West Chester Area School District
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Updated – January 17, 2023
On August 24, 2022, Fern Hills Elementary School held a teacher training titled, “An Intro to LGBTQ Education: Cultivating Gender Inclusive Classrooms.” Documents provided by No Left Turn in Education to the Daily Caller News Foundation, said the training provided “elementary school teachers with picture books and lessons for kids as young as kindergarten on transgenderism to incorporate into their classroom.”
The training was led by LGBTQ activist Aneesah Smith, a self-described “queer, Christian, cisgender, woman of color.” Smith hosts a variety of training sessions including “Understanding and Supporting LGBTQ+ Students and Families” and “Communication Beyond the Binary: Cultivating a Gender Inclusive School.”
In the workshop provided to Fern Hills Elementary School, teachers were shown the “Gender Bear.” Daily Caller reports the “Gender Bear” is a “diagram of a bear used to explain how genitals give people their sex and the brain gives people their identity.”
For kindergarten through second grade students, the training recommended the book “Red: A Crayon’s Story.” This book teaches students about gender identity through a crayon who is labeled as red but is actually blue.
Another book recommended during the training helps kids understand pronouns and is titled, “They, She, He, Me: Free To Be.” It comes with an activity written by the Human Rights Commission that offers information on how to introduce elementary students to gender-neutral pronouns and how to pick their own pronouns.
In a statement to Daily Caller News Foundation, the district said:
“The West Chester Area School District is continuously looking for areas in which we can improve our ability to effectively educate our students as well as provide supportive welcoming environments for them and their families … The training at Fern Hill Elementary School focused on the importance of creating an environment where all students can achieve their best and where all families feel welcome, valued, and respected.”
Updated – October 3, 2022
According to the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF), “Two families removed their children from a school district in West Chester, Pennsylvania, due to ‘woke indoctrination.’ Stetson Middle School in West Chester [Area School District] posted photos of drag queens and LGBTQ activists on the walls of classrooms for 7th graders as part of Pride Month.”
Jim Jacobs, a father of an 11-year-old student, publicly voiced disapproval of the social agenda promoted by the school. Jacobs told DCNF, “‘My eyes open up, this is truly indoctrination. We live in Philadelphia and not one of my kids in a public school has ever taken a bus trip to the Constitution Center.’”
Jacobs and his brother removed their children from Stetson after its “over-the-top gay pride celebrations.” Jacobs, said, “‘The last thing I wanted to do was transfer my son for his 8th-grade year, but enough is enough. At Stetson, there is no freedom of speech but freedom of ‘woke’ speech,’” Delaware Valley Journal reports.
Additionally, Delaware Valley reported, Gay Pride observances at Stetson included children wearing rainbow flags and posing in front of the flag for photos with the same sex. One teacher celebrated the occasion by teaching in high heels.
West Chester Area School District’s website shows Stetson Middle School sends monthly equity, diversity, and inclusion updates. The May/June update promoted a “month-long observance during the month of June in celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people – and the history, culture, and contributions of these individuals in the global community.”
Published – May 4, 2022
In March 2021, the West Chester School Board voted to keep the book “Gender Queer” in the school libraries. “Gender Queer’s” summary describes it as a “journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.” The book has been called ‘pornographic’ and “includes photos of sexual acts between a boy and a man.”
After a parent complaint was submitted to the West Chester School Board in December, a committee convened to review the book. The committee stated they didn’t view the explicit images as pornographic when viewed in the wider context of the entire story. They recommended that the book stay in the library and the school board voted 8-1 to accept the committee’s recommendation.
Superintendent Bob Sokolowski stated that keeping the book in school libraries aligned with “the principle of protecting freedom of speech, as well as the rights and regard for our LGBTQ+ students.”
In August 2021, the school board president faced calls to resign after confiscating the microphone from a woman speaking out about critical race theory at a school board meeting. The mother, an Iranian immigrant, asked whether teachers were being taught critical race theory. In the midst of her comments, the school board president interrupted the mother, alleged her allotted speaking time had run out, took her microphone, and had her escorted out by police.
