According to a Daily Mail report, dozens of teachers met on an online video call this week to discuss tips on helping students who identify as transgender at school without their parents’ knowledge.
The Daily Mail was granted access to an online session hosted by the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP), funded by the US Department of Education. Teachers from Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and beyond participated in the session.
Teachers reportedly talked for four hours about helping students who believe they are transgender at school behind their parents’ backs, as legislation in many Republican-led states prohibits schools from hiding it from parents. This included helping students utilize their chosen name and preferred pronouns, as well as access to bathrooms and sports teams that correspond to their gender identity rather than biological sex (via Daily mail):
Kicking off the workshop, Angel Nathan, a MAP specialist who hosted the session, said participants would review fresh laws in an attempt to “address the effects of marginalization and disrupt problematic policies.”
During the discussions and role-play sessions that followed, teachers, administrators, principals and counselors spoke about transgender students and their families in ways that alarmed many parents.
Kimberly Martin, DEI coordinator at Royal Oak Schools, which serves 5,000 elementary and middle school students in Michigan, talked about helping transgender students keep their gender transition secret.
“We’re working on our record-keeping system so parents can’t see certain screens… if there’s a nickname there that we’re trying to hide,” Martin told the online gathering.
Jennifer Haglund, a counselor at Ames Community Schools, which enrolls 5,000 elementary and middle school students in Iowa, complained that Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law in March banning biological males from competing on female sports teams.
She boasted about her “own activism” and participation in protest marches.
“I know I have my own proper code of ethics, and it’s not always legal,” Haglund said.
Shea Martin, a transgender educator from Ohio who is writing a ‘socialist, feminist and anti-racist’ book blog called Radical Teacher and stated that it was operating in violation of “laws prohibiting or restricting trans advocacy.”
“The stakes are very high for trans youth,” Martin said.
“I think it takes subversive and quiet work sometimes to make sure that trans kids have what they need.”
According to the Daily Mail, parents and teachers in Illinois were outraged by Democrats’ efforts to put feminine hygiene products in boys’ bathrooms.
One of the adults on the call, Yesenia Jimenez-Captain, director of educational services for the Woodland School District in Lake County, Illinois, said the issue sparked a school board meeting that “erupted into violence.”
“The case has become very violent because the people involved are also teachers… which is disgusting,” Jimenez-Captain said.
The outlet noted that “at no point during the session did any teacher say that parents can know what is best for their own children, or question whether on-demand affirmation is the only way to help a trans-identified student.”
Townhall reports that school districts across the country have been caught trying to keep parents out of the loop when it comes to their child’s “gender identity.”
As Townhall reports, school districts in Colorado, Virginia, Kansas and California have been exposed for withholding this information from parents. As a result, Republican Senator Tim Scott (SC) has introduced legislation that would prevent schools from concealing information about a student’s gender identity from parents.
Recently, an Ohio school district was exposed for instructing teachers to report child abuse to protective services if the parents of a “transgender” student do not support the student’s gender identity. Guidance issued by the New York State Department of Education instructed school officials to conceal a student’s gender change from parents if the student did not consent to the school informing them.
