Maryland’s largest school district is prohibiting faculty from disclosing information about children's chosen gender identity from their parents.
Montgomery County Public Schools has provided guidelines for working with transgender children that say a "student’s transgender status is confidential" and cannot be disclosed with their parent or guardian without their permission.
Public schools across the country this year have implemented policies excluding parents from their children’s education, especially with LGBT policies. In Virginia, Fairfax County Public Schools prohibited teachers from consulting parents when students as young as kindergarten-age switch genders at school in July. Loudoun County Public Schools in the state issued similar guidelines in April. A California mother sued her daughter’s school district in January after two teachers allegedly coerced her child into adopting a transgender identity without informing her.
The guidelines say school principals and staff should "ascertain the level of support the student either receives or anticipates receiving from home," helping the student create a gender-identity plan "even when the family is nonsupportive."
Harold Maldonado, the father of a rising fourth grader at MCPS, told the Washington Free Beacon he is "angry" and "disgusted" that Montgomery County is pushing "inappropriate" sex education on students.
"The Montgomery County Public School System is overreaching, and this borders the line of criminal," Maldonado said.