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(LifeSiteNews) — Over the past several months, we’ve published several stories in this space on the common public-school practice of hiding information about children going through gender transition from parents. This practice of secrecy is standard across Canada’s public school system and much of the UK system; the New York Times published a journalistic essay admitting that this has become common across the United States, as well.  

The view of the transgender movement – that children need to be protected from their parents by ideologues posing as educators who assist them in changing their gender – has become the de facto regime in many countries.

In previous reporting, we’ve looked at the way these policies have impacted children and parents and examined how teachers participate in and facilitate the indoctrination of their students. A recent story, however, highlights the reality that teachers who may not want to participate in these policies also face great risks. In fact, California teacher Jessica Tapia, who has been a tenured physical education teacher at the Jurupa Valley High School for more than six years, has recently come under fire from students and staff over her views on gender ideology.  

Tapia is a Christian and has made posts on social media about gender ideology in the past. Students combed through her posts and sent them to school administrators claiming that they constituted “unsafe conduct,” earning Tapia a warning from the district.

According to media reports, students who opposed her views on gender ideology launched a coordinated campaign and began monitoring her online statements and occasionally commenting. She was permitted to return to work after her first warning, but the reprieve did not last long.  

According to RedState, Tapia “was forced to participate in a ‘religious exemption’ review regarding the complaints before she could return to work for good. Unfortunately, her job did not survive the review when she indicated she could not, in good conscience, comply with rules requiring her to hide the gender identity of students from their parents, nor would she be allowing ‘male genitalia’ in the locker room with girls.”

As a result, she was fired in January. Tapia told a podcast host that this was despite the fact that no parent had every complained about her to her knowledge, and she had only been presented with hypothetical situations during the review.  

READ: Virginia House passes bill to ban schools from hiding ‘gender transitions’ from parents

“Some of the allegations, the evidence they submitted for them, were literally Bible verses that I posted,” Tapia said. “There were some like that, and then there were some where, obviously on my social media I voice how I live my life and my opinions and my beliefs. And so some of the allegations were that I was not calling students by their preferred gender or pronouns. Which was very interesting too because I had never had a student come to me…with, ‘Mrs. Tapia, I would like you to call me this.’ I’ve never even been in that scenario, yet they were making these claims.” 

“I’m not aware that the parents were made aware,” she continued. “I’m pretty sure it was just – I left, they slid a sub in and that was it. I know a close co-worker there, the other female PE teacher at the high school, she was even unsure why I was gone… I pointed out to them – you literally asked me as a teacher of your District to uphold honesty. I mean, I can show you in writing where you’ve listed that, but now I’m learning it’s situational. You want me only to be honest in this situation [at this review] but when it comes to parents being aware of the basic well-being and knowledge of their child, I cannot be honest. It’s absolutely mind-boggling to me.” 

READ: UK schools are ‘socially transitioning’ gender-confused children without their parents’ knowledge

But when Tapia asked them if she was expected to lie, she was told that yes, mandatory deceit was the expectation: “I made sure to clarify, too, with this district personnel that were sitting across from me. I looked them in the eye and I said, ‘Are you asking me to lie to parents?’ and they said, ‘Yes. It’s the law.’” Tapia has acquired legal counsel with the Pacific Justice Institute and plans to file suit against the district. She has posted her story in her own words on her Instagram page, which can be watched here. 

In summary: Not only do public school administrators demand that educators keep key, life-changing information about children from their parents—they’ll fire teachers who refuse to lie.

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Jonathon Van Maren is a public speaker, writer, and pro-life activist. His commentary has been translated into more than eight languages and published widely online as well as print newspapers such as the Jewish Independent, the National Post, the Hamilton Spectator and others. He has received an award for combating anti-Semitism in print from the Jewish organization B’nai Brith. His commentary has been featured on CTV Primetime, Global News, EWTN, and the CBC as well as dozens of radio stations and news outlets in Canada and the United States.

He speaks on a wide variety of cultural topics across North America at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions. Some of these topics include abortion, pornography, the Sexual Revolution, and euthanasia. Jonathon holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in history from Simon Fraser University, and is the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

Jonathon’s first book, The Culture War, was released in 2016.

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