Mentally Ill Leftwing Parents Say Policies Meant To Help Transgender Kids Are Misguided

[Happy New Year]

Many states instruct schools to keep students' 'gender identity'
secret

In the name of student safety, schools across the country don't tell
parents when children decide to use a name and pronouns that better
align with their "gender identity." But parents say these decisions
miss the mark, keeping vital information from them.

When a school counselor called her to discuss a female student's
performance, Jennifer Krecioch assumed the counselor had the wrong
number. But she soon found out that the counselor was referring to
her son, who had opted to identify as female on a survey his teacher
passed out to the class at the start of the school year.

"I can't protect him. I have no right," Krecioch, whose child
attends a public school in a Chicago suburb, told the Washington
Free Beacon. "I'm his mother. Shouldn't I be the one to decide when
my child is ready to become a she or a different name?"

Parental rights in education became a hot-button issue during the
coronavirus pandemic, when remote learning gave parents a closer
look at school curricula. Parents flocked to school board meetings
to express their concerns over radical racial and gender ideologies,
among other things. Democrats and their allies in teachers' unions
largely ignored parental protests, which cost them at the polls in
November.

As opposed to physical transitioning—taking hormone treatments or
having surgery to look like the other gender—social transitioning
for kids often means adopting a name or nickname and pronouns that
better align with a child's "gender identity." While social
transitioning is rare, the Free Beacon spoke to two parents who
learned their child had begun socially transitioning at school
without their knowledge.

Copying policies from teachers' unions and gay rights organizations,
several states instruct schools to withhold information related to a
student's sexuality or "gender identity" from parents. In Illinois,
a student's "transgender, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming
identity" may "not be released or disclosed outside of the district
staff without the student's explicit consent," according to guidance
enacted in March 2020 at the behest of an executive order from
Democratic governor J.B. Pritzker.

Advocates of these policies warn that "outing" a student to his or
her parents could put that student at risk at home. To avoid this,
teachers distribute forms to students that ask them to
confidentially share their "gender identity."

The Free Beacon obtained a copy of one such form, which was given to
students at Edwardsville High School in Illinois. The form notes
that "the teacher(s) of this class will be the only ones who will
see your answers" and lets students opt out of having teachers tell
their parents what pronouns they use.

In many cases, this attitude goes beyond the individual student. The
California Teachers Association instructs educators how to brand
LGBT clubs to misdirect parents, Fox News reported this week.
Conference attendees discussed rebranding clubs like "Gay Straight
Alliance" as the "Equity Club."

One parent who spoke to the Free Beacon on condition of anonymity
says her child came out as transgender after joining such a club.

"The schools think they're doing the right thing, but they're not,"
the parent, a self-proclaimed liberal feminist, said. "They're
hiding this from parents and that is not okay. Can we not wait until
they're adults? What is the harm in that?"

The youngest generation of adult Americans identify as LGBT at
higher rates than any preceding generation, a Gallup survey from
February found. Nearly 2 percent of Americans under the age of 25
identify as transgender, compared with 1.2 percent of Millennials
and just 0.2 percent each of Generation X and Baby Boomers.

"If you look at the statistics and how many kids are coming out as
nonbinary or transgender, you have to ask, is that realistic?" the
anonymous parent asked. "Do you really think nature is that wrong?"

Schools' embrace of transgender ideology has pushed some parents to
act. In Florida, the parents of one middle-schooler sued their
district after officials met with the child to discuss restroom and
field trip accommodations without the parents' knowledge. The
district violated parents' rights, according to the plaintiffs'
suit, by "implementing a protocol which explicitly circumvents
parental notification and involvement in critical decisions
affecting their children's mental, emotional and physical health," a
local news outlet reported.

Erika Sanzi, director of outreach at Parents Defending Education,
has spoken to dozens of parents of kids who started transitioning at
school. She attributes the uptick in identifying as transgender to
both social pressure and the infiltration of transgender ideology in
the classroom. Sanzi says "activists" in schools pressure parents
into backing down when their children want to change genders.

"Either go along with this with your kid, or your kid will commit
suicide," Sanzi said. "It's one of these myths that gets repeated
over and over and over until people are convinced this must be
true."

Sanzi warns that school administrators who encourage students to
"transition" do not think about the longterm consequences of their
actions.

"If you fast forward three, four, five years, a lot of [these
students] will detransition," Sanzi said. "When that happens, a lot
of these counselors are gone, and when the wheels come off, the only
people there for the kids are their parents."


https://freebeacon.com/campus/parents-say-policies-meant-to-help-
transgender-kids-are-misguided/