California School To Pay $100,000 Settlement For Keeping 11-Year-Old’s Gender Transition Secret

Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A California college district that was sued over allegations lecturers and workers at Buena Vista Middle School in Salinas, Calif., coached an 11-year-old lady to socially transition to a male gender identification settled with the lady and her mom for $100,000.

The lawsuit, filed on June 14 final yr, named Spreckels Union School District, the principal on the college, and two lecturers as defendants.

Jessica Konen, the kid’s mom, got here ahead after a leaked audio recording revealed the 2 lecturers telling different educators about how they secretly recruited college students into the college’s LGBT membership at a California Teachers Association weekend convention in Palm Springs in October 2021. The CTA occasion was billed because the “2021 LGBTQ+ Issues Conference, Beyond the Binary: Identity & Imagining Possibilities.” The two lecturers had been later suspended and now not work within the district.

Ms. Konen informed The Epoch Times she’s relieved {that a} settlement has lastly been reached.

“It’s a massive victory across America for myself, for my daughter, and for other parents experiencing similar situations,” she mentioned. “Our voices made a difference.”

While she is grateful to the Center for American Liberty for taking up the pro-bono case, she mentioned the battle for parental rights has solely begun.

“I just feel social transitioning done in secrecy is the real evil. We need to get rid of it, period. So, the fight must continue,” she mentioned.

Her daughter, Alicia Konen, who’s now 16, echoed her mother’s sentiments, saying she’s able to put the expertise, which she described as “evil” and “horrible,” behind her.

According to the Center for American Liberty and allegations within the lawsuit, Alicia was recruited to affix an “Equality Club,” the place she was taught about bisexuality, transgender identities, and different LGBT ideas when she was within the sixth grade.

Alicia started to make use of a male identify and pronouns and wore a chest binder below boy’s garments.

School workers lastly referred to as a gathering the final day earlier than winter break throughout Alicia’s seventh grade yr and demanded that Ms. Konen discuss with her daughter by a male identify and male pronouns, she mentioned.

“I was definitely intimidated,” she mentioned.

Ms. Konen remembers feeling awkward and careworn when she was tagging Alicia’s Christmas presents.

She needed to be supportive to her daughter however wasn’t able to name her by a male identify and pronouns, so she wrote “Baby” and “Sweetheart” as a substitute.

“I was an emotional wreck trying to process everything. I was scared to mess up or to use the wrong pronouns,” she mentioned. “I never used the male pronouns, and I never used the name.”

Ms. Konen warned mother and father to “be vigilant,” discuss to lecturers, and take note of what’s occurring at native college board conferences.

“Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to show your values and your opinions,” she mentioned.

She additionally urged mother and father to get extra engaged of their kids’s lives.

“We need to fight for our kids, because if we don’t fight for our kids, they’ll fight for our kids,” she mentioned. “Be close to your child, because somebody wants to get closer.”

‘I Wanted to Tell My Mom’

Alicia’s social gender transition started when she went to see a faculty counselor as a result of she was feeling depressed, she informed The Epoch Times.

“I was told by the counselor—it was brought up that I was sad because I wasn’t who I was supposed to be, and that’s kind of where it all started,” she mentioned.

Alicia was “pulled away” from her schoolwork, and the counselor who she mentioned was working with the college to “socially transition kids,” put her on a Gender Support Plan, often known as a GSP, which required college workers to make use of a male identify and pronouns when referring to her, and to permit her to make use of the unisex lecturers’ restroom as a substitute of the lady’s amenities.

“I was advised by the school not to tell my mom, and I was given articles on how to hide a social transition from my mom,” she mentioned. “I was extremely confused, and honestly very scared. I wanted to tell my mom, and continually said I wanted to tell her, but I was encouraged to keep it a secret. … The school said that my mother wouldn’t support me.”

But, all through the ordeal which lasted for greater than a yr, Alicia believed her mother would help her it doesn’t matter what.

Alicia mentioned she has felt higher about herself since she left center college and entered highschool the place she is “actually able to focus on my academics.”

And she is comfy together with her gender.

“I am 1,000 percent a girl. I am Alicia. That is who I am, and no one can ever change that,” she mentioned. “I feel free finally. I feel like I’m not under control by anybody. I can finally move forward with my life and be happy.”

The Konens hope their high-profile case will draw consideration and encourage different households to problem state and native college board insurance policies that exclude mother and father from their kids’s lives.

“I think that throughout the country there will be a lot more coming forward, realizing that they were never alone,” Ms. Konen mentioned. “There are people out there who are hurt.”

The settlement means they’re each in a position to discuss extra freely about their expertise and have thought-about writing a e book.

“It is a complete passion of mine to continue to spread awareness,” she mentioned.

Alicia mentioned she feels “extremely bad,” for different kids who had been socially transitioned in school.

“That’s one of the main reasons I wanted to come out and speak about this case, because I want to be a voice for the people who feel like they don’t have a voice.”

Ms. Konen mentioned the college workers took benefit of her daughter’s younger thoughts and weak state, which she referred to as “a form of brainwashing,” and didn’t inform her that Alicia was having suicidal ideas.

If mother and father are saved at nighttime about their kids’s issues, they received’t be capable of assist help them or get them the remedy they want, she mentioned.

“It’s extremely dangerous,” Ms. Konen mentioned, “What if something happens that is irreversible? … If a child only has the support of schools, what happens when they go home? What happens when they have those bad days? What happens when they’re confused at home?”

The greatest solution to forestall youth suicides is for college workers and oldsters to work collectively, Ms. Konen mentioned.

“If everyone’s included, then that is in the best interest of the child—not hiding it,” she mentioned. “The secret stuff has to go.”

A spokesperson for the Spreckels Union School District was not instantly accessible for remark.

‘Hard to Put a Dollar Value on It’

Eric Sell, a civil rights legal professional on the Center for American Liberty who represented the Konens, informed The Epoch Times the college district settled the case primarily based on the underlying allegations within the lawsuit however hasn’t admitted any fault or legal responsibility.

“What happened to Alicia, Jessica is hard to quantify. It’s hard to put a dollar value on it,” he mentioned.

But the $100,000 settlement will function a deterrent for different college districts that proceed “to propagate these policies and keep parents in the dark,” Mr. Sell mentioned. “As far as we are aware, this is the first time a school district has had to pay a family money for secretly transitioning their kid behind their backs.”

The Center for American liberty is inquisitive about such instances as a result of it has seen a scientific erosion of parental rights, “particularly by government actors and schools,” he mentioned.

The drawback is “really apparent” in California in public faculties the place gender ideology is “infecting schools” and “pushing kids towards dangerous decisions and dangerous life paths,” he mentioned.

Children, who might or might not absolutely weigh all the implications of their actions, are making selections that may doubtlessly result in medicalization or surgical procedure and irreversible harm to their very own our bodies, he mentioned.

“We’re seeing so much of this that … the Center for American Liberty has decided to focus some of its time and resources on combating this specific problem,” Mr. Sell mentioned.

He mentioned “it’s absurd” that California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued Chino Valley Unified School District over its parental notification policy requiring college workers to tell mother and father inside a couple of days if their youngster modifications his or her gender identification in school.

“The Supreme Court has consistently held that parents have the right to direct the upbringing and education of their children,” states the Center for American Liberty on its website.

“This includes the right to have a say in whether their children’s school socially transitions them to a different gender. Parents are denied that right when schools think they know better than parents how to raise their children and intentionally hide information from moms and dads.”