"By hosting 'Pride Week,' your district has, at best, undertaken a weeklong instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent. State law, he added, requires districts to obtain written consent from parents "before a student may be provided with human sexuality instruction." "The Texas Legislature has made it clear that when it comes to sex education, parents - not school districts - are in charge," Paxton said in a letter sent to the Austin district late Tuesday. One of the rules for engaging in a circle, according to the agenda for prekindergarten to second grade, is this: "Respect privacy: What we say in this room stays in this room."Īccording to Paxton and conservative media outlets, that sounds like students are being encouraged to keep details confidential from parents.
Paxton and other conservatives have focused much of their ire on Doss Elementary's published Pride Week agenda, which included the use of "community circles" - guided conversations on topics such as family and respecting differences.
The Austin district has celebrated Pride Week for at least 14 years, with 2022 activities to be determined campus by campus along broad themes, such as "Differences are awesome" for Tuesday and "Know your rights" on Wednesday. 'We're going to fight': Trans people express outrage over anti-LGBTQ measures in Texas, Florida Nation: Texas court reinstates injunction blocking order on transgender care as child abuse The Pride Week clash underlines increasingly sharp divisions over issues of sexual identity – a battle that has spilled into the courts over Paxton's opinion that gender-affirming medical care for transgender adolescents constitutes child abuse and into school libraries, where conservatives are pushing to eliminate books that they believe contain obscene sexual content, many of them with LGBTQ themes.
"I want all our LGBTQIA+ students to know that we are proud of them and that we will protect them against political attacks," Superintendent Stephanie S. Elizalde replied on Twitter.Ī social media-fueled backlash to this year's Pride Week also resulted in death threats against teachers at Doss Elementary School in Austin and prompted the school to move Wednesday's pride parade indoors, with police present, "because we were actually worried that this political controversy could possibly threaten the safety of these kids," district spokesman Jason Stanford said. "Liberal school districts are aggressively pushing LGBTQ+ views on Texas Kids!" Paxton said Tuesday night on Twitter, where he announced his campaign against the district's "immoral and illegal" Pride Week celebration, which began Monday.Īustin school officials fired back, accusing Paxton of launching a misguided attack designed to score political points at the expense of students. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has accused the Austin school district of breaking state law with Pride Week activities that he characterized as attempts to indoctrinate students with liberal attitudes on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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