Teacher tells middle-school student to become LGBT activist

In what apparently is the latest incident in a campaign to push children toward becoming LGBT-rights activists, a teacher has instructed a middle-school student to sign up for "recurring text messages" associated with an LGBT "Day of Silence" campaign.

WND reported last week school officials in Orange County, California, have adopted a pro-LGBT curriculum and are mandating that students attend the "Day of Silence."

Parents are not allowed to opt their children out of accompanying lessons on homosexuality if they are objectionable and violate the parents' or the student's faith.

Now, according to Liberty Counsel, a teacher in Tavares Middle School in Lake County, Florida, gave to students, including a 14-year-old boy, material "encouraging him to participate in the 'Day of Silence.'"

The event, held last week, was created by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to promote alternative sexual lifestyles in schools.

Promoters call it a "student-led" event in which students take a "vow of silence to highlight the silencing and erasure of LGBTQ people at school."

In reality, adult activists, teachers and others often push students to participate.

Explained Liberty Counsel: "Some of the GLSEN coercion includes allowing students 'supportive' of 'Day of Silence' to refrain from verbal participation in classroom instruction, while those who do not participate in 'Day of Silence' must prepare to answer class questions."

The recent note from a middle school teacher to the student said: "I'm staying silent on GLSEN's Day of Silence. It's a national youth movement highlighting the silencing and erasure of LGBTQ people at school. Nearly 4 in 5 LGBTQ students don’t see positive LGBTQ representation in their curriculum, nearly 9 in 10 experience verbal harassment, and almost a third miss school for feeling unsafe or uncomfortable. But together, as part of GLSEN's Day of Silence, we can break the silence of LGBTQ students! But together, we can break the silence, making our school more inclusive for all."

Liberty Counsel explained: "The note also directs students to a text number or website address. The note provided by the teacher encourages students to text to sign up for recurring text messages from GLSEN. The website also provides middle and high school students with a plethora of propaganda, including a 'Breaking the Silence Letter Generator' to automatically receive a customized letter to share with school administrators and request LGBTQ-inclusive support at their school."

Teachers also are propagandized by GLSEN, which "encourages teachers to require students ages K-12 to engage in numerous forms of coercive, group political activism, disregarding the parents' desires or the students' religious beliefs. Students can either 'go along to get along,' or risk being 'outed' as disagreeing with the teacher and GLSEN's radical LGBT viewpoint."

Mat Staver, the founder and chief counsel of Liberty Counsel, said the teacher at Tavares Middle School "has no business promoting GLSEN's 'Day of Silence' coercive political activities to innocent middle school students."

"A teacher's job is to teach academic curriculum, not promote a personal agenda and bully students into following a pro-LGBT agenda," he said. "We will not allow the school to ignore this inappropriate and unconstitutional bullying behavior in the classroom."

Orange County's declaration that it was giving parents permission to teach their values to their children at home earned a tongue-in-cheek "how thoughtful" from the Family Research Council.

"You mean you'll let us make the decisions when our kids are home? How thoughtful," an FRC commentary said.

"It's every parent's worst nightmare: someone exposes your kids to something harmful – and you can't stop them. That's exactly the situation in Orange County, California, where the school district has decided that LGBT lessons are too important to let families opt out," FRC said.

Fox News' Todd Starnes also commented on the dispute.

He quoted the policy from the school: "Parents who disagree with the instructional materials related to gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation may not excuse their children from this instruction."

He said the district was voluntarily granting permission to parents to "rebut the materials at home."

"Parents are free to advise their children that they disagree with some or all of the information presented in the instructional program and express their views on these subjects to their children," the school told Starnes.

"The Orange County Department of Education feels it is their right to GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO DISAGREE WITH THEM. These are our children! They do not belong to the schools," said a mother, Heidi St. John, in a Lifesite News report.

Explained FRC: "District officials try to head-off any controversy by including this gem in the same memo: 'The courts have held that parents do not have the constitutional rights to override the determinations of the state legislature or the school district as to what information their children will be provided in the public school classroom.' In other words, thanks for supplying the kids – we'll handle the brainwashing."

Starnes was even more direct.

"Allow me to be blunt – the idea that parents do not have the constitutional right to determine what is best for their child is downright evil. Yes, evil. Our nation's public schools have turned into indoctrination centers by a gang of radical, sex and gender revolutionaries."

Other schools have taken yet another approach: They simply subject the children to their sex-indoctrination programs without telling parents.

That's the issue that came up recently in the Albemarle County Public Schools.

The district had presented explicit sex videos to classes of 14-year-old girls and now is being warned by Liberty Counsel that the presentations likely were felony violations of state and federal laws.

"This kind of gutter trash has no place in public schools. This is not education. This is raping children. The school district has caused irreversible harm to children and parents. The school must never allow this to happen again," asserted Liberty Counsel's Staver.