Education

Michigan Teacher Warns Students Not To Question People With Gender Dysphoria

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Chrissy Clark Contributor
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A Michigan high school teacher told students it can be a “microaggression” to question people who suffer from gender dysphoria, according to audio recordings posted to YouTube on March 25.

Rochester Adams High School students enrolled in the elective course “True Stories” were subjected to a lesson on transgenderism, according to an audio recording from Parents Defending Education. The teacher told students to accept a transgender individual’s ideology as fact.

“You have to believe these people when they say, ‘Hey, this is how I identify.’ And you don’t try and justify, ‘Well, you don’t look like that,’ or ‘I don’t see that,’ or ‘your biological sex is different than that.’ You just accept that that is who they are and that’s just a matter of respecting them,” the teacher said.

“When someone tells you that they are who they are, just believe them. Don’t question them,” she continued. “Don’t try and put your belief into it.”

The teacher also showed students the “GenderBread Person” and encouraged students to practice using “they/them” pronouns. She also claimed that there are “an infinite number of pronouns.”

“Pronouns are an extension of a student’s name. And, therefore, an extension of their identity,” the teacher said. “Dismissing their use, misgendering, or treating preferred pronouns as a chore is harmful to our students.”

Students questioned the teacher’s opinions, according to the audio recording. Students pushed back against using the word “they” to describe a single person and one opined on whether biological men should be allowed in women’s sports.

The teacher defended allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. She encouraged sports to be divided by skill set in an effort to “do away with gendered sports.” (RELATED: Michigan Superintendent Raked In Nearly $700,000 In Salary, Benefits As He Monitored Parents’ Social Media)

A spokeswoman for Rochester Community Schools told the Daily Caller that the lecture was given in an elective course for 11th and 12th-grade students. She referred further questions on the course to the district’s Course Description Book.

“True Stories is one of seven elective courses that 11th and 12th-grade students can take to meet their English/Language Arts class high school requirements,” the spokeswoman said. “Students in this semester [sic] literature course analyze the elements of nonfiction storytelling and distinguish between literary truth versus non-fictional truth.”

Nicki Neily, the president and co-founder of Parents Defending Education, told the Daily Caller that this is another example of teachers prioritizing “ideologies over information.”

“It is unacceptable for schools to demand such real estate in children’s heads. This is another case of teachers promoting ideologies over information,” Neily said. “Kids all over the country are falling behind in reading, writing, and math proficiencies, and this is what teachers focus on instead?”