Two Colorado families are suing their children’s school district over allegations that school teachers and officials encouraged their 6th-grade children to join an LGBTQ club and keep its activities secret from them.
The Daily Mail reports America First Policy Institute and Illumine Legal filed a lawsuit against Poudre School District in Fort Collins on behalf of Johnathan and Erin Lee and Nick and Linnaea Jurich, whose sixth-grade daughters attended Wellington Middle-High School, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the Daily Caller.
The couples allege their sixth-grade daughters were recruited by a teacher to join the school’s “Genders and Sexualities Alliance” (GSA) Art club in May 2021 where those who led the meetings encouraged students to change genders. PSD employees allegedly told the girls to keep the meetings a “secret” from their parents, including that the club has a “what happens at GSA stays at GSA policy,” the lawsuit said.
“It’s our responsibility to protect their innocence and stop those who are abusing their taxpayer-funded position to force a radical political agenda onto our nation’s youth,” Pam Bondi, chair of AFPI’s constitutional litigation partnership, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This lawsuit seeks to return the power to parents by reinforcing their Constitutional right to govern their child’s education and protect their future.”
Those who led the meetings told the children about puberty blockers, transgenderism, hormones, sex, and pronouns, and encouraged them to keep the discussions secret, according to the complaint.
Teachers also invited a substitute teacher, who is the executive director of the Supporting Pride Learning and Social Happenings (SPLASH) organization that “seeks to educate school-aged children on topics of sexuality and gender identity,” to speak at one of the GSA meetings, which was attended by the Lee’s sixth-grade daughter, according to the lawsuit.
The teacher reportedly told the children on May 4, 2021, that if they are not completely comfortable in their bodies, that means that they are transgender. She also had the children discuss what sex or gender they were attracted to, the lawsuit said.
In addition, for children who “came out” as transgender, she awarded prizes of LGBTQ paraphernalia such as toys, flags, and other swag, the lawsuit stated.
After the club meeting, the Lee’s daughter told her mother she would be transitioning—despite never having had any thoughts about transgenderism before the meeting, the lawsuit contends.
The girl has since abandoned her desire to transition, but her experience at the GSA club led to “a months-long emotional decline of gender and sexuality confusion that required counseling and included suicidal thoughts,” according to the lawsuit.
The Jurich family is suing because their daughter was subject to much of the same treatment as the Lee’s daughter. The Jurich’s daughter was “told about gender fluidity and that gender ‘assignment’ at birth can be a mistake made by parents or doctors,” the lawsuit said.
The WMS art teacher and staff sponsor of the GSA club, reportedly suggested to the students that if they did not like their bodies, they were most likely not the gender they were “assigned at birth,” the lawsuit alleges.
After attending the meetings, the Jurich’s daughter began leaving notes to her parents that she is “aromantic” and “asexual” and started to leave notes about transgenderism for her parents. Later that fall, she began to openly question her gender identity.
The lawsuit details how the girl underwent an emotional decline, asking to be homeschooled. Then, she later attempted suicide by drinking an ounce of bleach, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit also alleges the Poudre School District’s Guidelines for Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Students require that, within their communications, school staff deliberately deceive parents of potentially transgender students who refer to their child by that child’s birth name, and also directs that “{s}chool personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender or non-binary status to others, including students, parents, or community members” without student permission.
The lawsuit says the Guidelines supplant the role of the parent with school employees.
CBN News has reached out to the Poudre School District for comment. We’ll post its response here if we hear back.
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