School Policy Keeps Gender Transitions Secret from Parents
Dear Parents,
Your child’s school may be keeping your child’s gender identity secret from you – in the state of California, it is legal for them to do so.
La Canada Unified and Glendale Unified have something called a Gender Support Plan, where a child can tell the school that they want to live life as a gender other than their birth sex. We have discovered that the current Gender Support Plan is a shared understanding between the school and the student only. Parental consent is not required to enact a Gender Support Plan. It can be created without the knowledge or consent of the child's parents, and in some cases, it explicitly directs school staff how to withhold such information from parents.
The Gender Support Plan used in both districts was created by Gender Spectrum, which is the same organization that promotes the idea at its yearly conferences that girls as young as thirteen can get their breasts surgically removed, and if they regret it later, they can just get new ones:
The Gender Support Plan includes a section that asks if the parent has been notified. There is a “yes” or “no” option to that question. In addition, there are questions / steps in the Gender Support Plan that apply only if the parents are unaware of their child’s gender status.
Parents do not need to be notified about a gender change on a school campus in La Canada Unified or Glendale Unified. This is for all grade levels, starting at kindergarten. In fact, the California Department of Education states on their website (under Section #7), “With rare exceptions, schools are required to respect the limitations that a student places on the disclosure of their transgender status, including not sharing that information with the student’s parents.”
Per our reading of the Gender Support Plan and the California law titled the School Success and Opportunity Act (AB 1266), this means that if the child tells the school not to notify the parents, the school will keep it confidential from the parents. Our group watched Glendale Assistant Superintendent’s step-by-step tutorial on how to fill out a Gender Support Plan from August 2021, and it appears that if the Gender Support Plan is implemented for your child:
Your child will be called by a name at school other than what you named them when they were born.
Your child will be called by pronouns other than their birth sex (he/him, she/they, ze/zeir, etc.)
Your child may have two school ID cards; one with their birth name, and another with their new name that they are keeping hidden from you.
Your child may use opposite sex bathrooms and locker rooms.
Your child may have extensive conversations with adults at school regarding you, your parenting style, your family beliefs, your family religious values, and your family history, and the school would never inform you.
Your child may be discussing topics at school with staff and peers about sexual desires, their bodies, and their sexual identity, and the school would never inform you.
Your child may be meeting with a therapist either at school, or facilitated with the knowledge of the school, to discuss “gender affirming” procedures and interventions, including surgeries such as getting a double mastectomy, and the school would never inform you.
Your child may have an entirely new identity, promoted and encouraged by the school, living a double life, and the school would never inform you.
There may be a schoolwide conspiracy to keep your child’s identity – including their behaviors and interests and hopes for the future – a secret from you. Everyone else at school could know – the other kids, the teachers, the coaches, the administrative staff – and you, the parent, would never know. And this is perfectly legal. We have heard from multiple parents where their child “came out” as trans at school before they knew about it at home.
Here is the Gender Support Plan, specifically promoted by Kelly King, then Interim Superintendent of Glendale Unified School District, in an April 4, 2019 presentation to Franklin Elementary School:
Notice it says, “Guardians aware of student’s gender status? Yes/No” and it has a scale of 1-10 for level of support. Who determines the level of support, and how do they determine this? If the parents are unaware, how can they offer support?
In the August 2021 interview linked above, GUSD Assistant Superintendent Kelly King confirmed that they are using Gender Support Plans to hide student gender identities from families that may not be “affirming,” at minute 14:00:
Per the video:
Host: “Sometimes parents are not involved. You mentioned the high school student or younger who may come directly to you and not want to share this with their parents. There is an interesting dance you have to play there, can you help me understand? What if a family is not supportive, what is your role as the administrator, as the school professional?”
Assistant Superintendent Kelly King: “Our primary role is to affirm the student, as well as do what we need to do to keep them safe… So if the student does not have at least one affirming parent or guardian, then that is a very different discussion about what we can do, regarding privacy and public action. Because what we don’t want to do is change name on all records, and then change the gender marker, and then when Parker goes home, it outs the student to a family who may not be affirming.
“So on campus, we affirm name, we affirm gender, we affirm pronouns, we do what we can under our parameters, we make sure the student has access to facilities that they want to use, based on their choice, but we also have a very serious conversation with them about just being, sometimes sadly, physically safe, as well as social and emotionally safe, so that in their enthusiasm, they don’t put themselves in a position of conflict with their families that they can’t work through.”
Here is the official GUSD policy for transgender and gender non-conforming students:
https://www.gusd.net/cms/lib/CA01000648/Centricity/Domain/3487/ar-5145.3-nondiscrimination.pdf
Here on this GUSD document, it states under “Student Records”:
Here it appears to be saying that the mandatory student record could have one name, and the child could have a different name and pronouns at school, and the parents wouldn’t know about it.
These policies were put in place in Glendale Unified in 2016 and in La Canada Unified in 2021.
Were parents consulted or notified about this monumental change in parent rights?
Let Glendale and La Canada Unified know your thoughts:
Glendale Unified School District:
Vivian Ekchian: Superintendent of Glendale Schools, <vekchian@gusd.net>
Kelly King, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, <kking@gusd.net>
Greg Krikorian: <gkrikorian@gusd.net>
Shant Sahakian: <ssahakian@gusd.net>
Jennifer Freemon: <jfreemon@gusd.net>
Armina Gharpetian: <agharpetian@gusd.net>
Nayiri Nahabedian: <nnahabedian@gusd.net>
La Canada Unified School District:
Wendy Sinnette: La Canada Unified District Superintendent, <wsinnette@lcusd.net>
Dan Jeffries: LCUSD Governing Board President <djeffries@lcusd.net>
Caroline Anderson: Board member <canderson@lcusd.net>
Josh Epstein: Board member <jepstein@lcusd.net>
Kaitzer Puglia: Board member <kpuglia@lcusd.net>
Joe Radabaugh: Board member <jradabaugh@lcusd.net>
If you live in Glendale, Burbank or La Canada and have documents or testimonials from your child’s schools, please send us information at <genderidentityk12@protonmail.com>. Your identity will always remain confidential.
If you found this article informative, please feel free to forward it to a fellow parent at your school.
Thank you,
The Gender Identity K-12 Team