The images below are part of presentation material provided to Acton Forum by a local resident who received a printed version from an anonymous teacher who attended this workshop on January 4, 2023. This material appears to be approved by, and a product of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Schools (DESE). Acton Forum did not produce these documents. The Acton-Boxborough Regional School District (ABRSD) has confirmed with Acton Forum that this workshop occurred (although you will see one slide says January 4, 2022?) and the only cost to the ABRSD was renting out a room at the Boxborough Regency.
The DESE approved of, and paid for the speaker. The presenter representing the DESE has no expertise in medicine, psychology, psychiatry, or education. He does have he/they pronouns.
When you view all the material*, you will notice some pages are missing, but there is enough content that the objectives and methods are clear. This presentation does not appear to be publicly available until now. There is little, if any mention of any potential downsides associated with transitioning genders (e.g., puberty blockers are not reversible, a lifetime of no orgasms, sterility, chronic complications from breast removal and genital surgery, mental distress, etc.).
There is no way to know how many teachers implemented this program in OUR Pre-K and Elementary School classrooms, but we do know the Administration and School Committee are 100% in support of anything to do with Gender Inclusive programs. Even after parents have publicly questioned the details of Gender Transitioning and Gender Inclusive programs in public schools, the Administration and School Committee have never questioned publicly if this is good for all students or acknowledged ANY possible negative consequences of encouraging elementary students to switch genders.
Although some parents support this movement in OUR schools (many acting as uncompromising bullies), most parents have no idea of the details and extent of these state approved topics and the “experts” who are in charge of introducing these topics to public schools. Do we need LGBTQ affinity groups in Pre-K and Elementary Schools, as the DESE recommends?
Unfortunately, there are very few options for parents and voters to challenge the policies on this topic from the White House (Easter is now National Transgender Day of Visibility) or at the MA DESE, but voting for the upcoming local override will only encourage the Administration, School Committee, and even some teachers to ignore parents’ concerns and continue their manipulation of children’s concepts of gender without the legal consent of students or parents.
With the information now available from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) files demonstrating a lack of concern for underage patients and focus on prescribing costly medication and experimental surgery with chronic, expensive post-operative treatment, and the series of lawsuits from Detransitioner cases across the country, including one facility in Boston, should the ABRSD reconsider their support for gender affirming everything? Have they already laid the groundwork for a future lawsuit?
According to the email correspondence leading up to this training, 119 of the ABRSD’s Pre-K and Elementary School teachers were invited to this training, although we await the attendance data from Mr. Shen. In some good news, not all teachers who attended this training implemented these themes into their teaching. There are many great teachers in the ABRSD who understand there are alternative explanations and approaches to working with individual students dealing with complicated problems in a confusing world. These teachers must know that they are supported by parents, students and voters and they must continue resisting this mass psychosis from their supervisors.
Given the increase in available data from longer term studies of transitioning youths, parents and students must educated themselves on this topic and expect teachers to show common sense and courage when making final decisions on what they present to students. It is better to deceive the Administration than lie to children.
*On the morning of April 2, 2024 the School sent Acton Forum additional information, some of which was part of the documents already scanned in. These new documents are accessible in the same link, but in a folder named, Documents from School April 2, 2024.
The following images are from one of the recommended books (see title and author below) and were submitted by a reader to provide more detailed content on April 9, 2024.
To review the presentations and ALL the records, please click here.
I bought one of these titles to see for myself what we are showing kids as young as 5 years old. I chose, “It feels good to be yourself” , the messages here are meant to utterly confuse young children, and I need to ask why? What happened to “Follow the Science”. ( Insert A, baby). In this picture the story states; “See, when you were born you couldn’t tell people who you were or how you felt. They looked at you and made a guess. Maybe that got it right, maybe that got it wrong”. Why would we tell kids as young as 5 Doctors are guessing what their sex at birth is? I was told this book was wide open to this page at the Blanchard library.
The book goes on to state, “what a baby looks like when they’re born can be a clue to what the baby’s gender will be, but not always” . (Insert B, picture of 3 babies) When I was 5 I was worried about lunch and recess, not gender identity. These other documents are scary. What is the intent of buying material from TSER- a Trans student lead group? These are not Doctors, Psychologists or Scientists creating content. These are groups that are pushing messaging to young kids that may well be contrary to what we as parents want them exposed to you. A Gender Unicorn? ??? James Shultis the “Education Consultant” that contributed to the content shown has an MFA in Creative writing. I find it interesting you need to Opt in for sexual education at the HS and JR High, but sexually confusing materials pushing transgender ideals are out and prominently displayed in the classrooms/libraries of the youngest of students every day without parents knowledge or consent. The feedback will be from those wishing to push this on the youngest of kids, “we know better than these parents and that in order to have kids be tolerant and kind, WE need to teach them this while we can have the greatest influence on them”.
I for one have seen enough to know the people pushing this need to stop and parents need to be made aware. This does not make me transphobic, intolerant or just an all around jerk. It makes me a parent, one that would like to have the choice on when and where to discuss such issues with my children. It is sad that this is where schooling in this state has gone. I have seen so much of this over the last 3 years , but to know we tax payers are renting space at the Boxboro Regency to invite teachers to learn about how to push this narrative has gone to far.
Hi,
I realize this is a very divisive topic and that there are strong opinions both pro and con. I have a question. From your article, I see reference to “negative consequences of encouraging elementary students to switch genders”. Can you point me to where I can find this as being an objective or part of the curriculum?
Thanks,
Steve Kaplan
Acton, MA
…the Administration and School Committee have never questioned publicly if this is good for all students or acknowledged ANY possible negative consequences of encouraging elementary students to switch genders.