“Progress” Pride Flags above PUSD schools

The progress pride flags that hang above all the Piedmont schools referencing gender-fluidity should immediately be removed. Legislatures in 20 states this year proposed banning physicians and other health care professionals from providing puberty blockers, hormones and “gender affirming” surgery to children. Puberty blockers have been banned in the UK following the Cass report. It has been established that this is a condition that is not fully understood, nor is the most beneficial course of action for the health of a child with said condition agreed upon. What is clear is that students and teachers are not the keepers of information about the appropriate response to this medical and psychological condition. It is hubris to assume that peripheral adults and students in the life of a child dealing with this confusion can collectively craft a medically beneficial response to a cry for help with regard to gender identity- it would be better to stay out of it completely and let medical experts lead the way. It appears that the very rudimentary and dangerously simplistic policy of the school is ‘ you are what you say you are’ and ‘we will support and reinforce this without question’. I would like to point out the fact that this modality of approach to a student claiming to be a gender that defies physical reality, an approach that is uniformly taken by teachers and staff and imposed on students by social and disciplinary force is in actuality an act that has serious consequences of a medical nature. It could be compared to a situation wherein a child with weight related body dysmorphia or anorexia is subjected to the community commenting on their weight. This is a psychological situation of a medical nature and the teachers, students and community have no place reinforcing anything. It can be a matter of life and death for these confused children. The flag that you fly so casually above our schools is an admission of ignorance and a lack of understanding of scientific and medical implications of this serious condition. You should take it down at all locations and stop all reference to a little understood problem that ends tragically for many young people.