A Virginia mother was confused and concerned when her child's teacher suddenly changed her honorific from Ms. to Mx. When Mom asked to have her child moved to a different class, the principal intimidated her with a bold-faced lie.
Names have been changed to protect identities (ironically).
In Sept 2022, my son Ryan was assigned to "Mx. Houser's" class at our local elementary school. We weren’t sure who this person was. We knew there was a teacher called Ms. Houser the year before.
I was concerned that Ryan might be taught to start questioning his identity under the influence of the teacher, when no one was looking. So I called and told the front office secretary that we wanted to move our child into another class. After all, my older son’s teacher left in December the year before and half the class was able to transfer to other fifth grade classrooms to lighten the load off the long-term substitute teacher. But this time I was told I had to meet with the principal first.
At the meeting I was surprised to see the vice-principal was also present.
As I asked questions about why Ms. Houser changed her pronouns and how he/she is going to explain this to the students, the principal and vice principal wrote down every single word I said. It was strange, and I felt intimidated by the two women's behavior.
I asked if they had any concerns about "Mx. Houser" teaching the students his/her own thoughts about identity and who knows what else. When you think about it, there are no other adults in the classroom watching what’s being taught.
As soon as I was done asking my few questions the principal told me that "Mx. Houser" was protected under law and no students could be transferred out of "their" classroom. If I wanted to transfer Ryan out I would need to schedule an appointment with the superintendent.
Teachers have no legal protections that prevent students from being withdrawn from their classrooms. The principal above was almost certainly concerned that "Mx. Houser" would cause problems for the school if the principal allowed students to be pulled from Houser's classroom, so she lied to the parent.
In fact, in the United States, government schools cannot prevent parents from pulling their children entirely, and moving to a different school, to a private or charter school, or to homeschool. Children need to be in safe environments, which might mean removing a child from a school that puts an ideology ahead of the mental well being of students.
For more information about parents' rights in education, please check out this article from Great!Schools.org, or contact the Child & Parental Rights Campaign.
Advocates Protecting Children is a 501(c)3 organization which supports individuals, families, organizations, and churches toward navigating gender ideology in a healthy way that respects people as well as reality. Contact us at advocatesprotectingchildren@gmail.com.
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