{"id":831094,"date":"2021-09-30T10:44:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T14:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=831094"},"modified":"2021-09-30T10:44:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T14:44:26","slug":"texas-teachers-instructed-to-help-students-hide-gender-identity-from-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/texas-teachers-instructed-to-help-students-hide-gender-identity-from-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Teachers Instructed To Help Students Hide Gender Identity From Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftexas-teachers-instructed-to-help-students-hide-gender-identity-from-parents%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=831094&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1148800144.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A teacher training for a Texas public school district directed teachers to hide information about students\u2019 gender identity from their parents in order to make school a \u201csafe\u201d place.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers at Leander Independent School District north of Austin received a training presentation in October last year that instructed them to discuss gender identity with students and ask them whether it was okay to share students\u2019 preferred pronouns with their parents.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QvJNHfAsTCk&amp;ab_channel=MonicaKelly\">training<\/a>, titled \u201cSupporting LGBTQ+ Youth in Schools,\u201d was led by two school social workers working for the district, Felix Barnhart and Monica Kelly, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inclusivetherapists.com\/united-states\/round-rock\/therapy\/monica-jurado-kelly\">describes<\/a> herself as a \u201cfat-positive, sex-positive therapist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdd your pronouns wherever your name is published and then also whenever you are introducing yourself, just to normalize the sharing of pronouns,\u201d Kelly suggested to participants in the training.<\/p>\n<p>Another idea, she said, is to \u201clet students identify themselves on the first day of class with their individual name and pronouns,\u201d and make sure to inform substitute teachers and anyone else visiting the classroom of their correct pronouns, \u201cso that way it protects that student from being misgendered or called a name that they don\u2019t identify with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe kind of do this already for students who have nicknames,\u201d Kelly remarked. \u201cWe\u2019re just asking to extend that courtesy to students whose gender identity may be different from their sex assigned at birth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, in her next breath, Kelly appeared to admit that pronouns are much more sensitive than nicknames, encouraging teachers to ask students whether it is okay to refer to them by their preferred pronouns when speaking with their parents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMay I use these pronouns when I contact home?\u201d reads a question on a form Kelly suggested teachers have students fill out.<\/p>\n<p>Another question reads, \u201cWould you like to follow up with me in a private conversation about your pronouns?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA student may be out at school, but they may not be out to their parents,\u201d Kelly explained.<\/p>\n<p>She added that \u201cif they are not out to their parents, it may be because it is not safe for them to be out,\u201d and warned that some students may have \u201cnon-affirming parents or even parents who are shaming about a student\u2019s identity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is incredibly important when school is a safer environment for students than it is at home to be protective of that and to continue to foster those relationships and up those resiliency factors for that child,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n<p>The training goes on to offer guidance on how to respond if a student challenges a transgender student\u2019s gender identity, such as telling a boy who transitioned to a girl, \u201cyou look like a boy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A teacher might respond, \u201cthere\u2019s no one way for a boy or a girl or people of any gender to look or behave,\u201d the social workers suggest.<\/p>\n<p>The presentation also included a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ik_fy5-TTrs&amp;ab_channel=uppercaseCHASE1\">video<\/a> on transgender \u201cterms\u201d by transgender YouTuber Chase Ross, whose other videos are mostly reviews of masturbation devices.<\/p>\n<p>The training was not mandatory but was \u201can option for staff, amongst dozens of choices, during a staff development conference hosted by our Leander ISD district,\u201d Matt Mitchell, a communications representative for Leander ISD, said in a statement to The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">\u201cOur teachers and staff partner with parents and guardians to address concerns by students in our schools. As a practice, we partner with parents and keep open lines of communication and information sharing regarding their children,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">The school district emphasized that the training and resources are \u201cnot intended or developed for students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">This was unclear from the training, however, which included a cartoon graphic called the \u201cgender unicorn\u201d developed by the \u201cTrans Student Educational Resources.\u201d The presenter noted that teachers can use graphics from that same group \u201cwhenever we are talking about trans students and educating about trans students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The training caught the eye of some parents in the district, who are now demanding accountability from district leadership, saying the direction teachers were given violated their parental rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went, whoa, what do you mean, \u2018can I share this information with your parents?&#8217;\u201d Trista Parks, whose children recently graduated from Leander ISD, told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u201c<\/b>I have a huge problem with that because you\u2019re training the teachers to withhold information from the parent, no matter how big or small it is. That\u2019s the bottom line,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether it\u2019s pronouns, whether it\u2019s sexuality, they have no place having that discussion. They\u2019re not the parents,\u201d Parks said. \u201cThey have no idea what\u2019s going on in that child\u2019s mind or have the background to know or the training to know or the authority.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time the leadership of Leander ISD has sparked distrust among parents. This is the same district that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/texas-school-district-apologizes-to-parents-after-children-assigned-books-with-graphic-sex-scenes\">placed pornographic books<\/a> on its book club <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/11uAfEsZiH745rY1Du7dcwgUwV2FElUGm2PTCXzoULlI\/view#gid=0\">reading list<\/a> for teens last year, angering parents who demanded the books be pulled.<\/p>\n<p>The district <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leanderisd.org\/englishlanguagearts_middlehighschoolinstructionalmaterials\/#2020-tima\">apologized<\/a> to parents, and some of the objectionable books were removed from the reading list. Others remained on the lists, however, and still others continued to float around in school libraries.<\/p>\n<p>A slew of angry parents took the podium at the district\u2019s September 9 school board <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=c_kRhUhStqE&amp;t=4s&amp;ab_channel=LeanderISD\">meeting<\/a> to express their disgust at both the pornographic books and the teacher training.<\/p>\n<p>One mother, Crystal, began her remarks by reading a graphic passage from one of the books describing a gang rape. The book, \u201cWhat We Saw,\u201d was allowed to <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1QwJs2XTVQ54Nh5r3c719Ub3quV8ktxknsFvJ7J1tQoo\/edit#gid=1438310891\">remain<\/a> on the book club list for high school freshmen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs there a class on gang rape for our students? On how to deal with gang rape? Are you going to process this with the students? Is this a sex-ed class or an alcohol prevention class?\u201d she asked the board. \u201cThis book is definitely different from a classic. Goal achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Parks herself spoke at the meeting on behalf of a parent who learned in the spring that the school district had allowed their child to be \u201ccalled a new gender identity opposite of his biological gender.\u201d The parent accused the district of violating their trust and denying them the possibility of getting psychiatric care for their child for \u201cat least a year.\u201d The discovery also caused \u201cextreme mental distress and conflict\u201d in the family\u2019s home, the parent said through Parks.<\/p>\n<p>Incensed parents showed up again at the next board meeting on September 13, some calling on the entire board to resign, arguing that trust between the school board and the public has been severely damaged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are a community divided as a direct result of a district that continually views education through a social and political lens,\u201d one woman said, adding that for the last several years the board has \u201cfocused on nothing but social issues that are not reflective of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A teacher training for a Texas public school district directed teachers to hide information about students\u2019 gender identity from their parents in order to make school a \u201csafe\u201d place.Teachers at &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-831094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}