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"QUEERING THE CLASSROOM" II:  A Timeline of SRVUSD's "LGBTQ" Activism

SRVUSD has long pushed "LGBTQ" indoctrination, going back to at least the early 1990s, when the SRVEA teacher union was able to take over the School Board, thereby to increase its control of District programs.  That activism coalesced and became far more aggressive in the early 2000s.  Below is a very abbreviated summary of such SRVUSD subversion.

April 29, 2003:  The SRVUSD School Board hears for 52 minutes from the "Queer Youth Action Team" (QYAT) after Board president Paul Gardner allows for "20 to 25 minutes."  It turns out that SRVUSD officials had been colluding in secret for two years with QYAT and the "Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network" (GLSEN) to initiate "Gay-Straight Alliances" (GSAs) in SRVUSD high schools.  Those are authorized at this Board meeting, though a large majority of dozens of district residents speak or write in opposition.

QYAT's principal presenter is Rachel Floyd, Interim Program Director for the "Empowerment Project" at the "Center for Human Development." Her outfit credits itself with leading "Bump and Grind with Safe Sex in Mind Workshops," which "are open to youth and young adults."  The screen shots below (external comments added) are from 2003....

2003 - 2020:  Numerous other SRVUSD intrusions on the educational process (i.e., teaching and learning of knowledge and skills) occur.  Among them: the Gay-Straight Alliances spread quickly to SRVUSD middle schools.  These clubs eventually change their name in some instances to "Gender-Sexuality Alliances."

January, 2018 (as one example from that period):  SRVUSD's festering LGBTQ activism generates a Rancho Romero bulletin-board display which promotes gender insecurity and confusion among the District's youngest kids  its impressionable, vulnerable TK to grade 5 students (4 to 11-year-olds).  The display, picture below (with notes added) comes down quickly after a parent exposes its contents to listeners of a radio show.

February, 2020:  John Malloy, Director of Education (Superintendent) of the 245,000-student Toronto District School Board, writes about continuing to "push the envelope" on "LGBTQ" issues.    

February, 2020:  SRVUSD settles for $8 Million in the tragic 2018 drowning death of SRV High School freshman Ben Curry during a P.E. swimming class at San Ramon Valley High School.

April, 2020:  SRVUSD settles for $665,000 in its 2017 defamation of then SRV High student Nathaniel Yu. 

April, 2020:  SRVUSD Supt. Rick Schmitt decides to retire.  

May, 2020:  SRVUSD School Board selects John Malloy as new Superintendent
.  Malloy then starts August 1st.  "LGBTQ"  indoctrination in SRVUSD accelerates.  

November 19-22, 2020:  Country Club Elementary Principal Christy Glaser and Instructional Coach Korby Saunders present "Affirming LGBTQ+ Identities in the Elementary Grades" at the annual conference of the "National Council of Teachers of English."  They "describe their experiences of queering the classroom."  Below is their program intro (arrow pointer added).

The "Read Aloud" material is a large group of homosexual and transgender-themed picture-story books utilized in SRVUSD elementary classrooms, including transition kindergarten classrooms 4 and 5-year-olds).  The first page of the Saunders "padlet" showing her recommended read-alouds is shown below (in a screen shot from her Feb. 27, 2021 online CTA seminar in which teacher Blaire Wyatt joined Saunders to discuss "PRISM Clubs")....

Early January, 2021:  "PRISM Clubs" ("LGBTQ+") Clubs for 4th and 5th graders (9 to 11-year-olds) are initiated, led by a core of SRVUSD elementary-school activists.  SRVUSD administrators (Supt. Malloy et al.) require OPT-IN parental permission slips for club involvement. 

January 6, 2021:  Korby Saunders says to some other activist SRVUSD personnel that "One family is trying to pull their child from my class because of my pronouns [which are shown elsewhere as "they, them'] and my role as a LGBTQ+ equity chair.  They are 'religious' and I'm too in their face with my beliefs."

January 12, 2021:  Korby Saunders transmits to other SRVUSD personnel an email in which she asserts that even transition kindergarteners (4 and 5-year-olds) have a supposed privacy right which prevents teachers and administrators from notifying parents of "gender identity" and "sexual orientation" claims by SRVUSD children — unless the children give their permission!   The District later confirms that insanely perverse policy.

 

That deliberate concealment follows the effective encouragement some would say grooming  of such incongruous aberrations among vulnerable, highly impressionable youngsters in SRVUSD's captive-audience classrooms, including its TK- 5th grade classrooms. 

This SRVUSD behavior violates 20 U.S. Code Section 3401(3):  PARENTS have primary responsibility in the education of their children; schools are to SUPPORT that role, not usurp it.  

February 22, 2021:  In answer to a concern by Brian Olkowski (an early "PRISM Club" promoter at Coyote Creek Elementary) about parental resistance to PRISM Club, Korby Saunders comments to him and other SRVUSD personnel that she knew that "once the district office required students to have permission slips to join the club, it would be a hurdle to get students to participate in the club because 1) parents beliefs could get in the way of allowing their child to join," and "2) because parents don't realize many kids are already exploring these ideas without their parents knowing it and parents not believing their child is mature enough for the topics."

This is a common view within SRVUSD — that although parents are alleged to be District "partners," the teachers and administrators often believe perversely that they know better how to raise the children, that they have some institutional right and duty as "professionals" to diagnose and facilitate new "gender identities" and "sexual orientations," even in children just learning to tie their shoes and that thereby, they can legitimately usurp and subvert parental authority.  

Attentive, caring parents will forcefully challenge such insanity, and protect their children from SRVUSD's indoctrinators.

Instead, and in addition to the section of Federal Code quoted above:  

1.  SRVUSD Board Policy  6141.2 stipulates in relevant part that "Staff members shall be highly sensitive to their obligation not to interfere with the religious development of any student in whatever tradition the student embraces."

2.  Legal opinions also counter the insanely perverse notion that the didactic and moral authority of teachers and administrators routinely exceeds/displaces that of parents.  See the following:  

 

(a) The National Center for Law and Policy
 

(b) The Pacific Justice Institute

 

(c) Advocates for Faith and Freedom

February 27, 2021:  Korby Saunders and first-grade teacher (now an assistant principal) Blaire Wyatt conduct their own similar online seminar for gender activists in the California Teachers Association (teacher union), entitled "Affirming LGBTQ+ Identities in Elementary School."  Therein, they speak about having initiated "PRISM Clubs" ("LGBTQ+" Clubs) for 4th and 5th graders (9 to 11-year-olds).

They go on to discuss (a) of ending a parental-permission requirement for PRISM Club participation (because SRVUSD
middle schools and high schools don't have to have them, they note) and (b) holding club meetings at lunchtime because that "kind of eliminates a little bit of that parent interaction" which would occur if parents had to drop off their kids early before school or pick them up late after school for such meetings.

April 20, 2021:  Korby Saunders emails Country Club principal Christy Glaser, and says "I'm still trying to get rid of permission slips for Prism Club."

April 22, 2021:  Korby Saunders strategizes with then local PFLAG (outside activist group) president.  Saunders hopes
to get the “elementary principal leadership
group… to either not have permission slips for any club or lunchtime activity… or a blanket one that allows students to participate in any lunchtime activity or club,” with an all-OK or none-OK by parents.

The external Influencer PFLAG’s individual recommends (an intrusive) “Get to Know You Sheet” for teachers to inquire into private student lives, a teacher-training (indoctrination) presentation, and a GLSEN ("Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) “tool kit.”  She mentions that she and  another PFLAG officer were expecting to meet with Supt. Malloy, and asks collaborator Saunders if it’s OK to bring up PRISM Club permission slips in that meeting.

April 28, 2021:  SRVUSD’s Saunders expresses satisfaction in PFLAG’s teacher-training slides, such as the [notorious]
"Genderbread Person" slide below
.  She recognizes that the “FAIR Act” does NOT require 3rd grade read-aloud fictional story books (of the sort she has recommended for TK-5 children  something Malloy shamefully gets wrong a year later.   She goes on about "gender-neutral" bathrooms, doesn’t like “gendered parent events” like like Father/Daughter dance, Donuts with Dads, etc.” She  appreciates PFLAG's slide on pronouns.   She wants teachers to use the invasive “Get to Know you Sheet with students” on first day.

 

 

 

 

 

 










 

April 29, 2021: Korby Saunders presents PRISM Club update to core activist teachers.  Saunders has now “been talking to the directors” (Superintendent's “cabinet”-level personnel) and actively “pushing for no permission slips required.”  Saunders
mentions that PFLAG leaders who’d met with
Malloy had expressed their own wish to eliminate parental permission slips.


May 6, 2021:  The parental permission-slip requirement for PRISM Club participation is ended, just four months after being initiated — and without any apparent Board action or public input but in full collaboration with outside pressure group PFLAG and evidently also involving behind-scenes collusion with Supt. Malloy.

September 14, 2021:  Korby Saunders writes to Jennifer Donnelly and Denise Vargas-Vila, the two Baldwin Elementary teachers who are advising a "PRISM Club" there and who have requested advice regarding parents who don't want their children in the Club.  Saunders says that "The district office is onboard with honoring student choice when it comes to joining the Prism Club. Of course, we would always offer to meet with the parents to hear their concerns about the student joining the club but because it's being held during school hours the student has the right to join or not to join the Prism Club" [whether parents approve or not].

October 7, 2021:  The local PFLAG leader advises her SRVUSD collaborators that "The Fair Act requires our schools
to incorporate LGBTQ+ people and topics in our curriculum year round."

But the relevant section of the "FAIR Act" in fact refers to "instruction in social sciences," to include "the role and contributions of... lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans [and other groups named]... to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in in contemporary society."

This is the Education Code section which Superintendent Malloy, Korby Saunders, and SRVUSD's other sex and gender activists have cited falsely in attempting to justify the transgender and homosexual-themed FICTIONAL picture-story books recommended by Saunders and utilized widely in the District for TK-5 read-alouds.

October 8, 2021:  Blaire Wyatt sends an email to SRVUSD's "PRISM Club Staff," saying that "[Elementary] Sites can put a work order in to get an all-gender bathroom sign."  Hong [Nguyen, SRVUSD's "Equity Director"] will look into where the all-gender bathrooms are at each elementary site.  The hope is to identify a bathroom that is not the nurse's bathroom for nonbinary and trans students to use IF they want."

October 8, 2021: A Country Club Elementary parent writes a lengthy email to Supt. Malloy, copying principal Christy Glaser, in reference to both the school's Prism Club and "Social Justice Warriors Club."  The parent says that school staff members "are pressured to push political ideologies and/or lifestyle choices" on the school's youngest children. 

"Moreover, says the parent, Ms. Glaser should not be in the business of teaching her personal views of sexuality, 'social justice,' politics, and/or morality to my child."  The parent asks "Why is there no permission slip required to attend" Prism Club meetings.  Some communication from Malloy to Glaser apparently occurs; Glaser writes back to Malloy late in the day to say "Thank you for your support.  I really appreciate it!"

October 21, 2021:  With parental permission slips ended, Korby Saunders transmits advice to other teachers regarding her notions of schools' supposed authority in limiting public information and rejecting parental rights in and around SRVUSD's PRISM Clubs for 4th and 5th graders [emphasis added below]: 

"Since this is a club and it is optional to join, families who do not want their children to participate can let their child know their wishes.
We won't be removing kids from club meetings [even if parents want them removed, in other words] but we hope that the student and parents can come to an agreement on how the student choose to spend their time at school.

"Hopefully, parents will keep in mind that conversations about gender should start in the home around the age of 3, and conversations about all kinds of people and families should start as soon as a baby is able to recognize the role of an 'adult' (toddler years).

"We don't share what we go over in the club for privacy reasons....   

"If your school doesn't share with the parent community what is being used in ALL the optional activities that are held during school hours, then don't start that practice with this club because some parents think the topic of the club is 'controversial.'

"Schools are not required to tell parents about certain topics they are going to talk about in class [just] because some parents are uncomfortable with the topic. They do not have the right to opt their child out of these conversations in class unless the teacher or school is directly teaching sexual education or sexually transmitted or sexuality transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS...."

December 2, 2021:  The Tucker Carlson Show on Fox News exposes 30 seconds (last 30 seconds of the video below) of the Saunders-Wyatt presentation from February 27 that year, showing Wyatt saying that PRISM Club meetings are held during lunchtime to avoid "a little bit of that parental interaction which occurs" otherwise.  Internal SRVUSD damage-control conversations begin.

December 3, 2021:  Illana Israel Samuels, SRVUSD Director of Communications and Community Relations, asks Hong
Nguyen (Director of "Equity") why PRISM Club parental permission slips had been required during the previous school year, but not during 2021-22.   Nguyen answers that it's because PRISM Club meetings now occur during the school day.  Samuels answers, "OK got it!" 
So Samuels knows that there is no permission-slip requirement at this point.

December 9, 2021:  A teacher at Hidden Hills Elementary tells Korby Saunders that after reading from a book about "gender identity," the teacher received a parent complaint, saying this information should come from families or require a permission slip, adding that she was "so sorry for all the crap" that Saunders was "having to go through right now."   

The book turns out to be It Feels Good To Be Yourself, one of the more obnoxious offerings in the Saunders Padlet recommendation list.  The book presents customary gender-bender confusion targeting young people, e.g. "Whether you feel like a boy, a girl, both, or neither, or if you describe yourself another way, that is your gender identity.  Your gender identity might match what people thought you were when you were born.  Or, it might not...." 

You can see/hear a
read-aloud rendition of the book online, by "Nana CeeCee," in the syrupy voice which is likely employed by pre-K (TK) - grade 5 teachers of young children here and elsewhere.  


 

Saunders advises the 4th grade teacher:  "One thing to remember is if they [the child and family, presumably] are from the global majority, their home language may not have words equivalent to trans, non-binary, gay, etc. You probably won't be able to convenience [sic] the parent to change their mind so short and sweet [in response to parents] will be best."


"I always start, says Saunders, by thanking them for the email and sharing their perspective. I agree that these conversations should start at home. As a teacher, I have the responsibility to represent all of our community members in our classroom and not just the members and identities of the majority....

"Our classroom is full of books that affirm cisgender students' identities. If your student doesn’t identify as being gender expansive, this was an opportunity for them to learn about other people's identities that are different than their own (window opportunity)."

In other words, the teacher is supposed to ignore parents' wishes and proceed with her choice of gender-bender read-aloud picture story books, for fourth graders placed in her charge.

December 10, 2021:  Hong Nguyen (who’d quickly been promoted to SRVUSD’s Director of Equity after presiding as Rancho Romero principal during PRISM Club rollout there) answers an emailed question to say that no, “Parental permission is not required for participation in any clubs that take place during lunch, PRISM or otherwise.”

December 14, 2021:  The Saunders - Wyatt CTA video from 02/27/21 (one-minute segment linked below)  with its revelations about ending the parental permission-slip requirement for PRISM Club involvement by 4th and 5th graders, and further concealment via lunchtime Club meeting times is exposed at the SRVUSD School-Board meeting.  A transcript of this video excerpt is posted in the desktop version of the earlier "Queering the Classroom" page.  

December 20, 2021:  DanvilleSanRamon.com reports on the SRVUSD Board meeting, and quotes Illana Israel Samuels  as claiming that district leaders had seen the video segment and denied all allegations that club activity in PRISM groups or any other clubs were hidden from parents.

Samuels said, reported the publication, that "such allegations were patently false according to district policy, and that lunchtime meetings are normal for elementary school clubs, given that it is a time all students are on campus, and that lunchtime club meetings are less likely to interfere with parents' schedules."

"Samuels emphasized," the article continued, "that parents and caregivers are made aware ahead of time of any club involvement by students in the district, saying the district never keeps information from parents about students' extracurricular activities.... Ultimately though, she said parents and caregivers had the final decision, and that students would never be allowed to begin or continue participation in any school clubs or activities without their parents' consent."

Samuels thereby contradicts her own email discussions from just 17 days earlier.  Malloy himself chimes in with one of his stock, anodyne assurances that “we can get to a better place… with accurate information”
information, that is, which SRVUSD personnel themselves have repeatedly obscured or falsely denied. 

... TO BE CONTINUED....

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