by Mass resistance
Idaho legislator works with MassResistance to craft statewide legislation.
Despite opposition from local “transgender” activists and state school counselors group – who are against parents “interfering”!
Within days of our report on the outrageous incident, the problem was brought up at the local School Board meeting.
t’s one of the most horrific things that’s been happening in
elementary and middle schools. A child will come to a pro-LGBT school
guidance counselor with some social or emotional issue. The counselor
will persuade the child that the real problem is that he or she is “gay”
or “transgender.” But the parents must not be informed about their
conversations, the child is told.
By the time the parents find out, an enormous amount of psychological
damage has been done to the child. We’ve seen this scenario over and
over. MassResistance is dedicated to stopping this.
In November 2020, a
family in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho contacted MassResistance describing
how their 11-year-old girl had decided she’s a “transsexual” after
talking with her elementary school counselor. When the family finally
heard about this, the girl said that her school counselor and elementary
school teacher both completely supported “her decision.” The girl
insisted that it’s “who she is” and that the school people both told
her, "I will accept you for who you are."
The school district had not reported any of this to the parents as it
was developing. Instead of being directed to her family, the girl was
given the phone numbers of local LGBT support groups.
Big uproar across the state
After our report, the incident caused considerable uproar in the Coeur d’Alene area and throughout the state.
National conservative media, including The Daily Citizen and The Federalist, ran stories on it.
The local liberal newspaper
attempted to “correct” MassResistance’s reporting with statements from
the elementary school, an LGBT group, and a pro-LGBT “human rights”
group. They claimed that the counselor was actually helping the 11-year-old. The fringe LGBT movement also weighed in, bashing MassResistance. Our reporting apparently struck a nerve!
Two months after the incident, on January 23, 2021, the Idaho LGBT movement
organized an “LGBTQ+ Youth Rally”
at a local park to show support for the elementary school counselor who
had helped the 11-year-old girl with her “transition.” According to the
news report, the rally was also meant to counter the MassResistance
report and resulting “homophobia” in the community. Clearly, a big
reason was to intimidate anyone who might speak out.
LGBT activists tried to intimidate parents in the
community from speaking out. But it didn't work. [Photo: Coeur d'Alene
Post Falls Press]Parents fight back
But among regular people, there was growing outrage over such clear
abuse of young children – and a strong belief that something must be
done. Idaho MassResistance began mobilizing local parents and others who
refused to be intimidated by the LGBT tactics.
Parents started holding protests outside the school district’s main
office in Coeur d’Alene. They began attending the local School Board
meetings in larger numbers. The School Board basically reflected the
conservative leanings of the area, and as a group agreed that some
change needed to be made. The parents’ show of force gave them the
courage to move forward in the face of the LGBT movement, the unions,
and the leftist education lobby.
Many parents remember when school counselors mainly provided academic
counseling and helped with post-secondary and career goals. But in
recent years they have taken on mental health and psychological issues,
largely in collusion with the LGBT movement and other special-interest
groups. (See, for example, this
policy statement from the American School Counselor Association.) This is what the Idaho MassResistance parents are up against.
A new school counselor policy is passed
At the January 4, 2021 meeting of the the Coeur d'Alene School
Board - less than two weeks after our MassResistance report - the Board
members reacted to the flood of emails they had received and agreed that
they needed to explore what to do about the situation.
In March 2021, the School Board initiated an effort to change the
district policy regarding school counselors. The Idaho MassResistance
parents continued to push for strong protections, against the
hesitations of some board members.
The new policy was drafted by a committee which included a School
Committee member, two parents (not part of our group), an administrator,
and three school counselors.
In October 2021, the new proposed policy language
was released to the public for consideration. The draft still contained
troubling language. Idaho MassResistance presented these critiques to
the School Board members:
- The policy says that the counselor’s role is to “balance” the
student’s privacy rights with the parents’ rights, which the counselor
decides upon. But there should be no “balance.” The student is a minor.
The parents must be told about everything. It's wrong to allow this
secretive relationship to emerge and continue with school counselors.
The result would be no trust between parents and the school.
- The policy states, “School Counselors connect students and
families to outside resources and agencies.” That has traditionally
translated into sending kids to LGBT groups and abortion clinics. If
anything, the counselors should only suggest these outside groups to the
parents and let them decide.
Nevertheless, in February 2022, the school board formally approved
the new policy. It’s not everything that we wanted. But it definitely is
a shot across the bow – a strong warning to the school counselors in
that city – to absolutely stop what they’ve been doing to children.
Parents feel that MassResistance has helped them achieve a victory.
The Idaho School Boards Association jumps into the fight
When the Coeur d’Alene School Board released its proposed policy, the
education establishment apparently got the message that they needed to
quash this “anti-counselor” movement before it got any more momentum.
Two months later, on December 2, 2021, the Idaho School Boards Association (ISBA) voted by an overwhelming 7885-21 to pass a strongly worded resolution supporting school counselors.
The resolution directs the ISBA lobbyists:
“to work with the legislature to amend existing statute to allow school districts more flexibility in addressing the mental, social, and emotional needs of students …”
In other words, they want to write new state laws to keep parents from interfering with any secret LGBT counseling of children.
So far, the ISBA hasen’t moved forward by drafting a bill. But the
group’s lobbying did impact what was to happen next in the legislature.
The State Legislature also gets involved
The outrage over the Coeur d’Alene issue even reached the State
Legislature. In mid-February, an Idaho State Representative asked
MassResistance for help in drafting a bill to protect children from this
abuse. We submitted the following, which she moved forward with:
School counseling educational services provided
by a school to a student addressing mental or behavioral health,
including short-term individual or short-term small group school
counseling services, are subject to parental disclosure and informed
consent.
Parental notification shall take place once a school counselor has
recognized mental health warning signs; informed consent shall be
obtained prior to any subsequent school counseling services for the
purpose of addressing those mental health warning signs. A school
counselor may provide parents with contact information for available
community resources from a list of licensed, professional mental health
providers in the area, which providers may request to be included on the
list and shall not be excluded for the reason that the provider is a
religious or faith-based organization.
But as soon as word got out about this new bill, the ISBA and state
school counselors association heatedly approached the House leadership.
They made absurd and insulting claims that if parents are told about
their childrens’ homosexual or transgender “decisions,” the children
will commit suicide. Floating this myth is unfortunately a common tactic
used by the LGBT movement, though it goes against all responsible
psychological understanding and practice. But the legislative leaders
fell for it and immediately killed the proposed bill.
Since the legislative session was winding down, we will wait until next year and refile then. We’re not stopping.
Final thoughts
In the beginning, nobody believed that the Coeur d’Alene School Board
would actually change anything. Even though it’s a conservative area,
the Board members weren’t looking to make any waves on this hot-button
issue. The policy changes were a direct result of the Idaho
MassResistance parents being tireless and simply not giving up. At a certain point, the School Board basically gave in and acted.
Some locales where this is happening will be harder to change than others. But no matter how difficult, this is what needs to be done everywhere in America.
