Dozens of teachers met in an online video call this week to discuss tips on helping students who identify as “transgender” transition at school without their parents’ knowledge, according to a report from Daily Mail.
Daily Mail gained access to an online session hosted by the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP), funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The session included teachers from Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and more.
For four hours, the teachers reportedly discussed helping students who believe they are “transgender” transition at school behind their parents’ backs, now that legislation in many Republican-led states makes it illegal for schools to keep this concealed from parents. This included helping students go by a chosen name and preferred pronouns, and accessing bathrooms and sports teams that align with their gender identity instead of their biological sex (via Daily Mail):
Kicking off the workshop, Angel Nathan, the MAP specialist who hosted the session, said attendees would review the new laws in a bid to 'remedy the marginalizing effects and disrupt problematic policies.'
In the discussion and role-play sessions that followed, the teachers, administrators, principals, and counselors spoke about trans students and their families in a way that would alarm many parents.
Kimberly Martin, the DEI coordinator for Royal Oak Schools, which serves 5,000 K-12 students in Michigan, spoke about helping trans students keep their gender change a secret.
'We're working with our record-keeping system so that certain screens can't be seen by the parents … if there's a nickname in there we're trying to hide,' Martin told the online gathering.
Jennifer Haglund, counselor for Ames Community Schools, which serves 5,000 K-12 Iowa students, complained about Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in March signing a law that bars biological males from competing on female sports teams.
She bragged about her 'own activism' and of taking part in protest marches.
'I know that I have my own right code of ethics, and that doesn't always go along with the law,' Haglund said.
Shea Martin, an Ohio-based trans educator, who writes a 'socialist, feminist, and anti-racist' blog called Radical Teacher, said she worked against 'laws that prohibit or restrict trans advocacy.'
'The stakes are very high for trans youth,' Martin said.
'I think that requires working subversively and quietly sometimes to make sure that trans kids have what they need.'
According to Daily Mail, parents and teachers in Illinois have been angered by Democrats’ efforts to put feminine hygiene products in the boys’ bathrooms.
One of the adults on the call, Yesenia Jimenez-Captain, the director of education services at the Woodland School District in Lake County, Illinois, said this issue instigated a school board meeting that “exploded in violence.”
“That became a big violent issue cause the individuals who were involved are also educators…which is sickening,” Jimenez-Captain said.
The outlet noted that “at no point in the session did any teacher say parents might know what's best for their own kids, nor question whether affirmation-on-demand was the only way to help a trans-identified student.”
Townhall has reported how school districts all 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 has covered, school districts in Colorado, Virginia, Kansas, and California were exposed for concealing this information from parents. As a result, Republican Sen. Tim Scott (SC) introduced legislation that would prevent schools from hiding information about a student’s gender identity from their parents.
Recently, a school district in Ohio was exposed for instructing teachers to report child abuse to protective services if a “transgender” student’s parents are not supportive of their gender identity. And, guidance issued by the New York State Education Department instructed school officials to keep a student’s gender transition concealed from their parents if the student does not give the school consent to inform them.