PHILADELPHIA (TND) — Besides the teaching of sexuality and gender identity to younger and younger students, sometimes as early as kindergarten, the failure to disclose to parents a student’s desire to transition has been among the concerns of those critical of such instruction.
Emails obtained by Fox News show a school counselor from Charles F. Patton Middle School in Pennsylvania instructing a teacher to use a student’s pronouns that correspond with their biological gender when communicating with their parents, rather than the new “they/them” pronouns the student said they preferred.
I was speaking with [redacted] today [redacted] prefers the pronouns they/them,” the counselor writes in an email to the teacher, according to Fox News. “’She’ is fine too, but [redacted] likes ‘they/them’ the best,” it continues.
If you are emailing home, it may be best to use she/her when referring to [redacted],” the counselor concludes in the email.
Both sides of this disclosure argument believe the law is on their side.
For example, the Maryland State Department of Education’s guidelines regarding information disclosure asserts no state or federal law requires schools to affirmatively disclose a student’s transgender status or gender non-conforming presentation to parents. The guidance states it is up to transgender and gender non-conforming students “to decide when, with whom, and how much private information,” is shared about their status.
Read more: "State education framework outlines gender identity instruction for kindergarteners"
The Education Law Center of Pennsylvania says a student's "school should not 'out' [a student] to anyone without [the student's] permission," citing federal case law as well as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Conversely, a report from the conservative Heritage Foundation indicated both the constitution and other federal laws “do not grant public school districts the authority to circumvent parental consent or notification” in matters relating to a student’s gender identity preference.
It has become common practice and policy in school districts all across the country to hide information related to gender identity from parents,” a spokesperson for nonprofit Parents Defending Education told The National Desk (TND). “In addition to that troubling, and arguably illegal practice, we see countless examples of individual teachers initiating inappropriate conversations with students about sexuality and gender ideology. This Pennsylvania school is not an outlier, unfortunately.
Sarah Perry, legal fellow for the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation told TND she thinks sooner than later the country will start to see some of these disclosure policies challenged at the national level.
So the parent should be able to say, 'This is my child who is clearly dealing with a particular mental health expression,' whether you call it gender identity or gender dysphoria, they have to have a right to be able to say 'This is not the job of the school counselor, school psychologist, assistant principal or anybody else, it's the job of the parents to actually make the determination on the health, safety and welfare of their children,'" Perry told TND. "Children are not wards of the state. They are to be parented in such a way that the parents are primary authority until the age of emancipation on things like education, health and welfare.
The National Desk (TND) spoke with a representative from the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District, the school district in which the alleged incident occurred, but they did not wish to provide an official statement.