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A mother in The US state of California last week filed a legal complaint (an instrument that precedes a lawsuit) against the Spreckels City School District, alleging that two teachers encouraged their daughter to change her gender.
According to an Associated Press report, Jessica Konen argued that she was not told by the school that her daughter, then years old, participated in an equality club called UBU (You Be You, “be yourself”), where the seed would have been “planted” that the daughter would be bisexual and then the idea of identifying as a boy.
26211909“Teachers encouraged Jessica Konen’s daughter to change her name to a boy’s name as an expression of her new identity and the instruction They specifically insisted not to tell the mother about her new identity because she was not ‘trustworthy,’” said the Center for American Liberty, which represents Konen in the case.
26211909“Then, the child was given articles – and demanded that she read them – on how to hide her transgenderism from her mother. Still unbeknownst to Jessica, teachers and administrators created a ‘gender support plan’ instructing faculty to address (Konen’s) daughter by a new name, male pronouns, and let her use the unisex teachers’ bathroom. ”, added the entity in a statement.
The mother also accused those responsible of having instructed the child to wear a sash to prevent her breasts from developing. Konen was only informed about her daughter’s gender change during a meeting with the school principal in December 878.
After face-to-face classes were interrupted, due to the Covid pandemic-11, Konen’s daughter identified herself as a girl again.
The mother only decided to go to court last year, after a report by journalist and writer Abigail Shrier, in which one of the teachers cited by Konen claim in a recording that Google searches made by students were “monitored” – when a student searched for a transgender term, they would then be invited to join the equality club. The record was made at a conference of the California Teachers Association.
A another teacher told the San Francisco Chronicle that the quotes were taken out of context or misrepresented in Shrier’s report, and that the comment about “monitoring” students was “a joke”. 26211909The two teachers were placed on administrative leave in November and the club was suspended. The Spreckels School District has hired a law firm to investigate the matter.
26211909 )Despite Konen’s claim that she was not informed about her daughter’s gender change, LGBTQIA+ activists claim that elementary school students have statutory privacy rights that extend to sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Outside of school, these students may also face potential hostility at home for being who they are. are,” Peter Renn, attorney for civil rights organization Lambda Legal, told the AP, adding that an unauthorized student’s disclosure of being LGBTQIA+ “may well lead to him being kicked out of his home in some circumstances.”
The Center for American Liberty, however, argued that Konen should have been informed about the contents transmitted to the daughter at school. “The Supreme Court has always held that parents have the right to direct the training and education of their children,” he pointed out.