In modern society the greatest virtue is tolerance of all forms of sexual behavior and gender variances.
The latest effect of this thinking is private elementary schools in the Bay Area discarding gender boundaries to accommodate youngsters who want to look and act like the opposite sex.
At Park Day School in Oakland teachers have stopped asking children to line up according to gender, a unisex bathroom policy has been established, and boys play girls and girls play boys in school skits. The school has hired a consultant help the staff learn to accommodate children who believe they are the opposite gender. Aurora School, also in Oakland, has taken similar measures.
“If you are forced to be something you don’t want to be as a kid, you are miserable,” said Carla Odiaga, the consultant hired by Park Day. Odiaga has worked with numerous LGBT teenagers who she says are scarred by early memories – a daughter forced to dress like a girl, for instance.
With the passage of The California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act (CSSVP) in 2000, public schools in California have been forced to accommodate transgender children. CSSVP prohibits discrimination and harassment in public schools on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
California is not alone when it comes to gender- variant children. This year a couple in Florida convinced the Broward County school system to admit their son to kindergarten as a girl.
While no child should be harassed at school, catering to gender variance only confuses children and disrupts the educational environment. It is unfortunate for our children that many schools are more concerned with being politically correct than with teaching academics.
Also, it is ridiculous to assert that children should never be ‘forced’ to do something,” continued England. “If it were entirely up to them, most kids would never attend school to begin with.
Karen England is the Executive Director of the Capitol Resource Institute.
