School district documents released by the parents’ rights group Parents Defending Education (PDE) show the district unconcerned about the rights of parents when dealing with so-called transgender children. While it’s not surprising that a school district would have such a policy, the location of the Weber School District — in red-state Utah on the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake — is somewhat surprising.
Parents Defending Education obtained the documents with a public records request seeking school district guidance regarding transgender students. To their credit, the district responded with a treasure trove of information, much of it prepared by the district’s general counsel in 2017.
In a document entitled “Responding to Transgender Students’ Requests,” the district tells employees that they are not “legally obligated to tell parents about a student’s transgender status,” nor are they “legally prohibited from telling parents about a student’s transgender status.”
But if teachers choose to inform parents about the situation, they should be able to “articulate that the student is in danger” by a suspicion that the student may be suicidal or tending to self-harm.
Utah’s state school superintendent, Sydnee Dickson, advised educators to “NOT to ask students their preferred pronouns/names as part of any lesson, activity, or survey,” according to the document.
PDE claims that the Weber School District is teaching children to hide their gender identity from their parents.
“Weber School District is training teachers to hide a child’s gender identity from their parents. The district is intentionally violating parental rights by informing teachers that they aren’t ‘legally required’ to tell parents about their child’s gender identity. This is a farce that intends to breakdown parent/child relationships in the district,” Caroline Moore, vice president of PDE, told the Daily Caller.
In a power point presentation titled “Practices and Procedures,” the district advises administrators how to deal with parents in the event that students declare their transgenderism.
“Nothing in the law requires a school official to obtain consent from a parent prior to using a preferred name or pronoun when addressing a student,” the document explains. “HOWEVER, as an administrator, you should always encourage students to involve their parents.”
In the case of parents who might not agree with transgenderism, the administrators are instructed to “default to the wishes of the parent who supports the student’s gender identity.” In the case of divorced parents, administrators are instructed to defer to the parent who has “educational decision-making authority.” If no parent is so declared, they are to default to any parent who supports the child’s chosen gender.
In a section on “talking points” surrounding the transgender issue, the district relies heavily on a “Dear Colleague” letter jointly produced by the Obama administration’s Department of Justice and Department of Education. The letter has been “formally rescinded” by the federal government, but remains a part of the Weber School District’s “talking points.”
Public school districts from all over the nation have been complicit in hiding children’s transgender status from parents. According to a list compiled by PDE, more than 10 million students are in districts that “openly state that district personnel can or should keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents.”
While the list is replete with districts from known left-wing strongholds like Madison, Wisconsin; Portland, Oregon; and San Francisco, there are several red-state inclusions as well.
Earlier this year, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed legislation banning so-called “gender affirming care,” such as sex change surgery and hormone therapy, on children. It is not yet known when or if the district will update its transgender policies, since medical transgender treatments are no longer allowed in the state.
