PA Middle School Keeping Gender Identity of 9 Year Olds from Parents
A middle school in Pennsylvania instructed its teachers to address their students by whatever names and pronouns they preferred. And they told the teachers not to inform the parents of the students about any gender identity changes in their students. This is according to an internal email obtained by the media.
Southern Lehigh School District’s intermediate school accepts students who are nine to 12 years old. The middle school’s principal sent an internal email on October 7, 2021. That email told the staff they were required to use a student’s preferred names and pronouns without informing parents.
“If a student shares with you that they are either questioning their gender identity or would prefer you to call them a name or pronoun that does not appear to match their biological sex, you should do this,” the email stated.
The principal actually advised the teachers to bypass parents and to ask the children directly how they would prefer to be identified.
“If a student shares with you that they are homosexual, transgender, bisexual, or questioning, they are doing this in confidence, just as much as they would with our guidance staff,” the principal’s email continued. “This is not something you should report to parents, and definitely something you should share with our guidance staff.”
The middle school also allows students to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. The principal’s email stated that if a teacher denied transgender students access to the “restrooms that align with their gender identity,” it may be a “potential Title IX sex discrimination violation.”
One parent who wanted to remain anonymous said that he is concerned that the middle school is hiding “essential information about their child’s mental state” from parents. He called it “deeply disturbing and obviously unacceptable.”
“The idea that a principal is requiring teachers to take direction from students as young as nine years old on how to communicate with parents is patently absurd,” the parent said. “This is a ridiculous abdication of responsibility.”
