A “woke” teacher in New York allegedly “manipulated” a 5th grade girl into changing her gender without her parents’ knowledge or consent and caused her “suicidal ideation,” according to a lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that teacher Debra Rosenquist at the Terryville Road Elementary School in Terryville, New York, singled out then-9-year-old “A.V.” throughout the 2021-2022 school year. Allegedly, Rosenquist “forced” the young girl to go by male pronouns and a male name (“Leo”), the girl's parents allege. This went on for some time before A.V.’s parents were made aware.
In January 2022, A.V. drew a picture at school that showed a girl with the words “I wanna kill myself” and “I feel sad a lot,” according to the lawsuit. When A.V. met with a District psychologist, it became known that she was confused about her gender. Before this, A.V.’s parents, L.N. and E.V., were in the dark about what was happening at school with regards to their daughter going by a male name and pronouns (via the Suffolk County Supreme Court):
L.N. and E.V. were incredibly concerned about the well-being of their nine-year-old daughter. They have and will always support A.V. but worried that A.V. was being persuaded by Rosenquist to be transgender when she had not expressed any such inclination
After the parents complained about the teacher to the district, A.V. was switched to a new classroom. And she began to experience bullying and harassment from her peers “directly because of Defendant’s [Rosenquist] conduct” (via the Suffolk County Supreme Court):
A text message group was formed with several students from A.V.’s class that intentionally excluded A.V. On or about May 20, 2022, when directly talking about adding A.V. to this text message group, one student stated: “I swear if you add her Im [sic] going to kill you onto pieices [sic].” Another student stated: “bro I would kill my self if you add that bitching girl or boy.” And another student responded: “literally tho what is she??? Girl?? Boy??? One day her name is leo and one day her name is A LIKE WHAT IS IT??!!!!!” One student even said, “Idk what to call ‘it’.” These messages, the constant stares, and horrifying looks further caused more stress and anxiety to A.V.
A.V. suffered extreme emotional pain, trauma, distress, mental anguish, and psychological injuries, including but not limited to: humiliation; fear; discomfort and anxiety; loss of enjoyment of life; medical costs for psychological treatment and attorneys’ fees, all as a result of the inappropriate conduct inflicted upon A.V. by Rosenquist[.]
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The District negligently, carelessly, recklessly and with deliberate indifference employed Rosenquist, continued to employ Rosenquist and continued to allow Rosenquist to have unsupervised contact with students, including but not limited to A.V
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Rosenquist pursued her own agenda outside the curriculum, which included persuading her fifth-grade students to try “being gay” or being another gender even when they were not. To further her agenda, Rosenquist read and provided her students graphic books about gender and sexuality which were not on the curriculum.
Comsewogue School District Superintendent Jennifer Quinn and the school principal, Annemarie Sciove, are named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit said that parents of former students reported Rosenquist to the district previously for teaching kids to “try being gay” and about transgender ideology.
Debra Wabnick, the family’s attorney, told the New York Post that “the psychological and social damage Rosenquist caused this child and her family was immense."
“Incredibly, the district still has Rosenquist in the classroom where she can similarly harm other innocent children,” Wabnick added.