At least one teacher in a Colorado public school required their students to state their preferred names and pronouns on a classroom survey, a recent public-records request revealed.
Distributed by a teacher at Heritage High School, the survey obtained by Parents Defending Education asks students their “preferred name,” their “legal name,” and their “preferred pronouns,” and specifies that, “There are no right or wrong answers and no judgement, so please answer honestly and completely.” Parents were not notified of the survey before it was conducted.
“Expecting every student to provide their pronouns as a condition of being in a class is a sign that gender ideology has made its way into the classroom,” Erika Sanzi, PDE’s director of outreach, said. “Students have no obligation to participate in a teacher’s belief system.”
Colorado requires districts to notify parents and obtain parental consent before asking students about their sexuality or gender identity, under the Pupils Protection Rights Amendment.
“This survey is an example of the widespread practice of the violations against the PPRA requirement for schools to notify parents and obtain consent prior to giving students surveys asking about sexuality or gender identity. Having high school students forced to complete the survey and not providing an opt out choice is adding insult to injury,” Mailyn Salabarria, PDE’s director of community outreach said. “Teachers and districts engaging in these practices continue to alienate parents from crucial developmental moments in their children’s lives, even though parents have the constitutionally protected right to direct their child’s upbringing and education. It is wrong and needs to stop.”
School districts across the country conduct surveys that require minors to list their preferred names, pronouns, or gender. In neighboring Jefferson County, a teachers union told Colorado teachers, “If you do a questionnaire, please make it a paper and pencil activity – any digital records are more permanent and may be requested under federal law.” The union also asked teachers not to keep evidence of surveys.
“By allowing students an optional avenue to share their preferred pronouns while maintaining student privacy, we can better ensure that students feel safe, respected, and validated. We encourage and support educators to follow Jeffco’s district policy which states: School staff shall not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status to others, including parents and other school staff, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure,” the union president, Brooke Williams, said in a statement. “Transgender and gender nonconforming students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much to share private information.”
But parents are pushing back against districts that conceal minors’ gender transitions. Nationwide, school boards have implemented parental-notification policies, which require schools to tell parents when their children want to change their pronouns, legal name, or biological gender, including in California, where seven school boards have passed such measures.
Littleton also issues transgender guidance that tells teachers and administrators to “seek to involve parents and legal guardians in the process of a student’s social transition at school to support the student’s health, safety and well-being,” but the policy does not require teachers, staff, or students to disclose gender transition to parents.
“There is no justification for withholding information from parents about their child’s gender change at school,” Sanzi said. “Parents have the fundamental right to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children and policies that deceive parents are unethical and unconstitutional.”
Littleton students are allowed to use restrooms and participate in sports teams according to their preferred gender identities without parental consent. In situations where students request “use of a new name or gender pronouns by staff and peers at school and/or access [to] restrooms or locker rooms of a new gender but does not want to inform their parents/guardians, the school mental health professional will meet with the student to proactively discuss parental involvement, resources for support, limitations to privacy due to school being a public place and to clarify that school staff will not lie to parents / guardians if asked about this information,” the district’s guidance says.
Littleton Public Schools also lists transgender and LGBTQ resources on its district website, including a handbook on “coming out” from the pro-LGBTQ organization, the Trevor Project. A mother last year exposed the Trevor Project’s online chat-rooms as a “Pandora’s box” of sexual depravity. The organization claims that it’s trained 20,000 educators on how to create “safe spaces” in schools, and says it’s reached more than 100,000 youth.