A set of guidelines approved last week by the Minnesota Department of Education’s “School Safety Technical Assistance Council” advises teachers to ask K-12 students for their preferred pronoun.
Educators in the “Land of 10,000 Lakes” were officially given a “transgender toolkit” on July 17 as a means of being more supportive of the LGBT community. The Washington Free Beacon’s Elizabeth Harrington joined “The Morning Blaze with Doc Thompson” on Tuesday to discuss what exactly teachers are being encouraged to do.
“One of the main things is they have to ask kids as young as kindergarten what they want to be called, their quote-unquote ’preferred pronoun,” she said. “They shouldn’t call them boys and girls because that’s not inclusive; they should call first graders, second graders, ’scholars’ because you can’t use the phrase ’boys and girls.’”
“The kids are sitting around eating paste. We’re calling them scholars?” responded the host.
“They don’t even know what a pronoun is, but they’re going to be asked what their preferred pronoun is,” said Ms. Harrington.
A June 26 draft of the document posted since June says students “need not provide” legal documents to correct their first name or gender with the school’s records.
“School officials should ask the student and use the requested name and pronouns,” the toolkit states. “When students are referred to be the wrong pronoun by peers or school staff, students may feel intimidated, threatened, harassed, or bullied. School staff can ensure a more respectful environment for all students when efforts are made to correct the misuse of pronouns, as well as names, in student records.”
Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius told supporters and critics alike last week that edits are likely to be made to the toolkit in the weeks and months ahead, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported July 19.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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