What you don’t know can hurt you. Across the nation, school districts are using names and pronouns for children that “locks in” gender identities for life that would otherwise wither away. Even worse, school districts actively conceal their efforts from parents, thereby excluding parents from some of the most important decisions in their children’s lives.
Over the past three years, Advancing American Freedom has filed 13 amicus briefs on cases related to school-led social transitions. Summarized by the Superintendent in one case, school officials substitute parental consent with their own judgment because they believe their schools are safer than the home: “for many students, ‘school is their only safe place, and that safety evaporates when they leave the confines of our buildings.’” Yet, the following stories are only a small sample that we’ve worked on. More children have been harmed, and many parents are still unaware of how teachers are poisoning the minds of their children.
AAF filed its first brief on this issue in 2022 when an Iowa School District instituted a social transition policy that encouraged seventh graders to create Gender Support Plans, denied parents the right to be a part of or even know about these meetings, and instructed school staff to deceive parents by hiding the student’s new name and pronouns used at school. Similarly, in Florida, one district hinged on notifying parents of their children’s social transitions on whether the parents would be supportive. The officials claimed that notifying parents “could be dangerous to the child’s well-being.”
An Ohio school district defined “discriminatory harassment” as the “intentional use of pronouns inconsistent with a student’s gender identity,” meaning that other students could be subject to punishment merely for using accurate pronouns for a student the school was transitioning.
In New Jersey, a freshman girl diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and “high functioning autism” struggled with anxiety stemming from “the childhood trauma of the death of her mother.” Yet, her high school counselor insisted her anxiety stemmed from gender confusion and facilitated the girl’s social transition from female to male. Compounding the offense, school officials used her biological name and pronouns when in earshot of her father, over the school announcement system so as not to alert her siblings and even withheld communications from two teachers whom school officials deemed “too close” to the father.
She has not been the only autistic child preyed on by school administrators. In Michigan, a school socially transitioned an autistic girl and hid their efforts until a school official failed to remove the male pronouns and masculine name from one part of a document, the rest of which had been doctored to hide her identity used at school.
In Wisconsin, a school district that requires written parental authorization to administer harmless medications like aspirin nonetheless adopted a policy directing staff to facilitate social transitions without informing parents or seeking their consent. Enthusiastically complying, one teacher posted a sign in her classroom that read, “If your parents aren’t accepting of your identity I’m your mom now #freemomhugs.”
In Massachusetts, a sixth-grade girl, 11-years-old at the time, reported increased depression and anxiety after receiving “unsolicited LGBTQ-themed video suggestions” from school officials. Although her parents asked the school to refrain from further conversations about gender identity with their daughter while they sought professional help, the school officials began using a masculine name and pronouns for her when, shockingly, the counselor texted and chatted online with the sixth grader about gender identity to encourage weekly check-ins.
In New York, the parents of one girl pressed her school about her declining grades but were told nothing unusual was going on at school. When they found out the truth, that the school was facilitating her social transition, they moved her to online learning. Nonetheless, like the Massachusetts case, school officials continued to communicate with the girl “to discuss gender identity.”
In Colorado, a middle school art teacher invited a sixth-grade girl to an after school “GSA Art Club.” Instead of art, the girl heard a 90-minute lecture which included telling the students that, if they were not fully comfortable with their bodies, they were “likely transgender.” Students who “came out” at the meeting received prizes for doing so. Despite having never questioned her gender identity, the girl came out as transgender.
Another sixth-grade girl was invited by the same teacher to the same club where she was told that transgender people are more likely to commit suicide. Despite never previously suffering from suicidal ideation, the girl concluded that she must be transgender and later attempted suicide, pointing to her attendance of the GSA meetings as the origin of the decline of her mental health.
School-led secret social transitions confuse and harm children. In July, the Federal Trade Commission opened a public inquiry into a similar issue: whether medical professionals perpetuate consumer fraud in “Gender Affirming Care” practices. Performing “treatments” on patients who do not understand the effects and providing misinformation about gender “treatment,” clinicians aligned with the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) have replaced the Hippocratic Oath with political agenda.
We are asking that the FTC include in their investigation school districts that indoctrinate kids into harmful gender ideology. While the harm done to children is often irreversible, for others it can be prevented by restoring parents’ role in raising their children.
Marc Wheat is the General Counsel of Advancing American Freedom Vice President Mike Pence, Founder. Follow us on X @AAFLegal.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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