Virginia Governor Speaks Against School District ‘Transitioning’ Students Without Parental Consent

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is speaking out against Fairfax County School District for directing teachers to “socially transition” students struggling with gender identity issues without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

Late last month, it was revealed that Fairfax County Public Schools required all teachers to complete a training program that explained how teachers should “socially transition” students who want to be addressed by different pronouns or names, rather than those which correspond to their biology.

The district assigned the program, “Supporting Gender Expansive and Transgender Youth,” on July 22 for all teachers in all grades, including preschool, according to The Washington Examiner.

“The training specifically states that parental permission is not required if a student asks to be called ‘by his chosen name in class,’ ‘requests to use the locker room that corresponds with her identified gender,’ or asks to use ‘a private bathroom,’” the Examiner notes.

At a Parents Matter rally last week, Gov. Youngkin slammed the school board for its new policy.

“They [school officials] think that parents have no right to know what your child is discussing with their teacher or their counselor, particularly when some of the most important topics, most important topics that a child may want to discuss are being determined,” Gov. Youngkin said.

“What’s their name? What pronoun will they use? How are they going to express their gender? This is a decision that bureaucrats in Fairfax County believe that they should be able to make without telling parents,” the governor added.

Fairfax County has become the nation’s epicenter for radical, woke education policies enacted by the Fairfax County School Board.

Earlier this year, the school board voted in favor of a policy which would punish students who “maliciously misgender” or “deadname” other students. The policy permits teachers to suspend students as young as fourth grade for correctly referring to their peers with language based on their biological sex.

Tyler Ohta, founder of Moms for America Values, spoke out forcefully against the new policy:

“To hold little children culpable, responsible, for someone else’s personal decision, compelling their speech at such a young age. It’s a very dangerous path that we’re going down and we need to defend our free speech and our religious beliefs.”

The Fairfax County School Board also opted to reinstate two books containing graphic, sexually explicit content to the district’s public-school libraries.

One of the books, Gender Queer, is about a young girl “who uses e/em/eir pronouns” and “rejects her femininity and identifies as non-binary.”

Another book, Lawn Boy, depicts one scene where “the protagonist describes sexual abuse from an adult when he was ten years old.”

Fairfax County School Board defended the books as “appropriate for high school readers … [and] valuable in their potential to reach marginalized youth.”

In response, earlier this year, Virginia Gov. Youngkin signed SB 656 into law which requires the Virginia Department of Education to create policies which ensure “parental notification of any instructional material that includes sexually explicit content,” and then requires local school boards to adopt those policies.

It’s increasingly important for parents to be intensely involved in their children’s education. Parents must be aware of what their children are learning in school.

If you’re worried about what your child is being taught in school, check out the following new resource from Focus on the Family: Back to School for Parents: A busy parent’s guide to what’s happening in your children’s classrooms and practical steps you can take to protect them.