Tide turning in the captured Bay Area? 🌊
Three school board members backing female athletes and now progressive teacher Arienne Adamčíková lands a stunning letter in @smdailyjournal.
Full text & link ⬇️
Three school board members backing female athletes and now progressive teacher Arienne Adamčíková lands a stunning letter in @smdailyjournal.
Full text & link ⬇️
A Teacher’s Call for Honesty and Parental Involvement
By Arienne Adamčíková
I am a mother, a Spanish teacher in the San Mateo Union High School District, and a longtime lesbian and gay rights activist. At the Sept. 10 board meeting, where trustees debated policy updates on gender identity, I spoke not only as a longtime progressive educator but as the parent of a son who once identified as transgender.
The Daily Journal’s recent coverage reduced this debate to a single trustee’s concerns. In reality, the board delayed its vote because women’s rights advocates raised legitimate questions. To their credit, trustees ultimately rejected two troubling recommendations from the California School Boards Association: removing parents entirely from the process, and reclassifying a student’s sex as “private information.” Both would have undermined trust between families and schools.
I urged the board to require parental involvement in any future updates to gender policies. Schools must not take the place of families in making decisions with life-altering consequences for children.
I have spent decades fighting homophobia and sexism. It pains me to see students taught to view their personalities through the narrow lens of “gender identity.” Sensitive or creative children, especially those struggling with body issues, are told they were “born in the wrong body.” That message is not liberating. It is regressive and homophobic.
In my son’s case, school affirmation of his “trans girl” identity deepened his distress and echoed the bullying he had endured. Thankfully, he has since desisted, but the harm remains real. Families must never be cut out of this conversation.
By Arienne Adamčíková
I am a mother, a Spanish teacher in the San Mateo Union High School District, and a longtime lesbian and gay rights activist. At the Sept. 10 board meeting, where trustees debated policy updates on gender identity, I spoke not only as a longtime progressive educator but as the parent of a son who once identified as transgender.
The Daily Journal’s recent coverage reduced this debate to a single trustee’s concerns. In reality, the board delayed its vote because women’s rights advocates raised legitimate questions. To their credit, trustees ultimately rejected two troubling recommendations from the California School Boards Association: removing parents entirely from the process, and reclassifying a student’s sex as “private information.” Both would have undermined trust between families and schools.
I urged the board to require parental involvement in any future updates to gender policies. Schools must not take the place of families in making decisions with life-altering consequences for children.
I have spent decades fighting homophobia and sexism. It pains me to see students taught to view their personalities through the narrow lens of “gender identity.” Sensitive or creative children, especially those struggling with body issues, are told they were “born in the wrong body.” That message is not liberating. It is regressive and homophobic.
In my son’s case, school affirmation of his “trans girl” identity deepened his distress and echoed the bullying he had endured. Thankfully, he has since desisted, but the harm remains real. Families must never be cut out of this conversation.
Link to article: smdailyjournal.com/news/local/san…
My response to the article. I’m still disappointed in the inaccuracies in the reporting, but grateful they published Arienne’s letter. @JonMays
https://twitter.com/womenarereals/status/1967621671910785041
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