How do you feel about the following article?
Would you pull your child?
Would you be mad with the school/school board?
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Kids Pulled From Transgender Teacher's ClassVACAVILLE, Calif. -- A teacher's gender reassignment surgery has caught the attention of some parents who want to know why the school district didn't notify them ahead of time about the change.
A music teacher at Foxboro Elementary School, who was formerly a woman, returned to school as a man at the beginning of the school year.
The teacher, who was not identified by KCRA 3, is now being addressed as "Mister."
Some parents told Travis Unified School District that they feel like their rights to know were violated.
"All the information came straight from our kids and didn't come from the school board or the teachers ... this has all been second-hand information," parent Melissa Oiland said.
The district said it has to respect privacy and personal issues, and that it must preserve privacy rights of the teachers.
The school board said such disclosure would violate HIPAA privacy rules.
"I understand what parents are saying, but we have a right as an employer, we have a legal obligation as an employer to protect our employees," Superintendent Kate Wren Gavlak said.
Gavlak said the district consulted with lawyers and determined that legally, it could not disclose any information about the teacher's gender change.
"We will not be discussing personal matters with either the students, or the parents or the community at large ... because we cannot," Gavlak said.
Parent Angela Weinzinger, who has three children at the school, said she has since transferred her children out of the class.
"I wasn't given the opportunity to make a choice on what I wanted to do with the situation," Weinzinger said.
So far, 23 students from 15 different families have transferred their children out of the music class and into a physical education class.
Story and Video can be seen at the following link:
Kids Pulled From Transgender Teacher's Class - Local News Story - KCRA Sacramento
I wouldnt want my child to be teached by her, espically not while they were in elementry school. They would just be too yonung to even understand the whole concept of transgenered people. I would be a lil mad at the school district becuase parents should know about who is teaching there child or children.
As the school district said, they could not disclose any of that information due to HIPPA standards, and if they did they could have been sued. The only thing the parents could do, is transfer their children out of that class. I wonder why someone would become a teacher if they knew they were thinking about becoming a transgender? Being a teacher is not the right type of profession for someone who is battling those issues. Teachers have a moral standard that they have to live by unlike other professions. Years ago, they used to fire teachers for becoming pregnant outside of marriage. Days have changed now because of unions, but back in the day they had to live by moral standards. Most definitely that teacher would need to transfer to the high school, because that is too much for young children to understand.
I agree, a teacher should be setting standards and be a part of training up a child in the way they should go becuse school is where a major part of their learning is outside of home, so if the school is not setting standards especially for kids at a young age who have not begun to know themselves, it is confusing. I understand there are some rules to follow but the teacher should have thought about that before making this type of decision.
in answer to the questions:
-yes i would pull my child and yes i would be upset but also understanding of the situation. If i cant get mad at the school, I'd be upset at the situation.
You might not agree with a "don't ask, don't tell" policy, but it would have made the transgender's life a lot easier. If those parents are uncomfortable with a transgender teaching their children, they are going to continue going to the school's board. Eventually, their state's Department of Education will get involved, and they will put the pressure on that school's district to do something about it. They will find a way not to renew his/her contract or he could be forced to possibly teach secondary education, but that is if he is certified to teach in that area. With his lifestyle, secondary education would be a better fit because that is too much for young children to see. I just hope the transgender is a member of NEA, so he would have a form of protection.
I assume if there's an Internet article out on him, his life would have been easier if the information was kept to himself. I haven't read this article in detail, but if the kids did run to their parents obviously they did not feel comfortable being in his classroom. The big controversy is that in education, there are certain guidelines and standards that teachers have to follow by. Education is different from corporate America. There are certain things you can not do as a teacher. Obviously, you don't know anything about education for you to question what the controversy is? Run that question by any principal, school board member, or a department of education employee and see the response you will get. Actually, I just asked my sister, who is a principal, about what they would do if they had that situation at their school. Her response immediately was that they would find an excuse to fire him and it might not be for the "transgender" stuff but they would find another reason to get rid of him. She stated that his lifestyle would be confusing for the children.
You totally did not answer the question I asked. I asked if you were a teacher. Based on all the crap you typed to me, it's just one resounding no. It's okay though, neither am I. But I'm kind of under this crazy impression that ALL teachers, regardless of lifestyle should be subjected to the same measures of employment procedures. All the examples you have shown me has nothing to do with the article. The person in question didn't parade the change of his gender identity around on the internet. The kids just picked up on it and told their parents.
No moral code has been broken. This isn't Catholic school or some private institution, this is public school. If he's not allowed to teach even though he's a competent teacher, then all those who don't give a crap about teaching and just go for that measly paycheck shouldn't teach as well.
