PA Freedom Caucus To Shaler School District - Stop this Activity Now

Shaler School District Questionnaire Entices Children under 14 to Transition their Gender without Parental Consent

The administration at Shaler Area School District, near Pittsburgh, is giving area parents every reason to question their leadership, and a conceivable path to a lawsuit(s). A recent questionnaire form obtained through a Right to Know Request from a concerned parent gives school counselors the ability to conspire with minors about transitioning their gender, without parental consent or notification. The ‘Gender Support Plan’ document that was turned over from the request lists fields for “sex at birth,” “student’s identified gender,” and “pronouns.”

Woke administrators perhaps don’t deserve sole blame. Governor Shapiro’s PDE, which recently lost in court over its CRSE (Culturally Relevant & Sustaining Education) guidelines, gives districts the space to covertly work with minors to use different pronouns and discuss transitioning, absent of parental knowledge. Further, President Biden’s unilateral Title IX changes paved the way for this affront to parental rights.

“PDE is complicit in thwarting parents’ trust” said PAFC member, Barb Gleim, (Cumberland) a former School Board President and current House Republican Deputy Policy Chair on Education. She continued, “By allowing these plans to exist school leaders are proving they don’t have the best interests of their students in mind. This questionnaire form asks leading questions to minors with the purpose of confusing kids. This is predatory, arguably unlawful, and it violates the basic, moral rights of parents and children.”

PAFC member, Jamie Walsh (Luzerne), concurs. “This is troubling on two levels - they’re not just coercing kids to make a life-altering decision. They’re doing it behind parents’ backs.” Walsh, an incoming freshman, knows all about this kind of deceit, having been a loud critic of Kooth, the “mental health” app that led to the dangerous grooming of children without parental knowledge. Thanks to Walsh and the rest of the PA Freedom Caucus, the state’s contract with Kooth has been severed.

PAFC chairman, Robert Leadbeter (Columbia) added, “No school district should enact policies that purposefully exclude parents from decisions about their children. If the Shaler School District is allowing students to change pronouns without parental knowledge or consent, it’s a serious betrayal of parental rights. Schools are not substitutes for families, and excluding parents from decisions creates legal and moral liabilities. Parents deserve full transparency and involvement in matters of their minor children.”

The Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus has reached out to Shaler School District for clarification/confirmation of the questionnaire. Initial calls were unanswered and unreturned. The PAFC’s message to Shaler School District and all other Pennsylvania districts implementing or even mulling such an assault on parental rights: Stop this activity now.