A mother in the US state of California last week filed a legal complaint against the Spreckels school district, alleging that two teachers encouraged her daughter to change gender.
According to an Associated Press report, Jessica Konen argued that she was not told by the school that her 11-year-old daughter was a member of an equality club called UBU (You Be You), where the seed would have been “planted” that the daughter would be bisexual and then the idea of identifying as a boy.
“Teachers encouraged Jessica Konen’s daughter to change her name to a boy’s name as an expression of her new identity and specifically instructed her not to tell her mother about her new identity because she was not ‘trustworthy,'” the Center said. for American Liberty, who represents Konen in the case.
“Then they gave the child articles – and demanded that she read them – on how to hide her transgenderity 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. ”, the entity added in a statement.
The mother also accused those responsible for having instructed the child to wear a band to prevent her breasts from developing. Konen was only told about her daughter’s gender change during a meeting with the school’s principal in December 2019.
After face-to-face classes were interrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Konen’s daughter identified 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 says in a recording that Google searches made by students were “monitored” – when a term related to transgender people was wanted by a student, who would then be invited to join the equality club. The record was made at a conference of the California Teachers Association.
The other 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.”
The two teachers were placed on administrative leave in November and the club was suspended. The Spreckels School District hired a law firm to investigate the matter.
Despite Konen’s complaint that she was not informed about her daughter’s gender reassignment, LGBTQIA+ activists claim that elementary school students have rights to privacy guaranteed by law, which extend to sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Outside of school, these students may also face potential hostility at home for who they are,” attorney Peter Renn of the civil rights organization Lambda Legal told the AP, who added that an unauthorized student disclosure that he or she is LGBTQIA+ “may well get you kicked out of the house in some circumstances.”
The Center for American Liberty, however, argued that Konen would have had to have been informed about the content transmitted to her 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.
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