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The Eau Claire school district in Wisconsin, under the woke leadership of Superintendent Michael Johnson, has reportedly instructed teachers not to reveal the gender identities of students, asserting that “parents are not entitled to know,” and that it is “knowledge that must be earned.”

The directive was given during recent staff development sessions for teachers in the Eau Claire Area School District in central Wisconsin. Those training sessions included topics such as safe spaces, gender identity, microaggressions, and oppression. One instructor allegedly asserted that parents who disagree with their children about gender identity issues are guilty of a form of “abuse.” They also urged teachers to become activists, telling them “to vote, to demonstrate, to protest.”

“As part of our ongoing work to support our students, our staff received training focus on creating safe spaces at school for all students,” Johnson announced, according to the Daily Mail.

“Data shows that students who identify within the LGBTQIA+ community have a higher incidence of mental health issues along with a higher sense of isolation… 87% of LGBTQIA+ students report mental health concerns and just 44% have a sense of belonging compared to 46% and 68% for straight-cisgender students,” he charged.

BREAKING REPORT: Eau Claire School District in Wisconsin ORDERS TEACHERS during a staff training day – NOT to share their pupil’s GENDER IDENTITIES with their parents. – ‘Remember, parents are NOT ENTITLED to know their kids' identities'..

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) March 31, 2022

“Our staff often find themselves in positions of trust with our students. The staff development presentation shared extensive data and information to assist our staff members in our ongoing efforts to create a safe and supportive learning environment for all students. The ECASD prides itself on being a school district that makes all students feel welcome and safe in our schools,” Johnson stated.

When news of the sessions leaked out, parents were reportedly infuriated. Critics contend that it sends the message that schools have more control over children than parents and families do.

This is just the latest incident from this school district. They have also pushed white privilege tests and heterosexual privilege checklists, according to Fox News.

The sessions were hosted by diversity and multiculturalism staffers from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire in February. Empower Wisconsin and Parents Defending Education first reported on the training.

“Remember, parents are not entitled to know their kids’ identities. That knowledge must be earned. Teachers are often straddling this complex situation. In ECASD, our priority is supporting the student,” one slide included in the training sessions stated.

‘Remember, Parents in WOKE WISCONSIN public school system are not entitled to know their kids’ identities’.
Lawsuits coming to push back against public schools and assert parental rights as supreme.

— Stare Decisis (@MsResJudicata) March 31, 2022

Chris Jorgenson, who is the director of UW Eau Claire’s Gender & Sexuality Research Center, said “teachers are often put in terrible positions caught between parents and their students. But much like we wouldn’t act as stand-ins for abuse in other circumstances, we cannot let parents’ rejection of their children guide teachers’ reactions and actions and advocacy for our students.”

Three local school board candidates, Nicole Everson, Corey Cronrath, and Melissa Winter immediately issued a joint statement on the sessions claiming they were “appalled” and “dismayed that current school district leadership would pressure teachers into breaking a social contract that we all know and understand – that parents and guardians hold primary responsibility for the welfare and care of their children.”

It’s like they asked themselves, “how do we transform children without taking them out of the home?” then did that. No ethics at all. None.

— Lone Star Protester (@ProtesterLone) March 31, 2022

Teachers were informed by trainers before the session began that they should expect to feel “cathartic discomfort” that would entail lessons on misgendering, sex orientation laws, deadnaming, and the evolution of “identity and language.” At one point, they also referred to a so-called “Genderbread Person,” which is a drawing of a gingerbread man that highlights the differences between gender identity, gender expression, biological sex, and romantic and sexual attraction.

Dang Yang, who is the director of multicultural affairs at UW Eau Claire, concluded the safe spaces training by telling the teachers “intentionality and action are always hallmarks of what we always want to walk away with. … We also want to encourage you to go out there, to vote, to demonstrate, to protest, to listen, to intervene, and above all else, of course, to love. Love is love is love is love.”

Part of the microaggressions training covered the differences between microinsults, microinvalidations, and microassaults. Examples included the concept of color blindness, the “myth of meritocracy,” assuming any student’s gender, and “sexist/heterosexist language,” including “being forced to choose between male and female when completing basic forms.”

Schools seem to think when parents send their kids to school, parents abdicate their parental rights to schools.

— Beverly A. Pekala (@PekalaLaw) March 31, 2022

Disgraceful. Kids belong to parents, not school administrators and union brass.

— John Heiderscheidt (@notguiltyCHI) March 31, 2022

Teachers were also asked to take “The White Privilege Test.”

Parents Defending Education posted a letter from an alleged former Eau Claire teacher who wrote about walking out of the session and being “more ashamed to be a teacher than I ever have been in my many years in the profession.”

“My breaking point this year was when I had a female student tell a guidance counselor that she now wanted to go by a boy’s name,” the teacher elaborated in the letter. “There were THIRTY other staff members that were included on that email, and we were told to not tell the parents. Act like nothing happened if we needed to contact home. Could you imagine being a parent and finding out that thirty teachers are calling your girl a boy’s name and you knew nothing about it? I would be beside myself. That is a major decision for a 14-year-old to make! For parents to not be a part of it is mind-blowing.”

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Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Staff Writer at BizPac Review

Terresa Monroe-Hamilton is a Constitutional Conservative who researches and writes extensively on politics and current events.

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