In the coming weeks, a new school year will begin across MA. Children of all ages will soon be back in the classroom, meeting new teachers and making new friends. Unfortunately, many will also encounter ideas that conflict with the values they’ve learned at home or in church. These ideas often fall under the umbrella of “woke,” especially as it relates to controversial ideas about human sexuality and what it means to be male or female.
In partnership with Massachusetts Informed Parents, MFI diligently monitors these emerging ideas and works hard to inform parents and empower them to protect their kids. We’ve compiled the top 10 woke trends and practices we uncovered in MA schools during the 2023-2024 school year, so parents know what to look out for in the new school year:
1. Sexuality-Themed Clubs for Elementary School Kids
Most parents have heard of GSAs, or Gender and Sexuality Alliances, the sexuality-themed clubs for “queer kids” and their “allies” common in high schools (and increasingly being found in middle schools). But this year, we learned about Rainbow Clubs, which are GSAs for elementary school children. Sometimes called Rainbow Alliances, these clubs target the youngest students with gender and sexuality-related events and discussions, often intermingled with fun and appealing activities like crafts, games, and snacks. Some districts don’t require parental consent for young students to attend, so it’s important that parents are aware that these clubs exist. So far, we have found them in Arlington, Cambridge, East Longmeadow, Billerica, Newton, and Ashland, but they may soon crop up in other schools too. You can learn more about Rainbow Clubs here.
Image: Rainbow Alliance bulletin board, Brackett Elementary School in Arlington
2. Drag Queens Galore
You might think that a drag queen ending up in a public school is an anomaly, but we found several in MA last school year! In November 2023, Somerville High School’s GSA hosted drag queen Amanda Playwith for an after-school discussion about drag. A month later, Newton South High School featured a drag performance during the school day as part of an “LGBTQ+ Awareness Day.” In March 2024, Natick High School’s GSA hosted a dance that featured drag queen Madam Zapple as “Special Guest and MC.” (Note: If you’ve picked up on the fact that GSAs are often used to bring in adult sexual performers, you are correct!) In the same month, Sutton High School hosted its Connections Conference, which featured drag queen Diva D. The photos of Diva D, wearing a tiny pink miniskirt and exposing his underwear while he danced on a table surrounded by students, went viral nationwide. We’ll talk more about Sutton later.
Image: Diva D the drag queen, performing for minors at the Sutton Connections Conference
3. Gender-Confused Teachers
In today’s age of gender confusion, more people are identifying as “nonbinary,” meaning they don’t consider themselves strictly male or female. Many prefer the title “Mx.” (pronounced “mix”) instead of Mr. or Mrs. and may use they/them pronouns. Some of these individuals are teachers in MA public schools.
As reported by members of Massachusetts Informed Parents, there were nonbinary-identifying teachers who either asked their students to call them “Mx.” or address them with they/them pronouns in Acton, Somerville, Natick, Swampscott, Maynard, Arlington, Burlington, and Winchester – and this is likely only a partial list. See below for a snippet of a welcome letter from one of these teachers. Would your child know how to interact with a teacher like this? Now’s the time to ask them.
Image: Snippet of a welcome letter to students from a teacher in a MA public school.
4. Boys Dominating in Girls Sports
Last school year, MA saw more than one high-profile example of the fallout that can happen when larger, faster males are allowed to compete against females. In November, a male Swampscott field hockey player caused significant injuries to a female player on the Dighton-Rehoboth team when a hard ball he hit smashed her in the face. Then in February, the Collegiate Charter School of Lowell’s girls’ basketball team forfeited against Lynn’s KIPP Academy mid-game, as a trans-identifying male on KIPP’s team reportedly caused multiple injuries. It was later reported that the male KIPP player had competed as a female in four different sports and had allegedly made lewd comments to a female athlete in the locker room. Both incidents made national news, making MA one of the most woke states when it comes to not protecting girls’ sports.
5. DESE’s New Groomer Health Curriculum Framework
We have been sounding the alarm for years about the dangers of Comprehensive Sexuality Education in MA schools, and the problem has only grown worse. In September, the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) voted to approve their new Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Framework. We rallied thousands of parents to write in and object to this Framework, but DESE approved it anyway. This outrageous framework is currently optional, but DESE has been working overtime to push local districts to implement it, and a majority of them have. The new framework calls for teaching kids as young as Pre-K about their genitalia, providing direct instruction on gender ideology to kids as young as third grade, and teaching students that pretty much any sex act is morally permissible, as long as they “consent.” The new framework was endorsed and celebrated by woke organizations like Planned Parenthood – a fact that speaks volumes. Parents should find out if their district is using this new framework. Visiting our Sex Ed resource page is a great place to start.
6. A Fleet of Trojan Horses: Anti-Bias, Social Justice, SEL, and Anti-Bullying
In October, we learned that Danvers Public Schools was reading picture books about gender ideology to kids as young as kindergarten as part of a “culturally responsive,” “anti-bias” curriculum used during their Social Emotional Learning (SEL) block. In December, Wakefield High School students were deeply indoctrinated into all things gender-ideology-and-sexual-orientation related. But it didn’t happen in Sex Ed as parents might expect, it happened in an extended homeroom advisory period. Then in February, Arlington elementary schoolers participated in “No Name Calling Week,” a celebration of gender ideology and sexual orientation masquerading as an anti-bullying campaign. In May, first graders in Newton were taught about gender and gender identity during a “Social Justice and Diversity” lesson. That same week, in Danvers, the same thing happened to students at a private Catholic high school. It’s almost as if schools know that parents are opting out of sex ed, so they smuggle in sexual ideology anywhere else they can.
Image: Social justice/diversity lesson given to Newton 1st graders.
7. Bizarre Sex Ed and More Drag Queens
In November, we learned that Uxbridge Public Schools was using some unscientific, outrageous, and downright weird instructional resources to teach sex ed. One of their lessons even included a video that featured drag queens! We wrote about Uxbridge’s outlandish and irresponsible curriculum here. But just when you thought sex ed couldn’t get more bizarre, enter the SOGIE Astronaut. This graphic, pictured below, was obtained via a public records request to the Arlington Public Schools, where it is used in grades 7-9. Arlington also uses a “Gender Galaxy” graphic, apparently to usher students into a galaxy of confusion. Arlington seems to be trying hard to win the Woke Award of the Year. If you’re in Arlington and you want to help save your public school system, contact Jess Richardson at [email protected].
Image: This graphic is used in grades 7-9 in Arlington Public Schools.
8. Sneaky Surveys, Policies, and Social Media Apps that Separate Children from their Parents
This year, MA schools tried to keep lots of secrets from parents. Schools in the MetroWest area made it almost impossible for parents to see the sensitive questions on the MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey (but we secured them anyway). In Westborough, the high school GSA club uses a falsely named Google Classroom so kids can keep their attendance a secret from their parents. If that’s not bad enough, they also direct kids to an even more secret Discord chat so they can connect outside of the school network (we exposed this deceptive practice). And in towns like Natick and Leominster, school policies allow the district to keep a child’s gender transition a secret (one brave Leominster teacher questioned this policy and lost his job shortly after). Schools often say they practice transparency with parents, but we saw last year, more than ever, that the exact opposite is usually true.
9. All Things “Pride”
From the very beginning of last school year, we heard from parents that they were seeing more Pride flags than ever at their children’s school. There were Pride and gender/sexuality-related flags at every educational level – even elementary schools and middle schools! Parents were upset, but their recourse was limited. As June grew near, we set up a first-ever “Pride Watch” to help parents keep up on what sexuality-related events were happening in school districts, so they could protect their kids. Even the Scholastic Book Fair was overtaken by Pride! We alerted parents to so many examples of Pride in MA schools that our “Pride Watch” gained attention from a left-leaning news site. The reporter didn’t appreciate “Pride Watch” very much, but as long as schools keep pushing sexuality and gender confusion onto kids, we’ll keep exposing it.
Image: The Pride and non-binary flags, as displayed inside a MA elementary school.
10. Sutton’s ConCon
In March, Sutton Public Schools held its Connections Conference, or “ConCon.” The ConCon thoroughly encapsulates so many of the woke trends we have exposed in MA schools. It was a social justice-themed event, used to bring in a drag queen and talk to kids about gender and sexuality. The event claimed to be student-led, like GSAs, so this provided cover, for a while anyway. The ConCon reinforced all things “woke,” and it has done so for years. But because photos from the conference went viral this year, including the pink-skirted drag queen, the common-sense minded citizens of Sutton got “woke” as well – they woke up to what was going on in their school district. They spoke up very passionately at school committee meetings. And then when election time came, they made their votes count and changed the makeup of their school committee. Suttoners are now awake, in all the best ways. From what we hear, they aren’t going back to sleep anytime soon.
While we don’t know exactly what the 2024-2025 school year will bring for MA parents and families, we’re pretty confident that in most districts, the woke trends from last year will continue. This can feel discouraging for sure, but we must face the truth so we can proactively protect our kids. We’re also confident that as more parents wake up to the destructive ideologies being taught in their local school districts that they will demand change just like the Sutton parents did. When they do, MFI will be there to support them.
Visit the Sex Ed in MA, OPT OUT, and Education Alternatives pages of our website to learn more about what is being taught in MA schools, what your rights are as a parent, and options for exiting the public school system.
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