September 5, 2017
(frc.org) – Most kindergarteners can’t even say “transgender,” let alone understand it. That hasn’t mattered to the politically-correct administrators at California’s Rocklin Academy, where they believe “education” includes reintroducing boys as girls in front of a class of five-year-olds. Moms and dads were horrified to learn that wasn’t all that happened at the popular charter school, where kids were also brainwashed with gender-confused books and stories without ever notifying parents.
Fortunately, Rocklin officials don’t seem to be getting away with the indoctrination, which has forced the principal to play public defense since the issue was brought to light at the end of the last school year. Parents are pulling their children out of the school — and fast, according to the Washington Times. Already, 11 families have transferred their kids out of Rocklin, and Karen England, the director of the pro-family Capitol Resource Institute, believes that’s just the beginning. “There may be more — I just found out about another one today,” she said. “A lot of parents are just finding out about this, so it’s just the beginning.”
Despite the mass exodus, the school doesn’t appear to be learning its lesson. “For context, there are 1,280 students at Rocklin Academy,” a spokeswoman told the Times. “So [it’s] not a phenomenon,” she insisted (in obvious damage control mode). In Washington, D.C., where parents are equally upset at the reading of the kids’ book I Am Jazz, one father was told by the principal, “The book used is one that is a respected text in honoring the diversity of our children. It is a text that explains a real situation that many children face in self-acceptance, acceptance by others, and being true to themselves. We feel the classroom is the appropriate place to share such messages.”
But if the book were as respected as he suggests, why not let the parents decide? Or, at the very least, know.
In the weeks and months since the firestorm, Rocklin parents are in such an uproar that the school board is holding a special meeting to discuss the matter September 18.
Maybe there, officials will hear reports like this one from the American College of Pediatricians, which calls the school’s gender ideology “child abuse.”
Even if these children manage to escape the propaganda unscathed, liberals in California are trying to ensure that there’s an even bigger hurdle waiting. Under a new bill just introduced in the state senate, locals would actually be punished with jail time for not using the correct pronoun for the gender-confused. Buried in a long-term care measure, State Senator Scott Weiner is suggesting California put people behind bars for referring to a patient based on their actual gender! “If passed into law,” reporters explain, “the policy would punish nursing home and long-term care workers who refuse to call patients by their preferred pronouns with fines of up to $1,000, or jail time for up to a year, or both.” As if that weren’t radical enough, SB 219 would also mandate that facilities open their restroom doors to people of both genders!
The California Catholic Conference, which is just one of the organizations fighting the idea, points out another major problem with the legislation — which is that it would threaten the faith-based institutions with deep convictions about human sexuality.
“Compelled speech is not free speech,” argued the California Family Council’s Greg Burt. “Can the government compel a newspaper to use certain pronouns that aren’t even in the dictionary? Of course not, or is that coming next?”
Remember when the Left promised that same-sex marriage wasn’t going to affect you? Two years removed from the Supreme Court ruling that forced this redefinition on the nation, and Americans are finally realizing that it’s not simply about love. If it were, the people who love God would be treated with the same degree of tolerance as everyone else.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.