When a student at HSE schools expresses a desire to transition to the opposite gender, what happens? Here are some slides that have been presented to HSE staff in such cases. The slides describe how a “gender support plan” for the child is developed. Relevant staff are instructed to use the child’s new name and pronouns, and to keep the situation secret from parents (highlights added):
Lots of secrets from parents here. They may not tell you that they are developing a “gender support plan” for your child, or get your feedback regarding what you think is best. They may not tell you (or the other affected parents!) if your child is a biological male using the girl’s locker room or bathroom. They may not tell you about your child’s “transgender status” at all. In fact, you might just be irrelevant to what they choose to do with your child. And their approach is intentionally deceptive: in some internal communications, staff are told to use the original name and pronouns with parents who are unaware of the situation, while using the new name and pronouns with the student. This allows them to minimize your influence over your own child, while handling the situation as they see fit.
“Support Groups” on Transitioning Kept Secret
HSE recently hired seven social workers across six HSE campuses, including both high schools and four junior high schools. The social workers at the junior high schools work with kids as young as 12 years old (7th grade). These social workers run “student support groups” related to “Gender Expressions/LGBTQ+”:
So, based on the information above, when a student expresses gender confusion to his teacher, the student’s teacher is expected to refer the child to a social worker without informing the parents. The social worker then provides “support” for the student. Presumably, this is where the “gender support plan” referenced in the above slides might be developed. Then, if the “gender support plan” says that the parents should not be told about the situation, the child’s ongoing involvement in the “support group” is kept secret from the parents.
None of this is remotely acceptable. Anyone at HSE who supports these policies is no longer trustworthy to have authority over our children. And I do not see how the trust can be repaired, since they have shown that they will hide facts from you if it serves their vision of what is right for your children, even if it goes against your own view of what your child needs.
If this is the current HSE protocol for handling these issues, why hasn’t it been made public? I guess they prefer to handle your children as they see fit, without you knowing their plans, even in broad terms.
November is Coming
I emailed Superintendent Stokes about this on Friday, June 29. She did not respond; I’ll update this post if she does. But winning the election is really the only solution. Please contribute money if you can, please volunteer, please put up a yard sign, and please tell everyone you know to vote.
Here are our four candidates who want to fix these kinds of problems:
District 1: Tiffany Pascoe (Campaign Website, Facebook, Instagram, Donations)
District 2: Juanita Albright (Campaign Website, Donations)
District 3: Dawn Lang (Campaign Website, Facebook, Twitter, Donations)
District 4: Ben Orr (Campaign Website, Facebook, Donations)
If you’re not sure which district is yours, have a look at this map.
Please consider sharing this post, and subscribing to my blog so you’ll get email notifications as we approach the election in November:
Update (11-26-2022): HSE finally fulfilled my public records request for the document reported above. They waited until after the election to provide it, and sent it only after I threatened to submit a complaint to the public access counselor.
Here is the email from HSE providing the document:
Here is a pdf of the ppt file that was attached to that email:
As reported, HSE was pursuing a policy of, in some cases, keeping secrets about the mental health of junior high school students from their parents. Staff involved in this situation must be held accountable by the new school board.