Thread by @Gnowknayme

I don't do Twitter much, but I would like to do a deep dive on the Erin Lee/Wellington Middle School/PSD Schools controversy about how this story has evolved over the past year. This is going to be a long one, so let's dig in... 1/48

Erin Lee showed up at the May 11, 2021 PSD Board meeting with her story about what happened on May 4, 2021. You can find it here: at the 40:20 timestamp. 2/48

She was upset that her young child was recruited into a meeting with a person who discussed her child's gender identity and sexuality, and she didn't know about it until after it happened. Fair enough. 3/48

She went on to say that programs like this should exist for teens, but mainly seemed to be upset that she didn't get a heads up that it was happening. 4/48

The next day, she posted on a local Facebook group about this, and added information about how the person who runs the program hands out stickers and bracelets, and that part of the program tells kids that parents are not safe. 5/48

I want to take a second here to point out that she was talking about the program, not specifically what happened to her child. As in, her child was not necessarily told that parents are not safe. 6/48

Jump to July 9, 2021. Erin has had a couple of months to process what happened, and gather details from her child. 7/48

At this point, she said that the incident happened in her child's art class, and reiterated that her child's sexuality and gender identity were discussed, and stickers and bracelets were handed out. 8/48

Jump to August 17, 2021. Erin posted about attending a Weld RE-4 board meeting where Kimberly Chambers also spoke. 9/48

Kimberly Chambers said in this meeting is "those kids are there by choice. They come to those clubs, and they don't always tell their parents because it's not safe to." 10/48

Erin Lee's incident was not mentioned at all despite Erin saying that she defended assaulting her child. 11/48

In this post, she now claims that her child was sexually assaulted, and we have the first mention of the Genderbread Man and Gender Unicorn. These are only mentioned as being part of the program, but not directly in relation to her child. 12/48

In mid-August, Erin started a change.org petition calling for the removal of SPLASH from PSD Schools. change.org/p/psd-superint… 13/48

As of now, the petition has 1,170 supporters, and Erin said she would be bringing it to the superintendent on August 30, 2021. 14/48

Jump to November 1, 2021. Erin posted again, calling the incident "sexual victimization" in the art classroom, and said that she was told that SPLASH would no longer be in PSD Schools. 15/48

November 16, 2021. Erin confirmed that SPLASH will no longer be in PSD Schools, and the Genderbread Man and Gender Unicorn have been removed from the curriculum. All of her issues seem to have been addressed. The end??? 16/48

Jump to May 3, 2022. About 6 months since we last heard from Erin, and almost one year since the incident. 17/48

Erin was interviewed by Alex Newman of New American Magazine ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_A… ), and the story has evolved significantly: bit.ly/3sNxE04 18/48

This was the first time that Erin said that her child was invited to stay for "art club" after school that was actually a Gender and Sexuality Awareness club. 19/48

This is the first time that Erin talks about the "what you hear in here, keep in here" rule and claims that this rule means to keep everything in this club a secret from their parents. 20/48

This was the first time that Erin said that her child was told "if you're not 100% comfortable in your female body, it's because you're transgender" and was given gifts for saying they're transgender. 21/48

This is the first time that Erin directly claimed that the "Genderbread Person activity" was used in this incident as opposed to just being a part of the SPLASH program. 22/48

This is the first time that Erin says that her child was given Kimberly Chamber's personal contact information. 23/48

This is the first time that Erin says that her child was prompted to connect with Kimberly Chambers on Discord, or Whatsapp "where parents can't see the communication." 24/48

Jump to May 8, 2022. Erin did an interview with Jon Caldara ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Calda… ) of the Independence Institute ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independe… ). 25/48

Erin uses all of the same talking points from the New American interview, and Erin appears to confirm in this interview that her child is transgender, but said she does not believe it. 26/48

This is the first time that Erin says that her child was told "parents aren't safe, but I am." 27/48

This is the first time that Erin says that her child was specifically taught about Colorado HB 19-2020 which says that children age 12+ do not need parental permission to seek medical care. 28/48

May 10, 2022 defendinged.org covered the incident, and included some emails between PSD staff and Kimberly Chambers. bit.ly/3MyMeRd 29/48

These emails contain unredacted names of PSD staff that were involved, and point out that the student has not been in school since the incident. 30/48

Further, the emails show concern that the student should not out other students that were in attendance, and that there is a potential for the parents to reject the child if the situation is not handled correctly. 31/48

Lastly, one email recommends talking to administration about "doing a well child check or whatever is within the policies of the school." Erin has used this to claim that CPS was called to investigate her. 32/48

May 11, 2022 we seem to have the first "major" media coverage at Fox News. foxnews.com/politics/mom-m… 33/48

Everything before this point is fact. Now it's time for my opinion. Obviously all of these new details in the interviews hit the right combination of triggers, and the story blew up all of a sudden. 34/48

However, if all of this was true, wouldn't Erin have revealed it earlier? Like, much earlier? I would think that right off the bat, she would have been pissed off about her child being duped into the "art club." 35/48

She would have been (rightfully) pissed off about her child being told to keep everything a secret from their parents. 36/48

Side note: The "what you hear in here, keep in here" rule was pulled from the SPLASH website ( splashnoco.org ) and interpreted by Erin incorrectly. The rule is intended to keep kids from outing each other to their peers. 37/48

She would have been (rightfully) pissed off about her child being given Kimberly Chambers' personal contact information. 38/48

She would have been (rightfully) pissed off that her child was told "if you're not 100% comfortable in your female body, it's because you're transgender." 39/48

But none of that came up until she was interviewed by New American Magazine. She appeared to have a lot of coaching prior to this interview, and it worked to set off the far-right wing. 40/48

Erin has only been interviewed by far-right wing organizations and personalities, and none of them have spoken to Kimberly Chambers or the Art Teacher. 41/48

All of the controversy appears to revolve around the child being duped into attending the group in secret and being told to keep it a secret from the parents, but there is absolutely no evidence to support these claims. 42/48

Several current and former students and parents of students at Wellington Middle School have come forward to say that the group is student-led, and there is nothing secret about it. 43/48

Students are simply given a safe space for those who aren't able to discuss LGBTQ+ topics at home. 44/48

Personally, I do not believe that any of this happened, and it's all Erin's interpretation of what MIGHT have happened based on what she read on the SPLASH website. 45/48

Further, I believe it was incredibly irresponsible for defendinged.org and Daily Mail to publish the name of the art teacher. 46/48

Anyway, I spent WAY too much time on this, but hopefully someone will find it enlightening. I'm sure it's too late to counteract the media attention that Erin is getting, but I still had to get it out there. 47/48

P.S. Fuck whoever started the trend of calling everyone a groomer or pedophile if they support the LGBTQ+ community. That shit is repulsive. By calling this "grooming" you've made it harder to call out real grooming. #boywhocriedwolf 48/48

One last thing for people who don't know me. I'm not some rando who started following this after it blew up. I'm from Wellington, and I've been following this story since Erin first appeared at the meeting in May 2021.