(LifeSiteNews) — A parental rights organization identified seven different Arizona school districts that socially “transition” gender-confused students behind parents’ backs as a matter of policy, in some cases even bringing in attorneys to “work through” potential conflict with parental-rights laws.
Parents Defending Education provided The Daily Signal with the primary documents spelling out the “gender identity” policies of seven districts in Arizona, all of which are similarly biased in favor of approving gender confusion and against parental involvement.
Amphitheatre Public Schools in Tucson, for instance, acknowledges that while it cannot legally encourage children to hide things from their parents, staffers have “no obligation to disclose information to parents […] Parent preference outweighs student preference, but schools have no obligation to seek it out.”
The policy of Tempe Union High School District in Tempe states, “The school is not to usurp the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of their children,” so “in situations where a parent may not be supportive of a student’s transgender status, it is imperative that the school coordinate with the assistant superintendent for district safety and student support and Tri-District legal counsel to work through issues that will arise.”
It goes on to talk about the district’s use of “gender support plans” to encourage student “social transitioning,” i.e., a different name, pronouns, and clothing while at school. Such plans include asking children what “level of support” they receive at home for their “gender status.”
Kyrene Elementary School District in Tempe uses identical language about coordinating with legal counsel to “work through issues” while also advising principals to “discuss with the minor student whether the parent/guardian may be contacted regarding the request before initiating contact” about the matter.
In a presentation titled “Supporting Our Gender Variant Scholars,” Cartwright School District in Phoenix stresses maintaining “student’s privacy, especially when they have unsupportive families” and orders parents to only be involved “in consultation with the student.” Teachers must “support transitioning students by recognizing the urgency and timing of their transition.”
READ: ‘It almost killed me’: Ex-trans teen slams ‘gender transitioning’ in powerful speech
Washington Elementary School District in Maricopa County, which passed a formal resolution titled “Affirming LGBTQ+ Students and Staff,” advises staffers to “not disclose a student’s preferred name, pronoun, or other confidential information pertaining to the student’s transgender or gender identity status without the student’s consent, unless authorized to do so by state law or unless specifically authorized to do so by WESD [Washington Elementary School District] legal services,” complete with a form to designate the preferred name and pronouns to be used in communications with parents and guardians.
Paradise Valley Unified School District near Phoenix says parents are to be involved in children’s gender matters, but requires that transgender pronouns be recognized and goes so far as to permit gender-confused males to room with girls on overnight trips.
Mesa Public Schools in Mesa declares that “consent is not required” from parents for socially “transitioning” students and allows restrooms, showers, and lockers to be used by whoever “identifies” as the corresponding gender.
Cartwright was the only one of the seven districts to fully respond to the Signal’s request for comment. Spokesman Victor Hugo Rodriguez claimed that “each campus provides parents with the opportunity to engage directly with the principal to discuss any concerns or issues. Our mission is to educate and empower our scholars to achieve success. To this end, we equip both parents and staff with the necessary tools to effectively navigate challenges. Additionally, we offer a variety of services to parents, ensuring that all activities, including field trips, are conducted with their consent.”
Paradise Valley responded as well, but only to direct the Signal to the district’s Title IX “nondiscrimination” protocols.
“As a parent, I find it deeply appalling and offensive that school administrators are pushing policies specifically designed to hide sensitive information from families,” Parents Defending Education senior adviser Michele Exner said. “Parents have a right to direct the upbringing of their children, and schools should not be in the business of arbitrarily deciding what student information to not share with parents. Not only are these school districts knowingly abusing the parents’ trust, but their radical gender policies also violate the fairness and safety of their female students.”
The indoctrination of children with radical sexual ideologies and other left-wing agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools, from libraries to athletic and restroom policy to drag events to classroom materials to even “transitioning” troubled children without parental knowledge or consent. Many schools have also displayed hostility to the rights and employment of individual teachers who refuse to go along with such agendas.
All this is despite the fact that a significant body of evidence shows that “affirming” gender confusion carries serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them or full knowledge about the long-term effects of life-altering, physically transformative, and often irreversible surgical and chemical procedures.
Studies find that more than 80 percent of children suffering gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence and that “transition” procedures, including “reassignment” surgery, fail to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide – and even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
The danger of keeping parents in the dark about such developments is grimly illustrated in the story of Yaeli Martinez, a 19-year-old to whom “gender transitioning” was touted as a possible cure for her depression in high school, supported by a high school counselor who withheld what she was going through from her mother. The troubled girl killed herself in 2019 after trying to live as a man for three years.