Parents of kindergartners at the Rocklin Academy School in Rocklin, California were infuriated to learn that their children’s teacher introduced the impressionable young minds to the subject of transgenderism. Parents have reported that their children were traumatized by a lesson on transgenderism that culminated with a transgender child changing his clothes to match those of his so-called true gender.
Though the incident took place during the last few days of the academic school year just before the start of summer, parents did not have an opportunity to express their dismay over the lesson until an August 21 school board meeting, wherein parents spoke out against the teacher’s actions, MSN reports.
“These parents feel betrayed by the school district that they were not notified,” said Karen England with the Capitol Resource Institute. “The kindergartners came home very confused, about whether or not you can pick your gender, whether or not they really were a boy or a girl,” said England.
The controversial school lesson included two books about transgenderism entitled I am Jazz and The Red Crayon. At the end of the lesson, a student in the class who identifies as transgender changed his clothing to ones that matched the gender with which he identifies. The teacher then told the students that the five-year-old student is now a “girl” who has a girl’s name by which the student should be addressed.
One parent angrily denounced the scene as a sort of “transition ceremony” for the child.
“There were several of the little girls that went to their parents and were crying and saying, ‘mommy or daddy, am I going to turn into a boy?’” explains Jonathan Keller of the California Family Council.
Keller indicates that he learned from one parent that her son, who had never given “gender” a thought before the lesson, is now asking if he can come to school dressed as a girl.
Other parents say their children were traumatized by what they witnessed.
“My daughter came home crying and shaking so afraid she could turn into a boy,” said one parent.
According to the parents at Monday’s board meeting, the biggest issue of all was the school’s failure to communicate to the parents that this particular lesson plan was going to take place.
“It’s really about the parents being informed and involved and giving us the choice and rights of what’s being introduced to our kids, and at what age,” said parent Chelsea McQuistan.
“I want her to hear from me as a parent what her gender identity means to her and our family, not from a book that may be controversial,” another parent said.
But the district’s response to the parents ire has been unsatisfactory at best, defending the books used in the classroom as “age-appropriate” and noting that they “fell within their literature selection policy.” Furthermore, the topic of gender identity does not fall under the umbrella of sex education, according to the district, and therefore does not require prior parental notice.
Since January 2016, California state law allows parents to only opt their children out of sex education, not lessons involving gender identity and expression. During a special session on the subject that took place on July 31, Young, Minney & Corr law firm held a presentation in which it outlined the law, LifeSite News reports.
“Diversity and tolerance curricula are not ‘sex education,’” the presentation indicated.
It seems that California has forgotten that these are kindergartners who have no business learning either sex education or gender confusion, or anything other than how to tie their shoelaces, read, and write their own names. Their curriculum is packed enough without rogue teachers choosing to ram in their own political agenda items.
LifeSite News reports that the California Family Council is now considering pushing for state legislation that protects parental rights.
But while the kindergarten teacher’s lesson plan may have not have violated California state law, it certainly poses a risk to the mental health of the students on which it was imposed.
According to Michelle Cretella, president of the American College of Pediatricians, “institutions that promote transition affirmation” are guilty of “nothing less than institutionalized child abuse” with the potential for causing “untold psychological damage.”
“All children should be told the truth that sex does not ever change and cannot be changed,” Cretella told LifeSiteNews in an e-mail.
“All children should be nurtured to embrace their bodies and the reality of their biological sex. All children should be affirmed as the unique boys or girls their bodies proclaim them to be.”
Sadly, California and the Left as a whole seem to be more interested in advancing a social justice agenda that includes normalizing transgenderism.
The parents at Monday’s meeting did get a small concession, however, as the district superintendent did say that school staff will engage in discussion with parents in the future if materials that fall outside of the school curriculum are to be brought into the classroom.
But Keller says that some parents have decided to pull their children from the school.
