ST. PAUL, Minnesota, April 26, 2016 (LifeSiteNews)—The parents of a kindergartener are suing his former charter school for refusing to teach about transgenderism, which they say violated their son’s rights.
David and Hannah Edwards partnered with an organization called Gender Justice to file a complaint with the city’s Department of Human Rights. The complaint alleges that Nova Classical Academy denied their son’s “right to undergo a gender transition in a safe and timely way” and “failed to protect students from gender-based bullying and hostility” by not “conduct[ing] gender education,” allowing families to opt-out of classroom instruction on transgenderism, refusing to inform their son’s classmates of his “preferred” gender pronouns, and not allowing a pro-transgender book to be part of the kindergarteners’ classroom instruction.
The Edwards parents allege that when their five-year-old son “expressed a consistent, persistent, and insistent desire to socially transition from male to female,” they met with Nova Classical administrators and the school attorney and devised a plan to implement the boy’s “transition” to a girl in the classroom.
Yet other parents expressed concerns about their kindergarteners learning about transgenderism, which caused the school to withdraw its plans to send a letter “home to kindergarten families notifying them of the transition,” use the book I am Jazz in each kindergarten classroom, and provide “communications for any families who asked about opting out of the classroom education, to direct them to equivalent content and to outline behavior expectations.”
The school’s existing anti-bullying policy was not enough, according to the parents. Because of Nova Classical’s refusal to implement the gender confusion-confirming curriculum, the Edwards parents withdrew their son from the school and are now pursuing legal action against it. The school’s actions amounted to discrimination “on the basis of her gender identity and expression,” the complaint claims.
Many on the left have long advocated for children to be instructed that biological reality is irrelevant when it comes to gender. A lobbying group in the UK has advocated that children as young as three be taught about transgenderism, and school districts across the U.S. have faced pressure to include lessons about “gender identity” and homosexuality in their sex ed curriculums.
“The depth of the confusion regarding this issue is revealed in the comment by Dave Edwards in reference to his son, who was born a healthy male,” wrote D.C. McAllister at The Federalist. “‘We don’t label him. He’s not anything.’ The fact is, he is ‘something.’ The child is a male who is confused about his gender. To play along with this psychological confusion instead of helping the child in a supportive and loving way to bring his thinking into alignment with reality is a form of child neglect, something no school should support.”
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