Elementary School Repeats The Parade That Outraged Parents
See a school repeat another gay pride elementary school parade this week despite an attorney general's letter to cease.
Earlier this week, Go2Tutors first reported a controversial story regarding a Texas Elementary school that forced children into a pride parade. The act garnered national attention as the growing sensation social media account Libs of TikTok shared video footage from the elementary school parade with its half-million followers on Twitter. But it seems that national attention and even a letter to cease the act from Texas’ Attorney General wasn’t enough to stop the school from its festivities, as Libs of TikTok once again shares footage of yet another parade that allegedly was held again in the school yesterday.
See the school at it again below.
According to the Tweet, the school had barred parents access from the Pride Week events after the elementary school parade first went viral on social media. It’s unknown how the account obtained the pictures, but they posted two new photos from what they say was a second parade this week. In the first photo, an assumed teacher wearing a gay pride shirt is seen playing the saxophone next to a small girl holding up a rainbow heart craft. Users pointed out the irony that the adult was maskless while the little girl wasn’t. The second picture depicted an adult holding a gay pride flag as a group of students marched down the hall altogether holding a large sign reading “spread kindness”.
The first elementary school parade was said to have taken place on Monday as part of Austin Independent School District’s Pride Week. In footage of the original parade from Monday, young children marched the halls of the school with rainbow colors everywhere. Some students held up paintings and posters or handmade rainbow flags. Teachers waved the kids on with pride flags. Some students seemed unphased, while others seemed to enjoy the festivities.
Some parents were outraged that the school was holding a Pride Week altogether. Others weren’t necessarily concerned with the elementary school parade itself, but the means by which it was being rolled out. The Libs of TikTok Twitter account was able to obtain documentation outlining Pride Week, and some of the info was quite disturbing. Under the outline for community circles for Pre-K through second grade, the wording said that students were asked to respect privacy by not sharing discussions outside of the classroom.
Yesterday, Fox News reported that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the school district in alrm to the elementary school parade. The intent was to alert them that the school was in violation of state law. In the letter, Paxton claims that students were required to obtain written consent from their parents before the school could deliver any sexuality instruction under state law. Furthermore, he said, “By hosting ‘Pride Week,’ your district has, at best, undertaken a week-long instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent. Or, worse, your district is cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of your students that not only fails to obtain parental consent, but subtly cuts parents out of the loop. Either way, you’re breaking the law.”
The school district superintendent, Stephanie Elizalde, replied in a Tweet to Paxton’s letter saying that she would protect her students from political attacks. She also said that Paxton was wrong about the circle communities, saying that the context of the curriculum was just to protect individual students’ gender identity from being discussed further outside the classroom. Furthermore, a spokesperson told Fox News that the school’s Pride Week elementary school parade and sex education were not the same things, citing that they broke no laws.
In a time of growing concern regarding teacher transparency, this Pride Week elementary school parade outline is a prime example of why parents are so frustrated with schools. States like Missouri currently have legislation in the works to give parents better access to what their children learn inside classrooms. And states like Arizona have already passed sweeping legislation making transparency a forefront matter. And as for matters concerning gender identity and sexuality, states like Florida are set to pass legislation barring the discussions in the classrooms of public schools’ youngest students.
