Middle school students tear down Pride banners, chant 'USA are my pronouns' while wearing red, white, and blue

School administrators in Burlington, Massachusetts, called the actions of students who resisted a middle school's Pride Month celebrations "completely unacceptable." They also said it was "demeaning" to other students while likening it to violence.

According to Boston.com, on June 2, 2023, students at Marshall Simonds Middle School showed their obvious displeasure with the school's "spirit day" celebration. The event was requested and sponsored by the school's Spectrum Club, a student group for alleged LGBTQ+ students and allies, according to the outlet.

The club decorated the school with "Happy Pride Month" signs and posters that said “Why it’s not ok to say ‘That’s so gay.’” Rainbow streamers, banners, and stickers were handed out while students and faculty were encouraged to wear rainbow clothing.

Opposing students reportedly tore down banners and signs and chanted “U.S.A. are my pronouns” as they wore red, white, and blue clothes with their faces painted. The outlet also reported that students were seen “being inappropriate” with the rainbow stickers used during the event.

School Principal Cari Purchase said in a letter that she was “extremely disheartened” by the students. She both said that she respects "freedom of speech" but also claimed beliefs that are "demeaning" to others are not acceptable.

“I fully respect that our diverse community has diverse opinions and beliefs. I also respect individuals’ right to express their opinions through clothing choices and freedom of speech,” she wrote. “When one individual or group of individuals’ beliefs and actions result in the demeaning of another individual or group, it is completely unacceptable.”

“I am truly sorry that a day meant for you to celebrate your identity turned into a day of intolerance," the principal continued. "Schools are supposed to be a safe place for ALL students and faculty. Some community members’ actions created an unsafe environment for many of our students, caregivers, and faculty,” she added.

The Burlington Public Schools Superintendent, Eric Conti, also reportedly wrote a letter to parents to denounce the students. The administrator allegedly claimed that there has been an increase in anti-LGBTQ+ violence in the country and that it “has no place in our schools.”

“Like any spirit day celebration at MSMS, participation is optional. Respectful behavior across the entire student body, however, is non negotiable,” he wrote.

Even a school board member, Mike Espejo, condemned the students for their actions. “I didn’t think this could happen in Burlington,” he said. He then reportedly stated that he was disappointed that the school has yet to hire a diversity, equity, and inclusion director yet.

Re-Education

Principal Purchase said that the school would look into a program that would teach the children about tolerance, acceptance, and respect.

A local group of non-profits that claim to promote diversity, the Burlington Equity Coalition, demanded the children be punished and that the district hire a diversity, inclusion, and equity director.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/middle-school-pride-protest-ma ?

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UK: History teacher, 54, was 'treated like a paedophile' and faced classroom ban after giving science lesson about puberty that 'upset' children with gender dysphoria

A senior teacher has told how he was ‘treated like a paedophile’ and faced being banned from the profession over a science lesson about puberty that upset children with gender identity issues.

Roy Huggins, 54, a history teacher with more than 30 years’ experience, was asked to fill-in for an absent colleague to teach a class of 11 and 12-year-olds.

He read from a national curriculum textbook about the physical changes to the bodies of boys and girls during puberty and provided some additional explanation to help the pupils understand. He believed the lesson went well.

But unknown to Mr Huggins there were at least two pupils in the Year 7 class who were ‘diagnosed with gender dysphoria’ and several pupils later lodged complaints about ‘inappropriate’ comments he made in the lesson which caused offence.

Instead of simply discussing the problem with Mr Huggins to avoid a repetition, the school reported him to the local authority safeguarding body who deal with allegations against adults working with children.

To his relief Mr Huggins was quickly cleared of any wrongdoing and he said the authority even ‘criticised the school.’

But not satisfied with the conclusion, the headteacher at Retford Oaks Academy in Nottinghamshire then referred Mr Huggins to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) who have the power to ban teachers from working with children.

It triggered a ‘nightmare’ two months during which the married father-of-two and grandfather became ‘suicidal’ as a reputation built up over decades at the top of his profession was put at risk.

He blamed his treatment on a culture at the school for ‘pushing a radical agenda.’

Last week he received notification from the DBS that he was in the clear as there was no case to answer, but he decided to publicly reveal details of his ordeal as a warning of what can happen to teachers treading through today’s gender identity minefield.

Speaking from his home in South Yorkshire, Mr Huggins said: ‘What’s happened to me is a cautionary tale for our modern times of how systems can be abused by people pushing an agenda. Maybe my experience has shined a light on why quite a few people are leaving the profession.’

Instead of backing him, he said the school authorities ‘threw me to the lions’ and warned in the current culture ‘they are prepared to sacrifice people on the altar of these ideologies.’

During a long career as a history teacher he has also been an assistant head, educational consultant and written books and education content about teaching.

He was helping struggling pupils in the library when he was called to teach a class of 30 children who had no science teacher. The head of science told him: ‘Roy you are dealing with this lesson on puberty.’

He said: ‘It’s every teacher’s nightmare to be stuck with something like that and I said “can we change it to something else as I’m not comfortable teaching it?” This is a difficult subject to teach in today’s day and age and I’m a history teacher with no training in something like this.’

However, he agreed to stick to the planned lesson topic. The task was to take information from a textbook to design an information poster about changes to a boy and girl' body in puberty.

He said: ‘I read from the textbook and talked about the hormonal changes that take place to the body during puberty. The text book described how boys develop broader shoulders and girls develop wider hips. One child said to me “Sir why do women have bigger hips” to which I replied “to have children.”

‘I said when my grandson was born last month he fitted into the palm of my hands like this [cupping his hands together] and was the size of a small football.

‘I said during puberty boys develop more muscles, women also develop more muscles as well but different muscles in order to give birth. I said when my wife gave birth and my daughter gave birth it was rather like “having a poo.” You say this because they tell you to personalise it, contextualise it.’

Mr Huggins said he talked about developing body and facial hair and when boys should start to shave. He also said it was a good time for boys to work out in the gym to add muscle as they produced far more testosterone ‘than an old man like me.’

‘What I didn’t know is that there were children in that classroom who were diagnosed with gender dysphoria and who were apparently upset by this. I had no idea of this.

‘In order to be referred to safeguarding you have got to have caused “serious harm.” They said I made inappropriate comments and caused offence and harm to the children.’

Mr Huggins has never been given any details of the gender identity issues of the pupils involved, who has complained or told by the school why he was referred to the authorities.

However, he was given feedback about the complaints from the supply agency. He was accused of saying ‘boys must be muscly to attract girls’, ‘boys must start at the gym at 12 to get muscly’ and ‘girls get hips to allow them to child bear, something all women should do.’

Other alleged comments were: ‘Stay away from women at the time of the month’, ‘boys must be clean shaven and girls must shave too’ and ‘make sure you smell nice to attract the ladies.’

One pupil also complained of being told to draw a penis, breasts and V shape in his book by the teacher.

Mr Huggins said the comments were either ‘untrue’, taken out of context or the result of a misunderstanding.

In his statement given to the local authority, he stated: ‘I feel my conscience is clear and that I have not done anything wrong. I am always happy to reflect and learn from my mistakes, but I am at a complete loss over the allegations that have been made and why they were not addressed at the school level as they are pretty laughable.’

Two days after the lesson Mr Huggins was phoned by the supply agency as he drove home from work and told ‘there has been a complaint.’

For the next two months the family man’s life was on hold. The letter stating he faced being barred from teaching caused him to ‘almost have a heart attack.’

‘I was on the floor, it was the worst thing that can ever happen to you as a teacher. You are being put through the same process as though you were a paedophile or hit or harmed a child. That’s how serious it is and it can destroy your reputation.

‘There I was at the end of a glittering career and it could all be destroyed by these false allegations by a school who decided to pursue this radical agenda.

‘It utterly destroyed my confidence and left me at times feeling suicidal. Thinking I’ve worked hard all my life, I’ve devoted myself to teaching, they are desperate for teachers and they are treating someone like me like this, why?’

He was so ‘embarrassed’ about the accusation he only told his wife Julie, a primary school teacher.

Mr Huggins said his crime was to ‘upset some children who have got gender issues.’ He is ‘mystified’ as to why they complained but believes it must be because they don’t conform to the genders he was discussing.

Despite being cleared he has never received an apology and must inform any school of the investigation if he applies for work in future.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12189171/EXCLUSIVE-Teacher-54-treated-like-paedophile-upset-children-gender-dysphoria.html

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Maine Is Sued for Seeking To Evade Supreme Court’s Ruling That Forbids Excluding Religious Schools From State’s Voucher Program

The campaign by the state of Maine to avoid having to obey a 2022 Supreme Court ruling prohibiting discrimination against religious schools in its voucher program will be challenged by a new lawsuit filed by a Catholic school and Catholic authorities in the state.

St. Dominic Academy, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, and a local Maine family filed a lawsuit yesterday in the federal court for the District of Maine against the commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, A. Pender Makin, and members of the Maine Human Rights Commission.

In St. Dominic Academy v. Makin, they allege that the policies of the department and commission target religious schools to prohibit them from the school voucher program and violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled, in Carson v. Makin, that Maine’s education assistance program, which prohibited the use of vouchers for religious schools, violated First Amendment protections. Maine provides tuition assistance vouchers to families in rural areas where there are no available public schools so that children can attend private ones.

While the Nine was deciding Carson, Maine bureaucrats and the legislature, sensing that the state would lose the case, amended its human rights law to make it virtually impossible for religious schools to comply, thereby excluding them from the voucher program in all but name only.

“Maine’s attempts were open and blatant: craft a new policy to get out from under the clear pronouncement of Carson,” the plaintiff’s complaint says. “Maine implemented these changes to continue the exclusionary practices that the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in Carson.”

“You can’t do an end run around the Supreme Court,” a senior counsel at Becket, a nonprofit law firm focused on religious liberty, Adele Keim, who represents the plaintiffs, tells the Sun. “The Supreme Court said excluding religious schools because they’re religious is wrong. And Maine needs to obey the law just like everybody else.”

Among the new laws and regulations plaintiffs contend exclude religious schools from the voucher program are ones stating that a school cannot allow for religious preferences in hiring, and that if a school permits religious expression it must allow any kind.

“So a Catholic school that has Mass would also then have to have a religious service from another faith, like the Baptist students would be able to use the chapel,” Ms. Keim says. “A Catholic school can’t do that. That’s not what it means to be a religious school.”

The other major contention in the plaintiffs’ complaint is that Maine’s human rights act with regard to gender identity and sexuality makes it impossible for religious schools to comply with both their beliefs and the regulations. The act states that it is a violation of the law to prohibit a student from using the bathroom a aligns with gender identity, say, or a violation when a teacher “refuses to acknowledge a student’s gender identity.” Catholics, as is true of Muslims and other faiths, may have different views on gender identity and same sex-marriage than bureaucrats at Augusta.

“Diocesan schools cannot delegate their responsibility to make religiously grounded decisions regarding appropriate student conduct to the Maine Human Rights Commission,” the plaintiffs’ complaint states. “The Catholic faith views parents as the primary educators of their children. … But the Commission, the state agency responsible for enforcing the Act, has interpreted the gender-identity nondiscrimination provision to require a school to facilitate a student’s efforts to change his or her gender identity even if the school knows that the student’s parents object.”

“You can’t have the Maine Human Rights Commission, which enforces the Maine human rights act, telling the Catholic school how it should teach what marriage is or what sex is or what gender is,” Ms. Keim says. “The Catholic school needs to be able to teach Catholic things about those.”

Plaintiffs also contend that the state of Maine intentionally crafted these regulations to exclude faith-based schools from the voucher program. Replying to a tweet saying Maine had outmaneuvered the Supreme Court by passing new rules for schools receiving vouchers, the then-speaker of the Maine house, Ryan Fecteau, tweeted, “Sure did. Anticipated the ludicrous decision from far-right SCOTUS.” The state’s attorney general also issued a statement saying he was “terribly disappointed and disheartened” by the Carson decision.

“The education provided by the schools at issue here is inimical to a public education. They promote a single religion to the exclusion of all others, refuse to admit gay and transgender children, and openly discriminate in hiring teachers and staff,” Maine’s attorney general, Aaron Frey, said.

The Catholic family suing in this case, Keith and Valori Radonis and their three children, want Maine to amend its law so they can get vouchers for their children to attend St. Dominic Academy. “All families should have the option to provide the education that’s right for their children using Maine’s tuition program, including religious families like ours,” they said in a statement.

Maine’s Department of Education has not replied to a request from the Sun for comment.

https://www.nysun.com/article/maine-is-sued-for-seeking-to-evade-supreme-courts-ruling-that-forbids-excluding-religious-schools-from-states-voucher-program

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