I was just a New York City mom with two public-school kids in March 2020.

An immigrant from the Soviet Union who arrived at age 6 in 1977, I knew what it means to escape tyranny and find freedom in America.

I knew what public education means for families like mine.

So when “15 days to slow the spread” turned into months of closed schools, it wasn’t just personal — it was a betrayal of everything I understood America to be.

I sued Mayor Bill de Blasio in the only lawsuit to reopen schools in New York City.

One mom (and many plaintiffs) against City Hall and one of the country’s most powerful teachers unions. People thought I was crazy.

That lawsuit and my advocacy led me to produce my new documentary, “15 DAYS: The Real Story of America’s Pandemic School Closures.”

The film has been watched more than 1 million times.

We released it free on X because the story needs to be told and Elon Musk’s platform for free speech is the right place to tell it.

The film centers on Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, now the head of the National Institutes of Health, Stanford’s Scott Atlas, former NPR education reporter Anya Kamenetz and families from across the country who spoke out when speaking out had consequences.

The past matters, but what’s happening right now matters more.

The same playbook used to keep our children locked out of school is being deployed across our country today.

Jane Fonda called COVID “God’s gift to the left.” A pandemic that devastated children’s mental health — she called it a gift.

Jane was telling the truth about what teachers unions did with it, as we reveal in our film.

They used our children as pawns. They kept schools closed while consolidating power. They extorted $189.5 billion in ransom to reopen. They labeled concerned parents domestic terrorists.

There’s been zero accountability. Instead, they’re doubling down.

Just look at our new mayor-elect: Zohran Mamdani, backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, supported by the same unions that kept our schools closed. The “No Kings Day” anti- ICE riots, the attacks on law enforcement — they are part of the same script.

During COVID, leftists called us domestic terrorists for wanting our kids in school. Now they call us worse for wanting safe streets.

The hard truth: No one is coming to save our children but us.

Not the government. Not the unions. Not the institutions that already failed them once. Only parents, grandparents and community members who refuse to stay silent.

This realization is both a curse and a blessing.

It’s a curse because there are institutions we should be able to rely on. Schools should protect childhood, not sacrifice it for political gain. Teachers unions should advocate in good faith for teachers, not use children as bargaining chips.

But it’s also a blessing. Self-reliance and agency are empowering values to model for our children. When we show our kids we won’t accept their being treated as expendable, when we demonstrate one person standing up can make a difference, we teach them something more valuable than any lesson plan.

We teach them they are worth fighting for. That America’s promise isn’t something institutions grant — it’s something we preserve through action.

When I filed that lawsuit against Mayor Bill de Blasio, I was just one mom. But David beats Goliath because he’s fighting for something that matters and refuses to back down.

This parent movement is authentically grassroots. It came from kitchen tables and school parking lots. Seventy-five million American parents and grandparents were harms by school and college closures. That’s an army. An army that remembers.

The left keeps winning because it’s organized and relentless. It’s time we match that energy — not just with anger, though anger is fuel, but with truth and love for our children.

New York City is one of the greatest cities in the greatest country in the world. But we are under attack by people who want to defund police, empower unions over parents and sacrifice our children’s education and safety for ideology.

Here’s one small thing you can do: Watch “15 DAYS” and share it widely. If you’re a journalist, write about it. If you’re a donor, fund free screenings. If you’re a politician, host one. If you’re a parent, spread the word to other parents.

We have no choice in whether we fight — only in whether we win.

This is a David and Goliath story. And I promise you, David will win.

Natalya Murakhver is a co-founder of Restore Childhood.