Parents’ rights are under attack’: Fury as New York schools are told to keep children’s gender identities secret from families: New guidance also calls to end PE gender separation so ‘LGBTQ pupils aren’t marginalized’
- New York State Education Department told teachers to keep students’ gender identities secret from families if ‘they deem it necessary’ under new guidance
By RACHAEL BUNYAN PUBLISHED: 08:12 EDT, 19 June 2023 | UPDATED: 08:14 EDT, 19 June 2023
Parents have been left furious after schools in New York were told to keep their children’s gender identities secret from their families under new guidance.
The New York State Education Department released 42 pages of new guidance last week which told schools to ‘keep information’ about a child’s gender identity ‘from families if they deem it necessary’.
The report also calls for schools to end the practice of separating boys and girls during physical education as it ‘marginalizes’ transgender and ‘gender expansive’ students and marks them as ‘others’.
The guidance has been slammed as ‘unacceptable’, with Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik saying that in New York, parents’ rights are ‘directly under attack’.
The report, titled ‘Creating a Safe, Supportive, and Affirming School Environment for Transgender and Gender Expansive Students’, states that schools should keep children’s gender identities secret if they deem it necessary.
The New York State Education Department (pictured: Commissioner Betty A Rose) released 42 pages of new guidance last week which told schools to ‘keep information’ about a child’s gender identity ‘from families if they deem it necessary’.
The report (pictured) also calls for schools to end the practice of separating boys and girls during physical education as it ‘marginalizes’ transgender and ‘gender expansive’ students and marks them as ‘others’
‘School personnel’s acceptance of a student’s asserted gender identity should require no more than a statement from a student expressing their preference,’ the guidance states.
‘Schools do not need to require permission, letters from professionals, or other proof of gender identity.’
The education department’s guidance said the student ‘is in charge of their gender transition and the school’s role is to provide support’.
The guidance prompted furious backlash from groups and parents alike.
Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, the representative for New York’s 21st District, said: ‘In New York, parents’ rights are directly under attack. This is unacceptable and must be stopped immediately.’
Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization protecting free speech and parental rights, tweeted: ‘NY State Education department says school officials should hide gender transitions from parents.
‘They’re out of bounds. Parents have the right to know is happening to their child.’
Another Twitter user wrote: ‘Poor choices like this will get you in court… parents are legal guardians of these children. Not the school or a bunch of crazy teachers. Parents need to stand up for their children now.’
Another user wrote: ‘Parents be aware that they are teaching your children to lie to your parents.’
The guidance prompted furious backlash from groups and parents alike.
Under the new guidance, the New York State Education Department states that ‘only the student knows whether it is safe to share their identify with a caregiver’.
The report states if a child called Kevin wants to go by ‘Kimi’ but doesn’t want his parents to know, the best practice is as follows: ‘The teachers call her Kimi and use she/her pronouns at school.
‘When calling home for any reason, teachers use the name Kevin and he/him pronouns.’
The guidance says that if a student requests to transition at school, an administrator or other ‘trusted adult, preferably trained in supporting LGBTQ and Gender Expansive students’ to meet with the pupil to determine whether they want to come out.
‘Some students have not talked to their families about their gender identity because of safety concerns or lack of acceptance and may begin their transition at school without their parent/guardian knowledge,’ the report states.
‘These situations should be addressed on a case-by-case basis, accounting for the student’s age and maturity. Prematurely disclosing a student’s gender identity can have severe consequences for the student,’ the guidance adds.
New York State’s Department of Education’s Commissioner Betty A. Rosa said the guidance is part of ‘creating an inclusive and nurturing environment where transgender and gender expansive students can thrive academically, emotionally, and socially’.
More than 5,900 schools across America now have guidance that tells teachers to avoid telling parents about their child’s gender status without the student’s permission, according to the conservative group Parents Defending Education.
In April, Aurora Regino said her 11-year-old daughter’s school encouraged her to transition and claimed officials kept her new gender a secret from her family.
Regino sued the Chico Unified School District in California and appeared at a school board meeting in April to reveal how the child had told a school counselor she felt like a boy – who immediately ‘affirmed her new identity’.
‘The elementary school transitioned her from female to male behind my back,’ she said. ‘During one of those one-on-one meetings my daughter told the counselor she wanted to tell me about her new identity – the counselor ignored her request.’
But also at the board meeting was trans activist Squeaky Saint Francis who demanded that the school district maintain its ‘parental secrecy’ policy, claiming that without confidentiality, children’s mental health will suffer and they could be driven to suicide.
Mom says CA school helped daughter transition behind her back
The Chico school district sided with the trans activist and voted to keep the secrecy policy in place with a 3-2 vote on April 5.
‘I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My daughter was distressed and began questioning her sexuality, so she decided to reach out to a wellness counselor at her elementary school,’ Regino said at the time.
‘The day my daughter shared with her guidance counselor that she felt like a boy. The counselor immediately affirmed this new identity.
‘My daughter told the counselor she wanted to tell me about her new identity. The counselor ignored her request and did nothing to support her and letting me know what was going on at school.’
The policy that board members voted to uphold, according to Regino, extends to children as young as pre-kindergarten who are approximately five years old and reaches through the 12th grade.
And in a similar case from February, the parents of a 14-year-old girl who was allowed to secretly change her gender at school accused teachers of making a huge mistake by keeping them in the dark about their daughter’s transition.
Michele and Roger Blair told DailyMail.com that their daughter, Sage, was allowed to change her name to Draco and use the boys’ restrooms at Appomattox County High School in central Virginia without their permission.
The couple said teachers effectively sidelined them from supporting their daughter, who suffered from depression, during her at-school transition. Ultimately, they only discovered she was trans after finding a hall pass in Draco’s name.
They accused the school of making a huge mistake after she was bullied, assaulted in the boys’ restroom – and ultimately ran away and into the hands of an abusive online groomer.
‘Why they didn’t tell me or at least request a parents’ meeting to this day is just way beyond my understanding,’ said Michele at the time.
‘This school made a very poor decision that was not in my child’s best interest. And it was at the cost of my daughter’s mental health.’
Such cases are becoming more common as teachers grapple with the small-but-growing number of children wanting to change gender at school, and the especially tricky ones who don’t want their parents to know about it.
On this frontline in America’s culture wars, parents, kids, teachers, and therapists have to make tough calls about rising rates of transgenderism, mental health issues, peer pressure and whether affirmation-on-demand is always the best answer.
In February, Republican state representative Dave LaRock proposed a bill – known as Sage’s Law – that would require Virginia school officials to notify parents if their child identifies as transgender in school.
Under the law, school staff who have direct contact with a transgender student would have to contact at least one of their parents to ask if they are aware of the student’s mental state and ask if the parent wishes to obtain counseling for them.
LaRock said Virginia must protect the rights of the Blairs and other parents, so that simply ‘affirming a child’s biological sex does not’ constitute ‘abuse’ that can see families torn apart.
The number of transgender children between the ages of 13 to 17 has doubled to about 1.4 percent, an analysis of government health surveys show. There’s been similar rises in teens seeking puberty blockers, hormones and surgery, insurance data reveal.
Advocates of ‘gender-affirming care’, as it is known, claim the rise is down to more awareness of gender dysphoria and support among clinicians. Other experts, conservatives and parents warn of an ideologically-driven ‘social contagion’.