Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Whether You Like It Or Not
City Journal ^ | 18 Jul, 2023 | Michael Torres

Posted on 07/19/2023 6:36:21 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Guided by activists and flimsy legal reasoning, school districts are asserting a right to conceal children’s gender transitions from parents.

More than 3 million American children attend public school in districts that require employees to hide students’ gender transitions from their parents. The revelation of how widespread secrecy polices are comes thanks to a list compiled by the parental-rights advocacy organization Parents Defending Education. While the prevalence of these policies is alarming in itself, the philosophy underlying them is what parents should be most concerned about.

Districts are using legal theories pushed by activist groups like the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Among the most important are that children have a federally guaranteed right to privacy from their parents in school, that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishes children’s right to transition without the consent or knowledge of their parents, and that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects transgender students from the “harassment” of school districts “outing” them to non-compliant parents. The Title IX theory, the most chilling, is supported by the radically progressive notion that parents represent a danger to the welfare of transgender children until they prove otherwise by providing “affirmation.”

School districts that buy into these theories are not merely embracing the idea that hiding children’s gender transitions from their parents is legal, but that divulging the information without the child’s consent is illegal and possibly perilous to the student’s safety. In Dover, Pennsylvania, for example, a mother of a middle school student castigated a local school board after discovering that school staff had been addressing her 12-year-old daughter with male pronouns for a year. School officials even sent the child to a hospital for an evaluation without informing the parents. When the mother confronted the school board, she was told that there was a law against informing her. School boards in Chico, California, New Castle, Maine, and beyond have said the same.

No such law exists, however—and the legal theories pushed by activist groups to legitimize secrecy policies are baseless.

The law that districts most commonly cite is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). That’s likely due to boilerplate policy language promulgated by GLSEN that claims FERPA establishes a child’s right to privacy from their parents. This interpretation of the law is also pushed by public education groups like the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association, which told a local media outlet that “Transgender and nonbinary students have a FERPA-protected right to privacy.”

Of the 16 districts Parents Defending Education lists from Pennsylvania, for example, all but three heavily lean on FERPA while using nearly identical language to GLSEN’s. “All students have a right to privacy and this right includes the right to keep one’s transgender status private at school,” Pittsburgh School District’s policy says. “Disclosing this information to other students, their parents/guardians, or other third parties may violate privacy laws, such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).”

To the contrary: Congress enacted FERPA to enhance parents’ right to receive information about their children at school, not to have it withheld. LeRoy Rooker, former director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Family Policy Compliance Office, told Bethesda Magazine in 2021 regarding a district’s withholding information about a child’s transition: “There’s absolutely nothing in FERPA that would say they would violate FERPA by disclosing that to parents. The violation would be in not disclosing it if the parents request it.”


TOPICS: Education; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: arth; childabuse; children; education; ferpa; glsen; malpractice; medicalmalpractice; mutilation; parentalrights; schooldistricts; trans; transgender

1 posted on 07/19/2023 6:36:21 AM PDT by MtnClimber
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Are we at peak insanity yet?


2 posted on 07/19/2023 6:36:32 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
Are we at peak insanity yet?

Not even close with these extremist radical democrats.

3 posted on 07/19/2023 6:40:24 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

The time has come for separation of school and state.


4 posted on 07/19/2023 6:41:15 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

No parent has directly expressed their anger over this. Until someone does, the insanity will continue to escalate.


5 posted on 07/19/2023 6:43:38 AM PDT by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
More importantly, a federal right of minors to privacy from their parents does not exist. “A minor’s right to privacy is traditionally held by the parents,” Will Estrada, president of the Parental Rights Foundation.

Many states grant minors privacy rights from parents in matters related to sex. Abortion, birth control, treatment for STDs. The federal government has not overruled the states in these matters before.

We are not likely to find help from federal lawmakers or courts, and if we do,it comes at a cost to the principles of federalism

6 posted on 07/19/2023 6:47:50 AM PDT by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

The time has come for heads on pikes.


7 posted on 07/19/2023 7:04:34 AM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
Are we at peak insanity yet?

Is there such a thing?

8 posted on 07/19/2023 7:06:52 AM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Not quite. Just wait until they stop bothering getting the childrens’ “consent” and start the forced transitionings.

“Bobby was a little too aggressive with the other children at recess today. Increase the estrogen dosage in their milk tomorrow to 500mg.”


9 posted on 07/19/2023 8:03:57 AM PDT by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
"In Dover, Pennsylvania, for example, a mother of a middle school student castigated a local school board after discovering that school staff had been addressing her 12-year-old daughter with male pronouns for a year. School officials even sent the child to a hospital for an evaluation without informing the parents. When the mother confronted the school board, she was told that there was a law against informing her."

It took her a year to find out? Friends who were around at the home weren't using the same misguided pronouns? That is some seriously distracted parenting.

Here the fix, lady: Lighthouse Christian School or York Adventist Christian School or Holy Trinity or Country Day. Wake up and smell the frog burning, you foolish woman.

10 posted on 07/19/2023 8:11:58 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (Tanned, rested, and ready.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Some states and some parents are saying Hell No! Not with my/our kids.

Louisiana joins a number of states who have woken up to what’s happening to their kids:

Laws restricting the procedures for minors have spread across the country, with 17 states besides Louisiana so far this year placing their own laws on the books – though the legality of such bans is under intense scrutiny as federal judges last month temporary blocked laws in Tennessee, Indiana and Kentucky, while a 2021 law in Arkansas was struck down outright and deemed unconstitutional.*

Democratic governors have pushed back on Republican-led efforts to restrict the treatments with varying degrees of success – Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly successfully blocked a ban while state lawmakers overrode Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto.

Good for Louisiana and all the other state legislatures. Sex surgeries on minors aren’t only immoral, they’re not supported by science, much less common sense. Now we just have to hope some woke court doesn’t overturn this law.*

https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2023/07/18/louisiana-legislature-overrides-dem-govs-veto-of-bill-blocking-gender-affirming-care-for-minors-n778684

Case Overview:

The Dhillon Law Group and LiMandri & Jonna LLP, in conjunction with the Center for American Liberty, sent a letter of intent to sue to the Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan & Kaiser Foundation Hospitals who performed, supervised, and/or advised transgender hormone therapy and surgical intervention for Chloe Cole when she was between 13-17 years old.

https://www.dhillonlaw.com/lawsuits/chloe-cole-v-kaiser-permanente/

*Surgically mutilating someone with Gender Dysphoria


11 posted on 07/19/2023 8:13:17 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (We have number of experts, stating B$ as fact, & they have no idea nor reality or solutions!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Grampa Dave

Thanks for that status.


12 posted on 07/19/2023 8:30:56 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
cZM7OtA x9no1KyN Mengele-Gender-Affirmation-Clinic
13 posted on 07/19/2023 8:54:17 AM PDT by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber; 6amgelsmama; 100American; AAABEST; aberaussie; AbolishCSEU; AccountantMom; ...

ANOTHER REASON TO HOMESCHOOL

This ping list is for the other articles of interest to homeschoolers about education and public school. This can occasionally be a fairly high volume list. Articles pinged to the Another Reason to Homeschool List will be given the keyword of ARTH. (If I remember. If I forget, please feel free to add it yourself)

The main Homeschool Ping List handles the homeschool-specific articles. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping list. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from either list, or both.

14 posted on 07/19/2023 10:51:24 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber
Are we at peak insanity yet?

Sadly, I think not.

15 posted on 07/19/2023 10:52:11 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

You are welcome.

Please ping me with all new articles re schools abusing our kids via their transB$!

Thanks


16 posted on 07/19/2023 12:24:50 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (,We have number of experts, stating B$ as fact, & they have no idea nor reality or solutions!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson