How would you feel if you found out that the people who you had trusted to educate and support your child had been secretly providing them with a risky mental health intervention and had been actively seeking to hide that fact from you, the parent? How would you feel if your child’s school was leading them down a dangerous path of delusion while intentionally concealing their actions from you? As you may know by now, that is exactly what is happening in Massachusetts public schools.
We wish we could say we were shocked when we learned that Leominster Public Schools has a secret policy of helping to “socially transition” students who claim to be transgender. This involves using a new name and pronouns for the student, all without parental knowledge or consent – and even actively hiding it from parents by continuing to use the student’s birth name and pronouns when communicating with their parents. But as outraged as we are whenever we hear of these destructive policies, we aren’t surprised anymore. Since we first started litigating our case in Ludlow over this same type of policy, we have discovered that countless other schools in Massachusetts have such a policy.
In Leominster, however, the acts of one courageous Christian teacher could be the catalyst to topple LPS’s policy of parental deception. A Christian high school math teacher who taught at LPS stood up at a school committee meeting last month and blew the whistle on this policy. He shared how, after he requested a religious accommodation to not have to lie to parents, he was let go from his job.
You can listen to some of the teacher’s story, in his own words, here:
You can also hear me talk about it on the Howie Carr show, here:
After hearing the teacher’s story, we sent a letter to the Leominster school committee urging that they adopt a new policy which requires parental consent whenever a student requests that the school use a different name or pronouns for them. We believe that parents, not school “experts,” should be the ones making these critical decisions for their own children. You can read our letter to the school committee below:
If you live in Leominster, or even if you don’t, and you want to help make a difference on this issue, we want to hear from you. We need people to tell the school committee to do the right thing now that they know the truth about what is going on in their school district.
Only light can drive out darkness. Join us in exposing these destructive policies today.
For our families,
Sam Whiting
Staff Attorney
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