Maine school teaches students about trans issues, conservative parent erupts
Several parents weren't happy
“I feel like my thoughts, feelings and beliefs were completely ignored…. My right as a parent to allow or not allow this discussion with my child was taken from me.”
–The mother of a child at Horace Mitchell Primary School in Kittery Point, Maine, speaking with Hannity.com, the website of conservative television host Sean Hannity.
She objected to a lesson at the school in which a guidance counselor read to a first grade class from “I Am Jazz,” a book co-written by transgender teen Jazz Jennings about her experience coming out as trans at a young age. According to the mother, her son started asking questions about being transgender, including whether he could be. “I was taken aback by it,” she said.
However, another parent has declared their support for the school’s lesson. “We fully support the staff of Horace Mitchell School. People in this country, parents in this country are outraged by bullying, teen suicide rates and the depression in children. The staff of Mitchell School is doing something about this. By teaching acceptance and love they are shedding a light on [LGBTI] issues,” Gay Star News reports.
The school district’s superintendent has also supported the teaching of Jazz’s story.
“We have a practice of if a topic is considered sensitive, parents should be informed. In this situation, that didn’t happen,” she conceded. However, the lesson was in-line with school’s goals for students. “The whole culture at Mitchell School is about teaching tolerance and respect. The people presenting the lesson thought [I Am Jazz] was one more piece of teaching that lesson.”
Image Credit: Dial Books
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