'An Attack on God and Family': Parents Condemn Idaho School Board's New Secretive Gender Policy

One mother rebuked an Idaho school district’s new, secretive gender policy during a recent meeting, calling the rule “an attack on God and family.”

The new policy on “gender identity and sexual orientation” would allow students in the Caldwell School District, just west of Boise, to use the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their chosen gender identities. Additionally, the rule orders school staff members to hide kids’ sexual orientations and gender identities from their parents, unless they have coordinated with school officials on “plans” for accommodating students’ sexual preferences.

“This is an attack on God and family,” one concerned mother said during a heated public-comment session of a school board meeting Monday. “The educational system has become a pawn for destroying our children, Christian culture, and the guarantee of freedoms in our republic.”

The mother told the school board “we are conservatives,” calling the new rule “indoctrination into a cult” and “immoral child exploitation.”

“It’s a constitutional right of the parents to raise their children with their own moral values and without the imposition of alternate lifestyles,” she added.

The school board ultimately shut down the public-comment session after others sounded off on the concerning policy — and those watching repeatedly applauded the speakers condemning the rule.

Among those who rebuked the gender policy was a sixth-grade student, a former teacher’s aide and school counselor, and a state lawmaker.

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The middle school student said she did not want change in front of or use the bathroom alongside boys.

“I don’t think that it’s right for a boy who feels like he’s a girl to change in the same room as the girls because it would make us all feel very uncomfortable changing with a boy,” she told the school board.

The former counselor argued children are much too fickle to make such consequential decisions.

“As a school counselor, I know that children’s identity is transitory,” she said. “I think it’s a crime to encourage them to settle in on one thing just because it happens to be the mode of the day.”

The meeting really devolved, though, when Idaho state Sen. Chris Trakel (R), whose district includes the Caldwell area, spoke out against the rule.

“Before you waste taxpayer money, before you put a kid in harm’s way, you better throw this policy out and not even consider,” the lawmaker began before stopping as Marisela Pesina, the chair of the school board, disregarded him and began speaking to another board member.

“I’ve got the floor,” Trakel said. “Mrs. Pesina, will you please listen to me? You claim you want people to follow the rules, but you break the rules left and right.”

Pesina replied, “Alright, we will recess.”

At that point, meeting attendees began chanting, “Recall! Recall!” Pesina then asked for Trakel’s microphone to be muted just moments before the meeting was adjourned altogether.