To celebrate the “National Day of Reading,” California’s largest school district hosted a read aloud event for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students to affirm “transgender and non-binary youth,” according to the school district website.
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) hosted its second annual observance on Feb. 16 of the Jazz & Friends National Day of School and Community Readings, a Human Rights Campaign (HRCF) event created to teach about LGBT bullying inspired by transgender child advocate Jazz Jennings, according to the school district website. Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Dr. Karla Estrada read pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students “Red: A Crayon’s Story,” a book that teaches gender identity by describing a crayon who is labeled as red but is actually blue, and then students completed an activity based on the reading. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Pennsylvania Elementary School Training Introduces 5-Year-Olds To Transgenderism)
“Red, a drag queen story hour favorite, targets young kids with a subliminal message about gender identity,” “Wenyuan Wu, executive director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, a group that focused on combating racial discrimination, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Activists have used the book to promote transgenderism and instill confusion. LAUSD should be more focused on improving student literacy, which is at a 41% low, and helping students learn math since less than 30% of its students are proficient in math.”
HRCF is an organization that works towards ending LGBTQ discrimination, according to the group website. The organization’s “Welcoming Schools” project, which created the Jazz & Friends National Day of School and Community Readings event, focuses on creating “gender inclusive schools” through lessons and professional development training programs.
Teachers were advised that they did not need to notify parents of the event or receive parental permission for students to participate, the school website stated. The activity, suggested for kindergarten through second graders, discussed that gender identity may not always correspond with an individual’s biological sex because there is “more to me than you see.”
“Non-binary students may feel that neither the word ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ fits for them, they may feel like they are both or neither,” the activity stated. “Some non-binary people use pronouns such as they, them and theirs.”
Students were encouraged to share something about themselves that can’t be known by looking at them and to write down something they “like,” “don’t like” and “feel,” the activity showed. Examples of what a student might share included “someone looking at me might think I am a girl, but I am non-binary and my pronouns are they/them” or “someone who looks at me might not know that I have two Dads.”
One way educators can support LGBTQ+ Youth: Join the @HRC Welcoming Schools National Day of Reading. https://t.co/LZ4Ah8yZ4v
— NEA (@NEAToday) February 16, 2023
The activity encouraged teachers to read “I Am Jazz,” a true story about a 2-year-old boy who realizes he is actually a girl, to teach students about trans children and compare the book to “Red: A Crayon’s Story.”
“This lesson also explores the concept of gender expression—one of the many forms of expression where we share who we are with items such as our clothes and hair,” the activity stated. “It is important to teach young children that we cannot assume someone’s gender identity based upon their gender expression.”
LAUSD and Welcoming Schools did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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