Parents at a California elementary school were alarmed in January after discovering a 3rd-grade teacher was allowed to personally invite all the 3rd through 6th-grade classes to a new LGBTQ club he was starting. The “UBU Club” as he called it, was for “boys who crush on boys” and “girls who crush on girls,” but anyone could come, the kids were told. Yet parents weren’t told anything about the club. No notification in the school newsletter and no permission slips were required for attendance, despite one being necessary to belong to the school’s garden club.
Within days of finding out, 30 upset parents crowded into a meeting room with the principal of Elk Grove’s Pleasant Grove Elementary School and a district administrator to get some answers. They were told LGBTQ clubs had already been started in 5 to 10 other elementary schools. They also discovered school officials weren’t sure students needed parent permission to attend an LGBTQ club. But the UBU club was put on hold until the school officials got legal advice. That was on January 29. Tired of waiting for answers, parents took their complaints and questions to the Elk Grove Unified School Board at this week’s school board meeting.
One of those parents who spoke was Mary Congdon. She found out about the club from her 4th-grade son, who came home confused and full of questions after hearing 3rd Grade Teacher Daniel Bishop talk about same-sex attraction. “I immediately reached out to his teacher bewildered why we the parents had no recollection of hearing about this new club,” Congdon recalled. “Her response was that it was because ‘it’s a safe place for students to go and discuss their sexuality without having to come out to their parents.’”
Congdon, like many other Elk Grove parents, are furious. “I’m not sure when Mr. Bishop began paying for my son’s clothes, housing, meals; when has he taken my son to his doctor’s appointments, sports games, church or tucked my son in at night,” she said. “He is not the parent. I reminded my son and his younger 2nd-grade brother that night. We are your safe place. We are your parents. Bullying is inappropriate no matter the reasons, and should be handled and dealt with by your school principal.”
Congdon reached out to Principal Deidra Wood to find out why permission slips were not required for the UBU Club. According to Condon, she responded, “‘Because we fear there will be parents that say no.’ You don’t say?! That is beyond disrespectful to us parents. I’ve lost my trust in the school.”
Education activist Heidi Moore, mother of four, leader with Informed Parents of Elk Grove, and candidate for Elk Grove Unified School Board, Area 7, also spoke. “Pleasant Grove Elementary School staff betrayed the trust of parents when they held this UBU club during lunch time and did not notify parents or require permission slips for the club,” Moore said. “It’s also alarming that the district has ignored concerned parents for weeks, but recently sent a flier to all district teachers, inviting them to a training on how to respond to resistance from parents against LGBTQ Clubs. The only response the district did give parents was that their legal counsel was weighing in on the situation. It seems like that is something they should have done before implementing this secret lunchtime club.”
The flier Moore mentioned about resistance training was emailed to elementary school teachers in their weekly bulletin a few weeks ago. The virtual course called, “Responding to Resistance” was lead by Oakland Unified School District LGBTQ Programming Specialist Schemain Evans. Her biography says she is a “educator,” “public theologian” with a Master’s Degree in Women and Gender Studies from San Francisco State University, a Master’s in Divinity Degree with an emphasis in Sexuality and Religion from Pacific School of Religion, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Gender Studies from California State University, Stanislaus. (See flier below). The flier promised to teach Elk Grove Elementary School teachers “how to respond to resistance against Rainbow Clubs and GSAs.”
California School Districts have previously run into legal trouble surrounding LGBTQ clubs and keeping secrets from parents. The California Teachers Association (CTA) has been putting on seminars for teachers for several years now, teaching them how to start LGBTQ clubs and inviting kids without letting their parents know. Audio from one of these training sessions was given to a reporter Abigail Shrier. She detailed her findings in the following article: How Activist Teachers Recruit Kids: Leaked Documents and Audio from the California Teachers Association Conference Reveal Efforts to Subvert Parents on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation. These two teachers running the CTA training later got caught up in a lawsuit in Monterey, California in the Spreckels Union School District, because they recruited a young girl into their UBU Club, socially transitioned her to a male identity, and then kept it secret from the student’s mother.
Once the mother found out and expressed her displeasure, the school called Child Protective Services on her, and police showed up at her door (more details here: https://www.thetruthfairy.info/p/the-chronicle-cries-for-activist) The school district settled for violating this mother’s parental rights and paid her $100,000. https://www.californiafamily.org/2023/08/ca-mother-wins-lawsuit-against-school-district-who-transitioned-her-child/ Teachers that keep secrets from parents can be personally sued for violating their parental rights. (read more about the lawsuit here: https://www.dhillonlaw.com/lawsuits/konen-v-spreckels-union-school-district/)
Constitutional Attorney Dean Broyles and president of the National Center for Law and Policy believes Elk Grove Unified could be in similar legal jeopardy for its secret LGBTQ Clubs. “Parents have the fundamental constitutional right to direct the care, education and raising of their children. Children belong to their families, not the state,” Broyles explained.
“Elk Grove Unified School District is flagrantly violating and dishonoring the rights of parents by setting up secretive school sexuality clubs without parental knowledge or consent where rogue teachers with extreme agendas affirm sensitive and controversial viewpoints with very young vulnerable children, while concealing the existence and purpose of these meetings,” he said. “We demand transparency from the district. We are investigating these clubs and are seriously considering taking legal action to stop them.”
Watch the school board meeting below:
CFC VP @gregburt10 spoke out in defense of parents rights at the Elk Grove School Board Meeting “State educational officials have the mistaken belief that minors as young as five have privacy rights that schools are obligated to protect, even if that means keeping secrets and… pic.twitter.com/Oq5RRycBBq
— CA Family Council (@CAFamily) March 7, 2024
“It seems that the district's response to rightfully concerned parents of elementary age children is to ignore them and then provide teachers with training on how to push back, ignore, and keep more secrets from parents.” pic.twitter.com/tlyknzIfP2
— CA Family Council (@CAFamily) March 8, 2024
