Thank you all for your comments. I want to respond to the many people who responded that a federal statute that made it unlawful for public schools to change names and gender identities without parental permission - would not fix our public schools. I agree! I believe, as many of you do, that the public schools are infested with Woke ideologies and that sometimes, when an institution is sufficiently corrupt or infested, you simply can't continue to use it until it is evacuated, tented, and bombed with pesticide. I don't propose it because I believe it will 'fix' the public schools. I propose it because it is a first step in empowering the parents to discover the extent of the problem - and to push back against it. I propose the statute because it will empower the good teachers already at schools (and there are many) who are right now silent, fearful for their jobs. And it will hand the Woke - who are very much on the march - a defeat. We need to start handing them losses. And we need to embolden and empower the good guys. Thank you, again, for engaging. I'm so grateful for all of you. xo
Do you know anything about Social-Emotional Learning? I've heard it is surreptitiously tilling the ground for Woke ideology while tampering with students' psychology. I've downloaded my daughter's SEL curriculum, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for in the documents.
Parents have the option to opt-out their kids from SEL and talk with them so that they can understand why they are being opted out. By doing so kids are empowered to stand up for themselves. Adolescence is a very challenging stage in life where kids seek to find themselves, as well as to belong to a whole. Parents, loved ones, and true professionals can nurture this process; and that is the one thing this type of social experiments are seeking to disrupt.
So long we allow just anyone to fill this void, we are abdicating our parenting role. That is why we are so grateful for your work and advocacy in behalf of all children. Things that were hidden have begun to come to light and a big giant is finally awaken.
I see Putin admitting he had his people put Trump in office, I see millions of liars and cheaters trying to cancel the election, I see the followers of the National Liar, Grope, Cheat, Braggart, Serial Adulterer, Sexual Predator, and Poor Loser trying to lie their wayback into office.
Dustin, from what came home with my kid, SEL's main distinguishing feature is "specific and measurable" goal-setting. On the surface, it sounds like a nice little marriage of touchy-feely self care combined with scientific measurement--like, nurturing but with scientific backing. But on the ground, the way it actually plays out, is that they ask kids highly personal, even invasive questions, and then make them give "specific and measurable" answers.
So, do you agree with the political rally tonight? Are you going to attend? Why or why not?
When will you start having a family and why? What type of birth control will you use until then, where will you get it, and what will you say to your partner about it?
Not so much social-emotional learning, as psycho-socio-political interrogation.
Sure. It is what Helen Pluckrose et al. refer to as Critical Social Justice. It is a perversion of social justice by adopting a oppressor-oppressed worldview, seeing everyone and everything through this lens, then attempting to turn the tables on the "oppressors" and shutting down anyone who objects to your worldview or tactics.
If you want woke ideology, it is taking care of others, preparing for the future, not branding good deeds as "virtue signaling" as if we were going to church in our Sunday Best, making sure everybody saw us.
We live cleanly, as my household and both electric cars are powered by the Sun through our PV system which paid back in three years.
I think we all want things like "caring for others" or "preparing for the future," and can probably agree virtue signaling, whether it's being seen at Church or being seen as expressing the right opinions on social media are unhelpful, at best. We might disagree on what it means to care for others or prepare for the future, or the best methods to do so. I think there should be a debate that doesn't resort to ad hominen attacks. My concern is Wokeness is a Trojan horse to smuggle in bad ideas in what looks like virtuous endeavors.
My reply got blown away, so here is another. What kind of "bad ideas" have you so worried? Is it how we saved families with Social Security and unemployment insurance? Perhaps it is because we worked for generations to get the 40-hour workweek, creating the weekend?
Environmentalism? My household and two electric cars are powered by the PV system on our roof, which paid back in three years in gasoline savings alone, is that it?
As a writer who crafts with words to convey meaning with clarity, I encourage you to ditch the sloppy term “woke”. As you are aware the backbone of opposition to transactivism is from “liberal” “leftist” feminists who many of your readers might refer to as “woke” becaus of being in the left. This is not a left/right fight. “Woke“ is an epithet, used to insult anyone perceived to be left of center with whom we disagree about any number of unrelated issues.
I’m immersed in this debate but remain unclear what “woke” means.
(See this comment thread for people asking you for definition and thread then going off about the left or conversely defending the left. All as irrelevant to this debate as the nonsensical meme that was the “Bernie bro”)
How do I as a parent of a 15yr old girl who has apparently been hoodwinked by social media and also now finding out has had teachers calling her a different name and calling her by her given name to us. We are looking in to faith based counseling but I fear they too will be on this "affirmative care" rather than sticking to biology. I've bought your book and am reading it to help me understand but if I show her anything related to a non affirmative in what she "feels" she dismisses it. How do I combat this.
How do I as a parent of a 15yr old girl who has apparently been hoodwinked by social media and also now finding out has had teachers calling her a different name and calling her by her given name to us. We are looking in to faith based counseling but I fear they too will be on this "affirmative care" rather than sticking to biology. I've bought your book and am reading it to help me understand but if I show her anything related to a non affirmative in what she "feels" she dismisses it. How do I combat this.
Charles, you need to start listening to the weekly podcasts by two highly regarded gender critical psychotherapists, Stella O'Malley and Sasha Ayad. Their most recent podcast (Episode 43, 10/1/2021) is especially relevant to your concern.
You folk have fooled yourselves into a non-reality, a horror of an existence foisted on you by the those without character, the cheats, the braggarts, the liars, the poor losers, the serial adulterers, the payoff kings, the national gropes.
First denial, then ad hominem attacks, then finally Blame Trump.
How many times, how many years must we hear this before you realize you aren't really participating in the conversation?
Stop projecting, please. Trump hatred is a delusional reality that aggressively evangelizes and those of us outside of it have long since tired of the mantras.
Then this is your lucky day because Jennifer Pritzker is the world's first and only transgender billionaire! He/she/zir/zim pays eccentrics just like you to spread that newfangled "he was a she" nonsense throughout the land.
Come on now. Don't be a chump. Why give the milk away on substack when Jenny buys the cow?
Perhaps a bit of perspective here ... A most relevant but (conveniently for the woke) undiscussed issue is that 5 year olds are not allowed to vote, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, drive a car, move out of the house, opt out of school, get a job at the grocery store, etc., yet somehow they are now allowed to choose their gender and pronouns and hide it from their parents??? Parents are the legal and moral guardians of their children and this must be remembered and respected.
This stuff breaks my heart. If my daughter has a headache at school and she self-diagnoses that it must be a tumor, can she then go to a neurosurgeon and ask him to cut a hole in her skull and find it? No—there would be all kinds of less-invasive actions taken before, starting with my wife and I being called. How many more Keira Bells are going to suffer permanent consequences so that the tiny percentage of people who truly suffer clinical gender dysphoria can receive the treatment they need? They’re not mutually exclusive outcomes, but the ideologues act as if they are so everybody is put in the same category and treated the same way despite the evidence (e.g., 70+% of teens suffering “gender dysphoria” will outgrow it without any medical intervention).
Quick, what is the most effective thing we can do right now? Answer: Make the responsible party pay a price. Although I generally have voted for Democrats in the past, I do not subscribe to the belief backed by the Democratic Party that sex can be changed. By teaching and affirming this belief, schools are increasing the risk that children having difficulty adjusting to puberty will demand and receive sex-change affirmation, first through name and pronoun changes, and then often followed by irreversible medical interventions. The risk and damage are great enough that I will not again, without exception, vote for any Democrat until all laws and regulations based on the sex-change belief are repealed. And I am going to shout this promise from the rooftops.
If you put the education of your children into the hands of lunatics what, pray tell, do you think will happen?
A recent Pew Report just found that over 50% of liberal women under 30 are being treated for a valid mental disorder. Does this surprise anyone? If the public schools don't stop this nonsense - along with teaching racist, anti-American poison - they need to be torn down and replaced with a new model that actually teaches children the basic life tools they need, leaving the teaching of morals and ethics to the family and religious groups, where they belong.
While this macabre reality you describe is beyond deplorable, it seems to be one of many, and nobody can imagine what happens in ten to twenty years when these abused and confused children begin to take leadership positions in our culture and institutions. These psychological depradations are so many and so large... the unintended consequences are, what?
Historically, such mass delusion results in the termination of the state. Usually accompanied by violence. Of course, post Beatles White Album, the west has transcended history.
"In a time when so many public school teachers are properly described as activists,..." Wow, this pulled me up short. YES, this explains so much. And not hard to trace the source: humanities and social science college graduates who have received heavy indoctrination in gender ideology, anti-racism, etc., fit for no useful employment. Elementary and middle schools now join the sordid world of make-work progressive non-profits whose sole function seems to be to employ those guilt-laden liberals who atone for their material comfort by destroying civilization for the rest of us.
Why are teachers allowed to be activists? And why are they allowed to bring their activism into school? Surely this should be "checked" at the recruitment stage and if present, that person is not taken in. I cannot see this level of child abuse being tolerated in UK schools. Because that is ehat it is, child abuse by the very people who are in loco parents. And they should be charged with it, not protected.
Why do you not think this is happening in the UK schools? I thought the UK had more peer-contagion gender dysphoria than any other country. Tavistock anyone?
Activism is actively discouraged in schools, or it is in state schools in Scotland. Teachers who bring their own activism to classes are generally removed from duty and if counselling doesn't work, they are encouraged to take up a different career... If you believe the myths of Mermaids and Stonewall, then yes there is more, but if you drill down, without social media, most young people just get on with their lives - being gay. Might have simplified it a bit, but if there is no treatment available NOW, then by the time treatment can be offered, most families have moved back into ordinary. Time and real scientific research will tell.
Sorry to say it but on the contrary, activism of this sort has recently become actively encouraged in Scotland under newly issued government guidelines:
Coming from the government, this is not teachers activism in the way it is being driven in the USA. We need to remember that. Governments get it badly wrong on a regular basis, and in this case, teachers may yet win out as the majority are not activists.
I hope you are correct about the majority of teachers (although many who are 'not activists' nevertheless follow the bidding of activists, having been led to believe it's the correct or kind route to take), but when pernicious guidelines are issued by a government, and alongside Scotland's new Hate Speech rules and other institutional capture – as demonstrated, for example, in police enforcement against the likes of Marion Millar – the pressure on sensible teachers to keep their mouths shut and submit to damaging guidelines should not be underestimated.
I do work with the EIS and know many teachers who have a pastoral role in schools. They are horrified by what is being suggested and are happy to speak out agin this nonsense.
Amazing article! Blew mind mind and made me a paying subscriber. Had to go in to school give my daughter a Tylenol but if she wants to be a boy I can’t be told.. WTF 😳
Shared on FB, MeWe and MagaBook - schools have been inserting themselves between parents and kids for a long time. It started with the emphasis on "feelings" and the push to make being a teenager a mental illness requiring medication. I hope my posts are widely read and you get more fans and supporters! Good job.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees "the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control." Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 US 510, 534-535 (1925). The Supreme Court has explained: " It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder." Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 US 158, 166 (1944).
The "It Takes a Village" lobby notwithstanding, the law of the United States is clear: "The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations." Pierce v. Society of Sisters, supra at 535.
Government bureaucrats and lawyers have lost this argument in the courts so many times that they now take the position, as set out in this article, that there isn't good federal law to stop this type of government interference with the right of a parent to raise his or her child. If you say something enough times, people will start to believe it whether or not it is accurate.
Third Circuit in Gruenke v. Seip also noted, “It is not unforeseeable . . . that a school’s policies might come into conflict with the fundamental right of parents to raise and nurture their child. But when such collisions occur, the primacy of the parents’ authority must be recognized and should yield only where the school’s action is tied to a compelling interest.” Sounds like a 1983 suit would be viable.
There may already be a remedy. Liability under Section 1983 can be imposed on a school district if a student’s deprivation of rights is consistent with a school or district’s custom or policy, or if it results from an act of those who are ultimately responsible for setting policy in that area of school business (see City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112 [1988]). Since both Pierce and Prince are rooted in the 14th Amendment, and recognize parent’s constitutional right to direct the education of their children, the school’s policies in these instances might well be a 1983 violation. It would be a first impression use, but there’s no reason the statute cannot be used in this instance. Perhaps if school districts and teachers are held liable, even once, this type of nonsense would stop.
The district court opinion in Barnette v. West Virginia State Board of Education, 47 F. Supp. 251 (S.D. W.Va. 1942), makes no mention of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 but states only: “They [plaintiffs] contend, therefore, that the regulation amounts to a denial of religious liberty and is violative of rights which the first amendment to the federal Constitution protects against impairment by the federal government and which the 14th Amendment protects against impairment by the states.” 47 F. Supp. at 252.
But in support of your position, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 393 U.S. 503, 511 (1969)(“ In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students”), was brought as an action “to recover nominal damages and obtain an injunction pursuant to the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.” Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 258 F. Supp. 971, 972 (S.D. Iowa 1966).
Barnette pre-dates §1983 by a few decades. However, caselaw is clear that §1983 applies to school districts. Given the holdings in Tinker and Gruenke, there’s no reason it can’t be used in this context.
Re Barnette, not exactly. Please see Section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, Pub. L. 42-22 with essentially the same prohibitions. But you are correct that school districts are considered state actors under 42 USC Sec. 1983.
Fair point. At the end of the day, a valid remedy exists that is being underutilized in the fight against this pernicious ideology. Getting a federal statute passed, as suggested by Ms. Shrier, is a great idea but unlikely given the current climate. Until that is done, there are steps that parents can take.
As a Plastic Surgeon, I would caution any of my Surgical colleagues performing gender surgery on minors to make sure they have really good malpractice insurance because there is a backlash coming and they WILL get sued by someone as an adult who was mutilated by them as a minor. This also holds true to my Medical colleagues who may be prescribing hormone-blocking medications that may leave these patients permanently sterile.
Yes. The backlash has already appeared in Europe and the UK, so the US is probably not far behind. I can just hear those late night ads for all the class action lawsuits, "If you or a loved one suffered any of these conditions (long list) after transgender plastic surgery or cross sex hormones, call Shyster & Shyster. Our attorneys will take your call.
And it's not just physicians and surgeons who will be sued, it's psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, drug companies, hospitals, school systems. The list goes on. And if I were on the jury for one of these cases, I'd really let them have it.
I haven't seen any at this point but I know plastic surgeons in large metropolitan areas (I'm in a much smaller more urban area) that are doing a lot of gender reassignment surgery. I'm specifically talking about mastectomies on teenage girls. At least if you put implants in a male, you can take them out and get most of the way back to the original state if they ever change their mind. I also have a 14-year-old niece that is transgender on hormone blockers to stop periods. There will be permanent developmental and fertility changes.
I'm so sorry to hear about your young niece. It's tragic how many promising young girls have gotten caught up in this transgender craze. An old friend had four biological daughters in their teens and early twenties. After my friend died, I learned two of his daughters had become transgender.
Twenty-five years ago when I was in my forties, I had a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy (with implants) to prevent cancer. But I can't understand how any surgeon would agree to remove the healthy breasts of a teenage girl. Whatever happened to "First, do no harm?"
As a public school teacher blessed to teach in a solidly conservative district, but still witness to this trend among students, I want to thank you for your courage and action. I support school choice for many reasons - not least of which is the potential to check woke excesses like this.
Thank you all for your comments. I want to respond to the many people who responded that a federal statute that made it unlawful for public schools to change names and gender identities without parental permission - would not fix our public schools. I agree! I believe, as many of you do, that the public schools are infested with Woke ideologies and that sometimes, when an institution is sufficiently corrupt or infested, you simply can't continue to use it until it is evacuated, tented, and bombed with pesticide. I don't propose it because I believe it will 'fix' the public schools. I propose it because it is a first step in empowering the parents to discover the extent of the problem - and to push back against it. I propose the statute because it will empower the good teachers already at schools (and there are many) who are right now silent, fearful for their jobs. And it will hand the Woke - who are very much on the march - a defeat. We need to start handing them losses. And we need to embolden and empower the good guys. Thank you, again, for engaging. I'm so grateful for all of you. xo
I'm so looking forward to your appearance on Bari Weiss's substack zoom call this Thursday.
https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/liquid-courage-with-abigail-shrier/comments
Do you know anything about Social-Emotional Learning? I've heard it is surreptitiously tilling the ground for Woke ideology while tampering with students' psychology. I've downloaded my daughter's SEL curriculum, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for in the documents.
Are you able to share them? abigail.shrier@gmail.com
Here is an article about the SEL program being implemented at one of the largest school systems in Virginia.
https://asrainvestigates.substack.com/p/merrick-garland-has-conflict-of-interest
And here is another article about why parents in Virginia are taking a stand.
https://asrainvestigates.substack.com/p/fairfax-county-puts-the-x-rated-in
Parents have the option to opt-out their kids from SEL and talk with them so that they can understand why they are being opted out. By doing so kids are empowered to stand up for themselves. Adolescence is a very challenging stage in life where kids seek to find themselves, as well as to belong to a whole. Parents, loved ones, and true professionals can nurture this process; and that is the one thing this type of social experiments are seeking to disrupt.
So long we allow just anyone to fill this void, we are abdicating our parenting role. That is why we are so grateful for your work and advocacy in behalf of all children. Things that were hidden have begun to come to light and a big giant is finally awaken.
Why do you folk make things up like this? Are you so scared of life?
SCARED??
Why do you react to things like this? Are you scared of the truth?
SCARED??
I see Putin admitting he had his people put Trump in office, I see millions of liars and cheaters trying to cancel the election, I see the followers of the National Liar, Grope, Cheat, Braggart, Serial Adulterer, Sexual Predator, and Poor Loser trying to lie their wayback into office.
Here's a PDF I found about SEL On the surface, it doesn't seem particularly woke, but I can see how a determined wokester could misuse it.
https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/sspw/pdf/seluserguide.pdf
How about you?
Can you define "Woke ideology"?
illiberal indoctrination. Think Khmer Rouge Youth.
You silly folk are just scaring yourselves.
Dustin, from what came home with my kid, SEL's main distinguishing feature is "specific and measurable" goal-setting. On the surface, it sounds like a nice little marriage of touchy-feely self care combined with scientific measurement--like, nurturing but with scientific backing. But on the ground, the way it actually plays out, is that they ask kids highly personal, even invasive questions, and then make them give "specific and measurable" answers.
So, do you agree with the political rally tonight? Are you going to attend? Why or why not?
When will you start having a family and why? What type of birth control will you use until then, where will you get it, and what will you say to your partner about it?
Not so much social-emotional learning, as psycho-socio-political interrogation.
Completely unethical.
Can you define "Woke ideology"?
Sure. It is what Helen Pluckrose et al. refer to as Critical Social Justice. It is a perversion of social justice by adopting a oppressor-oppressed worldview, seeing everyone and everything through this lens, then attempting to turn the tables on the "oppressors" and shutting down anyone who objects to your worldview or tactics.
If you want woke ideology, it is taking care of others, preparing for the future, not branding good deeds as "virtue signaling" as if we were going to church in our Sunday Best, making sure everybody saw us.
We live cleanly, as my household and both electric cars are powered by the Sun through our PV system which paid back in three years.
I think we all want things like "caring for others" or "preparing for the future," and can probably agree virtue signaling, whether it's being seen at Church or being seen as expressing the right opinions on social media are unhelpful, at best. We might disagree on what it means to care for others or prepare for the future, or the best methods to do so. I think there should be a debate that doesn't resort to ad hominen attacks. My concern is Wokeness is a Trojan horse to smuggle in bad ideas in what looks like virtuous endeavors.
My reply got blown away, so here is another. What kind of "bad ideas" have you so worried? Is it how we saved families with Social Security and unemployment insurance? Perhaps it is because we worked for generations to get the 40-hour workweek, creating the weekend?
Environmentalism? My household and two electric cars are powered by the PV system on our roof, which paid back in three years in gasoline savings alone, is that it?
Shall I go on and on?
I think you are looking for some way to be relevant.
It will not be by attacking ghosts.
Sounds like the loser conservatives, whining constantly.
Sounds like a mansplainer who won't stfu!
As a writer who crafts with words to convey meaning with clarity, I encourage you to ditch the sloppy term “woke”. As you are aware the backbone of opposition to transactivism is from “liberal” “leftist” feminists who many of your readers might refer to as “woke” becaus of being in the left. This is not a left/right fight. “Woke“ is an epithet, used to insult anyone perceived to be left of center with whom we disagree about any number of unrelated issues.
I’m immersed in this debate but remain unclear what “woke” means.
(See this comment thread for people asking you for definition and thread then going off about the left or conversely defending the left. All as irrelevant to this debate as the nonsensical meme that was the “Bernie bro”)
Conservatives seem to have regressed down to Middle School level, screaming nasties across the playground.
"Woke" was just teen slang until conservatives got scared of it. Now they use it as if it had some terrible meaning. You folk fool yourselves!
How do I as a parent of a 15yr old girl who has apparently been hoodwinked by social media and also now finding out has had teachers calling her a different name and calling her by her given name to us. We are looking in to faith based counseling but I fear they too will be on this "affirmative care" rather than sticking to biology. I've bought your book and am reading it to help me understand but if I show her anything related to a non affirmative in what she "feels" she dismisses it. How do I combat this.
How do I as a parent of a 15yr old girl who has apparently been hoodwinked by social media and also now finding out has had teachers calling her a different name and calling her by her given name to us. We are looking in to faith based counseling but I fear they too will be on this "affirmative care" rather than sticking to biology. I've bought your book and am reading it to help me understand but if I show her anything related to a non affirmative in what she "feels" she dismisses it. How do I combat this.
Charles, you need to start listening to the weekly podcasts by two highly regarded gender critical psychotherapists, Stella O'Malley and Sasha Ayad. Their most recent podcast (Episode 43, 10/1/2021) is especially relevant to your concern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb7Q_Cix_cA
Schools do not do that!
Well, that settles it!
You folk have fooled yourselves into a non-reality, a horror of an existence foisted on you by the those without character, the cheats, the braggarts, the liars, the poor losers, the serial adulterers, the payoff kings, the national gropes.
First denial, then ad hominem attacks, then finally Blame Trump.
How many times, how many years must we hear this before you realize you aren't really participating in the conversation?
Stop projecting, please. Trump hatred is a delusional reality that aggressively evangelizes and those of us outside of it have long since tired of the mantras.
Why do you like our National Liar, Grope, Serial Adulterer, Braggart, and Poor Loser?
That is Trump, and the entire world knows it.
By supporting him, you reveal your own character.
This subject has nothing whatsoever to do with Trump. Go play/ engage with another socially awkward engineer.
Trump is your god.
He is our fool.
Trump is a devil.
You are a dunce.
"...those without character, the cheats, the braggarts, the liars, the poor losers, the serial adulterers, the payoff kings, the national gropes."
Yes, that's a perfect description of those pesky transgender activists.
That is Trump.
So how much does your "girlfriend" Jennifer Pritzker pay you to post your pithy nuggets of gimcrackery on this substack?
I have no idea who that is.
Then this is your lucky day because Jennifer Pritzker is the world's first and only transgender billionaire! He/she/zir/zim pays eccentrics just like you to spread that newfangled "he was a she" nonsense throughout the land.
Come on now. Don't be a chump. Why give the milk away on substack when Jenny buys the cow?
Perhaps a bit of perspective here ... A most relevant but (conveniently for the woke) undiscussed issue is that 5 year olds are not allowed to vote, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, drive a car, move out of the house, opt out of school, get a job at the grocery store, etc., yet somehow they are now allowed to choose their gender and pronouns and hide it from their parents??? Parents are the legal and moral guardians of their children and this must be remembered and respected.
This stuff breaks my heart. If my daughter has a headache at school and she self-diagnoses that it must be a tumor, can she then go to a neurosurgeon and ask him to cut a hole in her skull and find it? No—there would be all kinds of less-invasive actions taken before, starting with my wife and I being called. How many more Keira Bells are going to suffer permanent consequences so that the tiny percentage of people who truly suffer clinical gender dysphoria can receive the treatment they need? They’re not mutually exclusive outcomes, but the ideologues act as if they are so everybody is put in the same category and treated the same way despite the evidence (e.g., 70+% of teens suffering “gender dysphoria” will outgrow it without any medical intervention).
Secrets between teachers and students are common signs of sexual abuse...which in my opinion is exactly what this is.
Quick, what is the most effective thing we can do right now? Answer: Make the responsible party pay a price. Although I generally have voted for Democrats in the past, I do not subscribe to the belief backed by the Democratic Party that sex can be changed. By teaching and affirming this belief, schools are increasing the risk that children having difficulty adjusting to puberty will demand and receive sex-change affirmation, first through name and pronoun changes, and then often followed by irreversible medical interventions. The risk and damage are great enough that I will not again, without exception, vote for any Democrat until all laws and regulations based on the sex-change belief are repealed. And I am going to shout this promise from the rooftops.
Take the red pill! Leave the racist plantation!
Also, we need your work shouted out through a larger megaphone.
If you put the education of your children into the hands of lunatics what, pray tell, do you think will happen?
A recent Pew Report just found that over 50% of liberal women under 30 are being treated for a valid mental disorder. Does this surprise anyone? If the public schools don't stop this nonsense - along with teaching racist, anti-American poison - they need to be torn down and replaced with a new model that actually teaches children the basic life tools they need, leaving the teaching of morals and ethics to the family and religious groups, where they belong.
Link please? That would be so interesting to see.
It was cited in a National Review article. I looked quickly but am at work. Here's another source that might allow you to get the Pew report. https://freebeacon.com/politics/white-libs-mental-health/
Here's another interesting reference from Kaiser. https://19thnews.org/2021/04/survey-69-percent-women30-say-covid-19-harmed-mental-health/
Thanks
While this macabre reality you describe is beyond deplorable, it seems to be one of many, and nobody can imagine what happens in ten to twenty years when these abused and confused children begin to take leadership positions in our culture and institutions. These psychological depradations are so many and so large... the unintended consequences are, what?
Historically, such mass delusion results in the termination of the state. Usually accompanied by violence. Of course, post Beatles White Album, the west has transcended history.
"In a time when so many public school teachers are properly described as activists,..." Wow, this pulled me up short. YES, this explains so much. And not hard to trace the source: humanities and social science college graduates who have received heavy indoctrination in gender ideology, anti-racism, etc., fit for no useful employment. Elementary and middle schools now join the sordid world of make-work progressive non-profits whose sole function seems to be to employ those guilt-laden liberals who atone for their material comfort by destroying civilization for the rest of us.
Why are teachers allowed to be activists? And why are they allowed to bring their activism into school? Surely this should be "checked" at the recruitment stage and if present, that person is not taken in. I cannot see this level of child abuse being tolerated in UK schools. Because that is ehat it is, child abuse by the very people who are in loco parents. And they should be charged with it, not protected.
Why do you not think this is happening in the UK schools? I thought the UK had more peer-contagion gender dysphoria than any other country. Tavistock anyone?
Activism is actively discouraged in schools, or it is in state schools in Scotland. Teachers who bring their own activism to classes are generally removed from duty and if counselling doesn't work, they are encouraged to take up a different career... If you believe the myths of Mermaids and Stonewall, then yes there is more, but if you drill down, without social media, most young people just get on with their lives - being gay. Might have simplified it a bit, but if there is no treatment available NOW, then by the time treatment can be offered, most families have moved back into ordinary. Time and real scientific research will tell.
Sorry to say it but on the contrary, activism of this sort has recently become actively encouraged in Scotland under newly issued government guidelines:
https://www.newsweek.com/kids-young-four-can-now-change-gender-scotland-schools-without-parental-consent-1618942
Coming from the government, this is not teachers activism in the way it is being driven in the USA. We need to remember that. Governments get it badly wrong on a regular basis, and in this case, teachers may yet win out as the majority are not activists.
I hope you are correct about the majority of teachers (although many who are 'not activists' nevertheless follow the bidding of activists, having been led to believe it's the correct or kind route to take), but when pernicious guidelines are issued by a government, and alongside Scotland's new Hate Speech rules and other institutional capture – as demonstrated, for example, in police enforcement against the likes of Marion Millar – the pressure on sensible teachers to keep their mouths shut and submit to damaging guidelines should not be underestimated.
I do work with the EIS and know many teachers who have a pastoral role in schools. They are horrified by what is being suggested and are happy to speak out agin this nonsense.
Amazing article! Blew mind mind and made me a paying subscriber. Had to go in to school give my daughter a Tylenol but if she wants to be a boy I can’t be told.. WTF 😳
Shared on FB, MeWe and MagaBook - schools have been inserting themselves between parents and kids for a long time. It started with the emphasis on "feelings" and the push to make being a teenager a mental illness requiring medication. I hope my posts are widely read and you get more fans and supporters! Good job.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees "the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control." Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 US 510, 534-535 (1925). The Supreme Court has explained: " It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder." Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 US 158, 166 (1944).
The "It Takes a Village" lobby notwithstanding, the law of the United States is clear: "The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations." Pierce v. Society of Sisters, supra at 535.
Government bureaucrats and lawyers have lost this argument in the courts so many times that they now take the position, as set out in this article, that there isn't good federal law to stop this type of government interference with the right of a parent to raise his or her child. If you say something enough times, people will start to believe it whether or not it is accurate.
Third Circuit in Gruenke v. Seip also noted, “It is not unforeseeable . . . that a school’s policies might come into conflict with the fundamental right of parents to raise and nurture their child. But when such collisions occur, the primacy of the parents’ authority must be recognized and should yield only where the school’s action is tied to a compelling interest.” Sounds like a 1983 suit would be viable.
There may already be a remedy. Liability under Section 1983 can be imposed on a school district if a student’s deprivation of rights is consistent with a school or district’s custom or policy, or if it results from an act of those who are ultimately responsible for setting policy in that area of school business (see City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112 [1988]). Since both Pierce and Prince are rooted in the 14th Amendment, and recognize parent’s constitutional right to direct the education of their children, the school’s policies in these instances might well be a 1983 violation. It would be a first impression use, but there’s no reason the statute cannot be used in this instance. Perhaps if school districts and teachers are held liable, even once, this type of nonsense would stop.
The district court opinion in Barnette v. West Virginia State Board of Education, 47 F. Supp. 251 (S.D. W.Va. 1942), makes no mention of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 but states only: “They [plaintiffs] contend, therefore, that the regulation amounts to a denial of religious liberty and is violative of rights which the first amendment to the federal Constitution protects against impairment by the federal government and which the 14th Amendment protects against impairment by the states.” 47 F. Supp. at 252.
But in support of your position, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 393 U.S. 503, 511 (1969)(“ In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students”), was brought as an action “to recover nominal damages and obtain an injunction pursuant to the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 1983.” Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 258 F. Supp. 971, 972 (S.D. Iowa 1966).
Barnette pre-dates §1983 by a few decades. However, caselaw is clear that §1983 applies to school districts. Given the holdings in Tinker and Gruenke, there’s no reason it can’t be used in this context.
Re Barnette, not exactly. Please see Section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, Pub. L. 42-22 with essentially the same prohibitions. But you are correct that school districts are considered state actors under 42 USC Sec. 1983.
Fair point. At the end of the day, a valid remedy exists that is being underutilized in the fight against this pernicious ideology. Getting a federal statute passed, as suggested by Ms. Shrier, is a great idea but unlikely given the current climate. Until that is done, there are steps that parents can take.
As a Plastic Surgeon, I would caution any of my Surgical colleagues performing gender surgery on minors to make sure they have really good malpractice insurance because there is a backlash coming and they WILL get sued by someone as an adult who was mutilated by them as a minor. This also holds true to my Medical colleagues who may be prescribing hormone-blocking medications that may leave these patients permanently sterile.
Yes. The backlash has already appeared in Europe and the UK, so the US is probably not far behind. I can just hear those late night ads for all the class action lawsuits, "If you or a loved one suffered any of these conditions (long list) after transgender plastic surgery or cross sex hormones, call Shyster & Shyster. Our attorneys will take your call.
And it's not just physicians and surgeons who will be sued, it's psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, drug companies, hospitals, school systems. The list goes on. And if I were on the jury for one of these cases, I'd really let them have it.
How many children have come to you for that?
I haven't seen any at this point but I know plastic surgeons in large metropolitan areas (I'm in a much smaller more urban area) that are doing a lot of gender reassignment surgery. I'm specifically talking about mastectomies on teenage girls. At least if you put implants in a male, you can take them out and get most of the way back to the original state if they ever change their mind. I also have a 14-year-old niece that is transgender on hormone blockers to stop periods. There will be permanent developmental and fertility changes.
I'm so sorry to hear about your young niece. It's tragic how many promising young girls have gotten caught up in this transgender craze. An old friend had four biological daughters in their teens and early twenties. After my friend died, I learned two of his daughters had become transgender.
Twenty-five years ago when I was in my forties, I had a bilateral prophylactic mastectomy (with implants) to prevent cancer. But I can't understand how any surgeon would agree to remove the healthy breasts of a teenage girl. Whatever happened to "First, do no harm?"
Keira Bell.
Buford Furrow. He is the conservative answer to education.
As a public school teacher blessed to teach in a solidly conservative district, but still witness to this trend among students, I want to thank you for your courage and action. I support school choice for many reasons - not least of which is the potential to check woke excesses like this.
I'm sharing this widely! Another thing we must fight for (before the right is attacked) is our right to homeschool.