School districts nationwide have openly encouraged students to embrace their perceived gender identity as pro-transgender activism continues to gain ground in the U.S. — and in a growing number of cases, administrations seem determined to keep parents out of the loop.
Colorado appears to be at the forefront of this trend, as evidenced by the new guidelines recent unveiled in the Pueblo school district that instruct school officials to “first discuss the parental involvement with the [transgender] students to avoid inadvertently putting the student at risk of harm by contacting the student’s parents.”
Elsewhere in the same state, the Daily Caller reported that the LGBTQ coordinator for the Poudre School District recently led a presentation for school nurses that included a range of transgender-specific terms including “top surgery,” “hormone therapy,” and “puberty-blocking medicines.”
Furthermore, Shayna Seitchick urged nurses to check with students before contacting parents to determine which names and/or pronouns to use in order to avoid a “potentially unsafe situation” at home.
While at school, nurses are expected to “always use a student’s affirming name” regardless of whether the student has taken any legal steps to change it.
“Transgender and non-binary students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much to share private information,” the presentation advised.
Seitchik indicated that the “main goal is to support the student in having an affirming home” for students who go by a different name or gender at school than they do at school.
Nevertheless, she advised that “it is the student’s right to share their transgender status or gender identity, not ours as staff members (unless the student asks us to) and as a school we will support the student in their coming out process and them and their family with any requested resources.”
A pair of families is suing the district over allegations that a teacher pressured their daughters to join an LGBTQ club and withhold that information from their parents.
Recently, @SamChampionHS invited a licensed psychologist named Dr. Sara Ansboro to come and speak during lunch hour to all students, 9-12, without parental consent. She spoke on gender identity, catholic priests, and drugs that assist with transition. A concerned parent emailed… pic.twitter.com/PElQhNgxYy
— Sarah Fields (@SarahisCensored) April 16, 2023
Similar policies requiring administrators to keep parents in the dark about their children’s identity at school are in place elsewhere across the country, including districts in Los Angeles, New York CIty, and Chicago.
