This story is a prime example showing why the label “groomer” is accurate. Public school teachers in Ventura County, California, received advice from a law firm to help them deceive parents of children who are experiencing symptoms of gender dysphoria or confusion about their sexuality.
Gender LCBQ published a blog post on Substack detailing the presentation the lawyers gave to the educators:
In November of 2021, the Ventura County Office of Education hosted a webinar over Zoom for area public school educators on “the legal and practical considerations for ‘affirming’ the identities of transgender and ‘gender diverse’ students” in school. This webinar offers a rare peek into how county offices of education in California are training staff on student gender changes. This webinar was comprehensive, lasting three hours, with 94 slides in the presentation.
The attorneys giving the webinar gave teachers a myriad of suggestions on how they can encourage young students to embrace a new gender identity without their parents finding out. Some of these include:
Encouraged to give students “get to know you” forms at the start of the school year to elicit students to declare their personal pronouns.
Encouraged to stop the use of gendered words like “mom and dad” and instead use gender-neutral terms like “parents” in the name of inclusivity.
Told that parents have the right to opt their children out of comprehensive sex education, but the opt out does not apply to LGBT-inclusive curriculum if it is taught outside of sex education.
Instructed that students have a right to privacy that trumps a parent’s right to know.
The lawyers also told educators that if they did not wish to obtain parents’ consent for their children to change their name or gender, they should refrain from keeping written records of discussions between the school and students. This is because parents have a right to view these documents.
The attorneys also recommended ways to conceal documents like the Gender Support Plan, which is essentially a roadmap to helping a student socially transition to the opposite sex. It includes items such as selecting pronouns, choosing which bathrooms/locker rooms to use, changing the name, and other steps. The lawyers advised that teachers keep these plans “in personal possession” — which means they do not have to share them with parents.
Another piece of advice from the attorneys suggested schools issue two different ID cards, one with the student’s legal name and another with their chosen name. This would allow them to trick their parents into believing nothing is going on. They also told educators they can use the child’s regular name when they send out mass emails to the families, and then change it back to their chosen name afterward.
Each of the suggestions was specifically designed to help schools keep parents from knowing if their children are dealing with confusion about their gender. But it gets even worse. The attorneys also gave teachers advice on how to teach about sexual orientation and gender identity without parents’ knowledge. They outlined how educators can inject progressive ideas about gender ideology and sexuality into the curriculum without notifying parents, as long as it is taught outside of sex education.
With formal sex education curriculum, the school is required to notify parents that they have the right to opt their children out of sex-ed classes. But this only applies to formal sex education, meaning problematic teachings about sexuality and gender can be infused into subjects unrelated to sex education like physical education, anti-bullying programs, Social Emotional Learning training, and even history and English classes. It is an insidious loophole that teachers can easily exploit.
Again, the entire purpose of the training was to help teachers cut parents out of the equation when it comes to instruction on sexuality and gender identity. The Gender Support Plan, in particular, when kept from the parents is a prime example of state-sponsored grooming. Sure, the teachers are not trying to have sexual relations with the students, but they are certainly grooming them to identify as transgender without their parents finding out. It is likely one of the reasons why there has been a 4,000 percent increase in young girls deciding to become transgender boys.
Progressives tend to complain when conservatives use the term “grooming” when describing these practices. But what else are we supposed to call it, when teachers, counselors, and other school faculty are blatantly working to help kids transition without their parent’s knowledge? What else should we say when these schools are actively developing ways to avoid notifying adults when they are teaching progressive ideas about sexuality and gender to children? Despite what the left wants us to believe, this is becoming all-too-common in America’s schools, and this story is just one of many that have been revealed.
Reporting from Red State.
