Unbelievable: next week, teachers and administrators will be celebrating Pride Week with kids. Teachers and administrators in Austin ISD think that it’s their role to discuss sex and gender with children. Really, all of our spidey senses should be screaming.
A Quick Framing of the Issue
When I was a young teacher in an elementary school, there was a spring afternoon set aside for teaching the birds and the bees. The boys were sent off to another room, and I was left to show a movie to the girls. After the movie, I was supposed to answer questions.
And I can tell you that within five minutes, the questions were beyond the scope of anything I should have been answering. I was comfortable answering questions about biology. But it didn’t take but a few minutes for them to be asking about values. And as an early-twenty-something teacher, I knew immediately it was not my place to be answering these value-laden questions the girls were asking. So as best I could, I kept my answers cut-and-dried, stuck to the biology, and told the girls to go home and talk to their parents about the rest.
I did not want to violate boundaries, and I did not want to be perceived as having violated boundaries. Period.
My experience was a million years ago in pre-crazy times. The questions those girls asked were nothing like what would be asked today.
Now I am a parent, and I can tell you I would not want any teacher today discussing sex-and-gender topics with my kid. And, frankly, I would not want anyone who WANTS to talk to my kid about these issues talking to my kid about these issues.
Moreover, I would NEVER discuss sex and gender with anyone else’s kid. First off, it’s wildly inappropriate. No, no, no, not my place. And second, I wouldn’t want anyone to misperceive any conversation I had with another parent’s child. Again, I wouldn’t violate boundaries. And I wouldn’t want to be seen as violating boundaries.
What the Hell, Austin ISD?
Which brings us to Austin ISD’s celebration of Pride Week. As both a former teacher and a current parent, I am gobsmacked by what’s going on in AISD. AISD teachers and administrators are violating boundaries. Something is off with these teachers and administrators who are organizing and participating. Parents, aren’t you super creeped out that any adult wants to have these sex-and-gender conversations with your kids? You wouldn’t let your neighbor have these conversations, especially not unsupervised.
And here it’s not just one adult; it’s the entire district. I wouldn’t trust a Boy Scout leader or a Catholic priest who got this excited about talking to my kid about sex; I likewise don’t trust a school employee, either. And I don’t trust an organization that decides its job is to talk incessantly about sex and gender. My spidey senses are screaming, especially since no teacher or administrator is raising an alarm.
On it’s face, this schedule of events for an AISD ELEMENTARY school (below) is just wrong. There’s no reason to be having these conversations about sex and gender with elementary students. There’s no reason for SCHOOL officials to be facilitating these kinds of discussions. This forces all kids to be part of a hyper sex-and-gender environment. And woe to the children who want to opt out. There’s no way kids can escape this week-long sex-and-gender focused party.
The Loss of the Bright-Line Rule Makes All Kids Less Safe
Gives cover to groomers. These lesson plans, filled with pictures and t-shirts and art, make kids less safe. What happens when the teachers want to share unofficial lessons? The official schedule of rainbow events gives cover to teachers who want to have inappropriate conversations with kids. How would any little kid be able to distinguish between safe and unsafe sex-and-gender talk. And in the high schools? You don’t want to give grooming teachers free rein to talk to your high-school students about anything dealing with sex and gender. Is there anyone advising the teachers about what they shouldn’t be talking about?
Takes away a protective bright-line rule. Even if most teachers are good and pure, some are not. But when you have clear bight-line rules—e.g., teachers should not be talking to kids about sex and gender—then kids understand that there are clear boundaries. AISD is taking those clear rules away from kids, which makes kids less safe. It doesn’t protect kids to tell them, “It’s OK for any adult to talk to you about sex and gender. That topic is perfectly normal coming from anyone.” No, it’s not. It’s not OK. A rule that keeps kids safe is that, unless parents are present, no one has those conversations with kids. Period. We have boundaries to keep kids safe. What does it say about a school district in which so many employees want to burn those boundaries to the ground?
The District Is Also Violating Other Boundaries
For the discussion so far, we’ve focused on Pride Week generally. For a moment, let’s look at just the specific transgender (radical queer) ideology that’s part of Pride Week. I’m not going address the specifics of the progressive transgender movement. Instead, this section will stick with the theme of overstepping boundaries.
Transgender ideology is, at its core, a question of metaphysics—that is, it’s a question about the nature of reality and the relationship between mind and matter. Every assertion about transgender ideology is an assertion about the nature of reality and the relationship between mind and matter:
- that sex and gender are unrelated
- that the mind is separate from the body
- that the mind can be born into the wrong body
- that you can “feel like boy” or “think like a girl”
- that a person can be nonbinary
- that gender comes in 5, 26, or 64 flavors
- that your personality is your gender
All of these assertions are metaphysical assertions. And all of these assertions—the teacher’s views on the nature of reality and the relationship between mind and matter—don’t belong in the classroom. Period. And if you’re teaching your views on metaphysics to any public-school student, then you are inappropriately violating boundaries.
If it makes you feel better, teachers shouldn’t be sharing any of their personal opinions about the nature of the universe—not metaphysical views, not religious views, not political views. Don’t tell my kid your opinion about transgenderism. Don’t tell my kid your opinion of Jesus or Allah. Don’t tell my kid your opinion of the Democrat or Republican parties. Not my kid’s business. And not your place to share. If you’re doing that teaching-thing right, your students won’t have any idea about your personal opinions on these topics.
Of course, if you’re a mentally ill narcissist, well, that bright-line has got to hurt. But that’s the rule.
Legal Implications for Creating a Hostile Work Environment
My outrage so far has focused on the kids because kids should be protected. There’s no reason to to inflict sex-and-gender week on kids. No reason to sacrifice their academic education for an assistant principal’s pet project or political grooming. No reason to force them into these inappropriate conversations and take away innocence. No reason to make them less safe by taking away protective boundaries.
But let’s take a moment to think about teachers. Would teachers have a legal claim since they’re being forced to participate in these inappropriate conversations with kids? If I were in a school that made me participate in Pride Week—or made me declare that I wouldn’t participate or made me feel uncomfortable for not participating—wow, I’d be on the phone to my union leader so fast, it would make the assistant principal’s head spin. (Sigh. I know that’s dreaming. The “union” is probably in favor of Pride Week, too.) Or I’d call the news station: “Hey, remember a few weeks ago when the school admin was in trouble for not wearing masks at a conference but was still making kids mask? Well, here’s another issue. My school has created a sexually uncomfortable situation for me with my students.”
I’m not kidding.
I know myself. And I know that many years ago, when I was uncomfortable with the direction of a sex-ed conversation, I got myself and those kids out of the situation immediately. And I know that if I were teaching in AISD today, I wouldn’t put up with this.
And conversely, if you, dear AISD teachers, are NOT uncomfortable with this whole week-long production, then there’s something wrong.
For All the Rest of Us, Watching This Dumpster Fire
I’ll conclude here with this thought: this AISD Pride Week party is wrong. It’s wrong to make kids think this much about sex and gender. It’s wrong to take away their innocence. It’s wrong to corner them at school with these conversations. It’s wrong. And the teachers and administrators in AISD should be embarrassed. Ashamed, really, because, for the sake of a political ideology, they’ve sacrificed their moral compass.
Parents, clearly the district is not interested in protecting your child’s innocence. Only you can do that.
So let’s go, Mama and Papa Bears. Don’t let AISD groom your kids.
Call the school.
Call the district.
Call the TV station.
I know of at least one parent who’s not sending her kiddo to school for the week.
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Your mileage may vary, but man, the tweet below just feels off to me. It seems so self-important & narcissistic. Does this assistant principal at an AISD elementary school really believe those children weren’t being their true, authentic selves until she threw the Pride Week party for them? Is she saying she never really welcomed these human beings to be their true selves UNTIL she got the chance to talk with them about sex and gender? What happens if it turns out that she actually stole childhood innocence from the children—starting FFS in preK and kindergarten! Gah!— by making them talk about HER views of sex and gender—or some other creepy teacher’s views. Maybe, just maybe, the children at her elementary school feel uncomfortable talking about sex and gender with random teachers. Or maybe they now feel too comfortable talking with random adults about topics that they should only be talking about with their parents.
Oh, and look at all the AISD adults who participated!
The equity team!
Student leadership!
The vertical team!
None of these adult have an issue with sex-and-gender week???
Pro Tip: Super excited about throwing Pride Week parties? Quit your job at the school and become a community organizer. Or a bartender.
It seems uncontroversial that a sex-and-gender celebration has no place in a school district, let alone in an elementary school. Just gross.
