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A San Francisco school district is asking elementary students if they want to have a secret “transitioning” identity in class that will be kept from their parents.
San Francisco Unified to kindergartners: “Let’s talk about your sexuality and keep it a secret from your parents.” https://t.co/mq4yzyVEGN
— Christopher F. Rufo
(@realchrisrufo) September 29, 2022
Activist Christopher Rufo posted a school form reportedly from a teacher asking the student “what name would you like for me to call you in class?” and “what name would you like me to use with your grown-ups [i.e. parents]?”
Furthermore, the form also asks the student “what is your favorite way to have fun?”
Another, similar form is more straightforward, asking the student to give three names for the official school record, to be called in class and to be used when contacting home.
Rufo also reported that the school district’s policy is to “facilitate child sexual transitions without notifying parents.”
The district’s policy is to facilitate child sexual transitions without notifying parents. “[Students] have the right to be ‘out’ at school, and to not have that information that they are ‘out’—with new pronouns, with a new identity—in any way shared with those folks at home.” pic.twitter.com/vzO38DqeSJ
— Christopher F. Rufo
A school official says the policy was enacted because the district doesn’t know “who is or isn’t safe at home,” according to a video posted by Rufo.
The official also says that parents cannot “opt-out” their children from lessons on “gender identity” and “sexual orientation,” but given how these topics are interwoven into the lessons, it’d likely be impossible to do so anyway.
According to district policy, parents do not have the right to opt-out of the lessons on “gender identity” and “sexual orientation,” which are incorporated into the curriculum for English, social studies, arts, and other subjects. pic.twitter.com/S2nM1jUpwv
— Christopher F. Rufo
The story has already reignited the controversy over the encroachment of parental rights by school districts nationwide, with some districts even claiming it “takes a village to raise a child” rather than a good family.
“Overriding parental rights undermines the family,” wrote Care Net’s Tiffany Dawson on a similar topic in 2017. “…The family is the child’s only protection from the village.”
“If the family no longer has the right to protect their children, then their children will be open to every influence of the village, whether good or bad.”
“Most parents love their children, and most families love their family members,” she added, emphasizing good, non-dysfunctional families. “It is natural, no matter what their loved ones are struggling with.”
In regards to the San Francisco Unified’s policy, Rufo says it “subverts basic parental rights.”
“The district is playing a dangerous game, facilitating child gender and sexual transitions without notifying or gaining the consent of their families,” he wrote. “This is intentional. The district explicitly encourages teachers to prioritize ideology over parental interests and, according to one document, recommends that teachers identify parents as ‘caregiver 1 and caregiver 2 instead of mother and father’ — a practice that assumes that parents are interchangeable and incidental.”
