A Colorado mother has filed a lawsuit against a local school district after she said her daughter was among a group of sixth-graders recruited into an after-school “art” club that was not at all what it seemed.
“When she got there, she very quickly learned it was actually a gender and sexuality awareness club,” Erin Lee said in an interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner on Tuesday.
“The art teacher had invited in an outside presenter into the classroom that day, and this woman did absolutely unthinkable things with the kids,” she alleged.
Lee revealed that the substitute educator used flags as a visual representation of “umbrella terms” and claimed that individuals who were not fully comfortable with their biological sex were transgender. Additionally, the teacher informed the pupils that they could identify as “queer” if they had not yet determined their sexual orientation, Fox News reported.
“She talked to them about polyamory. She told them that these new labels that they had just adopted made them more likely to commit suicide and talked to them extensively about suicide,” she added.
According to Lee, the presenter also talked about the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and warned students that their parents may not be “safe” people to talk to about certain identities.
“She [the speaker] runs an organization called ‘Skittles’ for kids five to eleven to discuss gender and sexuality,” Lee said. She also told Faulkner that her daughter’s art teacher pulled her aside and said, “You don’t have to tell your parents.”
Lee revealed that some parents who lodged complaints only became aware of the existence of the secret after-school club a year later because their children were following the rules and did not disclose what happened during the meetings.
The families in the case against the school are being represented by Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, who went on to point out the importance of parents and school district taxpayers in demanding “accountability” and “transparency.”
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“These are taxpayer-funded teachers who are doing this,” she said. “And we want to send a nationwide message to these school systems, these parents and these school boards that parents govern their children, not these teachers, and we’re going to give them the tools that they need, our parents, to protect them against indoctrination and all of these crazy things that they’re doing.”
Last year, Lee made the allegations against Wellington Middle School and Poudre School District, located around 70 miles north of Denver. The Poudre School District confirmed the existence of the club and that conversations in it “may be confidential,” but declined to comment on the specific allegations made by Lee to “protect the privacy of the student and their family,” according to Fox News.
“Genders and Sexualities Alliances, or GSAs, were established as safe spaces for members of the LGBTQIA+ community, allies, and any individual to come together with the goals of ensuring inclusivity, safety, and support. Discussions in GSAs may be confidential given that they can sometimes be sensitive in nature (i.e. a student may be “out” with specific friends but not with the community at large),” a statement from the school said.
“In PSD, a GSA club could be student-sponsored, which is started/run/led by a student and has an adult present at meetings; or school-sponsored, which is started/run/led by an adult. The GSA at Wellington Middle School is school-sponsored,” it added.
