Sep. 7, 2021
As far as the Madison school district is concerned, parents have no business knowing if their children are experimenting with alternate gender/sexual identities – no matter what the courts say.
Last year, the district’s official policy was to lie to parents if their children came out as transgender at school. Parents sued, and the courts struck down the district’s policy.
“Defendant Madison Metropolitan School District is hereby enjoined, pending Plaintiffs’ appeal, from applying or enforcing any policy, guideline, or practice reflected or recommended in its document entitled ‘Guidance & Policies to Support Transgender, Non-binary & Gender-Expansive Students’ in any manner that allows or requires District staff to conceal information or to answer untruthfully in response to any question that parents ask about their child at school” – Judge Frank D. Remington
Under the injunction, MMSD cannot be “applying or enforcing any policy, guideline, or practice reflected or recommended in its document entitled ‘Guidance & Policies to Support Transgender, Non-binary & Gender-Expansive Students’ in any manner that allows or requires District staff to conceal information or to answer untruthfully in response to any question that parents ask about their child at school, including information about the name and pronouns being used to address their child at school.”
Regardless of that straightforward language about not concealing information from parents, MMSD believes it has a workaround. It’s advising staff to simply not answer parents’ questions about their children coming out at school.
“If a parent asks a teacher a question about their child as to these matters, including information about the name and pronouns being used to address their child at school, the teacher CAN choose not to answer the question. The District does NOT have a policy that a teacher must choose not to answer that question if a parent asks about their own child. It is within the teacher’s discretion whether to answer the question or not,” according to guidance from the district’s general counsel.
MMSD Chief of Staff Dr. Richard McGregory sent that guidance to all staff on Aug. 30th. He did not respond to requests from MacIver News for comment.
Advising teachers to deliberately deceive parents, preventing parents from knowing about a child transitioning and denying them the basic right to have a role in that sensitive and life-changing decision is not the School District’s only example pushing sexualization and very adult discussions onto children.
Students are encouraged to explore their sexual and gender identity in MMSD as early as fourth grade. The district documented this in a series of testimonials celebrating Pride Month in 2019. The video features various children describing their sexual preferences, pronouns, and identities.
In middle school, this curriculum becomes more advanced. Some students learn how to write erotic poetry and are encouraged to showcase it in public. It might be a felony for adults to expose minors to pornographic material, but state law exempts teachers.
The district’s reaction to a court order demonstrates its commitment to this ideology.