By now, anyone who follows news about the ‘wokeness’ inherent in most public schools—and some private and even parochial schools as well—knows at least one story about some school promoting transsexuality. Usually, this involves a school official assisting a child to get “gender-affirming care” without parental knowledge or permission.
A Changing, but Uncertain Picture
As recently as January 19, 2025, such policies met with wholehearted approval throughout the public education bureaucracy. Only ten months later, a showdown is developing between the federal government and several more liberal states.
Why America Must Reject Isolationism and Its Dangers
Exactly which state or locality will enter the Supreme Court as the administration’s adversary is uncertain. However, the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) is a prime candidate. Recently, documents have become public, revealing just how far the SPS is willing to go to promote its twisted views.
Unfortunately, many school systems are quite willing to promote the “transgender” agenda. They provide counseling, referrals to specialized physicians, and work to ensure that teachers and fellow students will “respect” the child’s manipulated identity. SPS goes further, actually procuring devices to enable students to carry on the masquerade. According to documents, primarily emails, obtained by Defending Education, a school watchdog group, the “supplies” came from Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH). The direct supplier is the hospital’s Community Health Locker Project.
Promoting Sexual Confusion
Even in a community that leans leftward, such actions are controversial. Ironically, some parents are willing to accept the general concept of sexual “transition,” but object when the subject is their own child. The SPS meets such objections by presenting itself as an advocate for the children against their parents.
Some of the emails revealed are especially shocking. An email from SCH staff to SPS personnel showcased the level of comradeship among ultra-liberal bureaucracies.
“Thanks for your patience regarding the Community Health Locker project. This is a grant-funded project that aims to offer gender-affirming supplies in our high schools…. [H]ere are some of the items we plan to order and send to you.” Then, a detailed list followed, including binders, tapes, oils, salves, make-up and other materials.
A New Federal Policy
The documents also alluded to the conflict with the new federal administration in the most guarded terms. “Things have been pushed back a bit, “the email explained, “as our office has been navigating some of the federal changes affecting LGBTQ+ communities.”
Eternal and Natural Law: The Foundation of Morals and Law
Those “federal changes” referred to Executive Order 14190, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” signed by President Trump on January 29, 2025.
This Executive Order (EO) states that “parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.” The order notes that “young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed.”
The SPS’s policies clearly defy EO 14190. In addition, the SPS implements trans policies that contradict the procedures most schools use to address all other health and grooming issues.
The Usual “Hands Off” Policies
Regarding appearance, public schools impose virtually no standards on clothing, hairstyles or cleanliness. At the same time, they do not provide clothing or grooming items to students.
When it comes to health, the general policy is to be as “hands-off” as possible. If students suffer injuries during school hours, the first step is to call their parents. At no time would any school, on its own authority, apply a cast to a broken arm, administer a tranquilizer or even carry an unconscious child to another room. Such emergency care always involves calling in the parents and, perhaps, the local EMTs. To do otherwise is to risk a lawsuit.
Even administering a common pain reliever, such as aspirin, typically requires parental approval.
Confusing State Laws and Policies
However, many state legislatures allow exemptions from those procedures under only two circumstances. In many states, the schools will assist a minor female to obtain an abortion without her parents’ knowledge or permission. The other case is regarding changing “gender identity.”
Read About the Prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success About Our Times
Thus, the best term to describe the current state of the law in this area is chaotic. Regarding “gender identity,” the U.S. Supreme Court needs to make a final decision. When and if that will come is anybody’s guess. Many hoped that the Court would make such a decision earlier this year in United States v. Skermetti. Their decision was a disappointment that satisfied neither side, a head-scratching 6-3 decision that allowed Tennessee’s law, but under conditions so narrow as to leave the issue essentially unresolved.
Thus, parents with children in public school are left with two options. The first is to leave the public school system by homeschooling or finding a non-woke private school. The second is to stay inside the system. Parents must then make it their business to know and understand their schools’ policies. They must oppose violations of parental rights found in “gender identity issues.” They must fight these policies at school board meetings and mobilize others.
Both ways are difficult. However, no one ever said that parenting is a leisure-time activity. Children deserve the best.
Photo Credit: © Jessie – stock.adobe.com