A new report shows that at least five Alaska school districts are embracing transgender ideology while keeping parents in the dark about how their children are being treated and referred to during school hours.

According to Parents Defending Education, there are least 1,040 U.S. school districts that have implemented policies and procedures which encourage teachers and other employees to hide students’ gender identities and personal pronouns from parents.

Alaska school districts cited in the report include Anchorage, Juneau, Hoonah, Nome and Skagway, which operate a combined 117 schools with roughly 40,000 Alaska students. Fairbanks, is also listed in the report, but that district has updated its regulations in 2021 to allow for parental notification regarding a child’s gender identity status when school officials deem there is a “legitimate need to know.”

Nationally, the report shows that 18,000 schools with nearly 11 million students are impacted by pro-transgender policies that exclude parental involvement.

While Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau school districts have long maintained policies that block parents from knowing how their children sexually identify in schools, even smaller districts are adopting such policies.

The Hoonah Schools policy, largely mirrors those in Skagway and Nome by explicitly permits staff to keep the gender identity of students hidden from their parents, while mandating that staff use the preferred names and pronouns of students. Staff are told to use the student’s legal name when addressing parents, so as to conceal how the student is being addressed by teachers and others in school.

This is really a tragic development in public education. We shouldn’t even be having to ask whether school districts will withhold critical information from parents.

– Jim Minnery, Alaska Family Council

Hoonah Students are also permitted to utilize restrooms and locker rooms and participate in sports according to their preferred gender identity.

“It’s a parent’s worst nightmare,” said Alaska Family Council President Jim Minnery in a recent email alert. “You learn that your school district has been willfully hiding the fact that your son or daughter has changed his or her ‘gender identity.’ A publicly funded school actively working to keep parents unaware of a very serious mental health matter related to their own children.”

Minnery said the Alaska Family Council is actively working to pursue legal recourse against at least one of these school districts that are directly violating parental rights.

“If you have reason to believe your child’s school district has policies in place that would hide a student’s claimed gender identity from parents or legal guardian, please contact us now,” he added. “This is really a tragic development in public education. We shouldn’t even be having to ask whether school districts will withhold critical information from parents.”

In Alaska and around the nation, the growing number of so-called “transgender/gender nonconforming” policies have generated intense controversy, heated school board meetings and a wave of students who are now leaving standard public schools for correspondence, homeschooling and private education options.

Division regarding transgender and LGBTQ policies comes at a time when more students are claiming that they identify with alternative sexualities. This increase may be due a growing “socially contagious syndrome” in which students are being led to question cultural and religious beliefs, traditional morality and values.”

A national report from earlier this year, which has generated heated debate in school circles, notes that social preoccupation with LGBTQ issues may be causing widespread gender dysphoria, in which youth “falsely believe they are transgender.”

TAKING ACTION

— Click here to contact the Alaska Family Council with concerns in your school district.

— Click here to contact Anchorage School Board members.

— Click here to contact Juneau School Board members.

— Click here to contact Skagway School Board members.

— Click here to contact Hoonah  School Board members.

— Click here to contact Nome School Board members.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on Sept. 1 to reflect the fact that the Fairbanks School District modified it’s regulations in 2021 to allow for parents to know about their students’ gender identity status when school officials deem there is a “legitimate need to know.”

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