Parents filed a lawsuit against a Massachusetts school district last week alleging that administrators at a middle school secretly promoted the gender transitions of two students against their parents’ wishes. One attorney commented: “The term groomer is being used a lot today, imagine what goes through any parent’s mind when you have some other adult talking to your kid about sexuality — and saying we’re going to hide this conversation from your parents.”
Two sets of parents filed a federal lawsuit on April 12 against the Ludlow School Committee in Ludlow, Massachusetts, claiming the school district violated parents’ civil rights at Paul L. Baird Middle School by allowing students to adopt different names and pronouns without informing their parents, reports MassLive.com.
The suit names the School Committee, interim superintendent Lisa Nemeth, former superintendent Todd Gazda, Baird Middle School principal Stacy Monette, school counselor Marie-Claire Foley, and former librarian Jordan Funke.
Ludlow Public Schools “impermissibly inserted themselves into the private realm” of the families, superseding their “rights to make decisions regarding their children’s upbringing, mental health, and well being,” the parents said, according to a report by New York Post.
(iStock/Getty Images)
The parents say they had asked Paul L. Baird Middle School employees not to have private conversations with their children regarding gender ideology, but that the superintendent, principal, guidance counselor, and teachers ignored this request, and went on to refer to their biological daughter and son by other pronouns without the parents’ knowledge.
The young siblings are identified in the lawsuit as B.F. and G.F., respectively.
According to the legal filing, B.F., who is only 11-years-old, wrote in a February 2021 email to school staff, “I am genderqueer. … My new name will be R**** … If you deadname me or use any pronouns I am uncomfortable with I will politely tell you.”
“A list of pronouns you can use are: she/her he/him they/them fae/faerae/aer ve/ver xe/xem ze/zir,” the email added. “Please only use the ones I have listed and not the other ones. I do not like them,” B.F. wrote, the parents said in court papers.”
B.F.’s guidance counselor Marie-Claire Foley responded to the young student and other school staff on the email exchange, writing, “R**** [B****] is still in the process of telling his parents and is requesting that school staff refer to him as B**** and use she/her pronouns with her parents and in written emails/letters home,” the parents say.
B.F.’s 12-year-old sibling also asked teachers and counselors to address him by a female name, “S.” and hid those conversations from the parents, the lawsuit adds.
Principal Stacy Monette has reportedly since placed the educator on leave.
Andrew Beckwith, an attorney for the parents, told the New York Post that the email exchange between school staff and the young siblings shows the school is “hiding it from parents intentionally.”
“The term groomer is being used a lot today,” Beckwith said. “Imagine what goes through any parent’s mind when you have some other adult talking to your kid about sexuality — and saying we’re going to hide this conversation from your parents.”
Beckwith added that the parents specifically told the school, “We’re getting mental health treatment for our daughter and we don’t want the school interfering with that,” but school staff “continued to have clandestine conversations” with the students anyway.
Meanwhile, the school system reportedly says that it is simply following the state’s gender guidance.
Massachusetts is not the only state that appears to be broadening its gender and sex education guidelines to include bizarre concepts such as gender identity and transgender ideology.
New Jersey is also expanding its sex education curriculum, and in doing so, school districts in the state are reviewing new material, which even include teaching students as young as ten years old that puberty blockers are an acceptable way to “manage” adolescence, and that masturbating “a few times a day” is a healthy way to relieve stress.
As woke, transgender, and gender ideology attempt to infiltrate academia, other states are making moves to pass anti-grooming laws.
Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law the Parental Rights in Education bill, which prohibits teachers from discussing sexuality and transgender ideology to children in kindergarten through third grade.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.