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Guest post by Jan
You may think this is a ridiculous question. It’s not. You may be surprised at the answer.
I listened to an amazing podcast this morning. It was a teacher from California talking to Deb Fillman regarding what is going on in the schools. I highly recommend it to ALL parents and citizens interested in our public schools:
California Teacher Speaks Out – The Reason We Learn Podcast | Podcast on Spotify
While many topics were discussed and I learned so many things, there was one thing that struck me as something CRITICAL for parents.
Your school may be keeping two sets of records on your child, one you can see and one you can’t. In the podcast, the teacher Ray Raymond shares a story about an Assistant Principal who openly brags about having two sets of records on her students, one she keeps in her office and away from parents, and the other that parents are allowed to see.
Deb Fillman added that this is something that the State of New Jersey has now legalized. Then she described a training for administrators about keeping two sets of records on students. She was appalled that not ONE administrator questioned the practice. Read #2 in the “Guidance” at the link below:
Transgender Student Guidance for School Districts (nj.gov)
I did some research, and it was a bit shocking. I was always told that the schools and parents were a team and that we, as public employees with the best interest of children at heart, should work with parents, not against them. Apparently, this is has changed. Some public-school employees see parents and families as obstacles to be overcome.
One of the first resources I came across was genderinclusiveschools.org. They have an extensive summary of policies in fourteen states. For this blog, let’s look at those states which have explicitly stated that records of trans students, even minors, may or should not be shared with parents. This is not a complete list, but a good start.
Keep in mind the source of this information, which could make it skewed and possibly not a correct interpretation of law. For example, the citing of law in the case of Maryland appears to be a ruling geared toward adults and not minor children. What is more important in each interpretation is the absolute belief that parents have no right to have important knowledge about their children.
CALIFORNIA: To prevent accidental disclosure of a student’s transgender status, it is strongly recommended that schools keep records that reflect a transgender student’s birth name and assigned sex (e.g., copy of the birth certificate) apart from the student’s school records. Schools should consider placing physical documents in a locked file cabinet in the principal’s or nurse’s office. Alternatively, schools could indicate in the student’s records that the necessary identity documents have been reviewed and accepted without retaining the documents themselves. Furthermore, schools should implement similar safeguards to protect against disclosure of information contained in electronic records.
Pursuant to the above protections, schools must consult with a transgender student to determine who can or will be informed of the student’s transgender status, if anyone, including the student’s family. With rare exceptions, schools are required to respect the limitations that a student places on the disclosure of their transgender status, including not sharing that information with the student’s parents.
MARYLAND: Note that while a balance between students’ rights to privacy and parents’ rights to information in the educational environment is vital, no provision of state or federal law requires schools to affirmatively disclose this sensitive information to parents. Courts have recognized a constitutional right to medical confidentiality concerning one’s status as a transsexual person, (See Powell v. Schriver, 175 F.3d 107, 111 (2nd Cir. 1999). Federal courts have concluded that schools should not disclose sensitive student information such as sexual orientation to parents without a legitimate stated interest to do so. See Nguon v. Wolf, 517 F. Supp. 2d 1177, (C.D. Cal. 2007) (finding a legitimate purpose for disclosure but stating school could not have ―gratuitously disclosed student’s sexual orientation to parents); Wyatt v. Kilgore Indep. Sch. Dist., 200 WL 601 6467 (E.D. Tex. Nov. 30, 2011), rev’d in part on other grounds, 718 F.3d 496 (5th Cir. 2013), (finding right to privacy regarding student’s sexual orientation and denying summary judgment to school district).
Implement training and practices that assist school staff and prevent accidental disclosure of information that may reveal a student’s transgender status to others, including parents and other school staff unless the student and/or the student’s parent has authorized school staff to make such disclosure or staff is legally required to do so. Consider that while information in official student records must be disclosed upon the request of parents, sensitive information related to gender identity generally need not be disclosed without the student’s consent.
MASSACHUSETTS: Transgender and gender nonconforming students may decide to discuss and express their gender identity openly and may decide when, with whom, and how much to share private information. A student who is 14 years of age or older, or who has entered the ninth grade, may consent to disclosure of information from his or her student record. If a student is under 14 and is not yet in the ninth grade, the student’s parent (alone) has the authority to decide on disclosures and other student record matters.
MICHIGAN: When students have not come out to their parent(s), a disclosure to parent(s) should be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. School districts should consider the health, safety, and well-being of the student, as well as the responsibility to keep parents informed. Privacy considerations may vary with the age of the students.
NEW YORK: In some cases, transgender students do not want their parents to know about their transgender status. These situations must be addressed on a case-by-case basis and will require schools to balance the goal of supporting the student with the requirement that parents be kept informed about their children. The paramount consideration in those situations is the health and safety of the student and making sure that the student’s gender identity is affirmed in a manner in which the level of privacy and confidentiality is maintained necessary to protect the student’s safety.
OREGON: (See New York statement above)
VERMONT: Schools should work closely with the student and family, if appropriate, in devising an appropriate plan regarding the confidentiality of the student’s transgender or gender nonconforming status that works for both the student and the school. The support of the student’s family may vary. In adopting a student-centered approach, a school can best support a transgender student by involving the student regarding how and what information about the student is shared within the school and between the school and the student’s home. Some parents may be very supportive and advocate for the student with the school. Other students may not have a supportive home environment. In those cases, schools should develop a plan for information sharing which supports the student, while balancing a parent’s right to information. Any plan for sharing information must comply with all applicable laws, regulations, policies and guidelines. Privacy considerations may also vary with the age of the student.
WASHINGTON D.C. : Schools should work closely with the student and family, if appropriate, in devising an appropriate plan regarding the confidentiality of the student’s transgender or gender nonconforming status that works for both the student and the school. The support of the student’s family may vary. In adopting a student-centered approach, a school can best support a transgender student by involving the student regarding how and what information about the student is shared within the school and between the school and the student’s home. Some parents may be very supportive and advocate for the student with the school. Other students may not have a supportive home environment. In those cases, schools should develop a plan for information sharing which supports the student, while balancing a parent’s right to information. Any plan for sharing information must comply with all applicable laws, regulations, policies and guidelines. Privacy considerations may also vary with the age of the student.
There is one county in Maryland that has jumped the shark on parental rights in regard to transgender students, Montgomery County. It’s not surprising since Montgomery County is probably one of the most liberal counties in the country outside of California. They have passed a policy that not only actively hides a student’s transgender status from parents but allows school personnel to determine a child’s gender status:
School Districts Are Hiding Information About Children From Their Parents (dailysignal.com)
Remember that your child’s teacher and school personnel are NOT trained child psychologists. All it takes is a five-year-old saying she wants to be a boy and they will proclaim her ready for gender transition. Something that should be a rare and carefully considered decision that a family makes will be a casual notch on some school activist’s woke belt. And a child will be destroyed in the process.
If you followed the earlier link to New Jersey’s Department of Education, they have taken the same step of hiding information from parents. They frame this with the fallacy that they are protecting children. What they are doing is far from protecting children, it is manipulating and victimizing them by removing the most important influences in their lives, parents and families, and replacing them with government.
What is the motive? The agenda?
They want to grow an army of children willing to inform on parents who don’t buy into the woke policies of the tyrannical left. You must convince children that their parents are bad.
Remember that authoritarian governments want blindly loyal and obedient subjects. A caring parent will get in the way. It has happened in every single tyrannical government in history.
Or maybe they just want the human race plunged into a huge whirlwind of gender confusion:
The Left’s Goal of Creating a “New Generation of Drag Kids” | The Heritage Foundation
Remember, Marxism thrives on division whether it’s, economic, racial or now, sexual orientation. And if they have to destroy the mental health of children to achieve their goal of a Communist society, they see that as an acceptable price of success.
This article is an example of the destruction that adult actions with a young child can cause:
Transgender sex change regret: Transitioning won’t heal real issues (usatoday.com)
Imagine what our pre-school children will be like as adults if they are constantly bombarded by this sexual identity theology in thirty hours a week, ten months out of a year for almost twenty years? Sacrificed at the altar of gender ideology by a bunch of zealots on a mission.
No wonder schools want parents kept out of this part of their children’s lives. Read what happened to a parent when his 14-year-old daughter claimed to be a boy:
Transgender youth: My daughter needs mental health care — not hormones (usatoday.com)
This parent discovered that policies by the Obama Administration, the ACLU, and the Teachers’ Unions had obliterated his rights. This was in 2016. In the six years since then, it has definitely gotten worse.
So, as with all things, what do parents do? Here are some of my suggestions along with suggestions from the Arlington Parent Coalition.
The BOE has been told about this teacher. I wonder what it will take to remove her.
Here’s more advice:
The last point is the one I support the most. If you implement any one of the ideas, this is the one to implement:
5. There are no opt outs for our kids.
Parents must understand that we now exist in a “post-opt out” world. You are misled if you believe pulling your children out of certain course units will protect them.
Transgender ideology is coming from the “bottom up” through social media and massive cultural changes.
Public school children are being indoctrinated in transgender ideology by posters on the wall, speakers in the library, books on the shelves, after-school clubs, school-wide celebrations, and politicized teachers. Vigilance and consistent engagement with principals and classroom teachers are critical.
Concerned parents are, to borrow from the musical “Hamilton,” “out-gunned, out-manned, out-numbered, out-planned.” If you already are stretched in terms of time and attention, the situation can feel too big, too scary, and too inevitable.
At one point, I found myself looking for an exit from the fight when an activist from neighboring Fairfax County gave me a steely look and said, “It is far worse than you understand, and don’t you dare walk away.”
Only parents can demand accountability from school systems and set boundaries around their children. We can’t walk away.
Remember that.
END NOTE: As a former teacher and administrator in the public schools, I know there are good teachers, good administrators, out there. It is not my intent to paint all with the same brush. But, they are out there. BE AWARE.
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Schools been keeping two sets of books on students since at least the 60s.
Teach your children yourself. Home school. Turning your children's intellectual training over to ANY government was ALWAYS a bad idea.