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The New Guard

Public School District Superintendent Defends Use of ‘Pronoun Form’ to Conceal Child Gender Transitions from Parents

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July 19, 2023

By: Nick Baker 

The superintendent of a public school district in Washington State defended the use of a “pronoun form” as a means of concealing child gender transitions from parents, according to an email thread obtained through Young America’s Foundation’s Campus Bias Tip Line.

“What name do you want to be called in this classroom?” one field on the form reads.

“What name do you want me to use around your parents?” the next field asks.

“I can certainly see a situation where a student could ask to be referred to as a certain pronoun at school, and then a different one in front of their parents,” Dr. Greg Baker, Superintendent of Bellingham Public Schools, wrote in an email to Christopher Morris, father of a rising third-grade student.

Morris reached out to the superintendent after coming across a link to “LGBTQ Educator Resources” on the school district’s website. Among the resources provided are book lists which include dozens of titles with blatant sexual agendas, a guide for increasing LGBTQ visibility in elementary schools, and a ‘pronoun form’ which encourages students to change their names and pronouns without notifying their parents.

“No law will ever make it okay to socially transition kids at school and then lie to their parents about it,” Morris wrote to the superintendent.

“Your spin on all this Christopher is your choice but certainly not how I would frame it,” Baker replied.

Baker cited the Family Education Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) as justification for encouraging teachers to withhold such sensitive information from students’ parents. These privacy rights only pertain to students once they reach the age of eighteen, or enroll at a post-secondary institution, so it is still unclear why Bellingham Public Schools encourages the practice of keeping secrets from the parents of elementary and middle school students.

“Policy aside, have you ever considered that educators having secrets with their students might lead to bad outcomes?” Morris replied to the superintendent.

“Our staff are professionals who are trained in appropriateness of sensitive conversations with students,” Baker responded.

Even if that was the case, it would still be wildly inappropriate to keep secrets from parents; however, the teachers, administrators, and board members of Bellingham Public Schools have consistently proven otherwise.

The practice of secretly transitioning a child’s gender within the walls of the classroom has become an unfortunate trend in public schools all across the country. The parents of multiple victims have initiated lawsuits against their respective school districts. Sadly, by the time some parents find out, irreparable damage will have already been done.

Over the course of the past two years, YAF has brought light to five separate incidents within the Bellingham district. From pushing ‘gender nonconformity’ on developmentally-delayed five-year-olds, to providing a $2,000 grant for middle school students to put on a drag show, and everything in-between, the folks at Bellingham Public Schools have clearly demonstrated that indoctrination is their top priority.

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