Parents kept in dark about elemenary school's LGBTQ club 'because there will be parents that say no'

The Gold Report Staff

March 17, 2024

Parents marginalized as school LGBTQ clubs kept secret

In the US and other countries, parents are finding themselves purposely circumvented by schools that promote LGBTQ agendas to their students. The most recent incident involves a California elementary school where a third-grade teacher opened the LGBTQ “UBU Club” for third- to sixth-grade students promoting it as a club for “boys who crush on boys” and “girls who crush on girls,” though all students are welcome. Students were incentivized to come with an offer of fun games for participating children.

Greg Burt wrote about this latest infringement on parental rights for the California Family Council. He explained that UBU was a secret LGBTQ club about which parents were not notified, nor were permission slips required for students to attend. Yet, Burt noted, a permission slip was necessary for attending the school’s garden club.

Why were no permission slips needed?

[I]t’s a safe place for students to go and discuss their sexuality without having to come out to their parents …

That was the answer that parent Mary Congdon got when she called her son’s 4th-grade teacher to find out why she never heard about the club. Her son returned home confused and full of questions after hearing about same-sex attraction from Daniel Bishop, the 3rd-grade teacher who started the club.

Because we fear there will be parents that say no,

responded principal Deidra Wood when Congdon called her to find out why they hadn’t required permission slips for the UBU Club. “You don’t say?!” she remarked about Wood's response. “That is beyond disrespectful to us parents. I’ve lost my trust in the school.”

Teachers taught to respond to parents’ resistance

Upset Pleasant Grove parents who met with the principal and a district administrator discovered that LGBTQ clubs had already been started in 5 to 10 other elementary schools and that officials weren’t sure the children needed permission to attend the club. However, the officials did say that they would put the club on hold while obtaining legal advice.

Education activist Heidi Moore, a mother of four and candidate for Elk Grove Unified School Board, Area 7, said school staff betrayed their trust. She was particularly alarmed that while the district hadn't responded for weeks to the parents' concerns, “it recently sent a flier to all district teachers, inviting them to a training on how to respond to resistance from parents against LGBTQ Clubs.”

The flier Moore mentioned, Burt explained, was “about resistance training and was emailed to elementary school teachers in their weekly bulletin a few weeks ago. The virtual course “Responding to Resistance" was lead [sic] by Oakland Unified School District LGBTQ Programming Specialist Schemain Evans.”

Burt wrote previously about the California Department of Education’s (CDE) ruling against a school district that wanted to notify parents if their child started publicly identifying as the opposite gender. They ignored an earlier federal court ruling that enjoined the CDE and another school district from hiding students’ gender identity from parents.

Colorado teachers encouraged students to change genders

In another such occurrence, in Colorado, Daily Caller writer Reagan Reese explained that two families are suing the school district because staff allegedly encouraged their daughters to

join a “secret” club aiming to transition students and conceal the club’s activities from parents.

America First Policy Institute (AFPI) and Illumine Legal filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Poudre School District (PSD) on behalf of Johnathan and Erin Lee and Nick and Linnaea Jurich, who allege that their sixth grade daughters were recruited by a teacher to join Wellington Middle-High School’s “Genders and Sexualities Alliance” (GSA) Art club in May 2021 where teachers encouraged students to change genders. PSD employees allegedly told the girls to keep the meetings a “secret” from their parents, including that the club has a “what happens at GSA stays at GSA policy,” the lawsuit stated.

Demonstrations across Canada

Rallies across Canada, including dozens in Alberta last year, drew protesters and politicians against teaching gender ideology in schools, Mason DePatie reported for Global News.

Organizers said the demonstrations are about “standing together against gender ideology in schools,” a reference to sexual orientation and gender identity programs being taught in some school divisions.

Red Deer-South MLA Jason Stephan, a member of the United Conservative Party’s caucus, was a keynote at such an event in Red Deer Wednesday morning.

“While this event seeks to affirm the sacred relationship of parent and child, some will seek to frame this gathering in a hateful way,” Stephan is heard saying to a cheering crowd in a video captured by rdnewsNOW.

Critics believe the protests set a damaging narrative, and say it is disappointing to see a politician speak at the rally.

Read more about LGBTQ and schools:

Australia show hosts call it grooming

Sky News Australia host Caleb Bond, during a show on the Elk Grove club (see video below), stated that “public schools are among the most dangerous place[s] for your kids these days."

Bond said that it is inconceivable, as was claimed, that notice of a club of this nature targeted at 6-, 7-, and 8-year-old children was left out of the school newsletter by mistake.

Mysteriously, the club, unlike every other club in the school was never listed in the school newsletter. When the school was confronted they said: “Oh it was an oversight an error.”

If you're running a gay club in a school for six- and seven-year-old kids you don't accidentally forget to produce a permission slip for parents.

Co-host Sharri Markson commented on the implication of the omission:

No. There's a word for this - it starts with “groo” and ends in “ming,” period. That's what this is.

Markson later related this to what has occurred in the State of Victoria, where the state has arrogated the power to transition a child in school without parental knowledge or consent:

Victoria the state has given themselves the power to transition your kid at school without even your knowledge much less your consent. So it is going on here in Australia in a very different way, but how is that not similar in that you're doing all this behind the parents' back and the schools are the ones that are facilitating your child's wishes?