for examples. At the end of your bio, post the Gmail address you created in Step 1 so that people can get in touch with you.
   
4. Now you can set up a Google Form, and paste the link to it in your Instagram bio. This Form is where you can post a longer statement (but not too long!), if you wish, about your goals, what’s happening at your school, and your invitation to like-minded parents, students, and teachers to join you.
   
   Crucially, the Google Form allows you to receive anonymous tips and testimonials from students, parents, and teachers. Giving people a way to tell their stories safely and anonymously is incredibly important given how angry and retaliatory many woke activists get when criticized. Submissions are truly anonymous – you, the site owner, won’t know who’s contacting you – so people can be assured that they can speak freely and safely. Don’t be surprised when woke activists use the form to send you nasty messages.
   
5. Once you’ve got all this set up – it shouldn’t take longer than an hour – you can discreetly tell friends about it, or use your new Gmail account to anonymously tip off people in your community who you think would be interested in contributing. In the beginning, you will need to build a network of contributors and tipsters – like minded parents, teachers, and students – to submit information and stories. Once people start finding out about your page, contributions will start coming in on their own. Use your judgment about how open or secretive you wish to be, but we recommend erring on the side of secrecy. Secrecy also helps keep the focus on the information you’re revealing, not on the identity of who’s revealing it.
   
6. We suggest following other Woke At pages, school accounts, and accounts relevant to the problem we’re confronting. The accounts you follow are publicly viewable – so if you follow a bunch of your friends after you form the page, it will quickly become pretty obvious who’s behind it.
   

What should you post?

• You can find a lot of good material to use on your school’s website. Some outrageous materials are posted out in the open, in course descriptions, posts about curriculum, school board hearings, etc – you just have to look for it. Doing this research is a great way of learning more about the issues and it can also be delegated to members of your coalition. 
• Look at the social media pages of teachers and administrators at your school. They are often quite proud of what they’re doing and sometimes post incriminating statements or materials.
• It’s fine to post emails so long as they were sent to a large group where the sender has no expectation of privacy – such as a school-wide email or an email to a class. We suggest blocking out any identifying information, such as names of students and teachers.
• You and your partners should keep an eye on homework assignments and what’s taught in class, especially when it comes to issues of politics, activism, race, gender, and the like.

What shouldn’t you post?

• As important as it is to show what’s really happening at your school, there are some vital guidelines to follow. You don’t want to give your school and any activists who work there an opening to play victim, credibly accuse you of unethical behavior, or dismiss you as an extremist.
  
• Absolutely no doxxing, no posting names of students, and where possible avoid posting names of teachers. We think school officials, like principals and administrators, are fair game. But never post images or documents that contain email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, or identifying information. It’s easy to block or strip out this kind of identifying information before posting.
  
• Avoid partisan politics, insults, rants, personal feuds, or vendettas. Keep your page focused on the real mission: showing your community and the world what’s going on at your school.
  
• Don’t post petty or insignificant items. Go for quality over quantity. You want each post to convey something meaningful about the climate in the school. 

• In your posts, avoid exaggeration and always be truthful. Unlike the woke activists, we don’t need to lie or obfuscate – we only need to tell the truth. It’s fine to include a short commentary with your post, and it’s fine to express yourself sharply – but keep it respectful.

• It’s up to you to include materials and messages against wokeism, but the main focus of the page should be informing your community about what’s happening at school
  
• Don’t assume that everyone reading your page and who shares your concern about schools agrees with your political views on other issues, so try to use language that doesn’t polarize.

A few technical tips on using Instagram: 

• Use your computer’s screenshot feature to capture images of things you want to post. Save everything you post in a folder, just in case one day your account gets suspended or shut down by Instagram (we don’t anticipate this being a problem, but better to be prepared).
• Instagram likes square-shaped images. It’s easiest to crop your images square from the start.
• For written testimonials, paste them into Word or an email and screenshot them. You’ll have to create narrow margins so your text fits in a box shape, rather than a rectangle. 
• You’ll meet a lot of interesting people – supporters and critics alike – through Direct Messages. Don’t forget to check your DM’s, and especially the “message requests” inbox – this is where most of your messages will arrive.

Tips on the Google form:

• It is truly anonymous, so you will not receive any information identifying submissions.
  
• You must use your judgment when deciding what to post and what not to post. You should feel no obligation to post submissions that are inappropriate, frivolous, and so on.
  
• You may receive submissions from critics outraged that you are drawing attention to their activities at your school. Woke activists typically do not believe that anyone has a right to disagree with or question them, so they often have strong reactions to exposure. Sometimes this will just be insults or a rant, but we know of instances when critics have submitted testimonials designed to trick you into posting false information. Usually these are easy to spot, but occasionally they are clever. In journalism, it’s known as a story that’s “too good to check.” It’s important to be on the lookout and use your judgment to avoid posting something that hands your detractors an embarrassing victory.
  
• It’s fine to lightly edit submissions for length, clarity, grammar, and to remove personal or identifying information. But you must be careful not to alter a submission’s meaning. The power of testimonials is their authenticity, and you do not want someone accusing your page of changing the meaning of submissions.
  

If you have any questions at all, please reach out to us: [email protected]