Why does the Public Education Department (PED) need an Identity, Equity, and Transformation department? What are they trying to transform? And why are they still in masks?

As a middle school teacher, I am strongly against the current trend of keeping secrets from parents. However, I think not all secrets are equal. Let me give three examples of information I found out over the course of last year:

Situation A:
A female 6th grader had a gender support plan meeting in the fall of her 6th grade year. In attendance were my school’s 6th grade counselor, one of the girl’s teachers, and a representative from the district. In the meeting, the girl conveyed that she wanted to go by a different name and they/them pronouns. Most teachers seem to have been notified and began calling her by the new name and pronouns, but I did not find out until the next spring when I actually asked a colleague what was going on with this child.

Situation B:
In the middle of class one afternoon, while I was running around trying to make sure kids were getting started with the day’s work, a girl pointed out a sticker on her Chromebook. (With kids having one-to-one Chromebooks, they often decorate them with stickers like some kids do/did their lockers.) I attempted to redirect her away from her laptop stickers because I was trying to get everyone to work. She started crying because she had been trying to tell me via a certain sticker that she was coming out as gay. I spoke to the 7th grade counselor to let her know what happened and that the issue wasn’t what the girl said, but that she dropped it on me in the middle of class. The counselor talked to the girl, and the girl requested we not bring it up anymore, so I didn’t.

Situation C:
One of my 7th grade boys came in after school to say hi with two female friends who were not my students. In chatting, they somewhat nonchalantly told me that they had seen a female classmate who was one of my students with her boyfriend, and the boyfriend had his pants down. I later relayed this information to my team (the group of teachers who share the same students) and our 7th grade counselor.

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From what I know, parents were not contacted in any of these situations. Should parents have been contacted in all three? Just two?

If it were up to me, I’d definitely contact parents in Situation A. Keeping them out while actively calling a child by a different name and pronouns is unacceptable.

I’m not sure if I’d contact parents in Situation C. A staff member did not witness the incident, so we would be reporting the hearsay of fellow 7th graders. Then again, if it was true that this 7th grader was involved in sexual activity, the parent should know about it.

I do not think parent contact would be warranted in Situation B because the child’s well-being was not at stake, and the announcement did not affect how the child was being treated at school. No changes were made to accommodate the child. To me this would be like a middle school girl announcing a male crush in class one day and then becoming embarrassed about it; I don’t think I would contact parents if the situation quickly resolved.

……..……..……..……..

I’d be interested to hear anyone else’s thoughts on when parent contact is warranted for this age group. Please note again that all three scenarios I described were real from this past school year.

Seen on FB
Colorado, according to caption

New proposed contract between Albuquerque Teachers Federation and Albuquerque Public Schools

New language about switching to restorative practices/restorative justice

https://atfunion.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2022-08-changes-to-the-aps-atf-negotiated-agreement-22-23.pdf

I didn’t realize just how drastically enrollment has dropped at my school until it was announced today that we have about half of the population we previously had. I am assuming they are comparing now to pre-COVID years, but I’m really not sure. It sounds like the whole district is experiencing similar issues.

There is a lot of talk among staff of how low enrollment is affecting scheduling, including many teachers ending up teaching more than one subject; usually middle school teachers only teach one subject per year, but now we have a lot of teachers who have, for example, two class periods of math and three of English. However, nobody seems to be bringing up WHY so many families are no longer choosing to send their children.

I think it easily boils down to three concerns parents have:
*gender and sexuality policies
*COVID policies
*physical safety at school

I’m looking for some low key and fun get-to-know you activities for the first few days of school. How this kind of game works is that kids go around the room to find a classmate who meets each of these qualifications, and the classmate signs the corresponding box. Usually the items are cute and innocent, like “has traveled out of the state” or “has a name that starts with Y”.

This one looked cute until I looked more closely. Some are fine and interesting, but some are horrible! I would not want kids to go around the room looking for a classmate for any of these boxes:
White
African-American
Has been in a fight
Has been bullied
Has a family member in jail
Knows somebody who has died from violence

This is absolutely heartbreaking. So many kids have been damaged just like this author's son. 😭😭😭https://brownstone.org/articles/the-cult-that-took-my-michael/